and other daring robberies in the neighbourhood, though place of Solomon's Temple. Not having my companion he had not, till caught in the fact, been even suspected. with me, I surveyed all in silence and rapture; and the He was tried at Gloucester, condemned, and executed. elegant proportions, the glittering gilded crescent, and the beautiful green-blue colour of the Mosque of Omar It need scarcely be said that his employer visited him in were peculiarly attractive. A more soothing part of gaol. During his interviews with him there, the criminal confessed the many crimes of which he had been guilty. the scenery was the lovely slope of the Mount of Olives on the left. As we drew nearer and nearer to the How was it, William,' he inquired, that you never robbed me, when you have had such abundant oppor- city of the Great King,' more and more manifest were tunity ?' Sir,' replied he, do you recollect the juni- the proofs of the displeasure of that Great King resting "Like many other cities of the East, the per bush on the border against the dining-room?-I upon his city. distant view of Jerusalem is inexpressibly beautiful: but have many times hid under it at night, intending, which the distant view is all. On entering at the Damascus gate, I could easily have done, to get into the house and meanness, and filth, and misery, not exceeded, if equalplunder it but, sir, I was afraid; something said to me, he is a man of God, it is a house of prayer-if I | led, by any thing which I had before seen, soon told the tale of degradation. 'How is the fine gold become dim!' break in there I shall surely be found out-so I never In another con- Thus I went onward, pitying every thing and every could pluck up courage to attempt it.' versation he told him, Sir, I well knew that old Mr body that I saw-till, turning off to the right, and hav Rugg was in the habit of carrying a deal of money ing passed up what is called the Via Dolorosa,' from in his pocket; many a tine have I hid behind the its being the supposed path of our Lord when he bore hedge of the lane leading to his house he has passed his cross on his way to his crucifixion, we at length within a yard of me, when going home from the prayer alighted at the Greek convent of Mar Michael. meeting, again and again-I could not stir-I durst not touch so holy a man. I was afraid. I always began trembling as soon as he came near me, and gave up the thought altogether, for I knew he was a holy inan.' This is a fact which well assures us that God our sun is a shield too."

(To be concluded in our next.)

JERUSALEM.

Extracted from Jowett's" Christian Researches in Syria and the
Holy Land."

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During the first few hours after our arrival in the Holy City, there was little to stir up the heart to a lively feeling, that this is really that venerable and beloved place, renowned above all others in Scripture. Hunger, fatigue, and the cheerlessness of an eight-hours" ride over a peculiarly desolate tract of country, with no other refreshment than a small jar of boiled rice and some bread, would have been agreeably relieved by the welcome of pleasant countenances, sufficient food, and a warm room: but our apartments, which had not been occupied for six months, were floored and vaulted with "ON reaching the rocky heights of Beer, the country stone-fire-places are unknown in this land—our proviUncultivat- sions were all to seek, and, at this late hour of the day, began to assume a more wild appearance. ed hilly tracts in every direction, seemed to announce, scarcely to be found-Hadjee Demetrius, the servant of the convent, in a sort of broken Turco-Grecian diathat, not only Jerusalem, but its vicinity for some miles round, was destined to sadden the heart of every visitor. lect, proffered his tedious and awkward services-the Even the stranger that shall come from a far land,' baggage was to be looked after-the mercenary and clamorous guides were to be (not satisfied that was an it was predicted (Deut. xxix. 22.), should be amazed at the plagues laid upon this country: and this became, impossibility-but) settled with and dismissed—and, lastmore than ever, literally fulfilled in my feelings, as I ly, as if to diffuse a perfect sadness over our arrival, the Ex- storm, which had threatened and slightly touched us drew near to the metropolis of this chosen nation. during the latter part of our stage, now began to fall in pectation was, indeed, wrought up to a high pitch, as torrents, similar to those which had buffeted us on the we ascended hill after hill, and beheld others yet more distant rising after each other. Being apprehensive preceding evening near Sangyl. Every thing combined to inspire a feeling of melancholy-congenial enough to lest I should not reach the city gate before sun-set, those emotions with which the actual civil and religious Mr Fisk having gone on some way before me in order to prepare our rooms, I repeatedly desired the condition of Jerusalein deserves now to be contemplated; but in no degree harmonizing with those sublimer and guides to ask the Arabs whom we met, how far, or, more glorious thoughts, which the very name of according to the language of this country, how many The answer which we this city generally awakens in the bosom of the Chrishours,' it was to Jerusalem. received from all was, 'We have been at the prayers at the Mosque of Omar, and we left at noon'-to-day We were thus left to being the Mahomedan Sabbath. calculate our distance. The reply sounded very foreign to the ears of one, who knew that, formerly, there were Thither the scenes of purer worship on this spot. tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.'

