God in all his conduct-Christ in his glorious undertaking—and the Holy Spirit in his gracious work-give her her proper place in the world, by giving her a proper place in the church. It is for her with peculiar emphasis to say, "God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places."-Ephes. ii. 4-6.

Well have women understood their privileges, for look into our congregations and churches, and see how largely they are composed of females. How many more of their sex than of the other avail themselves of the offer of gospel mercy, and come under the influence of religion. It is in the female bosom, however we may account for the fact, that piety finds a home on earth. The door of woman's heart is often thrown wide open to receive this divine guest, when man refuses it an entrance. And it is by thus yielding to the power of godliness, and reflecting upon others the beauties of holiness, that she maintains her standing and her influence in society. Under the sanctifying power of religion she ascends to the glory not only of an intelligent, but of a spiritual existence-not only gladdens by her presence the solitary hours of man's existence, and beguiles, by her converse and sympathy, the rough and tedious paths of life; but in some measure new-modifies, purifies, and sanctifies him by making him feel how awful goodness is. 7. But the finishing stroke which Christianity gives in elevating the condition of women, is, by in

viting and employing their energies and influence in promoting the spread of religion in the world; and thus carrying out, through them also, the great purposes of God in the redemption of the world by the mission of his Son. To them, in common with others, the apostle says, "That ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."-1 John i. 3. The honor so liberally bestowed upon the pious women of antiquity, in ministering to the personal wants of the Saviour, and in being so constantly about his person, was the least of those distinctions designed for them by our holy religion. They bear an exalted place in those acts and offices which were carried on for the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world. How instructive and impressive is it to hear an apostle say, "Help those women which labored with me in the gospel."-Phil. iv. 3. What a register of names and offices of illustrious females do we find in Romans xvi. Priscilla, Paul's helper; Mary, who bestowed much labor upon us ;" "Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labored in the Lord.”

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Phebe, the servant of the church at Cenchrea," who was sent to the church at Rome, and intrusted with so momentous a commission as to bear to that community of Christians the Epistle to the Romans, which, if we may lawfully compare one portion of Scripture with another, is the most precious portion of divine revelation. In addition to all this, there can be but little doubt that in the primitive church, not only were women occasionally endowed by the

spirit with the miraculous gifts of prophesying, but were also employed in the office of deaconesses. The Christian church, in modern times, has gone backward in the honor put upon the female character. The primitive age of Christianity was in advance of ours in the respect thus paid to the female sex, by officially employing them in the services of the church, and in the wisdom which made use of such available and valuable resources. It has been said that the usages of society have somewhat changed since that time, so as to render the services of women less necessary now than they were then. The friendly and social intercourse of the sexes was more restricted, and females were kept in greater seclusion. Some truth, no doubt, there is in these assertions; but perhaps not so much as is by some imagined. Both general and sacred history present them to us mingling in the society, and sharing the occupations of the other sex.

THIRDLY. We now remark that not only does Christianity thus tend, by its own nature and provisions, to exalt the female character, but it has accomplished this wherever it has prevailed. If we consult the pages of history, whether ancient or modern-whether Eastern or Western, we shall find that wherever the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ has been successful, there has it achieved the emancipation of woman from her thralldom, and rescued her from degradation. I refer to modern Europe in proof of this, and to America. And may I not affirm that this emancipation and elevation are in

proportion to the purity of that Christianity which has thus been diffused? Is it not a triumph and a trophy of Christianity to be able to point to the most polished nations of the globe as being, at any rate, professedly Christian; and at the same time to say, "Look at the improved condition of the female sex?" What a contrast is in this respect presented in those countries to all Pagan and Mohammedan nations.

If we refer to the records of modern missions, we shall find abundant proof of what the gospel does for the elevation of the female character. It has abolished the suttee in India, and the widow is no longer immolated on the same pile which consumes her departed husband. It has stopped the suicidal prostration before the idol's car in Ceylon— the drudgery of the wives of all savage tribes-the incarcerating seclusion of Mohammedan and Pagan nations-the polygamy, the infanticide, and the concubinage of all countries whither it has gone. Yes, Christianity in various parts of the world has, in modern times, proved itself woman's emancipator and friend in many, very many thousand instances. It has brought woman from under the disastrous influence of the pale crescent of the impostor of Mecca, and placed her in all the irradiating and enlivening splendor of the Sun of Righteousness. It has rescued her from what I must consider the baleful power of the crucifix, and thrown over her the elevating attractions of the cross.

But there is another and a more familiar way,

and one nearer home, in which we may see how Christianity, even in this Christian and Protestant nation, has benefited and raised the condition of millions of once wretched and degraded women; made such not by their own misconduct, but by the vices and cruelty of their husbands. How many wives have been reduced to a kind of domestic slavery by the drunkenness, the infidelity, and tyranny of those who had pledged themselves to love and cherish them. Christianity, in its power, has, in myriads of instances, laid hold of the hearts of these men, and changed them from vice to holiness; and now, the husband is as much changed as the man, and among other evidences of the reality of the change, and the manifestations of its excellence, is his altered conduct at home, where woman becomes his wife, instead of being his drudge, his slave, and his victim. Christianity has thus carried out its genius and its precepts into the actual elevation of the female character wherever it has gone. The chivalry of the dark and middle ages, whimsical as the institution seemed, which combined religion, valor, and gallantry, no doubt did something to accomplish this end. I do not dispute the truth of the remarks made by a French writer, quoted in a popular work entitled, "Woman's Mission," where he says, that women, shut up in their cas tellated towers, civilized the warriors who despised their weakness, and rendered less barbarous the passions and the prejudices which they themselves shared. It was they who directed the savage pas