Woman's Mission

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the mas should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him.” — GENEsIs ii. 18

“Wuart, in this great, and diversified, and busy world, is uy place, and my business?” is a question which every one should ask. For every one has a place to fill anda part to act. And to act his part well, according to the will of God, in the lofty drama of human life, should be the ambition, the solicitude, and the prayer of each of us. It is the first lesson of wisdom, to know our place; the second, to keep it. And of course, corresponding with this, to ascertain the duties of our place, and to discharge them. There are class duties as well as individual ones, and the latter are generally to be more accurately learned by an intelligent apprehension of the former. “Woman, as such, has her mission. What is it? What is precisely that rank she is to occupy — that purpose she is to fulfill, above which she would be unduly exalted, and below which she would be as unjustly degraded? This is a subject which should be thoroughly understood, in order that she should know what to claim, and man what to concede — that she may know what she has to do, and he what he has a right to expect.

We shall endeavor to answer this question, and point out the nature of woman’s mission. In doing this, we shall consult the infallible oracle of Scripture, and not the speculations of moralists, economists, and philosophers. We hold ¢hts to be our rule in the matter before us. God is the creator of both sexes — the constructor of society — the author of social relations, and the arbiter of social duties, claims, and immunities. And this is admitted by all who believe in the authority of the Bible. You are content, my female friends, to abide by the decisions of this oracle. You have every reason to be so. He that created you is best qualified to declare the intention of his own acts, and you may safely, as you should humbly, allow him to fix your position, and make known your duties. In common with man, woman has a heavenly calling to glorify God as the end of her existence; to perform all the duties, and enjoy all the blessings, of a religious life; like him, she is a sinful, rational, and immortal creature, placed under an economy of mercy, and called, by repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, to eternal life. Religion is as much her vocation as that of the other sex. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, but all are on a level as to obligations, duties, and privileges.

In common with man, she is called, where she is unmarried and dependent, to labor for her own support; a condition to which large portions cf the community are necessarily subject by the circumstances of their birth. Industry is as incumbent upon her as upon the other sex, and indolence is no more excusable. But in the married state, her sphere of labor, as we shall presently show, is the family; and it belongs to the husband to earn by the sweat of his brow, not only his own bread, but that of the household. In many of the uncivilized tribes, where the ameliorating condition of Christianity is not felt, the woman is the drudge of the family, while the husband lives in lordly sloth. And even in this country, at least in its manufacturing portions, manual labor falls too often, and too heavily, upon married women, greatly to the detriment of their families. An unmarried woman, however, without fortune, must provide for herself in some way or other, according to the circumstances of her birth and situation; and let her not ‘consider herself degraded by it. Honest industry is far more honorable than pride and sloth.

But neither of these is the peculiar mission of woman, as appertaining to her sex. To know what this is, we must, as ] have said, consult the page of revelation, and ascertain the declared motive of God for her creation. “And the Lord God said, Lt is not good that the man should be alone; I wil make him AN HELPMEET For HM.” This is further expressed, or rather repeated, where it is said, “And Adam,” or, “Although Adam, had given names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; yet for Adam there was not found AN HELPMEET FoR HIM’ — Genesis ii, 18,20. Nothing can be more clear from hence, than that woman was made for man. Adam was created a being with undeveloped social propensities, which, indeed, seem essential to all creatures. It is the sublime peculiarity of Deity to be entirely independent for happiness of all other beings. He, and he only, is the theater of his own glory, the fountain of his own felicity, a sufficient object of his own contemplation, and needing nothing for his bliss but selfcommunion. The highest archangel in heaven would pine, even there, for companionship, either divine or angelic. Adam, surrounded with all the glories of Paradise, and with all the various tribes it contained, found himself alone, and needed companionship, without which his life was but a solitude, Eden itself a desert. Endowed with a nature too communicative to be satisfied with himself alone, he sighed for society, for support, for some complement to his existence, and only half-lived so long as he lived alone. Formed to think, to speak, to love, his thoughts yearned for other thoughts with which to: compare and exercise his soaring aspirations. His words were wearisomely wasted upon the wanton air, or at best awoke but an echo which mocked instead of answered him. His love, as regards an earthly object, knew not where to bestow itself; and returning to his own bosom, threatened to degenerate into a desolating egotism. His entire being longed, in short, for another self — but that other self did not exist: there was no helpmeet for him. The visible creatures which surrounded him, were too much beneath him: the invisible Being who gave him life, was too much above him, to permit him to unite their condition with his own. Whereupon God made the woman, and the great problem was immediately solved.

It was, then, the characteristic of unfallen man to want some one to sympathize with him in his joys, as it is of fallen man to want some one to sympathize with him in his sorrows. Whether Adam was so far conscious of his wants as to ask for a companion, we are not informed. It would appear from the inspired record, as if the design of this precious boon originated with God; and as if Eve, like so many of his other mercies, was the spontaneous bestowment of his own free-will. Thus Adam would have to say, as did one of his most illustrious descendants many ages afterward, “Thou preventest” (ariticipatest) “me with thy goodness.” Here, then, is the design of God in creating woman, to be a suitable helpmate to man. Man needed a companion, and God gave him woman. And as there was no other man than Adam at the time in existence, Eve was designed exclusively for Adam’s comfort; thus, teaching us from the beginning, that whatever mission woman may have to accomplish in reference ta man, in a generic sense, her mission, at least in wedded life, is to be a suitable helpmate for that one man to whom she is united. It was declared from the beginning, that every other ied — = — - anes — ome

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all time. The preceding language has placed her, as a punishment for her sin, in a state of sorrow; this places her in a state of subjection. Her husband was to be the center of her earthly desires, and, to a certain extent, the regulator of them also; and sne was to be in subjection to him. What was enacted in paradise has been confirmed by every subsequent dispensation of grace. Judaism is full of it in all its provisions; and Christianity equally establishes it.

