were covered with rich soil, mantled by the vine, and perpetually trodden by the feet of the rejoicing husbandman, whose temporal and spiritual wants were alike supplied by the great King of Israel. Here, angels communed with men, and visions from heaven illumined the minds of our seers, and the echoes that now faintly give back the tramp of our horses along this stony road, rang with the reverberated song of gladness and praise. O land most beloved! why, why are you forsaken, trodden down, and changed into a wilderness? why are your sons wanderers among the Gentiles, their minds so darkened, their hearts so alienated that they are content to be outcasts from you? Would that one of the heavenly messengers who came to my fathers, to Gideon, to Manoah, to Daniel and the prophets, would also come to me and explain what now perplexes me. Do they not wander here still, though concealed from our eyes? Is this good and pleasant land forsaken of all its celestial friends?'

He continued thus, in silent bitterness of spirit, to meditate on his own and his country's doom: Captain Ryan marked it all, and was fully resolved to speak out with unreserved faithfulness so soon as opportunity was afforded; but the way became more rough and difficult, more trying to poor little Charley, and overpowering to his mother. The guides had commenced wrangling, and despite the earnest efforts of the Armenian, their angry voices often broke with alarming effect, on the travellers' ears. The day was drawing on, and fatigue began to manifest itself painfully in the looks of the little sufferer, who was evidently quite awake and sensible, when suddenly a loud voice from the van proclaimed

that in a few minutes the Holy City would be within view.

The movement occasioned by this announcement did not escape Charley; he asked the cause, and being told for his parents never deceived him in any matter,—he cried out, 'Now, Papa! now take me upon your horse!'

Captain Ryan looked alarmed; and whispered to Da Costa, 'impossible!'

But Charley again called out, 'Papa! you promised.'

Again Captain Ryan looked at his friend, who said, after calling for a halt, You cannot do it with safety, but I can. My horse's pace is very easy and smooth; he knows every foot of this particular road; I feel it is asking a good deal to ask you to give up to me so precious a charge; but I will be most careful, indeed I will: he must not be agitated by a denial; and I wish so much to have the privilege, for I love that boy dearly, dearly!—And this is Jerusalem-and I am a Jew.'

Captain Ryan had never seen this accomplished man of the world so agitated by unrestrained emotion he felt it, and taking Charley out of his little crib, without a word spoken, he folded a shawl about him, and placed him in the arms of Da Costa, whose look of gratitude and delight overpaid even that sacrifice.

'Have I done right, love?' whispered the father, as he turned a glistening eye on his wife, by whose side he again stationed himself.

Always, always right, my beloved!' she answered, ‘and in this instance my heart especially goes along with yours. I cannot tell you how stilled I

feel just now: murmuring seems hushed, self almost annihilated. Can it be that we are indeed about to look upon the city of our God-the very scene of HIS sufferings, who by those sufferings ransomed us from the power of the grave? Who has by those sufferings opened the gate of heaven, and now stands ready to receive the happy spirit of that- she could not proceed.

It is even so,' replied her husband: and oh, let all selfish emotions be swallowed up in the glorious prospect of Zion's welcome to her returning King.'

Meanwhile, Charley was placed most carefully and tenderly by Da Costa almost within the folds of his robe which he loosened for the purpose, this little boy's head nestled on his bosom, with the face literally set Zionward; and so cradled in the arm of his friend as to be almost independent of the saddle's support. He was exceedingly weak, like an infant, but just then quite free from fever, though breathless with eager expectation. Da Costa kissed his damp forehead, and asked if he were comfortable. Charley raised his eyes; he evidently did not till that moment know who held him, and fixing on him a look full of love and gladness, replied by ejaculating, ', you darlint of a Jew!'

But where was Alick? some paces removed from the rest, absorbed in thoughts and feelings that rendered all which passed around him a mere dream. Every object within his view seemed gifted with a voice to address him in language at once tender, upbraiding, and encouraging. He could not disconnect from them the idea of Him whom he was at one moment disposed to worship as the incarnate God, at another to shun as tempting him into idolatrous

sin. He breathed, in a low voice, the irreversible declaration of the Most High, so dearly cherished by his people, "Hear, O Israel! the Lord thy God is a Unity;" and again he seemed to hear Jesus of Nazareth responding "I and my Father are One." When the rest halted, he did the same, mechanically; and when the word was again given to move on, he also obeyed; but in the intenseness of that internal struggle, even Charley's transfer was unnoticed.

Slowly, and in deep silence, the party now proceeded to ascend a rise in the road; and ere many minutes had elapsed, the guides uttered in different languages the same name, and turning their horses aside, allowed the travellers to advance. There stretched in long, unequal line, rose in the distance before them the solid wall of the city; with here and there a round dome peering above its stern outline, or a slender minaret reared its more light and lofty form. There was no moving thing at that moment within view they might have been the only breathing creatures on earth's surface for aught they could see or hear of animated life; and this, joined with the tomb-like aspect of the spot before them, added greatly to the solemnity of the moment. Captain Ryan impulsively uncovered his head; his wife, placing her hand on his arm, leaned tremblingly, and burst into tears. Alick, wholly incapable of longer control, dismounted, and pressed his lips to the ground; while Da Costa, after casting towards him one look of sympathy, raised little Charley's hand in his, and pointed it towards the holy city, at the same time almost dreading the excitement might extinguish the feeble remains of life in his little frame.

But it was far otherwise: no sooner had the boy's

eye caught the precious object than he passed as it were into a new state of existence. He cried out “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the living God!" Then clapping his hands, he shouted, Jerusalem! Je rusalem! I see Jerusalem. Papa, mamma, there's Jerusalem; don't you see Jerusalem? Oh, now say the verses Papa, do, do! "The glorious day."'

6

Captain Ryan was instantly by his side, and catching the flash of the child's enthusiasm, he repeated, with all the ardour of a thoroughly excited Irishman, those beautiful lines,

But who shall see the glorious day,
When, throned on Zion's brow,
The Lord shall rend that veil away
Which blinds the nations now?
When earth no more beneath the fear
Of his rebuke shall lie;

When pain shall cease, and every tear
Be wiped from every eye?

Then, JUDAH! thou no more shalt mourn
Beneath the heathen's chain;

Thy days of splendour shall return,

And all be new again :

The fount of life shall then be quaffed

In peace by all who come,

And every wind that blows shall waft
Some long-lost exile home!

Da Costa listened to these lines; then, raising high his arm, he uttered a prayer of monthly observance in the synagogues, and his voice sounded far over the rocky plain on which they had halted:

"Comfort, O Lord our God! the mourners of Zion, and the mourners of Jerusalem, the city that mourns, which also lays waste and is destroyed; reproached and desolate; who mourns for the sake of