The rib

(J. A. James, "Female Piety--The Young Woman's
 Guide Through Life to Immortality")

"Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He
 had taken from the man, and brought her to Adam."
    Genesis 2:22

Woman was the finishing grace of the creation.

Woman was the completeness of man's bliss in Paradise.

Woman is the mother of the human race.

Woman was the cause of sin and death to our world.

The world was redeemed by the seed of the woman.

Woman is our companion, counselor, and comforter in the
pilgrimage of life--or our tempter, scourge, and destroyer.

Our sweetest cup of earthly happiness--or our bitterest
draught of sorrow, is mixed and administered by her hand.

She not only renders smooth or rough our path to the
grave--but helps or hinders our progress to immortality.

In heaven we shall bless God for her aid in assisting
us to reach that blissful state--or amid the torments
of unutterable woe in another region, we shall deplore
the fatality of her influence!

I look beyond the painted and gaudy scene of earth's
fading vanities, to the everlasting ages through which
you must exist in torment or bliss; and, God helping me,
it shall not be my fault if you do not live in comfort,
die in peace, and inherit salvation!