I shall here introduce and explain the words of the apostle, “I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man.” He then goes on to direct that women should not appear and exercise those miraculous gifts which were sometimes bestowed upon them, unvailed and with their hair cut off. He adds, “A man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man” — 1 Cor. xi. 3-9. For the explanation of this passage, I remark, that in the times of the apostle there were two recognized characteristic emblems of the female sex, when they appeared in public — vails, and the preservation of their tresses. It would seem from the apostle’s remarks, as if some of the female members of the Corinthian Church, during the time that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was upon them, cast off their vails, after the manner of the heathen priestesses when they delivered the responses of the oracles. This conduct the apostle reproves, and informs them that if the vail were thrown aside they might as well also cut off their flowing hair, which is one of woman’s distinctions from man, and by all nations considered the ornament as well as the peculiarity of the sex. We may pause for a moment to observe how constantly and eompletely Christianity is the parent of order and the enemy of indecorum of every kind. But why were not the women to lay aside their vails? Because it would be forgetting their subordination and dependence, and assuming an equal rank with man. This is the gist of the apostle’s reason. It was nut merely indecorous and contrary to modesty, but it was ambitious, and violating the order of heaven. The other expressions of the apostle in this passage are very strong. As Christ is the head or ruler of man, so man is the head and ruler of woman in the domestic economy. Man was made to show forth God’s glory and praise; to be in subordination to him, and only to him; while woman was created to be, in addition to this, the glory of man, by being in subordination to him, as his help, his ornament, and his glory. She was not only made out of him, but for him. All her loveliness, comeliness, and purity are not only the expressions of her excellence, but of his honor and dignity, since all were not only derived from him but made for him.

Here, then, is woman’s true position, and if any thing more need be said to prove it from the records of Christianity, we may refer to other apoetolic language, in which wives are enjoined to be subject to their husbands in all things, even as the church is subject to Christ — Ephes. v. Nor is the apostle Paul alone in this, for Peter writes in the same strain — l1l Epistle iii. 1. Let woman then bow to this authority, nor feel herself degraded by such submission. It has been said that in domestic life man shines as the sun, but woman as the moon, with a splendor borrowed from the man. May it not be said with greater truth and propriety, and to render the comparison less invidious, man shines as the primary planet, reflecting the glory of God, who is the orb of the moral universe; and woman shines as the satellite of man, deriving her splendor from the same source, and while equally obeying the law of the central luminary, is created for the primary dependent body, revolves in its attraction, follows in its course, and ministers to its comfort.

Behold, then, we say again, woman’s position and mission; it is summed up in two words — uumiuiry and Love. Of love and subjection to her husband. Every thing connected with the relationship of man and woman has, however, since the fall, a more serious character; her love has become more anxious; her humility more profound. Bashful of her own defects, and anxious to reinstate nerself in her husband’s heart, woman lives to repair the wrong she has inflicted on man, and lav ishes upon him consolations which may sweeten the present bitterness of sin, and warnirgs which may preserve from the future bitterness of hell. Woman, then, whatever relation she may bear to society at large, whatever duties, in consequence of this relation, she may have to discharge, and whatever benefits, by the right discharge of these duties, she may have it in her power to confer upon the community, must consider herself as called to advance the comfort of man in his private relations, by promoting his peace to promote her own, and to receive from him all that respect, protection, and ever assiduous affection to which her equal nature, her companionship, and her devotedness give her so just acclaim. She is, in wedded life, to be his constant companion, in whose society he is to find one who meets him hand to hand, eye to eye, lip to lip, and heart to heart; to whom he can unburthen the secrets of a heart pressed down with care, or wrung with anguish; whose presence shall be to him instead of all society; whose voice shall be his sweetest music; and her smiles his brightest sunshine. From whom he goes forth with regret, and to whose converse he returns with willing feet when the toils of the day are over; who walks near his loving heart, and feels the throbbing of affection as her arm leans on his, and presses on his side. In his hours of retired converse he tells her all the secrets of his heart; finds in her all the capabilities and all the promptings of the most tender and endeared felowship; and in her gentle smiles, and honied words, and unrestrained speech, enjoys all he expected in one who was given to be his associate and friend.

In that companionship which woman was designed to affurd to man, must of course be included the sympathetic offices of the comforter. It is hers in their hours of retirement to console and cheer him; when he is injured or insulted, to mollify the wounds of his troubled spirit; when burdened by care, to lighten, by sharing the Joad; when groaning with anguish, to calm by her peace-speaking words the tumult of his heart; and act, through all his sorrows, the part of a ministering angel.

Nor will she be backward to offer, nor he backward to receive the counsels of wisdom which her prudence will suggest, even though she may not be supposed to be intimately acquainted with all the entanglements of this world’s business, Woman’s advice, had it been asked and acted upon, would have saved thousands of men from bankruptcy and ruin. Few men have ever had to regret their taking counsel from a prudent wife; while multitudes have had to reproach themselves for their folly in not asking, and multitudes more for not following the counsels of such a companion.

If, then, this is woman’s mission, according to the representation of her Almighty Creator — to be the suitable helpmate of that man to whom she has given up herself to be the companion of his pilgrimage upon earth — it of course supposes that marriage, contracted with a due regard to prudence, and under all proper regulations, is the natural state of both man and woman. And so, we affirm in truth, it is. Providence has willed it, and nature prompts it. But as the exceptions are so numerous, is there no mission for those to whom the exception appertains? Is it married women only ¢hat have a mission, and an important one? Certainly not. In these cases we fall back upon woman’s mission to society at large. And is not this momentous? Has it not been admitted in all ages, and by all countries, that the influence of female character upon social virtue and happiness, and upon national strength and prosperity, whether for good or for evil, is prodigious? Is not the declaration with which Adolphe Monod opens his beautiful treatise perfectly true? “The greatest influence on earth, whether for good or for evil, is possessed by woman. Let us study the history of by-gone ages — the state of barbarism and civilizetion; of the East and the West; of Paganism anc Christianity; of antiquity and the middle ages; of the medizval and modern times — and we shall find that there is nothing which more decidedly separates them than the condition of woman.”” Every woman, whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence, within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman, by her virtue or her vice, by her folly or her wisdom, by her levity or her dignity, is adding something to our national elevat: n or degradation. As long as female virtue is prevalent, upheld by one sex and respected by the other, a nation can not sink very ‘ow in the scale of ignominy by plunging into the lepths of vice. To a certain extent, woman is the “onservator of a nation’s welfare. Her virtue, if irm and uncorrupted, will stand sentinel over that ef empire. Law, and justice, and liberty, and the arts, all contribute, of course, to the well-being of a nation; beneficial influence flows in from various springs; and innumerable contributors may be at work, each laboring in his vocation for his country’s weal, but let the general tone of female morals be low, and all will be rendered nugatory. While the universal prevalence of womanly intelligence and virtue will swell the stream of civilization to its highest level, impregnate it with its richest qualities, and spread its fertility over the widest surface. A community is not likely to be overthrown where woman fulfills her mission; or by the power of her noble heart over the hearts of others, she will raise it from its ruins, and restore it again to prosperity and joy. Here, then, beyond the circle of wedded life, as well as that which is found within it, is, no doubt, a part of woman’s mission, and an important one it is. Her field is social life; her object is social happiness; her reward is social gratitude and respect.

