an eternity of such joy be his? Are these not dreams? How strange, that we should think of them so little, and that we can speak of them so coolly! My dear brethren, these are the solemn realities of the truth of God. This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Ye are not straitened in God, be not straitened in your own desires; for Christ is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God through him; and whosoever cometh he will in no wise cast out. Flee to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even to-day, saith the Lord, I will render double unto you.

The wall is in tolerably good repair, except towards the north-east, where in some places the masonry has given way, and threatens to fall. It appears that originally there had been a trench around the whole city, which in lapse of time has been filled up with the rubbish brought out from the town and thrown into it. Vestiges of it are yet seen at the

north-east and north-west of the town.

The present wall encloses only a part of Mount Zion-Ophel is entirely without, as also a large portion of the north side of the ancient city. The circumference of modern Jerusalem is about three miles. It took me an hour to walk round it.

Of the several gates of the Holy City mentioned in the Scriptures and in Josephus, four only have been left open, leading to the four cardinal points. The West Gate, called by the Europeans the Jaffa Gate, leading to Jaffa, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Gaza. The natives call it " Bab Alchaleel," the Gate of the Friend. Abraham is styled in Holy Writ, the Friend of God; and as he resided in Hebron, the Arabs call that place, in honour of their grand ancestor, "Alchaleel" the Friend.

The North Gate is known by the Europeans as the Damascus Gate; by the natives as " Bab Ashsham," Sham being the Arabic for Damascus. It leads to Damascus, Nablous, and the north countries.

The East Gate, called by the Europeans “St Stephen's Gate," because outside that gate the spot is pointed out where the proto-martyr was put to death. The native Christians call it "Bab Sadna Miriam" the Gate of our Lady Mary-because it leads to the church where the Virgin Mary is said to be buried, and also to Gethsemane, the village Siloam, Bethany, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea.

The South Gate is named by the Europeans, "the Zion Gate," because it is on that mountain. The natives call it "Bab Seedna Daivid "-i. e., the Gate of our Lord David-because outside this gate is the tomb of David. It leads to the Christian cemetery, the Nether Pool, Bethlehem, and Siloam.

MOUNT OLIVET.

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From its summit, the extensive view charms every eye. Towards the east, the mountains of Moab, the Dead Sea, the Jordan, and the Plain of Jericho, carry us back into the remotest ages.

reminds us of the last judge in Israel; and Scopus Towards the north, the height of Ramah Samuel brings Titus and his battering army to our recollection.

Towards the south, the winding way to Bethlehem seems to point to Micah's words: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And yonder, the curiously-shaped Frank mountain shows the last retreat of the Crusaders; and Hinnom, the abomination of Manasseh; whilst to the west Jerusalem bows her widowed head into the dust.

Here it was that the Lord of Glory, looking down upon the doomed city whilst still in all her royal dignity, exclaimed: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem," &c.

THE STREETS.

Most of the streets are desolate, badly paved, narrow, and disgustingly filthy. The houses, with few exceptions, are out of repair, and many are entirely in ruins. The dust-cart is not known here; the rubrather expensive; to avoid which, the inhabitants of bish is carried out of town by donkeys, which is Jerusalem, who are for the most part poor, have recourse to a curious expedient. There are a large number of deserted magazines scattered throughout the town; in these all the rubbish is collected, and, as often as one of them is filled, they close it in with a stone wall. I have counted more than an hundred of this description. Sometimes it happens that these walls give way; then the whole neighbourhood is enveloped in the dust of many generations. Others do not even take the trouble of carrying the rubbish out of their houses, they appropriate one room as a common receptacle, and when that is full they take the next.

Soon after our arrival, we hired a house for the use of the mission, in which there were two large rooms completely choked in the way mentioned. Pickaxes were required to clear them, and it was a work of many days before it was done. Besides these nuisances, there are the shambles, in the Jewish quarter, and the disgusting tan-yard on the east side of the Holy Sepulchre, which infect the air with a pestiferous odour, and create many maladies. These evils might easily be remedied, if the local government cared less for their purses, and more for the salubrity of the town, and if the Mohammedans were less fanatic. The tan-yard occupies the position where formerly the Templars had their palaces, to desecrate their memory; and the shambles are to annoy the Jews.

BIBLE RIVERS AND LAKES.

NO. II.

BY THE REV. J. W. TAYLOR, FLISK AND CRIECH.

Cities on the Lake of Gennesaret-The Greater JordanThe Dead Sea.

