lofty," "joy and gladness," "poor and needy;" but notwithstanding this is the case, there is no tautology in the Word. These twofold forms of expression are employed to denote two quite distinct and different states or conditions of the mind and heart. Man indeed is

a twofold being. He possesses two quite distinct and different faculties, both of which require to be educated and developed in order to constitute him a man in the fullest sense of the term. He has a will faculty and an understanding faculty. That of the will is the seat of all his desires, affections, and loves; and that of the understanding of all his thoughts, knowledges, and perceptions of truth. Hence one

of these expressions refers to the state of the will and its affections, and the other to the condition of the understanding and its thoughts. Therefore, when we read that the "Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich, and bringeth low, and lifteth up," we are to understand by these words that the Lord performs two quite distinct operations in the minds of His regenerating children. By enlightening their understandings He shows them their ignorance and depravity, and thus leads them into states of humility, and at the same time makes them rich in spiritual knowledge, and by purifying their wills from all evil affections and desires, and, implanting in their stead holy affections and desires, He makes them feel their dependence upon Him, and exalts them into fellowship with Himself and His holy angels. It is the nature of all the Lord's gifts to create in those who are becoming regenerate states of receptivity. Every new truth He imparts to them produces in them a yearning for more interior truths, and every higher good an intenser longing to attain unto a more perfect, godlike life. And whenever a man earnestly seeks after the truth, and desires good, the Lord always gives both the one and the other; for all that the Lord requires in order to impart is a willingness to receive on the part of man. Truly then we may say "that the Lord maketh poor, and bringeth low," for it is from Him alone that the truth comes which reveals to men and angels their littleness, their needs, and their dependence upon Him; and that "the Lord maketh rich, and lifteth up," for it is from Him that all good, spiritual or celestial, is derived which can make finite intelligent creatures rich in heavenly wisdom, and so exalt them as to make their wills harmonize altogether with the Lord's will and their lives with the Lord's life.

We are taught in the doctrines of the Church that it is impossible for any one to be in true humiliation, unless he be in the acknowledgment and faith from the heart that nothing but evil comes from self, and that all good comes from the Lord, and that when man is in this acknowledgment and faith from the heart he is in self-annihi

lation, yea, in self-aversion, and thus in a state of receiving the Divine of the Lord, and therefore it is that the Lord flows with good into a humble and contrite heart (see A. C. 3994). And we are further informed that "in humiliation there are two thingsthe acknowledgment that man in himself is nothing but evil, and, compared to the Divine Being, is as nothing; and the acknowledgment that the Divine Being is nothing but good, and that He is infinite." We are also taught that "these two things cannot exist with the evil because they are in self-love. If they humble themselves it is either from fear, or that they may be honoured or enriched, thus they humble themselves only as to the body and not as to the soul, and such humiliation avails not before the Lord" (A. C. 7640). Hence, paradoxical as it may appear, it is only those who are poor in spirit and lowly in heart who can be said to be really spiritually rich and exalted. And when the Lord "maketh poor, and bringeth low," it is for no other reason than that He may be able to flow with good into our minds and cause us to experience the joys of heaven. It is not for His own sake that He requires us to worship Him, and to confess from the heart that we of ourselves are nothing but evil, and that all good comes from Him, but for our sakes, that we may by such worship and acknowledgment be brought into a suitable condition for receiving from Him every spiritual grace and blessing, and be enabled to enter into a reciprocal conjunction with Him. Let us therefore daily cultivate the heavenly grace of humility, not indeed that we may be exalted, for this would be a selfish motive, but that we may be made pure, holy, innocent, and godlike, and be able to live the life of charity and love, that our understandings and wills may be opened to receive all the Lord's Divine communications. Let us ever pray that the Lord may make us poor in spirit and lowly in heart, that we may be willing to be guided by Him in the path of duty and love. And the Lord will answer our prayer, He will fill our hearts with gladness, and with joy in eternity shall we sing, Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and lifteth up."

"The

FROM BEYROUT TO BETHLEHEM :

BEING REMINISCENCES OF A RECENT JOURNEY THROUGH THE HOLY LAND.

By C. COLLINGWOOD, M.A., etc.

Ir had long been my desire (as, indeed, whose has it not been ?) to see with my bodily eyes those hallowed spots so familiar to us all, by name, from our earliest years, and which we daily read of and picture in

our minds with a dim dreamy shadow of reality. Imagination may indeed go far towards a realization of scenes which exist under other skies than our own, and we have known rare instances where description of places, never seen but by the mind's eye, has satisfied even the requirements of those familiar with the scenes themselves. But to few is such a gift granted; and even where the mind has such capabilities, the desire of realizing the mental picture by the bodily presence is not less, but even more, powerful than in ordinary cases.

And although to many minds there is a wonderful charm in seeing Nature under varied aspects of climate and temperature, ruggedness and loveliness; in studying the ever-changing physical appearance and psychical characteristics of our race, under the graduated influence of heat and cold, of barbarism and civilization; in admiring the beauty and the strangeness of the trees and flowers of distant lands; and the endless combinations of form and colour, of ferocity and gentleness, of instinct and ingenuity, exhibited by the busy inhabitants of the land, the water, and the air;—all these considerations are intensified and refined when the country visited contains in addition scenes which are intimately connected with our highest aspirations, our most reverent feelings, and our inmost life. The Sacred Scriptures, which are our daily companion, receive a new interest and a potent charm from such a visit; the dead externals of a living faith become themselves vivified, and with the vitality of the outward accessories, the life of the internal essentials becomes itself intensified.

