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person, and a set of fine features, are valuable things, but they are not always to be trusted; they may conceal tempers and dispositions very different from those one should have expected to find: and bitterer than wormwood must then be the disappointment of the man who has been directed to his choice by no other considerations. This, I say, may be the case. It is not often so, let us hope. God forbid it should. The face ought to be an index to the mind; and when all is fair without, as it is said of the king's daughter in the psalm, should be glorious within." But, let beauty have its due praise, and suppose what you will of it— suppose all that the poets say of it to be true; still, the wise man tells you, it is vain, it is in its nature transient, fleeting, perishing; it is the flower of the spring, which must fade in autumn; and when the blossom falls, if no fruit succeed, of what value, I pray you, is the tree? The grave is already opening for the most elegant person that moves, and the worms are in waiting to feed on the fairest face that is beholden. Labour, then, for that which endureth for ever: let your chief pains be bestowed on that part of the human composition which shall flourish in immortal youth, when the world and all that is in it shall disappear, and come no more into mind." A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised."

31. "Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates."

The crown which her own hands have thus formed shall be placed upon her head, as it were by general consent, even in this life; and her good deeds, celebrated in the public assemblies, shall

diffuse an odour grateful as the smell of Eden, as the cloud of frankincense ascending from the holy altar. When her task is ended, the answer of a good conscience, and the blessings of all around, sweeter than the sweetest music, shall chant her to her repose; till awakened on the great morning of the world, descending angels shall introduce this daughter of Jerusalem into the joy of her Lord.

Such is the female character, and such the importance of forming it by education. Without education it cannot be formed; for we were all born equally ignorant, and are what we are by instruction. Mothers who have not been themselves taught, cannot teach their daughters; and mothers who are poor, cannot pay for having them taught. Such mothers must be therefore assisted; the children of such mothers, who appear now ranged before you, ask the continuance of your good-will and kind assistance, to carry on the work of their education. Be the means of teaching them, and they may teach their children after them, to the years of many generations. There is no end of the good that may be thus done: the effects of it may be found upon the earth, when our Redeemer shall return to judgment.

A school of this sort, properly managed and conducted-what is it, but a nursery of virtue and true religion, from whence will come forth into the church of God many a modest Rebekah, a' devout Hannah, a wise Esther, an industrious Martha, a humble pious Mary; a credit to their own age, and a blessing to posterity.

Such a school is a charity of the most comprehensive nature.

It is a charity to the whole nation, to prevent these children from growing up in idleness and vice, to be the burthen and the scandal of a Christian country; and to render them, on the contrary, useful in their stations, and the glory of their times; for such are industry and goodness, in the cottage as well as in the palace.

It is a charity to this city, to hinder so many innocent creatures from being tempted to walk the streets, or hide themselves in ill houses.

It is a charity to families; not only to those poor families out of which these children are taken, but to those good families into which they shall be hereafter transplanted for sober, faithful maid-servants; and, in time, a charity to their own families, when, by God's blessing, they shall be well disposed of in the world; when, having become happy wives and mothers, they shall govern houses of their own, and bring up their children in the like nurture and fear of the Lord.

That these good effects may be produced, the mothers must be warned not to detain the children at home a moment longer than is absolutely necessary, nor ever let them have a bad example before their eyes when they are there.

And as the success of a school must always depend on the fidelity and diligence of those who are over it, let them remember, that they receive the pay of charity; and that they cannot neglect their duty, without adding this aggravation to their crime; the abuse of one of the best intended institutions in the world.

But all is at an end at once, unless you are pleased to continue your kind subscriptions and contribu

tions. If you withhold your hands, you pull down your own work. Whatever you give at other times, add something now, severally as you can affordand add it cheerfully; for God loves cheerfulness in giving, as in every thing else. Hard hearts and empty hands he does not love. You owe it to his blessing that you are not in want yourselves: of his own do you give him; and how can you bestow it better?-I need not tell the female part of my audience, that, in justice to their sex, they are more especially concerned; since they, I am sure, have not forgotten a striking feature in the picture which has been set before them-" She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy."