therefore possibly find time then to write to you, and one steamer missed, a full month is gone. This, I trust, will reach the next; though at present communication with Beyroot is greatly embarrassed, partly by the severity of the season, and partly by quarantineregulations, our city being again shut up because of plague within its walls. I cannot attempt to be so brief as you; yet you will bear with me while I attempt a sketch of the history and present state and prospects of this mission, as brief as I can make it. Notwithstanding the slow progress, and the many and various perplexities, anxieties, and vexations of it, the history of the purchase of ground for the church can be briefly given. It was finally concluded early in September last. I must not attempt to describe the ground, and yet I must just tell you that it is in the very best situation, right on Mount Zion, directly opposite the Castle of David, near the Jaffa Gate, just bordering on the Jewish quarter. It consists of two adjoining houses, with premises and gardens, and is just sufficient for the erection of the church, and houses for four mission families. Moreover, some adjoining premises may yet be had, if required. The whole amount of the purchase-expenses is 8001. The purchase was (of necessity) made in the name of a trusty native, an Armenian Christian; but I have made application to his highness Mohammed Ali Pasha for permission to purchase and hold in my own name, and I expect a favourable answer by the steamer now due. It will then be transferred in my own name, to hold it for the trustees of the society. Contracts have been made for building-materials, to be ready against spring, when, if duly authorised and furnished by the committee, I shall commence the work, please God; and so I trust we shall in due time see a Protestant church completed on Mount Zion. But what is of more importance, I can tell you of a nucleus of a living Church, already begun to form, not only of those who have been sent us from England, but of converts on the spot, or at least candidates for baptism, of whom we have seven in number-one family of four, and three single individuals. These all attend our services, and are under regular instruction. Some of them I hope to baptise next Easter. But let me now attempt a hasty sketch of the history of the mission. Early in July last, Messrs. Puritz and Levi joined me. The plague was then in the city; but as soon as it subsided, the missionary work was resumed with trebled energy. Discussions were daily held with Jews, either at our own houses or theirs, or in their synagogues, and some general stir excited. In the latter half of August I had to make a journey to Beyroot, on behalf of the purchase. During my absence, a young rabbi, who had already come frequently for discussion, made an open (perhaps premature) profession of his faith in Christ. The rabbis now took alarm. He was forced to divorce his wife, and at length prevailed on to leave for Constantinople. We still entertain hope of him; but the rabbis have succeeded in preventing his being baptised in the holy city, as the first rabbi of this place. Our other proselytes were not previously resident in this city. Some of them are na.ives of Poland and Wallachia, and one of Mogadore, and had only lately come here. The rabbis now issued a formidable ban or excommunication against all who should come near us. From the absolute dependence of the Jews here upon the resources from Europe, which are under the control of the chief rabbi, such a measure is tantamount to the punishment of starvation. All communication with them was therefore now completely cut off. Our hope, under God, was the expected arrival of a missionary physician, whose influence might break this terrible spell. On the 7th of December Dr. Gerstman arrived; and a very few days sufficed to realise that hope. Nothing could stand before him, or rather before the need and eagerness of the poor and suffering Jews to obtain medical aid. From that time the direct missionary work has revived with increased power. We have now all our hands full. Very encouraging tokens of good have appeared since. An earnest desire after the Hebrew Bible is frequently expressed, and often also after the New Testament. Several individuals come regularly, not so much for discussion as for instruction. We have two Nicodemuses, who, holding like him a prominent place among the rabbis, feel it necessary for the present to act upon his plan, and come secretly and by night for fear of the Jews. I cannot enter into the detail of our internal arrangements; but I will now add a sketch of our ecclesiastical history. Ever since the 22d July, we have had regular worship every Lord's day in the full form of our Church, in the morning in English, and in the afternoon in Arabic; and since the 23d of September, in the evening in German. So you see I have to preach three times every Lord's day, in three different languages, and to read the service too. On the 5th of August I administered the sacrament of the Lord's supper, for the first time it has ever been administered in Jerusalem in the order of our Church. We were then only four communicants. Since that time I have continued to administer it every first Sunday in the month, and our numbers have increased since. Last time, the first Sunday in the present year, we were six; and next time, perhaps, we may hope to be eight, being joined by our still-expected consul and his lady. At Easter and thenceforward we shall, please God, have an accession of communicants from among our present candidates for baptism. Ever since the 25th of July we have had daily morning and evening prayers in Hebrew, in a room set apart and fitted up for that purpose in my own house, till it shall be superseded by a regular