If we are right as to the nature of woman’s mission, we can not err as to the proper sphere of it. If she was created for man; and not only for the race of man, but for one man, then the easy and necessary inference is, that Homes is the proper scene of woman’s action and influence. There are few terms in the language around which cluster so many blissful associations as that delight of every English heart, the word Home. The elysium of love, the nursery of virtue, the garden of enjoyment, the temple of concord, the circle of all tender relationships, the play-ground of childhood, the dwelling of manhood, the retreat of age; where health loves to enjoy its pleasures; wealth to revel in its luxu. ries; poverty to bear its rigors; sickness to endure its pains; and dissolving nature to expire; which throws its spell over those who are within its charmed circle, and even sends its attractions across oceans and continents, drawing to itself the thoughts and wishes of the man that wanders from it at the antipodes: this — home — sweet home — is the sphere of wedded woman’s mission. Was it not so at first, when Parapisz was woman’s home? True, there was no other scene for her to appear and act in; but this seemed to teach us at once what was to be her first and chief circle of movement forever after. Is it any hardship upon woman — any depreciation of her importance, to place her there, as her sphere of action and influence? Is it to assign her a circle of influence unworthy of, or beneath herself, to call her to preside over that little community, of which home is the seat? Sha we estimate the importance of such a scene of action? Shall we tell of the varied and momentous interests which are included in that circle? Shall we speak of the happiness of a husband, whose bliss, to so considerable an extent, is created by herself, and involves her own? Or the character and future well-being, for both worlds, of a family, if there be one? Or the comfort of servants, and the order and pleasant working of the whole domestic constitution, all of which depends so much upon her? Why, to make one such home a seat of holiness and happiness; to fill one such sphere with an influence so sweet and sacred; to throw the fascination of connubial feeling and of maternal influence Over one such community; to irradiate so many countenances with delight; to fill so many hearts with content, and to prepare so many characters for their future part in life; such an object would be deemed, by an angel, worth an incarnation upon earth.

Or, leaving this scene of her duties, shall we look out and abroad upon the public good — the strength and stability of the nation? For who knows not that the springs of an empire’s prosperity lie in the domestic constitution, and in well-trained families Even one such family is a contribution to the ma Jestic flow of a nation’s greatness, Can such fami. lies exist without woman’s care, and oversight, and wisdom? Has it not grown into a proverb, shat home has ever been the nursery of great men, and moth prs their instructresses? It may be said, as a general principle, that woman is not only the mother of the body, but of the character of her children. To her is first intrusted the instruction of the mind, the cultivation of the heart, the form. ation of the life. Thought, feeling, will, imagina. tion, virtue, religion, or the contrary moral tendencies, all germinate under her fostering influence, which also continues to direct their growth. The greatest power in the moral world is that which a mother exercises over her young child. The decisive moment in education is the starting-point. The dominant direction which is to determine the whole course of life, lies concealed in the first years of infancy; and these belong to the mother.

One of the most hallowed, and lovely, and beautiful sights in our world is, woman at home; discharging with all the meekness of wisdom, the various duties of wife, mother, and mistress, with an order that nothing is allowed to disturb; a patience which nothing can exhaust; an affection which is never ruffled; and a perseverance that no diffi. culties can interrupt, nor any disappointments arrest: in short, such a scene as that described by Solomon, in the most exquisite chapter of his Proverbs. Eve, in Paradise, in all her untainted loveliness, by the side of Adam, propping the lily, training the vine, or directing the growth of the rose; shedding such smiles upon him, and receiving them reflected back from his noble countenance upon her happy spirit, as told in mute language, their perfect and conjoint bliss, was, no doubt, a brighter image of perfect virtue and undisturbed felicity; but to me, the sight of a woman in our fallen world, filling up by her piety, intelligence, and all matronly and motherly excellences, the circle of a home made happy chiefly by her influence is a scene little inferior in beauty, and even superior in difficulty, to that of our first mother in Paradise. And it is poetry, and nct reason and morai taste, that can revel in imagination upon the beauties of the former, and see little to excite our warmest admiration in the latter.

But it will be asked, perhaps, if we would shut up every married woman within the domestic circle, and confine her with the jealousy and authority of an Oriental despot to her own home; or if we would condemn and degrade her to mere household drudgery. We have, we think, protected ourselves already from this imputation, by representing her as the companion, counselor, and comforter of man, Oh, no! she shall, with our consent, never sink down from the side of man, to be trampled under his foot. She shall not have one ray of her glory extinguished, nor be deprived of a single honor that belongs to her sex; but to be the instructress of her children, the companion of her husband, and the queen consort of the domestic state, is no such degradation; and she, only, is degraded who thinks so. Still in connection with, though not in neglect of, this, let her give her influence upon society to the circle of her friends on all suitable occasions, and in all suitable place a Though the drawing-room is not the chief sphere of her influence, it is one of the circles in which she may move — and albeit incessant parties of pleasure, and constant round of entertainments are not hes mission, but stand diametrically opposed to it, and hinder it — yet as capable of influencing society for good, she is occasionally to lend that influence, which every wise and good woman exerts over the tone of morals and manners, to the friends who may court her society. Woman is the grace, the ornament, the charm of the social circle; and when she carries into it habits that frown upon vice, that check folly and discountenance levity, she is a benefactress of her country. And as to the various institutions of our age for the relief of suffering humanity, the instruction of ignorance, and the spread of religion, we give her all the room and liberty for these things which are compatible with her duties to her own household. What prudent female would ask more, or what advocate of her rights would claim more? Woman is always in her place where charity presides, except when her time and attention are demanded at home for those who are more immediately her charge. But we shall have much more to advance on this subject in a future discourse.

