her son." "I believe his relations may receive the consolation, that he suffered no pain in passing out of this chequered life."

These details, so graphically given, and yet with such a quiet simplicity, come out in strong contrast to Sir Walter Scott's more poetical rendering, and we can no longer picture the gentle lover of nature “laying down his head like the meek mountain lamb."

And how the sorrows of that devoted watcher must have been deepened by the death of her little one, born amid such extraordinary surroundings!

"Yes, proof was plain that, since the day
When this ill-fated traveller died,

The dog had watched about the spot,
Or by its master's side."

"How nourished here, thro' such long time,
He knows who gave that love sublime,
And gave that strength of feeling, great
Above all human estimate."

ISABELLA TAYLOR.

"GOD IS OUR REFUGE.”—Ps. XLVI. 1.

IN the Lebanon Massacre of 1850, one of the resident missionaries prevailed upon the inhabitants of the village, where he was stationed with his wife and children, to remain unarmed and put their trust in God. This village was one of the few that escaped in the massacre.

*

THE western sides of Lebanon

Lie in a purple glow,

The sunset's dreamy light o'erspreads
The Great Sea stretched below,
And out through bars of orange clouds
The parting sunbeams flow.

The home-returning goat-herd's song
Sounds from the mountain side,

And dark-haired flocks come winding down
The crags this eventide,

Unto a hundred little towns

'Mid mulberry groves that hide.

Peaceful and calm the valleys lie
That run among the hills,
Clothed with the olive's silver-green,
Watered by leaping rills;
Peaceful and calm the mountain-tops,
And peace our spirit fills.

But here, not fifteen years ago,

We saw the setting sun,

Scarce hoping we should live to know

Another day begun ;

A dreadful death seemed drawing near,

And earthly hope was none.

* When our friend Th. Waldmeir, from Lebanon, was in this country a few months ago, he informed us that such was the present state of religious animosity amongst the mountain tribes, that a similar outbreak to that of 1860 might at any time recur.

For fearful tidings of despair

Had come at early morn;
To slaughter every Christian soul
The Druses fierce had sworn :

Man rose 'gainst man in bloody strife
Of pride and hatred born.

All day the villages around

Were wrapt in smoke and flame,
And thronging to our sheltering roof
Widows and orphans came;
Lorn fugitives, whose hope of life
Lay in our English name.

But as those awful hours wore on
We heard a tumult loud,

Our townsmen arming 'gainst the foe,
Voices that vengeance vowed;
Then went we forth into the streets
And faced the angry crowd.

And there we raised our hearts to God,
That He by us would stand,
Would make the raging of this sea
Be still at His command,-
E'en as He rides upon the floods

And binds them with His Hand.

We told them that the God we served,
His mighty power revealed,

As stronger than the battle-bow,

Or war-horse in the field;

And that He bids us trust His arm,

Nor rest in spear and shield.

We told them of the peace of those
Believing in His word,-
Until upon that stormy throng
A calm fell from the Lord,

And ere the evening's sun went down
Each man had sheathed his sword.

Then to the house-top went we up;

The house-tops all below

Were thronged with those who watched in dread

For what the night would show,

And to our ears came smothered cries,

And sobs, and wails of woe.

The burning glare against the sky
A fierce Aurora made,

Between us and the flaming town
The fir trees cast their shade;
The pines and olives stood around,
In awful gloom arrayed.

Then rose our cry from trembling hearts,
Not for ourselves alone,

But for those terror-stricken souls,
Each to its Maker known;
And still, responsive to our prayers,
Came up their anguished moan.

Up to the mountain-tops we looked,
Wild was the midnight sky,
But through the blackness and the glare
Our spirits pressed on high,
And in the gloom, the eye of faith
Met God's all-seeing Eye.

Beneath its light, we seemed to see

His hosts the darkness fill, We felt, Elisha's God from fear Protects His people still,

Horses and chariots of fire

Were round us on the hill.

In His own hour the Lord of hosts
His captives could release,
The tumult of the people calm,

And bid their raging cease,

And on our spirits through that night
There fell a holy peace.

And so for many days we watched,
God kept us free from harm;

We found our refuge and our strength
His everlasting Arm;

We saw the storm of death sweep by,

And rested in His calm.

E. C. PEARSON.

THE FEASTS AND FASTS OF ISRAEL.*

THE Apostle Paul, in writing to his Judaising converts in Galatia, brings this charge against them, poor recreants that they were from the liberty which is in Christ, "Ye observe days and months and times and years." (Gal. iv. 10.) Little indeed can he then have foreseen, unless it were "made known to him by revelation," how Churches claiming to be Christian and apostolic would weary themselves with inventing reason upon reason for the observance of "days and months and times and years," studding their calendar so thickly with saints and sinners, that all the 365 days in the year have seemed a meagre spoil to divide among so many aspirants for the honour of giving name to them, and that the Mosaic ritual itself now appears bald and simple by the side of the far more elaborate fabrics which have been reared in its stead.

Upon this parody, however, of a Divine institution. it is not now our business to comment. We have to describe that "observance of days" by the people of Israel which was ordained by God; which had once a meaning and a purpose, however completely it had lost both when the "foolish Galatians " set themselves to copy it; which must have powerfully contributed to form the character and habits of the Israelites,

*This Essay was originally delivered as a lecture before a "Friends' Institute." It makes no pretension to original research, being founded chiefly on Kitto's "Biblical Cyclopædia," Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," and Jahn's "Antiquities of the Jews." Some articles in the "Journal of Sacred Literature," and a curious old book, "Philologus Hebraco-mixtus, by Leusden (Basle, 1739), were also consulted.