the darker side of the narrative. How soon do we see Adah and Zillah, women of the antediluvian world, consenting to be the joint wives of Lamech, and thus giving, for aught we can tell, the original pattern of that bane of domestic happiness-polygamy.-Gen. iv. 19-24. Then come “the daughters of men"-the women in the line of Cain, who made no profession of religion, but lived in athe ism-seducing and corrupting "the sons of God"the female line of Seth and the professors of godliness-and thus preparing the way by these unsuitable and incongruous marriages, and the universal corruption that followed, for the waters of the deluge to wash away the moral filth of the old world.-Gen. vi. 1-7. Hagar comes next, trou bling the faith, charity, and peace of Abraham for a time, persecuting the child of promise, and at the same time correcting by her waywardness the weakness of the patriarch, whose concubine she was. Then that family of Lot-the poor, earthlyminded mother, that was so wedded to Sodom as to cast the lingering, longing look behind, which transformed her into a pillar of salt; and the disgusting conduct of her incestuous daughters, who showed too well how they had been corrupted by the place of their abode, and how careful all parents should be to remove their children from the polluting influence of evil examples.-Gen. xix, What a revolting pattern of an adulterous woman, and to hide her shame, of a cruel slanderer, is Potiphar's wife!-Gen. xxxix. Then there was the

ensnaring and successful temptation offered by the daughters of Moab to the children of Israel in the wilderness.-Numbers xxvi. How mighty and how fatal were the powers of harlotry in Delilah, to subdue the strength and extort the secrets of Sampson; and what a forcible picture of man's weakness before woman's vicious wiles has it furnished to all coming ages! Who does not think of Bathsheba consenting to David's wicked proposals, and thus causing him for a while to cease to be David? And then the strange women that threw even the mighty intellect of Solomon into the awful eclipse of idolatry! Jezebel, that Zidonian idolatress, who instigated her husband to the murder of Naboth, and exasperated the mind of Ahab to a more intense degree of wickedness than he would otherwise have attained to.-1 Kings xxi. And Athaliah, that turbulent and idolatrous queen-mother, who counseled her son to do wickedly, and was assassinated by command of Jehoiada, the priest.*2 Chron. xxii.

* I have forborne, of course, to dwell on the examples and descriptions of female delinquency recorded in the Scriptures. Such instances are intended to be read alone, rather than exhibited in the pulpit. It has been a matter of surprise to some, perhaps almost of regret, that such instances of depravity should have been left on record. But shall we dispute in this matter either the wisdom, goodness, or purity of God? Are not important ends to be answered in the moral government of God, and in the religious history of man? A profligate woman is at once the most odious, mischievous, and hateful member of the community. Is it

Coming forward to the New Testament, we meet with Herodias, exhibiting the malignant and re

not every way proper, and even desirable, that such a character should be held up to detestation and scorn, as a warning to her sex, and that God should thus set a brand upon her with his own hand, and bear his indignant testimony against her vices? The examples of this kind are all for warning, to show in a concrete form the excessive odiousness of female depravity. This is done in a manner the least likely to do harm, and the most likely to do good. The descriptions of female turpitude in the Word of God contain nothing to inflame the imagination or to stimulate the passions; nothing to make vice seductive by a halfconcealment of its odiousness; nothing to beat down the guards of virtue, by interesting or amiable associations of character with sin, or by sophistical and insidious excuses or defenses. The vice is left in all its naked and revolting deformity-all its nauseating loathsomeness-to inspire disgust, and cause even those of ordinary virtue to recoil from the ugly and filthy object. How different the case with many works of fiction, both prosaic and poetic, in which, though there may be a less particularity of sinful detail, there is immeasurably more to corrupt the moral principles, to pollute the heart, and to lead astray the youthful mind from the paths of virtue. What female reader of the Word of God can rise from the exercise of contemplating even the worst characters, and perusing the most vivid descriptions of the sins of her sex, without a stronger love of purity and a more deeply rooted hatred of iniquity. This is the answer we would give to infidels, who sometimes affect to be prudish, and complain of the descriptions and examples of female turpitude which are contained in the sacred volume. The use which every virtuous woman will make of them is to be inspired with a greater abhorrence of transgression, and a more holy and intense desire to be kept from the most distant approach to it.

vengeful passions of a shameless woman, against the servant of God, who had dared to reprove her paramour, and impelling Herod, against the protest of his judgment, heart, and conscience, to put John the Baptist to death, and thus involve them both in murder.-Matt. xiv. 11. And here also we read of the Jewish women that encouraged and stimulated to violence the mob that persecuted Paul and Barnabas.-Acts xiii. 50, 51; and "That woman Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess, and taught and seduced God's servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.". Rev. ii. 20.

In such instances as these, female pride, wherever it exists, may find some check to its exercise, and some motives for humiliation. To those who are prone to think of their sex more highly than they ought, we present these examples of female frailty, which the pen of inspiration has drawn upon the page of Scripture. While to those of the other sex, if there are any, who are apt to glory over their fallen sisters, we would, after reminding them that some of these instances are the result of their own seductions, present the brighter side of the picture, and would also call upon woman to contemplate the beautiful specimens of female excellence with which the firmament of Scripture is studded, like so many stars of various magnitudes.

There is Sarah, who, notwithstanding her many failings, was unquestionably a good and even a great woman. In her case, as in many others, her

beauty had become her snare, and if not dangerous to her own virtue, had placed the life of her husband in peril. She is presented by the apostle Peter as one of the holy women of old, who were patterns of domestic virtue and piety. Her defects, which consisted of a weakness of faith, that led to some strange domestic arrangements that brought their own punishment, were still surrounded with the brightness of many excellences, in which, if they were not entirely lost, they were at any rate diminished. She was a pattern of conjugal fidelity and sweet simplicity, and just matronly jealousy toward the stranger who had been brought for a while so unwisely into her place. Her faith in God's promise was strong, though shaken for a moment by the improbabilities of the promised blessing.-Gen. xii.; xxiii.

Rebekah's earlier and latter life presents to us a somewhat painful contrast. None can read the beautiful account of the mission of Abraham's servant to her father, without admiration at the good qualities of the damsel who is the heroine of the story-her industrious and domesticated habitsher unaffected and artless simplicity-her genuine, yet not silly modesty—her graceful courtesy-her humane consideration of the comfort of the brute creation. What a bright pattern is here for the imitation of young people! But, oh! her unbelieving, injudicious, and sinful contrivances to bring about the bestowment of the Divine blessing upon the heir of promise, by that wicked imposition prac