ZION, A TYPE OF "THE WOMAN'S AGE"—THE CULMINATING THEME OF THE POETS OF ISRAEL—THE IDEAL PERSONIFICATION OF THE CHURCH—THE BRIDE—THE COMING EVE.

Zion the joy of the whole earth! She who cometh down from heaven, with the anointing of salvation upon her head.

The woman of the future, whom the Lord hath chosen! Her type is the church, with the divine nature of the race restored.

Zion is coming down to be the spiritual mother of the earth. She shall bruise the serpent's head, in her seed and in her ministry. Now shall woman be not only the mother of the individual Christ, but she shall also be the mother of the universal Christ.

"Saviours shall come upon Mount Zion!"

The daughters of Zion shall multiply the seed of Christ.

There was a beautiful consistency and a deep mystical meaning in the words of the old Jewish prophets when personifying Zion as the woman—the woman of the Lord's choosing, for the earth's joy.

They sang of Zion as the woman of the future: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad."

True, Zion is sometimes spoken of as a city, but always with a mixture of personification. As the Hebrew poets rose to the height of their great subject they symbolized her as a veritable woman, with a ministry in the earth; and chiefly symbolized her as the woman of the future.

David, the great psalmist, led the theme, for Zion was his daughter; then glorious Isaiah swelled the volume of earth's epic hymn. What a culmination and personification is this: "For thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called."

This is the very subject of Mary the mother of Jesus. But here enlarged. This is Zion, who shall be mother of many Messiahs, for she shall bring forth many sons, with the anointing of their Lord's spirit upon them, to exalt his reign.

"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; for thou shalt bring forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."

'Tis the divine mission of woman to the race; oracled by lofty souls; her holy apostleship on earth pronounced. She is to be incarnated in a civilization on whose tables shall be written, "Thy Maker is thine husband."

The mission of woman could not prevail in the barbaric periods of the race; 'twas man's work to chisel the rocks of the temple. Not even had her time come in the days of Christ, though no one has so distinctly foreshadowed it as he.

Paul is not to be unqualifiedly reproached for bidding woman be silent in the church. The time had not then come. Not as potent then as now the thought: "Show me the women of a nation and I will tell thee its civilization." And there is still a deeper meaning in this than the popular thought. How beautifully has Jesus himself kept up the symbols of the coming woman. With him the woman—Zion—becomes the "Lamb's bride:"

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom."

And this was to be in the age "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him."

At his first coming the kingdom of heaven was likened to twelve fishermen—not ten virgins—and he said unto them, "Take up your nets and follow me and I will make you fishers of men."

But when the cry shall go forth, "Behold the bridegroom cometh," commotion is to be among the virgins of the earth—the virgins of Zion and the virgins of Babylon. Each will trim their lamps. Each will have their "five wise" and "five foolish." Every one will have her familiar spirit. But the God of Israel will send his spirit to inspire Zion, for her Maker is her husband. And the daughters of Zion shall trim their lamps to go forth to meet the bridegroom, who is the Lamb of God.

The age of Messiah's coming is the woman's age! or there is no sense in the utterances of prophesy, nor meaning in the most beautiful parables of Christ.

And this is the woman's age! All humanity is proclaiming it!

The women of the age are obeying the impulses of the age. Do they know what those impulses mean? They have heard the cry, and have come forth. Do they comprehend what that cry has signified?—"Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!"

Unwittingly they are testing the Scriptures, and proving that the coming of Messiah is the crowning truth of the world. However, the five wise virgins of Zion are coming forth in faith. They are not unwittingly fulfilling their Lord's word. They have interpreted the cry, and are trimming their lamps.

Man may as well attempt to throw back the ocean with the hollow of his hand, or put out the sun with the breath of his command, as to attempt to defeat the oncoming of "woman's hour."

Let the God of humanity be praised for this; for did not the virgins come out at this eleventh hour, the fishermen might go again to their nets, and let the midnight pass, and earth take the consequence.

But how wondrously are the divine themes of earth's grace from God revealed. Down through the ages they came as echoes mellowed into more celestial tones.

Creation begins again! Zion—the New Jerusalem—is the Lamb's bride. She is the coming Eve.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. * * *

"And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

"And there came unto me one of the seven angels * * * saying, come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

"And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of many thunderings, saying Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage supper of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

"And he saith unto me, write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb."

Surely there is a glorious prophesy and a sublime truth, hallelujahed from the ages down, in this proclamation of the woman's mission at the hour of the Lord's coming.

The lives of the Mormon women are as a testament to the age. The very character which their church has taken, as the literal Zion of the latter days, shall soon be recognized as the symbol of the hour.

And the virgins in every land shall hear the cry, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him!"