NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.

THE MOABITE STONE: By Alexander Young. This is the heading of an interesting article in a recent number of the Christian Register. Doubtless many of our readers have seen full accounts of this remarkable relic of antiquity; but it is not unlikely that we have some left by whom a few extracts from this paper will be read with satisfaction. We are aware that it has already been alluded to in this magazine, but very briefly. It was discovered in this way:

"In the summer of 1868, Mr. Klein, a Prussian clergyman in the service of the Church Missionary Society in Jerusalem, while travelling in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, came to Diban, the ancient Dibon. There he fell in with an Arab Sheikh, who told him that within ten minutes' walk from their tent was a black basalt stone, with an inscription on it which no one had ever been able to decipher, and no Frank had yet seen. He was not long in finding the stone among the ruins of the old Moabite city, and, in the time left him before sunset, succeeded in taking measurements and a general sketch of the inscription, the value of which he at once surmised. The stone was three feet five inches high, and one foot nine inches wide, with thirty-four lines of writing about an inch and a quarter apart, and at the top and bottom was almost semi-circular in shape. It was in a perfect state of preservation, but, owing to its great age and exposure to the weather, some of the upper and lower lines of the inscription had suffered somewhat. After making these memoranda, Mr. Klein went on his way, with the determination to secure this stone for the Berlin Museum. Little did he think that he should never see it again in its integrity."

"The Arabs, observing the interest manifested by the unbeliever in a stone which their forefathers had for ages valued only as a charm, soon went to Jerusalem, where they offered to sell it to Captain Warren, the agent of the Palestine Exploration Society. That gentleman, however, not willing to interfere with the prior claims of Mr. Klein, declined to purchase it. Meanwhile the delay of the Prussian government, or Mr. Klein, was the means of bringing a more vigorous competitor into the field. This was M. Clermont-Ganneau, of the French Consulate at Jerusalem, an accomplished Semitic scholar, who made the Bedouins an offer of four hundred pounds for the stone, and at the same time employed several agents to obtain impressions of the inscription. This tempting offer would probably have been accepted, and the Frenchman have secured the prize, had not an unexpected demand been made for it by the Governor of Nablus, one of the native rulers, who, hearing of the compe

tition, determined to compel the Bedouins to surrender the stone to him, and then dispose of it to the highest bidder.

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The Arabs, exasperated at this treatment, resolved to destroy the prize rather than give it up. By building a fire under the stone, and throwing cold water on it, they succeeded in breaking it into several pieces, which were distributed among different families, to be placed in their granaries, so as to bring blessings on their corn. It was believed that without the stone, or its equivalent in money, a blight would fall upon their crops.

"Meanwhile Captain Warren was ignorant of these occurrences, and it was not till his return from Lebanon in November, 1869, that he was informed of them by an Adwan, whom he met on the road, and who showed him a piece of the broken stone with letters on it."

"Though the principal fragments of the stone have since been secured, part of them being in the possession of the Exploration Society, and part in that of M. Ganneau, yet the beautiful basalt, with its inscription, which had defied the corroding influences of more than 2,500 years, is irreparably injured. Had it not been for the impressions taken from the inscription, these fragmentary remains would have been useless to science. The missing letters amount at present to less than a seventh of the whole."

Speaking of some of the advantages Biblical literature will derive from it, Mr. Young says:

"Rivaling in the purity of its style the earliest parts of the Old Testament, where indeed its whole vocabulary may be found, it unfolds also certain shades of meaning of words and phrases therein used, which illustrate with new and vivid significance the lexicography of the Biblical narrative."

A little farther on, he says:

"The triumphal tablet of King Mesha supplies also curious information which harmonizes seeming discrepancies in the Biblical account of the relations subsisting between the Israelites and the children of Moab. That record has always been regarded as broken and discontinuous, but this monument furnishes the supplementary facts that attest its historic truth. Thus the inscription characterizes the subjugation of Moab by Omri as a new and great outrage, but the Bible records only the ruthless irruption of King David, who brought the land under subjection, from which it was rescued by Mesha on the death of Ahab."

The events alluded to in the inscription on this stone will be found in 2 Kings, iii.

The only other extract we have space for is the translation of the inscription on the tablet :

"In the following translation, words, or portions of words, supplied by

conjecture, are printed in italics. Words within brackets are added merely to convey more distinctly the meaning of the original:

