Christian literature for children; Women -- Social and moral questions; Young women -- Conduct of life
The catalogue of your trials, my friends, may seem to some already
prolonged. But have I not left much unsaid? Did _you_ guide the pen,
secrets of grief could be revealed, all unknown but to your sex. But
enough has been written to persuade the thoughtful, that suffering must
be to woman a thing of fearful account. Our afflictions, it has been
well said, never leave us as they found us. We are always either
hardened, or improved, by the discipline of Providence. The question
then with woman, what use she is making of her trials, is one of the
deepest concern. She has peculiar griefs; whence can she gain strength
to endure them?
Woman needs every support that God has placed within her reach. She
requires, first, Mental Culture. This will give her strength of mind,
power to discern the true relations of our nature. A narrow mind cannot
comprehend the great scheme of Providence. If it submit to his will,
there is still much blindness in the act. A fuller trust would come from
enlarged conceptions of duty and life. She, who enjoys reading, can
beguile many a sad hour, by a useful volume. How many are prostrated by
domestic afflictions, for the want of that mental discipline, by which
they might fix the eye of faith steadily on Heaven. The grave absorbs
their thoughts; they want energy to turn from the body, and contemplate
the sainted spirit.
Woman needs a Moral developement, corresponding to the demands of her
peculiar temperament and dispositions. Her sensitive frame, unless
accompanied by great self-control, will betray her into errors, which,
added to the thorns that ever beset the path of human life, will cause
her continual uneasiness and pain. Let fancy be the guiding faculty of
her nature, and in what sins must she inevitably be involved. Its aerial
flights will bear her above the beaten, common-sense, road of duty, and
make her the prey of a fatal instability and its attendant
mortifications, follies, and sorrows. Her acute feelings, and tender
affections need a moral counterpoise. The sudden sickness of the loved
will else overwhelm her, and unfit her for the service she owes them. In
this world of casualties, if her heart be not braced by the power of
good judgment, she will yield to disaster and grief, with a hopeless
inefficiency. Her virtues must be the result of reflection, inherent,
and not incidental. There must be a Christian dignity, a calm repose,
that beautiful balance of character, in which keen sensibility is
sustained by a patient and firm self-possession. So fortified, let her
add one grace more and
"The arched roof, * * * * * *
By its own weight, stands steadfast and immovable."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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