Early Female Piety

“It leve them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” — Provzrss viii. 17.

In the world of nature, we are now passing through the vernal quarter of the year. Spring, lovely, animating spring, is shedding its reviving and gladdening smiles upon us. It is always a season of beauty. ‘For lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.” Nature stands forth dressed in her garb of living green, decorated with the chaste colors, and perfumed with the mild fragrance of the violet, the primrose, and the cowslip. It is a season of joy as well as beauty; recovered from the gloom of wintry months, the earth smiles, and is vocal with delight, The feathered songsters of the grove blend theis notes with the lowing of the herds and the bleating of the flocks; and the harmony is completed by the joyful sounds of the husbandman, and the gentle swell of the ocean breaking mildly upon the shore. But it is also a season of activity, as well as of love.

Jiness and delight. The farmer is busy in his fields, the florist in his green-house, and the hortioulturist in his garden; and the torpor produced by short days and cold nights is succeeded by universal motion: for full well is it known and felt, that a seedless spring must be followed by a fruitless autumn. Hope adds the finishing mark, the stroke of grace, to vernal scenes. The blade springing from the well-cultivated soil, and the blossom pendant from the well-pruned tree, give the promise and prospect of the future crop.

And what is youth but the vernal, period of existence; it te the season of beauty and of joy; it should be the season of activity and of hope. It is now that the beauty of the human form is in all its untainted freshness, and the spirits of our animal nature are in all their unchecked vigor. And it should be now that all the energies of the soul are put forth in the way of self-improvement, to awaken the hopes, not only of their possessor, but of every observer. Do, my young friends, thus look abroad upon the field of nature; not only to poetize, but to moralize; not only to admire, but to imitate; not only to feel the throb of pleasure and thrill of delight, but to learn lessons of wisdom, and collect motives for self-improvement. You are, then, t deed you are, passing through your moral spring, and as in nature, so in your existence, there can be but one spring in the year; and in each case, it is the spring that will give the character to the whole of the year that follows, It is then the seeds of intelligence, of prudence, of virtue, of piety must be sown, or there wil be no produce in the after-periods of your history. A seedless spring must here also be followed by a fruitless autumn, and a destitute, dreary, and cheerless winter.

This sermon is devoted to the enforcement of early piety.

Your first concern — and deep, indeed, should that concern be — is, of course, to understand the nature of real religion. This is of momentous importance. No language can exaggerate it. There can be no hyperbole hege. Upon a right understanding of this subject is suspended your happiness for eternity. Ponder that word rrerniry, and think of the millions of millions of ages, passing comprehension, it includes; all to be filled with torment or bliss, according as you. understand and practice, or mistake the nature and neglect the claims of true religion, Should not this awaken solicitude of the deepest kind? What should increase the concern of your mind to deep solicitude, and almost to distress, is that both our Lord and his apostles lead us to believe, by what they have said, that mistakes on this subject are very common and very destructive, as you may learn by consulting the following passages of Holy Scripture: Psalm cxxxix. 28, 24; Matt. vii. 13-28; 1 Cor. xiii.; 2 Cor. xiii. 5-75 Gal. iv. 11-18; vi. 3-5.

To guard against mistakes, go to the right source of information; consult the only infallible oracle — the Word of God. You have the Bible in your hand; search that — search it yourselves, and for yourselves. Do not be satisfied with merely consulting men’s works, but consult God’s own Word. All churches, whatever they may boast, may err. have erred, and have no authority or ability to settle this matter for you. Creeds and catechisms prayer-books and missals, formularies and confessions, are none of them pure truth; ¢his appertains only to the Bible. The Bible, the Bible alone, is the religion of Christians. Not that I would have you reject the help of these things, but only their authority. A humble, docile mind will be thankful for human aid in the great business of religion. There is a medium between despising assistance and so depending upon it as to cast off all self inquiry. The pert and flippant self-sufficiency which would lead a young woman to neglect, much more despise, the judgment of those who have studied the Word of God more closely than it is possible she can have done, and whose calling it is to teach it, is no proof of that humility which is one of the brightest ornaments of her sex. It can not, therefore, be my intention to teach young females to think lightly of ministers and. books, in the momentous concerns of religion; but simply to remind them of their duty to search the Scriptures for themselves, by which authority all books and all ministers are to be tried.

Before we come to this source of information on the nature of religion, we may just remark that there are on» or two things which we may presume beforehand must of necessity characterize it. Since religion has first of all and chiefly to do with God, and since God can and does regard, search, and judge the heart — dche true seat of religion must be the heart. It is not a mere outward thing — a round of ceremonies — or a course of unintelligent action. The soul must be religious; our whole inner self — the intellect — the will — the affections — the conscience — must be under the influence of piety. Mark this: there must be thought — choice — affection — conscientiousness. Again, whatever be true. religion, it must primarily relate to God, and must of necessity be a right state of mind and heart toward — him. It must also be to its possessor a very serious, solemn, important matter; it supposes great concern, for it is an affuir for salvation — eternity — heaven. It must muke a very different kind of character from that of the person who is not living under its influence. It is too great a matter to leave no mark, to produce no impression, to form no peculiarity. So that we may be sure while it lives properly in the heart, it will develop iteelf visibly in the outward character.