church. At this service our full and regular attendance amounts only to ten persons as yet. We have occasionally, but rarely, a stranger (Jew) join us. Thus you will see that I am pretty fully occupied with ministerial work already. To this is to be added, daily instruction of candidates for baptism, in German and Hebrew; besides the secular work of purchase, building, renting, repairing, and the general correspondence of the mission and its accounts. trust that these hasty sketches will tend to engage your interest, and call for your thanksgivings on our behalf. Allow me now also to try to enlist your sympathies with us, and your intercessions for us, by attempting an account of our two grand difficulties. And first and chief, that of finding support and employment, or rather support, in the way and by means of employment, for proselytes and inquirers. This is a most pressing difficulty. The society's means must not be touched, and our own resources are already overcharged. Simeon and family fall to my share, two others to Mr. Puritz, and one to the doctor's. But it is a growing as well as a pressing difficulty. Unless we leave the place, we shall have more to provide for. We dare not stop preaching to the Jews, and arguing with them, from fear of their becoming convinced of the truth and yet we are almost driven to it; for what shall we do with those thus convinced? It is absolutely impossible that they can live here without our assistance, and whither shall they go? Shall we bid them deny Christ again, yea, curse him, and return to the synagogue? or shall we exhort them to resign themselves to starvation? But how can we do this, so long as we have bread ourselves? On this principle, ought we not to starve with them? Another alternative surely must be found, if possible. It is indeed the intention of the committee in the course of time, to place the mission here on such a footing, that much might be done to furnish employment; but this lies far off yet in the distant and uncertain future, and our wants are immediate and pressing. A special fund must be raised, for furnishing the means of support and employment to the proselytes and I decided inquirers at Jerusalem in immediate connexion with the mission. I have written to Mr. Cartwright on the subject, and would earnestly beg that you too would lend us a helping hand. If this measure is brought fairly and fully before Christians in England, it will operate as a practical test, to prove whether the Church is being prepared for the conversion of the Jews. It will then appear whether the fulfilment of St. Paul's prophecy, "by your (Gentiles) mercy they (Jews) shall obtain mercy," is at hand, at least in its beginning, or yet afar off; and it will bear in the same way upon that other sign of the times in Ps. cii. But as all are not prophets, nor even students of prophecy, let the simple fact be pressed home upon all Christians, that the mission at Jerusalem must either be broken up, just now when the work is fully opening to us, and exactly because it opens, too, rich promises of success; or else a fund must be raised for the purpose stated above. Christians will then have to make choice between these two alternatives. If they choose the former, we shall need no church here either, unless the wish be to establish a regular convent, that shall finally bolt its iron doors against both Jew and Gentile, and take care not to let its light shine before men, lest they should see the truth and embrace it. We have another, less vital indeed, but still important, difficulty. The medical department, you will perceive, is intimately connected, nay, essential to the practical bearing of the mission on its direct object, as the connecting link between it and the Jews. It ought therefore to be rendered as efficient as possible; but here our most practical difficulty meets us. The abject poverty and absolute destitution of the poorer classes of the Jews here, are such as to threaten to defeat in great measure the professional labours of the doctor among them. I accompanied him lately to about a dozen of his poorer patients (and these not the very worst, he says), and such was the appalling misery I witnessed among them, that I immediately resolved to lend the doctor every possible assistance, to obtain some relief at least for these sufferers, so as to render their recovery, often from very loathsome diseases brought on by absolute destitution, possible at least. We therefore want an hospital for that purpose, and should have no objection to its being called St. Simeon's, if any chose. But be not alarmed at the notion of a London hospital. Our idea is simply this: if by making application to Christian friends on this subject, we can obtain 1., or 5l., or 10l., or 15l., we will apply these to procure a little broth for one, a little linen for another, &c. If we could obtain 201., we could then begin by taking a clean and airy room, and remove the most destitute patients into it. I have written to Dr. M'Caul to take up this subject for us, and I shall write also to a few private friends about it. Thus I have succeeded to bring my sketches within narrower limits than I expected; and so have room left for more; nor should I want for matter to fill it, but I really have not time, and I doubt that you would have either time or patience to read much more. the middle of plague, and spite of confinement within the city-walls for these two months past, we all, thank God, enjoy excellent health. We make no private quarantine this time. Having had the plague during the spring and the former half of the summer, we feel tired of quarantine; it would interfere so seriously with the work. In Some native Christians, both of the Latin and Greek Church, being regular attendants at the Arabic service, are