human nature, was indeed bruised. "Never were sorrows like unto his sorrows, but he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; and as sin has reigned unto death, even so grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Among the redeemed by the second Adam, we hope to see our first parents; Adam with more than Paradisiacal dignity and righteousness; and Eve, with beauty and loveliness that can only be the portion of them that bear the image of our risen Lord, and who "shall be like him, when they see him as he is."

WOMAN'S MISSION

REV. H. HASTINGS WELD.

YOUNG man

beware! Beware of those with whom the word "woman" is a term of disrespect; and who apply it as a contemptuous epithet to those of the other sex who are esteemed deficient but whose deficiency may be a virtue rather than a failing, inasmuch as it is the fear of God, rather than of man. The contempt which certain bold bad men feel, and other time-serving and timorous men affect, for woman, originates from the circumstance that, removed from popular bad influences, and out of the reach of the manly sophistries of society, she sees things in their true colours, and calls them by their right names. She judges tendencies by their consequences. Less distracted with a variety of events and ́interests, than man; living for her family, and watching with the quick and constant eye of affection every member of it, her careful observation detects the first retrograde step, and her gentle and jealous tenderness takes alarm at the first indication of danger. Like the sensitive plant, a virtuous woman shrinks at the first suspicion of contamination. Heed then, rather than slight her warnings-invite rather than despise her counsel.

An evidence of the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures is found in their non-agreement with the evil customs of the world. They do not endorse its opinions and fashions- they furnish no authority or precedent for the pride of man: pride of power, of wealth, of wisdom, or of sex. And the contrast between the Divine revelation of His Will which God has vouchsafed us in the Book of Books, and the tendencies of the natural heart, as developed in human systems of religion established by impostors, or growing up out of the abuses of successive generations, the difference between the Thought of God, and the wanderings of man, is nowhere more strikingly exhibited than in the positions of woman in the Pagan Theories, and in the Bible. In Pagan nations, as has been tersely remarked, "Women are thrice slaves. Their fathers govern them in childhood, their husbands in youth, and their sons in old age." The parental despotism vested in the male parent consigns the daughter to a new master of his election, without regard to her choice. Enduring the caprices of the new tyrant with a patience which furnishes the only relief for her sufferings, she resigns herself to tyranny as the fate of woman -looking forward only to the filial duty of the son whom she has borne for her future consolation. Alas, for her hopes! When that son emerges beyond the tutelage of the mother, his first lesson in manhood is to deny her authority and to spurn her counsels. The mother, in bondage at first to her father, and then to her husband, comes yet a third time under tyranny, her master being her son. To the anguish of retrospection she adds in the present the painful expe

rience

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is

To have a thankless child!

And her future:-if the system in which she is educated looks to a heaven, what has woman to do with that? Does man who invented a religion make its life beyond the grave reprove him for his abuse of her in this world? It is a doubt whether she is admitted there at all-and if that grace be accorded her, it is to minister to his pleasure in another world, whose slave she has been in this.

In the Bible we find a far different revelation of the moral accountability and position of woman as the help meet for man; and profitable instruction for the stronger sex also in his relative duties to her whom God appointed as a proper aid and companion for him. That she was made as an help establishes man as her head and director; but that an help was necessary shows man's need of assistance no less than his right of direction. On the one hand is the trusting affection of her who looks for protection; on the other the grateful love of him who is aided by the help which God pronounced meet. Both were created in the likeness of God, both were called Adam, both were blessed by their Creator. Both have appropriate spheres to fill, and duties to perform: and the requirements of God at the hands of both are of equal importance. Neither can neglect them without peril, for both have immortal souls to save. And in the household and family relations each is equally interested. If one fail, the other is burthened and led into temptation. It is said by the Wise Man, " Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." And what friends are oftener together, or more dependent upon each other, than man and woman? United in this life, their destiny is co-eternal: and what they sow in this world they will reap in the next; for the Lord of the Harves' is no respecter of persons.

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