desert into a garden, and life's gloom into the
brilliancy of an eternal day.

"Hail, woman! Hail, thou faithful wife and mother,
The latest, choicest part of heaven's great plan.
None fills thy peerless place at home, no other
Helpmeet is found for laboring, suffering man.
Hail, thou home circle, where, at day's decline,
Her moulding power, her radiant virtues shine!
Not in the church to rule or teach, her place;
Not in the mart of trade, or senate halls;
Not the wild, festive scene is hers to grace;
Not Fashion's altar her its victim calls;
Not here her field of triumph; but alone
She moves the queen of her own quiet home."

REV. MARK TRAFTON.

WOMAN A HELPMEET.

The purpose of God in the creation of woman was to provide man with a
helpmeet. The language is unmistakable. "And the Lord God said, It is
not good that the man should be alone. I will make for him a helper
suited to him." Woman was made to be man's helpmeet in Eden; that
purpose survives the _fall_. For right or wrong, for good or ill, her
influence is felt. She lifts man up or drags him down. Scoff at it,
oppose it, cast opprobrium upon this ancient utterance, the fact
remains, woman is made for man. Helpmeet she was, helpmeet she must
be, or leave her work undone, and suffer the blight that results from
the lack of love. God placed man in the garden to keep it, and he
placed woman there to fill the bower with love, and his home with joy.

The coming of Eve to Adam is a beautiful story. He had been taught to
realize his need of her. It was a part of his constitution. The same
is true now wherever woman is appreciated. The felt want is the
recognition of the fact. A wife chosen by one's parents, not by
himself, is devoid of all of those special characteristics which
distinguish her where processes of love begin, go on, deepen and
tighten, until the bond is woven and the union formed.

"Nothing so delights man as those graceful nets,
Those thousand delicacies that daily flow
From all her words and actions, mixed with love
And sweet compliance, which declare unfeigned
Union of mind, or in them both one soul."[A]

[Footnote A: Paradise Lost, Book VIII.]

The knowledge of congeniality of tastes can only be obtained by mutual
acquaintance, and by a careful study. It is said nothing is so blind
as love. Nothing is so foolish as a blind love. Man needs a helpmeet,
and woman needs a man she can hel