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While I was in that attitude, four or five Turks came near, and joined hands to pray in their accustomed way, calling out, 'Alla! Alla! Having in sight my safety, and that of thousands of individuals who crowded to the gate to escape, I made no more reflections, but began to entreat them, in the name of God, to help me to open the gate, in order to save our lives and those of so many individuals who were continually perishing before us.

"The Lord inspired them with courage; and, providing themselves with large stones, according to my instructions, in a little time they forced the bars, and opened the gate. No sooner had I quitted it than a strong shock of an earthquake crumbled it to pieces, and several Jews were killed by its fall.

"A new and affecting scene was now exhibited. A great con-course of people rushed out, and with one accord fell on their knees to render thanks to the Almighty for their preservation; but when the first transports of joy were over, the thought of having buried, or in danger of being buried in the city their friends and relations, made them pour such piercing lamentations that the most hard-hearted person would have been penetrated with grief. I crept as well as I could, about twenty yards, to a place where I saw a group of people, who had saved themselves from the suburbs, where no gates prevented their issuing out of the town; there I fell, half dead with cold, and with the pain from my

sores.

"Two or three of those people who recognized me in that miserable condition immediately gave me a cloak, and brought me a little water. When I recovered a little my senses, I began to feel new sufferings of a nature too poignant to be described.

"The thoughts of what might have befallen my brother and his family, who were at Antioch, and the cruel fate of my friends in the city, besides the melancholy objects around me, people wounded, others lamenting the death of their relations, others having before them their dying children, taken from under the ruins, preyed so strongly on my mind, that not the pen of the ablest writer can give an adequate idea of my feelings. I spent the whole night in prayer and anxiety.

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Early the next morning I was conveyed by some charitable people on an ass to the nearest garden, to profit by the shade of the trees. I did not remain long before Mr. Derche the French dragoman joined me, and gave me the agreeable news that all the European Christians, excepting a little boy, had been saved; but many, like myself, were greatly bruised.

"Of the European Jews, the Austrian consul Mr. Esdra de Picciateo, and a few others were crushed to death; and many thousands of native Christians, Jews and Turks perished with them. I have now the satisfaction to know that my brother and family had escaped from a similar danger at Antioch; which place has likewise been destroyed, as well as Latakia, Gisser, Shogre,

Idlib, Mendun Killis, Scanderoon, and all the rest of the towns .and villages in the Pachalick of Aleppo.

"Of the interior as yet we have had no news. All those who have made their escape out of the city are encamped in the gardens. I remained four days without being able to move, from my bruises and sores, having only a sheet to screen me from the scorching rays of the sun. I am now, thank God, much better, and begin to walk a little, but with great pain.

"When I joined the rest of the Europeans in the garden of Ibrahim Aga, I was most kindly received by the French consul Mr. Lesseps, who afforded me every possible assistance.

"I cannot too greatly admire the conduct of this worthy gentleman in the critical and afflicting position he is in. A father could not show more affection to his children than Mr. Lesseps manifests to his countrymen as well as to all those who are in want of advice or assistance.

"The next day, my friend Mr. Maseyk, came to live among us; in the bosom of whose family I begin again to enjoy life, although deprived of all its comforts.

"My heart bleeds for the poor Europeans; who, without the least prospect of having, for a time, a roof to preserve them from the scorching rays of the sun, must soon, from the heavy rains of the autumn and winter, be deprived of every resource; for the few effects they have been able to save must be sold for their sus tenance."

Aug. 29. "I have happily been able to extricate from the ruins some of my papers, among which is the account of sales of the Arabie Scriptures."

From another account, transmitted by Mr. Barker, Consul at Antioch, we learn that the awful effects of this earthquake were very extensive; from Diabeker and Merhab, Aleppo and Scanderoon, Killis and Kahu Shekoon. The shock was felt at Damascus, Adeno, and Cyprus. Flashes of volcanic fire were perceived at various times throughout the night. There was nothing remarkable in the weather, or in the state of the atmosphere.

It is impossible to convey an adequate idea of the scenes of horror during that dreadful night. Hundreds of decrepid parents, half-buried in the ruins, imploring the succour of their sons; distracted mothers franticly lifting heavy stones from heaps that covered the bodies of their lifeless infants; the crash of falling walls, the shrieks, the groans, the accounts of agony and despair of that long night cannot be described.

Aleppo, Antioch, and several other towns, thus became, in ten or twelve seconds, heaps of ruins; and, at the lowest computation, 20,000 human beings were destroyed, and as many more maimed and wounded.

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Although slight shocks of earthquakes have sometimes been felt in this country, and a single town, Latachia, was partially thrown down about twenty-seven years ago, yet none very destructive is recorded but one, which happened about sixteen cen turies ago, when one-third of the inhabitants of Antioch perished, when it contained 700,000 souls.

From subsequent letters it appears that the shocks of the earthquakes continued to be felt, at various times, up to the 19th of October; more than two months after the first fatal shock.

Miscellaneous.

For the Methodist Magazine.

IMPORTANCE OF STUDY TO A MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. (Continued from page 145.)

