or of Rome, or of any other city, which the world ever saw.There is in all the doings of the Jews, their virtues and their vices, their wisdom and their folly, a height and a depth, a breadth and a length that angels cannot fathom; their whole history is a history of miracles, the precepts of their sacred book are the most profound, and the best adapted to every situation in which man can be placed; they moderate him in prosperity, sustain him in adversity, guide him in, health, console him in sickness, support him at the close of life, travel on with him through death, live with him throughout the endless ages of eternity, and Jerusalem lends its name to the eternal mansions of the blessed in heaven, which man is admitted to enjoy through the atonement of Christ Jesus, who was born of a descendant of Judah. But we must turn to consider the Jerusalem that now is. In Egypt and Syria, it is universally called Goutes, or Koudes, which means holy, and is still a respectable, good-looking town; it is of an irregular shape, approaching nearest to that of a square; it is surrounded by a high embattled wall, which, generally speaking, is built of the common stone of the country, which is a compact lime-stone. It has six gates; one of which looks to the west, and is called the gate of Yaffa, or Bethlehem, because the road to these places passes through it; two look to the north, one is called the gate of Sham, or Damascus; the other, the gate of Herod; the fourth gate looks to the east, or the valley of Jehoshaphat, and is called St. Stephen's gate, because here the protomartyr was stoned to death; it is close by the temple or mosque of Omar, and leads to the gardens of Gethsemane, and the mount of Olives, Bethany, Jericho, and all the east of Jerusalem; the fourth gate leads into the temple, or harem schereef, which was formerly called the Church of the Presentation, because the Virgin Mary is supposed to have entered by this gate, to present her son, our blessed Saviour, in the temple. On account of a turn in the wall, this gate, though in the east wall of the city, looks to the south towards mount Zion; near to this there is another gate, which is small, not admitting either horses or carriages, of which last, however, there is none in Jerusalem; and from the wall resuming its former direction, looks to the east, it is called the dung-gate; the last is called Zion-gate, or the gate of the prophet David; it looks to the south, and is in that part of the wall which passes over mount Zion, and runs between the brook Kedron, or valley of Jehoshaphat on the east, and the deep ravine, called the valley of the son of Hinnom; on the west, leaving about two thirds of mount Zion on the south, or outside of the walls, it is nearly opposite to the mosque which is built over the sepulchre of David. The longest wall is that which faces this, and is on the north side of the city; it runs between the valley of Gihon on the west, and the valley of Jehoshaphat on the east. I walked round the city on the outside of the wall, in an hour and twenty minutes, and lady Belmore rode round it on an VOL. VI.

18

ass, in an hour and a quarter; and the whole circumference, as measured by Maundrell, a most accurate traveller, is two miles and a half. The population of the Holy City is estimated at twenty thousand souls; five thousand of whom are Mussulmans; five thousand Christians; and ten thousand Jews. The Jews reside chiefly on the edge of mount Zion, in the lower part of the city, which, in the language of Scripture, is called the Daughter of Zion, near to the shambles, which are most dreadfully offensive; in passing them on a summer morning, a person is almost afraid to draw his breath, the inhalation of the vapour produces such a deadening effect upon the whole system. Many of the Jews are rich and in comfortable circumstances, and possess a good deal of property in Jerusalem, but they are careful to conceal their wealth, and even their comfort, from the jealous eye of their rulers, lest by awakening their cupidity some vile, indefensible plot, should be devised to their prejudice. In going to visit a respectable Jew in the Holy City, it is a common thing to pass to his house over a ruined foreground, and up an awkward outside stair, constructed of rough unpolished stones, that totter under the foot: but it improves as you ascend, and at the top has a respectable appearance, as it ends in an agreeable platform in front of the house. On entering the house itself it is found to be clean and well furnished, the sofas are covered with Persian carpets, and the people seem happy to receive you. The visitor is entertained with coffee and tobacco, as is the custom in the houses of the Turks and Christians. The ladies presented themselves with an ease and address that surprised me and recalled to my memory the pleasing society of Europe. This difference of manner arises from many of the Jewish families in Jerusalem, having resided in Spain or Portugal, where the females had rid themselves of the cruel domestic fetters of the east, and, on returning to their beloved land, had very properly maintained their justly acquired freedom and rank in society. They almost all speak a broken Italian, so that conversation goes on without the clumsy aid of an interpreter. It was the feast of the passover, and they were all eating unleavened bread; some of which was presented to me as a curiosity, and I partook of it merely that I might have the gratification of eating unleavened bread with the sons and daughters of Jacob in Jerusalem: it is very insipid fare, and no one would eat it from choice. For the same reason I went to the synagogue, of which there are two in Jerusalem, although I only visited one.. The form of worship is the same as in this country, and, I believe, in every country, which the Jews inhabit. The females have a separate synagogue assigned to them as in the synagogues of Europe, and in the Christian churches all over the Levant. They are not, however, expected to be frequent or regular in their attendance on public worship. The ladies generally make a point of going on the Sunday, that is, the Friday night or Saturday morning after they are

