wisdom of the American Board in the selection of such agents. We joined them in their domestic devotions-ever a delightful scene, but especially so in a land like this, and retired to rest. How mysterious is sleep! we sink calmly into it from the agitations of the day, and find its repose the deeper, for the very weariness we have experienced. What will it be when the tumult of life is over? for a sleep still more profound and impenetrable awaits man in the grave!

But on that sleep in rending thunder,

The last archangel's trump will break;
The sinner, in despair and wonder,
From out his silent death-dreams wake!
His grave still gaping near the stone,
That signal-sound hath overthrown.
With fear and wild amazement smitten,
His eyes to heaven for mercy roll,
But meet, in flaming letters written,
The sentence of his ruined soul:
His only hope a frightful death
Within the lightnings' blasting breath!

This may not be. With sceptre riven,
Grim Death now yields his empire up;
Nor proffers more the unforgiven
The solace of his lethean cup:
His glory, power, and trophies fled,
He stands himself among the dead!

O Savior! when that fearful morning

Reveals thee on the coming cloud;-
The last deep trump, with signal warning,
Piercing the slumber of my shroud,—
And earth and sea have passed away,
Be thou this trembling spirit's stay!

CHAPTER IX.

Sultan's attendance at Mosque-Royal Barges-Worship of the Mussulman-Assemblage of Turkish Ladies-Their personal Appearance Social Amusements-Early Education-Matrimonial Alliance-Ruling Passion-Conjugal Traits.

WE went on Friday, the Mussulman's Sabbath, to witness the ceremony of the Sultan's attendance at mosque. The solemnity was to take place, as the Reis Effendi kindly informed us, in a sanctuary on the Asain shore of the Bosphorus, a short distance above the imperial palace. We found the spot presenting a scene that would have much more interested a painter than a religious fanatic; a stately grove of luxuriant foliage, encompassed on one side by a retreating range of hills, and on the other by the ever sparkling flow of the "ocean stream," in the centre a mosque of small and delicate dimensions, with two lines of national troops, forming a curved avenue to the quay-in one section gathering groups of men exchanging their early salutations and lighting their chebouques,-in the other, coteries of the Fair alighting from the araba, or stepping from the cuique ;—in the back ground a display of prancing steeds gorgeously caparisoned--the whole forming a mingled pageant of pomp and prettiness, gravity and gayety. It was a miniature representation

of Mahomet's heaven, save that the houries are to be more lovely than their mortal sisters, and the reembodied Mussulman more majestic than in this 'perishable mould.

The eyes of those on the strand were now turned down the stream, for around a projecting bluff of the shore a barge came sweeping up, rivalling the sunbeams in the splendor of its decorations. Thirty-two strong-limbed men, dressed in white, and so as to expose the muscular formation of neck, arms and chest, with their close caps of red, were at the oars, an officer of rank at the gilded helm, while beneath a pavilion of purple and gold, and on a sofa of flashing gems, with wandering eye and easy attitude, sat his imperial Majesty. This barge was followed by two others, impelled each by twenty-four oarsmen, displaying like the first an airy lightness, a rich profusion of gilding, a canopied stern, and bearing the highest dignitaries of the court. The royal barge came slowly and gracefully up to the pier, when the monarch, in a dark flowing robe, and with that air of solemn dignity so natural to the Turk, stepped forth; the multitude received him with a low submissive inclination of the head, the troops by presenting arms, and the priesthood with a burning censer that filled the grove with its fragrance. The beautiful Arabian, to be honored on this occasion, was now lead near, with his jewelled bridle, and glittering saddle swelling from its embroidered housings, with a Pasha at

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each golden stirrup, and another at the bit; and thus his Majesty mounted, moving on through the military lines that walled each side of the winding path to the mosque. Here he disappeared from us; for even the Reis Effendi, who had assigned us the most advantageous position on the ground for witnessing the ceremonies to this point, could not presume upon the forbearance of those around him so far as to invite us, during the time of worship, within the pale of the sacred edifice. The members of the court, and then an assemblage of officers of different ranks, followed their sovereign. The service must have consited of little more than a succession of silent prostrations and inaudible prayers; for though we approached close to the mosque, not a sound or voice was to be heard from within; a heart that had despaired of mercy could not have been more silent. It was as if the dead were slowly rising in their shrouds, and bending to the stern majesty of death.

Nothing, as I have had occasion to experience, can be more impressive than this wordless worship of the Mussulman. There are, with him, no affected tones of humility, no confident accents of Pharisaical assurance, no irrepressible ecstacies over cancelled sin, no smothered agonies over unforgiven guilt. His emotions are all calm, concentrated, and deep: he kneels and prays as if there were no being in the universe, save the high and inscrutable One, whom he addresses. When the hour of prayer arrives, he

permits no embarrassments connected with the presence or dispositions of others, to deter him from his devotions; he asks no permission to be devout, offers no apology for his creed, proposes no compromise with levity or prejudice; but immediately withdraw-. ing his mind from all visible objects, bows himself to the earth, and breathes forth his supplications from the silent depths of his absorbed spirit. Let the Christian, who stands in such awe of the opinions of others, or whose piety so nicely consults occasions, that he can never be devout except in the church, look to the Mussulman: his unfaithfulness and pusillanimity must be put to the blush by the deportment of one who acts under the impulses of a mistaken but consistent and firm faith. And yet, to the dishonor of Christendom, it must be confessed, that were a follower of Christ to be as punctual and uncompromising, in the discharge of his religious duties, as a disciple of Mahomet, he would scarcely be tolerated, he would be regarded as a stern fanatic.

But what is it that makes religion in a Mussulman fanaticism in a Christian? Can a sentiment change its character by changing its name? Does it forfeit all claims to tolerance and'esteem by a transition from the turban to the cross? Let those prone to denounce, as a feverish enthusiasm, the little earnestness sometimes found in the Christian, answer these questions. The religion that came from Heaven-to be popular in this world-should be divest