bearing, if they continue in faith and charity, and holiness, with sobriety," (1 Tim. ii. 15.) If "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat;" and so "the serpent beguiled" her to do the deed which brought sin into the world and death by sin; yet did God put the special" enmity between Satan and the woman," as the future and sole human parent of the illustrious Seed, who, in his saving mercy and triumphant arm, would bruise the serpent's head. (Gen. iii. 15.) "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Galat. iv. 4, 5.) Surely man was not more highly honoured, in such an address from God as, "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved," (Dan. x. 11,) than was woman in the sa

lutation of an angel sent from God, “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee." (Luke i. 28.)

And here, my brethren, we may perceive in these and similar instances the tender mercy of our heavenly Father, in that when it has pleased him to mark his displeasure against sin, in some fallen but penitent offender, he has recorded a special proof of his divine goodness, and shown us that God "keepeth not his anger for ever." When Peter fell, and then wept bitterly, Christ sent the special consolation, "Go, tell his disciples and Peter." When the Corinthian sinner was, through grace, grieved for his sin, the apostle wrote specially for his consolation: "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment;" they were now "to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." (2 Cor. ii. 6,7.) So generally, throughout the word of God, in the covenant of redeeming mercy, "If the wicked turn from

all his sins that he hath committed,”—all his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him." (Ezek. xviii. 21, 22.)

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It has pleased God to confer special grace upon holy women of old, and to mark their services in his name and cause with tokens of peculiar honour and regard, that so influential a portion of the community should be mindful of their call, and answer to it. It was holy women who "ministered unto" Christ "of their substance," when he had "not where to lay his head." It was to holy women he first shewed himself alive after his resurrection from the dead. Thus honoured, let them remember the proper dignity put upon them by their divine Lord, and "adorn the doctrine of God" their "Saviour in all things." Let them also remember the constant warning that, as the prevalence of piety in the character of women diffuses its influence, and becomes one chief cause of true religion's

being valued and received, so where sin takes possession of the female character, there seems less hope of the conversion of the soul to God than in the other sex. Whether it be a kind of desperation arising in part from the constitution of human society, or from any other cause, the fact seems plainly admitted. Amidst unenlightened heathens, while the excellence of art and the beauty of poetry decorated the virtues of the human race in the form of woman, the most hateful of vices were depicted in the same form. This serves as an illustration of the fact, though we need it not as a ground of argument. We, my brethren, have the infinitely 66 more sure word" of God to consult for the hope we seek after in the great Saviour of our souls, and for a knowledge of the duties set before us. There we learn our common interest in the same Almighty Saviour, as the bond upon us all, to remember, for purposes of mutual help and Christian kindness, that "neither

is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord." (1 Cor. xi. 11.)

May the remembrance of these our eternal interests be impressed deeply upon our minds, that in our several characters and stations in life, we may be brought to the full knowledge and reception of the saving truths which belong to us all. Then may we look forward to the blessedness of that period of the true believer's existence, wherein all distinctions which now mark stronger, or weaker, more or less exposed to the temptations of the world, shall cease. Then shall there be "neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female." (Gal. iii. 28.) For of the saints who live and die in Christ it is graciously testified for our mutual encouragement and peace in Christ, that "when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels which are in heaven." (Mark xii. 25.) Human ends