the giving of the law and the promises,-to whom the very elements were subservient,-who were fed with angels' food,-guided by a pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of a cloud by day,-to make place for whom, kings were dethroned, and nations were disinherited of their long possessed domains-If this people were, after all, deserted and forsaken of their God, O what may not we dread in this happier era of the gospel, if we keep not his commandments, neither remember his statutes, and his judgments to do them!

But, though long forsaken of God, they are not forgotten; they shall yet dwell in Bashan and in Gilead, as in the days of old.* "Again I

As every thing that tends to throw light upon the Scripture, though it be but its local scenery, is interesting, we quote the following beautiful and animated passages from Buckingham's Travels among the mountains of Gilead, and rich pastures of Bashan; a part of Palestine hitherto almost unvisited, and only penetrated by Mr Buckingham and his companion, Mr Bankes, at the greatest personal hazard.

"We had no sooner passed the summit of the second range, going down a short distance on its eastern side,

will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel! Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Hear the word of the Lord,

by a very gentle descent, than we found ourselves on plains of nearly as high a level as the summits of the hills themselves, and certainly eight hundred feet above the stream of the Jordan. We were now in a land of extraordinary richness, abounding with the most beautiful prospects, clothed with thick forests, varied with verdant slops, and possessing extensive plains. We continued our way to the north-east, through a country the beauty of which so surprised us, that we often asked each other what were our sensations? as if to ascertain the reality of what we saw, and persuade each other, by confessions of mutual delight, that the picture before us was not an optical illusion. The landscape alone, which varied at every turn, and gave us new beauties from every point of view, was, of itself, worth all the pains of an excursion to the east of Jordan to obtain a sight of; and the park-like scenes that sometimes softened the romantic wildness of the general character, as a whole, reminded us of similar spots in less neglected lands."-Travels in Palestine, through the Countries of Bashan and Gilead, by J. S. Buckingham, Vol. II. p. 104.

O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. Turn again, O virgin of Israel! turn again to these thy cities."

If the religion of the Jew was a religion exclu sive beyond that of all the sects and schisms of which the world has since been so prolific, surely the religion of the Christian is one of the most universal that the human mind is capable of conceiving; and might, from this very peculiarity, combined with its other accompaniments of purity and sanctity, be sufficient to demonstrate its heavenly origin, as proceeding from the father of ALL, who will have ALL men to be saved. And if, in the exertions with which every day of the Christian's life in this happy era is so fully fraught, it is their endeavour to preach the gospel to every creature, to whom ought they to turn with a tenderness and affection beyond that due to all other nations, if not to their elder brother the Jew? Though Jehovah, to manifest the splendour of his justice, and to evince the concentrated glory of all his attributes, has seen fit, for many

centuries, to pursue this devoted nation with " 8 flaming sword, turning every way" for their destruction,—and has fulfilled his own curse, "I will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance; and sore sickness, and of long continuance,”—yet he has not said for ever. The bles sing absorbs the denunciation, even as the drop of dew is lost in the depths of the ocean. "Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant.-For I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy upon them, saith the Lord."

Let us then not only cherish the hope, but take rest in the assurance, that if the expatriated Hebrew be not brought back to his local sanctuary, of which, however, there seems to be no doubt, and to his beloved earthly Jerusalem, he shall assuredly be brought back a willing subject

"to David his king, and his eyes shall see the land that is very far off." And that it may kindle in the heart of the reader some desire to aid in the blessed task of winning him to this sweet and sacred consummation, we shall here give an affecting instance of that "fervid and melancholy love for the scene of his faith, which still glows in the heart of the Jew- -a love which has outlived so many centuries of exile, and disappointment, and wretchedness," that it throws the cold, lukewarm, and too often heartless devotion of the more highly favoured Christian into the shade, and ought to be to us a source of deep and selfabasing lamentation.

"The Jews speak of Palestine," says Buchanan, in his Researches in India, “ as if it were close at hand, and easily accessible. Distance of time and place seems to have no power to obliterate the remembrance of the desolation of Jerusalem. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning; if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief