"It is a necessary charity to the (female) sex to acquaint them with theirown value, to animate them to some higher thoughts of themselves, not toyield their suffrage to those injurious estimates the world hath made ofthem, and from a supposed incapacity of noble things, to neglect thepursuit of them, from which God and nature have no more precluded thefeminine than the masculine part of mankind."
The Ladies' Calling, Pref.
Notwithstanding the variety of theological publications of a devotionalclass, which are perpetually issuing from the press, the author concurs inthe opinion of those who think they can scarcely be too numerous. It mayreasonably be hoped, that in proportion to the multiplication of works ofthis kind, the almost incalculable diversities of taste will be suited;and that those who may be disinclined to one style of writing, or to aparticular series of subjects, may be allured by their predilections tothe perusal of others.
Amidst the general plenty, however, there is one department whichexperiences a degree of scarcity--a department to which these volumesproperly belong. Pious families require a supply of religious reading,adapted to occupy the intervals of business, the hours of devotion, andthe time which is often and properly appropriated to domestic instructionin the evenings of the Christian Sabbath. To have the minds of the youngdirected at such seasons, not only to the truths of religion in general,but the more attractive parts of Scripture in particular, seems highlyimportant. By a happy combination of amusement and instruction, piety isdivested of her formality, and clothed with fascination: the ear iscaught, and the heart gained; while the narrative interests, the bestlessons become impressed even upon the gay and the trifling; and he who,when summoned to the social circle, sat down with reluctance, may rise upwith regret.
Whoever has been blessed with the advantages of a religious education, andrecurs to his own years of juvenile susceptibility, cannot forget thestrong impressions he received by these means; and must have had frequentoccasion to remark the tenaciousness with which they have lingered in hismemory, and sprung up amidst his recollections at every subsequent period.In many cases they have proved the basis, of future eminence in piety,and blended delightfully with the gladdening retrospections of declininglife. In those instances, where all the good effects which might beanticipated did not appear, these early lessons have checked theimpetuousity of passion, neutralized the force of temptation, andcherished the convictions of an incipient piety.
The writer of the following pages is aware of the just celebrity acquiredby some of his predecessors in the same line of composition, and he mighthave felt wholly deterred from pursuing his design, by an apprehension ofhaving been superseded by the elegant and comprehensive lectures ofHUNTER, and the simple, perspicuous, and devotional biography of ROBINSON,had he not remarked that their notices of the women in Scripture formedbut a small proportion of their respective works, and that the presentperformance might be very properly considered as a continuation of theirvolumes, particularly of those of the latter author.
It will be seen, that some of the same characters which have been given inpreceding writers, appear in the "Female Scripture Biography;" but thereader may perhaps be conciliated to this seeming repetition, by beingreminded that they were necessarily retouched, in or