place a small image therein, in order to carry with them when they travelled or went to war, as also for their private devotion at home; and indeed, the making such temples continues to be the custom in some of the heathen nations to this day. A very curious one of this sort I have seen brought here from the East Indies. -See BISCOE On the Acts, pp. 274-276.

Mr. Jowett speaks of seeing, among other like articles of sale, brought to Jerusalem from a manufactory at Bethlehem, a model in wood, inlaid with ivory, of the chapel built over the Holy Sepulchre. "Of the various trinkets which they showed, no one served better than this to illustrate the expression translated in our English version, 'Silver shrines for Diana;' the original means, 'Silver models of the temple of Diana.' Whether made very small, or entirely wrought in silver, or, if larger, inlaid or washed with silver, is of little moment. In all the Levant, and in Roman Catholic countries, the Pagan traffic, so inimitably described by the prophet Isaiah, (xl. 19, 20; xli. 6, 7; xliv. 12-17; xlvi. 6,) continues in full activity."-JOWETT's Researches, pp. 264, 265,

note.

;

"I remember once entering a church in the island of Cefalonia," writes the Rev. S. Wilson, " seated on a hill overhanging the sea. To this church poor mariners often resort after storms. I remarked there what I have often seen also in papal churches in Malta over the shrine of some favourite saint were ranged a number of arms, legs, eyes, pictures of ships in danger, and so forth, some in white wax, some in silver, and some in gold. What are these? I asked. These are oblations of gratitude, placed on the wrong altar. The offerers have been at the point of death in sickness, or have suffered under some local disease, or, in fine, have been in a storm; and in their distress have made vows to the saint, which they fulfilled by presenting these limbs and rude paintings."-REV. S. S. WILSON'S Malta.

SPOILS SUSPENDED IN SACRED PLACES.

2 SAMUEL viii. 7—11.

"And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem;"...... See verse 11.

When the Tegeans on one occasion conquered the Lacedæmonians, who had attacked them with such an assurance of victory that they had brought with them fetters to bind the prisoners with, they placed these very fetters upon the Lacedæmonian captives, and sent them to work in their fields. These very chains, Herodotus records, were preserved in his remembrance, hung round the temple of the goddess Minerva. This custom of suspending in sacred buildings the spoils taken from an enemy, was begun in the most barbarous ages, and is at the present day continued. It is usual among the moderns to suspend in churches the colours taken from the enemy.

RELIGIOUS CUSTOM AMONG THE JEWS.

LUKE ii. 42.

"And when (Jesus) was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem."

The Jew boys, when they enter their thirteenth year, go through the following ceremony, the poorer classes in private, the richer Jews in the synagogue. I had the opportunity of witnessing one of these. The boy who was the son of a rabbi, appeared in the synagogue, well-dressed, with the ten commandments fastened on his forehead in a small leathern bag, and the same also on his left arm. The morning service was then read. After this, the lad advanced to the altar, and offered up a prayer to the Almighty, in permitting him to attain

that age which is here considered as the commencement of manhood. A religious discourse was then delivered by him for nearly an hour.-Notes to BROOKE's Travels in Spain and Morocco.

RELIGIOUS CUSTOM IN CHINA AND PERSIA.

LEVITICUS Xi. 33.

"And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it."

It was usual in ancient times, and is still the custom in China, Persia, and many other countries, for each guest to have a little table for himself, upon which dishes are placed separately for him. In India many persons never eat out of the same dish as others, believing it would be sinful to do so; and thinking their dishes, &c. to be polluted and spoiled if touched by persons of another religion, they break them. Dr. Clark found similar customs among the Turks. He was one night entertained very kindly by a Turk and his family; after leaving the place, the next morning Dr. Clark returned for a book he had left behind, when he found his kind host and all the family employed in breaking and throwing away the earthenware plates and dishes, from which his guests had eaten, and purifying the other utensils and articles of furniture by passing them through fire

or water.

JACOB'S VOW.

GENESIS XXviii. 18-22.

"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it....... And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I

come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee."

Mr. Morier thus illustrates the preceding passage: he was ascending the rock of Istakhar, in Persia.

"We ascended on the north west side, winding round the foot of the rock, and making our way through narrow and intricate paths. I remarked that our old guide every here and there placed a stone on a conspicuous bit of rock, or two stones one upon the other, at the same time uttering some words, which I learnt were a prayer for our safe return. This explained to me what I had frequently seen before in the East, and particularly on a high road leading to a great town, whence the town is first seen, and where the Eastern traveller sets up his stone accompanied by a devout exclamation, as it were, in token of his safe arrival. The action of our guide appears to illustrate the vow which Jacob made when he travelled to Padan-aram, in token of which he placed a stone and set it up for a pillar. In seeing a stone on the road placed in this position, or one stone upon another, it implies that some traveller has there made a vow, or a thanksgiving. Nothing is so natural in a journey over a dreary country as for a solitary traveller to set himself down fatigued, and to make the vow that Jacob did. If God be with me, and keep me in this way that I go, so that I reach my father's house in peace, then will I give so much in charity; or again, that on first seeing the place which he has toiled so long to reach, the traveller should sit down and make a thanksgiving, in both cases setting up a stone as a memorial." MORIER'S Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, p. 84.

EASTERN GAMES.

2 TIMOTHY iv. 7.

"I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course."

"From Megara," writes Mr. Wilson, the missionary to Greece, " we set of at daylight for Corinth. On the road we skirted the Corinthian Gulf, a most delightful walk. At the head of the waters we occasionally obtained, as we turned a projecting angle of the coast, a splendid view of the towering citadel, high in the air, yet black and frowning. We crossed the isthmus of Corinth about noon. This, could one fail to recollect? was the site of some of those celebrated games so often alluded to by St. Paul. In his epistle to Timothy is a most elegant and endearing reference to these contests of the ancient Greeks. 'I have fought the good fight -I have finished my course-I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.' The course' was now mapped out at my feet. Around this thousands used to congregate, to witness the dexterity of the wrestler, or the velocity of the racer; and the judges sat by to award the prize to victors. How interesting is the allusion to these facts made by St. Paul, in addressing the infant church of Christ, Wherefore, seeing that we also,' not these candidates, but we professors, are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight,' everything that might encumber us in our course, and run with patience the race set before us.' And in another place, this zealous apostle addresses the very men who in other ages assembled where my feet now stood, in beautiful allusion to these ancient contests, 'So run, that ye may obtain

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