"At length, while the sun was yet two hours high, my long and intensely interesting suspense was relieved. The view of the city burst upon me as in a moment; and the truly graphic language of the Psalmist was verified, in a degree of which I could have formed no previous conception. Continually the expressions were bursting from my lips Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion!-They, that trust in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion; which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever! As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from henceforth even for ever!'

Among the vast assemblage of domes which adorn the roofs of the convents, churches, and houses, and give to this forlorn city an air even of magnificence, none seemed more splendid than that which has usurped the

tian.

"When the evening had closed, however, and the hour for retirement, devotion, and repose arrived, all that I had ever anticipated as likely to be felt on reaching this place, gradually came into my mind, and filled me with the most lively consciousness of delight at being in Jerusalem.

This,' I thought is no other than the city of David. Hither, the queen of the south came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Isaiah here poured forth strains of evangelic rapture, which will glow with un spent warmth till the end of time. Here, the building of the Second Temple drew from the beholders mingled shouts and tears; and, here was that very temple, made more glorious than the first, by the entrance of the desire of all nations, the messenger of the Covenant!' Here, after he had rebuilt the temple of his own body, he began the wondrous work of raising a spiritual temple to his Father-shedding abundantly upon his dis ciples the gift of the Holy Ghost, for which they waited in this very city; and then sending them forth as bis witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth.'

"Such were the principal thoughts with which I had for some months associated this visit; and now, all were gradually presented to my mind.

"I felt, I confess, no particular anxiety to see what are seems to mock its base condition. What a contrast becalled the holy places.' Many have hastened to of- tween its aspect at this distance, and its actual state! fer their first devotions at the sepulchre of our Lord: Here, the smaller objects not being minutely discernible, so far from having this desire, I feel somewhat of repug- the glowing strains of David seem as true and lively as nance at the idea it is enough for me to know, that I they were when they first answered to the touch of his am not far from that scene that Gethsemane, and Cal- instrument of ten strings- Beautiful for situation, the vary, and the place where the Lord lay,' are all so joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.' Still, there near to me, that I can truly say, I am dwelling in the seem to be her towers, her bulwarks, and her palaces midst of them. All this, too, my heart can better con- | challenging our admiration. But I have now, for inore ceive in the stillness of the night-season, than by the than twenty days, known that these are not the towers light of day. And he, who suffered here, still lives- or the temple of ancient times. At every step, coming ، Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for forth out of the city, the heart is reminded of that proever!' Spiritually he is as near to me, as he would have phecy, accomplished to the letter, Jerusalem shall be been had I seen him, this very day, at the ninth hour trodden down of the Gentiles.' All the streets are expiring upon the cross: the blood then shed is still wretchedness; and the houses of the Jews more espefresh in its efficacy, and cleanseth us from all sin.' cially (the people who once held a sceptre on this mounIf to have come hither should prove the means of rais- tain of holiness) are as dunghills. ing me one degree higher in love to this adorable Redeemer, I would be thankful : but let me remember, that he desires us chiefly to view him with an eye of Faith : and that, although we see him not' in the desh yet believing, we may rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory.'

6

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There is something very peculiar in the aspect of the Sabbath in these parts. We have never as yet had, indeed, occasion to say, that the adversaries mock at our Sabbaths;' but the sensation arising from seeing, that to the Mahomedans and Jews this is a day of work, and that to the bulk of professing Christians it is, alas! a day of more than usual mirth, visiting, and feasting, abates much of that spirit of sacred sympathy which David so touchingly describes I went up with the multitude of them that keep holy-day. I was glad when they said, Let us go into the house of the Lord!' On this very spot, did David once delight in these Sabbatic hours! But what would he think, were his spirit to descend from its eternal rest, to see his stronghold of Zion dismantled; and his brethren, for whose peace he prayed, broken in pieces by the oppressor? Were Solomon again to walk this earth, and view his unrivalled Temple supplanted by the Mosque of Omar; or could Isaiah know that his evangelic raptures are still unrevealed to multitudes on this holy hill of Zion, and that the watchmen who should have kept their stand day and night upon the walls of Jerusalem have long since held their peace, and sunk into almost Pagan stupor; or could the first apostles look round, and ask in this place, Who are they that have kept the faith? what would be the emotions of their re-embodied spirits! We, so greatly their inferiors—not so devout, nor fervent, nor conversant with divine mysteries as they yet feel amazed and utterly down-cast, when we contemplate so many visible marks of departed glory.

