you are praying at them, and not that you are praying to God.

But these are mere superficial elements. The rousing of the mothers and wives and sisters in our land to the consciousness that it is intemperance which strikes most painfully upon them, and that they have something to do with the destroying of it-this I consider to be beyond all valuation. And it is not going to stop with temperance. The day is passed when a woman will think that her face must be veiled. The day is passed when a woman will be taught that her only business is to rock the cradle, and not, when the cradle has been rocked, to go out with her son, and be his companion and helper in everything he does which is lawful and right. The day of the estrangement of women from the works of Christianity in our time is passed, and you will never see again any great movement going on in this land in which women will not more and more be participants. You may not like it; but God does not ask men what they like. You may not approve of it; but your children will. There will come a time, within a hundred years, and a great deal sooner than that, when men will scarcely believe the truth in respect to our present doctrines in regard to a woman's function in life-when they will look upon it as to-day you look upon the veiled wives in the harem. They will not believe that it was possible for the sons of the Pilgrims, who were so enlightened in respect to the liberty of men, to have been in such obscurity in regard to the power and liberty of women. Therefore I am glad to see this great outbreak, though there is much in it which I do not think will have any particular effect on the temperance cause, since it is evident to me that it will have a powerful effect on the cause of woman. I hail it; for now, if a woman may go out, and a Presbyterian minister may go with her, and sing and pray and exhort in front of a grog-shop by the hour, day in and day out; if she is ordained by him, quo ad hoc (this is an ecclesiastical phrase, which I do not interpret), then she may do other things also; such as praying in a conference-room and exhorting in a meeting, if she has anything to say. Was there ever such a piece of Pharisaism as has been exhib

ited on account of a woman's speaking in meeting? They set her to teaching in the school, but when she presumes to teach in the conference meeting, they quote Paul as forbidding a woman to speak! They make her a missionary, and send her, under a Board of Direction, to teach the heathen; but she must not speak in a Presbyterian church at home, because Paul forbade it! They give her the amplest education, they give her the ability and capacity to do things which men can do; and then they stop up her mouth with a text, as if it were contrary to the Spirit of God for her to employ her talents.

Now, I hold that a woman has a right to do anything that she can do well, and that it is proper to do at all. I do not say that every woman is bound to speak-every man, thank God, is not bound to speak-but when by her birthright she is capacitated to speak, it is right that she should speak. I hold that in Jesus Christ there is neither male nor female; that men and women stand alike; and that it is right for a woman under given circumstances to do what it is right for a man to do under the same circumstances.

Looking upon the movement which is taking place in regard to temperance, as I do with great interest, while I do not think that in any form in which it has developed itself it is going to have much influence, I can see that, in a form which has not been contemplated, it is going to have a great deal of influence; and I trust that from this time forth the women in every Christian Church will feel that they are personally responsible for the progress of the temperance work ; and that by prayer, at home and in meetings by themselves, and by forth-puttings in various ways, they will help us to roll on the blessed car of reformation.

Give us this woman-element. We do not want women to become men; we want them to remain women, and to furnish that love, that disinterestedness, that benevolence, that zeal and enthusiasm, which we lack, but which they never lack.

So I hope we shall make headway, in our day and generation, against the manufacture and sale of intoxicating drinks, and all those influences of social bias and fashion which are

leading so many men into ways which at first are simply convivial, but which afterwards become ways of dissipation, and of final degradation and utter destruction.

In closing these remarks on this general subject, let me say a single word to those who are already in the indulgence of drinking habits, not as your censor, not as your master or lord, but as your friend, as your brother, as your pastor-if you be of this flock. Let me put it to every man in this presence to-night: Would it not be better for you, for your health, for your peace of mind, and for the comfort of those that are around about you, if you abstained entirely from drinking habits? If you take comfort in drinking you ought to leave it off, because you are in danger; and if you do not take . comfort in it, you ought to give it up on the ground of manliness and of kindness to those who are around about you. You ought to do it on the general ground of prudence. And on the grounds of manliness and kindness and prudence, as a matter of duty, may I not exhort you to take a step in advance?

