conveyed by the monks to the convent, and deposited there; and thenceforward the institution received the name of St Catherine. In consequence of these occurrences, the number of pilgrims and visitors to the convent of Mount Sinai was greatly increased, and many other monastic establishments were formed in various parts of the peninsula. The Emperor Justinian, it was said, granted the whole peninsula, and all the monastic establishments which were built within its boundaries, to the Convent of St Catherine. At one time the number of monks, in all the various convents, monasteries, and hermitages, amounted, as was supposed, to six or seven thousand; and, when duly organized under the arrangements which the charter of the Emperor prescribed, they formed quite an extended community, with laws, usages, judicature, and government complete, like any independent state or kingdom. The wants of this extraordinary commonwealth were supplied, in some measure, from the products of such small tracts of garden ground as could be found or made in the wilderness, but chiefly, perhaps, from the gifts and contributions of the pilgrims who came to visit them in their seclusion. To complete the system, a military order of knights was established, to protect the monks, under the jurisdiction of the Convent of St Catherine, and the pilgrims on their journeys to and from the nountain. These knights were called the Cavaliers of St Catherine. They wore a prescribed costume and armour. The armour bore devices and emblems representing the martyrdom of their patron saint. The principal of these devices consisted of a broken wheel, with points upon the circumference of it, and a sword or dagger passing through it. This device was figured on the breastplate, and also embossed upon the shield.

Thus the Convent of St Catherine was established in the possession of a considerable degree of power and glory, and it continued to occupy this high position for many years as long, in fact, as the Christian powers of Europe retained possession of those countries. At length, however, when, at the Mahommedan conquest, these countries passed into the hands of the enemies of Christianity, the various smaller convents that were scattered about the peninsula were gradually suppressed or abandoned by the monks, and many of them were destroyed. Pilgrims could no longer visit Mount Sinai in safety. The knights of St Catherine were disbanded, and the monks shut themselves up within the walls of the convent, where they remained for many centuries in silence and seclusion, and were well-nigh forgotten by mankind. Within the last fifty years,

however, they have been brought forward again quite conspicuously to the notice of the world, by the accounts of travellers and explorers, who go now from motives of curiosity, and from love of excitement and adventure, to visit the ground to which of old the steps of so many weary pilgrims turned, under the impulse of a solemn and profound religious veneration.

THE STUDY OF SCIENCE.

It is not strange that the religious man should sometimes find his ardour damped in the pursuit of some branches of knowledge by the melancholy reflection that they can be of no use beyond this world, and will exist only as objects of memory in eternity. He may have devoted many a toilsome year to the details and manipulations of the arts; and, so far as the world is concerned, his labours have been eminently salutary and interesting. But all his labours and researches can be of no avail on the other side of the grave, and he cannot but feel sad that so much study and efforts should leave results no more permanent. Or he may have given his best days to loading his memory with those tongues which the Scriptures assure us shall cease; or to those details of material organization which can have no place or antitype in the future world. Interesting, therefore, as such pursuits have been on earth, nay, indispensable as they are to the well-being and progress of human society, it is melancholy to realize that they form part of that knowledge which will vanish away.

The mind delights in the prospect of again turning its attention to those branches of knowledge which have engrossed and interested it on earth, and of doing this under circumstances far more favourable to their investigation. Aud such an anticipation he may reasonably indulge who devotes himself on earth to any branch of knowledge not dependent on arrangements and organizations peculiar to this world. He may be confident that he is investigating those principles which will from a part of the science of heaven. Should he ever reach that pure world, he knows that the clogs which now weigh down his mind will drop off, and the clouds that obscure his vision will clear away, and that a brighter sun will pour its radiance upon his path. He is filling his mind with principles that are immortal. He is engaged in pursuits to which glorified and angelic minds are devoting their lofty powers. Other branches of knowledge, highly esteemed among men, shall pass away with the destruction of this world. The baseless hypothesis of science, falsely

so called, whether moral, intellectual, or physical, and the airy phantoms of a light and fictitious literature, shall all pass into the limbo of forgetfulness. But the principles of true science, constituting, as they do, the pillars of the universe, shall bear up that universe for ever. How many questions of deep interest, respecting his favourite science, must the philosopher in this world leave unanswered, how many points unsettled! But when he stands upon the vantage-ground of another world all these points shall be seen in the bright transparencies of heaven. In this world, the votaries of science may be compared with the aborigines who dwell around some one of the principal sources of the river Amazon. They have been able, perhaps, to trace one or two, or it may be a dozen, of its tributaries, from their commencement in some mountain spring, and to follow them onwards as they enlarge by uniting, so as to bear along the frail canoes in which, perhaps, they pass a few hundred miles towards the ocean. On the right and on the left, a multitude of other tributaries swell the stream which carries them onward, until it seems to them a mighty river. But they are ignorant of the hundred other tributaries which drain the vast eastern slope of the Andes, and sweep over the wide plains, till their united waters have formed the majestic Amazon. Of that river, in its full glory, and especially of the immense ocean that lies beyond, the natives have no conception; unless, perhaps, some individual, more daring than the rest, has floated onward till his astonished eye could scarcely discern the shore on either hand, and before him he saw the illimitable Atlantic, whitened by the mariner's sail and the crested waves; and he may have gone back to tell his unbelieving countrymen the marvellous story. Just so is it with men of science. They are able to trace with clearness a few rills of truth from the fountain-head, and to follow them onward till they unite in a great principle, which at first men fancy is the chief law of the universe. But as they venture still further onward they find new tributary truths coming in on either side, to form a principle or law still more broad and comprehensive. Yet it is only a few gifted and adventurous minds that are able, from some advanced mountain-top, to catch a glimpse of the entire stream of truth, formed by the harmonious union of all principles, and flowing on majestically into the boundless ocean of all knowledge, the Infinite Mind. But when the Christian philosopher shall be permitted to resume the study of science in a future world, with powers of investigation enlarged and clarified, and all obstacles removed, he will be able to trace onward the various ramifications of truth, till they

