cruelties were sometimes inflicted on her, not merely by vulgar prejudice, but under the form of law. Such scenes we now think of with shame at human folly and credulity, and rejoice in that spread of light and liberality which has expunged such laws from our statute-books, and such notions from every mind but the mind that is sunk in ignorance and brutality. But there are features of the character of Satan which mark the characters of some, and which, though less repulsive than the attributes of superstition, are most injurious to the welfare of society.

Against one of these vices the Apostle charges Titus to direct his first caution. Aged women must be admonished not to be false accusers. The word thus rendered is the one commonly employed to designate the devil, who is emphatically styled the accuser of the brethren. This is an idea which should render backbiting and detraction peculiarly hateful. Aged females have been sometimes represented as prone to severe censure of others, and especially of the young, on whose levities they are disposed to look with no indulgent eye; and sometimes harsh language has been employed by them with regard to the faults of others, because they supposed it would be considered as an indication of their own strict and superior virtue. Nothing can be more absurd than this idea; for the purest and best of characters have always been distinguished for candour and mercy. Experience might have taught them the folly and injustice of precipitate judgments. Every aged person may recollect instances in which he has suffered himself, or made others to suffer, by rash conclusions.

It is most improper in the old to encourage the tale-bearer to come near them, or to entertain their visitors with injurious reflections on the manners and conduct of their younger relatives. Some old people have been tempted to do this by learning that these relatives were accustomed to complain to their visitors of the fatiguing attention they required, and of the difficulty they felt in bearing with their fretfulness, and repelling their dictation; but, in such circumstances, it is their wisdom to amend what is offensive, and not to render evil for evil.

Let them give that view of those around them which is demanded by candour and charity. This is best suited to the gentleness which becomes their sex, and to the consideration which becomes their age. It is strange to see those who have so many years of sin to look back on and to deplore, condemning others with severity for a single fault. To those who are so near the tribunal of God, that caution applies with peculiar force, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned."*

Aged females must also be sober. Excessive indulgence of their bodily appetites must be shunned, as degrading both to themselves and to their profession. In men, intemperance is bad; but in a female it is shocking, as being so inconsistent with the delicacy of the sex. Nothing can lower an aged female more in the estimation of her relatives and neighbours, than this habit. What respect will be paid to the opinion or wishes of one thus besotted, or how can

* Luke vi. 37.

the young look up with deference to age which intoxication renders ridiculous? The perverse things then uttered will be remembered in contrast with the sagest counsels, and fooleries then practised will be the apology for every youthful indiscretion. It is indeed a most lamentable fact, that the excesses of aged persons have destroyed the horror felt by their younger relatives at this vice, and have been copied by them, to the misery of their families.

The abhorrence which every virtuous female will feel for this sin is strikingly expressed in the language of Hannah, in reply to the rash imputation of it to her by Eli: "Count not thine hand-maid for a daughter of Belial." To give softening epithets to this sin, or to frame apologies for indulging in it, discovers a spirit very different from that which represents it as the leading character of a child of the devil. Aged females must also be teachers of good things. In his epistle to Timothy, Paul speaks of old wives fables; and some aged females have delighted to set before the young, the legends of superstition, and tales founded on fiction, or embellished by their own fancy, curious rites of the olden time, or the favourite ballads of their youth. These can serve no purpose but to pervert the imagination, and to enslave the minds of the young. Many a child has through life felt the influence of these lessons of the nursery, or has learned to mingle its valuable counsels with them in the contempt of proud and undistinguishing scorn. But aged females are to teach all within their sphere the words of eternal life; and their lessons must derive great influence from their long experience of its

power and sweetness. No young person could hear with indifference such counsels as these:" I recommend devotion to you, for it has long been my solace,the fear of God, for it has been my guardian angel,→→ and love to Christ, for I have never felt it but it blessed me. Let morning and evening prayer be maintained; for I have found the toils of the day blessed by the one, and the slumbers of the night blessed by the other: sanctify the Sabbath; for its worship has strengthened me for the duties and toils of the week in no instance, and for no object, violate integrity, for I know it to be the best preservative of mental tranquillity, and the surest guide to respect and success; and keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."

The Apostle specifies some lessons which aged females are to teach. They are to teach young women to be sober, to impress them with the folly and ruin which result from extravagance or waste, from expensive dress, or luxurious modes of living. They can tell them what evils they have seen resulting from such habits in young women. Such courses have produced quarrels with a husband, and have ruined domestic peace; or, when he has been so foolish as to give his countenance to them, they have withdrawn him from his business, left his goods and shop to the mismanagement of others, and issued sooner or later in a bankruptcy, which combines ruin with disgrace. They must caution them against romantic views of life, and high expectations of enjoyment in the world. You can tell them how little flattering prospects are to be trusted, what clouds have arisen in the brightest

sky, and what roots of bitterness have sprung up in the most flowery field.

They must teach them to love their husbands, to guard their affections from being alienated by the engaging qualities of others, and to keep them from being enfeebled by the discovery of their weaknesses. They must teach them to labour to form the tempers and the manners of their husbands to those qualities which are adapted to make them the object of their respect and esteem, and direct them to manifest their attachment to them by a solicitude for their temporal comfort, and by a zeal for their eternal salvation.

ness.

They must teach young women that judicious and enlightened affection with which they ought to regard their children; that they must love them not with that indiscreet fondness which indulges them in every thing, which can subject them to no restraint, and which encourages their petulance and forwardMany children have had reason to lament such folly, and to regret that their early years were not spent under a sterner discipline. They must teach them to correct their follies with judgment, to maintain their due authority, and to form them to those pious habits which will be the consolation and the security of life. Mothers are often jealous of the interference of others with their management of their children, and if these hints are given in a tone of asperity or rebuke, they will be repelled with anger and scorn. It is most necessary, therefore, that aged women in giving them, should labour to convince them that they have no object in these counsels but the respectability and the interest of their fami