when met by Eliezer; every white-bearded and turbaned old man reminded them of Abraham; they found a scriptural interest in every object which they saw, and every word which they heard; their pages teem with scriptural quotations; the very mountains to them spoke outwardly of the avenging hand of the God of Israel: the stern bare hills of Judah, the wildernessgirt shores of the Sea of Galilee, the harsh and stern look of the valley of Jehoshaphat: yet these outward features of Nature were the same in ancient days as now. The River of Jordan flowed down the same dreary bed into the Dead Sea, what time the walls of Jericho crumbled at the sound of the trumpet of Joshua; Jerusalem was encircled by the same hills, stood on the edge of the same natural chasms, when David danced before the Ark, when Solomon in the height of his glory received in the Queen of Sheba, and when Titus razed the temple. The face of Nature does not change. Desolation certainly shows itself conspicuously, and we see reminiscences on all sides of a time, when the inhabitants of the country were numerous, rich and flourishing; the mountains were once in Judea, as now in Lebanon, terraced with the vines and the mulberry; gardens once bloomed, where now there is nought but the ruined well; broken columns mark the site of old cities now desolate; and the shattered arch shows where once the torrent was spanned by the royal highway; but the traveller in Greece, in Asia Minor, in Mesopotamia, and all over India, knows that such are the features of all the ancient countries of Asia-ancient, since they saw the first civilization of man, who learnt to be rich, powerful, and ambitious under a tropical sun, while the countries of the West were occupied by savages, and overgrown by forests. Thus to the resident of India all the features of Syria are at once familiar: the hedges of prickly pear, the sandy ill-defined roads, the large groves of pine trees, the walled towns, the bazaars, the flat-roofed houses, the tapering minarets, the peculiar natural products, the people themselves, with sandalled feet, loose garments, flowing beards, and turbans, the trains of mules, and laden camels: all these things stupefy the travellers of England, but to the Indian they excite scarcely a passing remark, and he has leisure for the uninterrupted contemplation of what is remarkable and peculiar

* There is some truth in this statement; yet, notwithstanding, the book referred to, that by Mr. Bonar and the late Mr. McCheyne is, taken for all in all, one of the best descriptions of Palestine of the multitudes that we have read. And in point of fact, the authors of it say nothing more of the country than is said of it by every traveller; that it is in a very different state now from that in which it was in the days of its glory. The present state of Tyre is not the less a fulfilment of prophecy because Gour and Palibothra are now in ruins.-ED.

to the soil: the completion of prophetical denunciations, the mighty events which have there happened, the traces of the different races and peoples which have contended for, possessed, and lost this narrow strip of land, between the Jordan and the Mediterranean; for Egyptians, Syrians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Tartars, Turks and Christians, have all thrown away time and treasure for the possession of a country, in itself valueless, but ever destined to be the highway of nations.

Let us commence then our pilgrimage, and step by step traverse the length and breadth of the land" from Dan to Beersheba." From whichever direction you come, the most convenient point of disembarkation is Beyrout, at which place all the steamers touch. Within the last year propositions have been made for steamers to touch at Joppa, and at Caiapha, beneath Mount Carmel; and the Holy Land can be approached from Suez and Cairo by the long and short desert routes; but both entail fatigue, loss of time, and a dreary quarantine in an obscure corner of the country. The traveller landed at Beyrout, if from Egypt, has a quarantine in an excellent establishment, and finds in that large and flourishing town the means of providing himself with the materials for his journey. Beyrout can conveniently be made the starting point, and the goal of his pilgrimage, and should he have time for a sojourn in Lebanon, all the sanataria on the mountain are within twenty miles, and overhang the town of Beyrout, the commercial capital of the country.

Let us imagine ourselves thus prepared to go up to Jerusalem-with our baggage laden upon mules-our Arab servants (including interpreter) accompanying, and ourselves bestriding the strong hacks of the country, in which wheel carriages of any description are utterly unknown. The first stage is Saida, the ancient Sidon, and the road lies along the shore of the tideless Mediterranean; on the left rises the magnificent range of Lebanon, sparkling with villages, monasteries, and chapels, thickly sprinkled along its declivities: this is the country of the Heathen Druse, and Christian Maronite, who live blended together, resembling each other in little but their character for independence and unmanageableness. Wonderfully picturesque and enchanting is this ride, between the green mountains and the deep blue ocean, which, sweeping in on the coast, forms bays and head-lands fringed with white foam to break the sameness of the landscape. The signs of life on the road are few, the road itself is but a pathway, and the mountain streams have to be waded through, though broken arches

show where once, in better days, bridges had been; and crossing these streams is sometimes, when the volume of the water is swollen, at the risk of life and property:-at no time is it pleasant to stem a rapid torrent just at the point where it rushes into the ocean, knowing what the consequence of one false step would be. Travellers have been known to have been delayed weeks on the banks. Sidon, when reached, presents little to admire, but much to interest; we remember that we are now in the land promised to, though never possessed by, the twelve tribes; that to the tribe of Asher was allotted the coast of Sidon, though, their strength being weakened by disobedience, the children of Israel never fully obtained their promised heritage. Hence went forth Jezebel to swell the crimes of Samaria: here were planted the first germs of commerce and navigation.

