John Angell James

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him”— Genesis 2:18.

WOMAN, AS SUCH, HAS HER MISSION.

What is it? What is precisely the rank she is to occupy? What is the purpose she is to fulfill, above which she would be unduly exalted and below which she would be unjustly degraded? This is a subject which should be thoroughly understood in order that she may know what to claim, and man what to concede; that she may know what she has to do, and that he may know what he has a right to expect.

I shall endeavor to answer this question and point out the nature of woman’s mission. In doing this, I shall consult the infallible oracle¹⁰ of Scripture and not the speculations of moralists, economists, and philosophers. I hold this to be our rule in the matter before us: God is the Creator of both sexes, the Constructor of society, the Author of social relations, and the Arbiter¹¹ of social duties, claims, and immunities. And this is admitted by all who believe in the authority of the Bible. You are content, my female friends, to abide by the decisions of this oracle. You have every reason to be so. He Who created you is best qualified to declare the intention of His own acts, and you may safely, as you should humbly, [trust] Him to fix your position and make known your duties. In common with man, woman has a heavenly calling to glorify God as the end of her existence and to perform all the duties and enjoy all the blessings of a religious life. Like man, she is a sinful, rational, and immortal creature, placed under an economy of mercy, and called by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Religion is as much her vocation as that of the other sex. In Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female, but all are on a level as to obligations, duties, and privileges…

To know what [woman’s mission] is, we must, as I have said, consult the pages of revelation and ascertain the declared motive of God for her creation.

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” (Gen 2:18). This is further expressed, or rather repeated, where it is said, “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him” (Gen 2:20). Nothing can be more clear from this than that woman was made for man. Adam was created as a being with undeveloped social propensities,¹² which indeed seem essential to all creatures. It is the sublime peculiarity of deity to be entirely independent of all other beings for happiness. He, and He only, is the theater of His own glory, the fountain of His own felicity,¹³ and a sufficient object of His own contemplation, needing nothing for His bliss but self-communion. An archangel alone in heaven would pine, even there, for some companionship, either divine or angelic.

Adam, surrounded by all the glories of Paradise and by all the various tribes it contained, found himself alone and needing companionship. Without it, his life was but a solitude, Eden itself a desert. Endowed with a nature too communicative to be satisfied from himself alone, he sighed for society, for support, for some complement to his existence, and only half-lived so long as he lived alone. Formed to think, to speak, to love, his thoughts yearned for other thoughts with which to compare and exercise his soaring aspirations. His words were wearisomely wasted upon the wanton air, or at best awoke but an echo, which mocked instead of answering him. His love, as regards an earthly object, knew not where to bestow itself and, returning to his own bosom, threatened to degenerate into a desolating egotism. His entire being longed, in short, for another self, but that other self did not exist; there was no help meet for him. The visible creatures that surrounded him were too much beneath him, and the invisible Being Who gave him life was too much above him to unite their condition with His own. Whereupon God made woman, and the great problem was immediately solved.

It was then the characteristic of unfallen man to want someone to sympathize with him in his joys, as it is of fallen man to want someone to sympathize with him in his sorrows. Whether Adam was so far conscious of his wants as to ask for a companion we are not informed. It would appear from the inspired record as if the design of this precious boon originated with God, and as if Eve, like so many of His other mercies, was the spontaneous bestowment of His own free will. Thus, Adam would have to say, as did one of his most illustrious descendants many ages afterwards, “For thou preventest¹⁴ him with the blessings of goodness” (Psa 21:3).

Here, then, is the design of God in creating woman: to be a suitable helpmate to man.

Man needed a companion, and God gave him woman. And as there was no other man than Adam at that time in existence, Eve was designed exclusively for Adam’s comfort. This teaches us from the beginning that whatever mission woman may have to accomplish in reference to man, in a generic sense, her mission, at least in wedded life, is to be a suitable helpmate for that one man to whom she is united. It was declared from the beginning that every other tie, though not severed by marriage, shall be rendered subordinate, and a man shall “leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen 2:24).

If woman’s mission in Paradise was to be man’s companion and joy, such must be the case still.

Her vocation¹⁵ has not been changed by the Fall. By that catastrophe, man needs still more urgently a companion, and God has rendered this mission of hers still more explicit by the declaration, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Gen 3:16). It has been often shown that by being taken from himself, she was equal to man in nature, while the very part of the body from which she was abstracted indicated the position she was intended to occupy. She was not taken from the head, to show she was not to rule over him; nor from his foot, to teach that she was not to be his slave; nor from his hand, to show that she was not to be his tool; but from his side, to show that she was to be his companion. There may perhaps be more of ingenuity and fancy in this than of God’s original design; but if a mere conceit,16 it is at once both pardonable and instructive.

That woman was intended to occupy a position of subordination and dependence is clear from every part of the Word of God. This is declared in language already quoted: “Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” This referred not only to Eve personally, but to Eve representatively. It was the divine law of the relation of the sexes, then promulgated for all time. The preceding language placed woman, as a punishment for her sin, in a state of sorrow; this placed her in a state of subjection. Her husband was to be the center of her earthly desires and to a certain extent the regulator of them also; and she was to be in subjection to him….Man was made to show forth God’s glory and praise, to be in subordination to Him and only to Him; woman was created to be, in addition to this, the glory of man by being in subordination to him, as his help and his ornament. She was not only made out of him, but for him. All her loveliness, comeliness, and purity are not only the expressions of her excellence, but of his honor and dignity, since all were not only derived from him, but made for him.

This then is woman’s true position.

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10. oracle – divine revelation.
11. arbiter – one who has power to decide or ordain according to his own absolute pleasure.
12. propensities – a tendency to demonstrate particular behavior.
13. felicity – intense happiness; bliss.
14. preventest – went before and met; welcomed.
15. vocation – the action on the part of God of calling a person to exercise a special function.

John Angell James (1785-1859): English Congregationalist preacher and author; preached and wrote to common people of every age group and station in life; held in high esteem, yet a humble and unpretentious man, who said, “My design is to aid the Christian in the practice of Scriptural truth.” Author of Female Piety, A Help to Domestic Happiness, An Earnest Ministry, and many others.

Courtesy of Chapel Library