November 1, 1867.

that Imperial House massacred, with the exception of one solitary fugitive, who lays the foundation of the Moslem dominion in Spain. The House of Abbas triumphs; Damascus is abandoned, and Bagdad, under thirty-seven Abbassidan Kalifs, ruled over the Orient from A.D. 750 till 1258. Then came another change in the divine administration, and the worn-out and luxurious Kalifs yield in their turn to the stern valour of the Turks, who, in the course of their conquests, overturn the remaining fragments of the Greek Empire, and in 1453 Constantinople becomes the capital of Islam and the Orient, and Bagdad, like Damascus, is abandoned to decay. Thus in Mecca, Damascus, Bagdad, and Constantinople, the historic mind will find connecting links suggesting the origin, the progress, and the decline of Mohammedan dominion.

5. But what was the state of the Jews and the Christians under the Moslem rule? They were oppressed, they were despised, they were plundered, they were massacred, according to the taste or caprice of the conquerors. The flag of the Fatamites in Egypt was green, the flag of the Ommiades was white, and that of the Abbassades was black; but the white, and the green, and the black, though in perpetual warfare among themselves, were of one mind in hating and plundering the Jews and the Christians. Of the two, however, the Jews suffered least, either because their faith appeared more like Islam than that of the Christians, or because they were the smaller and less dangerous community. The Jews also, on all occasions, took the part of the Moslems against the Christians; and if the same feeling does not exist at the present time, it is because the Moslem power is sinking, and the Christian nations of Europe have become the protectors of the Jews. As to civilization, there was a great difference in these dynasties. The Arabs, both in the East and in the West, became a highly civilized and civilizing nation; and to the common stock or capital of human improvements they have added perhaps as much as any other race of conquerors. In medicine and law, in the use of numbers, in the arts of war, in geography, history, and astronomy, they were for a time the teachers of mankind. The Turks, on the other hand, were barbarians, are still barbarians, and seem likely to remain barbarians. They make no im

provements. The two or three bits of respectable roads to be found in their Eastern Empire were made by the French; the breaches made in the walls of Constantinople in 1453 are not yet repaired; there is not a large mercantile house belonging to a Turk in the city of Constantinople. They do not trade with foreign nations, and their first and powerful emperors neither sent nor received ambassadors. Those who talk of reorganizing the Turkish power do not understand either the character of the nation or the nature of their religion. The finger of God has touched the Empire, and it is wasting away. Let it go! A worse is not likely to come in its place.

6. My own relations to Damascus may, perhaps, warrant a concluding notice or two concerning that celebrated city. In the year 1842 I founded the Jewish Mission there; after five years' residence I returned to Europe, and in the year 1865, in company with an American friend, I visited the city and the Mission once more, and saw all the ruins which the late fearful massacre has made. The following brief summary of facts and opinions will show how God often brings good out of evil, and makes the wrath of man to praise him. (1) Damascus was one of the most fanatical Mahometan cities in the East. This character it is now rapidly losing, for the French have made a capital carriage road from Damascus to the sea, so that you can start in the morning from Beyrout, and by omnibus reach Damascus in time for dinner in the evening. Pigs are allowed in the holy city, and ham is presented to you in the hotel! This shows the way the wind blows; and pork has become the symbol of civilisation. (2) The Christian quarter, which was burned down, has been restored, and rebuilt in a far better style than formerly, and built, too, at the cost of the Turkish Government. (3) The terrible punishment inflicted on the Moslems of that city has taught them a lesson which I hope they will not forget. Their pashaw was executed, and some of the proudest Moslems were compelled to carry on their shoulders the bleeding bodies of the slain-a defilement as terrible as death. In this horrible massacre my namesake, and successor in the Jewish Mission, lost his life. He is the first martyr of modern Jewish Missions. (4) This terrible effusion of Christian blood in Damascus, on

the Lebanon and elsewhere, has fairly roused the sympathy of all the European nations, so that another additional check is put upon the fanaticism of the Moslems. Our Missions never were so prosperous, nor was the Bible ever so extensively circulated in the East as since the massacre. Education is proceeding at a rapid pace among all that are not Moslems; the Americans have not only schools, but a college, at Beyrout. Newspapers are published in the Arabic language; scientific societies are forming; the pulpit is acquiring something of its former vigour, and a Christian national literature is being created in the East. This is a great step in the movements of Divine providence. Dr. Van Dyke assured me that in the year 1864 the Mission press issued and sold nine millions of pages of religious books, whereas formerly our books and tracts, when offered gratis, were refused! And not Syria only, but the East in general, is studded with Missions whose aim is to civilise and evangelise. The law of death against the Moslem

that changes his religion is repealed, and a Mission for the conversion of the Mohammedans is established in Constantinople itself. All these, and many similar changes, are signs of the times, and, when taken in connection with the waning power of Islam, seem to indicate, in God's providence, that great events are ready to burst over the Eastern world.

