ON THE

INFLUENCES OF FEMALE PIETY.

THE advantages of Christian biography are numerous, and readily acknowledged; but there is none which more obviously occurs to the mind of a reflecting reader, than the peculiar insight which is thereby obtained into the varied workings of the renewed, as distinguished from the unrenewed, heart. The principles of religion are seen, not as matters of speculative belief, but in real and active operation, influencing the whole character and conduct. With a living exemplification of Christianity thus set before us, we become more minutely and intimately acquainted with the diversified aspects of the believer's experience. A knowledge of this kind is of inestimable value. We feel more strongly impressed with the truth of the Christian scheme, by perceiving the wonderful effects to which it gives rise; we gradually learn to perceive how we ourselves may imbibe its sacred truths, that our hearts may be bettered thereby ; we are constrained to examine ourselves, that we may

discover whether our experience coincides with that which is brought under our notice; and we may perhaps be led, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, to strive after the attainment of a more quickened and more marked progress in holiness and every virtuous attainment. It is thus that from the frailties and follies, as well as virtues, of those Christians whose lives are unfolded to us by the pen of a faithful biographer, we may learn to deny ourselves to all sin, and to make progress in meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light.

While such are the beneficial effects which, in many cases, result from the perusal of the lives of Christians in general, it is impossible to deny, that in the memoirs of pious females the influence of Christianity is exhibited in some of its most interesting and beautiful aspects. Possessed of strong sensibilities, theirs is peculiarly the religion of the heart, diffusing its salutary effects over the whole of that circumscribed but important sphere in which it is their province to move. There is something, indeed, peculiarly attractive in the religion of a Christian female. When exemplified in her character, and dispositions, and feelings, we seem to behold Christianity in its fairest form-the jewel in its most fitting and appropriate setting. We admire the amiable deportment of the woman, and we admire Christianity all the more, when shining forth from, and richly adorning, the female character. Far be it from us for a moment to insinuate that the resistance which the human heart in all circumstances offers to the saving and sanctifying influence of God's grace, is not as strong in the one sex as in the other. In both, "the heart is alike deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." But

we cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that in the regular attendance on Divine ordinances, as well as in the maintenance and encouragement of those schemes of benevolence which are the natural fruit of a pious mind, the female sex are, in our country at least, entitled to the highest commendation. To Christianity, woman is indebted for the high, and honourable, and influential position which she now occupies; and it is only fitting, that in the discharge of the duties of religion, she should show her sense of the obligations under which she has been laid. It is here that the amiable traits of her character shine to the best advantage. That warm sensibility of heart, that gentle, modest, and retiring delicacy of feeling, that disinterested, ardent, and enthusiastic affection, which are the ornaments of her nature, find full scope in the employments which Christianity assigns her.

Domestic life is the peculiar sphere of woman. Within the sacred precincts of HOME, she finds the chief duties which occupy her time, the chief cares which engross her thoughts. As a wife, a mother, a daughter, or a sister, she exerts an influence, the extent and the responsibility of which a judgment-day will alone reveal. Over the young, especially, her influence is paramount. If the remark of the poet be true, that

"The child is father to the man,"

upon the early training which the human being receives under the guardianship of his first female instructor, depends the whole aspect of his future life. As he is in youth, so, to a great extent, will he be in after years. The seed which was sown in childhood may not germinate till many a summer's sun shall have risen and set,

and many a winter's blast shall have raged and gone to rest; but the hour will come when it shall burst forth with rich luxuriance, and be productive of a copious harvest. Many an instance might be quoted in support of the truth of this remark. "For nine years," says Father Augustine, "while I was rolling in the filth of sin, did my mother, with vigorous hope, persist in incessant prayer;" and this devoted Christian mother lived to see the answer of her prayers in the conversion of her son. Bishop Hall thus speaks of his mother :"How often have I blessed the memory of those divine passages of experimental divinity which I have heard from her mouth! What day did she pass without a large task of private devotion, whence she would still come forth with a countenance of undissembled mortification. Never have any lips read to me such, feeling lectures of piety, neither have I known any soul that more accurately practised them." "The pious admonitions of his mother," says the biographer of Cecil, "fixed themselves in his heart like a barbed arrow, and though the effects were for a time concealed from her observation, yet the tears would fall from his eyes as he passed along the streets, from the impression she had made on his mind." "I should have been an atheist," says the late John Randolph, an American statesman, "had it not been for one recollection, and that was the meof the time when my departed mother used to take little hands in her's, and cause me, on my knees, to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven.'" What striking exemplifications are these of the wisdom of Solomon's exhortation, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Now, it is

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