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pointed out as the garden of Gethsemane; occupying the very spot one's eyes would turn to, looking up to the page of Scripture. It was the only monkish tradition I listened to. Throughout the Holy Land we tried every spot pointed out as the scene of Scriptural events by the words of the Bible, the only safe guide-book in this land of ignorance and superstition, where a locality has been assigned to every incident recorded in it, to the spot where the cock crew at Peter's denial of our Saviour, nay, to the house of Dives in the parable. Yet while I question the truth, I would not impugn the poetry of some of these traditions, or deny that they add a peculiar and more thrilling interest to the scenes to which they are attached, loca sancta indeed, when we think of them as shrines hallowed by the pilgrimages, and the prayers of ages! There is no spot (you will not now wonder at my saying so) at or near Jerusalem, half so interesting as the Mount of Olives, and on the other hand from no other point is Jerusalem seen to such advantage. Oh! what a relief it was to quit its narrow, filthy, ill-paved streets for that lovely hill, climbing it by the same rocky paths our Saviour and his faithful few so often trod, and resting on its brow as they did, when their divine instructor, looking down on Jerusalem in her glory, uttered those memorable prophecies of her fall, of his second Advent, and of the final judgment, which we shall ever brood over in our hearts as a warning voice, bidding us watch, and be ready for his coming. Viewed from the Mount of Olives, like Cairo from the hills on the edge of the Eastern desert, Jerusalem is still a lovely and majestic object: but her beauty is external only, and, like the bitter apples of Sodom, she is found full of rottenness within.

'In earth's dark circlet once the precious gem,

Of living light-oh! falling Jerusalem.' But her King in his own good time will raise her from the dust.

. Nor is there, thank God, any doubt about Bethany, the home of that happy family, so peculiarly our Lord's friends, during his latter years his own home, indeed during his last visit to Jerusalem. It is a sweet retired spot, beautifully situated on the slope of a hill to the south of Mount Olivet. The path to Jerusalem winds round the mount, and through the vale of Jehoshaphat, precisely to all appearance as it did when the Messiah rode thither in regal but humble triumph, and the people strewed their garments in the way.'

That striking object the Dead Sea is thus described:

'An hour's ride next morning over a sandy barren plain, intersected by slimy bogs, (a few Gazelles bounding over the sandhills, were the only living creatures we saw there,) brought us to the silent shore of the Dead Sea, a grand spectacle; the lake lay perfectly still, save a gentle ripple ; its waters tolerably transparent, but salt and bitter beyond bitterness. My companions bathed; I had not courage to do so; they found the water as buoyant as travellers have asserted, floating like cork, swimming with their hands only, &c. no one dared to duck his head. Wood all encrusted with salt, lies in great quantities on the shore, and we picked up many small pieces of bitumen.

The

Arabs call the lake Bahr Lout, or the Sea of Lot, and the city of refuge, Zoar, at the south-western extremity, still retains its ancient name. To an unscientific eye, the lake has not the slightest appearance of volcanic formation; instead of displaying relics of a crater, the mountains between which it lies, run north and south in parallel

lines, and at equal distances, to the Sea of Galilee and the Gulf of Ahaba.

The guides loitering behind us, we at last lost our way, and wan.. dered among the hills, for some hours, without knowing whither we were going, and without seeing a soul. The curse has indeed fallen on the land of Judah; I never, except in the very desert, saw such dreariness as during these two days. We thirsted for water, but found none; once we came to a reservoir

of rain water, but it was absolutely undrinkable. We have drunk water that stunk so, that we could not keep it in the tent with us, so you may imagine how bad this was. Another time we passed an ancient well, its mouth sealed with a large stone, with a hole in the centre, through which we threw a pebble in; but there was no water, and we should have been sorry had there been any, for our united strength could not have removed the seal. I wonder how many centuries it has lain there.'

His Lordship's arrival at Mount Lebanon is equally interesting.

Our eyes coming home again after roving over this noble view, we had leisure to observe a small group of trees, not larger apparently than a clump in an English park, at the very foot of the northern wing or horn of this natural theatre, these were the far famed Cedars. We were an hour and twenty minutes reaching them, the descent being very precipitous and difficult. 'As we entered the grove, the air was quite perfumed with their odour, the "smell of Lebanon' so celebrated by the pen of inspiration.

'We halted under one of the largest trees, inscribed with De La Borde's name on one side and De La Martine's on the other. But do not think that we were sacrilegious enough to wound these glorious trees; there are few English names comparatively, I am happy OCTOBER, 1839.

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to say; I would as soon cut my name on the wall of a church.