anxious to fully join our Church, by admission to the Lord's supper. I have hitherto succeeded in putting them off, and shall endeavour to do so till we get properly organised, and have a location of our own. But thus they remain unconnected with any Church, as they have for a long time broken off all connexion with their own Churches. I shall need a clerical assistant by and by. During the winter months, I have vigour enough both of mind and body; but during the relaxing summer months, which make up at least two thirds of the year here, I know not how I shall get on. Luther used to say, "Deus providebit;" and I will endeavour to say the same. I hope, dear sir, that this scrawl may serve to make you abound still more and more in your prayers and intercession for me, for all of us, and for our work. I should love dearly to be amongst you once more; and still more to see you and some of yours here-but I scarcely hope for either. Mrs. Nicolayson unites with me in most affectionate regards to you, and (though unknown) to Mrs. Bickersteth and family also. Please to remember me most kindly to all friends. I thank you for the printed part of your letter too. May the Lord bless you and yours, and your labours abundantly. You have a wider space than we. May all be consecrated to our common Lord and Redeemer, and redound to his praise. The Cabinet. PRAYER.But, brethren, consider, could the Almighty make Elisha acquainted with every word spoken by the king of Syria in his bed-chamber; and shall not God himself hear every prayer and number every petition which ascends from yours? It cannot be otherwise; believe, then, to your unspeakable comfort, that not the faintest sigh, arising from a broken and contrite heart, although clogged and crowded by the millions of similar aspirations which are perpetually ascending from a suffering world, but is still known to God, with every particular of the wants and weaknesses of him who utters it, as perfectly, as distinctly, as if throughout the illimitable realms of space but one sigh alone was breathed, but one petition offered. There is a little incident in our Lord's life which beautifully illustrates this. When Jesus was upon his way to one of his many miracles of mercy, surrounded by the crowds who on such occasions usually attended him, a certain poor diseased woman came behind him, and touched only the hem of his garment, and immediately was made whole: yet at that very moment hundreds of others also were crowding around the Saviour as he passed along; for St. Peter said, "Master, the multitude press thee and throng thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" How perfect must have been the knowledge which could discriminate that single touch of faith! how perfect the power, as well as the love, by which its unuttered prayer was known and answered! Who shall doubt, then, that the same wonderful attribute is at the present hour exercised with regard to the feeblest petition which faith can offer, to the faintest aspiration which confiding love can breathe? Surely not one, but shall, through the merits of an ever-blessed Intercessor, ascend to the abode, and enter into the ears of the Lord God Almighty. FILIAL LOVE.-Cherish filial love by every mode of present duty and of distant thought. For it is not a simple and isolated instinct, confined to one independent class of objects-it is a powerfully pervading principle; it extends to all our impressions; it touches with a gentle influence upon all the springs of conduct; it mixes itself with, and modifies, the whole mass of our feelings and habits-repelling whatever is selfish, inconsiderate, and unamiable, and drawing forth whatever is benign, unassuming, and affectionIt forms the heart to virtuous friendship. It is intimately allied to all the charities of life; and, by ate. From "Lectures on the History of Elisha." By the Rev. H. Blunt, M.A., Rector of Streatham, &c. Hatchards, 1839.We cordially recommend this excellent volume. In perusing Mr. Blunt's Elisha the reader will be safe, and will not have to walk delicately," as when he ventures on the Krummachers, and such-like foreign writers, in whose pages, we are constrained to say and we speak deliberately and advisedly-the most serious dangers lurk.-ED. consecrating the very spot of our birth under the emphatic name of the "land of our fathers," it warms and expands into patriotism itself, pouring into the soul a spirit of enlarged emulation to tread in the footsteps of the great and good, whose glory shineth "like the brightness of the firmament," and "as the stars for ever and ever." But it has a still loftier object. It leads to still more sublime contemplations; it draws us to the throne of grace; it calls us from this "dim spot" of coldness and corruption, to the blessed realms of purity, and light, and peace. It raises us even to the Supreme Being, who is "most high over all the earth." When our Saviour, in compassion to our infirmities, delivered to us a form and model of prayer, consider under what name he taught us that God himself should be addressed. It was not by his "great and terrible name"-the Almighty One, clothed in unapproachable majesty, and "speaking from the midst of fire;" by whom "the nations are counted as the small dust of the balance," and before whom the foundations of the universal world are shaken and "melt;" in whose "hand is the soul" of all created beings, and whose " face no man shall see, and live." So awful an opening would have cast down our thoughts into utter despondency. But he instructed us to "hallow" his "name," as "our Father" which is "in heaven." Call frequently to mind with what themes that brief address is pregnant! what a crowd of emotions it is calculated to awaken! how perfectly it is congenial to our sensitive