ubt as we may, the comparative strength or
capabilities of any other portion of her nature, as related to man, in
the possessions of the heart, no man can contest the ascendancy with
woman. She is naturally less selfish than man. She can, if she will but
obey her best impulses, rise to the loftiest heights of Christian
excellence. And, if serious impediments oppose her progress, on herself,
her own culpableness, not on her nature, must each consequent failure be
charged.

Another characteristic of our religion is its call for what have
sometimes been termed the passive virtues, fortitude, submission,
patience, resignation. The acquisition of these qualities is to man a
most arduous task. He can toil, and struggle, and resist. In scenes of
active effort, and strong conflict, he is at home. But his power of
endurance is by no means commensurate with these traits. In woman they
find a congenial spirit, a heart open, and waiting for their
reception.--"Those disasters," says an elegant writer, "which break down
and subdue the spirit of man, and prostrate him in the dust, seem to
call forth all the energies of the softer sex, and give such intrepidity
and elevation to their character, that at times, it approaches to
sublimity." Who does not perceive that this sex enjoys pre-eminent
advantages for the culture of that spiritual union with God required of
the Christian? And in sustaining the ordinary trials of our lot, as
social beings; in cherishing forbearance toward the unjust, kindness to
the thankless, and love toward those who inflict personal injuries,
woman is endowed by her Maker with a divine power.

3. The History of this sex is a still farther testimony to their moral
capacities. We have examples of illustrious female virtue in the annals
of the Patriarchs, as Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel. In Holy Writ, we read
also of Miriam and Deborah; and the picture left us by Solomon, of "a
virtuous woman," evinces not only the existence, but the appreciation of
a true woman, by some in those early ages.

If we turn to the records of heathen nations, we find them occupied,
when they speak of this sex, almost universally, in describing rare
cases of personal prowess or physical conquests. The wealth of Babylon
was such, and its advancement in science and refinement so great, that
we may presume the female character to have been more elevated, than in
savage countries. There was a true moral courage in that act recorded of
the P