locality of the sepulchre, or the house of Mary and Martha in Bethany. These and such like details, instead of strengthening faith, (for more or less uncertainty must inevitably rest upon them,) only foster superstition. But I do love to wander over the hills around Jerusalem, to ascend Olivet, to visit Bethlehem and Nazareth.

"I find my faith invigorated by such opportunities; for I know assuredly, and know from the correspondence of what I see around me with what I read in the Scriptures, that I am gazing on the same scenery which was familiar to our blessed Lord in the days of his flesh.'"

But to return. Jerusalem is well represented in the plate before this article. The view is taken from the Mount of Offence. On the right rises up the Mount of Olives. Between you and Jerusalem is the valley of Cedron, and to the left is the valley of Hinnom, which is a continuation of the Gihon valley on the west of the city. Mount Zion swells up from the Hinnom, and that part of it which is without the walls is under cultivation. "Zion shall be ploughed as a field."

The tomb of David, as it is supposed to be, is still shown. Between it and the city wall is the American Protestant grave-yard; in the back ground is

seen the highest summit of the highest mountains in Palestine, called Neby Samwil, from the tradition that the prophet Samuel was buried there. Most of the heights around Jerusalem are rocky and bare, and yet there are, at least to my eye, some beautiful landscapes.

During one of my visits to Jerusalem, I was spending an hour with a friend just outside the eastern wall, a little south of St. Stephen's gate. While there I improved the opportunity to note on paper some account of the objects around me, from which I subjoin an extract.

"Behind me, within the wall is Mount Moriah, where the Temple of Solomon once stood, and where now stands the Mosque of Omar. A little to the right was the eastern entrance to the outer court. Near me, and to a considerable distance north and south, are Mohammedan graves. Immediately in front, and at a steep descent, is the valley of Jehoshaphat or Cedron, running southward. Across the Cedron to the east rises the Mount of Olives, perhaps two hundred feet higher than the spot where I am now standing. I see three summits.

"The middle one is the highest, and almost directly opposite me, as is also the bridge which spans the Cedron. From the bridge I see a road running

up between the northern and middle summits of Olivet, leading to Bethany.

"Another road from the same bridge I trace as it winds along, gradually rising around the southern summit, leading the traveller to the same interesting spot. Small fields of well headed barley clothe the upper parts of the Mount, and give it a rich appearance. Olive trees are scattered over it in every direction.

"I see also the Garden of Gethsemane, (there is but one Gethsemane, and these eyes now behold it,) not confined, as superstition would teach us, to a small inclosure, but occupying, as I suppose, the lower part of the mountain for a considerable distance along the Cedron.

"The lower half of the southern part of Olivet I see covered with Jewish gravestones.

"Hither these despised descendants of Abraham love to come, and find a burial-place in the valley of Jehoshaphat. A little to the south of the southern summit the mountain falls away pretty rapidly, and then bending somewhat to the west rises a little, and thus forms another summit, supposed to be the Mount of Offence, where Solomon erected altars for the worship of pagan deities.

"Between these two last named summits I see,

far in the distance to the southeast, the high mountains of Moab across the Dead Sea."

Jerusalem is, and ever will be, an intensely interesting spot to the Christian. It is a privilege to be permitted to visit it. Such a visit, if rightly improved, will tend to confirm one's faith and promote his sanctification. But let no one think that, if there, he would of course find the worship of God more delightful, or the discharge of duty more easy. He will find, as the writer can testify from his own experience, as many distractions in prayer, and as many (not to say more) temptations to its neglect, on Olivet or on Zion, as in his own retirement at home. "It is neither on this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem."

As already suggested, the principal benefit to be derived from a visit to the Holy Land, is in the testimony one finds to the accuracy and truthfulness of the Scripture writers; a testimony which the sternest disbeliever cannot gainsay, for it is associated with that which is addressed to the eye and the ear, and upon which the Divine Hand has enstamped perpetuity.

PAUL REASONING WITH FELIX.

BY L. H. SIGOURNEY.

When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. - Acтs xxiv. 25.

ALONE he sat and wept. That very night

The ambassador of God, with earnest zeal
Of eloquence, had warn'd him to repent;

And, like the Roman at Drusilla's side,

Hearing the truth he trembled. Conscience wrought,
Yet sin allured. The struggle shook him sore.
The dim lamp warn'd, -the hour of midnight toll'd;
Prayer sought for entrance, but the heart had closed
Its diamond valve. He threw him on his couch,
And bade the Spirit of his God depart.

But there was war within him, and he sighed,
Depart not utterly, thou Blessed One!
Return when youth is past, and make my soul
For ever thine."