And who began the regeneration of the race? Whose human nature was manifested in the work? The woman's!
God's nature in Christ needed no regeneration. Nor did the woman's nature need regeneration, when thus found pure, as in Mary. This is the great fact embodied in the Christ example. As soon may Christianity be wiped out as this fact!
What an astounding truth have we in this example—that God and woman have brought forth a perfect creation and an infinite love, in Jesus their Christ.
God was the father of Jesus. From him the Holy Ghost. From him the wisdom of the eternities. From him the power to call a legion of angels down to his help, had he so willed it. From him the power to lay down his life and take it up again. From him the power to conquer death and burst the gates of hell.
The mother of Jesus—a virgin of the house of David, and not a flaming goddess from the skies.
From woman, the love of Jesus for humanity. From her his sympathies for the race. 'Twas she, in her son, who forgave sin; she who bade the sinner go and sin no more; she who wept over Jerusalem as a mother weepeth over her young. And it was woman, in her son, who died upon the cross for the sins of the world!
It was not God the father who in Jesus died; not he who passed the dark hour of nature's struggle in the garden; not God who prayed, "Take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." 'Twas woman who was left alone on the cross; she, in her son, who cried, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"
Love is of the woman. That is the great lesson which the human nature of Jesus teaches; and it is that element of her nature which shall save the world.
Would we see what will be her teaching when her apostleship comes to prevail in the earth, let us read the sermon of her son on the Mount. Is not that woman's own gospel? Is it not also her philosophy—"If thy brother smite thee on the one cheek turn unto him the other also?"
And in this regeneration of the race, in nature and spirit, God and woman are thus seen first alone. Man came not to their help, but they came to the help of man. Here is groundwork indeed for the reconstruction of society, and the remoulding of philosophy!