With these ideas, which are at once obvious, instructive, and impressive, let us open the New Testament and see what descriptions of religion we find there; and we beg your very closest attention to them, as in the presence of God and the prospect of eternity. The apostle Paul, in setting forth the subject and substance of his ministry, describes it thus: “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the

Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” — Acts xx. 21. This, then, is true religion — repentance and faith. If we turn to the Gospel by John, we read thus: “But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” — Chap. i. 12, 18. This is also repeated in the third chapter: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.” These is religion, a new spiritual birth; or, in other words, an entire spiritual renovation of our fallen and corrupt nature. Then, again, we may quote the apostle’s words in that beautiful chapter on charity: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” — 1 Cor. xiii. 18. This also is religion — /fatth, hope, love. Similar to this is his language in his Epistle to the Galatians: “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” — Chap. v. 6. This is an immensely important passage, as showing that no outward ceremonial observances or church relationship constitute religion; but a true, simple faith in Christ for salvation; producing love to God, to man, to holiness. This accords with what our Lord said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto :t, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” — Matt. xxii. 37-40. Then, again, the apostle said, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” — Titus ii. 11-14, As marking the solicitude which characterizes true religion, we may refer to Acts xvi.: “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, wHat must I po ro BE savED?” And what was Paul’s answer? “BreLizve on tHE Lord JEsvs Curist, and thou shalt be saved.”

Observe, then, from these passages, what ts religion and its usual order? True conviction of sin; deep solicitude about pardon and salvation; confession of sin, without defense, excuse, or palli. ation; genuine repentance; self-renunciation; faith in Christ, or a simple reliance on him for salvation; the new birth, or an entire change of our corrupt nature; love to God, leading to obedience of his commands; and a holy life, a serious observance of all the ordinances of religion, including baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Are these things so? Is this the description of religion given us in the New Testament? Who will pretend to deny it? Search for yourselves! You will see at once how this answers to the general description of it previously given, as a thing of the heart — a right state of mind toward God — a matter of deep concern to the mind that possesses it — and making an obvious distinction between him who has it and him who has it not.

You are in danger, my young friends, from the female temperament — from your sensibility, susceptibility, and imnaginativeness — of having your minds led astray on the subject of religion, and of eonsidering it rather as a matter of feeling than of principle — as belonging rather to the emotions than to the judgment and the will. You are liable to be seduced from the truth by appeals to the senses and the imagination, with which the spurious religion of the present day abounds. But I again say, search the New Testament and judge for yourselves, and say what do you find there about tasteful architecture, gorgeous ceremonies, splendid dresses, sacerdotal assumptions, sacred days, either of fasting or festivity, church authority, or even of the prevalence of devotional observances over moral duties. What you find everywhere is faith, love, peace, hope, holiness; a religion of which devotion te, indeed, an element; but only one out of many; being ever associated with self-government, conscientiousness, social excellence, and charity. Nor is the religion of the New Testament merely that state of mind which is moved by a pathetic sermon, which melts at the Lord’s Supper, or is excited by the picturesque appeals of a missionary meeting. Religion has to do, I know, with our whole nature, and therefore with its emotional part; but then, the degree of sensibility so much depends upon physical constitution, that excitability by religious ordinances is far less to be depended upon as a test of personal godliness, than a rigid self-government, a resolute will in the way of righteousness, and a tender conscientiousness, carried on in obedience to the Divine authority, and under a constraining sense of the love of Christ. None are more in danger, therefore, of self-delusion on this subject than yourselves.

I may now lay before you the oBLIGATIONS you are under to pussess, and ever to cultivate and act under the influence of such a religion as this. I say obligations. This is a stern, hard word, but not too much so. The subject is pressed down upon your judgment, heart, will, and conscience, by all the weight and power of a divine authority. Religion is not one of those matters which are submitted to your option, for which, if you have a taste, well; and if not, still well. Nor are you left to form your own religion, and to select for yourself just in what form you will please God and find your way to heaven. This is the dangerous delusion of many in the present day. It is all well enough, they think, to be religious after soma fashion; but each must adopt his own way of serving God. Upon this principle of resolving it all into taste, the person of no religion, if his taste be that way, is on nearly the same footing as he whose religion is simply according to his own liking. The truth must be told, and told plainly, too, that there is but one religion, and that is the religion of the Bible. To be pious at all, we must be pious in God’s way. It would be a strange thing if, when master had given any‘ strict, explicit, and even written orders to a servant, how he would be served, the servant should choose his own way of obedience, and set aside the directions he had received. In all honesty, therefore, I must tell you at once, harsh as the declaration may seem, that without religion, and without the religion of the Bible, too, you will perish everlastingly. There is no way to heaven but by the religion of the Bible. ‘“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” — John iii. 36. These are awful words — they roll like thunder, and flash like lightning, not from Sinai, but even frem Calvary, and they should be pondered by all who hear or read them.

The obligations to a life of religion arise out of the relations in which you stand to God. He is your Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor, and you are his creatures, his dependents, and his beneficiaries. You feel, my young friends, your obligations to your parents, arising out of your relation to them. As a child, you feel bound to love, and serve, and please them. What! and not feel your relation to God, which is a thousand t?mes more close than that of your connection with them Yes, you sustain an individual relationship to God, Do you consider this? Have you considered it? Have you ever yet, in devout seriousness, said, What and where is God, my Maker? What do I owe him, and how should conduct myself toward him? Is God the only relation you should leave out of consideration, and forget? Did you ever yet, in all your life, devoutly ponder this relationship to God, and the claims which it brings? Why, if he had never commanded you to love and serve him, you ought to do so, on account of this relationship. But he has commanded it. Your Bible is his demand upon you. It is God’s voice enjoin ing you to be truly, and constantly, and consistently religious. It is his formal, explicit, frequently, and solemnly-repeated claim. Its injunctions command — its invitations allure — its promises encourage — its threatenings warn — its Judgments alarm you, to be truly pious. It is given to teach you what religion is, how it is to be practiced, and how it will be rewarded.

