reading and words came to my heart; he was so kind to me, and always called me 'brother.' I never loved till I knew him. He had found Jesus, and led me to love Him too. I cannot find words to say how I joyed, when at last I felt I had a Friend above. Oh! never shall forget my joy when I first understood and believed. We had no book, only the paper. We knew it off by heart, and I don't know which of us loved it best. As we neared Lucknow, he dwelt much on eternity, and said to me, 'It is very solemn to be walking into death. I shall never leave this ill-fated city.' We had many fights, standing always side by side. At last, in a dreadful fight in one of the gardens, a ball struck him in the chest. Words cannot say my grief when he fell,-the only one I had to love me. I knelt by him, till the garden was left in our hands, and then bore him to the doctors. But it was too late,-life was almost gone. 'Dear brother,' he said to me, 'I am only going home first. We have loved to talk of home together; don't be sorry for me, for I am so happy.

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds!"

Read me the words she wrote.' I pulled them out from his bosom, all stained with his blood as you see, and repeated them. Yes,' he said, 'the love of Christ has constrained us. I am almost home. I'll be there to welcome you and her. Good-bye, dear -.' And he was gone, but I was left. Oh, it was so very bitter! I knelt by him, and prayed that I might soon follow him. Then I took his paper, and put it in my bosom, where it has been since. I and some of our men buried him in the garden. I have gone through much fighting since, and came down here on duty with a detachment yesterday. They think me only worn with exposure, and tell me I shall soon be well; but I shall never see the sky again. I would like to lie by his side, but it cannot be." 'I could not speak," says the narrator, "but only pressed his hand, poor fellow. At length he broke the silence." "So you'll forgive me making so bold in speaking to you. He often spoke of you, and blessed you for leading him to Jesus. And he it was who led me to Jesus. We shall soon be together again, and won't we welcome you when you come!" We read and prayed together. He was quite calm when I rose from my knees. He was too weak to raise his head from the pillow, but was quite peaceful and happy. Two days after he died in the joyful hope of a blessed immortality.—The Christian Treasury.

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BALSAM TREE.

GEN. xxxvii. 25, "A company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead
with their camels bearing spicery and balm."

854. Balsam Tree." This tree, which produces the precious balsam, or balm of Gilead, is not now a native of that country. It has nowhere been found wild except on the African coast of the Red Sea. Its produce is mentioned as an article of merchandise in the book of Genesis; and Josephus says that the Queen of Sheba presented some plants of it to Solomon. The road by which the balsam reached Greece and Rome is pointed out by Ezekiel, who says that Israel and Judah supplied the markets of Tyre with it, and the merchants frequenting Tyre carried it, of course, further west. So highly prized was the balsam that, during the war of Titus against the Jews, two fierce contests took place for the balsam orchards of Jericho, the last of which was to prevent the Jews from destroying the trees, which they would have done, in order that the trade might not fall into the enemy's hand. . An imperial guard was appointed to watch over them; but such care

has been unavailing; not a root nor a branch of the balsam tree is now to be found in all Palestine.

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Twice was a balsam tree exhibited in triumph to the Romans in their streets. The first time was sixty-five years before the coming of our Lord, when Pompey returned from his conquest, and Judea

first became a Roman province; and the last time was after a lapse of one hundred and forty-four years, when the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem were borne in triumph through the imperial city, and, as a sign of the subjection of the whole country, the precious balm tree was exhibited with pride by Vespasian. The great traveller, Bruce, saw the balsam tree in some valleys in Arabia. The most considerable garden of them is in a recess of the mountains, between Mecca and Medina. The balm of Gilead is a small evergreen tree; at five feet from the ground it branches out something like an old hawthorn, but the foliage is scanty and ragged. The bark is smooth, shining, and of a whitish-grey colour, with brown blotches. The leaves are of a bright green, and grow in threes and fives.

"The greatest quantity of the balsam flows from the wounded bark. But there are three kinds procured by art; the first and best is the opobalsam, expressed from the green berry, the second is from the ripe nut or berry, and the last is obtained by bruising and boiling the young wood."-Scripture Herbal.

JER. viii. 22, "Is there no balm in Gilead?"

