commonly the least of them, who have the most of what, taken for their basis, gives them a substantial worth. But let not any, if any such there should ever be, who allow fops and not men or women of sense to have the excitement and direction of their feeble and worthless ambition,-whose most serious comparison of opinions is with their dress-maker,— let not any such suppose that they are finishing the work which providence has given to them to do. Providence has dealt more kindly with them. What reason have they to think it so averse as to have condemned them alone to such a deplorable condition of unprofitableness? No! if others are bound to be rational, and thoughtful, and useful,-if others are invited to be happy, so are they. If others are able to go into society to improve and purify while they grace it, so, with the proper pains, are they in their measure, and their measure is an ample one; for the very attractions, the sense of which, if they are light-minded, may bewilder them,-give them a vast power to influence the tastes, and sentiments, and characters of the other sex. Here is a trust of very serious magnitude. The moral influence, which by favor of the interest it excites, the female mind, duly enlightened and conscientious, may exert in a community over those whose characters are fixing, and who are presently to have the direction of its affairs, is altogether beyond estimation. Does the task, again, appointed to others, comprehend duties of good neighborhood and charity, and services to the faith of Christ in various forms of good word or work, as opportunity permits or guides, so does the task ap pointed to them. That is all an error, which they have sometimes seemed to assume for truth. They have no mark set upon them as incapable and worthless exempts from honorable and happy duty. But, on the contrary, in devotion to it, they become peculiarly efficient and blessed agents of the divine goodness, and they find for themselves the happiness, which, sought in any other path, will prove a phantom, forever flitting before their vision, and eluding their grasp. It is plain that the remarks, which I have been making, would be irrelevant in the connexion in which I introduced them, if I did not conceive that the leading traits of the character, of which a feeble sketch has been given, were to be recognized in the young person whose recent departure has called forth such an uncommon expression of public feeling, in tokens of cordial respect for her memory, and sympathy with her afflicted friends. If I present an example to the imitation of others similarly circumstanced, as I freely profess to have been doing, it is not in the way of presuming that it may have been faultless. I never knew one which was so,--and if we must wait till we could find such an one, all the benefit of such impulse as example is capable of affording, would be lost. Nor do I undertake to single out this as more complete than others. Far be the arrogance of such a discrimination from me. The belief that there were many such would be a very grateful one. But to cause an example to be produced to the best advantage, it must be conspicuous as well as worthy. It would be to less purpose for me to adduce it, however ex cellent and admirable, had it been witnessed only by myself or a few whom I was addressing, leaving the accuracy of the representation to be taken upon trust. But I have felt called upon to present it with distinctness, because it by no means often happens that the character of a young woman, possessing that delicate modesty without which the example would be wanting in a chief grace, is, through favouring circumstances, known and estimated by so many; and the very interesting event of the first inroad made by death upon the number of those who are carrying on that excellent work of christian usefulness, the management of our Sunday School, demands its own special notice. There are very many volumes which contain much less meaning than the single sentence, which records that a young spirit, after beautifully finishing the work of a daughter, sister, friend, and christian benefactor, has gone to its reward; and the bright image of the course which has been run, demands to be held up to close and steady view, before, in any memory which recognizes the likeness, time shall have obscured any of its lines.* We naturally give the name of a mystery to the early removal of one, before whom life seemed all to lie a sunny scene of enjoyment, christian duty, and genuine honor. And certainly the greatest of all mysteries would it be, if, in the providence of him who * What was written of the sermon ends here. When I was desired by the Society's Committee to print it, my remembrance of the concluding part was imperfect. I have recovered the train of remark as well as I could, making a connexion wherever I could not recollect what had been used. has all worlds for the sphere of his administration, and all ages for the development of his plans, events did not occur, which refused to reveal their reasons of infinite wisdom and love to us who "are but of yesterday, and know nothing." But upon the else dark paths of God's government, the light of his word, acquainting us with the principles of that government, has been made to shine; and as often as we have observed a happy consequence to follow upon any of the gloomiest of his appointments, we have detected one reason, for which, in his parental goodness, he suffered them to befall. The Father of Spirits "doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men,' but "for their profit,"—and the profit, let us add, of all who witness and feel for their grief,-"that they may be partakers of his holiness." "By the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better," and the sadness which is made to overspread many countenances, is meant to sanctify many hearts. "None of us liveth to himself," and if dispensations, which fill our breasts with sorrow, have at the same time the effect of extensively impressing profitable lessons of truth and duty, then we have found a use for which a good God designed them. "No man dieth to himself." And when we call to mind that the more important and valued the life which has been closed, and the more unlooked for the fatal blow, the stronger too has been the feeling called forth, and the impression made the more extensive, serious, and improving, when we perceive, that what we have called the mysterious dealing of the divine Arbiter with one, is capable of such a relation to the best in terests of numbers, we can no longer say that we are without a clue to the elucidation of his purposes. I trust, my hearers, that there are those of us who intend thus far to qualify the meaning, with which we call that under our notice, an inscrutable event. I trust we do not intend to allow the true feeling, which to-day possesses us, to begin and end in fruitless sorrow, or natural sympathy. Children of this society! I should do great violence to my own feelings, as well as appear insensible, which it is impossible that I should be, to the special interest of the occasion, if I did not try to say, in a few friendly words, how affectingly it addresses you. Fifteen years ago, when I came hither, our sister was a little playful child, with a character as much in its element, at all events, as little tried,-as that of almost any of yourselves;—and now she has gone down in her youth to an honored grave, and the tears which have been rained over that grave, were tears of proud and satisfied affection; and as, from one spring to another, the steps of mourners will turn towards it, their hearts will swell with a grateful blessing to God, that the image, which always dwells freshly there, is the image of a life well devoted to life's best objects. For that it is, and nothing else, which has given so profound an interest to so brief and uneventful a history. That it is, which gave to a life so short, a termination which you have seen to be so lamented;-that it is, which gives to the memory of that life the place of affectionate veneration, which you have found to be held by it in many hearts. The tribute is not to the possession of ad |