WOMAN EXPOUNDS HER OWN SUBJECT—THE FALL—HER REDEMPTION FROM THE CURSE—RETURNING INTO THE PRESENCE OF HER FATHER—HER EXALTATION.

The high priestess thus expounds the subject of woman, from her Mormon standpoint:

In the Garden of Eden, before the act of disobedience, through which Adam and Eve were shut out from the presence of God, it is reasonable to suppose that Eve's position was not inferior to, but equal with, that of Adam, and that the same law was applicable to both. Moses says, "God created man male and female." President Brigham Young says, "Woman is man in the priesthood."

God not only foreknew, but he had a purpose to accomplish through, the "fall;" for he had provided a sacrifice; Jesus being spoken of as a "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

It seems that woman took the lead in the great drama. The curse followed, and she became subject to man; "and he shall rule over thee," which presupposes a previous equality. But was that curse to be perpetual? Were the daughters of Eve—who was a willing instrument in effecting a grand purpose, that shall ultimate in great good to the human family—to abide that curse forever? No. God had otherwise ordained. Through the atoning blood of Christ, and obedience to his gospel, a plan was devised to remove the curse and bring the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, not only to their primeval standing in the presence of God, but to a far higher state of glory.

In the meridian of time, the Saviour came and introduced the gospel, "which before was preached unto Abraham," and which, after a lapse of nearly eighteen centuries—when men had "changed its ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant"—when "the man of sin had been revealed, exalting himself above all that is called God"—after hireling priests had mutilated its form, discarded its powers, and rejected "the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophesy," the Lord restored it in fullness to the earth, with all its gifts, powers, blessings and ordinances.

For this purpose he raised up Joseph Smith, the great prophet of the last days, to whom the angel that John, when on the Isle of Patmos, saw "flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, saying, fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come," etc., appeared, and announced the glorious news of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel.

This gospel, and this only, will redeem woman from the curse primevally entailed. It is generally admitted that "Christianity" ameliorates the condition of woman; but the Christianity of the professing world, mutilated as it has been, can only ameliorate, it cannot redeem. Each religious denomination has fragments or portions of the true form, but no vestige of the vital power that was manifested by Jesus Christ, and restored through Joseph Smith. Nothing short of obedience to this gospel in its fullness will exalt woman to equality with man, and elevate mankind to a higher condition than we occupied in our pre-existent state.

Woman, in all enlightened countries, wields, directly or indirectly, the moving influence for good or for ill. It has been pertinently remarked: "Show me the women of a nation, and I will describe that nation." Let the pages of history decide if ever a nation became a wreck, so long as woman nobly honored her being by faithfully maintaining the principles of virtuous purity, and filled with grace and dignity her position as wife and mother.

Would God, the kind parent, the loving father, have permitted his children to sink into the fallen condition which characterizes humanity in its present degraded state, without instituting means by which great good would result? Would we, as intelligent beings in a former existence, have consented, as we did, to resign the remembrance and all recollection of that existence, and come down to earth and run our chances for good or evil, did we not know that, on reasonable conditions, and by means provided, we could work our way back to, at least, our original positions? Emphatically, no! It is only by that "spirit which searches all things, yea, even the deep things of God," that we can comprehend our own beings, and our missions on the earth, with the bearing of our pre-existence on our present lives, of which we only know what God reveals; and, as man, by his own wisdom cannot find out God, so man by reasoning cannot pry into the circumstances of his former life, nor extend his researches into the interminable eternities that lie beyond.