7. Finally, let us rejoice in the assurance that nothing can be perfect and permanent but truth. Great is the truth, and it shall prevail. The energy of the Crescent is exhausted; there are no more Kaleds, Amrous, Derars, Serjabills, and such like soul-inspiring, death-defying heroes among the present race of Moslems. Their enthusiasm terrifies the nations no more; their day is done, and the feeling that it is so pervades the Mohammedan communities. The Euphrates is drying up, to prepare the way for the Kings of the East, and all things indicate the dawning of a day of glory for the East and for the whole world.

THE BRAZEN ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING. -Without the vessel, the whole fabric of the Sanctuary melts away into a baseless vision. Towards its antitype, all former dispensations and actings of God tended and pointed; and from it the future emanates, pregnant with the exceeding precious promises of God. This Altar was commanded to be made of the same kind of wood as the Ark and Table, but instead of being overlaid with gold, the covering was of brass, and this word at once implies a difference in the character of the vessel from those that have preceded it. It was a hollow square of boards, eight feet nine inches, and five feet three inches high, with four horns at

*

*Jewish historians and Jewish traditions declare that the metal translated "brass" in the Old Testament should have been "copper." I may retain the word brass, as I have done some others, on account of its being familiar.

the corners thereof, scripturally indicative of power, * at the same time serving as holdfasts, whereto the animals brought for sacrifice were tied. Within the square hollow, at the middle of its height, was a brazen grating, on which the sacrifice was burnt, and brass pans were ranged below, wherein to receive the ashes. Reader, slight not the particular mention of these apparently insignificant "ashes," for when rightly understood, they will assume an important bearing, when seen in connection with the "offerings." They told of a sacrifice accomplished, and of the exceeding preciousness of its results to God and man.

For the ministry at this altar, shovels and fire-pans were provided, the former for the removal of the fire from the Altar, and the "fire-pans"—or censers, as they should be called-for burning incense in, the fire for * Dan. vii. 7, 24; Rev. xii. 3; xvii. 12.

*

It is of

which was always taken from this Altar. "Basons" were for the reception of the blood of the victim offered, which was used in various ways, and "flesh-hooks" were for the purpose of arranging the parts of the victim on the wood of the grating. Staves of shittim wood, overlaid with brass, were also provided, as a means of transport, the whole being ordered in strict accordance with the pattern shown to Moses on the Mount, and from these inscrutable models there was to be no deviation. considerable importance to take notice of the position of this Altar. It was situated at the eastern end of the court-within, and not far from, the gate of entrance, † whilst the Tabernacle occupied the western end, the Laver being midway between the two. From this arrangement it is evident that the Holy Place could not be reached until the claims of the Altar were first met; not one step in advance till then. The reader must bear in mind that we are still on the Mount with Moses, listen ing with him to instructions regarding the vessels only, and not to the ministry connected with them, which could not be communicated until the whole Sanctuary should be a visible structure, and the institution of the priesthood should impart to it, in its completeness, that meaning and vitality which it yet lacked. From no other place than "out of the Tabernacle of the Congregation," when reared up in the camp of Israel, and the glory of Jehovah should descend upon the mercy-seat between the cherubim, could the ministry of the brazen Altar-or, in other words, the levitical offerings ―be announced t-offerings that shadowed forth the claims of a just and holy God, and the dire necessities of a sinner; but which, presented on the brazen Altar, gave back a full and perfect response to the righteous claims on the one hand, and supplied a Divine resource for the necessities on the other.

When, in one word, this Altar is pronounced a symbol of THE CROSS, § thereneed be no lengthened argument to prove the correctness of the remarks just made. Let us examine its construction.

*Levit. i. 6. + Exod. xl. 6.

Exod. xl. 33, 34; Levit. i. 1.