But what shall we say of those women who claim on their own behalf, or of their advocates who claim for them, a participation of the labors, the occupations, the rights, and the duties, which have usually been considered as appertaining to the other sex? There are those who would have the line of demarkation expunged, which nearly all nations have drawn between the duties and the occupations of

gt men and those of women. Christianity has provided a place for woman for which she is fitted, and in which she shines; but take her out of that place, and her luster pales and sheds a feeble and a sickly ray. Or, to change the metaphor, woman is a plant, which in its own green-house seclusion will put forth all its brilliant colors and all its sweet perfume; but remove it fiom the protection of its own floral home into the common garden and open field, where hardier flowers will grow and thrive, its beauty fades and its odor is diminished. Neither reason no: Christianity invites woman to the professor’s chair, nor conducts her to the bar, nor makes her welcome to the pulpit, nor admits her to the place of ordinary magistracy. Both exclude her — not indeed by positive and specific commands, but by general principles and spirit, from the corruption of the camp, the debates of the senate, and the pleadings of the forum. And they bid her beware how she overleaps the delicacy of her sex, and listens to the doctrines of effeminate debaters; or becomes the dupe of modern reformers or fashionable journalists. They forbid us to hear her gentle voice in the popular assembly; and do not even suffer her to speak in the Church of God. They claim not for her the right of suffrage, nor any immunity by which she may “usurp authority over the man.” And yet the Bible gives her her throne, for she is the queen of the domestic circle. It is the heart of her husband. It is the heart of her fimily. It is the female supremacy in that interesting domain, where love, and tenderness, and re. finement, thought and feeling preside. It is the privilege of making her husband happy and honored, and her sons and daughters the ornaments of human society. It is the sphere of piety, prudence, diligence, in the domestic station, and a holy and devout life. It is the sphere that was occupied by Hannah, the mother of Samuel; by Elizabeth, the mother of John; by Eunice, the mother of Timothy; and by Mary, the mother of Jesus, It is the respect and esteem of mankind. It is, as one has said, that silent, unobserved, unobtrusive influence, by which she accomplishes more for her race, than many whose names occupy a broad space on the page of history. A woman who fills well the sphere thus assigned to her, as a wife, a mother, and a mistress; who thus trains up good citizens for the state, and good fathers and mothers of other families which are to spring from her own; and, for aught she can tell, still other families from them, perhaps in all but an endless succession, need not complain that her sphere of action and her power of influence are too limited for female ambition to aspire to. ‘The mothers of the wise and the good are the benefactresses of their species. What would be gained to woman’s comfort, repectability, or usefulness, or to the welfare of society; but how much would be lost to each, by withdrawing her from her own appropriate sphere, and introducing her to that for which she has no adaptation? Who, but a few wild visionaries, and rash speculatists, and mistaken advocates of woman’s rights, would take her from the home of her husband, her children, and her own heart, to wear out her strength, to consume her time, and to destroy her feminine excellence in committee-rooms, on platforms, and in mechanics’ or philosophical institutions? But may not woman, in every way in her power, benefit society by her talents and her influence? Cer. tainly, in every legitimate way. Her sphere is clearly assigned to her by Providence; and only by very special and obvious calls should she be induced to leave it. Whatever breaks down the modest reserve, the domestic virtues, the feminine gentleness of woinan, is an injury done to the community. Woman can be spared from the

lecturer’s chair, the platforms of general convocation, and the scenes of public business; but she can not be spared from the hearth of her husband and the circle of her children. Substitutes can be found for her in the one, but not in the other. In the bosom of domestic privacy she fulfills the truest dignity and faithfulness, the first and highest obligations of her sex. Monod’s remarks on this subject are so beautiful, appropriate, and just, that I shall be more than forgiven for the following long quotaticn:

“Is not the humble sphere which we assign te woman, precisely that for which her whole being is predisposed and preconstituted? Her finer but more fragile conformation, the quicker pulsation of her heart, the more exquisite sensibility of her nerves, the delicacy of her organs, and even the softness of her features, all combine to make her what St. Peter so aptly designates ‘the weaker vessel,’ and render her constitutionally unfit for incessant and weighty cares, for the duties of the state, for the vigils of the cabinet, for all that which yields renown in the world.

“Again, are not the powers of her mind equally distinct? The question is sometimes started, are they equal to those of man? They are neither equal nor unequal; they are different, being wisely adapted to another end.

“For the accomplishment of the work assigned to man, woman’s faculties are inferior to his; or rather, she is not adapted to it. We speak of the general rule, and not of exceptions. It must be conceded that, by way of exception, there are among women some few whose intellects are adapted to the cares reserved, on principle, to the other sex, or that peculiar situations may rise in which women of ordinary capacities are called upon to discharge the duties assigned to man, man in that case being the defaulter; provided, however, that these exceptions are clearly indicated by God, or called for by the interests of humanity. For after all, in the mission of woman, humility is but the means, charity the end, to which all must be subservient. And why should not God who has made exceptions of this nature in sacred history, do the same in ordinary life?

“Be this as it may, we leave exceptions to God, and to the conscience of the individial, and, a& atainiug from all irritating, personal, or contestable questions, will confine ourselves simply to the general rule.

“Generally speaking, enlarged views of politics and science, the bold flight of metaphysics, the sublimer conceptions of poetry, which, bursting every shackle, soar in the boundless region of thought and imagination, are not in the province of woman..

“In that limited sphere, however, uf which we are speaking — limited in extent, but boundless in influence, within which, supported by Scripture, we exhort woman to confine her actions; she is endowed with faculties superior to those of man, or, rather, she alone is adapted to it. Here she has her requital; here she proves herself mistress of the field; and employs those secret resources which might be termed admirable, if they did not inspire & more tender sentiment both toward her and toward God, who has so richly endowed her.

