'Yes;' answered Charley, with great energy, 'when they repent again, and when they follow Jesus Christ, so they shall.'

To this, of course, no reply was given; and after a moment's pause, Charley raised his head higher, and asked in a shrill tone, 'Why don't you believe, why won't you believe in Jesus Christ?'

Da Costa was still silent; but Charley became more urgent: Mr. Dockster, I say, why won't you believe?'

'Suppose,' said the Jew, 'I was to ask you why do you believe? but hush, dear babe,' he added, seeing him about to reply, 'you will exhaust all your little strength, at this rate.'

'It doesn't tire me at all, at all,' said Charley, 'it does me good; and I'll tell you why I believe-because I know he loves me.'

'You mean that he loves you because you believe,' said Alick.

"No I don't. He loved me before I believed, and because he loved me, he made me believe; and because he loves me be will take me to heaven, now, very soon.'

'You will be more likely to live if you think less of dying, my dear boy,' said Da Costa; 'see,' he added, as a lovely animal, bounding along the mountain-side, paused, and peered down upon them, quite in Charley's view, see that merry little creature. I hope you will be like it again, ere long.' 'What a pretty goat!' said the boy.

⚫ It is not a goat, but a Gazelle, or Antelope, a far more elegant creature.' Charley's countenance suddenly lighted up; he exclaimed, 'The wild Gazelle! Papa, the wild Gazelle! Oh, say it for

me!' His father complied, and recited the lines with such feeling that Alick, who from anxiety and internal conflict was become doubly sensitive, could scarcely master his emotion. They were now on the point of emerging from that close, narrow defile; a lovely vale lay before them, while the mountains, forming a vast amphitheatre, swept round and rose in beautiful undulations, height above height, the stern rough stone, in abrupt ridges, marking the natural terraces that formed the ascent, of which it was the protecting wall. Trees of stately growth, shrubs of delicious fragrance, and the richest profusion of wild-flowers, adorned this landscape, and still the frolicsome Gazelle would leap from one ledge to another, while the flock of mountain goats more quietly browsed on the pastures of the valley below.

6

'Ay,' said Da Costa, sighing as he surveyed the magnificent prospect, those lines, coming as they did too from the head of a man who had no heart, express what volumes would fail in conveying :

'More blest each pine that shades these plains

Than Israel's scattered race;

For, taking root, it here remains

In solitary grace.

It will not leave its place of birth,

It cannot live in other earth,

But we must wander witheringly.'

That is the very word-witheringly; the same in substance, in form, in name, in nature unchanged, but all freshness and beauty dried up, bearing no fruit, incapable of farther growth, and subsisting as a monument of what we were, ere rudely plucked up from our own rich soil, to become the scorn of

inferior plants, yet waving gay and green because they were never expatriated.'

Charley, meanwhile, was murmuring to himself the closing lines,

Our Temple bath not left a stone,

And mockery sits on Salem's throne.

'Well, I shall see where Solomon's temple stood, and the other temple that Nehemiah made: and I shall see the Mount of Olives where the Lord Jesus stood when he wept over Jerusalem; and he stood there when he was just going up into heaven; and he will stand there when he comes again to split the mountain in two: I know that.'

'What does he mean?' whispered Da Costa, who had caught the last words, and Alick, who seemed restlessly anxious to hear Charley talk, repeated to him the question.

'I mean,' replied the child, when the Lord comes to reign, his feet shall stand on the mount of Olives. The Bible says so.'

'How wonderfully conversant he is in our scriptures!' remarked Da Costa.

'Yes,' said Mrs. Ryan, he knows them surprisingly for a child of his age: but you see all his knowledge resolves itself into one thing-love for the Saviour.'

Again the mountains enclosed them so straitly that they were obliged to proceed in single file, and each was left to his own meditations. Alick's were inexpressibly painful; he felt altogether alone in the world, anticipating the speedy dissolution of his little companion. He seemed to occupy a position debarring him from fellowship with any class of persons. More than ever a Jew, he had received so

much of Christian doctrine as made it a matter of serious distress to witness, or rather to know the settled abhorrence of his Hebrew companion, and of all his race, against Him of whom he was almost convinced that Moses in the law, and the prophets did write; yet the influence of Da Costa over his feelings was considerable, and it operated in rendering him ill at ease when listening to Captain Ryan, He felt that he was watched, and almost suspected; and while his naturally open and fearless character rendered it most painful to be supposed capable of concealing his real sentiments, he felt that, so far as he had gone in admitting disputed points, he could not sustain an argument in their defence, and would not wrong the truth by sanctioning an enemy's supposition that it was indefensible by sound argument. He wished himself in Charley's situation, if the same faith and hope were given to sustain him in it: but without these death was a subject from which he shrank affrighted. His favourite project of studying the Bible with Da Costa had not yet been carried into effect; and among man there seemed no sympathy for him. But, when he turned his eye upon the hills that rose around him, there was indeed a fellowship unspeakable in that strange, solemn, solitary landscape, beautiful in its desolate grandeur, and oh, how rich in its sacred associations! 'Here,' thought he, my fathers dwelt beneath the immediate guardianship of the Mighty One: they were not left to grope among conflicting opinions, all pressed on them with the confidence that belongs to truth alone; but they were taught and led by men whose sacred commission was sealed and ratified by daily signs from heaven. Then, all these rocky terraces

were covered with rich soil, mantled by the vine, and perpetually trodden by the feet of the rejoicing husbandman, whose temporal and spiritual wants were alike supplied by the great King of Israel. Here, angels communed with men, and visions from heaven illumined the minds of our seers, and the echoes that now faintly give back the tramp of our horses along this stony road, rang with the reverberated song of gladness and praise. O land most beloved! why, why are you forsaken, trodden down, and changed into a wilderness? why are your sons wanderers among the Gentiles, their minds so darkened, their hearts so alienated that they are content to be outcasts from you? Would that one of the heavenly messengers who came to my fathers, to Gideon, to Manoah, to Daniel and the prophets, would also come to me and explain what now perplexes me. Do they not wander here still, though concealed from our eyes? Is this good and pleasant land forsaken of all its celestial friends?"

He continued thus, in silent bitterness of spirit, to meditate on his own and his country's doom: Captain Ryan marked it all, and was fully resolved to speak out with unreserved faithfulness so soon as opportunity was afforded; but the way became more rough and difficult, more trying to poor little Charley, and overpowering to his mother. The guides had commenced wrangling, and despite the earnest efforts of the Armenian, their angry voices often broke with alarming effect, on the travellers' ears. The day was drawing on, and fatigue began to manifest itself painfully in the looks of the little sufferer, who was evidently quite awake and sensible, when suddenly a loud voice from the van proclaimed