was too well instructed in the history of my fathers, to give heed to such a fable; though the Arabs all took part with their chief, and contended for the truth of what he asserted as warmly and zealously as the learned Rabbi did for the truth of his own side. and I inwardly prayed Jehovah to accept it for thee and me. As we approached the city, several interesting spots were pointed out to me, and I was bewildered with the familiar and sacred localities which I had known hitherto only by reverential reading of the Prophets. It seemed to me that I was living in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah, as places associated with their names were shown me, rather than The morning of the last day of our journey we caught sight of the Sea of Sodom and Gomorrah at a great distance to the east. How my pulse quickened at beholding that fearful spot so marked by the wrath of Je-in the generation to which I properly belong. hovah. I seemed to see in imagination the heavens on fire above it, and the flames and smoke ascending as from a great furnace, as on that fearful day when they were destroyed with all that beautiful surrounding plain, which we are told was one vast garden of beauty. How calm and still lay now that sluggish sea beneath a cloudless sky! We held it in sight many hours, and once caught a glimpse of the Jordan north of it, looking like a silver thread; yet near as it appeared to be. I was told it was a good day's journey for a camel to reach its shores. After losing sight of this melancholy lake, the glassy sepulchre of cities and their countless dwellers, our way lay along a narrow valley for some time, when all at once, on rising an eminence, Jerusalem appeared like a city risen out of the earth, it stood before us so unexpectedly; for we were still, as it were, in the desert; yet so near on the side of our approach does the desert advance to its walls, that it was not two miles off when we beheld it. Indeed I have lived only in the past the three days I have been in Jerusalem, constantly consulting the sacred historians to compare places and scenes with their accounts, and so verify each with a holy awe and inward delight that must be felt to be understood; but dear father, you have yourself experienced all this, and therefore can understand my emotions. We entered the city just before the sixth hour of the evening, and were soon at the house of our relative Amos, the Levite. I was received as if I had a daughter's claim to their embraces, and with the luxuries with which they surrounded me in my gorgeously furnished apartments, I am sure they mean to tempt me to forget the joys of the dear home I have left. The Rabbi Amos and his family all desire to be commended to you. As it is his course to serve in the Temple, I do not see much of him, but he seems to be a man of piety and benevolence, and greatly loves his children. I have been once to the Temple. Its outer court seemed like a vast caravanserai or mar sell animals for sacrifice, which crowded all parts. Thousands of doves in large cages I cannot, my dear father, describe to you my emotions on beholding the holy city!ket-place, being thronged with the men who They have been experienced by millions of our people-they were similar to your own, as you related them to me. All the past with its mighty men who walked with Jehovah, came up to my mind, overpowering me with the amazing weight. The whole history of the sacred place rushed to my memory and compelled me to bow my head and worship and adore. The sight of the Temple, where God once (alas, why does He no longer visit earth and His Holy House?) dwelt in the flaming Shechinah, and made known the oracles of His will. I could see the smoke of the evening sacrifice ascending to the skies, were sold on one side, and on another were stalls for lambs, sheep, calves, and oxen, the noise and bleating of which with the confusion of tongues, made the place appear like any thing else than the Temple of Jehovah. It appears like desecration to use the Temple thus, dear father, and seems to show a want of that holy awe of God's house that once characterized our ancestors. I was glad to get safely through the Bazaar, which, on the plea of selling to sacrificers victims for the altar, allows under color thereof, every other sort of traffic. On reaching the women's court I was sensible of being in the Temple, by the magnificence which surrounded me. With what awe I bowed my head in the direction of the Holy of Holies! I never felt before so near to God! Clouds of incense floated above the heads of the multitude, and rivers of blood flowed down the marble steps of the hundred altars of burnt offering. Alas! how many innocent victims bleed every morn-skin of a lion; at least such is the report. 1 ing and evening, for the sins of Israel! What a sea of blood has been poured out in the ages that have passed! What a strange, fearful mystery that the blood of an innocent lamb should atone for sins I have done! There must be some deeper meaning in these sacrifices, dear father, yet unrevealed to us! prophet of God, it is believed by many, who dwells in the wilderness fifteen miles eastward near Jordan, and who preaches with power unknown in the land since the days of Elisha and Elijah. It is to see and listen to this prophet that so many persons are daily going out from Jerusalem. He lives in a cave, feeds on plants or wild honey, and drinks only water; while his clothing is the As I was returning from the Temple I met many persons walking and riding who seemed to be crowding out of the gate on some unusual errand. I have since learned that there is a very extraordinary man—a true hope he is a true prophet of Heaven, and that God is once more about to remember Israel; but the days of the prophets have long since passed away, and I fear this man is only an enthusiast; but his influence over all who listen to him is so remarkable that it would seem, and one has almost the courage to believe,that he is really endowed with the Spirit of the Prophets. Farewell, dear father, and let us ever pray for the glory of Israel. ADINA. THIS SHALL ALSO PASS AWAY. AN Eastern monarch desired of a sage, a motto for a ring that should be equally appropriate in all times and in all places. "This shall also pass away," was the reply of the sage. GAZE on Nature's summer beauty— On her fair and changeful face; 'Tis a pleasure and a duty Thus to love her smiling grace; Nature's beauty will decay; Like a beauteous fragile blossom Blooming in a leafy grove, Dearest pleasures will not stay, But if clouds should frown and lower, If on earth no joy be given, If our hearts shall know no peace, That shall never know decay; E. H. B. THE BAPTISM. The following lines were suggested by witnessing the baptism of seven infants and young children, in St. George's Church, Hempstead, on the First Sunday after Trinity. June 2d, 1850. A Christian on his death-bed, being asked ("Yes," replied he, "but that gives me no how he was, answered, "Unwell." "Do uneasiness; if I die, I shall