“Her practical survey, equally sure and rapid; her quick and accurate perception; her wonderful power of penetrating the heart, in a way unknown and impracticable to man; her never-failing presence of mind and personal attention on all occasions; her constant though imperceptible vigilance; her numerous and fertile resources in the management of her domestic affairs; her ever-ready access and willing audience to all who need her; her freedom of thought and action in the midst of the most agonizing sufferings and accumulated embarrass.

ments; her elasticity — may I say her perseverance? — despite of feebleness; her exquisitely tender feelings; her tact so practiced, were it not instinctive; her extreme perfection in little things; her dexterous industry in the work of her hands (Prov. xxxi. 18); her incomparable skill in nursing the sick; in cheering a broken spirit; in re-awakening a sleeping conscience; in re-opening a heart that has long been closed; in fine, innumerable are the things which she accomplishes, and which man can neither discern nor effect without the aid of her eye and her hand.”

Now look at woman’s natural adaptation for her sphere. If the view here given of woman’s mission be correct, we can in a moment perceive what is required to enable her to fulfill it. There must be, what indeed there generally is pervading the sex, a consciousness of subordination without any sense of degradation, or any wish that it were otherwise. She scarcely needs to be taught that in the domestic economy she is second, and not first, that “‘ the man is the head of the woman.” It is a law of nature written on the heart, and coincides exactly with the law of God written on the page of revelation. It is first of all an instinct, and then confirmed by reason. Without this law deeply engraven and con. stantly felt as well as known, her situation would be endured as a slavery, and she would be constantly endeavoring to throw off the yoke. Her condition would be wretched, and she would make all wretched around her. With such a sense of oppression, or even of hardship pressing upon the mind, no

6 £OUNG WOMAN’S FRIEND.

duty could be well performed, and the family would be a scene of dumestic warfare. But she generally knows her place, and feels it her happiness as well as her duty to keep it. It is not necessity, but even choice, that produces a willing subjection. She is contented it should be so, for God has implanted ‘he disposition in her nature.

Then her gentleness is another part of her qualifisation fur her duty. She should have, must have, really has influence, power, tmpulsion, if not compulsion. Were she utterly powerless, she could do nothing. Her influence, however, is a kind of passive power — it is the power that draws rather than drives, and commands by obeying. Her gentleness makes her great. How winning are her smiles; how melting her tears; how insinuating her words! Woman loses her power when she parts from her gentleness. It is this very yieldingness, which, like the bulrush lifting against the force of the stream, before which, for a moment, it has bowed, that gives her a power to rise superior to the force of circumstances, against which, if stern resistance were Offered, it would break before them. She vanquishes by submission. How necessary is gentleness to the fulfillment of her mission in handling the young and tender spirits of her children, and training the first delicate shoots of their infantile dispositions; and for directing the feelings of that one heart on which she depends for her happiness, There are vast varieties of disposition in women, and many are sensitive, petulant, irritable, jealous, quick to feel and to resent; but notwithstanding all this, and even under all this, there ts a gentleness of disposition which indicates her vocation as destined to influence and constrain by love.

Tenderness is another of her characteristics. The former related more to manner, this more to disposition; that to habitual conduct toward all persons and all cases, this to the occasional exercise of sympathy with distress. Tenderness is so characteristic of the female heart, that an unfeeling woman is considered a libel upon her sex. If compassion were driven out from every other habitation, it would find there its last retreat. Her heart is so made of tenderness, that she is ever in danger of being imposed upon by craft and falsehood. How suitable such a disposition for one who is to be the chief comforter of the domestic economy; who is to mollify the wounds of her husband’s heart, and to heal the sorrows of her children; whose ear is to listen to every tale of domestic woe, and whose bosom is to be the lodging-place of all family grief!

Self-denial is no less necessary for this domestic mission, than any thing I have yet mentioned. How much of ease, comfort, enjoyment, must she surrender who has to consult her husband’s comfort and will before her own; whose happiness is to consist, in a great measure, in making others happy; who has first to endure all that is connected with giving birth to her children, and then all that is connected with nursing, watching, comforting, and training them. One of the most striking instances in our world of endurance and self-denial, both as to extent and the cheerfulness with which it is borne, is the busy, tender, and contented mother of a rising family. God has given it to her, or else I sometimes wonder how she can exercise it.

And then see her fortitude in this situation. In that courage which leads man to the cannon’s mouth, to mount the breach, or to encounter some

danger of any other kind, she is inferior to man; but in the fortitude manifested by enduring bodily suffering, the ills of poverty, the wasting in. fluence of long-continued privations, the gloom of solitude, the wrongs of injustice, the cruelty of neglect, the heel of oppression; is she not in all this as superior to man, as man is to her in all that appertains to brute force?

On the subject of woman’s fortitude and power of endurance, I will introduce, though it may be at some length, the most surprising instance of it perhaps on record, whether in inspired or uninspired history, which will serve as an appropriate illustration of this part of the subject of my sermon. The apostle John, in his narrative of the events of the crucifixion of our Lord, says with beautiful simplicity, and without a single comment, as if he would not attempt and could not hope to add to the grandeur of the incident: “Vow there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdaicne.” John xix. 25. That the other women should have been there is less wonderful, though even their presence at such a scene, from which it would seem as if all the apostles had retired, except John, was indeed an instance of the fortitude of heroic love. But that his MorHER should have been there, not afar off, but by the cross; not prostrate in a swoon, or beating her breast, wringing her hands, tearing her hair, and shrieking in frantic grief; but stund.- ing in silent, though pensive anguish, to witness the horrors of crucifixion, so far surpassing those of any modern method of execution; the crucifixion of her son, and such a son! O wondrous woman! and act, surpassing wonder! To whatever length endurance may be carried by attendance at the sick-bed of a dying friend, how few of even female heroes could witness the execution of a husband, son, or brother! Ihave read of one, who, when her lover was executed for high-treason, had herself conveyed in a mourning-coach to witness the dreadful process; and when the whole was closed by severing the head from the body, that head which had leaned on her bosom, simply said, “I follow thee,” and sighing forth the name of her slaughtered friend, fell back in the coach and instantly expired. Here was a power of endurance carried to a point which nature could sustain no longer, and it sunk at length crushed beneath the intolerable burden of its grief But behold the scene before us; that mother, in the dignity and majesty of profound yet composed grief, endured to the end. Peterhad denied his Master — the other disciples, at the sight of the officers of justice and the soldiers, amid the deep shadows Os Gethsemane, had deserted Him, and still kept at a distance from the scene of suffering and danger; but there, standing by the cross, were these dauntless holy women, sustaining with wondrous fortitude the sight of his dying agonies, and confessing their Lord in the hour of his deepest humiliation, in the absence of his friends and in the presence of his foes — and there among them was his morHER. I shall never wonder at any thing that female fortitude, when upheld by Divine grace, can do, after it could stand in the person of Mary, at the foot of the cross, when Christ her Son and her Lord was suspended upon it. Nor shall I ever despair of the support of any woman in the hour and scene of hen deepest woe, who is willing to be sustained, after I have beheld the mother of our Lord upheld in that unutterably awful situation. Painters and poets have not done justice to the dignity of this most honored of all women. There is still existing a picture of Annibal Carracci, entitled “The Three Marys,” the subject of which is these holy women surveying the body of Christ after it was taken down from the cross. As a work of art it is inimitable, and does full justice to the painter’s skill. But it does far less justice to the character of the mother of our Lord, than the apostle’s description of her. In the painting she is represented as in a swoor. over the dead body of Jesus, whose head reclines on her lap, while the other figures are set forth in the attitudes of

