most intelligent and active in the Turkish empire, and destined in the breaking up of this government, we believe, to great influence, is gradually yielding to the power of truth. Should this good work advance among these nominal Christians, until a pure Christianity is suffered to give its character to the nation, there will then be found in the very heart of this empire a regenerating power as yet unknown. The Moslem will then have a true standard by which to test the Bible and the Koran; and it is not too much to hope that even he, surrounded by such influences, will be brought to lay down his native barbarism and put on the spirit of Christ. It is a singular fact, and one, probably, destined to have no small influence upon the destiny of Islamism, that the followers of the prophet have been for centuries separated by a schism of the most invete⚫ rate character. Taking its rise in a conflict for the fourth Caliphate, between the partisans of Ali and Mowiyah, it has perpetuated itself to this hour, and now forms an impassable gulf between the Ottoman and the Persian. The latter has far more sympathy with Christian nations than with the sultan. Christianity hopes much from his superior liberality and intelligence. The Persian and the eastern Mohammedans generally regard Ali with great reverence, and in their worship render unto him almost divine homage. He seems to be, in their view, in part divine, if we are to judge from their songs rather than their creed. The following lyric, addressed by one of their poets to Ali, we trust one day will be sung alike by the Schiite and the Sonnite, by the Persian and the Ottoman, to our great Redeemer and incarnate God: "Beside thy glories, O most great! The sun shows but thy mental rays. "Thy merits form a boundless sea To heaven its mighty waves ascend, And when they view its waters clear, "The treasures that the earth conceals, Are idle toys and worthless shows, "Mysterious being! None can tell "The ocean's floods round earth that roll, A single drop, a bubble seem; Recovery from Sickness. To health again, From bed of anguish, grief, and pain, I have been raised :— Great God of heaven, thy name be praised! Over my soul Did waters deep of sorrow roll :- Past days ill-spent, To my sore pains their shadows lent. Warnings of death! May every future fleeting breath Echo your voice So I shun sin, the soul destroys: That halcyon peace Be mine, when death my soul release; Then heaven's high grace Shall fill my grateful songs through ceaseless days. The Last Interview. BY MRS. LYDIA BAXTER. THE parting hour had come-the appointed work Of Christ on earth was done, for he had borne, On Calvary's cross, the curse for guilty man, Had suffer'd, died, and triumph'd o'er the grave. Upon the eastern slope of Olivet The chosen ones with Christ their Master stood. Upon their listening ears his parting words, And e'en to earth's remotest limits,* tell He stood with hands and eyes upraised to Heaven; And as he bless'd the astonish'd band, a cloud * Acts i. 8. Of dazzling brightness veil'd him from their sight. Then songs were heard in Heaven. heads, "Lift up your Ye gates, and let the King of Glory in." And prayers were heard on earth, in reverence breathed Forth by that lowly band, who prostrate bow'd The Father's throne. Full eighteen hundred years Have run their race, and countless millions down And millions yet ne'er heard that Jesus died. Her hands stretch forth, in praises glorious, |