was not all: other methods calculated to shake her resolution were a cause of still greater suffering and annoyance. Suitors pressed their attentions upon her, flattering promises of different kinds were made to her as inducements; but all to no purpose.
On one occasion when she said she felt her life in the world was so aimless that she must do something for God and souls, they said sneeringly to her, "What can a woman do?"
The world could only scoff at a woman's thought presuming to undertake anything rising above a height beyond which their dim vision could not reach. They did not seem to know that from the moment the Lily of Israel was chosen to carry out the most stupendous design in the history of the whole human race — the plan of redemption — woman's agency has combined with every great work, either as its inspiration or as the medium of its accomplishment. That it should be so is not easy to establish; that it is so is an incontrovertible fact. We read in Isaias:[1] Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel. And St. Luke announces that through a woman the time of salvation is at hand: And the virgin's name was Mary: and the angel being come in said unto her: Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. . . . Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a Son and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of
- ↑ Isa. vii.