passionate grief. How different this to the dignified, majestic, and composed grief which stood beneath the cross! So far must art ever fall beneath nature, still lower below the wonders of grace, and most of all below such grace as this.

Let woman study this pathetic and amazing scene, and learn that the deepest love, or the noblest grief, is not that sickly sensibility, that emotional excitability, which is too tender to bear the sight of suffering; but that which, instead of sinking into hysterical outcries, or retiring with averted eyes from the sufferer’s agonies, or is borne swooning from the sight of tears and blood, can control its feelings, and brace its nerves, to perform a woman’s part in the hour and scene of woe, and which none can perform except herself, or, at any tate, perform so well. Let young women set out in life practicing that discipline of their emotions, which, without diminishing aught of the softness and the tenderness of manner which are the most feminine characteristics of their sex, or robbing their hearts of those delicate sympathies and sensibilities which constitute the glory of woman’s nature, shall not envelope her judgment in a mist of feeling, and so enervate her will, as to make her incapable of resolution, and render her incompetent in times of her own sorrow and trial, for any thing besides weeping over the calamities which she might otherwise remove, and make her altogether unfit for those hardy services of mercy, which the miseries of others will sometimes require at her hands.

Arising out of this, and as one beautiful display of it, see her when called to put forth her gentleness, her sympathy, and her self-denial, in the hour of affliction, and the chamber of sickness. It has been somewhere beautifully said, that, “In sickness, there is no hand like woman’s hand, no heart like woman’s heart; and there is not. A man’s breast may swell with unquestionable sorrow, and apprehension may rend his mind; yet place him by the sick couch, and in the shadow, rather than in the light of the sad lamp that watches it; let him have to count over the long, dull hours of night, and wait, alone and sleepless, the struggle of the gray dawn into the chamber of suffering, let him be appointed to this ministry, even for the sake of the brother of his heart, or the father of his being, and his grosser nature, even where it is most perfect, will tire; his eye will close, and his spirit grow impatient of the dreary task; and though love and anxiety remain undiminished, his mind will own to itself a creeping in of irresistible selfishness, which, indeed, he may be ashamed of, and struggle to reject, but which, despite of all his efforts, remains to characterize his nature, and prove, in one instance, at least, his manly weakness. But see a mother, a sister, or a wife, in his place! The woman feels no weariness, and owns no recollection of self. In silence, and in the depth of night, she dwells not only passively, but so far as the qualified term may express our meaning, joyously. Her ear acquiring 8 blind man’s instinct, as, from time to time, it catches the slightest stir, or whisper, or breath, of the now more than ever loved one, who lies under the hand of human affliction. Her step, as in obedience to an impulse or a signal, would not waken a mouse; if she speaks, her accents are a soft echo of natural harmony, most delicious to the sick man’s ear, conveying all that sound can convey of pity, comfort, and devotion; and thus, night after night, she tends him like a creature sent from a higher world, when all earthly watchfulness has friled; her eye never winking, her mind never palled, her nature, which, at all other times, is weakness, now gaining a superhuman strength and magnanimity, herself forgotten, and her sex alone predominant.”

But as woman’s mission is, in an especial sense, one of charity, love is, above all things, essential to its right performance. Here, again, I will give along quotation from Monod’s beautiful work:

“But in speaking of love, it is less the degree than the character which is of importance. Love, as we have before said, is the very essence of woman’s existence. But what love? Let her reflect, and she will find that it is precisely that love which predisposes her for the vocation of beneficence prescribed for her by the Scriptures. There are two kinds of love — love which receives, and love which gives. The former rejoices in the sentiment which it inspires, and the sacrifice it obtains; the second delights in the sentiment which it experiences, and the sacrifice which it makes. These two kinds of love seldom subsist apart, and woman knows them both. But is it too much to say, that in her the second predominates? and that her motto, borrowed from the spontaneous love of her Saviour is, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive. — Acts xx. 38.

“To be loved! This, we well know, is the joy of a woman’s heart; but, alas! how often is this joy denied her! Yet let her continue to love — to consecrate herself by love; it is the exigency of her soul — the very law of her existence; a law which nothing can ever hinder her from obeying.

“Man, also, is no stranger to this feeling; he, too, must love; but his is the love in which St. Paul sums up the obligations imposed upon the husband in conjugal life. ‘Husbands, love your wives,’ even as he sums up the duties of submission on the part of the wife: ‘ Wives, obey your husbands.’ But what we are treating of here, is not the obligation, nor the faculty: it is the inclination to love.

“Love, it must be remembered, is less spontaneous — less disinterested among men than among women. Less spontaneous: man is often obliged to conquer himself, in order to love; woman need only listen to the dictates of her innate feelings. Hence, Scripture, which frequently commands ‘ the husband to love,’ abstains from giving this command to the wife, taking it for granted that nature herself would supply the injunction.