nature! how admirably adapted to our mortal condition! It is as a Father-that, by an expression drawn from the most endearing of all earthly ties, and appealing to the most familiar of all human relations, he might encourage us to assume that confidence which the unassociated idea of power infinite might annihilate. And it is as our Father-that our views might be naturally turned, in brotherly love and kindness, to the great family of mankind, over which his paternal care and " tender mercies" are equally extended. He it is that is the "Helper of the fatherless." He it is whose enduring pity and forgiveness are shadowed out in the parable, under the affecting image of the parent who "saw" his repentant son while "yet a great way off," and "had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him," with the glad burst, "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." His is the faithfulness, his the affection, in comparison with which, maternal fondness itself, with all its unwearied solicitude and intensity, is but faint and feeble: "Can a woman forget her child," whom she carrieth "in her bosom?" "Yea," saith our heavenly Father, "they may forget; yet will I not forget thee."-Rev. J. A. Jeremie. And now are seen the priests in lengthen'd line Bearing the sacred ark-mysterious shrine, With Deity possess'd! Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, To celebrate the great and glorious deed, The ark moves awful on; and straight around White-vested choristers advance and sing- Laud, bless, and magnify his holy name; Grateful that anthem to Jehovah's ears, Upon it rides sublime the King of kings, The royal Solomon the glory saw ; To hail the present God, He bids him welcome to his temple-home, And grace his new abode. With outstretch'd arms the suppliant monarch prays: "And ever deign to lend a list'ning ear So will we victims to thy altar bring, "And you, ye priests, who in the temple stand And all ye saints conspire once more to raise He ceas'd; and straight a gracious answer came ; Consum'd the sacrifice: A flood of glory streams before each face- Prostrate at once the congregation falls, And every head within those crowded walls In worship low is bow'd: They rise; and now the gilded roofs rebound With rapturous hosannas rolling round In chorus long and loud. MERCY. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Mall. v. 7. BY MISS A. BEALE, (For the Church of England Magazine.) O MERCY is a heavenly light Shed o'er the contrite sinner's breast, A gleam of gentle radiance bright, God's sweetest gift, earth's purest guest; It warms the heart to deeds of love, It makes the eye with kindness glow: O may those rays, so bright above, Ne'er meet refraction here below. He who bewail'd fall'n Sion's state, With tears more pure than angels shed; He who reliev'd the desolate, The weak from heav'n's sweet fountains fedJesus! who wept as man ne'er wept, "Big drops of blood," for human woe; Who pray'd, when all who lov'd him slept, Bid mercy as a pure stream flow: "Blest are the merciful," he said: The words were register'd above, That Christ hath blest, hath doubly blest. Miscellaneous. TIME AND PROPERTY.-Another sign of a life led in the faithful service of Christ, is the careful and conscientious improvement of time and property. I do not speak here of ample fortunes only, or of abundant leisure; I speak no less of the wages earned by labour, and of the hours which are free from labour, as the evenings and the Sabbaths. He who receives ten or twenty shillings a-week, may spend them ill or well, no less than he who receives ten or twenty pounds. He who has two or three hours in the day, or one day in the week, at his command, may employ them usefully, or may waste and misuse them, no less than those few whose whole life is a continued leisure. In the parable, the lord of the servants calls to account him who had received one talent, as well as those who had received five or ten. Time and property are such talents; talents committed to us; and for which all, both rich and poor, shall be held accountable at the last day, whether we have improved, or whether we have wasted them. It is but a short span, in the most favourable case, which is allowed us for a very great concern; the longest life is little, compared with the business to be done in it-the discharge of the service which we owe to Him who will "reward us according to our works." squander that time in trifling pursuits, in unprofitable society, in idleness, in unnecessary recreations? Shall we not consider, before we give ourselves up to any habit, Will this way of employing my leisure be profitable to my immortal soul? Will it be approved by the heavenly Master whom I serve? Would not my opportunities be more properly used in studying the way of salvation, in reading the Scriptures and the best explanations of them, or in visiting my poorer brethren, and comforting the "widow and the fatherless in their affliction ?" So, again, in the use which they make of property, whatever it be, whether of great or small amount, the sincere Christian, and he Shall we who has only the name of Christian, are essentially distinguished. The one spends his annual income, or his weekly wages, as knowing that he "must give account;" the other as being subject to no law but his own inclination or humour. The one endeavours to keep the will of his Saviour always in his mind: the other thinks that an occasional prayer or two, or an attendance at public worship, is a full discharge of his duty towards God. He considers that he has done all that can be required of him, if he abstains from open wickedness; while the Christian labours "to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come, that he may lay hold on eternal life." I am aware, however, that reflections