plored; among the Athenians, especially so. The Barbarians sat ensconced in sensualism, that deprecated disturbance; but the Greeks had risen to a realization of the higher enjoyment that springs from mental activity. They had striven to emancipate themselves from spiritual darkness, but their chains were too firmly riveted; they struggled after light, but were still enveloped in gloom; they had groped after Truth, if haply they might find her; but although often near her temple, they failed to find the door of entrance; and the echoes of her voice, that from time to time reached their ears, only added to their perplexity. The Apostle's soul yearned over them. He had, probably, known the thirstings after knowledge, which had not been satisfied; the eager intense longings after some clue to the explanation of mysteries, which yet remained involved in obscurity; and he could thus sympathize with them in their ignorance of the most solemn and necessary truths. With what a thrill of joy, therefore, must he have embraced the occasion presented to him by the invitation of some of the Athenian philosophers for expounding the great, yet simple truths of revealed religion. Now would a voice be heard, that should arouse men from the slumber of ages; now declarations be made that should revolutionize their modes of thought; rays of light be flung upon the objects of external nature, which should invest them with additional interest and beauty; while the world within their hearts should be revealed in all its wondrous features; and heights and depths be unveiled, of the existence of which they had never before conceived; all tending to lead men from the deification of self to feel the lowest humility and self-abasement, and to turn them from "Gods many, and Lords many," to bow with the profoundest adoration, before the “King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise GOD.” The other is a passage on the interest associated with those celebrated rivers of the ancient world THE NILE; THE JORDAN; AND THE TIBER. The lands of the Tiber, the Jordan, and the Nile, are invested with a deep and undying interest, as the scenes of the most striking events that have ever occurred in the history of the world. The very names of these rivers, as they float around us in sacred or classic song, or greet the ear in the less impassioned tones of the historian, have a charm to which the soul of the scholar, the antiquarian, or the Christian, yields with delight; and call up a host of such mingled and startling associations as belong to no other streams within the eastern or western hemisphere. The reflective traveller, as he wanders along their banks, hears, in the murmurs of their glancing waters, living voices that seem to proclaim incessantly to the world the mighty and imperishable deeds of which they have been witnesses, and that have attracted to the countries through which they flow, the attention of every student of history. A rapid glance at these three rivers-not in the geographical order in which they are found, with respect to this country, but according to the antiquity of their recorded history, may not be an unfitting prelude to the details that follow. In ascending the NILE, we advance towards the primeval course of civilization and government; light upon the first schools of science and art, and discover one of the chief birthplaces of the religions of men. There we reach the most ancient seats of Polytheism, and enter the very aditum of the temple, whence issued most of the gods that Greece and Rome in after ages adored. Standing before the pyramids of the desert and the temples of Upper Egypt, a shadowy procession of priests and kings-the cunning and the strong-passes before us; with an innumer able multitude of people chained to the chariots of their rulers, and by force or fraud made to minister to their lust of power. Those gigantic structures-which form such prominent objects in the landscape, as the voyager sails along the river, and which seem to bid defiance to the hand of time, and to that of a still greater spoiler-man,while they proclaim, with trumpet-tongue, the bold and grand conceptions of their founders, speak also of the utter disregard of princes for their people; and are but mighty monuments of a lofty ambition, that, vaulting into high places, cared not how many were overthrown by its movements, how many homes were made desolate, or living hearts crushed. While in musing amid the ruins of some of the most magnificent temples the world ever saw, and tracing the sculptured similitudes of other days, one is irresistibly compelled to recognize the appalling truth of the sacred writer, that "the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty;' and that when men "change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible men, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things, God will give them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts." The records of ancient Egyptian life, as they come before us in temple and tomb, are among the most painful and