Women seldom invent.  There are all manner of inventions, often hundreds of applications in a single day, for patents at the Patent Office, yet among them there are no female applicants.  Woman cannot compete with man in a long course of mental labor.  The female mind is rather quiet and timid than fiery and driving.  It admires rather than covets the great exploits of the other sex.  Woman never excelled in architecture.  To her belong the gentler arts of quiet life and retirement, where she has power to soften and refine the heart of him who is accustomed to battle with the elements and the forces of external nature.

We might speak at length of woman’s gentle nature, present striking examples of female submission, endurance, and heroism, and speak in general of her charms and of her beneficent influence in domestic and social life.  It would be equally pertinent, perhaps, to exhibit brilliant specimens of female genius and culture in the more graceful walks of literature, science, or art.  These gay flowers of humanity lie scattered all over the vast field of history.  But our subject leads us in another direction.  Woman as a helpmeet finds in her own nature the natural introduction to the spheres of usefulness and influence ever open to her.  She has a body, a mind, and soul.  She must help, physically, mentally, and spiritually.  The household partnership is opened to her physical nature.  This relation is good as far at it goes.  But it is only the beginning.  It is rather the result than the commencement of the union.  There is a closer tie found in intellectual companionship.  Mind comes in contact with mind; the wants of the intellect are met, and a union is the result.  Men engaged in public life, literary men and artists, have often found in their wives companions and confidantes in thought no less than in feeling.  And as the intellectual development of woman has spread wider, and never higher, they have been mutual helpers, suited to each other.  Roland and his wife in Paris, William and Mary Howitt of England, and Mr. and Mrs. Browning, are beautiful illustrations of this principle, though they are exceptional in their character.  As a rule, when men find helpers in women, there is no community of employment.  Harmony exists in difference no less than in likeness, if only the same key-note governs both parts.  Woman the poem, man the poet!  Woman the heart, man the head!  Such instances lie all about us.  Man rides to battle, while his wife is busy in the kitchen; but difference of occupation does not prevent that community of inward life, that perfect esteem which causes him to say,—­

  “Whom God loves, to him gives he such a wife”

And yet there is a still higher realm open before woman, because of her spiritual nature.

Woman as a helpmeet needs something besides a well-stored mind.  She requires a heart filled with pure affections.  Here we perceive how essential to her well being is submission to Christ.