Southern Christian Advocate

PIOUS CHRISTIAN FEMALES.

Pious Christian females, presenting patterns of genuine wives and mothers, often furnish a beautiful contrast to the prevailing depravation of manners, and reckless pursuit of earthly things, to be found in families of Pagans, or of mere nominal Christians. By them, the seeds of Christianity were planted in the souls of those who afterwards produced great effects as teachers of the Church: The pious Nonna, by her prayers and the silent influence of the religion which shone through her life, gradually won over to the gospel her husband Gregory, who had belonged to an unchristian sect; and he became a devoted Bishop. The first born son was carried, soon after his birth, to the altar of the Church, when they placed a volume of the gospels in his hands, and dedicated him to the service of the Lord. The example of a pious education, and this early consecration first received from his mother, of which he was often reminded, made a deep impression on the son; and he compares his mother to Hannah, who consecrated Samuel to God. This impression abode with him while exposed, during the years of his youth which he spent at Athens, to the contagion of the Paganism which there prevailed. This son, the distinguished Church teacher, Gregory of Nazianzen, says of his mother, that her emotions when dwelling on the historical fact connected with her faith, overcame all sense of pain from her own sufferings, and death surprised her while praying at the altar. The pious Arethusa of Antioch retired from the bustle of the great world, to which she belonged by her condition, into the still retreat of domestic life. Having lost her husband at the age of twenty she chose, from regard to his memory and a desire to devote herself wholly to the education of her son, to remain a widow, and it was owing in part to this early, pious, and careful education, that the boy became so well known as the great Church teacher, John Chrysostom. In like manner, Monica, by her submissive, amiable, and gentle spirit, softened the temper of a violent, passionate husband, and while she had much to suffer from him, scattered the seeds of Christianity in the soul of her son, Augustine, which after many stormy passages of life, brought forth fruit in him abundantly.--Forest's Neander.