be able to cancel. Often as you look round upon your condition in society, and especially as often as you contrast your situation with that of women in Pagan countries, let a glow of gratitude warm your heart and add intensity to the fervor with which you exclaim, "Precious Bible." Yes, doubly precious to you, as your friend for both worlds. How shall woman discharge her obligations? In two ways. First, in yielding up her heart and life to the influence and service of her benefactor-in the way of faith, holiness, and divine love. Female piety is the best, the only sincere expression of female gratitude to God. An irreligious woman is also an ungrateful one. She that loves not Christ, whomsoever else she may love, and however chaste and pure that love may be, is living immeasurably below her obligations, and has a stain of guilt upon her heart and her conscience which no other virtue can efface or conceal.

Her obligations should also be discharged by seeking to extend that benign system to others which has exerted so beneficial an influence upon herself. Of all the supporters of our missionary schemes, whether they are formed to evangelize the heathen abroad, or reform the sinful at home, women should be, as indeed they generally are, the most zealous, the most liberal, and the most prayerful supporters. Wherever she turns her eye over the distant regions of our earth, at least wherever Paganism or Mohammedanism throw their baleful shadow-and alas! how large a portion of the earth

that is there she beholds her sex degraded and oppressed. From China's vast domain-from India's sunny plains-from Persia's flowery gardens -from the snows of Arctic regions-from the sterile deserts of Arabia—and from the burning line of Africa-woman lifteth up her voice from the midst of her wrongs, her woes, and her miseries, piteously imploring, "COME OVER AND HELP US." The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, but her groans are deeper, her cries louder, than those of any other. Floated upon the wings of every breeze, and borne on the bosom of every wave that touches our shore, from those regions of sin and sorrow comes the petition to Christian females in this country for the blessings of Christianity. Cold, thankless, and unfeeling must be that heart which is unaffected by such an appeal, and makes no effort to respond to it-which prompts to no interest in our missionary schemes, and leads to no liberality in their support. The Millennium will be especially woman's jubilee, and as no groan is deeper than hers during the reign of sin and sorrow, so no joy will be louder than hers under the reign of Christ. It belongs therefore to her to be most fervent in the cry of the church, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

4

The Conspicuous Place which Woman occapies in Boly Scripture.

"After this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands."-1 PETER, iii. 5.

Ir will probably be objected against some of the subjects selected for this course of Sermons, that they are not exclusively appropriate to the class of persons to whom they are addressed—that is, Young Women. This, however, so far from being a fault, is an excellence. Most conditions of human life are prospective, and have not only some proximate object and duties connected with them, but also some ultimate ones to which the others look onward; and he who would lead persons to the right discharge of the whole range of their obligations, must set before them the future as well as the present, especially when the due preparation for the remote must not only be made in the present, but must be considered to a considerable extent the object and design of the present. Neither childhood nor youth is an ultimate condition of human existence, but each leads on, looks to, and prepares for

manhood or womanhood. Surely it must be appropriate then to those who are already arrived at adult age, or are fast approaching it, to have the whole view of their future condition laid before them, at least in general outline. How else can they prepare for it?

Those to whom the following discourses are addressed, are supposed to have arrived at that period of youth, when the judgment is sufficiently matured and reflective to be capable of studying and appreciating their future relations and duties, and who, therefore, ought to have the subject laid before them. Who can be rightly educated for any future situation, from whom it is concealed till all its obligations and responsibilities burst suddenly upon them? True, there is in some minds an almost instinctive kind of perception of what is proper to be done in any new conjuncture of circumstances, so that almost without training, they are prepared for whatever situation is before them. But this is not the case with all. The greater number of mankind must, as far as possible, be trained for the various situations of life. As in the education of a boy, especially when learning a trade or profession, the future good tradesman, master, father, and citizen, must be set before him as that for which he must prepare himself; so in the training of young women, the whole of womanhood, in its full expansion, ripened excellences, and complete relations, obligations, and responsibilities must be laid before them. We know that there is much which can be learned

only from experience, yet is there much also that may be learned by observation, reading, and reflection. Mothers and governesses, authors and preachers, who take up the subject, should ever bear in recollection that the girl is to develop in the woman; and in teaching the girl, should ever have their eye fixed ultimately upon the woman, and should with all possible earnestness fix the eye of the girl also upon her future womanhood. Not that she is to be so taken up with the remote as to neglect the proximate the future as to neglect the present-or to acquire that precocious matronly air and gravity which shall repress the ardor and vivacity of youth, and by anticipated cares and solicitudes go out to meet half-way the coming troubles of life. Remember, then, my young female friends—and the lesson can not be too deeply impressed upon your mindsthat the seeds of woman's life-long excellences must be sown in the spring-time of life; and it must be done in part by her own hand, though aided and taught by others to prepare the soil. The very flowers of womanly excellence she would have to grow in her future character, must be previously and carefully selected, and be contemplated and anticipated by her in all their full-blown beauty and their richest fragrance, even while she is yet in youth.

With these remarks as our justification in presenting to the younger of the sex, what in fact appertains to the more advanced in years, we now advance to the subject of the present sermon.

When we consider the importance of woman in