trating by additional facts the arguments which are here very summarily and unmethodically brought together. I cannot despair of the practical result, however distant it may seem; nor can I look round me without being transported beyond this ignorant present' into that wiser future, which I as confidently anticipate, as I truly believe in the goodness and all-ruling providence of God.

66

A. J.

March 26, 1855.

SISTERS OF CHARITY,

ABROAD AND AT HOME.

A LECTURE

(Delivered privately February 14th, 1855, and printed by desire).

MY FRIENDS: The subject on which I venture to address you is one which will find an interest in every kind heart. It is also one of incalculable social importance. I am to discourse to you of SISTERS OF CHARITY, not merely as the designation of a particular order of religious women, belonging to a particular church, but also in a far more comprehensive sense, as indicating the vocation of a large number of women in every country, class, and creed. I wish to point out to you what has been done in other countries, and may be done in ours, to make this vocation available for public uses and for social progress.

I have to beg your patience, your indulgence. It will be necessary for me to advert to subjects on which there exists considerable difference of opinion; while the brevity required by a lecture will not allow me to discuss these at length, or to submit all the arguments which might be advanced in favor of my own convictions. I am obliged to concentrate what I have to say into the smallest possible compass; nevertheless, by recurring to first principles, instead of discussing ways and means, and questions of expediency, I think I shall facilitate the object in view. The deeper we can lay our foundation, the safer will be our superstructure. Therefore, to begin at the beginning:

There are many different theories concerning the moral purposes of this world in which we dwell, considered, I mean, in reference to us, its human inhabitants; for some regard it merely as a state of transition between two conditions of existence, a past and a future; others as being worthless in itself, except as a probation or preparation for a better and a

higher life; while others, absorbed or saddened by the monstrous evils and sorrows around them, have really come to regard it as a place of punishment or penance for sins committed in a former state of existence. But I think that the best definition, the best, at least, for our present purpose, is that of Shakspeare: he calls it, with his usual felicity of expression, "this working-day world;” and it is truly this it is a place where work is to be done, work which must be done, work which it is good to do;-a place in which labor of one kind or another is at once the condition of existence and the condition of happiness.

Well, then, in this working-day world of ours we must all work. The only question is, what shall we do? To few is it granted to choose their work. Indeed, all work worth the doing seems to leave us no choice.

are called to it.

We Sometimes the voice so call

ing is from within, sometimes from without; but in any case it is what we term expressively our vocation, and in either case the harmony