with amazement; we knew not how to believe our senses; the sublime reality seemed begotten out of nothing; and it was some time before we could reconcile and harmonize the parts of the magnificent spectacle, or conceive by what enchantment its grandest feature had been so imperviously hidden, and so suddenly disclosed, by the agency of clouds, which we had unconsciously disregarded both in their presence and their disappearance. But there they stood, the mighty twain, as though they were measuring heights against each other, we being the judges; and verily it was hard to determine between such antagonists, each worthy of the prize of the highest admiration which intellectual beings can bestow on unintelligent existences. We looked, indeed, upon them with emotions that wound up our animal spirits to a pitch of exaltation rarely experienced, except while inhaling the purer breath of Alpine air, and beholding the veil lifted up from "great Nature's visage hoar." But our thoughts went higher still; we remembered Him who hath been the refuge of his people in all generations; and this was the inspired language of our souls," Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.”—Psal. xc. 2.

Arofena has been calculated (we know not how correctly) to have an elevation ten thousand feet above the sea; and the other summit which we saw cannot be much lower.-Tyerman's and Bennet's Voyages.

HISTORICAL AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND-No. IV.

The surface of the Holy Land being diversified with mountains and plains, its CLIMATE varies in different places; though in general it is more settled than in our more western countries. Generally speaking, however, the atmosphere is mild; the summers are commonly dry, and extremely hot: intensely hot days, however, are frequently succeeded by intensely cold nights; and it is to these sudden vicissitudes, and their consequent effects on the human frame, that Jacob refers, when he says that in the day the DROUGHT consumed him, and the FROST by night. (Gen. xxxi. 40.)

VOL. II

32

Six several SEASONS of the natural year are indicated in Gen. viii. 22, viz. seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter; and as agriculture constituted the principal employment of the Jews, we are informed by the rabbinical writers, that they adopted the same division of seasons, with reference to their rural work. These divisions also exist among the Arabs to this day.

I. SEED-TIME Comprised the latter half of the Jewish month Tisri, the whole of Marchesvan, and the former half of Kisleu or Chisleu, that is, from the beginning of October to the beginning of December. During this season the weather is various, very often misty, cloudy, with mizzling or pouring rain.

II. WINTER included the latter half of Chisleu, the whole of Tebeth, and the former part of Shebeth, that is, from the beginning of December to the beginning of February. In this season, snows rarely fall, except on the mountains, but they seldom continue a whole day; the ice is thin and melts as soon as the sun ascends above the horizon. As the season advances, the north wind and the cold, especially on the lofty mountains, which are now covered with snow, is intensely severe, and sometimes even fatal: the cold is frequently so piercing, that persons born in our climate can scarcely endure it. The co, however, varies in the degree of its severity, according the local situation of the country.

III. The COLD SEASON comprises the latter half of Shebeth, the whole of Adar, and the former half of Nisan, from the beginning of February to the beginning of April. At the commencement of this season, the weather is cold, but it gradually becomes warm and even hot, particularly in the plain of Jericho. Thunder, lightning, and hail are frequent. Vegetable nature now revives; the almond tree blossoms, and the gardens assume a delightful appearance. Barley is ripe at Jericho, though but little wheat is in the ear.

IV. The HARVEST includes the latter half of Nisan, the whole of Jyar (or Zif,) and the former half of Sivan, that is, from the beginning of April to the beginning of June. In the plain of Jericho the heat of the sun is excessive, though in other parts of Palestine the weather is

most delightful; and on the sea-coast the heat is tempered by morning and evening breezes from the sea.

V. The SUMMER comprehends the latter half of Sivan, the whole of Thammuz, and the former half of Ab, that is, from the beginning of June to the beginning of August. The heat of the weather increases, and the nights are so warm that the inhabitants sleep on their house-tops in the open air.

VI. The HOT SEASONS include the latter of Ab, the whole of Elul, and the former half of Tisri, that is, from the beginning of August to the beginning of October. During the chief part of this season the heat is intense, though less so at Jerusalem than in the plain of Jericho ; there is no cold, not even in the night, so that travellers pass whole nights in the open air without inconvenience. Lebanon is for the most part free from snow, except in the caverns and defiles where the sun cannot penetrate.