§ Not the mere wood on which the Lord of Glory was crucified, but "The Cross," according to the meaning intended to be conveyed in the following passages-1 Cor. i. 17; Gal. v. 11, vi. 14, Ephes. ii. 16; Col. i. 20; Heb. xii. 2.

The wood of which the Altar was constructed having been the same as that of the precious vessels, there is no difficulty in recognizing in it the untainted Humanity of the Lord Jesus. The gold, which has borne so conspicuous a part in the other vessels, is absent from this, and another metal substituted-" brass." Nor is this substitution of one metal for another on account of the exposed position of the vessel, or the roughness of the work performed thereat. The gold is purposely omitted, as not expressing the object intended to be exemplified by the vessel.

As gold has been understood to symbolize the heavenly glory which the Father has bestowed on the risen humanity of His Son, it is manifest that this metal could not be a compound part of this Altar, inasmuch as it represents the death, and not the resurrection, of the Son of Man.

This vessel was emphatically called "the Altar of burnt offering," because on it there was a slain lamb burnt morning and evening as a ceaseless ascending sacrifice before Jehovah; and although the body of the sin offering was burnt without the camp, yet those inward parts and the fat, which represented the affections and energy of the life of the victim, were burnt on this Altar, and the blood was poured out at the foot of it.

The signification of the word " "brass" will readily be apprehended when I mention that it is the same word in Hebrew as that used for the brass of which the serpent was made that Moses lifted up in the wilderness, which the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus was intended to signify the sacrifice of the Son of Man. † The same word is also used to denote the sustaining strength of the armour of Goliath, the Philistine. Capability of endurance of assault and suffering is the meaning intended, such as in the expression, "The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all," to which the words of the Apostle Peter correspond, "His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." Paul likewise gives force to the brass when he says that Jesus, "for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame." It would be anticipating the Levitical Offerings, the Priesthood, and the Great Day of Atonement, to enter here into the varied *Exod. xxix. 39. + John iii. 14.

aspects of the one perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. I will only add that the Cross forms the case and mainspring of every action of the Throne of God, both in grace and judgment; of the propitiatory work of the Mediator; of the High-Priestly ministration of the Son of God in Heaven; and of the coming glory of His Kingdom on earth.

Reader-Jew or Gentile-can you say, “God forbid that I should glory save in The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world? For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,, but a New Creation."

THERE is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, and there is joy in the hearts of the children of God over every lost sheep that has been found by the good Shepherd. Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and, though the nation still goes astray, there is a remnant according to the election of grace, even as there were seven thousand, in the days of Ahab, who did not bow before Baal. One of the inmates of the Jews' Home has found peace and joy in believing, and, constrained by the love of Christ, he, like the first disciples, came forward and confessed: "I have found the Messiah."

He was tossed to and fro for a long time, and it seemed difficult, almost impossible, for him to hold fast the truth which he had apprehended, till at last the Lord apprehended him, and enabled him to rest entirely in Jesus Christ.

The dealings of God with his soul he thus described before a meeting held the day after his baptism :

it

"Dear Christian Friends,-With a new birth appears that I am also to commence a new life. For I stand before you to-night, to do what I never did before, to address a public meeting. I trust, dear Christian friends, that you will bear with my broken accent. My heart is full to overflowing, yet I feel so overjoyed with the change that God has made in me, that I must apologize to you for the brevity of my sentiments. Although I feel reluctant to speak before such an honourable audience, yet I look upon it as a solemn duty to tell you what the Lord has done for me, and the very fact that I, at one time a bigoted Jew, at a later period of my life an infidel Jew, should

this day be able to stand forth as one of the redeemed of the Lord, is in itself to my mind a miracle, which can only be explained in the exclamation: How wonderful are thy ways, 0 Lord!' And now, dear Christian friends, permit me to give you a brief outline of the history of my conversion. I am the son of orthodox Jewish parents, who brought me up in strict accordance with their own sentiments. I became fond of my religion, and as I increased in years the love for it increased also, until it amounted to bigotry. This lasted as long as I was in connection with Jews only, but when I entered into the occupations of the world, and came in contact with the so-called Christians, I soon began to be dissatisfied with what I always held to be most sacred, and the more I could criticise the truths of Holy Scripture, and reject its authenticity, the more I felt myself advanced in what I called philosophical wisdom; and I looked upon myself as a great philosopher when I could pronounce the Bible to be a book of fables. Thoughts of riches, and advance in worldly gain, caused me gradually to look upon all religion as something. similar to a boggle to frighten children with. Years rolled on, I became older, but, alas, not wiser. When I little thought of the beauty of that expression of the Psalmist, which I often in my infancy repeated at my bedside: 'Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,' His watchful eye was on me, ordering my steps, and, although I had cast Him off, He had not cast me off, but was preparing the way for my escape from the path of destruction, into which I had fallen. Oh! I could say with Jeremiah: 'I could weep, and weep a sea of tears.' Oh, the long