BEFORE leaving the Lake of Gennesaret, let us take a passing glance of the towns which once gladdened its shores; for once did this lake resemble a silver

beauty of which so surprised us, that we often asked each other what were our sensations, as if to ascertain the reality of what we saw, and persuade each other, by mutual confessions of our delight, that the picture before us was not an optical delusion. The landscape, which varied at every turn, and gave a new beauty from any point of view, was of itself worth all the pains of an excursion to the eastward of the Jordan; and the park-like scenes that sometimes softened the romantic wildness of the general character as a whole, reminded us of similar spots in less neglected lands." Mr Banks frequently remarked, that throughout his very extensive travels, he had met with nothing equal to this landscape, except in some parts of Portugal betwixt the Mincio and the Douro.

The western side also opens up much scenery, interesting from the facts which it recalls. About three miles from Tiberias may be seen the low and verdant hill of Huttin, from which the Saviour delivered his beatitudes. Here, opposite to Shittim, the waters retired together as an heap, and Jordan was driven back at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel, until the tribes passed over. It was the second dividing of the waters in the glorious marching of Israel; and the Hebrew poet joins the Red Sea and the Jordan in his bold interrogation:

"The sea saw it and fled,

Jordan was driven back.

What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?"

It was here, also, that the chariot of fire received the Prophet Elijah, and the stream, acknowledging his presence, separated before him. Thither was the proud Syrian directed to repair, and experience the healing virtues of Jordan's waters; and here, at the word of the prophet, did the iron, forgetting its gravity, and rising from the bottom, buoyantly swim upon the surface. And, what is most interesting of all, these waters were consecrated by the descent and baptism of the Lord Jesus, who was purer than the stream, when he was about to enter on his public ministry.

It would appear, from the narrative of the Rev. Vere Monro, a recent traveller in Palestine, that the Jordan is still venerated for its baptismal excellence, and that pilgrimages are yearly performed by misguided crowds, who expect that their graces will be increased by ablution in its stream. "The sun was rising," writes he, "over the tops of Abarim, and the river's bank presented one of the most extraordinary scenes which it has ever been my lot to witness. The main body of the pilgrims had arrived, and a general undressing commenced. The first who prepared himself was a Russian, with hair of enormous length, who, having stripped and enveloped himself in a long new shirt, dropped carefully in; and holding on by the grass, dipped and shook himself, and dipped again, much after the manner of a duck that presages wet weather. There were men of all sizes and seasons, from the tottering octogenarian to the crawling bambino, who, being immersed with its head back and its mouth open, filled and bubbled like a bottle; ladies of all ages and angles, colours and

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calibres, from the Caireen Copt to the fair-skinned Russian. Nor was it enough that their bodies were consecrated-all their clothes were plunged; and they drank the unconscious element, not each out of his own hands, but out of those of a fellow-pilgrim, the two palms being joined together to form a cavity for the liquid; while bottles of every form and metal were filled for distant markets."

Borne down by the stream of the Jordan, we arrive at that celebrated lake which receives its waters -the LAKE OF ASPHALTITES, or the DEAD SEA. It is called Asphaltites by the Greeks, from the quantity of asphalt or bitumen which abounds in its neighbourhood. This lake is also known in Scripture as the "Salt Sea," and the "Sea of the Plain." The Arabs name it "Bahr Loot"-the Sea of Lot. The bare mention of the Dead Sea gives rise to solemn emotions. The mind naturally recurs to the time when this was an extended plain, well watered, even as the garden of the Lord, and studded with its thriving cities-to the morning when Lot fled to Zoar, and the sun, which rose in brightness upon those wicked cities, saw them, before it set, struck with the lightning of heaven, and buried beneath the sluggish waters which now roll over their ruins.

The general appearance of this lake, and of the surrounding country, is a standing witness to the truth of the awful catastrophe which overwhelmed these guilty towns. Two ranges of uninteresting mountains bound this lake on either side. No trees or shrubs cover them; scarcely a spot of verdure is to be seen-nothing but the naked rocks casting their blackening shadows over the waters which lie at their base. And as if partaking of the desolation which everywhere reigns here, the Valley of Jordan, so far as the eye extends, presents one scene of uninterrupted barrenness : "The whole land is brimstone and salt, neither is it sown, nor beareth, nor does any grass grow thereon." But the most interesting object in this gloomy picture is the lake itself. It presents a surface of thirty miles in length, by seven in breadth. The stillness of death is on its waters-no ripples break on its beach—no cooling breeze breathes from its surface-no foot of man passeth by, save it be the Bedouin Arab, or the curious traveller. As if the shades of this dark picture were not sufficiently deep, Imagination has lent additional sadness by horrors of her own; for Fancy loves excess. Long was it believed that so pestilential were the waters that no fish could live in them, and no bird fly over them; and that bodies, instead of sinking, were upborne to the surface. A more correct observation has pronounced such stories unfounded.