And then this is all addressed to you. Religion is not merely the concern of the middle-aged and the old, but of the young; not of the other sex only, but of yours. Indeed, it has ever flourished more among persons of your sex and age than among any other class. To imagine it is only the business of old age and a death-bed, is an insult both to it and to God. Ought he not to have the first and the best of our days? Should he be put off with the dregs of life? Will you dare entertain such an idea as offering those dying remains of existence, that are of no service for any thing else — the refuse of sin, Satan, and the world? Does not your fear tremble at such a thought, and your generosity scorn it, and your sense of gratitude recoil from it?

I will now advance some motives by which early piety may be enforced upon you, some persuasives to induce you to submit to its influence.

Alas, that you should need them! Think of its being told to the angels in heaven, that mortals upon earth need to be urged by inducements to love, serve, and glorify that God whose service is felt to be their bliss, their honor, and their reward. However, you do need them, and they are at hand.

There are motives which apply to you in common with the other sex. Such, for instance, as the natare of religion itself. What for dignity, for happiness, for honor, can be compared with it? What constituted the glory of unfallen woman in Paradise? Religion. It was her piety toward God that invested Eve, before she had spoiled the beauty of her soul, with her brightest charms. Conceive of her, bending in lowly reverence, in ardent affection, and in ineffable gratitude, before the throne of God; passing with holy dread and averted eye the tree of knowledge, to feed upon the fruit which grew upon the tree of life, and hold communion with her husband in that sacramental type ana pledge of immortality. Not a thought, or feeling, or volition was then in opposition to God. She heard his voice in the garden, and hasted to meet him. Now religion is intended to bring you back as near to that state as our fallen nature in this sinful world will admit of. Yes, religion was the repose of her happy and holy spirit, of which the fall dzprived her, and which it is the design of the whole scheme of redemption to restore to her daughters as well as to her sons. True, your religion must have some ingredients which hers before her lapse had not; but in so far as it consists in the service of God, it is the same in substance. Look up into heaven, and what constitutes the felicity and glory of the blessed inhabitants of that happy world? Is not religion the beauty of every spirit made perfect — the ephod in which every seraph ministers before the throne of the Eternal? But to judge of the real dignity, honor, and felicity of true religion, hear what our Divine Lord said. On one occasion, “A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.’’ And who does not justify this congratulation to that distinguished woman, to whom was granted the honor of being the mother of the Saviour of the world? What woman on earth would not have esteemed such an honor infinitely higher than to have been the queen of the whole earth? And yet what was the reply of Christ? “Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it” — Luke xi. 27, 28. ‘‘ Yea, the is to be congratulated; but still h:gher is the honor of being a child of God by true piety, than the abstract honor of being. the mother of Christ without it.” Beautiful is the language of Quesnel, the pious Jansenist, on this passage: “The holy Virgin is not blessed in having borne Christ on any other account; but only because he, being much more holy than the holiest of saints, made her worthy to be his mother by sanctifying her. Christ does not blame the woman for praising his mother, but he completes it by intimating that her blessedness proceeded from her having borne the Son of God in her heart, even before she bare him in her womb.” In other words, he declares her honor as a woman would have been of no account to her, but for her religion as a saint.*

Is it possible, my young female friends, to find a richer, loftier commendation of the dignity and felicity of true religion than this, which places those who possess it higher than the mere honor of giving

* Could any language of our Lord have tended more effectually to rebuke those preposterous and blasphemous honors to the Virgin, which are set up by the Papists? It would seem as if, foreseeing all that the Church of Rome has accumulated of error and impiety in this way, he had determined in the most effectual and impressive manner, to farnish the antidote and refutation in this impressive language. Let any one study the spirit of this reply of Christ to the congratulation of the woman that blessed his mother, and say if it is not the most convincing answer which could be given to the dreadful system of Mariolatry, which prevails a0 extensively in that corrupt and apostate Church.

feet, you will be able to turn away ftom earth when it is holding out its brightest scenes to your view, and scarcely cast one longing, lingering look behind.*

But should you live, as in all probability you will, still if you neglect religion in youth, you will most likely neglect it forever. There is nothing in any case, and in reference to any thing, more likely to perpetuate itself than neglect. Procrastination grows, like other things, with indulgence. Nothing in all the world requires prompt decision so much as religion. Nothing is more likely to be postponed forever, if postponed from the present moment. I have no doubt you intend to be pious, You would shudder at the idea of deliberately purposing and determining to abandon religion forever. It would appear to you the height of impiety, a species of blasphemy, to say, “I will never become a Christian.” Yes, and it is thus that Satan would cheat you out of your salvation. He will allow you to be as solemn, and serious, and even sincere in your intentions, as you please, to be religious at some future time, if he can persuade you to put it off from the present moment “to a more eonvenient season.” But you must be told that not one in a thousand of those who go through the period of youth amid evangelical advantages of religion, and with a deliberate postponement of the

See an illustration of this in the appendix extracted from the author’s little volume, entitled, “‘The Flower Faded; or, Memoir of Clementine Cuvier.’

matter to futurity, ever fulfill their purposes. Those who come to womanhood, and collect around them the cares and anxieties of a wife, a mother, and a mistress, without religion, rarely ever find leisure or inclination for it in such circumstances.

