your wives, as Christ also loved the Church :" and so humbly those of women; "Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything."

Perhaps, alas! this word of blessing scarcely touched your heart when it was pronounced, the Lord having been the last consulted in the gift of your hand. But to-day, it regains its divine virtue, reanimated and renewed, as it were, by your faith, according to the power that we have recognized in the Gospel, to react even upon the past and, provided you carry to-day into your married life the heart of a Christian woman, you may believe yourself truly chosen of God for your husband, and he for you, as was Eve for Adam, and Adam for Eve. As for him, I know not with what fidelity he fulfills his part of the obligation; let him fulfill it or not, fulfill yours; for to God we must all give account, not to man, and "each shall bear his own burden." Your mission, then, is no other than the general mission of woman, applied, and as it were concentrated, in your intercourse with your husband, and, if I dare so speak, carried to its highest perfection, by the closest and most individual of all relations. This position of humility, and this vocation of charity, which comprise the mission of woman, concentrate, gather up, upon one object: then shall you be what the married woman ought to be to her husband, a "helpmeet."

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Freely and cheerfully assume towards your husband humble, dependent, and submissive position. Is there here a spirit giddy enough to find in these words, food for the inexhaustible raillery with which this subject inspires the world? Let it be understood, that I speak seriously for serious women, holily for holy women, and that I do not consider myself exempt from the duty of enforcing upon them the pure doctrine of God, because of puerile fear of exposing them to the ridicule of those who would seek in the church the curtains of the theatre, and who would judge this word, which must judge them at the last day. Yes, my sisters, whatever the sentiment or usages of society may be upon this subject, openly and frankly assume

towards your husbands a humble, dependent, submissive position. It is not I who demand it of you, it is God who commands you. "Wives," writes Paul to the Ephesians, "submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord;" "for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." That which he had said of man in relation to woman, speaking to the Corinthians, "The man is the head of the woman," he says here of the husband in relation to his wife it is the same doctrine, but this doctrine specially applied, "Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wife see that she reverence her husband." St. Paul not only considers this submission one of the obligations of the married woman, it is the chief obligation, including every other. Sometimes he names it alone, as here: sometimes he gives it the first place, and subordinates to it all the rest. St. Peter expresses the same thing: "Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that, if any obey not the word, they also may, without the word, be won by the conversation of their wives; while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their husbands; even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement."

Doubt it not, the harmony and felicity of domestic life depend upon each one's holding this position. More than one household which promised well, has been disturbed by confounding duties which Scripture has carefully distinguished. We cannot with impunity depart from the divine arrangement. The trouble which others give themselves to usurp the first rank,

give yourself to avoid this usurpation, under whatever skillful precautions, under whatever tender appearances it may disguise itself. Let your husband be, next to God, the centre of your existence; with your own name, sweetly lose in him your own glory, and your own will. Lose sight of yourself, abide in silence, avoid even the appearance of arrogance or arbitrariness. Let it be your ambition to promote his praise, or rather to be yourself his praise, not by an outward éclat which depends not upon you either to give or to withhold, but by a conversation so irreproachable that all husbands may propose you for an example to their wives. Realize, in short, in its full meaning, this beautiful saying of Solomon, "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband."

Modesty is not inaction. The Scriptures give you a place so humble, only that it may confide to you a work all the more beneficent. This special humility which it recommends to you in relation to your husband, is a pledge of the special charity with which you will devote yourself to his happiness. This home in which the Apostle would see you quietly remaining, he wishes you to make by your affection, by your presence, by your good government, by the care you bestow upon your children, a sanctuary of order, peace, and happiness, in which your husband may find, after the cares of business, his sweetest repose and favorite recreation. Let him so truly find it such, that he will not think of seeking elsewhere than with you, the satisfaction which he needs to dissipate his fatigues, to alleviate his pain, to calm his agitated spirits and to restore their elasticity. Let him find there, for I refuse you no way of being useful, let him find there, hidden in the bosom of home, wise counsels, salutary inspirations, which will follow him silently into public life, and which contribute their part in controlling the words of his lips, and the deeds of his hands, by motives superior to the passions and impulses of men at large. Let him find there, in short, all that can make him happy within, together with all that can render him useful without, so that, as he crosses the

threshold of his door, to engage again in his noble labors, he shall utter to himself with gratitude towards you, and to God, who gave you to him, the touching words of Solomon, "Houses and riches are the inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the Lord." Happy if you can hear those words from his lips! But no, that is not necessary: your conscience will tell you what he thinks. It will say to you, that when with gratitude he recalls to his remembrance all the good things he has received from God-fortune, health, family-the first and the last of his earthly treasures, that which he fears most to lose, is YOU.

Yet, let not your devotion be idolatry. Love and be loved in God. The most intimate of all relations ought to be also the most holy. The Gospel would never have seen in marriage a type of Christ and the church, if it had not anticipated there a sanctifying influence, exerted by each of the pair upon the other. For what knowest thou, O wife! whether thou shalt save thy husband? These serious words denote the grand obligation of marriage; that which the Apostle calls, for reasons given in my first discourse, the special obligation of woman. This loving, this penetrating, I had almost said irresistible influence, which God has placed in your hands, woe to you, if you know how to turn it to everything but its true use, the glory of God, and the salvation of your husband! Are you happy in being united to a true disciple of Jesus Christ? Hardly need I urge you, so sweet is the duty, to be to him a constant edification, never a snare. A faithful wife, sustaining the heart and strengthening the hands of a faithful husband for the conflicts of life, is a "helpmeet" in all her glory.

But I will suppose your husband, if not a stranger to the faith, at least floating between it and the unbelief of the natural heart-disturbed by the cares of business, carried away by the temptations of public life, and influenced by those of a skeptical. and fault-finding spirit. To preserve him from so many snares, to gain him forever to the faith, he needs, perhaps, only to see

it in action so near him, that he cannot overlook the reality of the facts, nor suspect the sincerity of the feeling. Do you not recognize this as your special vocation? Who but you will furnish him with this "demonstration of the spirit and of power," practical, winning, incontestable, which alone can make day within his soul? It is precisely for this kind of persuasion that you have been prepared by God, and no one else can supply your place.

Woman has not a mission as man, to preach the Saviour, and to reveal Him: she does even more; she gives birth to Him by virtue of the Holy Spirit. She gives Him, all living, all complete. Instead of declaring Him by thought and word, she communicates Him by act, by sentiment, and, if we may so speak, by inspiration. She is not to preach the Gospel to her husband, but to insinuate it into him in her actions and her slightest words, in the pure and limpid depths of her being, in all the course of domestic life, making it all pervading, without seeming to place it anywhere. If we rely upon you for this precious influence, Christian woman, if we see in you the most efficient auxiliaries to our preaching, we only follow the example of St. Peter, whose thought I do but this moment develop. He recommends, as we have seen, "that wives be submissive to their own husbands," but why?" that if any obey not the Word, they may also, without the Word, be won by the conversation of their wives, while they behold (literally, while they watch) your chaste conversation, coupled with fear." How is it possible to exalt higher the spiritual influence of the Christian woman? She supplies the place of the Divine Word to her husband, when her conversation, watched by means of the conjugal intimacy, reveals to him the hidden power with which the Gospel operates in her heart. A man must be truly blind, truly hardened, not to yield at last to the daily spectacle of living and true piety which he beholds in his wife, one of which he gathers fruit so sweet that one is ready to ask, which has the most to gain from it, either he for the present life, or she for the life to come?