down, and that nothing remains just as it ought to be; but the true woman is still devotion, affection, love. That is her distinguishing characteristic as compared with man; and when she loses that, she loses her sublimest feminine quality and distinctive mark. Of the various noble attributes of soul, that is the noblest of all. There may be masculine women and feminine men, but God did not originally create them so.
So is it also in the Bible. The woman symbolizes whatever is characteristically feminine. When the Church is spoken of in reference to its affection for the Lord, although composed of both men and women, it is called "the Bride, the Lamb's wife"; and it is so called, because of the love it is supposed to bear to the Lord as its husband. Thus it was likened, in the parable, to ten virgins who went forth to meet the Bridegroom, that is, the Lord. It was called, in older Scripture, "the virgin daughter of Zion," and "the virgin daughter of Jerusalem." The woman is the embodiment and representative of the principle of affection.
But there is also a dark side to this. The passions, too, were represented by women. Hatred and pride are feminine. But these are affection inverted. They are woman in the opposite of her genuine character. They are the feminine nature as it displays itself when demoralized.
