will offerings of an inventive and active regard, these extra tokens of respect, and expressions of regard, have a mighty power to attach a husband to his wife; they are the cords of love, the bands of a man. In all her personal and domestic habits, her first care then, next to that of pleasing God, must be to please him, and thus hold to herself that heart, which cannot wander from her without carrying her happiness with it, and which, when once departed, cannot be restored by any power short of omnipotence itself.

3. MEEKNESS is especially mentioned by the apostle Peter, as a disposition which it is the duty of every wife to cultivate.

He has distinguished and honored this temper by calling it the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. If there be some virtues, which seem pre-eminently to suit the female character, meekness bears a high place among such. No one stands in greater need of this disposition, than the female head of a family: either the petulance and waywardness of children, or the neglects and misconduct of servants, or the sharp words of a husband, are almost sure, if she be easily provoked, to keep her in a state of irritation all the day long. How trying is a peevish woman, how odious a brawling one. "It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman." The graces were females, says Mr. Jay, so were the furies too. It is astonishing the influence which meekness has sometimes had in a family: it has quenched sparks and even coals of anger and strife, which but for this, would have set the house on fire: it has mastered the tiger and the lion, and led them captive with the silken thread of love. The strength of woman lies not in resisting, but in yielding; her power is in her gentleness; there is more of real defence, aye and more of that aggressive operation too, which disarms a foe, in one mild look, or one soft accent, than in hours of flashing glances, and of angry tones. When amidst domestic strife she has been enabled to keep her temper, the storm has been often scattered as it rose; or her meekness has served as a conductor to carry off its dreadful flashes, which otherwise would have destroyed the dwelling.

Put on then, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Pay less attention to the decoration of the person, more to that of the mind. "Your adorning is not to be that outward adorning, of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but the "hidden man of the heart which is not corruptible." The language of another apostle on this subject is no less striking. "In like manner also, I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but which becometh women professing godliness, with good works." 1. Tim. ii. 9, 10. Two apostles, who both wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, in such language as this, have denounced as improper, and as unbecoming a profession of godliness, a taste for immodest, expensive, or decorative dress. Surely then, the subject is worthy the most serious attention of all christian females. By what sophistry can the letter, much more the spirit, of two passages of holy writ, so very plain and express in their terms as these, be set aside? That they are set aside, is evident by the appearance of almost every congregation into which we could enter on the sabbath day, whether within or without the establishment. The race of folly, one should really suppose, is at length almost run, for it does seem well nigh impossible, even by the aid of our neighbors the French, for the women of our age to render themselves more supremely ridiculous than many of them have lately appeared. What with the gaudiness of coloring, and extravagance of form, our religious assemblies present every thing at once to disgust our taste, and to distress our piety. It is high time for the christian teacher to call back the women "professing godliness," from their wanderings in the regions of fashionable folly, to the holy scriptures; for the holy scriptures it should be remembered, have laid down a law for regulating the dress of the body as well as that of the mind. I do hold then, that these passages of scripture are still parts of revelation, and as such, still binding upon the conscience: if not, show me when they were cancelled. I contend, that christian females ought to abstain from expensive, showy, and extravagant fashions in

dress, jewelry, and all kinds of personal decoration. I am not arguing for a sectarian costume, for a religious uniform, for canonical shapes and colors, nothing of the sort; but for simplicity, neatness, economy; for what the apostle calls, modest apparel, shamefacedness, and sobriety; for the spirit of the passages, if not the very letter; for a distinction between those who profess godliness, in their comparative inattention to such things, and those, who make no such profession: for a proof that their minds are not so much engaged on these matters, as the minds of the people of the world are. I am not for extinguishing taste; alas, in matters of dress, this is already done; but for resisting the lawless dominion of folly, under the name of fashion. I am not for calling back the age of gothic barbarism, or vulgarity: no, I will leave ample room for the cultivation of both taste and genius, in every lawful department; but I am protesting against the desolating reign of vanity; I am resisting the entrance of frivolity into the church of God; I am contending against the glaring inconsistency of rendering our religious assemblies like the audience convened in a theatre. The evils of an improper attention to dress are great and numerous. 1. Much precious time is wasted in the study, and arrangements, and decisions of this matter. 2. The attention is taken off from the improvement of the mind and the heart, to the decoration of the person. 3. The mind is filled with pride and vanity, and a deteriorating influence is carried on upon what constitutes the true dignity of the soul. 4. The love of display infects the character. 5. Money is wasted which is wanted for relieving the misery, and improving the condition of mankind. 6. Examples are set to the lower classes, in whom the propensity is often mischievous in many ways.

