The A what is good, she would reap her reward in due time. old simple story of a smile, may not be out of place here. woman who lived very unhappily with her husband, came to a great divine to ask his counsel. "Always meet your husband with a smile," said the wise man. She followed his advice, and very soon returned to thank him for the blessing of a happy home. Whenever a home landscape is dreary, and its horizon clouded, we believe that it proceeds not so much from the storms of man's petulance and unreasonableness, as because woman has forgotten to draw a sunbeam from the Sun of Righteousness. In home work it must ever be borne in mind, that it is but a home for a little while, and that the chief object of the Home Missionary is to lead those who now circle the board and the nearth to seek the things that are above, and to form a family and a home in heaven. Often the Lord calls one of a household, and when He has engaged that heart to follow Him, He sends it home to tell what great things the Lord has done. Not always, however, is the report listened to. There may be long years of indifference, and diminished affection, and scorn, and even persecution; but let such a solitary one take courage. Let her pray unwearied the prayer of faith; and while never yielding one iota of principle, let her cultivate every iota of tenderness ; let her preach silent sermons of example, and speak judicious words of precept. God will yet set her in a family of grace. The light will yet shine upon the hearts that have had light close to them though they acknowledged it not. The prayer for all those life-relations which our Lord himself Banctioned and enjoyed, will yet be answered far more abundantly than we can ask or think. VI. SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. "The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord."-1 Cor. vii. 34. "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."-PROV. Xxxi. 30. > "Gather thou not together in a net, The love, the strength, the work which God hath set For the wide household of the earth.-Go forth, Free and unfettered, east, west, south, and north; No symbol but the inner Cross of Faith, No rules but what the Lord Jehovah saith; Go forth, work cheerily, love divinely, raise The Woman's Mission' of thy woman's heart." fill up the picture. yet unreached. IN addressing social and home workers, we have hitherto supposed them to occupy distinct "niches" in society,—their work to be fully defined, and their hearts cheered by love and appreciation. Something more, however, is wanted to There is a class yet unspoken to-hearts There are those who have no home, or but a solitary one, whose portion in society is peculiarly one of neglect and insignificance. Take woman in all her phases, with one exception, and she is surrounded by a halo of interest and sympathy. The young and the lovely are ever the beloved. Many rise up around the wife and the mother, and call her blessed. The aged woman is a link to other times, and her words are listened to with reverence and respect. But from the single woman d'une certaine âge, are withheld the interest which it is inherent in her sex to covet, and the sympathy which she more than ever requires. Behind her are the sorrows and severings of the past, before her the waste and desolate places whence the sunshine has faded. There are several characteristics, or rather pronenesses, in woman, that render her peculiarly alive to the trials of such a position. Prone to make idols and to find them clay, her first real conviction that there are no idols that will not break, severs her heart from its refuges like a nestless bird. Prone, too, to faint and fail when the trial is petty and ignoble, she suffers acutely from the daily darts of neglect and ridicule, and from the departure of those attractions which once procured attention and consideration. Because she can no longer pour forth the full affluence of prized affection, she takes it for granted that she need bestow no love, and cultivate no sympathy. Much has been said and written upon this subject, and yet we have sometimes felt as if women thus isolated, were still left tossing in a rudderless vessel on a strange ocean,-told, indeed, that land lay near, but unable to distinguish it,-informed of the work before them, without having it clearly defined,-bid to be of good cheer, without the tenderness and sympathy which the intricacies of their position peculiarly demand. Our intention is, simply, to offer a few practical and suggestive hints to single women, how they may best put their shoulder to the wheel their hearts to the work set before them, thus becoming - "God's operatives," instead of spending money for that which is not bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not. For this work, apparently so solitary, many of the elements of social and home work are required. The single woman must, more than any other, struggle against the law of self, for her toil is not for the near and the dear; it may not be met with love, and may fail in calling forth affection; it is for those, connected with her by the wide, though unseen, family tie, which makes all mankind her brothers and her sisters. Whenever a single woman resolutely devotes herself to the service of God in all its parts, she must become fully assured of her own position of its strength, its dignity, and its advantages. She must remember that it is her portion,-spoken of by the Apostle with respect and admiration,to serve the Lord "without careful ness. She must take to herself the encouragement, that even the solitary and the unappreciated has more weight in the social economy of the times than she has hitherto dreamed of; and that though her place and her influence may be as unmarked as the dew of the forest, or as the star of the galaxy, yet, if she fulfil not her mission, there will be a diminution of the strength and the light of society. The mission of the single woman is, in a great measure, to her own sex. There is a reproach hanging over it, which she alone can take away. God has bestowed upon woman independent gifts and graces wherewith she may bring glory to Him. Forming so large a portion of society, it would have been inconsistent with His tender wisdom, had He left woman, when independent of man, a useless cipher, a discontented and objectless being. To look attentively upon society, however, it might be supposed that marriage is the great end of life, and that the unmarried have failed in the great mission intended for them. Their name and position are considered legitimate objects of raillery and ridicule, to escape from which many a woman is driven to attempt to "establish herself in life," as it is called -equally degrading, whether successful or the reverse. Whenever a single woman so lives as to rebut these calumnies and disprove this necessity, she is doing a great work; when she is seen to be loved, and occupied, and happy, and respected, she is encouraging her sisterhood to be so likewise. She is a practical warning against the yoke of joyless and uncompanionable marriage, hastily assumed to escape from a position which she has proved capable of being a joyful and useful one. She is an example of the needlessness of entering those conventual establishments, half-way between England and Rome, where women, fleeing from their single responsibilities, may set themselves where God has not set them-in families-or, weary of social insignificance, may place themselves upon a pinnacle. The Another portion of social work belongs peculiarly to the "old maid." It is hers to redeem her sisters from the imputation of being peculiarly guilty of "idle words," harsh judgments, and a proverbially strict surveillance over others. heart that does not go out in love, will not feed upon itself alone, it will unlovingly press upon those around. The thoughts that do not perform their holy mission of meditating good for others, will become receptacles of envy, hatred, and uncharitable ness-the words that are not sanctified, will speak but of gossip and censoriousness. Every time, therefore, that the single woman, both by precept and example, attempts to stem and sweeten the waters of Marah, and to lead her sisters to perform the gentle charities of life, and to speak of things of beauty, and joy, and goodness, instead of the exaggerated story--the evil motive taken from their own hearts,* imputed and discussed, she is doing no ignoble work for God: she is proving "that there is nothing on earth more tender than a woman's heart when it is the abode of piety." As we have hinted above, "Thought Work," as it may be designated, must be combined with the single women's social vocation. That it is a work of no small moment, we may gather from the beautiful prayer of David the king: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee."-1 Chron. xxix. 18. This is indeed a work for all classes, and for all individuals; but upon whom can it be so forcibly urged as upon those who are emphatically "dwellers alone," and to whom, for long periods, the inner world of thought is their principal scene of action? There is a beautiful and well-known hymn, each verse of which commences with these words," Speak gently;" but "Think gently," would go more to the root of the evil. How frequently the lonely one brooding over an imaginary insult, or a pardonable omission, instead of being "To her neighbours' faults a little blind,. becomes additionally clear-sighted to their faults, and peculiarly blinded to her own! How often the train of exaggerated and censorious thought goes on, gathering material like a snowball, till the heart, which might be warm with love to friend, sister, and neighbour, is cold and hard- -the very antipodes to the heart which "thinketh no evil, and is not easily provoked!" Till the chambers of thought are purified, warmed, and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, the outward conversation will never * "Self-knowledge makes us uncharitable."- Mason, |