In the course of Scripture history, we are now advanced to that period which the apostle emphatically denominates "the last days," in which "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past, unto the fathers by the prophets," speaks to us "by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Let us hear his voice, admit his claims, and bow to his dictates. As truth arises upon us with greater splendour, we shall find that character is formed to greater maturity under the immediate influence of "the ministration of righteousness" which "exceeds in glory." By the unparalleled transactions of this age we shall see the whole energy of the human mind drawn forth, and furnished with ample scope for exercise; all the faculties become ennobled and purified; and the female sex especially, from the days of Elizabeth and Mary to the close of the sacred record, becomes marked with a holy singularity. By the starlight of the former dispensation, we have discovered many women of superior excellence, availing themselves of all the means they enjoyed, and presenting a pre-eminence of character proportioned to their comparatively few advantages and imperfect revelation; but amidst the splendours of the "Sun of Righteousness" we shall witness, in the females who adorned this new era, a greater elevation of mind and advancement in knowledge. Still it must be recollected, that the day only dawned, the shadows were not at first entirely dispersed; and although the favoured inhabitants of Judea and its vicinity saw the age of Christ, not like Abraham, "afar off," but in its commencing glory, their prejudices and prepossessions did but slowly melt away. Some degree of dimness remained upon the moral sight; and we are called to observe, not so much the accuracy of their conceptions as the fervour of their love.