God has given
to woman another vocation. She obeys from her childhood, and
obedience becomes more necessary to her as she advances in years; for
when she quits the paternal roof for the one of her choice, it is
still to obey and be directed by the will of another. But in this
second moiety of her life she often finds the practice of obedience
more difficult and painful than it was when she lived with her
parents. More than once has the young woman, allured by the deceitful
charms of a false liberty, left with a secret joy the paternal roof,
hoping thereby to be delivered from the duty of obedience which
weighed so heavily on her heart. But, alas! she has often been
obliged to regret those days as the happiest of her life, when the
tender solicitude of a mother rendered submission sweet and easy.
God, whose Providence is infinitely wise, has disposed all things in
such a way that each epoch of life is a preparation to that which
follows; strengthened by the labors of the past, we are fitted for
those of the future, and prepared for the accomplishment of the
duties of to-day by our fidelity to obligations less difficult of
yesterday; we are thus imperceptibly and safely conducted by this
graded scale to the end for which we were created.
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