may be

I am aware it might be, and is said, that there the pride of singularity, as well as of passion: the pride of being covered with sober autumnal tints, as well as of exhibiting the brilliant hues of the rainbow; the pride of quality and of texture, as well as of color and of form. I know it; and I do not justify the one more than I do the other; I condemn all kinds; but at any rate, there is a little more dignity in one kind than in another. I will leave opportunity for the distinctions of rank, for the inventions of true taste, and for the modest unobtrusive displays of natural elegance and simple beauty, but I cannot allow the propriety of christian females yielding themselves to the guidance of fashion, however expensive, extravagant, or gaudy.

As to the employment of our artizans by the various changes of fashion; I have nothing to do with this, in face of an apostolic injunction. The silver-smiths who made shrines for the worshippers of Diana, might have pleaded the same objection against the preachers of the gospel, who certainly did, so far as they were successful, ruin this trade. I am only speaking to professors of religion, who form so small a portion of society, that their abstinence from folly would do but little in diminishing the employment of the work-people; and if it did, let them make it up in some other way. What I contend for, then, is not meanness, not ugliness, not unvarying sameness; no; but neatness opposed to gaudiness; simplicity and becomingness opposed to extravagance; modesty opposed to indelicacy; economy opposed to expensiveness. Whether what I contend for is characteristic of the age in which we live, let any spectator determine. I am anxious to see professors of religion displaying a seriousness and spirituality, a dignity and sobriety of mind, a simplicity of habits; and a sedateness of manners, becoming their high and holy profession; and all this, united with an economy in their personal expenses, which will leave them a greater fund at their disposal, for relieving the miseries, and promoting the happiness of their fellow-creatures.

But, perhaps after all, many women may plead that the gaiety and the expensiveness of their dress, is more to please their husbands than themselves: but even this

must have its limits. And I really pity the folly of that man, who concerns himself in the arrangement of his wife's wardrobe and toilette; and who would rather see her go forth in all the gorgeousness of splendid apparel, to display herself in the drawing rooms of her friends, than in dignified meekness, to visit the cottages of the poor, as the messenger of mercy: and who rejoices more to conteinplate her moving through the circles of fashion, the admiration of one sex, and the envy of the other, than to see her holding on her radiant course in the orbit of benevolence, clad in unexpensive simplicity, and with the savings of her personal expenditure, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, healing the sick; and thus bringing upon herself the blessings of him that was ready to perish, and caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

Not only the ornament, but the person which it adorns, is corruptible. Accident may distort the finest form, diseases fade the loveliest coloring, time disfigure the smoothest surface, and death, the spoiler of beauty, work a change so awful and appalling, as to turn away the most impassioned admirers in disgust. How soon

will every other dress be displaced by the shroud, and every other decoration be stripped off to make way for the flowers that are strewed in the coffin upon the corpse, as if to hide the deformity of death. But the graces of the heart, and the beauties of the character, are imperishable; such let a wife be continually seeking to put on ; for she that has a wise husband, must entice him to an eternal dearness, by the veil of modesty, and the robes of chastity, the ornaments of meekness, and the jewels of faith and charity; she must have no paint but blushings; her brightness must be her purity, and she must shine round about with sweetnesses and friendship, and then she shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies."

5. Economy and Order in the management of her personal and domestic expenditure, is the obvious duty of a wife.

You are to preside in the direction of household affairs; and much of the prosperity and comfort of the little community will depend upon your skilful and pru