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awful word used by the apostle)-that gospel may | be the savour of death unto death." The same rains and dewз which nourish the hedge rot the stakes which support it. If we are not better of hearing the word of God, we must be the worse; and of all the causes which soonest turn a man into a demon, the worst is habitually listening to the preaching of that word in a malicious, bitter, scornful spirit. There is no use in disguising the fact. The deadliest iniquity upon earth is, in all probability, that found within the bosom of the professing church, amongst those who wear the outward badge and token of Christians. It was so with regard to God's ancient professing people. We may safely presume that no others upon the face of the earth would have awakened such indignant horror in the Redeemer's soul as some whom he found there. We may believe that, had he visited the most abandoned cities of old, and beheld the worst scenes there, he would have met no characters who would have provoked this horrible denunciation from his lips: "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Ye shall die in your sins: ye shall never be forgiven: your day is past. Ye are lost for ever." There cannot, we conceive, be a doubt of this. And the remark holds true in regard of his professed church now. There can be no question that, had we the gift of discerning of spirits, we should discover that some of the most abandoned men upon earth, men of the most seared consciences, of the most desperately wicked hearts, of the most diabolical enmity (however it may be concealed) to God and to his people and to his truth, were to be found within the pale of the church, and amongst them who profess and call themselves Christians. Alas! "the best, when perverted, becomes the worst." "If the light which is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!" If the salt have lost its savour, it is thenceforth good for nothing."

And this will account for the conduct which is to be seen on the part of some, and which I believe almost every minister of the sanctuary, who has been owned and blessed of God in detecting hypocrisy, has had to complain of. There is something so rabid (if I may so speak) about that hatred which has been conceived against good men, that it looks almost like insanity; and some in charity would attribute it to a disordered intellect. But, alas! I fear it is the madness of the heart, and not of the brain; for they in whom it has been found are too often destroyed by their extreme craft and subtleties and intense selfishness and wakeful regard to their own interests. However, it is a distressing subject to touch upon; and it might be judged better not to allude to it at all, were it not that it affords room for the glorious display of the divine goodness, and for a beautiful exemplification of the truth of God's own word: "The fierceness of man shall praise thee." For this very hatred and malignity are amongst the means overruled by God for the greater usefulness and weight and influence of the individuals who have been the objects of it. The base, mean, unjust, detestable suspicions entertained of those "of whom the world was not worthy," the vile slanders retailed of them, the secret scorn and ignominy heaped upon them, whose conduct was deserving of all respect, the deliberate, cold-blooded

lies circulated of them-these were the very things which were overruled in the providence of God to acquiring for them a greater confidence and respect than they would otherwise have attained. These formed the crucible (as it were) by which their fidelity was tested, and out of which God brought them purified like the gold "purified seven times in the fire." In the school of affliction they have learned lessons above the price of gold or silver, upon the goodness of the Lord, on the treachery of man-lessons which made them more wise and more useful ever after. The trials may have been most sharp and bitter for the time, and agonizing to the heart. They may have often constrained the exclamation: "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contentions to all the earth." They may have almost tempted them to the resolution of the persecuted, maligned, and harassed prophet of old: "I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name." Brokenspirited and dejected, they may have said, “How shall I sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" How shall he rejoice the hearts of others, whose own heart is breaking with reproach and slander and vilest calumnies? But they were taught the wisdom of not judging the Almighty by parts of his ways, of "not pronouncing on an unfinished work," of not judging him by feeble sense. The dispensations which appear to sense the darkest and most adverse are often in reality the most gracious and merciful: often, as in Jacob's case, when they exclaimed, "All these things are against me," God was making them all work together for their good, and was, in short, accomplishing for them the very thing which they had a hundred times implored him to do, and giving them "the desire of their hearts, granting them the request of their lips."

Poetry.

"SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD*."

NOT ours the lot to shed
Balm on thy sacred head,

Or ointment on thy feet;
Yet, Lord, a gift is ours,
Which in calm prayerful hours
We often may repeat.

The heart which broken lies,
And, 'mid its trembling sighs,

Breathes a believing prayer:
The box thou wilt approve,
The ointment thou dost love,
Redeemer, they are there.

Bath: Binns and Goodwin.
* From "Titus before Jerusalem, and other poems."

