be idlers while the necessity for exertion in behalf of this virtue is so pressing. We should all labor to keep this virtue in the foreground of life and influence. But women have a chance to effect a large part of what is to be accomplished in this line of effort. They are peculiarly fitted to perform the kind of labor which is required to hold and lead the young, and also the old, in the course of sobriety, of virtuous habits, of pure and upright conduct.

I have remarked that temperance must be the result of education. Now, how easily may you, whose influence is so powerful in domestic and social life, do this kind of work. How clearly within your province it is, to wisely, kindly and firmly train your children, and win your companions and associates to walk on the lofty ground of self-control and reason, to keep to the line where the appetite is subordinate to the will, and where the feet follow the leadings of conscience and truth.

Let this be, at least, a part of the work of your life. And do not be discouraged if your instructions be not always followed, if your wishes are not always regarded. If you attain but in the smallest degree your object, you will have much to rejoice over, even as do the angels, when they see under all the blessings of grace but one sinner returning in repentance to his Father's house. If you do but this, the voice of approbation will come to your ear and your heart, saying, in the tone of heaven, "She hath done what she could."

No one can question your right to teach, in the

strong and faithful spirit of love, your children the rules of virtue, to train them up to practically observe the lessons of charity, goodness, nobleness and temperance. A great work should be done in this department of moral effort, by your power.

The want of which we are most deeply conscious, when we think of the necessity of temperance, to have the current of moral life flowing in the channel of temperance. And I am not sure that woman may not be the most powerful agent in directing this tide. I know not that her force may not be the most potent force in this ever-rolling, ever-rushing stream. It may be that she is where she can move this stream more deeply and powerfully than man in his workshop, or office, or field, or pulpit. Her interests are all, or chiefly hidden, in the depths of this strong and unquiet flood; and it is her trouble, the upheaving and boiling of her sorrow, and the misery and sorrow of her offspring, that we behold, when the counter-currents and side-currents of intemperance rush in to change the direction and color of this solemn, mysterious river. It is for her then, especially, to guide it in the right course, and to keep it clear and bright. I do not say that woman can or ought to do every thing in the service of this virtue. She will need the sympathy and help of man, and the aid of law. She will need all the assistance there is for her, in whatever quarter. What I say is, that in her natural position she can and ought to do her part—and it is a great part in this service. Indeed, she can here expend her strength. She often does expend her strength;

often she has shown to the world the noblest example of long suffering, patience, loving kindness, courage, heroism, martyrdom.

This last word brings up in my mind a sad reflection. It is this: that they who, as missionaries of Christ, die in prison, or of hunger and thirst, in heathen lands, or who are burned at the stake, or stoned to death, for their opinions, are not the only martyrs we may think of. There are sadder and greater martyrs nearer home. There is martyrdom for you to look at in the dimly lighted chamber or cellar, where the needle is plied by woman in skeleton form, with bony fingers, from early evening till the hours of morning, to support perhaps a drunken and abusive husband, and pale and starving children. It may be seen too in the mansion of wealth, where every outward want is supplied, but yet where hope is vain, where the heart is sick, where matronly pride is wounded, where sisterly affection is overloaded with sorrow, where the eye of watching love is dimmed. with tears. Oh, my God! what agonies and sorrows should we find could we but enter all the high and lowly abodes visited with the terrible scourge, the appalling plague of intemperance, and read the thoughts, the tumults, the fears, the hopelessness and misery within the bosoms of their inmates. The fire of green wood around the stake is not so continuous and intense as the fire that eats into the depths of the soul, that burns away the life and beauty of the spirit.

These thoughts impel me to say, that the evil results of the particular sin under consideration, however unappalling those within our knowledge, ought not to

be winked at or to be passed by unnoticed; that they ought to be thoughtfully considered; and that we all, in our regard for the interests of religion, in our love for humanity, and in our efforts to promote the moral welfare and happiness of our race, ought to present the whole force of our character and social influence on the side of the noble virtue, which requires both temperance of thought and will, and uprightness and cleanliness of outward person, in the service and worship of Almighty God. Impressed as my mind is with the weight of these thoughts, I can but close this discourse as I began it, in the Apostle's words: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service;" adding, howthese other words: "And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."

DISCOURSE XXIII.

A SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY.

ACTS I. 12.

THEN RETURNED THEY UNTO JERUSALEM, FROM THE MOUNT CALLED OLIVET, WHICH IS FROM JERUSALEM A SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY.

With the ancient Hebrews, the Sabbath was a day of rest and worship; and they were strict in keeping it. They performed no labor on that day. The master of the house, the man-servant, the maid-servant, the ox, and every other beast of burden, had that day as a day of repose. The old and young of all the Jewish tribes, in synagogue and temple, paid to the Lord God on that day their religions devotions.

Their manner of keeping the Sabbath was somewhat formal. They rested on the Sabbath day and kept it holy, not according to the law of Christ, but according to the law of an earlier teacher. With a good and determined spirit, yet quite mechanically, they occupied the Sabbath. And coming as they had from the shadows of heathenism, we cannot doubt that their Sabbath observances, such as they were, raised them above their Gentile brethren. Judging them by the standard of