what men call "civilization" has been a covenant of selfishness, a consecration of fraud and force and meanness, and has justified wars and reddened the earth with murder no more lawful than the slaughter of Abel. Through these passions and customs of men Christ came to shed the light and the power of a divine

life, to substitute justice for fraud, love for

hatred, reason for force; to reveal the brotherhood of man, and the paternity of God. And in proportion to the influence of Christianity in the world, will love, justice, reason, become exalted, and the sphere of their influence enlarged; and sanctified by this influence, the affections will go out to do their work- the great, the sublime work of reconciling man to man, and all to God.

Not only in the sphere of home, then, but in wider departments of human action, Christianity is preparing for woman a great field for her peculiar influence and labor. As Christianity prevails, those ideas which have obscured the worth of her office, and given to

man an undue elevation, will pass away, and she will come up to a proud and prominent equality with him. She will toil with him in the great harvest-field of humanity, not, like Ruth, gleaning after him, but, side by side, gathering the fallen and binding the scattered sheaves. As Christianity prevails, woman will not have to abandon her sphere in order to assume a position in the world, but her sphere will extend out into that wide domain where violence, and hate, and fraud have so long reigned. The universal diffusion of Christianity would spread the sanctity of home to the borders of the earth, and cause meek and patient woman to go up with her beautiful ministrations where warriors have contended for empire, and kings have climbed to bloody thrones. Yes! when Aceldama becomes Eden again, woman's sphere shall be the wide world of human action; for not then will be wanted the ambition that has struggled in dusty conflict, the talent that has striven in angry debate, the power that has ruled men

as with a rod of iron. But then will be demanded the love that has watched and waited, that has nourished the destitute, and fed the hungry, and cheered the sad, and pitied the guilty. For the distinctions which man has sought, the world has given its honors; but for those labors which peculiarly belong to woman, rewards are reserved in the kingdom of Christ. So long as the pursuit of man was violence, she must cherish the affections of her nature in the recesses of home, and, in a situation little less contemptible than that of the slave, breathe the nobler elements of character into the future warrior whom she nourished at her breast. In the age of chivalry, she rose to an eminence as false as it was dazzling, which, while it exalted her from slavery, converted her into a puppet, a mere creature of vanity and passion. But in this age, when, notwithstanding all its evils, there is much Christian light and power abroad—and, indeed, it is because of this that we see these evils in this age, woman begins to exert her

due influence, and occupy her true position, and her equal power with man is displayed. She who stood by Christ in his humiliation is called to accompany him in his triumph. She came with her affections to honor the shame of his cross. In the new age that is dawning upon us, these affections shall be closely associated with the power of his spirit who hung there.

In speaking, then, to the class which I now particularly address, I would urge the fact that there is binding upon young women, not only a routine of duties and a set of accomplishments necessary for their individual education and welfare, but that they also occupy a peculiar position with reference to others- -a position resulting from the age, and from the influences of Christianity. In order that the young woman may effectually discharge the duties thus incumbent upon her, I grant that there must be, first of all, a thorough individual culture, and a strict sense of individual responsibility; nor would I imply that these

considerations are of little value, or even secondary. In what I shall say hereafter, I shall endeavor to speak with emphatic reference to this point. But I wish to justify the peculiar scope which these discourses may take, and my reason for delivering them at all, by showing the important relations, the powerful influence, the great mission of woman at the present day.

And now, as a general appeal, let me say that I trust there is no young woman who hears me, who does not realize the true beauty, power, and triumph of her sex. It is not to possess the bloom and lustre of youth, it is not to be the idol of fashionable adulation, it is not to receive the incense of a homage which is no compliment. It is, in conjunction with her own self-culture, to labor in that sphere which God has made peculiarly hers—the sphere of the affections. First of all in the great and essential department of HOME-in the beautiful offices of the daughter, the sister, the mother, the wife. Then in the wider field of