The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-07-10
POSITION or WOMAN IN RELA-
TON TO MAN FROM A SCRIP
TuRAL VIEWPOINT

To- the Editor Ocala Banner:
In a recent issue CT the Banner |
an article from Mrs. Lakeland
White Ribboner, in which she asks
me some questions. I am not in this
letter attempting to reply to her inter
rogations because in MY former arti-
Gle I wrote on the ePcsitien OF We
nan in Relation to Man From a
.Scriptural Viewpoint" and Mrs. Rib
boner has not in anyway whatever at
tempted 10 silence the heavy guns OF
Gods artillery. Instead of doing Sc,
she has avoided a square frontal at
tack and attempted q flank movement
like so many other have done who
have gene that way before her.
Mrs. Ribboner wishes to know Il
her pedestal to see a poisonous rep
tile about to strike It's fatal fangs
into her innocent child, and not leap
down and crush the reptiles head.
Well, my dear Mrs. Ribboner, if our
good old Mother Eve had kept her
place on the pedestal where God
placed her, instead Of jumping down
to fool with snakes, the world would
have been spared no end of trouble.
That same unfortunate leap of hers
enabled the venOmous reptile to plant
his fangs so deeply and sc viciousiy
as to fix it's deadly poison into the
innocent babes of all succeeding gen
erations. To that sad, unwise, unfor-
tunate and "unscripturaI' descent
from the pedestal, can most surely be
traced all of the innumerable sor-
rows, griefs, sins, sufferings and I'M
told agonies which the sons and
daughters of Adam and Eve are en-
during, ever unto this, our day!
Mrs. Ribboner, did it ever occur to
you that God made that snake and
put him in the garden and let him
move around wheresoever he wished
to go? He might have willed his
immediate death when he saw that
he was tempting Eve and that she
was about to yield to his blandish-
ments, but God did nothing of the
kind. He might have cursed the tree
and withered it away, SO that it could
bear no fruit forever, but he did moth
ing of the kind. 1t was not his way.
He said everything he created was
good, and for the purposes for which
he created them they were and are.
He had given Adam and Eve fair
warning-just as he has to you and
me, and all the IONS and daughters
of Adam and Eve, Mrs. Ribboner-I
that dire calamity would befalI
them if they ate of the tree, but he
left the snake and the tree both just
where he had placed them, and fixed
the responsibility and consequent re-
suits upon the individual Adam and
Eve, where it has rested ever since,
and will rest until the crack of doom.
The garden was beautiful, just like
this same old much-abused world OF
ours, hut the good and the evil were
there. The tempter and the tempting
We're there-the snake and the Eve.
The original pair were placed amid
these environments in their purity
and innocence, and told to be good, or
take the consequences. God did not
change the environments one jot or
title. To have done so would have
been admitting that he had made a
mistake. When the tragedy came
the penalty was imposed-Adam, Eve
and the snake were each sentenced
separately for what each had DONE.
and war was declared between the
seed of the woman and the snake
for all time. God did not do any st.
Patrick business-kill the snakes
Il left them as he had placed them
and each son and daughter of Adam
must fight his and her snakes as he
or she meets them and bruise his
head or fall like Eve.
Well, they were tempted, and they
fell, but God, in his infinite love and
boundless mercy, has provided a way
by which that which was LOST may
be regained. Salvation, restoration,
may be obtained through the she'd
ding Of the blood of the innocent
Christ, who, though tempted in all
points like as we are by nature, was
yet without SIM" He did not work
out this way of redemption for us
without temptation-Not he: God.
the Father, did not cause temptations
to be put out of the way of his below
ed son. He was tried to the utter
most, and in every way. SO great
was the burden upon him that when
the hour drew nigh, in the desperate