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exhausted; we see the value of religion, and estimate the wisdom 

 of those who purchase that pearl of price; whose merchandize is 

 better than silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold! Then shall 

 we, like the noble youth who beheld the closing scene of Addison, 

 " see in what peace a Christian can die!" 



At that solemn hour, when the fascinations of pleasure, wealth, 

 and power cease, when the drama of life draws to a close, and all 

 its phantoms retire, then shall we experience the excellence of reli- 

 gion, and enjoy that heavenly peace, that divine consolation, 

 which no power on earth can give, nor take away; proceeding 

 from Him who has promised never to leave us nor forsake us; from 

 Him who loved us unto death; and, before he drank his own 

 bitter cup, promised to send a Comforter to his disciples, not only 

 then, but in all future periods of the world. 



This is neither an imaginary representation nor the language of 

 enthusiasm : these divine consolations have been experienced 

 amid the arduous trials of life, and enjoyed at the awful hour of 

 death by Bacon, Locke, Newton, Boerhaavc, Pascal, Hale, Boyle, 

 Lyttelton, and many of the most dignified characters in history; 

 nor have they shone less conspicuous in female life. They sup- 

 ported Jane, queen of Navarre, the second Mary of England, the 

 ladies Grey and Russell, in their Irving dispensations; and all the 

 eminently pious women in British biography, have felt their be- 

 nign influence, from the imperial throne to the peasant's cottage! 

 Shall not such characters be opposed to those Hindoo females, 

 who from educational tenets and custom of caste, have been taught 

 that no sacrifice is allowed to women, apart from their husbands; 

 no religious rite, no fasting; as far only as a wife honours her hus- 



