V.

THE LOVE OF WOMAN.

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TREATISE on Womanhood would not be complete

which omitted the consideration of her affection, the supreme element of her character and life. To write about woman, and not to dwell upon her love, would be like lecturing on the anatomy of the human frame, and omitting all notice of the functions of the heart; or like giving a description of the Temple at Jerusalem, and saying nothing of the Holy of Holies, its most sacred shrine, and peculiar glory.

None can doubt that girls need to be taught to guard their hearts and control their love. There are no faculties of our nature which do not need training and culture, least of all the affections. These are so strong, ardent, and impulsive, so apt to be wayward, so hasty ofttimes in their choice, and immovable when fixed, that young and inexperienced persons need to be forewarned lest they should trifle with their most precious possession, and becloud their whole life by a premature entanglement or a foolish marriage.

There would be less necessity to write on this subject, if it could be taken for granted that mothers and teachers, whose special duty it is to speak to their daughters and pupils upon it, always fulfilled their duty. This, however, is not the case;

observation leads to the conclusion, that in many instances the duty is neglected. When mischief has been wrought,

then there is the endeavour to correct what cannot be undone without much suffering, if at all, but which might probably by timely counsel have been prevented. In this, as in a thousand other things, "prevention is better than cure."

The words which serve as a motto to this chapter, form a part of David's most touching lamentation on the death of his friend Jonathan. Earth has rarely if ever witnessed a love so free from jealousy, so unselfish, and so constant as the love of Jonathan for David. Perhaps it has never been surpassed in any life but His, who in His love as in every other excellence of His character, is "fairer than the children of men." To David, whose experience of the love of women (having Michal, Saul's daughter, for his wife) was probably not of the sweetest and the best, there seemed, in the moment of his bereavement, no human love to equal that of which he had just been bereft. And therefore he sang in strains of pathetic eulogy, "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan-very pleasant hast thou been unto me-thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women." There have been in the history of our world cases like those of Jonathan and David, and Damon and Pythias, in which human love has attained the highest altitudes; but, as a rule, the love of woman is more deep, unselfish, and constant than that of man.

Of true women this is said,-Of those whose hearts are like a harp well strung, silent yet ready to give forth at the touch of him who knows how to strike its chords the holy har. monies of sincere affection, unreserved confidence, and sweet

satisfaction and content. Some there are who have not such hearts, whose love is concentrated mainly on self; who think so lightly of love that they can feign it for the sake of feeding their vanity by the number of conquests they can make, unmindful or indifferent to the pain they cause; whose love, if love it can be called, exacts much and yields little, will receive any amount of homage and lavish affection, but will only dole out a measured response, reserving warmer expressions and fonder caresses for a future time when some object is to be gained, some greater exaction to be levied. From all such, "Good Lord deliver us;" for there is no more merciless exactor of affection, no greater tyrant than a selfish heartless woman. The less lovely she is, the more love she claims, and the greater her jealousy of not receiving it; the less she seeks the happiness of others, the more demands she makes to secure her own. Of such let all men beware.

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The love of true women is self-forgetful, eminently practical, free because above suspicion and jealousy, constant as a fixed star shining fairly in heaven." Such love is happily not rare, and such women are sought after and prized by those who have the eye to discern true hearts when they are met with. A noble example of woman's love is found upon the page which tells of Naomi and faithful Ruth. The former was bereft of her husband, and of her two married sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Great was her sorrow and desolation, yet she was not selfish and inconsiderate in her grief. She loved her daughters-in-law, and would fain have had them live with her and cheer her desolation, but for their own happiness and advantage she urged them to depart, saying,

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Go, return each to her mother's house; the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me." Orpah departed, and she cannot be justly blamed for so doing; Ruth clave to her mother-in-law, and for this she shall be praised through all time. Her love would not allow her to depart; unmindful of herself, as true love always is, she would not leave Naomi all alone. New entreaties to depart did but strengthen her resolve to remain; she silenced the tender pleadings of her mother-in-law by the touching appeal: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." Was ever earthly love more pure and rich and sweet than this? was wonderful, but it was not approached and unapproachable Mount Blanc amongst the Alps. have had a heart like Ruth's, and whose self-sacrifice and constancy has shown a love as strong and deep as hers.

Ruth's love, like Jonathan's, unique; it was not one unheight of pure affection, like There have been many who

Another illustration shall be taken, not from Scripture, yet from real life. Against the wish, though not without the reluctant consent of her friends, a fair girl loved and married one who was not worthy of her; she fondly hoped and believed him better than her relatives thought him to be. And when after marriage the illusion was dispelled, and she was forced to feel he was far from being what she had hoped, she loved him still. Bitter disappointment, nay, the fact that she had been

deceived, if it chastened, did not change her affection. Solomon has said, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it." Floods of sorrow, of loneliness, of unsatisfied longing, of unuttered bitterness, of undefined dread, did not alienate her faithful heart from him. At length the crisis came,-the fear which had haunted her night and day was realized. To folly and to sin her husband added crime; then to escape the penalty of the law which he had broken, fled his country, leaving her and her little ones behind. She was well-nigh crushed, for to her pure soul, crime had a sting and shame such as poverty and suffering could never have. Her aged father came with loud indignation of the wrong his poor child had suffered, to take her to her childhood's home again; but she replied, "Oh! do not so upbraid him, father, he is my husband. I must follow whither he has gone. He needs me now more than ever; perhaps I may win him back to paths of truth and uprightness, and in other scenes we may be happier than we have ever been." She went, and her love, sublime in its self-sacrifice, superior to disgrace, strong as death, met with its reward.

Proverbial for its depth and tenderness and constancy is a mother's love. It is awakened even before the infant head is pillowed on her breast; it grows with every night she sings him to rosy slumber, and watches his sleep; and with every day in which her heart is gladdened by his winsome ways, and stirred with bright hopes of his future promise. "There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that transcends all other affections of the heart. It is neither to be chilled by selfishness, nor daunted by danger, nor weakened