Religion & morality > Profit and loss, or, The Christian merchant

17
AN ADDRESS
TO
The Unfortunate Female.
CCEP T this paper, as a proof, that though
unfortunate, you are not without a friend.
True, it was an evii hour in which you listened
to temptation, and made a sacrihce of that virtue
which by all, and especially by women, should
be held more dear than life. Have you not
thought thereon and wept ? Oh that you may
shed the rears of unfeigned penitence, and now,
at last, obtain mercy to forgive, and grace ef¬
fectually to jeftore you !
The awful step, to which you ascribe your
present situation, was accompanied (we are wil¬
ling to believe,) with sharp misgivings, and im¬
mediately followed with confusion and alarm.
At the sight of a virtuous friend, you reddened
with shtime ; the grow ing, apprehension c.r dis¬
covery oppressed your life j and fatally, alas i you
quitted the shelter which a parent's or-some be¬
nefactor’s wing would have still afforded —The
partner of your crime cared not that he had bro¬
ken up the peace of a family j he soon became
weary of his victim, and then thrust her forth
upon the unpitying world.
Ah! did you not despond too soon, and des¬
ponding, did you not form the most desperate
resolution to sin yet more? Had you even
taken your guilty and distract?'* ?oul to a gracious