on duty or on eternity cannot occur to the mind in the employment of every hour, or the disbursement of every sum: it is in the formation of his general habits that the Christian considers the responsibility; and asks himself, whether in the arrangement of his family and his establishment, of his annual or weekly expenditure, he has consulted merely his own gratification, his sensual appetites, or the fashion of this passing world; or whether, on the contrary, he has studied the will, and followed the precepts of his Saviour; whether his charities bear a fair proportion to the property which God has entrusted to him, and to his expenses on himself; whether he is remembering, that the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and, pierced themselves through with many sorrows;" whether he is remembering, that "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the fashion thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Believe me, these things are not matter of indifference. This is almost the whole of that part of life or mode of living which a man has in his own power, or where he is free to choose where it is not determined for him by the necessities of his situation how he shall act; and therefore their respective ways of acting in these things, in the society which they keep, in the habits which they pursue, in the books which they read, in the expenses which they indulge, form the chief visible distinction between the thoughtless and inconsiderate, and those who are sincerely striving, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to pass the "life which they live in the flesh, in the faith of the Son of God."—Bp. J. B. Sumner. "HE THAT COMETH AFTER ME IS MIGHTIER THAN I, WHOSE SHOES I AM NOT WORTHY TO BEAR" (Matt. iii. 12). The custom of loosing the sandals from off the feet of an Eastern worshipper, was ancient and indispensable. It is also commonly observed in visits to great men. The sandals or slippers are pulled off at the door, and either left there or given to a servant to bear. The person to bear them means an inferior domestic, or attendant upon a man of high rank, to take care of, and to return them to him again. This was the work of servants among the Jews; and it was reckoned so servile, that it was thought too mean for a scholar or disciple to do. The Jews say, " All services which a servant does for a master, a disciple does for his master, except unloosing his shoes." thought it was too great an honour for him to do that for Christ which was thought too mean for a disciple to do for a wise man.-Burder. John London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street. Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. THE VISION OF DRY BONES CONSIDERED BY THE REV. R. G. L. BLENKINSOPP, M.A. II. And WHILST pressing the necessity and duty of using every effort to extend far and wide the great truths of religion, I would observe that there is an evident tendency in some individuals at this present time, to exclude religion from all their schemes of public improvement, whether at home or abroad. whilst such men are ready to grant to it a certain degree of importance, and allow that it is necessary and very useful to a certain extent, yet they pay little regard to the interests of religion in the consideration of their schemes for the improvement of their country. This is evident at home in the schemes of secular education which are proposed and approved, and is also to be observed in their plans of colonisation abroad, where every effort is made to provide for and secure the temporal welfare of the colony, little or none for its spiritual well-being. Against such a course the ministers of the Gospel of Christ are bound continually to protest. Believing, as they do, that religion is "the one thing needful;" holding that it will profit a man nothing, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; regarding this life merely as a preparation for one that is future and eternal,-it is their bounden duty to impress the same opinions upon all around them. The true Christian cannot but mourn when he observes the undue regard paid to systems of education at home, and schemes VOL. VII. NO. CLXXV. PRICE 1 d. But But of colonisation abroad, independent of, and unconnected with, religion. These are considered by many individuals as the panacea for all evils-the cure for all vices. what are the declarations of the Bible upon this subject?"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." Far be it from us to undervalue the advantages of education, or depreciate the worth of civilisation. Far be it from us to withhold our support from any schemes which may further these objects, when based upon a right foundation. never, whilst we possess any influence however limited, any opportunity however slight, will we consent to allow that they should usurp that place which belongs to religion alone. What did civilisation and learning effect for pagan Rome? What did the arts and sciences profit heathen Greece? What did commerce and trade avail the idolatrous Tyre? Where are now all their riches, power, and splendour? Gone, in all probability never to return again to them. Again; let any one read an account of the vices of the gods of these nations-of Jupiter, Bacchus, or Venus-and then inform us what civilisation, apart from Christianity, has effected for the welfare of these countries. And after reading these accounts, let the same individual turn to the history of Christian England, and there learn that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people;" that it is the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, which can truly and permanently ennoble a nation; and that [London Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, 46 St. Martin's Lane.] E |