If such feelings influenced me in making such a visit, when the long sought-for opportunity offered itself, all the more do I feel their force now that the desire is accomplished. I do not share in the feelings of those who return from such a journey disappointed because they have not found in Palestine the picturesque charms of more physically favoured spots in the globe-who murmur because Mount Hermon falls short of Mont Blanc, because the Sea of Galilee does not equal the Lake of Como, or because Bethlehem is inferior in quaintness to Meyringen. Those who go to the Holy Land for pure picturesqueness of scenery may spare their pains, and find what they seek much nearer home. But those who make it a pilgrimage, who long to see the shores trod by the sacred feet, the waters which yielded the miraculous draught, the place of birth and the place of education, the place of ministry, the place of death, of Him who spake as never man spake, these will find here interests and associations, charms and delights, such as no other spot of earth can yield. It was with such objects, and with such feelings, that I traversed Palestine, not precisely from Dan to Beersheba, but from Lebanon to Bethlehem; and some

of the interest and events of the journey I desire in this and the following papers to impart to the reader.

Further preface is hardly necessary, and I therefore propose to proceed at once with my narrative, carrying it precisely through the course which we ourselves followed, and thus embracing all the points of interest which we encountered, and which omitted few or none which were practicable. And I propose to make the narrative a personal one as far as possible, for thus only can be infused a new and fresh interest into scenes which have already been described by numerous travellers, and which form the matter of not a few entire volumes more or less readable, and more or less instructive.

The Austrian Lloyd's steamer "Urano" bore us through the blue Mediterranean waters towards the shore which was to us a Promised Land. We had just coasted along the island of Cyprus, and landed for a few hours at Larnaca, where there was little or nothing to attract the attention of persons already somewhat familiarized with Eastern travel. The low coast, the bold outline of the distant range of mountains, the dirt and picturesque squalor of a Turkish seaport,such things did not foreshadow England's new interest in the island which a few months later was to be declared; and in a heavy thunderstorm and amid torrents of rain we re-embarked, leaving the Paphian isle without regret; only too glad, indeed, to do so, for we had been warned by our captain that if a breeze sprung up during our absence, he should signal for our immediate return, in failure of which he must put to sea without us. So that had the storm which overtook us come from the seaward, instead of being engendered in the mountains of Olympus, we might perhaps have had to remain in Cyprus till the next steamer passed, which would somewhat have thrown us out in our arrangements, inasmuch as that would have detained us a fortnight!

Our hitherto calm and pleasant sailing seemed broken up by this storm, and the remainder of the journey to Beyrout was rough and unpleasant, though fortunately not long. Our fear was that the rainy season, which should not in the regular course of things commence until our journey was nearly over, might begin this year preternaturally early, and thus the comforts and pleasure of our pilgrimage be seriously marred. And, indeed, when early next morning we anchored off Beyrout, Lebanon was invisible for mist, and rain was imminent. Ultimately we landed in a drenching shower, and thus the dreaded rain welcomed us on the shores of Syria. But we were reassured, when those accustomed to the climate told us, that after

such a storm at this season it was often very fine for a considerable period, and this augury was greatly justified by the event. Beyrout, though we are not yet in the Holy Land, is still a place not unconnected with Scripture history. Indeed we have now come to a country where we shall find ourselves touching everywhere upon spots more or less connected by allusions with some portion or other of the sacred narrative. And here perhaps I may make a remark as to our route. Of course there are two ways of travelling through Palestine-from north to south, or from south to north. There are certain advantages in either course, and when season is taken into consideration, the direction is of importance. Thus in the autumn it would be well to begin, as we did, with the north, and follow the season and the retreating sun southwards; just as in spring it is well to begin in the south, and follow the sun northward, receiving his strengthening beams a month or so later in a more northerly latitude, and on the more elevated slopes of Lebanon. But independently of this, I think it is much preferable to begin at Beyrout; for hereabouts the scriptural interest of the country is much scattered, and becomes more important as we proceed south, where it is concentrated, and culminates at Jerusalem. By landing at Jaffa, therefore, and proceeding straight to Jerusalem, the traveller plunges at once into the most attractive sites, and finds as he proceeds northward that his interest naturally flags, when he has left behind him all the New Testament localities, and has reached the comparatively unattractive parts of Syria. But going southward, he gradually becomes more deeply interested with the ever-increasing rich associations of the country, which accumulate with an indescribable force in the vicinity of the Holy City itself, and which thus makes this plan of travel the one to be most recommended, and what may in truth be characterized as the natural route.

Beyrout, then, was one of those ancient cities of Hadadezer, called Berothai in 2 Sam. viii. 8 (see also Ezek. xlvii. 16). It is now a city of some 70,000 inhabitants, differing from all others in Syria in its large proportion of Christians. About one-third are Mussulmans, and the remainder, with the exception of a small proportion of Jews, are Christians. Hence probably its prosperity, for it is the commercial capital of Syria, where many British and other European merchants are settled, and render it the emporium of Lebanon, Damascus, and the country round. The place itself is beautifully situated on the coast, and at the foot of Mount Lebanon, which sweeps upward to the north in an increasing slope, the highest visible peak being Sunnin (8555 feet), though beyond is Khotib (10,050 feet), the