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suffering of God! who can describe it? Feeling myself free from all care, and fully equipped with wisdom, I felt a desire to go to that known land of liberty-England. Golden visions presented themselves to my mind; I fancied that a young man like myself, free from the fetters of all superstitious religions, having neither God to fear, nor man to dread, should soon become a prominent merchant, and then indulge in all the pleasures that such a metropolis as London could afford. But many are the thoughts in the hearts of men, and only the counsel of the Lord remaineth. My golden visions soon became dim, my dreams rapidly passed, and, alas, the to me unknown hand of God was heavy upon me. Trials succeeded trials, until I found myself in the position of the prodigal son-desiring to partake of the husks. When feeding the swine I was brought to my senses, and, with the Prodigal, I began to feel my folly. I began to feel that my wisdom was delusion, and the God whom I despised was my only friend. While in this state, I came in contact with one of the messengers of God (Mr. A.), and for the first time had the message of salvation for lost sinners brought home to my heart; upon this, the book I once revered, but long neglected, brought sweet comfort to my pining soul. But new troubles awaited me. The name of Christ was always, in the days I revered the Bible most, the greatest object of detestation. How to associate the belief in God with the belief in one whom I was taught to regard from my infancy as an impostor, was a trial of no mean magnitude. I often felt desponding, and feared that the result of my inquiry would be that I should have to spend the rest of my life in a lunatic asylum. I used every means to get my doubts removed, but when one vanished twenty rose like monsters before me, and thus what I believed one day I felt to be utter delusion the next. This was a painful position. I wept bitter tears of remorse, and often felt that the Lord had utterly cast me away, and justly so. One more hope remained in my breast. Hitherto I had heard of Jesus from Gentile lips. I felt a desire to hear about Jesus from one of those of my own nationnamely, a Hebrew. The Lord, who is gracious, led me into contact with a Jewish brother, a city missionary (Mr. Kroenig), and I soon found that my doubts were once his doubts, and my fears his fears, and thus I felt comforted to trust

that his hope might also some day become mine. My mind was calmed, and our conversation on each occasion made my burthen lighter. I then felt that I had much to learn about Christianity, and consequently set to work to enter more fully into an examination of the truth. I did so, and by the kindness of Dr. Schwartz, I was admitted into the Jews' Home, and I need only say that the result of my inquiry was that I made a public confession of my belief in Jesus, yesterday. A memorable day, indeed, to me. Satan does not easily give up his agents, and bitter were my trials.

"As I have been for some time past supported by Christian benevolence, I feel it a duty to thank heartily all the supporters of the Jews' Home; and may the blessing of God rest upon those who, by their love to the house of Israel, have enabled poor wretched sinners to find peace and joy in Him who is the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel.

"Now, dear Christian friends, I have told you about my past and present history, let me add something about my future. I am now poor, without any prospects, but I feel the

Lord will provide.' I want to-night to solicit your sympathy-that is, your prayers for me; help me with your prayers, that I may yet be enabled to say to many of my poor benighted brethren, 'Come and see; I have found the Messiah.""

The reasons for his faith in Jesus, and his desire to be received into the visible Church of Christ, were thus expressed :—

"The chief reasons why I desire to receive baptism are the following

"1st. Because I feel that I am a great sinner, and that Jesus only can take away my sins.

"2nd. Because I have found Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah spoken of to the Fathers and promised by the Prophets.

"3rd. Because, as the Messiah has borne the sins of the whole world, I am enabled to believe that He has taken away mine also, and thus I may rest assured that I have received mercy. I have found peace, and rejoice in Christ my Saviour, and am not ashamed to confess Him as such before young and old. I can now see that the ways through which God has led me were paths of mercy to bring me to the fountain of living water; and I shall