The Christian Woman; I Peter 3:3,4

"They talk about a woman's spere

As though it had a limit.

There's not a plave in earth or heaven,

There's not a task to man given,

There's not a blessing or a woe,

Tere's not a whispered yes or not,

There's not a life, or death, or birth,

That has a feather's weith of worth,

Without a woman in it."

--20th Century Christian

Man has his specific work and woman has hers. God has made woman to be a helpmate to man.

WOMAN'S MISSION

"Woman's strong heart and gentle hand in God's eternal plan 

Where formed to soften, soothe, refine, exalt and comfort man,

And win from pleasure's poison cup to life's pure fount above

And rue him as the angels rule, by deeds of peace and love."

Sarah J. Hale

It is in this sphere of helping and being keepers at home where women find their blessings.

The success that a woman has in her work depends on what she is, and there are certain virtues that will be a crowning glory to every woman who adorns herself with them.

The first virtue she should seek it purity. It is the first virtue of good character. We are nothing without purity, only tinkling cymbals. There is no virtue, no spiritual like, no glory of soul not dignity of character without purity. Luther said, "It is not he who sings so well so many psalms, not he who fasts or watches so many days, nor he who divides his own among the poor, not he who lives quietly, kindly and friendly; but it is e alone ho is pure within and without." Women must hold onto virtue as to a pearl of great price.

Women must adorn themselves in modest apparel. God though that apparel was important enough to make clothes for the first pair and to discuss it in the Bible. Too many women dress in such a way that is seems they are trying to see how close they can come to indecency without falling over. When we appear in judgment we will have to answer for the way we have dressed. Too many women are following the wold in their dress, but worldliness has no part in a Christian's life.

Proverbs 31:25 say she is dignified. A dignified person has qualities to inspire or command respect. DO shorts and men's clothing do this? Recently I heard a man of the world  say that a real lady wears dresses.

Some women try to be like men; they copy their clothes; they smoke and copy in a number of things, but as Talmadge said the woman who does so "becomes a hybrid, neither one or the other but a failure."

A Christian woman should adorn herself with strength and honor. She should have a meek and quiet spirit (one that bears up under trials and adversities) with good works instead of trying to keep up with the latest style. A little boy was asked what meekness was and he said that his sister was meekness because she always have smooth answers to rough questions.

"Good deeds, like sunbeams, shine by a luster, purely their own; not can their brightness be tarnished bu all the calumnies or the slanderer's tongue."

Patience and long suffering are virtues every woman should have; she can not live in comfort without them. It preserves peace, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, bridles the tongue and produces harmony. Patience means to suffer provocation with a calm unruffled temper. It also means to have the quality of waiting for what you want without murmuring or fretting. Horne described the attire of patience by saying, "Her countenance is calm and serene as the face of heaven un-spotted by the shadow of a cloud,k and no wrinkle of grief or anger is seen in her forehead. Her eyes are as the eyes of doves for meekness, and on her eyebrows sit cheerfulness and joy. Her mouth is lovely in silence; her complexion and color that of innocence and security; while like the virgin, the daughter of Sion, she shakes her head at the adversary, despising and laughing him to scorn. --Her throne is the humble and contrite heart, and her kingdom is the kingdom or peace." The value of patience has been compared to a jewel. "Pressed by sand and rocks, it reposes in the dark lap of the earth. Though no ray of light comes near it, it is radiant with imperishable beauty. Its brightness remains even in the deep night; but when liberated from the dark prison it forms, united to gold, the distinguishing mark and ornament of glory, the ring, the scepter and the crown. Her end and reward is the crown of life."

God takes time to bring about His purposes. He took four hundred years in bringing about His purposes concerning  the Israelites. We must wait. Patience is the grace needed in wating. Let us not be like the Israelites and forget or depair. "With time and patience the muberry leaf becomes satin." ``H. W. Beecher.

Contentment is a virtue the Christian woman should adorn herself with. Contentment is cloecely connected with patience. So long as we have the necessities of life we should be happy. The person who is discontented and tries to find happiness by changing anything but his own disposition nd immediate surroudnings will waste his life in fruitless efforts and fultiply the discontent which he seeks to remove. "The fountain of content much spring up in the mind."

Every Christian woman must adorn herself with sympathy. We find comfort in our own trials when we give sympathy to others. One Christian woman said that she never saw the death of a child announced in a paper that she didn't have an impulse to write words of comfort to the parents. She derived comfort for the loss of her own child when she gave sympathy to others.

A woman cannot adorn herself as a Christian without bearing the gruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23). A Christian is compared to a tree and the Christan woman who does not bear the fruit of the Spriit is like a tree which has beautiful leaves but it rotten on the inside. Her have and form may be beautiful but her heat is rotten.

If we adorn ourselves with these crowning virtues it will help us to build a Christ-like personality, one that grows more beautiful with age.