855. The Balm of Life.-Dr. James Hamilton remarks::"Alexander the Great was dying of a wound, which did not seem very dangerous at first, but it baffled his physicians, and was rapidly becoming mortal. One night, however, it is said he dreamed that some one had brought him a peculiar-looking plant, which, when applied to the festering sore, had cleansed and closed it. In the morning, when he awoke, he described the plant; and the historian informs us that it was sought for and found, and when applied to the wound, the fiery pain subsided, and he was speedily healed. Now your soul has received a deadly hurt; it has been stung by the old serpent, the devil. The wound gets worse. There is a tender

plant which is able to heal you; it is the Balm of Gilead. They used to wound the balsam tree, in order to obtain its healing essence; and so for our transgressions the Saviour was wounded, and by His stripes ye are healed.''

Poison and Antidote.-There is a tree called the manchaneel, which grows in the West Indies; its appearance is very attractive, and the wood of it peculiarly beautiful; it bears a kind of apple, resembling the golden pippin. This fruit looks very tempting, and smells very fragrant; but to eat of it is instant death; and its sap or juice is so poisonous, that if a few drops of it fall on the skin,

it raises blisters, and occasions great pain. The Indians dip their arrows in the juice, that they may poison their enemies when they wound them. Providence hath so appointed it, that one of these trees is never found, but near it there also grows a white wood, or a fig tree, the juice of either of which, if applied in time, is a remedy for the diseases produced by the manchaneel. Sin, like this poisonous apple, looks pleasant to the eye, and men desire it,-eat of it, and die. But there is a remedy at hand; it is the precious blood of the Son of God, which soothes the troubled conscience, and cleanses it from all sin.

"Not balm, new bleeding from the wounded tree,

Nor bless'd Arabia with his spicy grove,

Such fragrance yields."

JOB vi. 15, "My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and
as the stream of brooks they pass away."

856. Streams in Palestine.-The phenomena of streams in this country aptly illustrate the character of Job's false friends. In winter, when there is no need of them, they are full and strong, and loud in their bustling professions and promises; but in the heat of summer, when they are wanted, they disappoint your hopes. You think your fields will be irrigated, and your flocks refreshed by them, when, lo! they deal deceitfully, and pass away. Nearly all the streams of this country, "what time they wax warm," thus vanish, go to nothing, and perish. Such were Job's friends. There is another illustration equally pertinent. You meet a clear, sparkling brook, and so long as you follow it among the cool mountains, it holds cheerful converse with you, by its merry gambols over the rocks; but as soon as you reach the plain, "where it is hot," it begins to dwindle, grow sad and discouraged, and finally fails altogether. Those which suggested the comparison of Job probably flowed down from the high-lands of Gilead and Bashan, and came to nothing in the neighbouring desert; for it is added, that the "troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. They were confounded because they had hoped." It was on those high mountains only that Job could become familiar with the winter phenomena, when the streams are "blackish by reason of the ice;" for not only are Lebanon and Hermon covered with snow in the winter, and the brooks then frozen, but the same is true also of the higher parts of the Hermon, and of the mountains to the south of it, where Job is supposed to have resided.-Dr. Thompson," Land and the Book."

1 TIM. i. 16, "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." 857. The Apostle a Pattern.-The word "pattern," in the original, is expressive, a pattern from which endless copies may be taken. You have heard of stereotype printing: when the types are set up, they are cast-made a fixed thing, so that from one plate you can strike off hundreds of thousands of pages in succession, without the trouble of setting up the types again. Paul says, "That I might be a plate never worn out-never des. troyed; from which proof impressions may be taken to the very end of time." What a splendid thought, that the apostle Paul, having portrayed himself as the chief of sinners, then portrays himself as having received forgiveness for a grand and specific end, that he might be a standing plate from which impressions might be taken for ever, that no man might despair who had read his biography!-DR. CUMMING.

NUMB. X. 1, 2, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps."

PSA. lxxxix. 15, "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance."

858. The Jewish Trumpet.-The trumpet was the sacred joyful sound in old Palestine, the silver trumpets blown by the priests of the sons of Aaron. The trumpet proclaimed the opening of the year, the trumpet proclaimed the commencement of the sabbatical year, the trumpet proclaimed the year of jubilee that was kept by the Israelites, the feast of trumpets, and the tone of the trumpet mingled with their most solemn feasts and domestic scenes : "Then rose the choral hymn of praise, The trump and timbrel answered keen, And Judah's daughters poured their lays,

The priests' and warriors' voice between."

Conceive such an evening as this in that delightful land; it is the evening of the sixth day, our Friday; the sky is peaceful, it is the wilderness; among those crags are the foes of Israel's race, there is the tabernacle, there is the cloud, about to yield to the fire; a