nst the worldliness which might
beset me in London. Her manner of addressing me was like one who is
commissioned with a message which must be spoken with plainness and
sincerity. After this the whole circle kneeled, and she offered prayer.
I was somewhat painfully impressed with her evident fragility of body,
compared with the enthusiastic workings of her mind.

In the course of the conversation she inquired if I was going to
Ireland. I told her, yes, that was my intention. She begged that I would
visit the western coast, adding, with great feeling, "It was the
miseries which I saw there which have brought my health to the state it
is." She had travelled extensively in the Southern States, and had, in
private conversation, been able very fully to bear her witness against
slavery, and had never been heard with unkindness.

The whole incident afforded me matter for reflection. The calling of
women to distinct religious vocations, it appears to me, was a part of
primitive Christianity; has been one of the most efficient elements of
power in the Romish church; obtained among the Methodists in England;
and has, in all these cases, been productive of great good. The
deaconesses whom the apostle mentions with honor in his epistle, Madame
Guyon in the Romish church, Mrs. Fletcher, Elizabeth Fry, are instances
which show how much may be done for mankind by women who feel themselves
impelled to a special religious vocation.

The Bible, which always favors liberal development, countenances this
idea, by the instances of Deborah, Anna the prophetess, and by allusions
in the New Testament, which plainly show that the prophetic gift
descended upon women. St. Peter, quoting from the prophetic writings,
says, "Upon your sons and upon your daughters I will pour out my spirit,
and they shall prophesy." And St. Paul alludes to women praying and
prophesying in the public assemblies of the Christians, and only enjoins
that it should be done with becoming attention to the established usages
of female delicacy. The example of the Quakers is a sufficient proof
that acting upon this idea does not produce discord and domestic
disorder. No class of people are more remarkable for quietness and
propriety of deportment, and for household order and domestic
excellence. By the admission of this liberty, the world is now and then
gifted with a woman like Elizabeth Fry, while the family state loses
none of its security and sacredness. No one in our da