During the hot season, it is not uncommon in the East Indies for persons to die suddenly, in consequence of the extreme heat of the solar rays (whence the necessity of being carried in a palanquin.) This is now commonly termed a coup-de-soleil or stroke of the sun. The son of the woman of Shunem appears to have died in consequence of a coup-de-soleil (2 Kings iv. 19, 20. :) to which there is an allusion in Psalm cxxi. 6.

Rain falls but rarely, except in autumn and spring; but its absence is partly supplied by the very copious dews which fall during the night. The early or autumnal rains and the latter or spring rains are absolutely necessary to the support of vegetation, and were consequently objects greatly desired by the Israelites and Jews. The early rains generally fall about the beginning of November, when they usually ploughed their lands and sowed their corn; and the latter rains fall sometimes towards the middle and sometimes towards the close of April; that is, a short time before they gathered in their harvest. These rains, however, were always chilly (Ezra x. 9. and Song ii. 11.,) and often preceded by whirlwinds (2 Kings iii. 16, 17.) that raised such quantities of sand as to darken the sky, or, in the words of the sacred historian, to make the heavens black with clouds and wind. (1 Kings xviii. 45:) In the

figurative language of the Scripture, these whirlwinds are termed the command and the word of God (Psalm cxlvii. 15. 18. :) and as they are sometimes fatal to travellers who are overwhelmed in the deserts, the rapidity of their advance is elegantly employed by Solomon to show the certainty as well as the suddenness of that destruction which will befall the impenitently wicked. (Prov. i. 27.) The rains descend in Palestine with great violence; and as whole villages in the east are constructed only with palm-branches, mud, and tiles baked in the sun, (perhaps corresponding to and explanatory of the untempered mortar noticed in Ezek. xiii. 11.) these rains not unfrequently dissolve the cement, such as it is, and the houses fall to the ground. To these effects our Lord probably alludes in Matt. vii. 25-27. Very small clouds are likewise the forerunners of violent storms and hurricanes in the east as well as in the west: they rise like a man's hand, (1 Kings xviii. 44.) until the whole sky becomes black with rain, which descends in torrents. In our Lord's time, this phenomenon seems to have become a certain prognostic of wet weather. See Luke xii. 54.

THE SYNAGOGUE.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM CROSWELL.

"But even un to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.”—St. Paul.

I saw them in their synagogue, as in their ancient day,
And never from my memory the scene will pass away-
For dazzling on my vision, still the latticed galleries shine
With Israel's loveliest daughters, in their beauty half divine !

It is the holy Sabbath eve-the solitary light

Sheds, mingled with the hues of day, a lustre nothing bright;
On swarthy brow and piercing glance it falls with saddening tinge,
And dimly gilds the Pharisee's phylacteries and fringe.

The two-leaved doors slide slow apart before the Eastern screen,
As rise the Hebrew harmonies, with chanted prayers between;
And mid the tissued veils disclosed, of many a gorgeous dye,
Enveloped in their jewelled scarfs, the sacred records lie.
Robed in his sacerdotal vest, a silvery headed man,
With voice of solemn cadence o'er the backward letters ran,
And often yet methinks I see the glow and power that sate
Upon his face, as forth he spread the roll immaculate.

And fervently, that hour, I prayed, that from the mighty scroll
Its light, in burning characters, might break on every soul.
That on their hardened hearts, the vail might be no longer dark,
But be for ever rent in twain, like that before the ark.

For yet the ten-fold film shall fall, O Judah! from thy sight,
And every eye be purged to read thy testimonies right,
When thou, with all Messiah's signs in Christ distinctly seen,
Shall, by Jehovah's nameless name, invoke the Nazarene!

Our way up the side of Lebanon was steep, and in many parts difficult; but we were repaid by the delightful freshness of the air as we mounted, and the grandeur of the views on every side.

It was about noon when we reached a small stream flowing down from the mountain, on the banks of which we halted to refresh ourselves, and soon after reached the village of Sibbeehel above it. We saw here some ancient sepulchres in the rocks, and a new church just finished, the inhabitants being all christians of the Greek communion. There was an appearance of fresher health and vigor in the men than is seen in the plains, and the women were fairer than their lowland neighbors. The former were dressed in the usual costume of the peasantry of the country; but the latter wore a horn of metal, differing in shape and position from any that I had