But I now go on to dwell on some motives and persuasions to early piety, which appertain with greater force to your sex than to the other, or, at any rate, to a large proportion of them. Consider, then, your natural temperament. There can be no doubt that though religion is not exclusively, or principally, it is partially’a matter of emotion. In many affairs of human conduct we are moved to action partly by our feelings, even before the decisions of the judgment are made and deliberated upon. The head should always move and lead the heart, but oftentimes the heart rouses and moves the head. The feelings are excited even when the judgment is only half-awake and informed. This is, no doubt, the case in religion. Your quicker sensibility, your softer nature, your tenderer heart, your greater imaginativeness, render you ever naturally more susceptible of pious impression. Religion contains, not only much that is stern, bold, sublime; much that is truly logical and truly philosgphical, which addresses itself to the judgment, but much that is pathetic, tender, really touching, that appeals to the heart. You are more easily moved to fear, and therefore the terrors of the Di ine law have greater power to cause you to tremble. You are more readily excited to pity, sorrow, and love; and therefure the gospel — that wondrous mixture of suffering, grief, and mercy — more powerfully stirs up your tender emotions, and calls into exercise your gentle affections. I do not forget that you partake of the common corruption of our nature. and that you also need the grace of the Holy Spirit for your conversion; but still I contend, that so far as natural advantages are to be taken into consideration, the very temperament of your minds is in your favor. Hence it is, that so many more women are truly pious than men. It is not that the gospel is unworthy the more robust: intellect of the other sex, but that it falls in more with the softer nature of yours. In most things the God of grace seems to follow the order established by the God of nature. For you to neglect religion, therefore, seems a greater opposition to the very constitution of your minds than even for the other sex.

I may mention in reference to many of you, your sheltered condition at home, and the protection you there enjoy. Your brothers must go out into the world, encounter its temptations, and be exposed-to its moral dangers. While they are in peril of mak. ing shipwreck of faith and a good conscience on the troubled ocean of human life, there are you in the quiet haven of a pleasant domicile. Or, to change the metaphor, you are nestling under cover of a mother’s wing, while they are left, in all their inexperience and moral feebleness, to the attacks of birds of prey. A young man’s life, away from home, is always, but especially in these times, a perilous situstion to his spiritual and eternal welfare. The eye of his father can not watch him, nor his voice warn him; but you are always under inspection, and the first symptom of misconduct is observed, and calls forth expostulation.

Besides this, at home you enjoy, if the children of the godly, many religious advantages. There, the morning and evening sacrifice at the altar of family devotion is offered, in which you are called to join. There, you regularly accompany your parents to the house of God, keep holy the Sabbath, and enjoy the other ordinances of social worship. There, you are guarded from the withering influence of evil companionship. How favorable is all this to the. cultivation of piety. Should your heart be inclined to serve the Lord, you have not to encounter the jeers of scoffing associates, the poisoned artows of infidel wit, or the sharp spears of profane humor. No hero or martyr-like moral courage is requisite to enable you to persevere in a religious course, as is sometimes the case with your brothers; on the contrary, every advantage will be afforded you; the stones will be gathered out of your path, and the narrow gate that leadeth to life will be widened..

Nor is this all, for independently of parental vigi- - lance and home-protection, your sex is less exposed to the assaults of those temptations which assail young men, conquer the virtue of so many, and harden their hearts against the impressions of religion. <A keen sense of female decorum has thrown a covering over you. By common consent, a vicious woman is a more vicious character than a profligate man, and hence a more rare one. The prodigal son is, alas! no unfrequent character; but the prodigal daughter does not often occur. A tenth part of the criminality which some men commit who yet retain their place in respectable society, would banish woman from it forever. That there is far too much of this toleration for the vices of our sex by the members of yours is certain, and does not speak so well for even your regard for virtue as could be wished. But that there is too much intolerance of the improprieties of female conduct, can not be admitted. It is this high sense of female honor, this moral delicacy, this fastidious modesty, which are at once your glory and your protection. But then this very circumstance increases your responsibility. You are not hardened by crime into insensibility, nor confirmed by repeated acts of sin in guilty habits, nor petrified by infidelity into a stone-like indifference to religious impressions. The moral susceptibilities are not so blunted by long-continued vicious courses as to leave no avenue open to the heart for the voice of warning.

And then consider one thing more — your leisure. I now speak of females living at home with their parents, and not necessitated to earn their support by their own labor. Your time, except that which is put in requisition by a judicious mother for her assistance in household matters, is all your own, Your brothers, whether at home or abroad, nust of necessity be much engaged in business. Their time is scarcely at their own command; and too often wis is felt, or at any rate pleaded, as an excuse for neglecting the claims of religion — the salvation of the soul, You have no such excuse. Your time is so much at command that you can walk, or read, ur work, or visit, at will. Yes, you have so much leisure, that to get rid of time, which sometimes hangs heavy on your hand, some of you, I fear, squander hours a day upon useless labors of fancy and taste. You, of all persons in our world, are the last who can say they have no time to think of eternity — no opportunity. to seek for salvation. Is it possible you should overlook your present happy freedom from solicitude of almost every kind? You will, perhaps, at once think of the apostle’s words: “There is a difference between a wife and a virgin; the unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband” — 1 Cor. vii. 34. How much of instruction, warning,

