Mutual Obligations
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have been in harmony with each other; but sin had brought discord,
and now their union could be maintained and harmony preserved only
by submission on the part of the one or the other. Eve had been the
first in transgression; and she had fallen into temptation by separating
from her companion, contrary to the divine direction. It was by her
solicitation that Adam sinned, and she was now placed in subjection
to her husband. Had the principles enjoined in the law of God been
cherished by the fallen race, this sentence, though growing out of the
results of sin, would have proved a blessing to them; but man’s abuse
of the supremacy thus given him has too often rendered the lot of
woman very bitter, and made her life a burden.
Eve had been perfectly happy by her husband’s side in her Eden
home; but, like restless modern Eves, she was flattered with the hope
of entering a higher sphere than that which God had assigned her. In
attempting to rise above her original position, she fell far below it.
A similar result will be reached by all who are unwilling to take up
cheerfully their life duties in accordance with God’s plan
Wives Submit; Husbands Love—The question is often asked,
“Shall a wife have no will of her own?” The Bible plainly states that
the husband is the head of the family. “Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands.” If this injunction ended here, we might say that
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the position of the wife is not an enviable one; it is a very hard and
trying position in very many cases, and it would be better were there
fewer marriages. Many husbands stop at the words, “Wives, submit
yourselves,” but we will read the conclusion of the same injunction,
which is. “As it is fit in the Lord.”
God requires that the wife shall keep the fear and glory of God
ever before her. Entire submission is to be made only to the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has purchased her as His own child by the infinite price
of His life. God has given her a conscience, which she cannot violate
with impunity. Her individuality cannot be merged into that of her
husband, for she is the purchase of Christ. It is a mistake to imagine
that with blind devotion she is to do exactly as her husband says in all
things, when she knows that in so doing, injury would be worked for
her body and her spirit, which have been ransomed from the slavery of
Satan. There is One who stands higher than the husband to the wife; it
4
Patriarchs and Prophets, 58, 59
.