instructive confirmations of the scrupulous verity of the Holy Scriptures. The different phases of social existence, that presented themselves from the times of the Pharoahs to the Ptolemys, and from these to the more modern Turk, have left their traces, not merely in the sculptured and painted memorials of the past, but in the seemingly ineffaceable characteristics, mental and physical, which are reflected in the appearance, the habits, and thoughts of the present generation. The same remark applies to other lands of the East as well as to Egypt; the stereotyped character of the people and their customs being one of the most marked peculiarities of oriental countries, which thus present living commentaries upon that grandest record of Eastern persons and manners—THE BIBLE. We pass from the Nile, and after crossing the arid desert, over which once moved the mystic pillar of cloud and fire, and along whose bosom flowed the miraculous rock-born stream, and traversing the rugged mountain-path of Judea, find ourselves on the banks of the JORDAN, among a different race of people, and amid other and more agreeable aspects of the physical creation. There every spot has its tale of wonder; every valley or hill claims to be the scene of some miracle of mercy or judgment; and all speak of a land that has been the abode of a wonderful nation, and that has witnessed a more extraordinary state of things than Egypt ever knew. There existed a true theocracy, God becoming to men Ruler, Guide, and Guard; the people dwelling under a government based upon the highest principle; every law emanating direct from Jehovah himself. "THY LAND, O IMMANUEL!"-Angels' feet have trodden its soil over its plains the audible harmonies of heaven have rolled; while on its winds, for many generations, have been borne the voices of inspired prophets, announcing their message from God to man. Above all, there dwelt and taught the Incarnate One-"God manifest in the flesh;" breathing around him the influences of heaven, rebuking guilt by his purity, irreligion by his piety, selfishness by his self-denial, and hypocrisy by his transparent honesty; lightening the burdens of humanity by words of sympathy and deeds of goodness; kindling in the souls of men a new and glorious life, and waking up their slumbering powers to an imitation of himself-a display of the godlike in spirit, temper, heart, and life. Here, too, yet again, are wondrous events to transpire. The soberest interpreters of prophecy are constrained to lay their finger on the place which Syria occupies in the map of the world as the spot where occurrences of a most extraordinary character are yet to be seen, and thus the prophetic D future, as well as the wondrous past, invests that land with an interest that does not attach itself to any other country under heaven. Again, we pass onward, and crossing that "great and wide sea," of which David sang, and whose historical importance distinguishes it above all others on the face of the globe, we reach the European shores, and light on a people whose name is a synonyme for valour and strength; who, on the banks of the TIBER, reared so mighty a system of government, and so widely extended their empire that never until the days in which we now live, did the world witness aught that was parallel. There was nurtured a patriotism so stern, that even the gentlest and holiest emotions of our common nature were made to bow to its dictates, and Roman honour and justice became a proverb, as well and widely understood as Roman valour had made itself known. Here, too, were kindled many of the most glorious lights of the intellectual world, that shone with a full and brilliant lustre, at a time when our British forefathers were rearing their rude huts in the shadow of mighty forests, and offering human victims on Druidical altars. Poetry, philosophy, oratory, found a home within the circle of the seven hills on the banks of the Tiber, and-so widely had their influence spread—were honoured as much in the house of the plebeian as in the palace of the patrician. As Athens fell, Rome arose; the sun that was partly set on the Acropolis, continued to shine in full splendour on the Capitol; and Cicero in the forum, Virgil at Cæsar's board, and Seneca in the household of Nero, were to Rome what Demosthenes, pouring forth his burning words and electrifying an Athenian audience; Homer, singing his wild and wondrous lays to Grecian leaders and princes; and Plato, discoursing in the shadow of the temples, or wandering in the groves of Academus, on the banks of the Ilyssus,—had been to its more ancient rival. Italia! too, Italia! looking on thee, Full flashes on the soul the light of ages, Who glorify thy consecrated pages; Thou wert the throne and grave of empires; still The fount at which the panting mind assuages The thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill, Flows from the eternal source of Rome's imperial hill." What student of history has not cherished the desire to walk and muse by these mighty streams? to stand upon the spots