and advice is there in these few words. The apostle did not intend to say what all unmarried females actually do; alas! we know that too many of them do not care to please the Lord; but his meaning is, that in the absence of all the solicitudes of a wife, a mother, and a mistress, they have a most favorable opportunity to attend to the things that belong to the soul. Ah, young woman, you can perhaps form some ides of what awaits you by seeing what has come upon the head, the heart, and the hands of your mother. With the most judicious domestie arrangements, and a mind happily freed from ex. cessive care and troublous thoughts, how incessant are her cares, how exhausting of time, strength, and spirits, are her duties. She has no resting hours — no holiday seasons — no sabbatic leisure — but care, care, incessant care, is often her lot. Is this the time, and are these the circumstances, to which you would postpone the consideration of the high concern of religion? Is it amid such distractions of thought, and such perturbation of feeling, and such occupancy of time, you would begin the momentour pursuit of salvation, and the sacred duties of religion? Why the real, yea the established and eminent Christian woman finds it as much as she can do to keep alive her piety amid so many perplexities and demands. And will you beginitthen? These remarks apply to all, even to those who have servants at command, but especially to those who have no such helps. Females of the laboring class, how, with a mother’s duties, will you be able to commence a religious life, with your unshared and sleepless anxieties? Oh, let me say with an emphasis borrowed from what I have witnessed myself, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” Halcyon season, did you but know it! Improve it while it lasts.

Dwell, my female friends, upon these rich advantages placed by the order of Providence within your reach. And their practical value and tendency are evident in their results. How else shall we ac. count for it that so much larger a number of the disciples of Christ are found among your sex, than in the other? It is not, I repeat, that there is in religion that which it is said better suits the intellect of the weaker vessel than that of the stronger. This is a double insult, first of all to religion itself, as if it were adapted only to imbecility, and to you, as if that imbecility were yours. The circumstances I have just stated will account for it, without supposing either that your minds or the proofs of revealed religion are weak. Religion, which is the glory of an archangel, and the very image of God, can never be below the dignity of man, or unworthy the attention of the mightiest intellect. If religion depended upon authority, a thousand times more of lofty intellect has been arrayed on the side of Christianity than has been marshaled against it. In addition to the circumstances mentioned above, to account for the prevalence of piety among your sex, I might mention that it would seem as if God had intended it for the greater humiliation of Satan, that as he triumphed over man by woman, so God would triumph over him by woman — that as she was the instrument of his success in the fall, she should be the instrument of his humiliation in redemption; that she who was the first to come under his yoke, should be the most eager to throw it off, and thus his trophy be snatched from his hand; and his boast be rendered nugatory by the power of Him who came to bruise the serpent’s head, and to destroy the works of the devil. But there is another mark of the wisdom of God in this arrangement, which is, that as religion is so momentous to the interests of society and the welfare of immortal souls, the sex should be most inclined to it to which is consigned the first formation of the human character.

I will now set before you the sgnzrits which ‘9. accrue to you from early piety.

Are the blessings of religion itself nothing? For recollnvt, piety is not merely the performance of dutios. but also the enjoyment of benefits. This is too muh forgotten, and the whole business of a holy I’fi is regarded by many in something of the light of pet.wo3; or at any.rate of a service somewhat rigid end wvere. If it were so, it would still be our wiscom t attend to it, since it is the only thing that can ;renert: us for heaven and eternity. That it is service, is very true; but it is also a state of privilege. t is tha service not of a slave, but of a child; and with ‘he duties of a child, it brings also the privileges of child. You have all your sins pardoned — your ferscns accepted of God — your hearts renewed by rezenevation, and your. selves brought into this new relation by adoption Dwell upon that one theught — a c’s‘ld of God! Can you conceive of any thing high or, pr-eter, nobler? Is the relation of an angel superior® To be able to say in the fullest, richest sense of the Lan. guage, “Our Fatuer which art in heaven” — tu be the object of divine love, care, interest — to be in‘ s* ed im all the privileges of the divine, redeemed, a.s heavenly family! Oh, my young friends, is this novhing? Is it not every thing? Many of you are orphans, sud is it ‘not blissful to say, ““When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up?” Is it not a blessed thing to have him for the guide of your youth? Hear what God says: “Wherefore, come out from among them, and I will be a father to you, and ye shall be my sons and my daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” O hear his voice, accept his invitation, and come into his family! Hence it is we propose religion to you, not simply in the shape of duty, but of bliss. Yes. It is another name for happiness: and can you be happy too soon? You want to be happy. You are made for happiness, and are capable of it; and where will you find it? Pleasure saith, “It is not in me;” and knowledge saith, “It is not in me.” Rank, fashion, and wealth affirm, “We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.” But religion saith, “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the fountain, and take of the water of life freely.” Universal experience attests that pure and full satisfaction is not to be found for the soul of man in any of the possessions of this world; and if they were satisfying, they are all uncertain; mere unsubstantial shadows, which flit before us and are lost. You have, perhaps, formed totally wrong conceptions of religion. “Happiness,” you say, “in religion! We can conceive of it as duéy — somewhat severe, though incumbent duty; but te speak of religion yielding pleasure, is like suppoe ing the entrance of a ghost would increase the delights of a ball-room.” Yes, I know it is in your imagination, or at least of some of you, a spectral form, muffled, sullen, and gloomy; frightening the young by its awful look, petrifying them by its icy touch, and casting over them its own gloomy shadow. Ah, no, you mistake it. On the contrary, it is a seraph from the presence of God, lighting on our orb, clad in robes of celestial beauty, radiant with beams of glory, shedding smiles of joy on this dark scene, and echoing the angels’ song, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men.” That ministering spirit meets you, my female friends, just setting out in life, offers to be your guide, protector, and comforter, through all your perilous journey to eternity. Hear her voice as she beckons you to follow her: “If you are in danger, I will shield you; if you are desolate, I will befriend you; if you are poor, ° will enrich you; if you are sorrowful, I will comfort you; if you are sick, I will visit you; in the dangerous walks of life, I will protect you; in the agonies of death,

