you will go single-handed through
life, and you will have to choose between two characters. Young woman,
I am sure you will turn your back upon the useless, giggling,
irresponsible nonentity which society ignominiously acknowledges to be
a woman, and ask God to make you an humble, active, earnest Christian.
What will become of that womanly disciple of the world? She is more
thoughtful of the attitude she strikes upon the carpet than how she
will look in the judgment; more worried about her freckles than her
sins; more interested in her apparel than in her redemption. The
dying actress whose life had been vicious said: "The scene
closes--draw the curtain." Generally the tragedy comes first and the
farce afterward; but in her life it was first the farce of a useless
life and then the tragedy of a wretched eternity.

Compare the life and death of such a one with that of some Christian
aunt that was once a blessing to your household. I do not know that
she was ever asked to give her hand in marriage. She lived single,
that, untrammeled, she might be everybody's blessing. Whenever the
sick were to be visited or the poor to be provided with bread she went
with a blessing. She could pray or sing "Rock of Ages" for any sick
pauper who asked her. As she got older there were many days when she
was a little sharp, but for the most part auntie was a sunbeam--just
the one for Christmas Eve. She knew better than any one else how to
fix things. Her every prayer, as God heard it, was full of everybody
who had trouble. The brightest things in all the house dropped from
her fingers. She had peculiar notions, but the grandest notion she
ever had was to make you happy. She dressed well--auntie always
dressed well; but her highest adornment was that of a meek and quiet
spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price. When she died
you all gathered lovingly about her; and as you carried her out to
rest, the Sunday-school class almost covered the coffin with
japonicas; and the poor people stood at the end of the alley, with
their aprons to their eyes, sobbing bitterly, and the man of the world
said, with Solomon: "Her price was above rubies;" and Jesus, as unto
the maiden in Judea, commanded, "I say unto thee, Arise!"

TOBACCO AND OPIUM.

"Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding
seed."--GEN. i: 11.

The two first born of our earth were the grass-blade and the herb.
They preceded the brute creation and th