unite into higher and higher principles, and become one in that centre of centres, the Divine Mind. That is the Ocean from which all truth originally sprang, and to which it ultimately returns. To trace out the shores of that shoreless Sea, to measure its measureless extent, and to fathom its unfathomable depths, will be the noble and the joyous work of eternal ages. And yet eternal ages may pass by and see the work only begun.

This

THE BEAUTIFUL GATE. THERE were many gates to the temple. Those in the extent of the outer wall were surrounded by gate-houses thirty cubits high, and therefore rising five cubits beyoud the wall itself, which was twenty-five cubits high. The breadth of these gatehouses was half the height; and the entrance itself was twenty cubits high, and ten broad. These outer gates were of timber, plated with brass, and led into the spacious court, called the Court of the Gentiles. No particular sanctity was attached to this court, and hence Gentiles were freely admitted, mendicants were allowed to beg, and dealers to buy and sell. A person was not considered properly to enter the Temple,' in the more definite sense, until he had passed this court, and entered into the interior enclosure. also had a wall, with gate-houses and gates, covered, not with brass, but with gold and silver, and leading into the Court of the Women, which (notwithstanding its name) was the common place for worshippers, both men and women. Beyond this, and above it--for it was over an ascending site, crowned by Holy House-lay the Court of the Priests, wherein the sacred services were celebrated. This had the same wall of general enclosure with the Court of the Gentiles, but was separated from it by a cross wall, which was pierced by one large and ponderous gate, exactly fronting that of the Holy House. is the general description. It remains to state, that the Holy House itself fronted the east, and that consequently the principal entrance, in each of the successive walls, was on the same side. On that side there was but one gate to either of the courts; and these, standing directly opposite the Holy House, were deemed entitled to particular distinction from the others, in their materials, proportions, and ornaments. The gate on this side, in the outer enclosure, had, however, the singular distinction of having the least elevated gate-house, the upper part rising not more than six cubits above the entry, whereas the others rose ten cubits; and, instead of being like the others, five cubits

This

higher than the wall, this was no more than one cubit. There was a reason for this. The red heifer directed by the Law to be burned without the camp,' in order that 'the water of purification' might be prepared from its ashes, was, after the foundation of the temple at Jerusalem, burned without the city, upon the Mount of Olives; and as it was conceived that the blood of the heifer was to be sprinkled before, or in presence of, the temple, this gate was kept low, because if it had been as high as the others, the clear view of the temple by the officiating priest would have been intercepted. In another respect, however, this gate, though low, was not undistinguished. It was called 'the Gate of Shushan,' because the city or palace of Shushan (memorable in the history of the captivity) was represented thereon; or, according to other accounts, was depicted in one of the side chambers of the gate-house. This was, as some say, by order of the Persian government, to keep the Jews in remembrance of their allegiance to the power reigning in Shushan, or, as others state, as a voluntary memorial of the captivity. The nature of the representation may be guessed, from the mode in which towns and palaces are represented in the Assyrian sculptures, of which some specimens were given in the second volume of the Evening Series.

The gate opposite this, across the Court of the Gentiles, and leading into the Court of the Women, being the front and therefore the most distinguished of the entrances into what was properly regarded as the temple, was considered the most splendid of all the gates. In comparison with the gate Shushan, this gate was goodly and lofty (as Lightfoot observes), and stood bravely mounted upon the far higher ground; but was mainly distinguished by its materials. The other gates in this enclosure were of wood, plated with gold and silver-the posts and lintels, as we apprehend, of silver, and the valves of gold; but this gate was wholly of Corinthian brass, more precious than gold.' So says Josephus; and as it was doubtless of the best kind of Corinthian brass, other ancient writers support his testimony to its extreme costliness. This Corinthian brass' was of several varieties of different values: one which took a golden hue from the quantity of gold; one of paler hue from the predominance of silver; one wherein the component metals, gold, silver, copper, and tin, were combined in equal proportions. The use of this metal was probably rare in a country which did not tolerate statuary, and hence this gate would attract, from the unusualness, special attention and admiration.