which have been distinguished by heroic deeds, or consecrated to religious worship? to gaze upon the stupendous ruins of palaces, temples, and pyramids, that are even now regarded as the marvels of human skill,- and which, almost coeval with the birth of nations, have witnessed the march of thirty centuries? to become familiar with the scenes that have been immortalized by the pen of the historian or the poet ? and most of all to tread in the footprints of the Divine Redeemer, who, when veiling his essential glory, walked among men in the land which he hallowed by his presence and baptized by his tears? Such desires I had often cherished, and circumstances unexpectedly led to their realization. The record of what was seen and felt during a sojourn of nine months in Italy, Egypt, and the Holy Land, is given in the following pages, and the reader is invited to wander along with me and listen to the echoes of the past, and the utterances of the present, as they greet the contemplative traveller in the "VOICES OF MANY WATERS." We take leave of our Author with sincere regret. His volume is one of the most refreshing Books of Travel it was our fortune ever to fall in with. "The Voices of Many Waters" that will long survive to kindle new interest in inquiring minds. The Bards of Epworth. London: HEYLIN, 28, Paternoster-row. THIS is the title of a volume of poetic gems from the Wesley Cabinet. The Authors are the Revds. S. Wesley, senr., M.A., S. Wesley, jun., M.A., Charles Wesley, M.A., John Wesley, M.A., and Miss Mehetabel Wesley. These compositions comprehend great variety of subject, and many of them are of more than ordinary merit. Take as an example that from the pen of Charles Wesley, on THE SOUL. If for a world a soul be lost, More than a thousand worlds it cost, One single soul to buy. Take also the following from the pen of Mehetabel Wesley (Mrs. Wright), entitled A MOTHER'S ADDRESS TO A DYING INFANT. Tender softness! infant mild! And with the blossom blast the tree! The reader will be interested in the perusal of this Book of Gems. The Unity of the Faith. London: JOHN SNOW, Paternoster-row. A very excellent work which finds the Unity of the Faith in Christ, as the manifestation of God in all ages. Seldom has an author compressed into smaller space a larger amount of essential truth than this volume contains. The Pious Hawker. London: HEYLIN, 28, Paternoster-row. This little work contains a Biographical Sketch of John Horsely, late of Nottingham. The history of this devoted man is singularly illustrative of the power of Divine grace in the humblest walks of life. To the spiritualminded reader it will be found to be an interesting and truly valuable production. Christian Union. London: WERTHEIM and MACINTOSH, 24, Paternoster-row. A Tract on Christ's last prayer, as recorded in the 17th chapter of John and the contrast between the present aspect of the Church, and the state of things therein desired. This is a very seasonable publication, but the author will be thought by most persons to inveigh too much against the present condition of the Church. The Brother Born for Adversity. London: JOHN SNOW, Pater noster-row. This excellent book attempts to trace out the similarity of the Saviour's sorrows and sufferings to those of his followers, and the adaptation of the truth and grace of Christ to all the circumstances of God's people. The greater part of this little work appeared originally in the columns of the "Witness," and excited so much interest among its readers as to induce the republication with additions in the present form. Seldom have we seen a publication more adapted to minister consolation to the distressed believer than "the Brother Born for Adversity." Notes on Original Words. London: D. F. OAKEY, 10, Pater noster-row. The above is the title of a publication of Philological Arguments, addressed to Bible students especially. The work appears anonymously, but it is obviously the production of a person of some attainments. It will be read by the Bible student with interest. Suggestions for Christian Union. Paternoster-row. London: D. F. OAKEY, 10, Such is the designation of a work from the Minister of the Church of England, which is devoted to the promotion of union among the various sects of professing Christians in this country. The object of the amiable Author will command the approval of Christians generally, though they may have small hopes of his success. Jesus Revealing the Heart of God. Edinburgh: THOS. C. JACK. London: JAMES NISBET and Co. This is a Reprint from the "Quiet Hours" by the Rev. John Pulsford. It is an eminently pious and useful little volume. The Image of the Invisible God. noster-row. London: D. A. ОAKEY, Pater A work in which the life of Christ is viewed in relation to the promise, that the saints shall be partakers of the Divine nature. The Electro-Chemical Bath. By J. J. Caplin, M.D. London: FREEMAN, Fleet-street. This is a brief treatise on what is believed by its author to be a great discovery in the healing art. Two things have engaged the special atten |