Will not my years now justify me in addressing the young as a father? and may I not exhort those who have never yet touched the intoxicating cup to come up with unpolluted lips? May I not exhort you to turn your back upon vulgar pleasure, and live in manly habits of virtue, of self-restraint, and of that which God gives to every man by which to keep these temples of the Holy Ghost pure? There are no joys that come from convival and dissipating habits which are to be compared with those which come from the throb of absolute health.

Seek health. Seek it by the way of virtue and manliness. Put far from you the cup. Do not allow your pleas ures to run in directions which separate you from your kindred and companions. Cling to your household. Love your father and mother, and brothers and sisters. Love your wife, if you stand in the marital connection. Stand strong at home. Bring your pleasures there; or, take your household with you if you go out for pleasure. Stand together, and stand by one another's light and strength.

May God keep away from you the blight in yourselves;

and as you grow up to be parents, may he, in his infinite mercy, deliver you from the anguish of seeing those whom you have borne and reared through years of anxiety smitten down and swept away by the fiery scourge.

And as you see those who are struggling with temptations around about you, be generous toward them; give them a helping hand; be full of sympathy for them; do what in you lies to save them; bear with them if they stumble after reformation, and lift them up. Never give up a man. As long as there is life in him, help him; even if your helping him does not do him any good, it will do you good.

And may God, at last, bring us all into his kingdom. May he purify our hearts, and justify our lives, so that at length we may stand in the blessedness of the life to come, without fear, without temptation, and without sin.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

WE beseech of thee, our Father, to grant us that inspiration by which all that is like thee in us may rise into power, that we may discern thy presence. By our inward sensibility, by all those affectious in us which rise at thy call, by a heart that is itself disposed to cry out, Abba Father, by trust, by love, by hope, by peace, may we discern thy presence. May we not seek the soul's companionship according to the thoughts and the ways of the body, as if only they were near us whom we can see, and as if the best part of our life and nature could be discerned by the senses. Grant, we pray thee, that our souls may learn to recognize the invisible world, and the helps which belong to our lower life. May we rise into the confidence of thine existence, and into full trust and absorbing love. Forgive those things which are faulty and sinful in our dispositions. Have compassion upon those things which come from our infirmities, from our weakness and from our inexperience. Whether they be sinful or not, grant that deliverance from on high by which we may be borne safely through. From day to day may we gain in strength, in knowledge, in virtue, in patience, in fidelity, in all that makes us Christ-like. We pray that thou wilt help those who are discouraged, and cause them, though they go slowly, to feel that they are in the right way so long as they are serving thee. Have compassion upon those who are as men traveling in a darkened night, and whose doubts and fears are more than their joys. Have compassion upon those who meet with stormy times; who are often overwhelmed and carried away, though they fain would pursue the right way.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt be near all the children of night, and all that are captives. Unbind them, and open their prison doors, and bring them forth.

May those who have consecrated their youth to thee, and who stand in primal strength, unperverted, not be vain and proud, nor glory in their own power, nor in their own goodness. May they know that it is the grace of God, diffused through their parents, and through their households, and through all their education and circumstances, that has upheld and is upholding them. And we beseech of thee that they may feel themselves to be accountable for nobler fruit and larger exertion than those who combat with evil in themselves, and exhaust their forces in restraining their tendencies toward evil, lest they be utterly overthrown. We pray that thou wilt grant to all those who have had the true ideal of life administered to them, to those who have risen to the Mount of Vision, to those who have discerned the great world beyond, and felt its inspiration and help, by which they may bring hither, by a blessed impartation to their souls, the truths of that upper realm. Are there not many that are ordained to be comforters who do not exercise their gifts? Are there not many that are sent to be lightbearers who let men walk in darkness because they will not let their light shine? Are there not those who sit to be fed who should feed others? Are there not many that are forever asking and seldom giving?