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Several generations of Cedars all growing promiscuously together, compose this beautiful grove. The younger are very numerousthe second rate would form a noble wood of themselves, were even the patriarchal dynasty quite extinct. One of them, by no means the largest, measures nineteen feet and a quarter in circumference; and in repeated instances, two, three, four large trunks spring from a single root; but they have all a fresher appearance than the patriarchs, and straighter stems-straight as young palm trees. Of the giants there are seven standing very near each other, all on the same hill, three more a little further on, nearly in a line with them; and in a second walk of discovery, after my companions had laid down to rest, I had the pleasure of detecting two others low down on the northern edge of the grove, twelve therefore in all, of which the ninth from the south is the smallest, but even that bears tokens of antiquity coeval with its brethren.

The stately bearing and graceful repose of the young Cedars contrast singularly with the wild aspect and frantic attitude of the old ones, flinging abroad their knotted and muscular limbs, like so many Laocoons, while others broken off lie rolling at their feet; but life is strong in them all-they look as if they had been struggling for existence with evil spirits, and God had interposed and forbidden the war, that the trees he had planted might remain living witnesses to faithless men of that ancient "Glory of Lebanon"-Lebanon the emblem of the righteous-which departed from her when Israel rejected Christ-her vines drooping, her trees few that a child may number them, she stands blighted a type of the unbeliever. And blighted she must remain till her second spring, the day of renova

tion from the presence of the Lord, when at the voice of God, Israel shall spring anew to life, and the cedar and the vine, the olive of Carmel and the rose of Sharon, emblems of the moral graces of God reflected in his people, shall revive in the wilderness to "beautify the place of his sanctuary, to make the place of his feet glorious," to swell the chorus of universal nature to the praise of the living God.

We had intended proceeding that evening to Psherre, but no -we could not resolve to leave those glorious trees so soon, the loveliest, the noblest, the holiest in the whole world. The tent was pitched, and we spent the rest of the day under their " shadowy shroud." Oh! what a church that grove is! never did I think Solomon's Song so beautiful, and that most noble chapter of Ezekiel the thirty-first-I had read it on the heights of Syrene, Egypt on my right hand and Ethiopia on my left, with many another denunciation, how awfully fulfilled! of desolation against Pathros, and judgment upon No-but this was the place to enjoy it, lying under one of those vast trees, looking up every now and then into its thick boughs, the little birds warbling, and a perpetual hum of insect life pervading the air with its drowsy melody.

'Eden is close by-these are "the trees of Eden the choice and best of Lebanon"-these are the trees, (there can be none nobler,) which

Solomon spake of " from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall," the object of repeated allusion and comparison throughout the Bible; the emblem of the righteous in David's sabbath hymn, and honour above honour; the likeness of the countenance of the Son of God in the inspired Canticles of Solomon.

In closing this long letter, and reviewing the scenes I have wandered over during the last few months, I cannot but feel how deep a debt of gratitude I Owe to divine Providence for the unvarying health, bodily strength, and good spirits that have never failed me during so many months-for preservation from accidents and perils, known, and often probably unknown to meand for the accomplishment of every wish I formed before and after commencing my tour in Egypt and Syria relative to its extent; so that I have seen more than I proposed at starting. Every where I have received the kindest attentions from men in and out of authority; and if the loss of poor William, my companion through so many instructive and interesting scenes, impress me as it ought, and as I trust it will, even that too will prove a blessing.-Adieu.'

It is truly gratifying to read extracts like these from the travels of a young nobleman. Such blossoms afford fair promise of abundant fruit to the glory of God and the benefit of men. VIATOR.

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Review of Books.

ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. By F. W. KRUMMACHER, D. D. of Elbefield, in Prussia. 12mo. Pp. iv. and 310.

THE CHURCH'S VOICE OF INSTRUCTION. By the same. 12mo. Pp. xii. and 258.

PARABLES. By the same. 12mo. Pp. vi. and 218.

CORNELIUS THE CENTURION. By the same. Pp. vi. and 322. THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN, or a Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty. By JACOB ABBOTт. Pp. xvi. and 398.

THE CORNER STONE, or a familiar
Christian Truth. By the same. 12mo.

illustration of the principles of Pp. xxii. and 390.

ABBOTT versus THE BIBLE. 12mo. Pp. iv. and 48.

LECTURES ON THE HISTORY OF ELISHA, By the Rev. HENRY BLUNT, A. M. Pp. xii. and 286.

