"She worketh willingly:"--"in her tongue is the law of kindness:"--in her heart is the fear of the Lord. Of the many things that I would gladly impress on your hearts, as I address you, as my pupils, for the last time, I can select but few, and perhaps none more appropriate than the virtues and excellencies which this portrait suggests. One characteristic of this woman is energy: "She riseth while it is yet night":--"She eateth not the bread of idleness." She exemplifies the spirit of the truly Scriptural precept: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Her example, then, is one of habitual industry, a habit which has much more to do with a truly virtuous life than is generally supposed. Labor strengthens all the virtues; idleness weakens them all:--idleness is the fruitful source of vice. In every sphere in which you may be placed, there will be work to be done;--to be done religiously--that is, faithfully as unto God;--to be accepted by you as His manifest will, and to be done willingly as unto Him. One of the chief ends of your education has been, to give you the trained intellect, that you may quickly and correctly discern, in each relation and circumstance of life--from day to day, and from hour to hour--what is the work that you are called upon to do. Another chief aim has been to give you that disciplined self-command that will enable you--not lazily putting it off till a more convenient season--to do it at once, and to do it thoroughly and well. If you have here gained or strengthened the habit of industry, preserve it to the end. Without labor, there is no excellence and no happiness. It is the most vulgar of all vulgar errors, that a lady is a person who does nothing. Such a person would be good for nothing, and miserable indeed. Work, however, is of many kinds; work of the brain, and work of the heart, as well as work of the hands; and the humblest kind is not the hardest. It is another vulgar error, that work is degrading. Labor was imposed on our fallen race, because it was fallen; but the decree went forth more in pity than in anger. Work was not imposed upon the angels, for they needed no such compulsion. Angelic natures work willingly and cheerfully; and how is the idea that to do nothing is a desirable thing, reconciled with the sublime words, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work."