I will sustain you; and then, when your spirit quits its clay tabernacle, I will conduct you into the presence of God, where there is fullness of joy, and place you at his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore.” And will you refuse such a friend? Will you turn away from such bliss? Religion, gloom, and melancholy! Yes, if Eden was a gloomy place. Yes if heaven be a region of sighs and tears. Yes, if saints made perfect and holy angels are clad in sackcloth, and the song of the seraphim is changed into the groan of despair. Oh, no, “‘her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Her duties are pleasant — her very sorrows are mixed with joys — to say nothing of her privileges. Perhaps I may suggest, without at all intending to utter a suspicion of your regard to virtue, or a teflection upon your firm attachment to its rules, that you may need religion in youth, to protect you from the moral dangers to which even females are exposed. A vicious woman, I have already admitted, is a much rarer character than a vicious man; but still it sometimes occurs. What could not the records of some institutions reveal of this nature? How many victims of the tempter’s wiles could there be found, who would have been preserved from degradation and misery had they been found under the protecting influence of religion, when the assault was made upon their purity or honesty. I know that multitudes are kept strictly chaste and upright without religion; but I know that of the numbers which have fallen, not one would have lapsed if they had been living in the fear of God. After Eve’s fall in Paradise from perfect innocence, no woman should feel offended by the admonition to be cautious and vigilant; nor suppose that her situation, her feelings, or her principles, so place her beyond the reach of temptation, that her safety is guaranteed with absolute certainty.

“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” To many a once high-minded woman, proud of her reputation, the taunt has been uttered by the victims of frailty, “Art thou also become weak as we?” “Be not high-minded, then, but fear.”

But you need religion for your consolation amid the sorrows of your lot. If it be truly said of man, that he “is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward,” it may with greater emphasis be go said of woman. As if in the way of righteous retribution, she who mixed the bitter cup of human woe is called to drink the deepest of its dregs. Sorrows are apportioned to her sex in common with ours, and there is scarcely an affliction to which humanity is incident to which she is not herself exposed. In addition, how many has she peculiar to herself? The weaker vessel, she is liable to be oppressed by the stronger; and to what an extent is this oppression carried on! How is she trodden down, not orly in countries where the protective influence of Christianity is not known, but in this where it is? To how much greater bodily infirmity is her more delicately wrought and fragile frame subjected, than ours? Dwell upon her dependence, and in many cases her helplessness. To me the situation of some single, friendless women is the very type of desolation. Then think of her privations, her sufferings, her cares, her labors, as a mother. I admire the patience, the contentment, the sulsmission, which enable her, without repining, to say, “I am a woman,” and not complain of the hardness of he: lot; for certain it is, that her groans are loudest in those of creation. Think not, my young friends, I am scaring you into religion, by filling your minds with these gloomy forebodings. By no means; but I am anxious to prepare you by the sweet, soothing, tranquilizing, and mollifying power of religion, to meet a woman’s trials by a woman’s piety. It is piety alone which can lighten the cross. This only can inspire that passive fortitude which to you is more essential than active strength. And surely religion never appears more lovely, more mighty, more sublime, than when it suppresses the groan of despair, and keeps alight the last ray of hope in the most depressed circumstances — when it stifles the cry of pain, and wipes the drops of anguish from the sufferer’s brow — when it imparts a martyr’s courage to the gentlest spirit — when, as we said in the last discourse, it teaches woman to bend like the bulrush in submission to the stream of sorrow, and then to risé in fortitude and faith from the pressure of the wave. Religion will not avert the cup of sorrow from woman, nor change her lot; but it will somewhat sweeten the bitterness of the one, and soften the hardness of the other.

Early religion will prepare you above all things for USEFULNESS. Young women, would you sef out in life without a wish, a purpose, an aim to be useful? Can you be so destitute of all benevolence, ambition, and nobleness of spirit, as not to desire to do good? I am aware that without piety you may do much to bless your species, but with it how much more may you not do? As this, however, will be the subject of a future sermon, I shall not enlarge upon it here further than to say, that religion gives the greatest power, and strongest disposition, and most adequate qualifications for usefulness, that can be possessed on earth, both in single and in wedded life. A truly, fervently, and consistently religious woman, must be a benefactress of her species.

