grapher, Ibn Haukal, however, describes with great minuteness, under the appellation of Mawer-al-nahr, the region in which these Jews are said to have been discovered. He speaks of it generally as one of the most flourishing and productive provinces within the dominions of Islam, and describes the people as distinguished for probity and virtue, as averse from evil, and fond of peace. "Such is their liberality," says he, "that no one turns aside from the rites of hospitality; so that a person contemplating them in the night, would imagine that all the families in the land were but one house. When a traveller arrives there, every person endeavours to attract him to himself, that he may have opportunities of performing kind offices for the stranger; and the best proof of their hospitable and generous disposition is, that every peasant, though possessing but a bare sufficiency, allows a portion of his cottage for the reception of his guest. Thus, in acts of hospitality they expend their incomes. Never have I heard of such things in any other country. The rich and great lords of most other places expend their treasures on particular favourites, in the indulgence of gross appetites, and sensual gratifications. The people of Mawer-al-nahr employ themselves in a useful and rational manner; they lay out their money in erecting caravanseries, or inns, &c.-You cannot see any town or stage, or even desert, without a convenient inn or stagehouse, for the accommodation of travellers, with every thing necessary. I have heard that there are above two thousand nehats or inns, where, as many persons as may arrive, shall find sufficient forage for their beasts, and meat for themselves."

These particulars, we should presume, can scarcely fail to prove interesting both in a moral and a religious, as well as in a geographical point of view. The number of the scattered members of the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe

of Benjamin, rather exceed than fall short of five millions. Now, if to this number be added the many other millions to be found in the different countries of the East, what an immense power would be brought into action were the spirit of the nationality once roused, or any extraordinary event to occur, which should induce them to unite in claiming possession of that land which was given to them for an "heritage for ever," and to which, in every other clime of the earth, their fondest hopes and their dearest aspirations never cease to turn!-Caledonian Mer.

[C.]

In further elucidation of this subject, and to express strenuous disapprobation of what has been lately much spoken of—namely, the formation of a Hebrew church, I gladly avail myself of a valuable paper supplied by a friend, who has kindly consented to my making this use of the following extracts:

"In the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul makes known the Lord's will respecting the future state of the church. In the ninth chapter he declares, that the Jews have stumbled at the stumbling stone which is laid in Zion, and shall therefore be for a time removed from the favour of God, excepting a remnant according the election of grace. In the eleventh chapter, the church is compared to an olive-tree, of which Christ is the life. The Jewish nation are represented by some of the branches broken off, and the Gentiles as a wild olive-tree, graffed in, and abiding in, by faith. This breaking-off is declared to be only for a season; unbelief shall be dispelled by faith, by which they shall again be graffed into their own olive-tree. As therefore there never has been but one church existing

in the world, divided into various local churches for the convenience of discipline, it would appear, that should any of the children of Isaac receive of the Lord faith, and then refuse to join the church from which they were broken off, they set themselves in array against the Lord's revealed purpose, rend the body of Christ, and are guilty of schism. Two churches can never exist, seeing the Lord's body is but one, as St. Paul declares to the Ephesians: "Christ having made both one, and broken down the middle wall of partition which was between the two, and reconciled both unto God, in one body, on the cross, and given access to both, by one Spirit unto the Father." (Eph. ii. 14, 16, 18.) The same truth is clearly revealed in 1 Cor. xii. where all the members of one body, being one body, is used as a figure to represent the oneness of the church, which, with its head, is called "Christ." So also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free, and have been made to drink into one Spirit. And then, returning to his illustration, he sets forth the oneness of the body, by the various offices of the members, which are so ordered, that there shall be no schism in the body; which would be the case, if any member set itself apart from the rest. Then, having declared the church generally to be the body of Christ, and individual believers to be the members in particular, he enters into a recapitulation of the diversity of gifts bestowed on the church, which recapitulation shows the church to be composed of Jews and Gentiles, the first named apostles, having been all Jews, and the gifts afterwards enumerated, having been bestowed on Gentiles also.

That this was a truth, which the Jews found it difficult to receive on the first entrance of Gentiles into the church, St. Paul accounts for, by declaring it to be a mystery not made known unto the sons of men, in other ages; as it is

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now revealed by the holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body. But after any of the Lord's purposes have been clearly revealed, no plans of expediency, no hopes of usefulness, no designs of promoting the Lord's glory, however specious or well intended, can in any manner, or in any degree, justify opposition to those purposes, by substituting our own devices. In the Jewish church, every disregard to the Lord's appointment, and disrepect to his ordinances, was visited by signal judgment, as we see in the case of Miriam; of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and of Uzzah. And surely, the sin cannot be less in the Christian church, although the Lord's displeasure is not in this dispensation shown in the same visible manner. Rather is the responsibility increased manifold, since the coming of Christ, and his assumption of his prophetical and priestly offices. For now, the ordained ministers of his church are his representatives; and, deriving their authority immediately from him, are so to be considered. "He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me.” To refuse to receive baptism from them, and to substitute what seems to human reason to do as well, is to imitate the unbelief of Naaman, rather than the faith of the eunuch; and to lead into sin those who (tempted by an apparent urgency of case) rush uncalled into holy offices, and touch the ark with unhallowed hands.

Much confusion may arise, from not clearly seeing the difference between national distinction and peculiarity, and the nature of spiritual privileges. The Lord has promised, that Israel shall never cease from being a nation before him for ever. They were distinct, when the Lord God dwelt among them-they are so, in their present dispersed and outcast state-and they shall still be so, when, gathered from all countries, they shall be restored to the land given

to their fathers; and the Lord shall be their God, and they his people. But the church of Christ shall, by his own blood, be redeemed to God, out of EVERY kindred, and tongue, and people, and NATION; and believing Israelites should feel it a privilege to join that form of it, which may be established in the country where, during their dispersion, they may happen to dwell. To neglect present duties, or to despise present privileges, in consequence of looking forward to some that are future, and which the present generation may not live to enjoy, is to run before the Providence of God, and prescribe to Him, who is infinite in wisdom, and who will perform all his pleasure, not urged by man's impetuosity—not impeded by man's unbelief.

The Christian church having been first established at Jerusalem, that was considered as the mother church, and appeal was made to it when necessary; but after the church was driven from Jerusalem by the destruction of the city, no church which existed had any supremacy over the rest. Each church, (that is, the church in each place where it was set up,) having been founded either by the apostles, or on apostolical authority, had its government within itself; and where the ruling powers believed in Christ, the Christian religion became the established religion of the country.

To deny that the holy Catholic church exists, wherever there are apostolic churches founded, is to fall into the error of the Romanists, who claim a supremacy for their church; which claim of supremacy, among other evidences, proves it to be an apostasy.

To set up a Hebrew church, with self-constituted, or lay-constituted ministers, is the schism most of all to be deplored. Every professed believer, who separates from the church of apostolic descent, established in his own land, refuses to keep" the unity of the Spirit, in the bond