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seems to have subjected himself to the most bitter hatred, on account of his predictions of the universal flowing to God of the nations of the earth. Christ and his apostles were, by them, regarded with the same bitterness, growing out of their exclusiveness and unbounded self-love. The very opposition of the Jews to the prophets, and to Jesus and his apostles, shows that they understood them to teach a wider extension of God's favor than they loved to contemplate. It was thought they implied a restoration of all nations to the privileges which they enjoyed. Isaiah predicted a time when the earth should be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, even as the waters cover the great deep; a time when those beasts, even, lohg characterized by ferocity, shall become meek and gentle, like the most harmless domestic animal. He seems enraptured with the loftiness of his theme, as he expatiates upon the glories of the earthly kingdoms when given to the Messiah. In the 65th chapter of his prophecy, after speaking of the destruction of the wicked, he thus breaks forth :

"Whoso blesseth himself upon the earth,
Shall bless himself in the God of truth:
And whoso sweareth upon the earth,
Shall swear by the God of truth.

Because the former provocations are forgotten,
And because they are hidden from mine eyes.
For behold I create new heavens and a new earth:
And the former ones shall not be remembered,
Neither shall they be brought to mind any more.

But ye shall rejoice and exult in the age to come, which I create:
For lo! I create Jerusalem a subject of joy, and her people of

gladness;

And I will exult in Jerusalem, and rejoice in my people.

And there shall not be heard any more, therein,

The voice of weeping and the voice of a distressful cry:

No more shall be there an infant short-lived,

Nor an old man who hath not fulfilled his days;

For he that dieth at an hundred years shall die a boy;

And the sinner that dieth at an hundred years shall be deemed accursed.

And they shall build houses, and shall inhabit them;
And they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.
They shall not build, and another inhabit;

They shall not plant, and another eat.

For as the days of a tree, shall be the days of my people;

And they shall wear out the works of their own hands.
My chosen shall not labor in vain,

Neither shall they generate a short-lived race:

For they shall be a seed blessed of Jehovah ;

They and their offspring with them.

And it shall be, that, before they call, I will answer :

They shall be yet speaking, and I shall have heard.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox:

But as for the serpent, dust shall be his food.
They shall not hurt, neither shall they destroy
In all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah."

We quote the above from a translation by Bishop Lowth, because of its inimitable beauty. And who can read it without feeling a glow of inspiration like that with which the prophet wrote? How gloriously does he shadow forth the physical as well as moral regeneration of man !—if not absolutely exempt from death, yet exempt from the weakness and sufferings of the present race: "For as the days of a tree, shall be the days of my people." This provision for man's restoration was made through the blood of Jesus, which was long since shed on Calvary; and still is the world far from a state of reconciliation to God. Still does sin abound; and its bitter fruits are eaten by the race -especially by woman. Her present condition, however, is not the result of accident-not the consequence of an unjust penalty, but the fruit of her own disobedience. It was right that the first violator of God's law should be placed in a state of subjection, lest she should continue to lead in the way to evil. But when a provision has been made for her ransom, whereby she can rise again to the high rank from which she fell, why is she so loath to as

sume it? Why does she still hug the chains that constitute the badge of her disgrace? Why is it a reproach, even now, to be a woman? Why has she not risen in the dignity of exalted morality, and taken her place at the side of man, encouraging him in every good work, and, as at first, forming a connecting link between him and the angels?

There are examples (thanks to the mercy of our God!) which give cheering evidence of what yet may be her universal condition. But the great mass of women, even professing Christians, are far from taking the place to which Jesus designed to elevate them. And why is this? Why has the blessed Saviour so long been compelled to look upon her in this degraded condition? Alas! because she

is still disobedient, still governed by the same motives that influenced our mother Eve to yield in the first transgression. Selfish gratification, unless crucified by affliction, is still her prominent desire. Without her overwhelming cares, she could scarcely, in any instance, have been made a partaker of that meekness which the christian system enjoins. See in this the mercy of God in his chastisement, even ! He makes her condition such that she feels her need of amelioration. Even though individuals may escape the doom, still we see that it is the general lot of woman, and acknowledge the goodness of God in providing such a redemption. It would seem, from this circumstance alone, that God intended that she should first feel her necessities, and be the first to return to her allegiance to himself. From the fact, too, that the world cannot be regenerated without her purified and purifying agency, see another argument favoring the idea just expressed. The mothers of a pure generation must be holy, or their offspring cannot be holy. They must be ready to conform to all his laws, whether physical, mental, or moral. It is pleasant to see tokens of advancement; and yet, it seems

that the great mass of women do not realize the state from whence they fell, nor the condition to which it is their privilege to rise. One of the greatest hindrances to this elevation seems to lie in this, that they are slaves to the fashions and customs of the world. Notwithstanding numerous lessons of experience, the women of our time recklessly violate the most sacred obligations of Christianity, "and receive that recompense in their own bodies which is meet," rather than be thought unfashionable and singular. For proof of this, we need only to point the reader to our fashionable churches, where women professing godliness appear in an attire that would have justified the magistrates in heathen Greece in imposing on them a heavy penalty, and inscribing their sentence on a tablet, exposed to the gaze and contempt of every high-minded citizen.

And for what purpose do they violate the rules of decorum, as well as the positive injunctions of God? Why do they appropriate to themselves those badges which would have indelibly disgraced a heathen woman, and ranked her with the lewd courtezan? Because they are desirous of their own glory, and not the advancement of the race. Their highest ambition is to be the leader in fashion, and to be exempt from care; and their greatest fear, that they shall be deemed singular. There is with them no forsaking all to follow Jesus; and how can He receive them, with such a load of vanity and sin? How can they be restored to their primeval dignity, with such a heart? It is vain, utterly vain for them to think they are, or can be, reformers, while they are not willing to yield obedience to the law of God.

SECTION III.

Woman's Conformity to the World.

"And be not conformed to this world; but be ye trans-formed, by the `renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God."-Rom. 12: 2.

In tracing the moral history of woman, we have seen. her voluntarily degrading herself from a condition of perfect purity and happiness, to one where suffering, sorrow, and degradation, are her inevitable allotment. We have seen, too, a way opened, whereby she can, by simple obedience to the requirements of God's law, return to the sphere from which she fell. We have likewise seen that, instead of listening to the voice of mercy, which is calling after her, saying, "Return, O backsliding daughter," she is still, to a great extent, pursuing her own selfish gratification, regardless of the groans and miseries of a sin-ruined world. As her lot has been ameliorated by the refining influences of Christianity, instead of taking her place by the side of man, and encouraging him in the pursuits of knowledge, or aiding him in the acquisition of property by her labor and economy, the fashionable woman seeks only to be relieved from all ennobling responsibilities, and to waste her time, her talents, and property, in the most trifling pursuits, as though exemption from toil were exemption from the penalty of sin. She seems not to entertain one exalted thought, one true aspiration for duty. If she is a mother, she seeks to throw the responsibility of caring for her offspring, as much as possible, upon some other being, who chances to be a little lower in the scale of woman, as it is graduated by fashion. So far from obeying the injunction of the scriptures, "Bear ye one another's

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