“Moreover, the love of woman is more disinter.

ested. Man loves woman more for his own sake than for hers; woman, on the contrary, loves man less for her own sake than for his. Man, because he is not sufficient in himself, loves that which has been given him of God; woman, because she feéls that she is needed, loves him to whom God has given her. If solitude weighs heavily upon man, it is because life has no charms for him when separated from his helpmeet; if woman dreads living alone, it is because life has lost its aim, while she has none to whom she can be ‘an helpmeet.’ Of her it may be said, if we may be permitted to make the comparison, in the emphatic language of Scripture, ‘We love her, because she first loved us,’”

If such, then, 5e woman’s mission, and who will deny or question it, then how immensely important is it that this should be well understood, and that she should be properly trained to perform it well. But ts this really understood, and is education so conducted as to qualify woman for her mission? It requires little knowledge of modern society to answer these questions in the negative.

Parents, and especially mothers, ye who have daughters, to you appertains the serious, and deliberate, and prayerful consideration, of this momentous and deeply interesting subject. Look upon those girls whom ‘Providence has committed to your care, and say to yourselves, “I very distinctly perceive, and as impressively feel, the importance of the female character on account of its influence upon the well-being of society. And it is clear to me, that woman’s is a domestic mission, which is to affect society through the medium of family influence. As she fills up her place with wisdom and propriety, so will she promote the well-being of the community. Nor is it society only, but the Church of Christ, that is concerned in, and promoted by, the female character. Now, J have daughters, who must contribute their share of influence to the public weal or woe. How shall they be educated, so as best to fulfill their mission, should they be called to preside over the domestic economy? It depends much upon me, whether they fail or succeed in this their mission.” These are appropriate, weighty, and necessary reflections, and they peculiarly belong to mothers. To them, I say, in all your conduct never let these thoughts and views be long out of your minds. Look beyond the drawing-rooms of your friends, where your daughters are to be sometimes seen, perhaps shown. Look higher than to get them married, even well married. Take into account their being well qualified to fulfill their mission. Set them before you as the future heads of a domestic establishment, and prepare them to preside over it with dignity and efficiency.

How much in modern education is calculated, if not intended, rather to prepare our females to dazzle in the circle of fashion and the gay party, than to shine in the retirement of home. To polish the ex. terior by what are called accomplishments, seems to be more the object, than to give a solid substre tum of piety, intelligence, good sense, and social virtue. Never was a subject less understood than education. To store the memory with facts, or to cultivate the taste for music, singing, drawing, languages, and needle-work, are the ultimatum with many. ‘The use of the intellect in the way of deep reflection, sound judgment, accurate discrimination, is not taught as it should be; while the direction of the will, the cultivation of the heart, and the forma. tion of the character, are lamentably neglected. We ask not the sacrifice of any thing that can add grace, and elegance, and ornament, to the feminine character; but we do want incorporated with this, more of what is masculine in knowledge and wisdom. We want to see woman educated not to be man’s play-thing, but his companion. We want to see her invested with something higher and better than fashionable littlenesses, elegant trifles, and fascinating airs. We want her to be fitted to hold fast her husband’s heart by the esteem he bears for her judg. ment; to inspire the confidence and reverence of her children, and in that home where her potent influence is felt, to train up men and women who shall add to the strength and glory of the nation.

In this, let mothers be assisted by those to whom they intrust the education of their daughters when they pass from their hands, It is melancholy to think of the incompetency of a large portion of those to whom the education of females is intrusted. How little has it ever occurred to mary of them to inquire into woman’s mission: what is necessary to qualify them for it, and how they shall aid her ip obtaining this fitness. How rarely does it come within their comprehension that it is their duty, and should be their study, not only to give knowledge, but wisdom; not only to train the performer, the artist, or the linguist, but to Jay the foundation of the character of the sincere Christian, the intelligent woman, the prudent wife, the judicious mother, the sagacious mistress, and the useful member of society. And if in a sermon to women, and when I am addressing mothers, there be no impropriety in turning aside for a few moments to address myself as well to fathers, I would say to them, study deeply, and ponder much the momentous importance of THE DOMESTIC CONSTITUTION. In the present age, how much has been said and written respecting improvements in society; but never let it be forgotten that all radical improvement must commence in the homes and at the hearts of our families. All inquiries how best to cure existing evils, or to supply existing defects, which do not begin here, will be superficial in their nature, and unsatisfactory in their results, It is in the correct understanding of the nature of parental obligations, and right discharge of the duties of man and wife toward each other and their children, that the chief restorative remedy for the diseases of a nation must be sought, as well as the best means of preserving ‘its health. Institutions may be set up to aid or te supplement a father’s efforts, or to alter the nature, or widen the sphere of woman’s mission; and an artificial state of social life may be produced, var.

. be nished and glittering with the showy devices of human wisdom, but it will be found in the end, that the purposes of the God of nature, the Great Author of human society, can not be frustrated; and that the parent must still be regarded as the educator of the child, and home the school for the formation of character.

And here I would remind you of your privileges as Protestants, in having no intruder thrusting himself into your families, or exerting, without coming there, through the medium of the confessional, and from behind the parent’s chair, an influence greater shan that of the parent’s, whether father or mother. A French writer thus depicts the homes of his country: “The question is about our family — that sacred asylum in which we all desire to seek the repose cf the heart. We return, exhausted, to the domestic hearth; but do we find there the repose we sigh for? Let us not dissemble, but acknowledge to ourselves how things are. There is, in our family, a sad difference of seutiment, and the most serious of all. We may speak to our mothers, wives, and daughters, on any of the subjects which form the topics of conversation, with indifferent persons, such as business, or the news of the day; but never on subjects that affect the heart, or moral life, such as eternity, religion, the soul, and God! Choose, for instance, the moment when we naturally feel disposed to meditate with our family in common thought, some quiet evening, at the family table; venture even there — in your own house — at your own fireside — to say one word about these things: your mother sadly shakes her head; your wife contradicts you; your daughter, by her very silence, shows her disapprobation. They are on one side of the table, and you on the other, alone. One would think that in the midst of them, and opposite to you, was seated an invisible personage to contradict whatever you may say.” This scene the author can not forget. He recurs to it once more: “You enter a house in the evening, and sit down at the family table; one thing will almost always strike you: the mother and daughters are, together, of one and the same opinion, on one side, while the father is on the other, and alone. What does this mean? It means that there is some one man at his table whom you do not see, to contradict and give the lie to whatever the father may utter.’’*

