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exerts an influence upon woman's body as well as upon her soul. If
you will contrast the looks of a happy housewife or domestic with the
looks of a majority of the faces that are seen in factories, the truth
of the position taken will be abundantly sustained. It matters not so
much where the roots of woman's life-work grow, if up through it all,
and above it all, the vine may twine its tendril, and send forth its
flower, and yield its fruit. For this cause the love of Christ and
the hopes of a Christian life seem so essential to her growth and
development, that it is almost impossible to write of a happy,
contented woman, without describing a woman whose faith in Jesus has
regenerated and disinthralled her. Love is the prime requisite to
successful endeavor on a woman's part to be her husband's true
helpmeet; and so, in discharging the duties incident to a life of
toil, woman must be soothed and sustained in her tasks by the joys of
a Christian life. Hence the ruin wrought in shops and factories, in
stores, and homes where Christ is cast out, and where the bliss of
high and holy living is denied.

Woman's mission is to be inferred from a consideration of the wants of
man. Created to be a helpmeet for man, it is essential, if we would
determine her mission, that we ascertain for what purpose man needs
her influence.

God declared, "It is not good for man to be alone," and woman was
brought to him as a companion, to charm his life, to prolong it by
sharing it with him. Her vocation, by birth, is a vocation of love. To
be his helpmeet, not his rival; not to increase, but to lighten, or to
support him, under his cares; to recognize him as the immediate object
of her existence, instead of fancying that he was formed to wait on
her; this is the end for which God has called her into being. As has
been said, "This representation may not satisfy the ambition of some,
who do but degrade themselves by aspiring to occupy a position for
which they are neither intended by God nor qualified by nature,--even
as men and angels fell when they sought to become as gods,--but in
reality it tends to woman's elevation; and, as the whole history of
Christianity doth show, where its truth is most recognized and relied
upon, there woman is happiest and greatest."

The word "mission," as applied to woman, refers to the purpose for
which she was created and brought to man. In considering her mission,
we are safe in avowing that woman found