*

"At half-past-eleven o'clock, we passed the Damascus gate of the city; and, in half an hour, reached the top of the hill, from which I had caught the first view of Jerusalem on my arrival, and from which I was now to

see it for the last time.

"While the servants went on, I rode to a fair green spot, and turned my horse's head round, that I might enjoy a few moments' solitary meditation on the view betore me. Surely no traveller would fail to snatch such a moment! With little bodily strength, and through a variety of scenes in which troubles had been anticipated, though none had been experienced, I have thus succeeded in accomplishing the pilgrimage to the Holy City. What good,' I thought, has my visit done bere? Who will be the better for it ? Here-where the Saviour bled-how have I requited his love?' These thoughts rapidly passed through my mind, raising such pensive feelings as I am no stranger to. 'I feel that I have done almost nothing: and even if, humanly speaking, I had done much, yet I must before my Master acknowledge that I am an unprofitable servant. The noonday sun shines strong and bright upon the city, and

|

"While I gazed, my eyes filled with tears till I could look no longer. The frequent ejaculation of the bishop of Nazareth came into my mind—ʻ Lord, how long!' I thought, too, of those brethren, from whom I had just parted, and for whose sakes I had an additional motive to pray, ، Peace be within thy walls !' I then suddenly broke off from this multitude of thoughts, which was growing too painful for me; and, pursuing my journey, I felt by degrees as though my present mission was, in some sense, accomplished; and began to indulge more warmly, the hope of returning to my family in peace."

JOHN BROWN OF PRIESTHILL.* "On one of those days, when driven from his home, he fled for refuge to a deep ravine, or moss hag, that had been formed by the current of a water-spout, carrying shrubs, soil, moss, and all before it, to the dale land beneath, leaving a frightful chasm, amidst a vast field of heath. Its deep mossy sides made it inaccessible to strangers: only the neighbouring husbandmen knew where the brakens hid the rocks, whose shelvy sides conducted to the bottom. In the sides of this natural alley were dens and caves, sufficient to hide a large company. In one of these Priesthill intended to spend the day in prayer; and had begun to pour out his soul, in the words of Lamentations iii. 40, &c. when a sweet sound reached his ear, that seemed to proceed from another part of the place. At first it was in a soft under voice, as afraid to be heard, but soon rose above all fear, joined with others; and he heard a Psalm distinctly sung.

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، ، It is the hallowed sound of praising God ; and by some fellow-sufferers;' said John Brown, as he arose from his knees, to search them out. And to his no small joy, he found David and William Steel, his neighbours, and Joseph Wilson from Lesmahago, in the cleft of a rock that jutted half way into the ravine. The Steels had had a narrow escape the day before this. And it was to avoid such harassing that they now fied to the ravine. Nor did they flee in vain. They found, to their sweet experience, this dreary waste a Bethel; and in their harassings and hidings, as it was with Moses on the mount, they felt nearest God when farthest from creature comforts. All day they read of God's Word and prayed by turns; and during the dark and silent watches of the night, by turns they prayed and praised.

"The seventy-fourth Psalm was deeply imprinted on their memories, from its being remarkably descriptive of their situation. The whole of it was sung about midnight; and while the wind carried the sound to the dale land below, faith carried the matter up to heaven. They felt a peace that made them loath to part. Every one was sensible that the presence of God had been with them. And in this spirit these poor hunted saints spent the time till morning dawned, and the lark rose above their heads, joining his note with theirs, in praise to God for the light of another day.

* From the Scots Worthics.

"The law of the Lord is perfect. The statutes of the Lord are right. The commandinent of the Lord is pure. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold." It is then the heavenly purity of his maxims; it is the stupendous heights of holiness which he stedfastly pointed to, and besought his hearers, as for their life, to ascend along with him; it is the certainty and determination with which he prophecies of the worldly, and all the careless, as about to be cast, both soul and body, into hell; it is the tone of solemn and inflexible earnestness, wherewith, even when most compassionate, he kept urging upon us sinners, the demands of his Father's law, as a being descended to us from a higher and far holier world in a word, it is the whole aspect and bearing of a speaker, whose soul laboured and was in heaviness with this weighty presentiment, that none but "the pure in heart shall see God;" so that to remain contented in any sin, or to desist from striving to ascend nearer to God in purity, is just, in other words, to renounce salvation. It is this pure and elevated tone in which Christ urges the necessity, in fact, of a life and character conformable to his own; it is this, and nothing else, which constitutes the grand unrivalled and indefeasible peculiarity of Christ's maxims or moral sayings. And plainly, therefore, whenever any of us thinks, in good earnest, of beginning to keep them, we are thrown at once upon Christ, as our advocate, for immediate enlargement. We are thrown upon him at once for preternatural supplies of pardon and of strength, which is naturally none of ours. We feel then, for the first time in our lives, how true is Christ's testimony, "Without me ye can do nothing." We cry, as David cried, whenever we begin to think of climbing these awful heights, "Lord lead thou me in thy ways. Uphold thou my goings." "Hold me up by thy hands, for I cannot take one step without thee." And thus it is, that whenever you apprehend distinctly that awfully urgent holiness, which is all that makes these sayings of Jesus Christ so different from the moral maxims of men, you are driven upon maintaining closest intercourse with Christ, as the great intercessor, by the irresistible prevalency of whose name alone in heaven you can, even on this earth, work out your salva

tion.

I trust, therefore, you see both how true and how very plain it is, in the nature of things, that the man who heareth Christ's sayings and doeth them, is a man united to Christ by faith, or, in other words, resting confidently in his righteousness and his strength, for renewed pardons and for advancing purity. And that, therefore, inasmuch as Christ is that "foundation already laid," which can never deceive him, every such disciple is most appropriately likened to a man who built his house upon a rock, so that "when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."

In other words, (and dropping the figure,) when that day shall come, of which Christ, in the foregoing verses, had just spoken so terribly, calling it that day just because, without saying more, he found in every man's conscience, a certain fearful looking for it; the last day, which shall come upon all the world, as a thief in the night; the great and terrible day of the Lord, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, and shall assemble all nations before him, and the books shall be opened, and in the presence of the righteous angels, according to the things that are written therein every man shall be judged,-when it shall be demanded of us, for instance, if we fed the hungry, and clothed the naked, and bore other men's heavy burdens, and worshipped God in the spirit, having no confidence in the flesh, and came out from the world, striving always to ascend and keep high above it, faint indeed, yet still pursuing our heavenward journey, upheld by the everlasting arms of him" who hath called us to glory and to virtue;"-when this, I say, shall be demanded of us, it will, doubtless, be seen how perfectly the good works of Christ's people are intrinsically different from the good works of the world; that, in other words, as I said at first, their house is different in its entire form and material, from the edifice of the others, and therefore, even for these reasons, might stand when the other is swept away; yet our Lord just refers, as I also said, to the one and the simple fact, that the foundation is all se cure. And what one thing, more clearly, shall that day discover than the everlasting strength and stability of that precious foundation? Jesus Christ, on that day, passing by all other, however weighty reasons, for rewarding such disciples with a weight of glory, which, from profoundest awe and astonishment, they would almost decline, saying " Lord when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, or when saw we thee naked and a stranger and clothed thee and took thee in ;"-Jesus Christ, I say, passing by the intrinsic excellence of their preternatural works, will simply refer again to the one sure foundation. He will simply reply-and his reply is decisive-ye heard my most holy say ings, and knowing well that I called you to deny yourselves, and take up your cross and follow me, and ascend, as it were, to the very gate of heaven, and do innumerable things impossible to flesh and blood, ye did all in my strength, imploring pardon and help of God continually, as became a sinner, in my name, and for my sake, and because of my mediation. This, brethren, you well know, is substantially the only reason which Jesus Christ will assign; because by raising him from the dead, God, the everlasting Father, shewed that the righteousness of the Son is the ground or foundation of his whole gracious procedure towards the fallen and redeemed. And thus, on that day, it shall be abundantly verified, that "when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock," that rock which is Christ.

