deepest oppression, and the most humiliating debasement, the wives and the daughters of men. In this respect the general condition of females where the light of the gospel has been even partially shed is unquestionably raised to an immeasurable superiority.

THE REFUGE.

WE lately visited a fashionable watering place, and while walking on the pier with a friend he directed our attention to the harbour, its cost, extent, usefulness, &c. He spoke of it as one of the finest in the world, in which ships of all nations might be seen in stormy weather resting side by side in perfect security. We listened with attention and rejoiced that the hardy mariner could find a refuge from the storm on the shores of old England.

On the following day we set out to view the surrounding country, but had not proceeded far before -the appearance of the heavens reminded us that the traveller, as well as the mariner, was exposed to danger and needed shelter. We were in an exposed situation, at a distance from home, among strangers, and no habitation apparently near; but we were mistaken in this last surmise, for the sudden turn of the road revealed to us at a short distance a lowly dwelling. We hastened to avail ourselves of its friendly shelter, and amidst the loud pealing thunder, the vivid lightning, and the heavy rain, rejoiced that a traveller, though a stranger, could find a refuge from a storm and true English hospitality. On returning home to our duties, we had an earnest application made on behalf of a young woman who had wandered from the paths of virtue. Her history was brief but affecting: she was the child of pious

parents, brought up in a Sabbath school, in which she was afterwards a teacher; but at this period she lost both her parents. A young man paid his addresses to her, and betrayed the affection he had too successfully won; they lived together as man and wife until the ship to which he belonged was ordered to foreign service. Being then deserted by him, without friends who would protect her, and without a character, she at length went upon the streets; but, finding the way of transgressors to be hard, she now sought shelter in a penitentiary. Into that house of mercy she was received; and as we have visited its inmates and seen them listening with fixed attention to the gospel of peace and salvation, as we have heard them singing the high praises of Jehovah and witnessed in many eyes the glistening tear of sorrow occasioned by the remembrance of their former sins, we could not help indulging the hope that this poor wanderer might be brought to that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of, and we rejoiced that among the varied forms of Christian benevolence the penitent outcast was provided with a refuge. Christian reader, these institutions need your help. Hundreds who have tasted the bitterness of that cup of sorrow which is invariably put into the hands of those females who forsake the paths of virtue are now anxious to obtain a refuge. It is a mistake to suppose that all who walk our streets, ensnaring our youth and spreading a moral contagion more deadly than the plague over qur towns and cities, are so hardened in crime as to be beyond the reach of Christian effort. Open the doors of our asylums, and they gladly come, though aware that their condition in these asylums is in many respects no better than that of prisoners.

They must give up for a time their liberty; they must submit to restraint and discipline; their fare is homely, and their employment constant; yet many are begging for admission, that by this means they may once more be restored to virtuous society and put in a way of obtaining their livelihood by humble industry.

Let but the hand of Christian liberality be opened, and many a wretched heart will be made glad, while the blessing of those who are ready to perish will descend, soft as the gentle dew and refreshing as the showers that water the earth.

GOD'S MESSAGE IN THE THUNDER-STORM.
66
BY THE AUTHOR OF FUTURITY," &c.

For "The Females' Advocate."

THE Voice of the thunder was heard from on high,
The lightning gleamed luridly through the dark sky,
As a destitute female bent under the storm,
And cold blew the wind on her delicate form.
'Mid the warfare of elements was there no shed,
No home in the city to shelter her head?
The morning had seen her in gaudy array
Go forth with a partner of guilt on her way.
Her spirit grew faint as the heavens did frown,
And the Angel of wrath from the skies looked down.
Her guilty companion fell prostrate-as dead,
While branded like Cain from her Maker she fled.
She fled through the tempest in horror and fear.
She dreamed in her terror that judgment was near;
She wished that her own native mountains could fall,
And cover her shame and her anguish from all.
But where could she turn her a refuge to gain
From the Lord she rejected-the Lamb that was slain?
The lightning flashed round her, the thunders rolled o'er,
As fainting she sank at a lone widow's door.
The widow was aged, the widow was poor,
But she felt both the evil of sin and its cure;

She longed the lost sheep for the shepherd to win,
And she took the poor desolate wanderer in.
The tempest had passed with the night-clouds away,
When the penitent rose at the dawning of day;
The pathway to home all heart-broken she trod,
Forgiveness to seek from her parent and God.
Her kind aged parent received her and wept;
Her God proved he mercy for thousands had kept.
The moment that freed her from Satan's control
Brought death to her body,-but life to her soul.
Consumption had stamped its dread seal on her breast ;
But calm was her passage, and sweet was her rest,
And joyful she welcomed the hour that should bring
Her justified soul to its Saviour and King.

N. B.-The above is strictly fact; but some of the particulars have been omitted from apprehension of too far intruding on the valuable pages of the Females' Advocate.

SCRIPTURE STUDIES.

No. 2.-THE CHRISTIAN CALLING.

As while we were yet enemies Christ died for us, so while yet unconverted he calls us to forsake our wicked ways, our unrighteous thoughts, and return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon us, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isa. lv. 7). But alas! of how many must God complain, "when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear" (Isa. lxv. 12), yea, "they refuse to hear" (Jer. xiii. 10).

"The hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord hath made, even both of them" (Prov. xx. 12). "My ear hast thou opened" (Ps. xl. 6), is the grateful acknowledgment of every one to whom the call of the Lord has become effectual. None but “ who is born of God heareth God's words" (John viii. 47).

<he

This calling is not vouchsafed to any on account of any thing good in them; "he called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. i. 9); it is "out of darkness' he calls us into his "marvellous light" (1 Peter ii. 9).

Nor was this gracious call confined to the Lord's ancient people. "Not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles; as he saith also in Osea, I will call those my people who were not my people, and her beloved who was not beloved" (Rom. ix. 24, 25). And whoever obeys this call receives 'remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off; even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts ii. 38, 39).

IN RELATION TO GOD.

Who can describe the blessedness of this calling? for "whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. viii. 30); not with an earthly glory, for "he calls you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. ii. 14); nor is this for a time only, for "the God of all grace hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus" (1 Peter v. 10).

Not only hath he called us "unto the fellowship of his Son (1 Cor. i. 9), but he calleth us by his own name (2 Chron. vii. 14; Jer. xv. 16), "children of the living God" (Rom. ix. 26). It is also an individual call. "I have called thee by name; thou art mine" (Isa. xliii. 1). Behold then what manner of love is this, that we should be called the sons of