married and being thus introduced in their new capacity, once a year is considered as sufficient compliance on their part, with the ancient injunction, to assemble themselves together in the house of prayer. Like the votaries of some Christian establishments, the Jewesses trust more to the prayers of their priests than to their own. The synagogues in Jerusalem are both poor and small, not owing to the poverty of their possessors, but to the prudential motives above mentioned; yet it was delightful to mix with them in your devotions, and to see performed before your eyes that ceremonial worship by the descendants of that very people to whom it was delivered by the voice of God. I should look at the ceremonies of Pagan temples as a matter of little more than idle curiosity, but the ceremonies of the Jews dip into the heart. This is the most ancient form of worship in existence; this is the manner in which the God of heaven was worshipped by Abraham and his descendants, when all the other nations in the world were sitting in darkness, or falling down to stocks and stones. To the Jews were committed the oracles of God; this is the manner in which Moses and Elias, David and Solomon, worshipped the God of their fathers. This worship was instituted by God himself, and in Jerusalem the chosen and appointed city; and on the rock of Sion, God's holy hill, to sing a psalm of David, in company with the outcast race of Judah, winds to ecstasy the heart.

The vital history of the Christian faith passes over the memory, and you feel as if you joined your voice with those chosen spirits who spoke through inspiration, and told the will of God to man. The time will come when the descendants of his ancient people shall join the song of Moses, to the song of the Lamb, and, singing hosannah to the Son of David, confess his power to save. I never see the fine, venerable aspect of a Jew, but I feel for him as an elder brother. I have an affection for him, that far transcends my feeling for a Greek or for a Roman, who have left the world but childish rhythms and sprinklings of a groundless morality, compared with that pure and lofty thought that pervades the sacred volume. I have a desire to converse with him, and to know the communings of a heart, formed by the ancient word of inspiration, unanointed and unanealed by the consummating afflations of Christianity. I would rather pity than persecute him for refusing the Gospel. The thunders of Sinai once rung in his ears, need we wonder that they have sunk deep into his heart? The rock must be struck before the water will gush out. The coal must be warmed before it can be fanned into a flame. The fort must be taken by gradual approaches. Sichæus must be abolished by little and little. They are a hard working and industrious people; the world has never been oppressed by their poor; the obstinacy with which they cling to their institutions shows the stuff that is in them. Plundered and expatriated for the long period of eighteen hundred years, they have earned their bread from under

the feet of those to whom the writings of their fathers reveal the will of heaven, and from which we derive the soundest rules of life, and the gladening hopes of a future existence. One would say, that the son of Judah was a gem, whom every Christian would be anxious to polish and refine: by how much it is more blessed to give than to receive; they have given to all, but, saving the buffetings of tyranny and adversity, what have they received from the world? The elements of Christianity are incorporated in their institutions; when they consider and know them, they will see that the religion of Jesus is but the consummation of their own. Let us treat them like fellow-creatures: we owe them every thing, and they have not more of the original contamination of human nature than we ourselves.