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"I, Mesha, son of Kemosh-gad, King of Moab, the Dibonite - my father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father. And I made this high-place for Kemosh in Korchoh, a high-place of deliverance, because he delivered me from all enemies and let me look [with pleasure] upon [the destruction of] all my haters. There arose Omri, King of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days, because Kemosh was angry with his land. And his son [i. e. Ahab] succeeded him, and he too said, 'I will oppress Moab." In my days he said this, but I looked upon [the ruin of] him and his house, and Israel perished for ever. And Omri had taken possession of the plain of Medeba, and dwelt in it; and they oppressed Moab, he and his son, forty years; but looked upon him [i. e. Moab] Kemosh in my days. And I built [i. e. restored or fortified] Baal-Meon, and constructed in it the moat (?); and I built Kiryathaim. And the men of Gad were dwelling in the land of Ataroth from of old, and the king of Israel had built for himself the city; and I fought against the city, and took it, and slew all the inhabitants of the city, [as] a [pleasing] sight to Kemosh and to Moab; and I carried off thence the of Yahveh, and dragged it [or them] before Kemosh at Kerioth. And I made dwell in it [viz. Ataroth] the people of Shiran and the people of . . . . M-ch-rath (?). And Kemosh said to me, "Go, take Nebo from Israel;" and I went by night, and fought against it from the dawning of the morning until midday, and I took it, and slew the whole [population] of it, seven thousand. . . . for to Ashtor-Kemosh I had devoted it; and I took away thence the vessels of Yahveh, and dragged them before Kemosh. And the king of Israel [i. e. Ahaziah] built Yahaz, and abode in it whilst he was fighting against me; but Kemosh drove him out before me [literally, before my face]; and I took of Moab two hundred men, all his headmen (?), and I led them up (?) to Yahaz, and took it, in addition to Dibon. I built Korchoh, the wall of the woods and the wall of the mound; and I built its gates, and I built its towers; and I built the palace; and I made the reservoirs for rain-water (?) in the midst of the city. And there was not a cistern in the midst of the city, in Korchoh; and I said to the whole people, "Make for yourselves each a cistern in his house." And I cut the moat for Korchoh with [the labor of] the captives of Israel. I built Aroer; and I made the road over the Arnon. I [re]built Beth-Bamoth, for it had been pulled down. I built Bezer, for. . . . men of Dibon, fifty [in number], for all Dibon was submission [submissive to me]. And I . . . . in the cities (?), which I added to the land. And I built. . . . and Beth-Diblathaim, and BethBaal-Meon; and I took up (?) thither the . . . . the land. And Horonaim, there dwelt in it. B And Kemosh said to me, "Go down, fight against Horonaim. And I . . . . Kemosh in my days. And . . .

year (?) . . .

SPEECH-MAKING IN PRAYER.-"Should prayer offered in public be an oration? A few months ago we went to a church on a Sunday evening in a large country town, and heard something which so impressed us that we have since thought about it very often. It was not the sermon, there was nothing specially memorable in that. It was a prayer, or at least when the minister began it he said: "Let us pray," and the people bowed their heads as if in supplication. Then we heard, first, a brief eulogy upon human nature, setting forth its dignity and independence. Then there was a description of the horrible and enslaving effects of superstition, and of false views of the character of God which have always been entertained in the Christian Church. After this the results of modern theological criticism were summed up, and the prayer concluded with a sketch in outline of the state of things in the "good time coming, when a man will be emancipated from the bondage of tradition, and rites, and superstitious usages, and will reverence and worship only the divine in His own nature." This is no caricature, it is an accurate report of what we heard on the occasion referred to, and in important respects it is much like what we have often heard in our own denominations and in others. There is a great deal of praying in public that closely resembles speech-making. Of course we intend no criticism of the obvious ideas and opinions of the ministers whom we heard, we only ask whether such an oration can properly be called a prayer?"-Liberal Christian.

The foregoing article on "Speech-making in Prayer," originally appeared in the "Liberal Christian," and was copied, evidently approvingly, into the columns of the "Boston Congregationalist.”

We were glad to see this subject noticed in this way in the abovementioned religious journals, and we look upon it as a very encouraging sign-the beginning, at least, of a disposition to consider what true prayer is, and ought to be.

It is a question, whether among the forms of Christian worship, there can be found a greater departure from the true spirit and intent of the form, than in that of prayer, as often practised at this day in many Christian denominations.

True prayer is the drawing of the heart near to God, and its opening to the influences of His Spirit. "God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship in spirit and in truth." True prayer consists not so much in a form of words, addressed to the Almighty, as in the inward desire of the heart of the true worshipper, that he may be led by the Lord to do His will on the earth, as it is done in heaven. From whatever breast this desire reaches up to the Lord, whether ever expressed in words or not, there is true prayer, and it never fails to be heard and answered.

The Lord does not need to have us tell Him of our wants, or what good He should do to us. We do not know ourselves, and never can know beforehand, what good it would be best for Him to do to us. The Lord alone knows this, and He is always giving us, or suffering us to have, just that good, which in our state is best for Sometimes it may be the good we desire, but more frequently it may be that which we do not desire.

us.

If this is so, why then did the Lord teach men to pray? He taught them to pray, not for His own sake, and information, but solely for the sake of men themselves for their good always. When any one cultivates in himself the spirit of true prayer and a means of doing this is by the proper use of the form it opens his heart to the Lord, and draws him nearer to Him, and thus he is prepared for receiving more and more of good from Him. A multiplicity of words in prayer, it is believed, tends not so much to the cultivation of the true spirit of prayer a spirit of humility and contrition before the Lord, as it does to engender a pharisaical spirit a spirit of self-complacency a spirit which desires to be seen and heard of men.

The Publican who went up into the temple to pray, uttered but one short sentence, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and we are told that he went down to his house, justified rather than the Pharisee, who recounted the good things which he had done.

Who can doubt, if Christians should spend more time in devoutly reading the Lord's Word, and in meditation upon it, more time in learning rationally and intelligently what is the Divine will, for the sake of doing it, and less, very much less time in speech-making prayers, it would redound greatly to the edification and enlightenment of the Christian church?

ICELAND. The following correspondence, from the Intellectual Repository, relating to the introduction of the Doctrines of the New Church into Iceland, will, we have no doubt, interest many of our readers:

"To the Editor of the Intellectual Repository': Dear Sir, -Your readers may remember that about three or four years ago the Swedenborg Society raised certain funds for the translation into Icelandic of the Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love.' The translation was made by an Icelandic gentleman and scholar, assisted by Dr. Wilkinson, from whom the original suggestion came. I have great pleasure in forwarding, for