Page:Women worth emulating (1877) Internet Archive.djvu/38

22 air, and exercise—are wisely held in high repute, and employed daily by all who wish to attain or preserve that best of all our heavenly Father's earthly blessings—"a sound mind in a sound body."

Still it is a sad fact that inherited maladies or constitutional defects do fall to the lot of very many of the female sex. The common phrase, which has passed into a motto—"The suffering sex"—may have been, and I think was, intended to apply to the sympathetic mind of woman quite as much as to the body; though it is more generally understood as applying to the latter. It still describes the physical circumstances of great numbers. Life on hard conditions is their lot; and as no chastening in immediate endurance is otherwise than grievous, these dear invalids have the tenderest claims on our ready help and affection. If they are precluded from all activity of either mind or body, the greater responsibility is laid on those around them who possess the blessing of health to cheer and lighten as much as possible the burden of their affliction. This is simply a Christian duty; but like all duties, the more diligently and cheerfully it is performed the sooner it becomes a delight, and brings into the pitying, loving heart of the helpers the blessing of Him who "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows."

It is however a remarkable and interesting fact, that from the chambers of sickness and the couch