FEMALE CONVERSATIONAL MEETINGS. 87 
children she had murdered in her days of igno¬ 
rance on earth, and joining with them to celebrate 
the praises of Him who had snatched them from 
the region of sin ere they had felt its bitter con¬ 
tamination, and by whom she had been brought to 
share redemption from its curse. 
This opinion was not given simply to afford alle¬ 
viation to the distressed feelings of such unhappy 
parents, but because it did not seem opposed, but 
rather favoured, by the word of God, agreeable to 
the benevolent character of the Deity, and adapted 
to enlarge our views of His compassion, without 
affecting His other attributes. We could, therefore, 
adopt the language and sentiments of the poet, in 
the belief that, 
a The harp of heaven 
Had lack’d its least, but not its meanest string, 
Had children not been taught to play upon it, 
And sing, from feelings all their own, what men 
Nor angels can conceive of creatures, bom 
Under the curse, yet from the curse redeem’d. 
And placed at once beyond the power to fall. 
Safely, which men nor angels ever knew, 
Till ranks of these, and all of those, had fallen.” 
The meeting of the females was closed with 
prayer by one of the natives, who, if a mother, 
would give the child, she had perhaps been nurs¬ 
ing in her lap, to some one sitting by. Their 
prayers were marked by deep spirituality and 
strong feeling; and, I believe, these meetings 
were among the seasons of most intense and 
painful, or joyous and hallowed emotion, ever 
experienced. The individual engaging in the de~ 
votional exercise has sometimes, from the strength 
of feeling, been unable to proceed, and tears alone 
have afforded relief. 
