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"Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.

"When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

"Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."-JOHN XIX. 25-27.

THIS is the record of one of the most instructive and thrilling incidents in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unrelated and alone, it is the simple narrative of the dying solicitude of a son for a kind and dependent parent. But clothed with the drapery of those sublime events which environed the cross of Calvary, it glows with divine beauty and majesty; it becomes voiceful and authoritative for every child of Adam who hangs his immortal hopes on that cross.

This event occurred at this world's historical and moral meridian; at that fulness of time, of which prophets wrote and poets sung; that glorious advent of light and hope and salvation, for which kings legislated and good men prayed; but

"Which kings and prophets waited for,

And sought, but never found."

Four thousand dark and gloomy years of human history had rolled away. Generation after generation had swept across this narrow earth to a doubtful destiny. Revolution after revolution had changed the face of society. The whole world had sighed and cried under the burden of human misery, with no hope of relief! Every experiment of self-emancipation and improvement which long life, family attachment, political policy and

cultivated intellect could devise, had been thoroughly tried, and signally failed. The world groaned on, bleeding, rent, and wretched, till the Star of Bethlehem lighted it to the only source of help and salvation. Human influences had approached a grand crisis. Social institutions seemed to be worn out, and ready to vanish away. The old structure seemed tottering on its rotten foundations, and ready to crush all who trusted themselves to its protection. Men were every where dissatisfied with their religions, hailing every one that cried "Lo here” or “Lo there," looking in despair for some trustful guide in the thickening gloom.

The lines of ancient prophecy began to converge to a point. New expectation and promise were awakened.

That point gathered brightness like the morning dawn, till a blazing sun arose, heralded by the day-star that directed the Eastern Magi to Jerusalem. That child was born who was to be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace !"

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The Saviour of the world had almost accomplished his wondrous mission. He was just about to offer that "one sacrifice," by which he hath "perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

It was high noon in Judea. The holy city slept in the calm brightness of a tropical springtime. Its eager population had that day been convulsed with excitement since the early dawn, and their tired passions had lulled to a temporary repose. The morning sun had shone upon the wretched farce of our Saviour's trial. His reckless condemnation and cruel crucifixion quickly followed. For three dreadful hours already had the Son of God hung naked and shelterless upon a barbarous cross without the gate. Petrified with astonishment and grief, his few friends were gazing upon that strange, sad spectacle-a helpless, silent, suffering God! There he hangs before the sun, stretched on the fatal wood, writhing, gasping, fainting! They look to see him die ! His work is done; his sufferings almost ended! "Will he speak again?" ask the terrified women at the foot of the cross. "Oh! will he not give us one parting look-one dying counsel-one more blessed communication from the very confines of that immortal state which he has brought to light ?"

Yes! despairing disciples, once more he will speak; his very last instruction for a waiting world is yet to fall from his lips! Behold, once more his eyes are opening; they beam with dying brilliancy and compassion; they are fixed on his human mother and upon his dearest disciple. His quivering lips begin to move; hearken! "Woman, behold thy son! Disciple, behold thy mother!" Lo, the bright sun is suddenly eclipsed! Noon-day is shrouded in utter night! The heavens put on deep sackcloth! Animated nature is arrested in its meridian activity. A silent, thoughtful, astonished world pauses, while the Son of God expires!

After such a scene as this, who can doubt the propriety of assigning females a high rank in all our Christian regards? We are accustomed to attach a sacred value to the dying counsels of a friend. There is something solemn, almost divine, in the faint whisperings that echo back to us from the confines of another world. We bend our ears reverently to catch the latest accents that come up from the dim valley of death, as our friends. lose themselves in its impenetrable darkness. Oh! what veneration and solemn authority should be attached to the dying words of the Son of God!

He had revealed great and precious truths, reaching up to the Throne of God, and on to an endless Future, and grasping the inconceivable destinies of Immortality! During his last Passover he had unbosomed himself to his disciples, and introduced them to some of the deep mysteries of godliness. He was with them alone, and during several swift, precious hours, he conversed with them as companions and brethren-instructing, warning, and encouraging them-girding their souls for their baptism of suffering. His omniscient eye swept down the stream of human events, and fastened upon all his disciples, and he uttered glorious promises for them all.

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In Gethsemane he was with them also alone. Midnight had thrown its solemn pall over that slumbering Olivet; but He could not rest. His own crushing sorrows absorbed his attention, and he could only utter the significant warning, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." These thrilling instructions possess to every mind sublimer sacredness, in consequence of the touching circumstances under which they were uttered. But the words of our text fell from the lips of our Saviour at the most awful moment of his earthly career. iniquities of a world hung on his soul; the agonies of crucifixion racked his body; the bitterness of death began to be tasted, and the shadow of its cold wings rested upon his bosom. A sympathizing cloud eclipsed the light of mid-day, and a darker hidingplace had concealed the radiance of his Father's smiles. In that hour of pain and dread and crushing sorrow, he turned a benignant smile upon his mother, and made provision for her temporal necessities! This was the crowning act of his natural life. The last words which Jesus Christ, as a man, ever addressed to mortals, were employed to bless and honor a woman! It was an act full of instruction and authority for all his disciples. It has set the seal of his religion for ever upon female elevation, protection, and pious regard.

