Scripture: "My brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." —2 SAM. i. 26.
God created man in order to show what the power of love is, when a man strives for the welfare of others, and even gives up his life for them. He created woman to show what tenderness and quiet endurance are, when she sacrifices herself for the sake of others. A little child, during the first years of its life, is dependent on the mother. It is not only that the child may learn to love its mother, but that the mother herself may be trained in the school of self-sacrificing love, for her greatest adorning is "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Pet. iii. 4).
The tendency nowadays in public life is to place woman on an equal footing with man. This is only right in many cases. But one must not forget that the best ornament of a woman is a meek and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the sight of God, and of man, and which makes her a blessing in her home. It is the suffering, prayerful, all-conquering love of the wife and the mother which secures the happiness of a people.
Dear sisters, preserve as a great treasure the precious jewel which God has entrusted to you—to reflect the love of God in all its tenderness and sympathy. "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." Let each one, as she reads this book, take time to meditate on God's wonderful love, and pray for it earnestly in a receptive spirit. This will give her a heavenly influence and power over her husband and children, and in her dealings with her neighbors she will be a living witness to what the love of God can do.
Think of Mary, the woman who loved much, and the other women to whom the Lord revealed Himself on the resurrection morning. It was the love of these women that gave them the right to be the first to meet the Lord, and to take the message to the disciples.
God bless the mothers and wives and daughters of our land! May they prove in their lives how beautiful and powerful the love of women is! And the words from the time of David will still be true: "Wonderful as the love of women" is the love of God's children.
