must tell you, dear sir, I was taken ill before I was sixteen years of age, and now I am twentysix, but I do hope that the dear Lord has sanctified the affliction to the good of my soul, which is the greatest of all mercies. I hope, dear sir, you will excuse my ignorance in writing these few lines, I remain a poor and afflicted one, J. K.

[The above letter has been a sweet word of encouragement to us, and has drawn out our sympathies to the afflicted writer. Oh, may the Lord go on to use His truth through so unworthy an instrument as myself for the good of many, many souls. Those dear friends who distribute our little works will, I hope, be encouraged to go on in their labour of love.

Dear young friends, ponder the words of the above letter; they were evidently dictated by a desire to warn you against neglect of the means. How many of the young think it a hardship to be taken so strictly and constantly to hear the Gospel. Dear young friends, try and think of everything in the light that a dying-bed will cast upon it. Will a Sunday stroll comfort you on the bed of languishing? Listen to the advice of your best friends, be constant attentive hearers and readers of the Word, and the Lord bless His truth to the salvation of your souls.-EDITOR.]

There are three termini towards one or other of which every one of my readers is travelling. 1. HELL. This is the awful terminus towards which the careless are travelling. 2. THE CROSS. This is the saving terminus towards which true seekers are journeying. 3. GLORY. This is the blissful terminus towards which the true Pilgrim is wending his way. Which is your terminus.

reader P-EDITOR.

THE SHRINE OF THE NATIVITY. THIS chamber, or excavated cave, called the "Grotto of the Nativity," is about twenty feet below the level of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The cave is lined with Italian marble, and lighted by numerous lamps. Here the pilgrim is conducted to a star inlaid in the marble, marking the exact spot where the Saviour was born. The canopied altar professes to mark the place where the wise men knelt to present their offerings to the new-born child, and in a kind of recess a block of marble is shown hollowed out in the form of a manger, and said to mark the place of the one in which the infant Jesus was laid.

What a bitter grief it should be to all rightminded persons to see how rapidly the heathenish superstitions of Popery are spreading in our land. This is not the dispensation of place but of grace. It is not the age for ritual but for reality-for symbol but for substance-for worship with men's hands, as if God needed anything but with men's hearts. Popery is a mixture of the symbols of Judaism with the idolatry and superstitions of Paganism; and though at present circumstances keep this tiger's claws buried in its soft paw, yet they may again protrude with all the horrid force of Inqui sition days. Popery boasts of being unchangeable; see then what it is by what it has done. A tree is known by its fruits.

GRACE AND GLORY. GRACE and glory are one and the same thing, in a different print, in a smaller and greater letter. Glory lies couched and compacted in grace, as the beauty of a flower lies couched and concealed in the seed.-Hopkins.

HISTORY OF THE JEWS.

FROM NEHEMIAH TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WE noticed in our last chapter that we had arrived to the point in our history when those troubles began which ended in the ruin of the Jewish nation; the first of these was in the year of our Lord 48. The feast of the Passover drawing near, Cumanus appointed soldiers to guard the porticoes of the temple, to prevent tumult and disorder; but they proved the cause of that which it was supposed they would prevent. On the fourth day, one of the soldiers, by his profane and indecent discourse and behaviour, highly provoked all the spectators; many of whom, being rash young men, began with reviling, and then proceeded to violence; while others tumultously repaired to Cumanus, requiring justice against the soldier. The governor, observing the number and fury of the Jews, sent a considerable force to secure all the gates of the temple, which caused the people to fly with such precipitation and confusion, that great numbers were trodden to death, so that the festival was turned into lamentation and mourning. This calamity was shortly after succeeded by another. About twelve miles from Jerusalem, one of the emperor's servants being robbed, the governor took this occasion to pillage the neighbouring villages, for not pursuing and apprehending the robber.

About four years after, a fresh tumult broke out, occasioned by dissensions between the Galileans and Samaritans, the latter of whom murdered great numbers of the former as they travelled through their country to the Passover.