Early piety is at once the most secure basis and the most complete finish of atu female excellence. Look over what is said in a previous sermon on “Woman’s Mission,” and the virtues and tenderness that qualify her to fulfill it, and think what a support to all these is furnished by sincere piety. The surest basis of all moral excellence will be found here. What is so productive of humility — of meekness and gentleness — of contentment and submission — and of self-denial and fortitude? Where, in what soil, will these mild and yet heroic dispositions grow and flourish so luxuriantly as in that of piety? We have stated that woman is created to love and be beloved. To love is natural to her; and what cherishes this state of mind like religion, which both in its doctrines and duties is one bright and glorious manifestation of love to the universe? To all these varied excellences religion adds the firmness and consistency of principle, the power and government of conscience, and takes them out of the region of mere taste. And then what a

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holy and ineffable loveliness does it throw over the female character! Beauty is woman’s attribute and her form, when seen in more than usual charms, is the most perfect. type of exquisite symmetry to be found in the whole material universe. And if woman’s form be the finest specimen of material beauty, woman’s piety is the most attractive instance of that which is moral. Who can look upon the well-executed pictorial representations of this, as seen in paintings and engravings, without admiration? Where does woman look so altogether lovely as when seen lifting the eye of devotion to heaven — that eye in which faith, hope, and love seem all to mingle and expies. ‘heir emotions? The Church of Rome has known the power of this, and has maintained its dominion in some measure over its votaries, by the power of the painter’s art in depicting female beauty associated with female piety. Ina religious female, the beauty of heaven and earth combines; the graces of the seraph and those of the daughters of Adam are united: just as in a holy man the sublimer grandeur of mortals and immoratals is found associated. Piety then is the last and finest polish of female excellence. My young friends, may this be yours!

Yet, notwithstanding all this, many of you are not pious. Do consider what a chasm in excellence remains to be filled up — what a defect to be supplied — while religion is wanting in the female character. A womar may as well be without heart as without religion; and there are few men, how ever irreligious themselves, but would shrink from impiety in her: it involves a coldness and hardness of character offensive both to taste and feeling. * Even when infidelity was more in vogue than at present, when it had almost monopolized talent, and identified itself with enlightened sentiment, the few women who volunteered under its banner were treated with the contempt they deserved. The female Quixote broke her lance in vindicating the ‘Rights of Women;’ and no one sympathized with her in her defeat. And depend upon it, whatever other female follows Mary Wolstencroft, and essays the emancipation of her sex from the obligations of piety, will, like her, be consigned to abhorrence by the verdict of society. The mere suspicion of irreligion lowers a woman in general esteem. Religion is indeed woman’s panoply, and no one who wishes her happiness would divest her of it; no one who appreciates her virtues would weaken their best security.”* What is it then that prevents your giving to the subject of religion that attention which its infinite and eternal importance demands and deserves? Let me ask you with a beseeching importunity, as the apostle did the Galatians, “‘Who (or what) did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” Ah! what? Let me speak to you of the nInDRANOEs that are in the way of your obtaining life eternal. Hindrances! Should

Woman, in her Social and Domestic Character,” by Mrs. John Sandford; a work so judicious, so Christian, and so elegant, that it can not be too strongly recommended.

ye aught but absolute impossibilities prevent you? It is not infidelity. No. You are not infidels. You shudder at the idea. A female infidel is a character as rare as it is odious. Nor is it absolute irreligion, but the negative character of no religion that we have most to complain of. Not a direct opposition to its claims, but the neglect of them for other things. It is that guilty apathy to the most momentous subject in the universe; that careless indifference to the most valuable interests of time and eternity; that fatal oblivion of all that belongs to another world, which we regret; that contentment with things seen and temporal, without any solicitude about things unseen and eternal, that we deplore. Your minds are pre-occupied. You are taken up with other things and say to religion when it appeals to you, ‘“‘ Go thy way for this time, and when I have a convenient season I will call for thee.” There is, I know, a repugnance to true, spiritual, vital, earnest piety, which is the natural working of an unrenewed heart. You can observe the Sabbath-day forms of godliness, by attending the house of God; but even this is more from custom than from choice — a kind of weekly compromise with piety, for so much Sabbath occupation to be left to yourselves and othet pursuits all the rest of the week. Your religion is nothing more than a Sunday dress, worn fur the place and the season. But this is noé religion, but merely a substitute and an apology for it.

Some of you are bert upon present worldly enjoyment. The apostle has described your taste and your pursuits where he says, “Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Ponder that description. Does it not startle you — bhorrify you? Lovers of parties — of the dance and the song; of the gay scene and frivolous discourse — more than God. Just look at this thought in all its naked deformity. A ball, a concert, a route, a party — loved more than God! Not to love God for higher objects than these — for science, literature, fame, rank, wealth, is a dreadful state of mind; but te neglect and despise God for scenes of frivolity, mirth, and conviviality, is it not shocking? Did you ever yet seriously reflect thus: “‘ What a soul I must have that can love pleasure, but can not love God!’ Consider, what will this taste for pleasure do for you in the hour of sickness; in the scenes of poverty; the season of tribulation, or the agonies of death?

In the case of some of those who possess a more than ordinary degree of personal attraction, the consciousness of beauty fills the mind with self-complacency, and a constant thirst for the admiration and attention of others. No really elegant woman can be ignorant of her natural accomplishments; and too rarely is a beautiful mind the lowly tenant of a beautiful body. What an odious spectacle is presented when mind and matter are thus exhibited in contrast. What beauty can compare with that of the soul, and what beauty of the soul can compare with that of holiness? This is the beauty of angels; yea, of God himself. How foolish is it to be vain of that which a cutaneous eruption may turn into loathsome deformity, and which, if sickness do not destroy it at once, advancing age must obliterate, and the grave consume. Many a woman, even in this world, has had to rue the possession of a captivating face or form, and to deplore it forever in the world to come. Body and soul, character and happiness, have in thousands of instances been all sacrificed on the altar and at the shrine of beauty. Oh, my female friends, take heed you are not thus ruined!

