have drooped under the burden of a sorrow full of reproach. The story of Hannah, so briefly but touchingly recorded in scripture, affords one instance, among many others, of this kind of suffering, in a believer of the Old Testament dispensation. It is, no doubt, very difficult for us of the present day, at all to enter into the feelings which made her sorrow so bitter. A childless lot, is indeed, even now, felt to be afflictive by all the right-minded of the community, as being a something kept back from the cup of domestic happiness: but with the Hebrews, it was positive disgrace. Now that the shame is gone, it is comparatively easy to bear the mere privation; and that it was the former and not the latter particularity which gave intensity to the grief of the Hebrew women, is evident from the expressions used whenever the subject is spoken of. Thus, Elizabeth, who had never (it would seem) complained, either to God or man, of her trial, confesses in her thanksgiving for its removal, what had been to her, the peculiar burden of her childless state; "thus hath God dealt with me in the days wherein he looked upon me, to take away my reproach among men." The opinion of the community in those times, designated such a condition as one of reproach, and even those who were made to suffer in consequence, acquiesced in the general sentiment, and shewed that they did so by their uneasiness under the trial. This feature of human society;-the power of opinion over the mind, causing it to suffer from circumstances which it has been guiltless of creating; is not peculiar to Jewish or Oriental life. It is seen everywhere, under various modifications, in savage and civilized nations. Among ourselves, at the present day, there is something analogous to it, in the uneasiness which we not unfrequently see manifested by women who have passed the period of youth and yet remain unmarried. For the last two hundred years at least, the general tone of society in this land, has been to regard celibacy in females, somewhat in the same light as that in which childlessness was regarded by the Hebrews: a state to be dreaded and deprecated, from the tacit reproach annexed to it. Happy, perhaps, it will be if a general reaction do not speedily take place; teaching the young and enthusiastic to covet that as a distinction, from which their sex has hitherto been seen to shrink as from disgrace but, as the world is at present constituted, there can be little doubt but that many a timid spirit as well as many a disappointed and ambitious one, suffers, under the tacit reproach of celibacy, pangs from which nothing but a vigour of intellect not often bestowed on woman, or a faith like his, who "took pleasure" in reproach, could have afforded shelter. But vigour of intellect alone, will scarce bear up an individual under any circumstances which the general voice of the community has pronounced to be, at the least, undesirable. It will not enable the young to bear with cheerful acquiescence any natural blemish which seems to separate between them and their more favored companions, and to cast a shadow over their own prospects in life. It will not help those who possess nothing of this world's goods beyond scholarship to which they must look for maintenance, and accomplishments which they must put to sale, to bear contentedly, exclusion from cir cles to which they think themselves qualified to add brilliancy, and places of honor which they feel themselves competent to fill. Those who would attempt by force of reason alone to ward off humiliations, will find the attempt unsuccessful. The wounds of feeling cannot be healed with specifics deduced from the understanding; and the world has no consolations to offer to those whom it rejects because they happen to lack somewhat which would else have rendered them meet candidates for its honors. A heathen still, in charity, as in morals, she abandons those who cannot minister to her polity; and builds no asylums for the sick at heart or the broken in spirit; for the weak, the maimed or the desolate. But the gospel provides a feast for these, the world's outcasts; sends her heralds with the tenderest invitations, and provides wine of consolation; oxen and fatlings, and robes of honor, for such guests. The word of God has special instruction, and special consolation too, for all whose lot in life involves some 'privation of this world's good, some blemish, or burden; or humiliating position, of which they would fain be rid if they could. It shews them, in the history of Hannah, how this end may be best attained when there is hope of remedy: and it shews also, (a lesson still more to be remembered) that where prayer more importunate than Hannah's :--thricerepeated earnest prayer, has failed to remove a bitter portion; it has brought down from heaven that which was better than acceptance: Angelic strength to bear on calmly, and grace so abundant as to turn that into a glory, which was at first, a thorn. LYDIA. PALESTINE. No. IV. THE providence of the MOST HIGH which appears to have watched over the establishment of the Jerusalem Mission with singular care, having conducted it not only to the settlement of the Bishop and his fellow-labourers there, but also to the laying of the foundation of the church, “at a depth of thirty-five feet from the surface," owing to the number of subterraneous chambers, through which they had to break : hath given his servants rest, and commencing encouragement in their all-important work. "We have now," writes the Bishop, (Feb. 26, 1842,) "regular daily service in the temporary Chapel: at seven in the morning in Hebrew, and at sunset in English; and though we are but a small band, yet I feel it peculiarly delightful thus daily to worship in Mount Zion,”—and again, (March 9.) "Our Mission is beginning to be very interesting, and, I trust, efficient. There never have been such large congregations of Protestants as have been assembled since my arrival here. On Sunday last our Chapel was literally crowded, and never did I wish more that our church was built. I have laid the first foundation-stone on the 28th ult." ISAIAH LX. 11. Imperial Salem, lift thy gates See converts like the drops of dew Lo! the full tribes with joy appear Behold, what clouds of incense rise Rise, mighty GOD, into thy rest, So shall thy glorious cause extend, * Comp. Rom. x. 4. JULY, 1842. D † Comp. Psalm lxxxix. 15. |