thee to forget thy God, to wander from the path of duty, how alluring soever it may seem, how much soever it may promise, it is only an ugly devil in a beauteous form! For God is thy best, thy truest friend! His will thy sublimest privilege, thy most imperious duty! His favor is thy surest protection, His service thy noblest mission! Oh, woman! remember that every element within, that leads thee away from thy God, is an element of danger! Trust not in thine own strength as Eve did! Say not in scorn of Eve's weakness, that hadst thou been her, the temptation of that forbidden tree had been resisted, its fruit remained untouched for ever! By that very self-reliant thought, Eve's sin is developed within thee, and thou art as likely as she, to fall before the first assault of her wily tempter! III. It teaches a lesson concerning woman's influence. God intended she should exert a powerful influence in the world. How inconceivably vast has been that of the first woman! In a measure, my friends, the same law pertains to you. Are you a wife, as Eve was? Then you are either a blessing or a curse to your husband; you either lighten his toils or make them heavier; you make his home a heaven or a hell; you make him a better man or a worse one; call out his higher nature or his lower. For many a man's poverty his wife is responsible; for many a man's dissipation, his wife may blame herself. And for what many men are, in their high position and lofty character, they are indebted to their wives. "The treasures of the deep are not so precious as are the concealed comforts of a man, locked up in woman's love." Are you a mother, as Eve was! Who shall tell the extent of your influence upon your children! Are you sisters? Have you brothers? Your love may shield them, your companionship elevate and ennoble them! The merciful God grant that Eve's biography, with its lessons on woman's position, woman's danger, and woman's influence, may be sanctified to your permanent good. SARAH, The Deferential life. 1 Peter 3: 6. “Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham—calling him Lord." It is an interesting fact, that in the history of the first two thousand years of the world, we find the name of no woman prominent after Eve. The first female after the "mother of all living," to whom prominence is givên, is "Sarah, the wife of Abram." There are three facts which invest her biography with interest. One is, her relation to Abraham, the first patriarch after the flood-the greatest man of his age. We feel, that a woman, whose influence over a man like Abraham, possessed of all the elements of greatness: great in physical might, insomuch that with his own household he subdued kings with their hosts: great in material possessions, great in magnanimity, insomuch that he refused the offers of the king of Sodom, and manifested towards Lot more than fraternal generosity: great in the dignity conferred upon him by God and angels: great in position—the literal father of a mighty ṇation, and the spiritual father of all believers in Christ, whose descendant he was, according to the flesh and finally, great in his relations to the future world, for the Jew called Heaven "Abraham's bosom," and our Saviour, speaking of it, said, Many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;" we feel, I say, that a woman who sustained the relation of wife to such a man, and whose influence over him was so great, must have possessed a character worthy of our attention. her. 66 The second fact is, the honor God conferred upon Her name originally was "Sarai," which means my lady," "my princess;" but when He revealed to Abram that his posterity should be as numerous as the stars-that myriad host, the burning blazonry of heaven-and therefore changed his name from "Abram," which means "Prince," to "Abraham," which means "father of many nations," He also changed her name to "Sarah," which means "princess of a multitude." The prophet Isaiah also makes most honorable mention of her name, in connection with that of Abraham-"Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you.” The third fact is, that if Eve was the literal mother of the race, Sarah may be regarded as sustaining a similar spiritual relation to it for through her the Eden promise was fulfilled concerning the seed that should bruise the serpent s head. From her line came the second Adam, who, on the heights. of Calvary, met and overcame the fiend-foe, that on the plains of Eden, conquered our first parents. The apostle Peter, addressing Christian females, speaking of Sarah, says, "whose daughters ye are.” Paul, too, registers her name in the galaxy of those who obtained a good report through faith, and who compose the great cloud of witnesses, beholding from their spheres of light, the progress of Christians as they run up the path of glory. It can but be, that Christian females will be interested in the history and character of their spiritual mother, who is held up by the Apostle Peter as an example of deferential wives. I shall consider, Points in the biography of Sarah suggestive of practical instruction. I. HER PIETY.-That she was a pious woman there is no doubt. True, she was born and reared in the midst of idolatry among the mountains of Armenia, in Ur of Chaldea. The name "Ur," signifies fire, or light, and the Chaldeans worshipped the sun, a form of idolatry most exalted. For, what in all nature so nearly resembles the true God as that grand orb, whose refulgent beams flood the world with light, penetrate it with genial warmth, and cover it with beauty. They were not, how |
