“No one has such power over a river as he who stands near its source.  No one has such power over the tree as he who plants and tends it while yet it is a pliant sapling.  And no earthly power is to be compared with that which, humanly speaking, determines the course and destiny of an immortal soul.  Under God the mother is the first guardian of the child’s eternal interest.  It is from the mother, who moves constantly among her little ones, much more than the father, whose vocation necessitates his absence from home, and prevents his being much in their presence, that children receive their bias.  Her gentle hand gives to our ductile natures the impress which we wear through life; her loving voice awakens in the soul those sweet echoes which never cease to sound; and her look and manner fill the mind with images which haunt our memory until our dying day.”

  “O, Mother! sweetest name on earth;
    We lisp it on the knee,
  And idolize its sacred worth
    In manhood’s ministry.”

A mother’s hand gave us our first welcome, and hers was the last we grasped in our farewell.  She is the nurse of both of our childhoods; the queen of the home, and the friend of the heart.

  “And if I e’er in heaven appear,
    A mother’s holy prayer,—­
  A mother’s hand and gentle tear,—­
  That pointed to a Saviour here,
    Shall lead the wanderer there.”

Woman’s mission is religious.  Christ recognized her as a helpmeet, as a comforter, and a companion.  Woman ministered to him with delight, and gladly made a resting-place for him in the quiet retreat of the home in Bethany.  He recognized her faith as an element of strength, which saves her when properly exercised.  The spiritual life of woman is her glory.  We think of the woman who had sinned looking in love and faith on Jesus, bathing his feet with her tears, and wiping them with her hair, kissing and anointing them, with a feeling akin to devotion.  The Magdalene, delivered of her seven demons, because of her devotion to Christ, and the triumph won by her faith, achieved a position which, in the regards of the church, is equal to that held by the Mother of our Saviour.

Woman’s daily life is to her spiritual life what the debris of the stream is to the water-lily that floats upon the surface.  What cares the servant girl of Rome for the place where she toils?  The cathedral, and the wonderful pictures that hang upon its walls, are her glory and pride.  Look at her toil from that stand-point, and she becomes a helper in the estimation of the world that cannot be ignored.  We have said woman’s work is a work of charity.  Satan has warped the truth and wielded it against Christ; but as it is wrong to give up a good tune because bad men sing it, so we must not give up a truth because Satan takes advantage of it.  This work of charity,—­of giving up for others, of denying self for another’s advantage, of abandoning comfort to assuage another’s