same time, “this excess of honor and this indignity." Alone in fine, by one of those combinations of truth in which the world only sees strange contradictions, it has at once restored to her her place and held her in silence, giving to her a work as much more noble as it is more humble, as much more loving as it is self-sacrificing.

Understand then, O man, the treasure which you possess in Scripture, and question it that you may gather from it the light which it spreads upon even those subjects which it does not seem to have intended to illuminate. Interrogate it, men of thought; know if it does not retain concealed within its fertile recesses, waiting until your haughty pride shall abase itself to demand them of it, new revelations upon the plans of the Creator and the destinies of the creature, and the final solution of some of those problems which are the eternal despair of philosophy. Interrogate it, men of science; know if our old earth, which has been obliged to open its bosom most profoundly to the most conscientious investigations, to show itself in perfect agreement with this biblical cosmogony to which one had opposed it with so much assurance, has not still some other secret to say to the genius of a Cuvier in favor of the inspiration of a Moses. Interrogate it, men of letters; know if these sublime thoughts of poetry, the paintings so natural, the narrations so animated, the demonstrations so simple and so strong, that our greatest writers glory in imitating, without flattering themselves of ever equalling them, have not some salutary, some powerful regeneration in reserve for the ready, but premature, greedy, impure, stillborn literature of our day. Interrogate it yourselves, men of state; know if this divine constitution which has served as a model to modern legislation and created European civilization, holds not hidden within its unopened folds some yet unknown perfection for our proud age, and if it could not teach, for example, our magistracy, renowned in all the world, that the least that it can do for this Gospel which has founded all freedom, is to allow it to be itself free.

But, if Scripture has so many lessons upon subjects which hardly seem to occupy it, what will it not have to say upon that subject which is to it, and which ought to be also to each of us, the one thing needful? Oh! I beg you, interrogate it upon salvation. Interrogate it concerning sin and pardon, life and death, good and evil, heaven and hell. Woe to you, if your ears are too sensitive to hear this language! Yes, interrogate it upon heaven and hell; and you will find the only place where woman can accomplish her mission, is also the only one where you can yourselves find grace, peace and life. Beneath the cross, beneath the cross, all together, one in mind, one in heart! Beneath the cross to live, beneath the cross to die, beneath the cross to meet the judgment of the great day-happy in then recognizing in him who is our judge, him who has been our Saviour!

DISCOURSE II.

THE LIFE OF WOMAN.

"And the Lord God said: It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him a helpmeet for him."-GENESIS ii, 18.

MY DEAR SISTERS:

My first discourse left you, I hope, convinced that your mission, according to the Bible, as well as according to nature, is one of charity in humility towards man; and resolved to accomplish this mission in Jesus Christ who alone can prepare you for it. Are we then agreed as to principles? Let us to-day pass to the application. Let us trace the mission of woman, in the life of woman: that is to say, let us see how this common mission can be realized by each of you (the Christian faith being taken for granted), according to the particular condition assigned of God.

I say, according to the condition in which God has placed you, and I insist upon this point to prevent a dangerous illusion. On hearing me exhibit the duties of woman in a position different from yours, you are tempted, perhaps, to whisper: ah! if I were thus placed, with what devotion would I give myself to the work of loving and helping! Believe me, my sister, you may not only accomplish, with self-devotion, your mission as a woman in your present position, but you will acknowledge it to be the situation of all others, in which you can best accomplish it. Else why has God assigned it-He, "who makes all things work

It

together for the good of those that love Him?" You answer sadly, perhaps, that it is less God who has assigned you your place than your own will, and a will badly controlled. may be, I admit (although I distrust the heart of woman in accusing her conscience); that you have come where you are, by a way which you cannot recall without regret or without repentance. Still, your place, as it is fixed to-day, is the one in which God wishes you to-day to be; and the best one possible for you, if you accept it at His hand, in a spirit of faith and submission. With Jesus Christ there is no more a condition without resources, than a soul without hope. Such is the power of the Gospel, that it reacts upon the whole course of life, and constrains a regretted past to take its place among those "all things," that work together for the good of them who love God. It is not position, but disposition, that is of importance with God, and the surest mark of a well regulated mind, is to accept our present position, as chosen by God, to promote our spiritual development. I take, therefore, your moral physiognomy just as it is, as the daguerreotype would take your natural physiognomy. The man to whom you ought to be an "helpmeet" is a husband, a son, a father, or a man, simply as man, apart from any individual relation. Your attitude towards him may either be that of equality, of superiority, of inferiority, or of independence; it matters little to the end which I propose. The only point of importance is, that you possess a true woman's heart ; I would say a heart desirous of life not for yourself but for others; first, unquestionably for the Lord, according to the general mission you share with us, and next for man, agreeably to the special mission which occupies us, in these discourses.

Accordingly, the Scripture, content with exhibiting the works of holy women, whom it offers as models to their sex, does not trouble itself to explain their social or domestic condition, obliging us often to surmise it for ourselves. That Eunice was both wife and mother, that she might give to the Apostle of the Gentiles the most useful of his co-laborers; that Priscilla, as we

may suppose, was wife but not mother, that she might follow her husband from place to place, and assist him in the service of the Gospel; that Phœbe might not have been either wife or mother, so that she might remain free to carry from church to church her devotion, and her activity; that concerning Dorcas the same thing may have been true,-this, with Scripture, was of secondary moment; it is sufficient that in them all there was a faithful heart. The same heart which rendered a Dorcas faithful in the position of Dorcas, would have made her equally faithful in the position of Phoebe, of Priscilla, or of Eunice; and the same heart which would render you unfaithful to your mission in your present position, would make you equally unfaithful in any other. But "although I thus speak, I am persuaded better things of you," my beloved sisters; and it is in this firm confidence that I would inquire with you, how you can be for man, each in her place, an "helpmeet."

I penetrate at once to the heart of my subject, and take woman in her normal position, the one in which she was found as she came forth from the hands of God, that for which she was formed, that in which she can best accomplish her peculiar work, by a loving devotion in an humble equality—marriage. Married woman, that which woman is called to be for man, you are called to be for one man. God said, speaking of your husband: "It is not good that this man should be alone; I will make an helpmeet for him :" and it is you whom He has given to him. If He did not guide you by His own hand to him, as Eve to Adam, He has done still better; He has pronounced upon your union by the voice of His servants, a word of blessing, which gives it a holy character-what do I say?-which makes of it a visible emblem of the invisible union of the Lord with His Church. Scripture alone would dare risk such a comparison, and only a Christian heart can comprehend it. But to what a height it elevates marriage with him who understands it! And with what authority it clothes this double precept, which sums up so tenderly the obligations of the husband; "Husbands, love