It is impossible, when speaking of this subject, not to recall to mind the finished description furnished by the graphic pen of the great novelist; and imagination, as if unsatisfied, brings forward into view the figure of the stately crusader, slowly moving along these lonely shores the only representative of life in this region of death. The features of gloom which characterize this scene must ever render it an object of attraction to those whose minds are accessible to a feeling of the sublime; but there are circumstances in which some travellers have the fortune of seeing it, which greatly heighten its grandeur; as

"When over it the cold moon shines through storms, Topping its dark waves with uncertain light."

The testimony of the superior of St Saba, that, at the southern extremity of the lake, remains of walls and other buildings were seen by him beneath the water, has been quoted by almost every traveller. The fact is a curious one, and can only increase the regret that means have not been taken to obtain an accurate survey. A survey was indeed undertaken some years ago by a Mr Costigan, an Irishman; but the world was deprived of the result of his labours and discoveries by his early death. His attendant mentioned to Mr Stephens, that large hewn stones, such as are used in building, were distinctly seen by them.

The

The number of cities which were destroyed by the judgment of Heaven has been differently stated. The Book of Genesis mentions particularly Sodom and Gomorrah; but the words of the historian are so general as not to contradict the fact, that more than these two were involved in this destruction. Book of Deuteronomy specifies Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. Stephen of Byzantium mentions eight, and Strabo extends the number to thirteen. As to the manner in which these cities were overthrown, the most general opinion, among those who wish to furnish a philosophical account of the facts which Scripture simply states, is, that they were built upon a mine of bitumen; that lightning kindled the combustible mass; and that the cities sank in the subterraneous conflagration. The geographer, Malte Brun, has improved upon this hypothesis, by adding the suggestion, that the cities may have been built of bituminous stone.

Search will be made in vain for the celebrated apples of Sodom which mock the gazer's eye, and turn into dust in the hand of him that grasps them. Some writers deny their existence, and consider them merely as a poetic image to point a moral, "their being and their beauty being alike fabulous;" while others, such as Hasselquist, Ammar, and Chateaubriand, have discovered certain shrubs, the fruit of which they consider the same as these golden and treacherous apples. We quote the description of a fruit discovered by Chateaubriand, in which he thinks he perceives the fabled apple of Sodom. It is known by the name of "osher." "The shrub which bears it grows two or three leagues from the mouth of the Jordan-it is thorny, and has small taper leaves. Before it is ripe, it is filled with a corrosive and saline juice; when dried, it yields a blackish seed, which may be compared to ashes, and which in taste resembles bitter pepper."

We omitted to mention, in another place, that at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea stands the little town of Zoar, to which Lot fled to avoid the judgment which overthrew Sodom and her daughters.

It was long thought, that before the overthrow of the Cities of the Plain, there was no lake where the Dead Sea rolls its waters, and that the Jordan held on its course in a southerly direction, until it found an outlet into the Red Sea. "This idea was first

found a broad valley stretching from the Dead Sea through Arabia Petrea to the eastern extremity of the Red Sea. More recent investigation has, however, decided that this must have been impossible, as the level of the Dead Sea and of the Plain of Jordan is very much below that of the Red Sea, and as all the springs in the valley, instead of flowing in a southerly course, flow northerly towards the Dead Sea." The most prevalent opinion is, that a lake must always have existed here; that there is no hidden outlet for its waters; and that there never was any visible connection betwixt this lake and the Red Sea, but that it is relieved of its waters solely by evaporation, the power of which, under the steady rays of an Eastern sun, is very great.

While we stand by the shores of the Dead Sea, let us contemplate in it an emblem of a selfish spirit. It receives all that its tributary streams supply, but it sends none of its waters to the sea. It.rolls over ruins. It is calm; but it is the gloomy calm of death -the evidence and consequence of a curse.

SORROWING, YET REJOICING. THEY that are merry, let them sing,

And let the sad hearts pray;
Let those still ply their cheerful wing,
And these their sober day.

So mounts the early warbling lark
Still upward to the skies;
So sits the turtle in the dark,

Amidst her plaintive cries.

And yet the lark, and yet the dove,

Both sing, though different parts; And so should we, howe'er we move, With light or heavy hearts.

Or, rather, we should each essay,

And our cross notes unite;
Both grief and joy should sing and pray,
Since both such hopes invite-

Hopes that all present sorrow heal,
All present joy transcend-
Hopes to possess, and taste, and feel
Delights that never end.

HICKES

GERMANY-THE NEW CATHOLIC CHURCH. OUR readers are already acquainted with the general nature of the movement that is at present going on in Germany. Suffice it here to repeat, in a single sentence, that the exhibition of the pretended coat of our Lord in the Cathedral of Treves, last autumn, has proved the occasion of a large and influential secession from the ranks of the Romish Church. At the head of the movement stand John Ronge and John Czerski, both priests in Silesia. The first congregation established was that of Czerski, in Schneidemühl; the second that of Ronge, in Breslau; and so rapid has been the movement, that in about ten months nearly one hundred and fifty congregations