alike to all conditions, as those of cultivating and developing in all conduct the spirit of christian selfcontrol, benevolence, and devotion; but simply of the manner in which christian principles are to be applied and manifested in the distinguishing occasions of the condition in question.-I observe then, first, that, in the common course of things, the work given to a young female to do, is the blessed one of a good daughter. A good daughter!-there are other ministries of love more conspicuous than hers, but none in which a gentler, lovelier spirit dwells, and none to which the heart's warm requitals more joyfully respond. There is no such thing as a comparative estimate of a parent's affection for one or another child. There is little which he needs to covet, to whom the treasure of a good child has been given. But a son's occupations and pleasures carry him more abroad, and he lives more among temptations, which hardly permit the affection, that is following him perhaps over half the globe, to be wholly unmingled with anxiety, till the time when he comes to relinquish the shelter of his father's roof for one of his While a good daughter is the steady light of her parent's house. Her idea is indissolubly connected with that of his happy fireside. She is his morning sun-light, and his evening star. The grace, and vivacity, and tenderness of her sex have their place in the mighty sway which she holds over his spirit. The lessons of recorded wisdom which he reads with her eyes, come to his mind with a new charm as they blend with the beloved melody of her voice. He scarcely knows weariness which her song does

own.

not make him forget, or gloom which is proof against the young brightness of her smile. She is the pride and ornament of his hospitality, and the gentle nurse of his sickness, and the constant agent in those nameless, numberless acts of kindness, which one chiefly cares to have rendered because they are unpretending but all-expressive proofs of love. And then what a cheerful sharer is she, and what an able lightener of a mother's cares! what an ever present delight and triumph to a mother's affection! Oh how little do those daughters know of the power which God has committed to them, and the happiness God would have them enjoy, who do not, every time that a parent's eye rests on them, bring rapture to a parent's heart. A true love will almost certainly always greet their approaching steps. That they will hardly alienate. But their ambition should be not to have it a love merely, which feelings implanted by nature excite, but one made intense, and overflowing, by approbation of worthy conduct; and she is strangely blind to her own happiness, as well as undutiful to them to whom she owes the most, in whom the perpetual appeals of parental disinterestedness do not call forth the prompt and full echo of filial devotion.

A sister's duties, secondly, belong to the place in life of which I speak; and in the daily communications of domestic society, what a blessing is a sister's friendship, when it assumes its appropriate character, experienced to be. How much is constantly within her power, of all that goes to make home a happy place to those who are objects, with her, of the same parental care. As they advance together,

from infancy to their places of separate service, how much of the promise which others put forth, of the enjoyment which others experience and impart, of the docility which they manifest, and the improvement which they make, depends on the influence which goes forth from her. How large and cherished a place does a good sister's love always hold in the grateful memory, with which one who has been blessed with the benefits of this relation, looks back to the home of his childhood. How many are there, who, in the changes of maturer life, have found a sister's love, for themselves and others dearer than themselves, their ready and adequate resource. With what a sense of security is confidence reposed in a good sister, and with what assurance that it will be uprightly and considerately given, is her counsel sought. How intimate is the friendship between such sisters, not widely separated in age from one another. What a reliance for warning, excitement, and sympathy, has each secured in each. How many are the brothers, to whom, when thrown into circumstances of temptation, the thought of a sister's purity has been as a constant holy presence, rebuking every licentious thought. I suppose that among securing influences exerted from external sources upon the minds of young men, there is scarcely any to which more importance demands to be attached, than to their sense of the worth of a sister's esteem, their desire of gratifying her fond ambition for them, the sentiments of delicacy, which are inspired in her society, the taste for other improving society, which is there made to grow up, and the facilities for it which

she is able to afford. Unpretending to authority, and incapable of coercion, a sister's mild influence has all the greater power to soften the harshness of a rude character, and to check the excesses of adventurous or passionate impetuosity. And her unassuming example to the younger members of a household, the example of a somewhat more discreet and experienced equal, with interests the same as their own, and feelings and views not so dissimilar as those of parents are liable to be supposed, with constant opportunities to insinuate easily her views of duty, and recommend them by minute but acceptable kindnesses, possesses a power over those younger minds which is all but absolute. No! let not any of my young hearers, who are sisters, dream that they can be acting on a light responsibility. A serious charge has been given them, and serious consideration becomes them how they shall fulfil the trust.

I might go on to speak of the duties belonging to the relation of friendship, as having a place among those of that class of persons to which these remarks refer; and certain it is that, in favorable instances, that sentiment is known to subsist between them in extraordinary constancy, purity, and warmth, and to produce, in respect to character, a vast amount of mutually beneficial results. But the duties of friendship between such parties are in no respect different from what they are in other instances, nor do any peculiar considerations belong to the case, adding to, or qualifying the statement, that a person of the class in question, like other persons, in being a good friend, makes excellent use of christian principles,

and becomes a great benefactor.-I proceed therefore to speak of duties of the same class, belonging to them, in a wider relation, that of members of society. And here the great consideration is one, which I thank God many of them do not overlook, though possibly some of their number, as well as some who are not of their number, may. While other persons are members of society for mutual improvement and service, they are not members of it merely for their own pleasure and display. God forbid that they should be, or should be thought to be. No! let them seek with a reasonable, and that too they will find the most successful aim, to invest themselves with that peculiar attractiveness which God has made to belong to their age and sex. It is right and becoming that they should do so. while forget that they are and intelligent, and immortal, and accountable beings as much as any of the rest of us; that, as much as any of us, they have solemn duties to do, and souls, formed for happiness or misery, to save. I do not think, that I am liable here to be misunderstood, as if I were an undiscriminating ranter against the pleasures of society. There are few things, which for myself I like better. The pleasures of society, rightly sought and profited by, are the pleasures of taste, and intellect, and benevolence, and these are noble parts and prerogatives of our nature. No! as

But let them not meanexposed, and short-lived,

much grace, and ease, and accomplishment, and fascination even, as you will, the more the better, provided better things are not sacrificed in their attainment or use;—and I do not find that they have