And when your eye is closing on earth, and the memories of the past are hovering around your pillow, who do you wish should meet your dying eye, the haggard faces of those ruined by your neglect, or the grateful smiles of those you have toiled to bless, who will bear you in their love and prayers, like seraph’s wings, to the opening gates of heaven; who will shine forever as stars in your crown of rejoicing? And into that world of perfected benevolence and joy, who is it that shall enter and go no more out? It is those who, in this world, have followed the footsteps of Jesus Christ; who have lived, not for themselves, but for others; who, like him, have _denied themselves daily_ to promote the salvation of the lost. Is not Jesus Christ presented as the bright and perfect example of _self-denying benevolence_, and is it not written, “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his?” Oh, ye who are appointed by Him, who toiled for your salvation, to go forth and rescue these little ones, what saith your great Exemplar? “Ye are the light of the world; and if the light _in you_ be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Where, then, are your golden lamps? Whom will you guide to the light and liberty of his presence? Awake, from the dream of thoughtless pleasure! Awake from the reveries of selfish care, and save yourselves and your country, ere it be forever too late! A PLAN PROPOSED. It is the object of what follows, to enable every woman, who wishes to do something for the cause of education and her country, _to act immediately_, before the interest awakened is absorbed by other pursuits. The thing to be aimed at is, the _employment of female talent and benevolence in educating ignorant and neglected American children_. In order to give an idea of what _needs_ to be done, and of what _can_ be done, some facts will be stated of which the writer of this volume has personal knowledge. There are, in all parts of this country, women of education and benevolence, and some of them possessing wealth, who are longing for something to do, which is more worthy of their cultivated energies than the ordinary pursuits of women of leisure. There is a still greater multitude of women of good sense and benevolence, who, if educated, would make admirable teachers, but who now have no resource but the needle and the manufactory. It is melancholy to see, in all mechanical trades where woman’s labour is available, how many thousands are following pursuits, many of them injurious to health and to morals, and none of them qualifying a woman, in any respect, for future domestic duties. In the schoolroom, or at domestic service, a woman is learning to train children, and to perform domestic duties properly, but in the workshop and manufactory, she follows a monotonous toil, useful neither to body nor mind, often injurious to both, and forming habits and tastes disqualifying her for future domestic duties.[3]