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FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD, illustrated in the Life of Abraham : a series of Discourses preached in St. George's BUDDICOM, M. A. F. A. S. 2 vols. "THE kingdom of heaven, (said our Lord,) is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." We are apt to regard this declaration as referring to times which are past, and to forget that it is really foretelling a process which is still going on; and which there is reason to fear will continue until the commencement of the latter-day glory. We are also liable to indulge erroneous apprehensions as to the mode in which these tares are introduced, and as to the instruments by whose agency the great enemy of souls effects his destructive purposes. We are in some degree alive to the danger of false doctrine, heresy, and schism, and forewarned that grievous wolves may enter in not sparing the flock, and that of our own selves men may arise, speaking perverse things; but we are not sufficiently alive to the danger which may ensue, while even good men sleep; we forget that the great enemy may effect his purpose as surely by infusing a "little folly into him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour," (Eccles. x. 1.) as by the more open heresy and

Church, Everton. By the Rev. R. P. 12mo. Pp. xxiv. 482: and xii. 512. ungodliness of those who are seduced from the truth; that one of the severest reproofs of our Lord was addressed to a truly devoted disciple, when he said, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men; (Matt. xvi. 23.) and that the same apostle was afterwards so carried away, as to compel St. Paul to withstand him to the face, because he was to be blamed, in that he countenanced proceedings eventually subversive of the faith of Christ. (Gal. ii. 11-18.) In fact, a very large proportion of the most injurious heresies and schisms which have disturbed the church, have proceeded from the errors, the mistakes, and the incautious assertions or proceedings of good men. We cannot doubt for instance, the sincerity of the late Mr. Irving's piety, and the earnestness of his desires to glorify God; yet we must ever regard his sentiments as highly pernicious: and though we cannot but feel that the promulgators of the modern Oxford schism are sapping the very foundations of our faith, and opening wide the flood-gates of Popery; yet we are

far from supposing that they are actuated by any such intentions, but really hope that even in their pernicious career they are purposing to do God service.

These thoughts have arisen in our minds while perusing some of the works before us. We hesitate indeed to assert, that the wheat contained in them is in any degree mixed with tares; but yet there are in some of them certain suspicious admixtures, which compel us to feel that there is danger, lest while men sleep mischief should ensue. The writers appear to us good and able men, holding, and stating to a certain extent, all the essential doctrines of the gospel of Christ. They inculcate, more or less explicitly, Man's lost and perishing condition-Redemption by the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, and renewal to righteousness and true holiness by the power of the Holy Ghost. But while they thus inculcate truth, there are in the writings both of Dr. Krummacher and Mr. Abbott, positions, arguments, or illustrations, which are calculated either to neutralize the statements elsewhere made, or to lull men asleep, and thus afford opportunity to the great enemy of souls to introduce the seed of pernicious doctrine and corrupt practice.

It is not indeed without some hesitation that we advance these positions. The writings both of Krummacher and of Abbott have been strongly recommended, and widely circulated, both by societies and individuals on whose judgment we place considerable dependance. But our attention has lately been called to their publications, and though we think that they have been somewhat harshly dealt with, and that Jacob Abbott especially has been accused of heresies of which he is innocent, yet when we examine their various productions, we are not surprised at the suspicion and apprehension with which

they have been in various quarters regarded.

Dr. Krummacher is an eminent German divine and a prolific writer. His productions are chiefly of an expository character, and abound in striking observations and interesting remarks. They are deeply experimental, and display considerable knowledge of the workings of the heart, and of the conflicting operations of divine grace and human depravity; they abound in scriptural allusions, and applications; but we not unfrequently find passages applied in a forced, and as we conceive in an erroneous way, and positions laid down from which we are compelled to dissent. We regard therefore his works as a magazine well stored with most valuable materials, but into which some powerful preparations of a soporific or pernicious character have been introduced, and which require therefore both caution and intelligence

in the selection.

Let us take an instance or two by way of illustration. Dr. Krummacher in discoursing on Elijah at the brook Cherith, says,

Elijah did not long remain in this solitary condition, left to the musings of his heavy heart. When he knew not what to do, counsel was given to him; and when he saw no way of escape, the gates were opened to him. Such is usually the case; we read, that now the word of the Lord came to him. What a cheering visitation in a land overspread with desolation and misery! For when the word of the Lord comes to us, we are visited by nothing less than God's eternal love and compassion; for the word of the Lord is Christ. Nothing is so beatifying to the spirit of a man at any time as the visitation and manifestation of Christ.

Now to us it seems, that Dr. Krummacher is here confounding two very distinct things. No doubt that Christ is the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was God. No doubt it was the will of the Son, as well as of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, which was made known to

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