but devious paths of ambition. Even when she has been successful outside this sphere, we admire not that which is masculine in her achievements, but that which is womanly

-the fearlessness of faith, the sublimity of patience, the strength of affection. Men have achieved martial deeds bolder than those of Joan of Arc, but the sainted rays that stream over the armed maiden come from her truehearted devotion, and her religious intrepidity; and these are peculiarly woman's virtues.

One thing appears certain -if woman neglects the work which has been given her to do, there is no one to perform it. As it pertains to the genius of particular men to achieve something that others cannot, so it pertains to the genius of woman to accomplish an inalienable mission. Shall she go forth into the tortuous ways of traffic? Who, then, will make bright the threshold and the hearth, and nurture the infant mind? Shall woman move in the storms of political action? Who, then,

shall soothe man when the bitter world has driven him back upon himself; when anger, scorn, or calumny has excited him to madness, or crushed him with despair? Shall woman debate in our legislative halls? Who, then, shall bind up the broken heart, and watch by the sick bed? These are high and holy offices, fully equal to the dignities of man. It is only because we have been deceived by false standards of value, that we do not see them to be so. And shall we destroy or degrade them? Shall we turn the music of affection into discord? Shall the lighted eye of devotion become changed into the fierce glare of ambition or disappointment? Shall woman's heart become cold, and callous, and worldhardened? Thus would our domestic shrines be overthrown and turned out of doors, and our homes would become like our streets, and caucuses, and courts,—the haunts of selfish cares, of discordant tongues, of hollow forms, and busy, bustling feet. But we know that woman's nature does not aspire to such dis

tinctions, such results. She will be true to that law of her Creator that appoints to the sexes different yet equal stations.

I have said that if woman's mission seems less ample or dignified than that of man, it is because we do not recognize its true importance. In maintaining that she is peculiarly adapted to do the work of the affections, it is necessary for us to consider how wide a range this comprehends, what important fields of action it opens, how powerfully it affects the destinies of man, and how intimately it is connected with the highest spiritual results. There is the great sphere of HOME, the vital importance of which we can hardly estimate. It is the seminary of all other institutions. There are the roots of all public prosperity, the foundations of the state, the germs of the church; there is all that in the child makes the future man, all that in the man makes the good citizen. The sphere of home comprehends all this, and the power of woman in that sphere is beyond calculation. But I

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do not propose to dwell upon this point now, as in a future lecture I shall make it a particular subject of discussion; but I allude to it as indicating the dignity of woman's office, the greatness of her work. There are other and kindred spheres of influence, to which also I shall refer at another time.

But we can best apprehend the importance of woman's position by considering how that position is affected by Christianity. Christianity is peculiarly the religion of the affections and here let me say that by "the affections" I do not mean the blind workings of sentiment, but the whole nature of man-his reason, his conscience, his will-refined, enlightened, aroused by love, which is the nature of God, and which is the fulfilment of the law. In this view, I repeat, Christianity is preeminently the religion of the affections. It achieves its conquests, not by mere intellectual methods, any more than by physical force, but by an action upon our moral nature that stirs the profoundest depths within us. Christianity,

moreover, brings into prominence those qualities which have been too much neglected and kept in the background; it gives a royal dignity to charity, kindness, love, and clothes them with the peculiar approbation of God.

The direct contrast between the precepts of Jesus and the fierce and dark passions of our nature is a fact too common to require remark. But, nevertheless, these passions have polluted and distracted the earth for ages. Man has sought to subdue his brother with the sword, the scourge, and the chain. He has endeavored to link right with might; in the greedy lusts of the moment, he has lost sight of all kindly sentiment, and has drowned all sympathy in his ambition or his revenge; in one word, in his selfishness. And religion itself too often has played a false part in the world, abusing its own name with monstrous deformities, making man a slave or a tool, smothering the life of devotion with the dry husks of ceremony, and wielding its sacred influence with a covetous and bloody hand. And much of