The Jewesses in Jerusalem speak in a decided and firm tone, unlike the hesitating and timid voice of the Arab and Turkish females, and claim the European privilege of differing from their husbands, and maintaining their own opinions. They are fair and good-looking; red and auburn hair are by no means uncommon in either of the sexes. I never saw any of them with veils ; and was informed that it is the general practice of the Jewesses in Jerusalem to go with their faces uncovered. They are the only females there who do so. They seem particularly liable to eruptive diseases; and the want of children is as great a heart-break to them now as it was in the days of Sarah.

In passing up to the synagogue, I was particularly struck with the mean and wretched appearance of the houses on both sides of the streets, as well as with the poverty of their inhabitants. Some of the old men and old women had more withered and hungry aspects than any of our race I ever saw, with the exception of the caverned dames at Gornow, in Egyptian Thebes, who might have sat in a stony field as a picture of famine the year after the flood. The sight of a poor Jew in Jerusalem, has in it something peculiarly affecting. The heart of this wonderful people, in whatever clime they roam, still turns to it as the city of their promised rest. They take pleasure in her ruins, and would lick the very dust for her sake. Jerusalem is the centre round which the exiled sons of Judah build, in airy dreams, the mansions of their future greatness. In whatever part of the world he may live, the heart's desire of a Jew when gathered to his fathers, is to be buried in Jerusalem. Thither they return from Spain and Portugal, from Egypt and Barbary, and other countries among which they have been scattered; and when, after all their longings, and all their struggles up the steeps of life, we see them poor, and blind, and naked, in the streets of their once happy Zion, he must have a cold heart that can remain untouched by their sufferings, without uttering a prayer, that the light of a reconciled countenance would shine on the darkness of Judah, and the day star of Bethlehen arise in their hearts.Seaman's Magazine.

Miscellaneous.

For the Methodist Magazine.

IMPORTANCE OF STUDY TO A MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. (Continued from page 106.)

It will doubtless be expected that we should recommend the study of RHETORIC, or at least of Pulpit oratory. This we would most gladly do, if we perfectly knew how. We will, however, submit a few observations on this head, which, perhaps, may not be altogether useless. The whole of what we have to say on this subject may be comprehended in two words, BE NATURAL. Every child, of common capacity, is both an orator and a physiognomist. Hence the facility with which they awaken our sympathy and excite our affection.

Oratory is nothing more nor less than the undisguised and unaffected expression of the sentients and passions of the heart. This may be done either with or without words. Hence a child, before it has learned the use of these artificial signs of ideas, will, by its natural tones of oratory, exhibit all the latent passions of the heart, whether of sorrow or joy, pain or pleasure, love or hate, in such a forcible manner too, as to attract attention almost irresistibly. And no sooner does it begin to make observations, than it will watch the countenance of its parent or nurse, as if anxious to ascertain the disposition of its guardian, noticing a frown or a smile, with all the particularity with which an attentive physiognomist would mark the expression of your countenance, with a view to ascertain your predominant passion. These infantile and instinctive gestures, and these first symptoms of reason, however forcibly or feebly expressed, exhibit an evidence of the accuracy of the above observation, that oratory is but the natural expressions of the sentiments of the heart; and that infants evince early traits of genuine eloquence. I would, therefore, put you into the nursery, and place you under the tuition of a little child, in order to teach you Rhetoric. How eloquent was the little child which Jesus placed in the midst of the people, in order to teach His disciples how they should be qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven!

Why then, it may be asked, is not every man an orator? The answer is obvious. Some are marred through bashfulness, some by unsuccessful efforts to imitate others, some by following those artificial rules which are not founded in nature; and a multitude are ruined by contracting in their youth, awkward gestures, affected habits; while others, to avoid the appearance of enthusiasm, restrain those lofty and ardent feelings which the nature of their subject is calculated to produce. But no man can be elo