Do you remember how Illyricum received the Gospel in the first age of the church? By a Christian woman, who was there sold as a slave. I say all this not to excite your vanity, or to be a snare to you, but to awaken in you a holy jealousy, to lead you to appreciate the position in which God has placed you. Yes, my dear sisters, conform yourselves to His views ; not a word of complaint or regret; no ambitious dreams of change, but a fidelity full of joy, to your peculiar mission, and a heart which envies one nothing but a more active charity and a more profound humility!

Woman, in fine, whoever thou art, and wherever thou art, take to thy heart this word, "I will make for him an helpmeet," and determine, without more delay, to justify the definition which God has given of thee.

Useless woman, who groanest under the thought that thou hast, even to this day, burdened the earth, as a tree without fruit; that thou mightest be taken away from it, without leaving any greater void than is made in the water by the sword which we plunge into it and quickly withdraw from it; thou, who hast hitherto lived without knowing from whence thou camest, or whither thou goest, here is discovered the vague object after which thou longest without knowing it. Here is a work for thee, to which, living, thou mayest consecrate thyself, and dying, will be able to say, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." Enter to-day, even, according to thy position-whose apparent difficulties are real resources-upon this life, at once so humble and so glorious, so full of meaning, and so devoted, for which God destined thee in the day when he said, "I will make an helpmeet for him," and which Christ restored to thee when He gave Himself for us, "that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Worldly woman, who hast consumed thy most beautiful years in cares, innocent, I grant, but frivolous and unworthy of thee, infatuating and infatuated, using for the interests of thy pride,

a power which God has confided to thee for his glory and the good of his people, here, in place of this brilliant existence, but brilliant as a meteor, resounding, but resounding as an empty vessel, here is a life glorious and Tull, in which, in a word, thou wilt find, in finding thyself, the satisfaction which thou hast vainly (is it not true ?) demanded of the world. Take off thine heart from vanity, and give it to charity! Believe me, leave this artificial life, which supplants and abridges the real ; reserve for thy home the labors of the day and the repose of the night; count as lost the day in which thou hast not done some good; enjoy, in short, the happiness of being a woman-and thou wilt know that if made to be to man a "helpmeet,” it is better to be useful to him, than to be flattered by him; to serve him, than to fascinate him!

Isolated woman, from whom God, who renders not an account of his doings, has taken away with the husband of thy youth, the attraction, the aim, the life of thy life—and thou, also, widow of a living man, forsaken wife, whom the husband of thy youth, after a short joy given and received, has overwhelmed with grief by his coldness, if not by his unfaithfulness; tender plant, torn from the earth, that it may be transplanted into a better soil, but which has been cast upon the road-side, abandoned to the scorching fire of the sun; thou, whom the Lord has chosen as a type of the most ineffable griefs, take courage-thy consolation is found! If the sweetness of being loved has been taken from thee, allow not thyself to be despoiled of the privilege of loving, of loving first, loving last, loving always, of loving notwithstanding all. Follow in the steps of Jesus, who was depised as thou art, but was never cold and unjust as one is with thee. Be still unto him who has wronged thee, a "helpmeet." Drink without a murmur the cup which his cruel hand offers thee each day; oppose his ingratitude only with an increased submission and devotion. Be silent, humble thyself. Go on; this heart which thou seekest will be restored to thee, conquered by thy love! But should it persist even to the last in its injustice,

should it-O horrible thought !-finish its murderous work by raising some day against thee a threatening hand, yield, still blessing him-accomplish even to the end thy mission as a woman, rely upon God whom thou lovest, and who loves thee in order to make thee a partaker of His glory through his cross!

And thou, whom I hesitate to name, fallen woman, charity will not permit me to leave thee without a response-without a response, for I hear thy heart interrogating me. Fallen woman, -"let no one trouble this woman !" a sinner who repents is a spectacle, if not worthy of you, yet worthy of angels! As for me, if I could despise her tears and disdain her repentance, I could not believe myself a disciple of Him who said to the penitent sinner; "Thy faith hath saved thee-go in peace !" My sister, my poor sister, yes, this is also for thee! Believe not thyself alone excluded from this appeal, and beware of despairing of thyself. Thy heart burns within thee to accomplish this mission of woman, to become to man what God made thee, a "helpmeet." Thou canst—yes, thou canst ; none can better than thou, if none feels a deeper thirst for grace! Knowest thou that many of the holy women who shine in the first ranks among the benefactresses of humanity upon the earth, and among the redeemed of the Lord in heaven-a Rahab, a Mary Magdalene, a penitent sinner, commenced as thou hast? Well, then, finish as they did! Humblest among the humble, the most charitable of the charitable, remember the past, only for the good of the future. Permit none to recall the past, except to admire in thy change both the divine compassion, and the vocation of woman! And upon thy guilty head, all covered to my eyes by the blood of Jesus Christ, let the blessing of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, descend with mine!

But we, my brethren, witnesses of this new baptism of woman, have we gathered naught from it but a vain spectacle? It concerns our interests, our dearest interests; but also our conscience. If woman owes to man the aid of a "helpmeet," does man owe

nothing to her? If woman has her influence over us, have we no influence over her? This duty of acknowledgment, of reciprocity, how have we fulfilled it? We said, in our first discourse, that sin came to us by woman: alas! have we not returned it to her, returned it with usury! If woman has disregarded her mission, who has taught her to disregard it? If woman has been idolized, who has placed her upon the shameful pedestal? If woman has been degraded in paganism, in poligamy, in licentiousness, who has degraded her? In fine, if one should give you this problem to resolve, which of the two has done to the other the greatest wrong-man to woman, or woman to man? what would be your answer?-Question sad as difficult in the room of which I would propose to you, on the contrary, another: Which of the two will henceforth do the other the most good? Do you see her who, in meditation before God, is seeking to know henceforth how she can be to us a "helpmeet?" Let us meditate, for her sake, upon the same problem at the feet of the same Saviour! Most truly are the principles the same, the applications alone vary. Humility, charity-if we abandon them. to woman, ah! what will remain to us ourselves? Humility, charity-was the man Christ Jesus anything else? With a godly jealousy, one of the other, let the humility and charity of the woman aid the man; let the humility and charity of the man aid the woman, looking forward to the time when, beneath purer heavens and upon a regenerated earth, the humility and charity of the elect of God, in whom all earthly difference shall be forgotten, shall glorify from age to age this Saviour God, doubly our Father, having created us in a day of love and saved us in a day of grace!

DISCOURSE III.

THE LOVER OF MONEY.

"Take heed and beware of Covetousness."

LUKE, xii. 15.

In the warning which the Lord gives to his disciples in our text, there is something deep and solemn which claims no ordinary attention. We feel that it is his desire to put them upon their guard against certain illusions full of peril. What are these illusions? We believe the three principal to be, deception as to the nature of covetousness; deception as to God's judgment concerning it; and, finally, deception as to the empire which it holds among men. A plan of meditation is thus furnished for the present occasion; and we shall endeavor to show what covetousness is, how great is its criminality, and how generally it prevails.

I. COVETOUSNESS.-We are deceived in regard to the nature of Covetousness; and the fault is to be attributed less to ourselves, than to our language which does not perfectly agree with that of Scripture. It is usual to call a man covetous who, loving money for its own sake, thinks only of amassing it, without making it the means of enjoyment to others, or even to himself. Is it astonishing, then, if, being habituated from infancy, to this mode of speaking, we should regard it as the language also of the Scripture, and if we should believe involuntarily that the Scripture condemns in the covetous man only that which the