* Priests, Women, and Families,” by Michelet. There are many opinions in this work, of which I can not, for a moment, be supposed to approve, but is not this view of the domestic economy in France too true? According to this author, there are more than 620,000 girls training up by nuns, under the direction, too, of men, themselves unmarried, and therefore grossly ignorant of what a family ia To these he adds 200,000 boys, 6,000 sisters of charity, and myriads of women. All these youths, it will be remembered, are but single branches, young and tender ones, too, unnaturally torn from their parent stem or family tree. Thus the domestic hearth of every home is daily infested by the intrusion of one man, strangely styled the director, or spirtual guide! The individual whom we are accustomed to regard as the head of the house — the father — is treated by the intruder as a cipher. In his absence, court iate

WOMAN’S MISSION. hla

Nor should young females themselves be kept ix ignorance of woman’s mission. Their future destiny, a8 stated in the last sermon, should sometimes by a wise mother or an able governess, be set before them; and they themselves reminded how much will be needed on their part, to prepare themselves for their future lot. They must be reminded that above and beyond accomplishments, there is character to be formed, which never can be done without their own aid. They must be early impressed — not indeed in a way to inflate their vanity, but to excite their ambition, to stimulate their energies, and to direct their aim — that they have a mission on earth, for which it becomes them most anxiously and most diligently to prepare themselves. Let it be your constant aim, and at the same time your earnest prayer, that you may first of all thoroughly understand your mission, and then diligently prepare for it, and hereafter as successfully fulfill it. Look round and see what women commend themselves most to your judgment as worthy of imitation. You will see some, perhaps, in whom, as Monod says,

paid to the mother — the weaker vessel — and what is truly melancholy as well as singular, we are expressly assured, the father is generally aware that these men are bringing up his children against himself! A more fatal invasion of God’s own domestic constitution has never been framed and so shamefully accomplished. It resembles the recorded origin of all evil. Here is the serpent once more beguiling Eve through his subtlety. This intruder on forbidden ground must prove ‘the canker-worm of many 4 gentle breast.” — ANperson’s Domestic Constitution reserve has degenerated into supineness, activity inte restlessness, vigilance into curiosity, tact into cunning, penetration into censoriousness, promptitude into levity, fluency into loquacity, gtace into coquetry, taste into fastidiousness, aptitude into presumption, influence into intrigue, empire into domination, and tenderness into morbid susceptibility; some whose power of loving is converted into Jjealousy; and their desire of usefulness into obtrusiveness. From such turn away, as from examples in which the best qualities are metamorphosed into the worst, And equally avoid those whose whole aim seems to be to amuse and be amused; whose vanity is predominant, even in matronly age; and who appear, in their taste for gayety, company, and entertainments, to forget that they have any mission upon earth, except to flutter in a drawing-room, and to dazzle its guests. On the contrary, select for your models those who seem to be aware of woman’s destiny and mission, as A HELPMEET FOR MAN.

If in closing a sermon, already too long, I may suggest a few things which, in preparing to fulfill well your future mission, it is of importance you should attend to, I would mention the following:

Deeply ponder, that character for life is usually formed in youth. It is the golden season of life, and to none more truly and eminently so than to the-young woman. Her leisure, her freedom from care, and her protected situation, give her the opportunity for this, which it is her wisdom and her duty to consider, embrace, and improve.

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It is of immense consequence you should considet “hat whosoever may help you, and whatever appliances from without may be brought to bear upon your mind and heart, you must, to a considerable extent, be the constructor of your own character. Set out in life with a deep conviction of the momentous consequence of self-discipline. Let your mind, your heart, your conscience, be the chief object of your solicitude.

Lay the basis of all your excellences in true religion — the religion of the heart — the religion of penitence, faith in Christ, love to God, a holy and heavenly mind. No character can be well-constructed, safe, complete, beautiful, or useful, without this.

Cultivate those dispositions of mind which have especial reference to your future mission as the helpmeet for man. Improve your mind, and grow in intelligence by a thirst for knowleege; for how can an ignorant woman be a companion for a sensible man? Cherish a thoughtful, reflective turn of mind. Look beneath the surface of things; beyond their present aspect to their future consequences. Be somewhat meditative, and learn to restrain your words and feelings by a rigid self-control. Pay most anxious attention to your temper, and acquire as much as possible its perfect command. More women are rendered miserable, and render others miserable, by neglect of this than perhaps by any other means whatever. Let meekness of disposition and gentleness of manner be a constant study.

These are woman’s amiabilities, which fit her for her future situation far better than the bold, imposing, and obtrusive airs of those who mistake the secret of woman’s influence,

Contentment and patience, self-denial and submis. sion, humility and subordination, prudence and dis. cretion, are all virtues, the seeds of which should be sown by you in early youth, that the rich ripe fruits of them might be gathered in future life. Benevolence of heart, and kindness of disposition, must be among your foremost studies, the most prominent objects of your pursuit and most laborious endeavors, for these are the virtues which in their. maturity are to form the matronly excellence, and constitute you the fit companion for a husband.

Make accomplishments subordinate to more.substantial excellences. Let the former be to the latter only as the burnish of the gold, or the sparkle of the diamond. And as matters of mental taste are to be less thought of than the state of the heart and the formation of moral character, so let especially corporeal decorations be in low estimation compared with those of the mind,

To prepare you to carry out the duties of your future mission with ease to yourself, with satisfaction to a husband, and comfort to a household, pay attention to the minor virtues — punctuality, love of order, and dispatch, These are all of immense importance: the want of them in the female head of & family, must necessarily fill the home with confu. sion, and the hearts of its inmates with sadnesa,

Bet out in life with a deep conviction of the importance of habits, and a constant recollection that habits for life are formed in youth; and that these habits, if not acquired then, are never likely to be.

Aim at universal excellence. Do little things well. Avoid with extreme dread a loose, slovenly, and careless way of doing any thing proper to be done.

Young Women, your whole future life will illustrate and confirm the truth and propriety of this advice, either by the comfort and usefulness which result from attending to it, or by the personal and relative misery which will inevitably follow, from your casting it into oblivion. It is in this way only you can fulfill with effect that which it has been the object of this discourse to set before you — We an’s Misston 1s Soorat Livz.