Hang this sweet picture, from your necks, my daugh ters. Imprint it on your hearts. Live yourselves into it. Be not the butterflies of fashion. Be not that lowest reach of our humanity, mere women of the world. Let home content you, as your empire. Home duties occupy your minds. Home pleasures satisfy your hearts. Study the Marys of the Scripture. With the one, find yourselves often at the feet of Jesus.

With the other,

So shall you re

keep His sayings ever in your heart. alize, to all who love you, and who live upon your love, the breathing picture of the Poet, as perfect women, nobly planned. So shall you earn, through the abounding grace of Christ, that record, above every record, that was ever traced on earth: "Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

II.

THE SECOND ADDRESS,

*TO THE GRADUATING CLASS AT ST. MARY'S HALL.

THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN.

My children, you have completed the studies, you have fulfilled the discipline, you have sustained the examinations of St. Mary's Hall; and you have received the testimonial of our satisfaction, with full and fervent commendation "to the favour and blessing of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." You are not to look on this transaction, as one that shall dissolve the bond of love, which has knit us so long in one. We still regard you, and shall ever claim you as our daughters. Should you return to us, to carry on the education, which earth can but begin, we shall receive you with a hearty welcome, as children that return to their own father's house. Wherever you may go, we shall go with you, with our love and prayers. We shall rejoice to hear that you are happy. We shall mingle tears with yours, when sorrow shall befal you. We shall

* March 30, A. D. 1846.

pursue you with a blessing; and our fondest wish shall be, to be remembered in your prayers. Dear children, sense and sight are but the accidents of our mortality. The heart takes in all space; takes in all time. No seas can separate, no mountains can divide, congenial souls. We follow our beloved upon wings that vie with steam. We send our thoughts where magnetism fails to come. We compass earth with sympathies. We mount to heaven, and bear them up with prayers.

Go where you will, my children, you will bear us with yourselves. You will be everywhere regarded as the daughters of ST. MARY'S HALL. True hearts, that never saw her walls, will welcome you, for Jesus' sake. Eyes will be brightened at the name, and hands will grasp you with a kindlier and more cordial greeting. For the love of Christ is stronger than the holiest bond of nature and the conviction that this Institution is a Christian nursery, favoured and blessed of God, has spread as widely as its name is known; and the broad circle broadens every year. Into your faithful hands, dear daughters, with your loving hearts, I cheerfully commit her honour, and repose her interests. You have made good use of your opportunities. You have taken kindly to our discipline. You have entwined the best affections of your hearts with ours. I am a man of many toils and many cares-nothing compared with those which holier men than I have borne, in every age, for the same holy cause-and, oftentimes, the load of toil and care, the anxious thought, the unequal strife, the unkind return, the yoke that galls the neck, the

load that wears the brain, the iron that divides the soul, combine to overtask and crush the man. But, when I catch the sunlight of your smile; when the sweet music of your voices falls upon my ear; when I am met with words and looks of love, that carry all your heart out with them, and take mine all back, I lose the sense of weariness: I wonder that I ever thought of carefulness; I cast the load from off me; and stand up, erect and square, a match for mountains, and the master of myself. For I look out upon the face of human life. I see what our poor fallen nature is. I see what medicine it needs. And, measuring, then, your influence for good with other hearts, by their electric power with mine, I feel, that, had I asked of God His choicest gift of service for mankind, I could have asked nothing to compare with that which you may be, as Christian daughters, Christian sisters, Christian women, to console, to cheer, to elevate, to dignify, to bless your kind. It is as Christian women that you are to do it. Beauty of person will attract. Grace of manners will commend. The force of intellect will command respect. Store of attainments will secure applause. But that which shall take hold of human nature; that which shall have influence with the age; that which shall bless society and make it better; that which shall swell the triumphs of the Church; that which shall gain new trophies for the CROSS; that which shall charm the earth; that which shall shine in heaven; must come of Christian character, and be the work of Christian influence.

And, never is Christian character so lovely, and never is Christian influence so powerful, for good, as when it wins its gentle way-pervading like the light, distilling like the dew-in all the nameless graces, the uncounted charities, the unconscious charms, the irresistible attrac tions of a modest, gentle, faithful, loving, holy, CHRISTIAN WOMAN. I sketch her to you as a poet of our own* has sketched one, and would have you frame yourselves upon her model.

"Great feelings hath she of her own,
Which lesser souls may never know,

God giveth them to her alone,

And sweet they are as any tone

Wherewith the wind may choose to blow.

"Yet, in herself she dwelleth not,

Although no home were half so fair;

No simplest duty is forgot,

Life hath no dear and lonely spot,

That does not in her sunshine share.

"She doeth little kindnesses,

Which most leave undone or despise;
For naught that sets one heart at ease,
And giveth happiness or peace,

Is low-esteemed in her eyes.

"She hath no scorn of common things,
And though she seem of other birth,
Round us her heart entwines and clings,
And patiently she folds her wings,

To tread the humble paths of earth.

* Lowell.