JEWISH THEOLOGY. 



Whilst the common people of all the nations of the earth adored the gods of their own fancy, or as taught them by their priests, the 

 Jews alone worshipped the true Jehovah, the Lord God Almighty. 



CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 



This made a fit preparation for the coming of the Messiah, foretold by the prophets among the Jews, wonderfully accomplished by the 

 appearance of Christ, one of the Persons of the Trinity, who atoned for the sins of the world, and gave to astonished and delighted 

 mortals the most clear and ocular proofs of the resurrection of the body. 



[| fHaste, holy Brahmins! light the blaze. J In the World Displayed, being a collection of voyages, there is the following account of 

 this mournful tragedy, which so shocks the feelings of humanity. " A young woman of rank, extremely beautiful, lost her husband before 

 she had reached twenty years of age. She resolved to follow the custom of her country, and be burnt with him. We saw her," says the 

 traveller, " arrive at the place with extraordinary fortitude, and seemingly with a degree of gaiety ill-suited to the melancholy occasion. At 

 the head of the retinue, which accompanied her, was a band of the country music, composed of hautboys and kettle-drums. After them 

 followed several married women and virgins, singing and dancing before the widow, who walked by herself, dressed in her richest clothes, 

 her head decorated with flowers, and her neck, fingers, arms, and legs, loaded with rich jewels and bracelets. A troop of men, women, and 

 children, led the rear, and closed the procession. The funeral pile was previously made ready of bamboo covered with branches of sandal and 

 cinnamon. She approached it with an air of contempt, and without being disturbed. She first took leave of her relations and friends, and 

 distributed among them her ornaments. I kept myself near her. Judging from the expression of my countenance, that I was sorry for her, 

 she approached me, and gave me as a present her bracelets. When she had seated herself upon the pile, with the same undaunted resolution 

 she poured on her head a sweet-smelling oil, which was a signal for the priests to kindle the fire, and the assistants throwing in several cruises 

 of oil, to increase the flames, and the whole assembly now joining in loud cries, which filled the air, she was consumed, apparently, without 

 a struggle." Vol. VIII. p. 66. 



" The person whom I saw," says Hodges, (vide his Travels through India, p. 50.) " was of the Bhyse (merchant) tribe or cast; a class of 

 people exempt from the high and impetuous pride of rank, and in whom the natural desire of preserving life, and avoiding the torture of 

 untimely death, must be undiverted from the desire of posthumous renown. I may add, that these motives are greatly strengthened by the 

 exemption of this class from the infamy, which the refusal is inevitably branded with in their superiors. But it is religion, which inspires, 

 and they are taught by their priests, that they immediately from this sacrifice go with their husbands to realms of ecstatic bliss, where they 

 are to enjoy the most lasting happiness. Upon my repairing to the spot, on the banks of the river, where the ceremony was to take place, 

 I found the body of a man on a bier, and covered with linen, already brought down and laid at the edge of the sacred river. About ten in 

 the morning the widow appeared, attended by the Brahmins (the priests) accompanied with music, and some of her relations and friends. 

 The procession was slow and solemn. The victim moved with a steady and firm step; and apparently with a perfect composure of coun- 

 tenance, and approached close to the body of her husband, where for some time they halted. She then addressed those who were near her 

 with composure, and without the least faltering of tongue, or change of countenance." (" Mr. Howell mentions an instance, where one of these 

 devoted victims, upon being told by the English, that the pains she was about to suffer were more than human nature could endure, with a 

 view to divert her intention, immediately put her finger into the flaming torch, and then asked them, " if they saw her countenance to be 

 moved.") " The person, whose death I witnessed, held in her hand an hollow cocoa-nut, in which was a red kind of paint, and dipping in it 

 the fore-finger of her right hand, she marked those near her to whom she wished to display this sign of her attention. As at this time I 

 stood near her, she looked at me with a fixed countenance, and must have read in it the sympathy I bore, and she graciously also marked 

 me on the forehead. She was young and beautiful; her figure was small, and elegantly shaped, and her hands and arms were particularly 

 fashioned; her dress was a loose robe of white flowing drapery, that extended from her head to her feet. The place of sacrifice was an 

 hundred yards from where we stood. The funeral pile was composed of dried branches, leaves, and canes, hollow within, and covered at 

 the top with branches; and by the doorway stood a man with a lighted torch. From the time the devoted appeared, to the taking up of the 

 body, to place it on the pile, might occupy the space of half an hour, which was employed in conversation with her relations and friends, and 

 latterly in prayer with the Brahmins. When the body was first taken up, she followed close to it, attended by the head Brahmin; and her 

 husband being deposited on the pile, she turned back, and took her final leave of the assembly, and then entered alive the tomb, which in 

 an instant after was all in flames, amidst the shouts of an immense multitude, who appeared rejoicing, at what made all my blood run cold, 

 and impressed on my mind a melancholy reflection which never can be erased." 



" It may be worth w r hile here to consider for a moment the instigations which could lead to such horrid superstition. Unaided reason 

 points out the probationary state of man. To bear and suffer is the highest degree of virtue. Believing in the soul's immortality, the priests 

 have taught, that it migrates into different bodies, and has its punishments as purifications, obtaining proportionate rewards. In the hopes of 

 expiating all sins by an adequate voluntary penance, the Hindoo performs acts which make human nature shudder and human reason stagger. 

 The rewards in another world are said to be distributed into fourteen spheres, six above, and seven below this earth. The earth is one, and 

 is called Bhoor. The Swergeh is the first heaven, or receptacle, for persons possessing ordinary virtues. The second they call Mahurr, 

 destined for the Fakeers who have become virtuous here, and such as by dint of extreme sufferings and prayer have acquired an extraordinary 

 degree of sanctity. The third is Junneh, for those of uncommon merit during their whole lives. Tuppeh, for those who have died martyrs 

 for religion. The Suttee, or highest heaven, is the residence of Brahma, and his particular favourites. This is the place for the most 

 virtuous throughout life, and for those widows who have voluntarily burnt themselves with their husbands. The infernal regions are also 

 seven, inhabited by an infinite variety of snakes, wild beasts, and horrible figures. According to the Shaster, or religious book of the 

 Hindoos, it is ordained, < that the wife ought to burn herself;* and should she not possess the resolution to sustain this trial, she is directed 

 " to make a pilgrimage to some of the sacred places of Hindoo oblation, as Benares, Allahabad, Ghyah, &c. and there appropriating all 

 her property to charitable uses, offer up the sacrifice of her hair to the memory of her husband. Afterwards she is not to ornament her person, 

 or eat any thing else but barley or wheaten bread, and that only once a day. Her time is to be employed in prayer, and she is to withdraw 

 from all commerce with the world." Sooner than suffer this degradation, or for the hope of a heavenly reward, the Hindoo women volun- 

 tarily submit to be burnt. Hence thousands (the report is) 25 to 30,000 of Indian widows are seen yearly devoting themselves in the prime of 

 life to a cruel death!" 