Alas! that an apology should ever be necessary for treating half the race as rational creatures. But so it is. During nearly the whole of human history, the female sex has been placed in a adly false position. Tyrannized over as slaves in all barbarous ommunities; subjected to humiliation, caprice, and all name

less miseries, wherever polygamy has prevailed; degraded to an inferior rank, and compelled to minister to the sordid pleasures of man, during every phase of Oriental civilization; idolized as a toy, or clothed with the unreal and super-human qualities of romance by the chivalry of Europe; females have hardly yet attained their proper rank and influence as Christian companions and helpers in every good work.

The elevation and influence of woman is the exact measure of Christian civilization, and of human advancement. Whatever may serve to indicate her destiny, and furnish any stimulant to her improvement, should possess deep interest to every friend of God and lover of his race.

It will be the simple object of this discourse to discuss THE CLAIMS OF CHRISTIANITY UPON FEMALES, and THEIR RANK AND

MISSION UNDER THE GOSPEL.

I. Females owe their ELEVATION and COMFORT entirely to the Christian religion. This fact, whenever it is apprehended, must present the claim of gratitude in all its breadth and distinctness.

What might have been the exact relation of the sexes to each other if the race had never sinned, it is not very easy to determine. The paradisiacal history of man is too meagre to furnish any certain data. Our great epic poet has drawn a delightful picture of that blessed experience; but he has evidently borrowed his tintings from the history of a fallen world. It is true, the first human pair wore the image of their glorious Maker:

"Both

Not equal, as their sex not equal, seemed:
For contemplation he, and valor formed;
For softness she, and sweet attractive grace.
He for God only; she for God in him:
His fair large front, and eye sublime, declared
Absolute rule.

She, as a veil down to her slender waist,
Her unadorned, golden tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved,
As the vine curls her tendrils, which implied
Subjection; but required with gentle sway,
And by her yielded; by HIM best received."

There are probably no sexes among other orders of intelligent beings; and this marked earthly distinction seems not to be recognized in our immortal condition. "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are givenin marriage." The "hundred and forty-four thousand" whom John saw standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion were "virgins ;" but they had been redeemed from the earth, and are, in the record itself, of the masculine gender. In this apostate and trial world, woman has been placed in subjection to the other sex; of this there can be no doubt. The law is perfectly explicit. The words of the original curse were, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over

thee." The apostle Paul, enforcing this law, gives four reasons why women should be in subjection:

1. "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man."

2. "Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man."

3. "For Adam was first formed, then Eve."

4. "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."

"Three of these reasons," it has been justly said, "were in full force before she sinned; therefore, what they were adduced to prove, namely, her subjection, must have been in force before the fall." The conclusion is inevitable. "The grounds and reasons of her subjection are drawn from the manner of her creation, and lie in the very nature of woman, as distinguished ftom man." The fact itself, sustained by both nature and revelation, has been uniform and conspicuous during the whole of human history. The authorized subjection of woman, like every other Divine arrangement, has been shockingly abused; and ages of gloom and sorrow, for the female race, have dragged through their weary cycles. Reckless violence soon succeeded the expulsion from Paradise. Cain, the first-born of our fallen parents, became a cold-blooded fratricide, and his descendants, for many ages, dissolute and lawless sinners. Polygamy was soon introduced, and female oppression became almost universal. The writer of the Pentateuch has preserved a fragment of antediluvian poetry, which sheds melancholy light upon the manners of men and the condition of females in the fifth generation of our race:

"Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech,
Hearken unto my speech!

I have slain a man to my wounding,
And a young man to my hurt:

If Cain shall be avenged seven fold,

Truly Lamech seventy-and-seven fold."

This glimpse of social life in that age, incidentally given, reveals to us polygamy, female oppression, and social violence as common on the earth.

This universal oppression of woman was but partially relieved during the continuance of the patriarchial age and institutions. Religious feelings were all feeble; religious truth was choked by that powerful Oriental influence by which it was surrounded. The stamp of antediluvian wickedness, and the recklessness of those rebels who built the tower of Babel, seem to have impressed themselves upon Asiatic civilization in all ages. In all that protracted and unparalleled corruption woman has ever been the greatest sufferer. Even yet she has never attained to her proper dignity and privileges in any of those storied lands. Still the true religion has shed the only light that gilds the page

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