PREFACE. THIS "CLOSET MANUAL" has a twofold peculiarity. It is addressed exclusively to Females; because the author believes that general appeals on the subject of Sin and Holiness are not well adapted to the conscience of the sex, nor so faithful as they seem. Its style, too, is occasionally peculiar; because he thinks that PARABLE and ALLEGORY are legitimate weapons in "the defence of the Gospel." He has, therefore, attempted to give Oriental forms to old truths, whenever he found it difficult to say, in ordinary language, all that he wished to suggest to the female mind. He has also given that prominence to "the beauty of holiness," which it has in Scripture, in common with the nature and necessity of holiness. This plan and purpose will be adhered to in the succeeding volumes of THE LADY'S CLOSET LIBRARY. The Author's appeal is to the Mothers and Daughters in British "Israel :" they must be both his patrons and judges, if this well-meant experiment succeed. NEWINGTON GREEN, May 24, 1835. CONTENTS. I. A Mother's Hinderances Duly Weighed II. A Daughter's Principles Analyzed THE MARYS; OR, THE BEAUTY OF FEMALE HOLINESS. No. I. A MOTHER'S HINDERANCES DULY WEIGHED. It is worthy of special observation, that, whilst the earliest prophecies concerning the Church of Christ on earth foretell, chiefly, the numbers of his disciples, the later prophecies abound in descriptions of their spiritual and moral character. Thus, when God pointed Abraham to the stars of heaven and the sands on the sea shore, as emblems of the Saviour's offspring, it was only their innumerable "multitude" and not their beauty or purity, that was appealed to: but when God pointed David to the "dewdrops of the morning," as an emblem of the offspring of Christ, he left their numbers to be inferred, and confined the attention of David to |