The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-07

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 rib. I cannot believe literally that rib | ircdent.' Neither can I; but not be- cause it was impossible for it to have been a literal transaction. My reason for talk | ing it figuratively Is because the whole narrative Of which it forms part is clearly intended to be understood as poet ical folklore in impressive and unforget- able imagery. I do not take 1t literally because this author 1t seems to me did not intend 1t to be so construed, and we are under the most sacred obligation to construe any writing according to its manifest meaning as that meaning is given force in the adjacent context. You will have to deny the authors meaning if you take it literally just as much as you would have to do if you interpreted the parabes of Jesus as literal history.
 Symbol of Equality. The most plausible explanation is to make it mean just what the wedding song in the context makes it mean, that the woman is his equal and his peer, and equally entitled to be called man. In the times of long ago. before there were laws and books and science, truths were | conveyed through symbols, and the rib was the symbol of the equality of the two parties In the welded relation. The rib means that your wife is the nearest of your kin, is indeed a part of your own flesh; and as such should share your life in all of it's most intimate relations. She is bone of your bone. flesh of your flesh; feed her, pet her, cherish her, love her, provide for her every want. Let each one love his wife even as himslef, and let the wife see that she reverence her own husband. The rib means all that; and he who would strip 1t of this manifest mean 1 ing in this Saga of the genesis of home and in the Epistles of Paul and the teach | ings of Jesus, will rob the world of great truths of the greatest social value and give us dry bone to feed the heart of | man.
 The truth is these narratives in Genesis all had a history as folklore before they were put into their present form and place, and must be read as residues of floating folklore which circulated around | tent and campfires as the nomadic an- cestors of the Hebrews wandered after their flocks. One must not therefore, in terpret them according to the customs of our own day and time. They were Bible before they were contributed to the con tent of the written word. Probably their best work was done in the distant past when hey were recited around campfires, at the festive board, along the way and at the wedding feast. So we have here in this beautiful wedding song which the husband was expected to sing as his wife was brought to him as the divine gift taking away lifes loneiness
 'This now is bone of my bone And flesh of my flesh.
 l She shall be called Mrs. Man
 For she Is the same as man.
 This song, so full of social truth so wholesome to happy life, is but the poet ical expression of that of which the rib was the symbol; and so they are here joined together, the poem explaining the symbolism of the rib, and it's legend.
 Teachings of Narrative.
 So the teachings of this narrative are:
 1. Man, though but dust, has in him :, the life that God alone can give, and this makes him a social being.
 -. tured nature, but must make him habi- tat that is an Eden of culture, adornment and fruitfulness, and worship.
 B. He must bring the animal world to contribute to his life by tanning and adapting them to his life
 4 But that which makes Eden an Eden indeed is the union of man and woman as one and equals in their lives. Home as God would have home to be is the Eden, l God in man making Edens is an ideal each of us should have ever before his 1 eye
 5. May there be an Eden at your house, and you are not civilized until there is
 In applying these truths to our own | day and time, it Is well, of course, to recognize that society has advanced very greatly in its social structure since these | Sagas were written. It is no more a lot of clans roaming over the plains, bound together by the family ties; yet the truths health than now. They are truths which the advance of things may modify In their | application, but can never render obso- lete Man is still in need of his Eden | Shall we make one of Birmingham? If so, let us live the life God inspires in the culture of our habitat and in the fellow ship of living nature and in the home where Mrs. Man is bone of our bone and | flesh of our flesh. Such is the meaning of the ancient symbol. the rib. and the ancient legend and wedding song,