In other words, (and dropping the figure,) when that day shall come, of which Christ, in the foregoing verses, had just spoken so terribly, calling it that day just because, without saying more, he found in every man's conscience, a certain fearful looking for it; the last day, which shall come upon all the world, as a thief in the night; the great and terrible day of the Lord, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, and shall as

"The law of the Lord is perfect. The statutes of the Lord are right. The commandinent of the Lord is pure. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold." It is then the heavenly purity of his maxims; it is the stupendous heights of holiness which he stedfastly pointed to, and besought his hearers, as for their life, to ascend along with him; it is the certainty and determination with which he prophe-semble all nations before him, and the books shall cies of the worldly, and all the careless, as about to be opened, and in the presence of the righteous be cast, both soul and body, into hell; it is the tone angels, according to the things that are written of solemn and inflexible earnestness, wherewith, therein every man shall be judged,-when it even when most compassionate, he kept urging up-shall be demanded of us, for instance, if we fed on us sinners, the demands of his Father's law, as a being descended to us from a higher and far holier world in a word, it is the whole aspect and bearing of a speaker, whose soul laboured and was in heaviness with this weighty presentiment, that none but the pure in heart shall see God;" so that to remain contented in any sin, or to desist from striving to ascend nearer to God in purity, is just, in other words, to renounce salvation. It is this pure and elevated tone in which Christ urges the necessity, in fact, of a life and character conformable to his own; it is this, and nothing else, which constitutes the grand unrivalled and indefeasible peculiarity of Christ's maxims or moral sayings. And plainly, therefore, whenever any of us thinks, in good earnest, of beginning to keep them, we are thrown at once upon Christ, as our advocate, for immediate enlargement. We are thrown upon him at once for preternatural supplies of pardon and of strength, which is naturally none of ours. We feel then, for the first time in our lives, how true is Christ's testimony, "Without me ye can do nothing." We cry, as David cried, whenever we begin to think of climbing these awful heights, "Lord lead thou me in thy ways. Uphold thou my goings." "Hold me up by thy hands, for I cannot take one step without thee." And thus it is, that whenever you apprehend distinctly that awfully urgent holiness, which is all that makes these sayings of Jesus Christ so different from the moral maxims of men, you are driven upon maintaining closest intercourse with Christ, as the great intercessor, by the irresistible prevalency of whose name alone in heaven you can, even on this earth, work out your salvation.

I trust, therefore, you see both how true and how very plain it is, in the nature of things, that the man who heareth Christ's sayings and doeth them, is a man united to Christ by faith, or, in other words, resting confidently in his righteousness and his strength, for renewed pardons and for advancing purity. And that, therefore, inasmuch as Christ is that "foundation already laid," which can never deceive him, every such disciple is most appropriately likened to a man who built his house upon a rock, so that "when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."

the hungry, and clothed the naked, and bore other men's heavy burdens, and worshipped God in the spirit, having no confidence in the flesh, and came out from the world, striving always to ascend and keep high above it, faint indeed, yet still pursuing our heavenward journey, upheld by the everlasting arms of him "who hath called us to glory and to virtue;"—when this, I say, shall be demanded of us, it will, doubtless, be seen how perfectly the good works of Christ's people are intrinsically different from the good works of the world; that, in other words, as I said at first, their house is different in its entire form and material, from the edifice of the others, and therefore, even for these reasons, might stand when the other is swept away; yet our Lord just refers, as I also said, to the one and the simple fact, that the foundation is all secure. And what one thing, more clearly, shall that day discover than the everlasting strength and stability of that precious foundation? Jesus Christ, on that day, passing by all other, however weighty reasons, for rewarding such disciples with a weight of glory, which, from profoundest awe and astonishment, they would almost decline, saying "Lord when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee, or when saw we thee naked and a stranger and clothed thee and took thee in ;"-Jesus Christ, I say, passing by the intrinsic excellence of their preternatural works, will simply refer again to the one sure foundation. He will simply reply-and his reply is decisive-ye heard my most holy sayings, and knowing well that I called you to deny yourselves, and take up your cross and follow me, and ascend, as it were, to the very gate of heaven, and do innumerable things impossible to flesh and blood, ye did all in my strength, imploring pardon and help of God continually, as became a sinner, in my name, and for my sake, and because of my mediation. This, brethren, you well know, is substantially the only reason which Jesus Christ will assign; because by raising him from the dead, God, the everlasting Father, shewed that the righteousness of the Son is the ground or foundation of his whole gracious procedure towards the fallen and redeemed. And thus, on that day, it shall be abundantly verified, that "when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock,”—that rock which is Christ.