True American

Female Piety.

One of the most delightful features of the benevolent efforts of the present age, is the active co-operation of the female sex. It has ever been the province of woman to cheer and humanize man, to solace his woes, and to refine and grace his enjoyments. She had been his earliest and most constant friend, sustaining him in adversity, and embellishing his prosperous fortunes. But it is to Christianity alone that she is indebted for the elevation on which she now stands. She exerts all her powerful influence under the higher advantage of being regarded as entitled to share in the same intellectual pleasures, and as equally interested in that life and immortality which are brought to light in the Gospel.

Until within a few years, females confined their efforts in aid of religion to the circle of their own families and neighborhoods. Here, indeed, they moved as burning and cheering lights; but recently they have entered a wider field, and given to their efforts a far more extended scope. We find them forming associations in aid of missionary efforts, for the diffusion of Bibles and tracts, for the support of schools, and in fine, for the instruction of ignorance, and the alleviation of woe, wherever they may be found. Scarcely a town in our country is without some of these combinations. To estimate the amount of benefit resulting from these exertions, not only in their direct, but in their reflected influence, we must wait for the disclosures of the last day.

There is something peculiarly gratifying in this state of things. It bodes well to the cause of truth and benevolence, that the fine affections, and the quiet yet enduring energy of females are actively enlisted in its service. By assuming the province so eminently appropriate to their habits and characters, of visiting the distressed, clothing the naked, instructing the ignorant, cherishing the helpless orphan, and causing the widow's heart to sing for joy, they become the most successful allies of their brethren, and the best almoners of their bounty; while they leave them at liberty to concert mightier projects, and taking the wings of the morning to fly with the everlasting Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Their aid, too, in replenishing the missionary treasury, is highly important.—It will be found, on examination, that a large proportion of the contributions to Bible, missionary and education societies are supplied by females.

It is highly necessary to the success of any project, that it be pursued with undiminished ardor, and with a spirit prepared to meet and triumph over every obstacle. These requisites are found in the female character. While it possesses a sensitive delicacy which inclines it to shrink from rough collision with the jarring elements of the world, it is endued with an unconquerable spirit which difficult occasion call into exercise. The moment in which man desponds is the very juncture which summons up the slumbering energies of a woman's soul.

Her piety, too, is generally of a higher character. The temple of her heart is kept more pure from worldly idolatries. It savors little of enthusiasm to say, with a departed ornament of our country, "I believe that if christianity should be forced to flee from the mansions of the great, the academies of philosophers, the halls of legislators, and the throng of busy men, she would find her last and purest retreat with women at the fireside. Her last audience would be the children gathered around the knees of a mother; her last altar would be the female heart; her last sacrifice the secret prayer escaping in silence from her lips, and heard only at the throne of God."

But we must not pursue this attractive theme. The christian cannot but rejoice that she whose charms and virtues cheer and illuminate every path of life, and whose affectionate kindness smooths the pillow of disease and death, adds to other beneficient offices that of a minister of mercy and salvation; and that

"As the bird each fond endearment tries,
To tempt her new fledged offspring to the skies,
She tries each art, reproves each dull delay,
Allures to brighter worlds, and leads the way."