The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-06-28
A Modern WOman's Thoughts
About Eve,


The facts given concerning the women
of the Bible seem meager when read
ing the accounts individually. Yet
what is told of the prominent charac-
tiers of the Old Testament alone, will
furnish material for more than one
afternoons study. There is wealth
of character study in the short story
we have in Genesis of our ancient
Mother Eve. Knowing that she was
as intensely human as ourselves, we
are excusabe if we criticise her much
after the fashion of our own minds.
Waking to mature life in purity and
innocence, the beloved and trusted
companion of one as dear as her own
life-no anxieties for the future, or
worries over the present; no letters of
bodily frailties or inherited sin to bind
the spiritual nature, what perfect bliss
mere existence must have been to her
in those few happy days in Eden? The
four walls of her home bounded by
natures own handiwork. Gods loving
that of both its inmates was manifest in
all the architectural designs of this fair
dwelling. He had covered the earth
with softest grass and heritage, and
sweet scented flowers for their tread.
He had surrounded the walls of their
habitation with his life, giving air and
sunshine, for their adjoining there were
shadows of stately trees and luxuIiant
foliage, glimpses of shimmering rivers
and far away bits of landscape. The
heat of the sun was tempered TO minis
ter to their comfort by day, and a can.
opy of stars, with the moon which
ruled by night, watched over them
while they slept. With returning light
and recurring needs his mercies were
new each morning. Their wants were
all supplied. Food fit for the gods was
theirs to appropriate. AS for their APP
parel, behold Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed as these, for God had
clothed them in garments of purity and
innocence. All things necessary for
their perfect development were allowed
them by his all-wise love. Only one
restriction was put upon them. The
fruit of the tree of knowledge was
denied them. In the third chapter of
Genesis we are told the sad story of
the downfall of this home and the
exile and punishment of its inmates.
One day tempter came to visit Eve,
a
guest, and sin remained in his stead to
blight humanity forever. Much room
is here given by many for speculation
concerning his form, his address, etc.
We will accept strict Bible doctrine
and accord him real bodily presence
with more subtlety than any other
creature of Eden, the responsiveness of
an angel of light and the deceit and
malice of a demon. 1t would be per-
tinent to inquire through what avenues
of the mind and heart Eve consented
to listen to the fallacies of this tempter.
One might say curiosity to investigate
something out of the ordinary bill of
fare, or vanity born of the tempter's
fiattery was aroused, or wilfulness that
brooked no denial demanded hearing.
To accept any or all of these trivial sug-
gestions would be rejection upon
perfect creation of God, and that which
he pronounced good. The intellectual
chord in Ewes finely-strung nature was
touched with master hand, and as she
listened attentively she was told she
should not die, but begin to live, that
her eyes should be opened to have
more of the power and pleasure of con-
temptation than before, her intellectual
views should be extended; that she
should be as the gods, beings of higher
order, that she should know evil and
good, i. e., everything desirable to be
known. In the day she should eat
thereof she was promised an immediate
change for the better. Satan gained
his point, commentator says, by in
stiling 1st, disbelief in God; I'd, by the
g he he, : -,
was good for food; Sd, by the lust of
the eye, for it was pleasant TO the eye;
4th, by the pride of life, for it was
tree not only to be dreaded, but to be
desired to make one wise. In a similar
way Satan still tempts and often pre-
walls.
Eve took the fruit and did eat, and
gave also to her husband with her, and
he did eat, and the eyes of them both
were opened. The eyes of their minds
and consciences, which had been closed
by the arts of satan, were opened to
see the happiness they had fallen from,
and the misery they had fallen into.
They saw God displeastd, his favor
forfeited, his image lost. They saw
they were naked, i. e., stripped, de-
prived of all the honors of their para
disc state, and exposed to all the mis-
cries that might justly be expected
from an angry God. They were laid
open to the contempt and reproach of
heaven and earth, and their own con-
sciences. When God walked in the
garden 10 the cool of the day and found
the hiding-place of the guilty pair,
swift and sure was his wrath aud SEN
tence upon both the tempter and his
victims. The tempter was to endure
the lasting aversion and enmity of the