London: Published for the Proprietors, by JOHN HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY ROGERSON AND TUXFORD,
246, STRAND, LONDON.

children. And I am thankful to be enabled to say that the school has since prospered better than ever. The parents, seeing the better behaviour of their children, begin to appreciate it; so much so that, although I have ceased giving them food, except to nine boarders (orphans, &c.), the number of children of both sexes is gradually increasing. There are at present forty-three, viz., twenty-nine boys and fourteen girls. Of these there are seven unbaptized Jews, and eleven baptized children of Israelitish proselytes; the remainder are chiefly the children of protestant Arabs; and there is a prospect of a considerable increase, ere long, both | of Jewish and Gentile Christians of both sexes. The masters are at present, Mr. Palmer, with a native, both teaching in Arabic; and an English larly, Miss Cooper, is kindly engaged in teaching English (and needlework) to the girls. But in a short time I expect an English teacher from the Malta college, who, together with Mr. Palmer, will teach the boys, one in English, and the other in Arabic; whilst Miss Cooper will kindly teach the girls in a separate school; and the native teacher I intend to appoint to my school at Nazareth. The servants being a decidedly pious couple, the children are the whole day under a strictly Christian influence, the effect of which is clearly manifest in the behaviour of almost all the children; and I am thankful to say that, notwithstanding the considerable increase in the number of children, and although I pay the salary of the two male teachers, I believe that the expenses of the school will be less this year than last year.

During the course of this year a new institution, or branch of usefulness, has been introduced here. When sickness was so prevalent during several months of last year, so that there was scarcely any family without one or more of its members being dangerously ill, including the two teachers of the Diocesan School, and no proper person to attend and nurse the sick could be found, I wrote to the rev. Mr. Fliedner, asking him to send us two of the pious deaconesses of Kaisers worth, to nurse our sick, to visit regularly our proselyte females, and, if possible, to take some part in teaching the children of the school, in cases when the teachers be unwell. In April last Mr. Fliedner himself brought four deaconesses; one of superior education, to direct the work, and one well acquainted with all the business of a dispensary, both supported by two different committees in Prussia; and two others at my expense, to nurse first our proselytes, and also other patients. They all live together, and receive the patients that need more care and attention into their house. Besides this, they all visit regularly our poorer, and especially the female, proselytes and inquirers, to advise them, as well as to read and pray with them; from which some good effects are already visible. I expect much good from their presence here; for their quiet, humble, benevolent, and altogether Christian life and conduct, cannot but tell upon the hearts and consciences of many Jews and Gentiles. Dr. Macgowan has kindly undertaken to attend gratuitously upon the patients of this Christian hospital. And here I cannot forbear expressing publicly my gratitude to the London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews for their generously defraying the travelling

expenses of the two deaconesses, for whom I had written with the full concurrence of their representatives in Jerusalem.

I have continued to employ the sanie number of scripture readers as last year, viz., one, a Jewish proselyte, chiefly amongst the Spanish Jews, amongst whom a considerable amount of Christian knowledge-I mean the knowledge of the contents of the New Testament-has thus been spread: one, who is at the same time my secretary, labours chiefly among the higher class of Christians, and in correspondence with divers persons in other places, who seem to seek the truth. He is still engaged, under my direction, in a very interesting correspondence with the clever priest of the Samaritans, who reads most attentively the New Testament, and now and then proposes his objections and difficulties in a clever but apparently candid manner. He has, for example, found several statements in the speech of Stephen (Acts vii.) which do not agree literally with those of Moses; but he seems to be satisfied with the solution given him. He has lately applied to me for help in establishing a school for his people (as the moslems will not allow the Samaritans to send their children to my school), promising that he would have the whole of the Old Testament taught in it. (It is well known that the Samaritans receive only the pentateuch as inspired). I have some hopes that he will agree to my conditions of having the New Testament taught also.

This bible reader has been the means of exciting a spirit of research amongst a good number of priests; but they are so strictly watched that it would not be prudent to enter into any details, except that latterly one, a young man, who began to show his attachment to the gospel has been suddenly removed to some confinement hitherto unknown to me.

The third scripture reader, Michael, has been engaged for some time in the spring in visiting the low country, Ramlah, Lidd, and Jaffa; but there he found a strong opposition to the gospel: people, afraid of one another and of their priests, did not dare to receive him in their houses, nor to speak to him. He could, however, collect a few in some retired places, when he learned that a good number of persons are secretly reading the word of God. He has spent several summer months at Nazareth. He could not visit Salt on account of the disturbances, which have scattered our friends of Salt into the mountains.

Although the general movement mentioned in my two last letters has considerably subsided, yet there is a door open in this country for preaching the gospel to the natives; and I am most thankful to state that the Church Missionary Society have resolved to send missionaries into this open field of labour. One, the rev. Mr. Klein, has been already two months occupied in learning the first rudiments of the language, previous to his settling as pastor of the protestant community of Nazareth. Another is expected here in a few days, who, being well acquainted with modern Greek and Turkish, will in the first place labour among the thousands of ignorant pilgrims who yearly visit Jerusalem. Here, in Jerusalem, there are many Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, who more or less earnestly seek the truth; but they are almost all poor, and their dependence on the con

