the mind; by noticing and commending acts of loving-kindness and self-abnegation, and by frowning upon the reverse. In the cultivation of the heart, and in supplying the best impulses for education, religion holds the foremost place. It furnishes the strongest motives to improvement, and it directs to the highest ends. The woman who seeks to grow wiser and better, because thus she will be better able to please and glorify the Saviour, has a more powerful incentive than any merely worldly consideration can supply. She has that within her which lifts her to high vantage-ground in the pursuit of knowledge and the gaining of experience. Love for her Saviour, and desire to please Him, will give clearness to her mental vision, singleness to her aim, directness to her effort, force and perseverance to her endeavours. Since all she learns is to fit her the better to serve God, she will spare no pains to improve to the utmost. And where is there such an example to imitate, such a model on which to mould the heart and life, as that furnished by the character and life of our Lord? He is the perfection of moral beauty. In Him was combined the highest wisdom with the greatest humility, the greatest claims with the most selfabnegating love. He, the Lord of life and glory, "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." He went about doing good; disease and sorrow, pain and death, fled away at His bright presence. He was the pattern for men, and no less the pattern for women. It has been well observed by Bishop Horsley, that "there was not a more striking feature of His character than a certain sensibility, which disposed Him to take part in every one's D affliction to which He was a witness, and to be ready to afford it a miraculous relief. He was apt to be particularly touched by instances of domestic distress, in which the suffering arises from those feelings of friendship growing out of natural affection and habitual endearment." Herein is He specially fitted to be the example of those whose lot it is to minister to such distress, and to show such affection. Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet and heard His words, did a symbolical act. From age to age women have gathered at the Saviour's feet and have learnt of Him. As it has been in the past, it must be now, and in the future. From meditation on His character and imitation of His life, the character of woman will gain its greatest charm, and her life its noblest inspiration. "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchants' ships, she bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also in the night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field, and buyeth it; with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good; her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates."-PROV. xxxi. 10–31.} come. III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMAN. these words we have a highly artistic, full-length portrait painter, but with the pen of an ancient author. The writer was a Jew, and the portrait he has drawn is that of a Jewish matron, ten centuries before Christ. She is represented in the employments of her home-life. The surroundings of the portrait, the drapery, the furniture, the attitude, all the accidents of the picture, are Jewish. But the portrait itself, the lineaments of the moral likeness, are those of a model woman in every land and in all time. Paint a true-hearted, skilfulhanded, nobled-minded woman, whether in the wigwam of the Red Indian or the Alpine chalet of the Swiss, the bungalow of the Hindoo or the home of the Anglo-Saxon, and you will have to draw the same features of character which Lemuel has here delineated in the house of a Jew. Fashions change, occupations vary, different countries have their different customs, but the elements of a noble womanhood are the same in all ages and in all lands. What are these elements? What the characteristics which makes a woman's worth greater than that of earth's most precious gems? Beauty is not one of the characteristics portrayed. There is no line in the portrait which indicates that the like |