It may be expected that the Poets will occupy a place in your Library. They ought not, indeed, to be wholly excluded. But the hill of Parnassus is lofty, and of somewhat difficult access, so that but few have attained the high honour of a commanding station upon its melodious brow. Its sides indeed are perforated in many a place by those who have scrambled along its sides, in hopes of penetrating to the Castalian Spring; but their temerity has been punished by the Patron of the Muses, for attempting to tread on forbidden ground. You will not, therefore, be dabbling with every pretender to this sublime art. And even among those who stand unrivalled for poetical genius, you have need to make your selection with caution, on account of the im purity of some of their sentiments, and the vulgarity of some of their words; but the greatest danger is where doubtful sentiments and even most reprehensible doctrines, are blended with sublime strains of poetry, and with purity and elegance of language. Even the pure and delicious waters of Zion have been rendered tasteless and even sickening by being blended, in the corrupt imagination of the Poet, with the turbid waters of heathenism, or incautiously mixed with the muddy streams of merely terrestrial origin.

Horace stands confessed among the Latins as a Poet of the most elevated genius. But while he has enlivened his Poem with all the fire of poetical genius, and graced it with all the flowers and elegance of human languagé, he has frequently degraded the majesty of his subject by the vulgarity, and, not unfrequently, indecency of his thoughts. What a pity that our youth should be led through this muddy stream, in order to arrive at a knowledge of a language now almost useless to the greater proportion of the world!

Homer among the Greeks stands unrivalled on account of the sublimity and energy of his poetry; and he is certainly much more chaste than the Latin Poet. Pope and Cowper have both opened a way by which the mere English scholar may approach the high hill of Olympus, and listen to the harmonious numbers and the undulating notes of this father of the Grecian Poets. It is, however, chiefly on account of the poetry, that you will be induced to read him, unless it be for the purpose of ascertaining a more cor rect knowledge of heathen mythology, and of heathen morality, and of contrasting them to greater advantage with the sublime, the simple, the consistent, and the pure theology of the gospel. You may, indeed, have your imagination fired by reading of "That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; Whose limbs, unbury d on the naked shore Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore."

But while you may admire the genius of the Poet, when he assembles,

"The gods in council on the starry hall"

and view the goddess flying

"Swift o'er Olympus' hundred hills"

to summons the imaginary deities of the poet, who

"in long procession came

To Jove's eternal adamantine dome,"

you will not be much edified or delighted with his vivid description of the

"fierce rage and pale affright"

of contending, snarling, and warring deities, who sport themselves with human blood and human misery. And neither will the doughty champion, the poet's admired hero of the story, the wrathful Achilles, please you much better-whose enduring wrath made even his bosom friend say to him ;

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This description, indeed, is characteristic of those hardy virtues so famous among the ancient statesmen and warriors. But while you are ranging through these fields of Grecian Literature, pause a moment to contrast virtuous heathens with virtuous Christians. While Achilles smarts and rages under the lash of his sovereign's injustice, and sullenly indulges in cold-blooded malice against even his own countrymen who are bleeding under the Trojan's sword, St. Paul, instructed in the School of Christ, though far worse treated by his own countrymen, pours forth all the sympathies of a soul swelling with grief and love, even wishing himself "ac

cursed with Christ for his brethren and kinsman according to the flesh."

Virgil, though you only hear him through Dryden's voice, will awaken all the musical powers of your soul. You cannot but sympathize in the sorrowful accents of the poet and his friends, lamenting over the fate of their hero, while they

"Sit and hear the promised lay

The gloomy grotto makes a doubtful day.
The nymphs about the breathless body wait
Of Daphnis, and lament his cruel fate."

But how much more touching is the following apostrophe of the leader of Israel's choir!

"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!

Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

Keeping in mind how far the inspired bards of Israel exceed the poets of Greece and Rome, both in the grandeur of their subject, and in the sublimity of their thought and expression, you may refresh yourself now and then, among the groves which surround the Eolian mount. It will afford you an instructive view of the various shades of the human character, and enable you to make a more accurate estimate of the merits and tendency of the two systems of religion-Paganism and Christianity. Even in the gods, so often introduced as the principal actors in these bloody scenes of ancient date, you will see human nature exalted and debased; for they were nothing more than human beings, invested with such and such attributes by the vivid imagination of the poet, for the purpose of heightening the grandeur and of increasing the solemnity of his Poem; and their frequent interference was announced for the purpose of accounting for the marvellous occurrences, so far transcending the power and sagacity of human beings, which he records.

The intermediate days between the bright morn of ancient science and the more effulgent rays which shine in modern days, you may pass over, as not being sufficient to repay for the time and labour you must expend to explore them, and muse yourself awhile among the bards of the "fast anchored Isle." The immortal Milton, whose sublime genius soared to heaven, and recounted the wars of the celestial regions, will fire your soul with devotion, while he illuminates your understanding with important truths. Yes, he will tell you with all the force of poetical energy, and all the pathos of a firm believer, how

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Nor will he neglect to inspire your soul with a love and veneration for the man of invincible fidelity, by the example of

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