vents is to them a formidable obstacle; for, when any one begins seriously to read the bible, or sends his children to my school, or attends the bible aud prayer meeting in Arabic (in Michael's house), he is at once exhorted by his priest to desist; and, if he does not immediately submit, he is driven out of his dwelling, belonging generally to a convent. Thus latterly, two families, belonging formerly to the Latins, were at once driven, or rather thrown out of their dwellings, because they would not give up their bibles to be burnt. When thus driven out of their lodgings for the word of God's sake, which we endeavour to preach and to spread, it would be too cruel not to provide houses for them, although they may not yet have given proof of a thorough conversion of heart. I therefore generally pay house-rent for them as long as they do well and need my help. And from the bottom of my heart I thank those of you, beloved brethren, who have hitherto sent me help for this and other works of charity. And, although I have been deceived in one or two instances, I am still thankful to state that upon the whole such poor Arab protestants do well, especially the six or seven communicants. Provided they enjoy health, they scarcely ever want help from me, beyond paying their house-rent; and by their activity, economy, and gratitude, they give a good example to our Jewish converts.

With respect to Nablous, it would require volumes to relate all the intrigues, bribes, repeated promises and threatenings which the bishops and monks of the Greek convent here have employed, in order to stop and to destroy if possible the good work going on at Nablous on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the simplicity and good sense and superior wisdom with which it has been given the evangelical Christians to stand their ground, and to baffle all the cunning and efforts of their opponents. The convent began by sending a cunning and clever deacon to Nablous, with presents for the influential persons in the place, to open a school in which several modern languages were to be taught, and in general superior to my school. When all the people were invited to send their children to that school, with the promise that the convent would pay tribute to government for all those who should send their children, about twenty fathers of families signed a letter to me, asking me what they should do? As I have always endeavoured to soften their feelings towards their ecclesiastical superiors, whom they did not trust, I wrote in answer, that, provided they take the word of God for their guide in all things, I should advise them not to accept bribes, but to keep on good terms with the deacon, and, if they thought it was good for their children, to send them to his school. Some of them did send them, so that my school was reduced to twenty boys. However, after two or three weeks, they felt uneasy, and after consultation, they went in a body to the deacon to ask him to teach the bible to their children. "We read and teach the psalms," said the deaand that is enough." "It is not enough for us," said the men: we want the whole bible to be taught to our children." And, when the deacon told them he would not introduce the bible into his school, they took their children away to my school again, in which I am thankful to say the children continue to make good progress in the

con,

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knowledge of scripture. It contains now thirtyeight children, chiefly boys. After the above, the monks observing that in all things the people ask, and are disposed to follow the advice of my agent, made all their efforts to bear upon him: flattery, direct and indirect promises and threatenings, all were employed to draw him into their nets. But in all this he has behaved as if inspired by divine wisdom. I did not much fear the effect of their threatenings upon him, although he was entreated by all his friends to beware of poison; but I feared their promises. The monks first offered him a sum of money, if he would exert his influence in preventing the children coming to my school. Afterwards they offered him a salary of £80 a year, if he would withdraw from my school, and take the same interest in their school which he had hitherto taken in mine. To which he replied, he did not want money, but that he was willing to do all in his power for their school, provided it was conducted on scripture principles, and that in general, being still a mem ber of the church of St. Chrysostom, he was ready to help them with all his might in all things in accordance with the word of God; but as for their tradition, and all other things opposed to the word of God, he would ever oppose them with all his power. At last, when the monks saw that they could do nothing with him at Nablous, they invited him to come to Jerusalem, which he did, and for the space of a whole month there is not a kind of intrigue with which they did not try to entrap him. At last he was summoned to the convent, and in the presence of bishops and monks a

paper was put into his hand by the chief secre tary of the pasha, whom they had bribed, with the request that he would sign that paper as the only means of avoiding their displeasure. On reading the paper, he looked solemnly at the heads of the convent, and said, "Is this your religion? and do you suppose that for money I will be your Judas?"

A silence ensued, and, putting the paper in his pocket he came to me, quite worn out. I am now in possession of that paper: it is a kind of agreement by which the convent (no name) promises to give my agent a salary of £80 per annum, if he will prevent the children of the Greeks from coming to my school, and take the superintendence over their school, which he exercises over mine; and, moreover, they, the convent, offer him a reward of £100 if he will promise within three months to demolish completely my school-house. At last, seeing that neither promises nor threatenings availed anything, and fearing lest a large number of persons should leave them, and declare themselves protestants, the bishops wrote a kind letter to Nablous, praying the people to be united, and not to say, one, "I am of Apollos," and another, "I am of Cephas," &c.; and since that time things have been going on quietly. But my poor agent has had a long and dangerous illness in consequence of all his trials. I must here add, that, although he is a poor man (in consequence of his liberality), and although what he receives from me is barely enough to cover his extra expenses for the school, he never seemed to be tempted by the offer of bribes.

In consequence of the tyranny and persecution formerly exercised at Nazareth against those who