Many people are fond of repeating, "This is woman's age;" others echo the words with reserve, apprehensive of tendencies they do not understand, but gallantly willing to be convinced. It is doubtful if any one unacquainted with the teachings of Christian Science comprehends, even faintly, the law underlying the emancipation of women, so plainly being made manifest; yet an understanding of that law is necessary in order that all opposition to it may vanish; that it may operate without seeming to injure any one; and that all may rejoice in its activity instead of fearing it.
On page 463 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive." Since the spiritual idea of God—woman—does not contain "a single element of error," it is readily seen how remote this idea is from Eve, who is wholly an Adamic or material concept. Almost every one will admit this, as the ages have credited Eve with being the source of error. Poets and artists have striven, and are striving, to exalt Eve; religions have endeavored to ennoble and protect her; but as Eve has never been the real woman, all efforts to convert her into an object of worship have been defeated. "Thus saith God the Lord, ... I am the Lord: ... and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images," we read in Isaiah. While striving to worship her, the Adamic race has also been fain to curse her. Christian Science alone sheds true spiritual illumination on this apparently baffling subject, and gives the real woman—not the socalled woman of the Adamic race—her rightful place in God's spiritual creation. Christian Science alone teaches how to separate the false from the true, to discern what God really created, and to make true progress possible for all mankind.
From earliest history it seems to have been recognized, though often fitfully and without satisfying solution, that women needed greater opportunities than they usually had, and that a right adjustment would benefit the world; and many have been the endeavors to attain this adjustment. Not infrequently Eve has herself defeated these attempts by lapsing into phases apparently even less exalted than the original Adamic concept of her! Christianity exalted women. Martin Luther, a monk sworn to celibacy, broke his monastic vows and married, probably illustrating his thought of the necessity of protecting and elevating women, at the same time desiring to liberate others from celibate vows. The Puritans gave women noble recognition. The Quakers lifted the ideal still higher, in their advocacy and practice of equality. In our own country the early attempts to secure political equality for women were tinged with antagonism toward men; but that thought had to be abandoned, because it did not fulfill the law underlying progress. In other words, it was not a reflection of Love for all mankind.