be with God; you think," said his friend, "you shall die?" and if I live, God will be with me." forgiveness and remission of sins being extended to us Christians by virtue of the meritorious sacrifice of Christ, we are, on our believing in that atonement, admitted into covenant with God, and for the merits, not of ourselves, but of Christ, thought worthy of being taken into his service. Hence the Apostle saith, 66 Let us draw near to God in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil," that is a condemning, 66 con Now, by the fall of Adam our nature became essentially corrupt; and, in consequence of this corruption, whilst we science." continued under the law, whether it were the And so we gain an insight into the espec law of nature, or that prescribed for the people blessings which Christ shed his blood to of Israel, we were all sinners, had all fallen purchase for us. By his blood he purged our short of the glory of God, and were all expos- conscience from dead works, and made atoneed to death, the wages of sin, due to those sin- ment and propitiation for our sins, for he gave ful works, which through the original corrup-himself for us, that he might redeem us from tion of our nature we were all prone to com- all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pemit. This appears to be what the Apostle culiar people, zealous of good works. By intended by "dead works;" works sinful, and his blood he washed us from the guilt of our consequently deserving death; and to "purge sins, for he his own self bare our sins in our conscience from these works," is to make his own body on the tree, and was made sin atonement for them, to wash us from their for us, that we might be made the righteousguilt, to relieve us from their misery, and to ness of God in him." By his blood he reabsolve us from their punishment. lieved us from the misery of sin, for he died to bring us into a state of righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. By his blood he absolved us from the punishment of sin; for "he was wounded for our transgresservice,sions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed."§ By his blood he became the mediator of a new covenant, into which he thus procured us admis 2. This is the former benefit; and it is introductory and preparatory to the latter, that of our "serving the living God." For God, being a holy God, can enter into covenant with none, nor admit them into his whilst they lie under the guilt of unpardoned sin, and so have not found grace in his sight. Noah found grace in the sight of God," and with him God established his covenant.* Abraham believed in God, and this wassion, a covenant, both better than that of "counted unto him for righteousness ;" and then the Lord made a covenant with him with sacrifice. So again, the Jews offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings to the Lord, and the blood was sprinkled upon all the people, and then he entered into covenant with them. And in the same manner, works which God made with the Jews, and established upon better promises. By his blood he hath restored us to our allegiance to God; and hath "suffered for us in the flesh, that we should no longer live in the flesh, to *Heb. x. 22. † 1 Pet. ii. 24. Isa. liii. 5. the lusts of men, but to the glory of God."* necessity occasioned by that corruption of our By his blood he hath opened to us the gates nature, and by those manifold sins which we of heaven, that they who faithfully serve all commit, and which, but for the offering of the living God in his Church here, may be our blessed Saviour on the cross, must have admitted to serve him in his sanctuary here- led to the everlasting punishment of us miserafter: For, "for this cause," says the Apostle,able sinners? And how can we fail of perpointing in the following sentence to the greatceiving, that to trust to our own works or deand ultimate object of Christ's sacrifice, "he is the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions, that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."t Such are among the principal blessings which Christ shed his blood to purchase; blessings, which he has purchased for all mankind, and which he offers alike freely to all; but which will eventually be enjoyed by none but those who embrace him by faith in his blood, and follow him in holiness of living. Be it our care, so to "hold fast the profession of our faith," and so to follow his precepts and his example, that we may not fall short of his salvation. And if thus we do, while we regard the blood of Christ as the price of our redemption, let us at the same time convert it into a source of humility and confidence of humility on our own parts; and of confidence in him. For how can we be otherwise than humble, when we reflect upon the necessity of Christ's blood being shed; a servings, instead of relying upon the merits of Christ, is to trust in the staff of a broken reed; on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it? But then, on the contrary, how can we avoid feeling and cherishing the most delightful confidence, when we reflect upon the voluntary shedding of the blood of Christ, who offered himself without spot for our redemption? And how can we fail of placing our sure trust and confidence in him; believing that God the Father, who spared not his own Son, but gave him for us, will with him also freely give us all things necessary for our salvation; that God the Son, who hath redeemed us by his cross, will never leave nor forsake his faithful followers, but raise them up and justify them at the last day; and that God the Holy Ghost, through whom Christ offered himself to the Father, will continue to sanctify those whom he hath regenerated at their baptism, and constantly strengthen them with his assisting grace, provided they grieve him not by their sins, nor resist him through the hardness of their hearts, until they be finally admitted into glory? EDITOR'S TABLE. SINCE our last number was issued the nation) In this sudden and fearful visitation we rehas been called upon to mourn the death of hercognise the voice of God proclaiming to the Chief Magistrate. On Tuesday the 9th day of July, died General ZACHARY TAYLOR, President of the United States. His illness was short but most severe. On the anniversary of our country's independence he was in the full vigor of health and life; within five days thereafter he was numbered among the dead. So sudden and swift was the work of the Dark Messenger, that his errand was accomplished before the country was aware that his approach was threatened. nation the decree, "In the midst of life we are in death." The head of the Republic, the man on whom all eyes rested, in the midst of power and of health, has been smitten to the earth, prostrate and powerless. A bright and shining light, which was set upon a hill, that all eyes might see it, has been suddenly extinguished. and the country has been left shrouded in gloom and darkness. Thus, by an affliction which has penetrated into every quar |