Piety is still woman’s brightest ornament and surest defence. It heightens all her other attractions, and it will remain when all others have faded. Even those who are indifferent and hostile to religion themselves commend it; all good men approve it; it attracts the favour of God Himself. It has opened the eyes of thousands to the higher walks of Christian life, and impelled tens of thousands to press for the mark. The annals of missionary enterprise already supply some of the loftiest instances of zeal and devotedness from among the female sex. To quote from _Good Words_, for 1860: “Wherever there has been any purity, any zeal, any activity, any prosperity in the Church of Christ, there woman’s presence and aid, as ‘a help meet for’ the other sex, while they have been bearing the heat and burden of the day, will be found no unimportant element. It is so at this day in an eminent degree. Nor do I at all doubt that in the Church’s further efforts to carry the gospel into all lands, and get for their Lord the sceptre of the world, the spirit and mind of our Galilean women will be more and more seen stamped upon Christian womanhood.” But as Keble sweetly sings, some of the most beautiful specimens of female Christianity will never be heard of till the resurrection morn. “Unseen, unfelt, their earthly growth, And, self-accused of sin and sloth, They live and die; their names decay, Their fragrance passes quite away; Like violets in the freezing blast, No vernal gleam around they cast: But they shall flourish from the tomb, The breath of God shall wake them into odorous bloom.” CHAPTER III. Domestic Women. _SECTION I.—SUSANNA WESLEY._ “She was an admirable woman, of highly improved mind, and of a strong and masculine understanding; an obedient wife; an exemplary mother; a fervent Christian.” ROBERT SOUTHEY. _WOMAN’S SPHERE._