The gate opposite to this, leading directly

into the court where the temple stood, was also of bronze, probably of a different quality, and seemingly not Corinthian bronze; and it seems to have further differed from the other in that it was not wholly of bronze, but had its posts and lintel of, or overlaid with, silver. This gate was, however, distinguished from all others by its large proportions, and the immense weight of its valves. It is said that it required the strength of twenty men to close it: and of it this wonder is recorded, that notwithstanding the force thus required to shut it, and being besides firmly bolted and barred, it one night flew open of its own accord. This is declared to have been forty years before the destruction of the city; and as that date coincides with the death of our Lord, it is open to a suggestion that this incident (if correctly reported) took place at the same time that the veil of the temple was rent, and an earthquake shook the city.

Now of these three gates, which was the Beautiful Gate,' mentioned in Acts iii. 2, where we read that a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple?'

We have no doubt that, judging from the descriptious which we have given, any one would declare for the second or Corinthian gate, which certainly was regarded by those who lived while the temple was standing, as the most magnificent of them. We are ourselves of this opinion. There is, however, probably from imperfect information respecting these gates, a general impression that the outer gate was meant; founded perhaps on the notion that beggars were not likely to be admitted into the temple court, and that it is expressly said that this beggar was placed there to ask alms of those that entered in at the temple.' But we have shown that no particular sanctity was attached to the other court, and that the second gate was properly the entrance into the temple. was nothing to prevent a beggar from being stationed there; and if he could be placed there, he was more likely to go there than to remain at the outer gate. These grounds of doubt cannot therefore stand; and we are at liberty to suppose that the gate really most beautiful was the one distinguished as the Beautiful Gate.

There

The object of stationing beggars, especially maimed beggars, at the gate of the temple, was evidently in the calculation that the feelings of those who were proceeding to, or had been engaged in, an act of solemn worship, would be more strongly inclined to charity and benevolence than at ordinary times. It is in the same calculation that at the present day the gates of the great continental churches, as well

Marity e percep t people siderable ggars of autubers to a which the

y passing as These people hers in their

That little world is fearfully and wonderfully made. It is made for immortality. Its curious machinery, its powers and capacities, will never wear out. It will endure when this physical world has perished. It will be a happy or a miserable world for ever—happy if God be its king, and sit enthroned in its affection -a miserable and wretched world if a usurper holds sway over its dominions. Each inhabitant of this little world must choose who shall be its ruler and king, and upon that choice depends its condition of joy or sorrow for ever.

**

1. WORLD.

words than this, which

Talal race. There visible, and there are seen only by the eye of very man lives in two worlds c. He is a tenant of this common with his fellowAs by the light of the same cies an atmosphere proBut he likewise lives soci of his own. He carries han his own bosom. He e of entrance. He alone of neu kuows what are the chat little world. That world has its own history-its and calms--its sunny days and oudy uights its seasons of joy its troubles and conflictsLanxieties--its pleasures and Troya and its griefs-its loves -its friendships and its alienIt is sometimes a happy world, peace and joy. It is sometimes a Ni of worrow, anguish, and distress. ourer world may be lighted up with yakios and gonial atmosphere, while Ardle world within is darkened with Para and shaken with terrific tempests. this little world no stranger finds adceance, unless invited to enter by a most ised coulidence. What a history would his little world present, if its sole owner and inhabitant should record all its transctions, feelings, joys, sorrows, pleasures, collections, storms, and calms! How often is thet ficle world affected and disturbed, and all its bright skies overcast, by an unkind word a harsh expression-a cold and chilly look of displeasure, where pleasant words and kind treatment were expected? What days and nights of anguish are felt in that little world, unknown to all besides, unless its sorrows are so deep as to change the expression of the

THE EDITOR'S LIBRARY.

DAILY BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS. By J. KITTO, D.D. Edinburgh: W. Oliphant & Sons.

THIS volume completes a remarkable and very valuable series of Scripture exposi tions. The labours of Dr Kitto, in this particularly interesting field, have been arduous, long-continued, and highly successful. No writer, living or dead, has done so much to render the habits and customs of Bible places and Bible times familiar to the nations of the west, and thus enabled them to understand more clearly the sacred narratives. The series of Daily Bible Illustrations just finished, will carry the name of the author down to posterity, and continue for many ages, perhaps for all time, to be at once a student's guide to the Bible, and a tourist's guide to Palestine. That land, always dear to the heart of Christendom, is, we apprehend, about to become the object of still greater interest and attention. General expectation and the course of events point to the near completion of the times of the Gentiles;' and we have every reason to believe that, when that period has been fulfilled, the holy land will undergo a change, the greatness of which we probably little anticipate. Whatever it may become, its past history will never fail to awaken interest, and thus those publications of Dr Kitto, which depict that past history so vividly, will be always valued. Their literary talent and historical correctness, no one doubts; while their popular style, smooth diction, and judicious division, render them entertaining and easily comprehended. The last volume-which relates to the Apostles and early Church—is extremely interesting. We need scarcely recommend it to the perusal of our readers. 'The Beautiful Gate,' in this Number, is! an extract from it.