Vanity displays itself also in attention to personas decoration, even where there is no pretension to beauty, and not unfrequently attempts to supply the want of it. How many are a thousand times more concerned about jewelry than religion — the pearl of great price; and about millinery than about the rube of righteousness and the garments of salvation. A love of dress is not only a foible and a fault, but almost a vice, and in innumerable cases has led to it. Is it not lamentable to conceive of a rational and immortal being spending her time and exhausting her solicitude in adorning her body and caring nothing about the ornaments of her soul; thinking only how she shall appear in the eyes of man, but caring nothing how she shall appear in the eyes of God? Consider how soon that gay attire must be exchanged for the shroud, and those glittering ornaments for corruption, earth, and worms. A mind taken up with such vanities can not attend

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With this is too often associated a levity and frivolity of disposition which are the very pposite to that seriousness and sobriety of mind, which a real regard to spiritual religion requires. There is no sin in cheerfulness; no piety in gloom. Relig. ion is the happiest thing in the world, for it is, in fact, the beginning of heaven upon earth. The woman without a smile, and the man without a tear, are neither of them a person to my taste. Religion gives a peace that passeth all understanding, and yields a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory; so that we wish you to understand, my young friends, we do not require you in becoming Christians to take the veil; cut off your tresses; doff your comely raiment; part with your smiles; and clothe yourself like a specter in the gloom, and maintain the sullen silence of the convent. But religion ts still a serious thing; a thing that deals with God, salvation, heaven, eternity! And surely the frivolity and the levity that can do nothing but laugh, and rattle, and court attention by studied airs, empty loquacity, and personal display, are utterly incompatible with that dignified, and chase tened, yet by no means formal, much less gloomy, sobriety of mind which religion requires.

Companionship hinders many from giving their attention to this momentous subject. They are surrounded by associates who have no taste for religion; and they have, perhaps, formed a still eloser friendship with some one or more who unm happily manifest little or no inclination for this high and holy concern. From the spell of such a circle, it is difficult indeed to break away. It has been thought and said by some, that the influence of female companionship, both for good and for evil, is even greater than that of the other sex; frora a supposition that there is less of robust independence and of self-reliance in woman than in man. If so, how much does it become every female to take care what companions she selects. How difficult is it to oppose the spirit and conduct of those with whom we act. Generally speaking, we must conform or secede. Even if a solicitude about religion is in some degree awakened, it will soon be checked and extinguished in the society of those who have no sympathy with such anxiety. Shall the dearest friends you have on earth keep you from salvation? Will you sacrifice your soul, your immortal soul, at the shrine of friendship? Will you refuse to go to heaven because others will not accompany you; and will you go with them to perdition rather than part company on earth? Will you carry your friendship so far as to be willing to be friends even in the bottomless pit?

You are perhaps prejudiced against religion by the conduct of some of its professors. I am sorry there is any ground for this, I admit that much you see in many of them has but little in it to recommend religion to your favor. And it may be that some of your own age and sex are included in this number. But all this was foretold by Christ, must be expected as human nature is, and ought not to be allowed to prejudice your minds against piety. If you saw a number of persons under a course of medical treatment which required them to observe a particular regimen, and which they constantly violated, and were, of course, no better for the medicines they took, you would not reject the system because it did not cure them. Just so it is with religion. These persons, though they profess to be under it, are constantly violating its rules, and are no better than those who do not profess it. But is this a valid reason for rejecting the system? You are to try religion by its own nature, as set forth in the Bible, and not by the conduct of its professors. If your soul should be lost, it will be no excuse before the bar of God, nor any comfort to yourselves in the world of despair, that you suffered your mind to be prejudiced against religion by the misconduct of some who professed it.

And now, in conclusion of this already too long discourse, let me, young women, conjure you at the outset of life to consider the great end and purpose for which, as regards yourselves, your Great Creator placed you in this world. Think not too highly of yourselves, for you are sinners as well as others, and need, and may obtain, the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, with eternal glory. Think not too meanly of yourselves, for you are immortal creatures, and may inherit everlasting life. Rise to the true dignity of your nature by rising into the region of true religion. Consume not your life in pursuits innocent it may be, but frivolous and unworthy of your powers, your destiny, and your duty. With a clear and right understanding of your mission as regards this world, connect as clear a perception of your mission as regards the world to come. Behold an existence opening before you, which you may fill with the sanctity, and bliss, and honor of a Christian, as well as with all the virtues of a woman. Withdraw your heart from vanity, and consecrate it to piety. Give the morning of your day to God, and then, whether it be long or short; whether it be passed away in wedded or in single life; whether it be be bright with the sun of prosperity, or dark with the clouds and stormy with the winds of adversity; whether it shall close suddenly by one of those visitations to which your sex is peculiarly exposed, or shall be drawn out to a long and somewhat gloomy decline, it shall usher in, for your happy spirit delivered from the burden of the flesh, that cloudless and eternal morning to which there shall be no night. Then shall it be found that THE CHIEF END OF WOMAN, AS WELL AS MAN, WAS TC GLORIFY GOD AND ENJOY HIM FOREVEP.