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The next day's journey is to Tyre, now called Soor. The road is much the same as that of the preceding day, except that the mountain ranges becoming lower, and the coast more rugged, the River Leontes, which drains the valley of CaleSyria, between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, is crossed by an old-fashioned bridge, which is fortunately in repair, or all communication would be cut off. On the road we pass Zarephath, the place of refuge of Elijah, where the barrel of meal and the cruise of oil did not fail, and the man of God raised the son of the widow. The houses of Tyre are seen far out in the sea, and the once famous island is now a narrow peninsula, in the midst of ruins and desolation. Here, for the first time, we come upon the steps of our Redeemer, for it is in these coasts that he miraculously healed the Syro-Phonician woman; here St. Paul landed on his return from one of his apostolical voyages, and knelt down on the sands, and took leave of his disciples in prayer; here, three thousand years ago, Hiram, whose vast sarcophagus is still shown on the neighbouring height, shipped off cedars for the temple at Jerusalem; and to the men of Tyre was Zerubbabel indebted, under the grant of Cyrus, for materials for the second temple also. There are no cedars now within one hundred miles. Here flourished idolatry in all its abomination; against this city were uttered some of the direst threats of the prophets,

*There seems good reason to believe, with Michaelis and others, that the original promise did not include Sidon. There is only one text which seems to indicate that it was, in which the Sidonians are mentioned among the natives whom the tribe of Asher did not drive out. But these might be the Sidonian inhabitants of Tyre. All the other texts seem to intimate that the borders of the tribe of Asher, not only as possessed by them, but as promised to them, turned off from the sea near Mount Carmel, and only returned to it at Achzib, leaving out altogether the strip of Phœnicia.-ED.

and never does prophecy appear more literally fulfilled. Tyre is indeed laid waste, her walls and towers are destroyed and broken down, she is made like the top of a rock, and a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea. No place was more particularly selected by the inspired writers of the Old Testament, as an object of their prophetic wrath, than this queen of cities: and none is more prostrate. Still there is an interest attached to its very name that cannot fail to attract. Recollections of all time press upon us-of Dido, in the earliest mist of traditional history, ladening her vessels to fly from her brother, and to found an empire on the coast of Africa-of the purple of Tyre, famous all over the world-of Alexander. The name seems never forgotten: we find it in the early history of the church, and the romances of the crusades, and it is only when we stand amongst its ruins that we are aware how indeed it has fallen.

From Tyre the sea-coast is followed, until the last and most southern spur of Lebanon obstructs the passage, and it is only by a dangerous, but most picturesque, mountain pathway round the head-land of Cape Bianco, called the Ladder of Tyre, that entrance is actually made into the Palestine of the Israelites. Before us lie the undulating plains of Asher, correctly described in the Book of Judges as on the sea-shore; to the left is the long range of the mountains of Galilee-the prospect being terminated by the heights of Mount Carmel. We pass by the celebrated fortress city of St. Jean d'Acre, the key-stone of Syria, and destined to be three times the glory of England; thence winding round the beautiful bay, the waters of that ancient river, the River Kishon, have to be crossed, and so deep is the bed, and so rapid the current of this bridgeless stream, that the traveller has to urge his unwilling steed into the sea, describing a semi-circle round the estuary of the torrent, which swept away the host of Sisera. Thence we pass through Caiapha, ascend the side of Mount Carmel, and enter the stately Roman Catholic convent, over which the tri-color of France waves proudly. The convent stands on the brow of the rock, and commands an unequalled view of earth, air and sky: on this range Elijah vindicated the power of God over the priests of Baal, but the convent is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, who is traditionally reputed to have visited the cave of Elijah from the neighbouring Nazareth.

The road still lies due south along the sea-coast, shut in to the east by the mountainous country of Samaria, until we arrive at the deserted town of Cæsarea. Never was ruin so perfect, so solemn in its desolation, telling so distinctly its

history, as these remains of Cæsarea. What was the object of those massive fortifications, those castellated gates, that deep entrenchment? History tells us, that Cæsarea was the military capital of the province under the Roman emperors: and we find on the sea-coast a strongly entrenched military camp, looking for succours beyond the sea, and able to defy all attacks by land. When this power fell, their camp fell with them, and became a ruin without an inhabitant; but time has fallen gently on the work of the Romans; the stones are fastened by cement, as fresh as if placed there yesterday; the towers, the gateways, the trench, and the roads are as clearly defined, as they were, when Claudius Lysias despatched St. Paul by night from Jerusalem to the most excellent Governor Felix. Tradition does not point out the Judgment Hall, where Felix trembled at the apostle's reasonings; but we know that it must have been within this fortified space that St. Paul spoke of righteousness and judgment, and that here the Holy Ghost descended upon the first Gentile converts, in the house of the centurion, Cornelius.

At Cæsarea we pass round another head-land, and enter the plain of Sharon, and look up far eastward at the mountains of Judea: the sea is still on our right hand, until we take a final farewell of it at Joppa. At this place again we are met by a variety of conflicting associations. We are shown where the sheet was three times let down in the vision of St. Peter, where Jonah embarked to start for Tarshish, (the whale disgorged him between Beyrout and Sidon); hard by is the rock from which Andromeda was liberated by Perseus, and the hospital where perished the wounded soldiers under Napoleon. Joppa has always been the sea-port of Jerusalem; the cedars of Lebanon were here landed, and dragged up the intervening space of hill and valley to the foot of Mount Sion; here, in the days of the crusades, the pilgrims used to disembark; and with such natural advantages, we cannot be surprised, that it is a busy and flourishing place, and under the new aspect of the country will daily become larger and more important. From the present year there will be a regular series of steamers, and thus an immediate communication with Beyrout and Alexandria, without a fatiguing land journey; and as the majority of pilgrims come for Jerusalem, and its environs alone, Joppa will be the favourite point of debarkation.

Our seventh day is now arrived, the long line of coast between Joppa and Beyrout has been traversed, our faces are now turned eastward, and we rejoice to think, that this night our feet will rest in Jerusalem; but long and tedious is the