Among the excellencies of the virtuous woman, we of course expect to find personal piety. This was the crowning excellence of her character; the basis and support of all her other virtues. Hence, in reference to her, it is said,-favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Whatever other qualities a woman may possess, if she is destitute of piety, her character is defective in a most material point. She needs piety to eradicate and correct the weaknesses and faults of her natural character, pride, vanity, envy, jealousy, and the like. She needs piety as a stimulus to mental improvement, and to a proper use of her time, talents, and means of doing and getting good. She needs piety to qualify her for the arduous and difficult duties of her station, and to fit her for the peculiar trials incident to her sex. And more than all, she needs piety to restore her to the image and favor of God; to make her a new creature in Christ; allied to him by a living faith, and sealed an heir of heaven. Piety, indeed, seems peculiarly designed for woman; it is eminently adapted to her character and wants, and never does she appear so amiable, so attractive, and excellent, as when an enlightened Christian piety sits enthroned in her bosom, and causes the meekness, the gentleness, the lustre of divine love and heavenly hope to beam from the eye and radiate from the countenance. How lovely is such a woman; a woman who fears the Lord and rejoices in the Saviour; whose domestic virtues are pervaded by the spirit of the Gospel ;

whose personal accomplishments are adorned by the graces of the Holy Spirit, and whose life is cheered by the presence of God and the hope of heaven? Truly such a woman is worthy of praise, and she shall be praised. External embellishments and the charms of beauty may be admired and extolled for a brief season; but they soon pass away as a fading flower; and in their best estate are utterly vain and worthless in comparison with that fear of the Lord, that true personal holiness, which is mentioned as the distinguishing excellence of the virtuous woman.

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I must notice yet another trait in the character of this woman, her charity, her beneficence. Though frugal she was not covetous; though industrious, she labored, it would seem, not to hoard up or to gratify a penurious spirit, but that she might have wherewith to relieve the wants of the needy and the suffering. She stretcheth out her hands to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. Far from confining her attention to herself or her family, she had a heart to sympathise with others, and a hand to minister to their necessities. Her own comforts and those of her household did not, as is often the case, make her the more selfish and hard-hearted, but served rather to warm and expand her benevolence, and send her forth, in the midst of all her occupations, and cares, and rank, and station, on errands of mercy among the poor and destitute. and destitute. As a woman of piety she could not but remember the source of her blessings, and her responsibility for the use she made of them; and, moved by the love of God and her species,

she pitied the sons and daughters of want, and cheerfully stretched forth the hand of beneficence to those who were in less favored circumstances than herself. This, wherever seen, is a beautiful trait in the female character. The bosom of woman, especially when animated with the love of God, is peculiarly the seat of tenderness and love, of sympathy and kindness. She has a depth of feeling, and a patience, perseverance, and readiness in ministering to the wants and woes of her race, which are peculiarly her own; and called, as she sometimes is, an angel, she never so fully exemplifies that character, or deserves that praise, as when she is seen searching out the children of distress and need, and contributing to their relief and their comfort.

Such are some of the principal characteristics of the virtuous woman; and the portrait, though very imperfectly presented, contains much, I am sure, which we must all admire and love, and wish our daughters to imitate and possess.

Let us contemplate, for a moment, the influence of this character. In this view several things are mentioned in our text which claim our special attention.

1. It is said, the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. He was not disappointed in the choice of a companion. He found his expectations realized; and such were her industry, economy, and prudence in conducting the affairs of the family, that he could trust all his domestic concerns to her, with perfect confidence, that they would be managed in the wisest

and best manner. And thus he would have no need of spoil. His property would not be wasted or squandered by the improvidence and profusion of an idle, extravagant woman; and so he be compelled to have recourse to dishonest methods of getting gain for the support of himself and household. This is a matter of serious importance. Wo to the husband who has not a wife in whom his heart can safely trust, in regard to the management of his household affairs. Many a husband has been reduced to poverty by the improvidence and unskilfulness of an ill-qualified and indolent wife; and has been driven to dishonesty and wrong doing in order to sustain what was deemed a necessary style of living. On the other hand, many a husband has been made rich in purse, happy in heart, and respected in character, all his days, by the prudence, skill and good example of his wife, in managing the interests of the household. Comfort, neatness, peace and plenty crowned his board and blessed his habitation, just because there was one presiding in his family, well qualified for her station, and with whom he could safely trust all his domestic affairs.

2. It is said of the virtuous woman, that she will do her husband good, and not evil, all the days of her life. Here is indicated permanency of affection and influence; the constancy and continued development of good and useful qualities of character. Some wives do their husbands good a little while, and evil a great while. They seem very affectionate, interesting, and amiable, during the honey-moon, or the

first few months after marriage; and then for the rest, alas! they are like springs of water, full and flowing. in the vernal season; but dry all away in the summer. And this, I suppose, is usually the case with such females as have received only a fashionable education, and whose chief recommendation is personal beauty and external embellishments. These indeed are vain and deceitful, especially when they cover a frivolous, empty mind, or a fretful, complaining temper; and the man who is deceived by them, will have time enough to repent, for he will repent all his life, after the few first days of his conjugal connection have passed by.

But the truly virtuous woman will do good and only good to her husband all the days of her life. She has substantial excellencies of character; is kind, intelligent, prudent, active, beneficent and pious; and these are qualities which do not pass away with youth and beauty, or with the fervor and rapture of first love; but they endure and brighten with growing age and passing years; the more they are seen, the more they are admired, and the more they win the confidence and love of him who is so happy as to be connected with a woman that possesses them. Amiable and interesting, of kind and excellent influence at first, she will become more and more so every year of her life; her conversation, her counsels, her example, her whole spirit, character and conduct will do her husband good, and not evil, so long as she is spared to him, his bosom companion and friend. And she will do him good, not merely in securing his