and thou shalt possess it: and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." Deut. xxx. 1-6.

How striking is the sequence of events here! The last, the longest, the most fearful dispersion, that which has endured to this day, is described immediately before, in the twenty-eighth chapter, marked most emphatically by the peculiar features of the Roman desolation, as contra-distinguished from all preceding visitations. Then we have a calling to remembrance, in the midst of the nations where they are scattered; a simultaneous returning to God, according to all that Moses taught their fathers, with deep, and unfeigned, and abiding penitence and submission. On this they are gathered, and brought back, and established in their own land; and LASTLY, God adds the circumcision of the heart to that of the flesh; sheds abroad in those hearts the love that He alone can implant; and in a sense the highest and the most glorious that can be understood, He bids them LIVE.

And again, in the exquisite prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, thus speaks the king: "If they sin against thee, (there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near; yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; if they

return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: then hear THOU from the heavens, even from thy dwelling-place, their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee." 2 Chron. vi. 36. 39.

Was the prayer accepted? Blessed be God, we are not left in doubt! He appeared to Solomon the next night, and promised according to the supplication made, and said, "For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually"-literally "for all days." But the

covenant, is it not broken? is not the throne cast to the ground? Nay, "Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Hath be spoken, and shall he not make it good?" From the Mount of Olives that overlooks the site of that Temple, did He ascend, at whose glorious coming again" his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives," still overlooking the same spot, at this day enclosed, and kept apart, and reserved for the full and magnificent consummation of every promise that hath been made to Israel; and to prove, in the face of our inveterate unbelief, that his eye and his heart are there-shall be there perpetually.

Thus looking back on the glorious past, and forward to the far more glorious future, whose hand can be slack in aiding the work, thus strikingly begun before our eyes; Israel all over the world, rising suddenly to view, in the very state in which

that promised universal repentance and calling upon God is foreshewn to take place. We will not enlarge on the agonizing picture drawn-on the little children screaming for a drop of water-the naked, wounded, dying victims-the outrages too terrible to think on but oh, let us share the blessing invoked on the Moorish king, by perishing Judah-let us be as the compassionate Moor who brought a pitcher of water to still the cries of the tortured babes. Let us swell, as we can, the portion sent to them that are ready to perish; for they are "the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with their fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

(We have already had the satisfaction of receiving and forwarding some contributions to the fund: next month we will furnish a list, which we hope will be swelled by the bounty of sympathizing friends to Israel.)

THE PILGRIM BROTHERS,

AN ALLEGORICAL SKETCH.

BY SIDNEY O'MOORE.

THERE is a land which is called by many of its inhabitants "the vale of tears," but those who look upward behold the Sun of Righteousness shining upon each falling shower, and transforming it into a rainbow of hope, a radiant arch on which swiftwinged thoughts ascend and descend from heaven.

Of the two roads through this land, it is strange that the most frequented is that which seems least to satisfy the heart. Among the multitude who pursue it, voices continually resound, "O weary, weary, how shall we kill the day?" Yet its weariness drives them not from the way.

The other path over hill and dale, is brightened by the smile of heaven as by glad sunshine, and an abiding peace dwells in the hearts of its pilgrims. Even if these should ever be tossed in dark waters, they know it is only that they may be fashioned as pearls to shine in that great day when the King shall make up his jewels.

At the same hour, two brothers entered the valley, happy in having been brought into it by those who had chosen the path of peace, and carefully led their young charge in the same happy way. But alas,

before the young pilgrims had travelled far into the land, a scorching blast, more fatal than the breath of the Simoon, seized upon their beloved guardians. They spoke strange words, and hearkened for voices which met not mortal ear: they saw around their fevered couches, fleeting forms that no others could discern. Vainly the brothers, with encircling arms of love, strove to detain their beloved. Borne away upon the wings of the blast, they were swept across the river of death.

Grace bowed himself before the throne of the invisible, and besought that he might receive the telescopic glass of faith. Then looking upward he beheld a great white throne, surrounded by a rejoicing multitude, clad in white, and bearing palms of victory; and amid the celestial throng he espied his lost beloved, radiant with immortal beauty, and beaming with eternal joy. Entranced by the glorious scene, he half re-echoed the strain of triumph that seemed to float from their resplendent harps. "Victory, victory through the blood of the Lamb."

And as he continued gazing, the brightness of their joy did illumine and exhale the tears of his grief, even as the morning sun first brightens, then exhales the dew-drops of the night.

Then did Grace beseech his brother to contemplate the glorious spectacle, but Nature turned away; he wept in gloom until the receding shadows of the departed grew dim upon the glass of memory ; then wrapped in the present, he forgot the shrouded past.

How often does the angel of death stoop with friendly finger to inscribe upon the heart of man a DECEMBER, 1844.

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