when, behold! Sullum Abrush, a confidential domestic of the Caliph, entered my chamber; at the sight of whom I was alarm ed, supposing that he might have brought a sentence against myself. He saluted me, and, sitting down, delivered me a note, sealed with the impression of the signet which Haroon wore upon his finger. Its contents were as follows:- When this note reaches thee, repair instantly with Sullum, and, arresting Yiah, confine him in the dungeon formerly allotted to Munsoor, the heretic; then despatch Madameh to seize Fuzzul, and send parties to imprison the whole family of Bermeki, male and female, young and old, however distantly related." The historian continues: When Sindee had received this order, he proceeded to execute it, and cast Yiah, his son Fuzzul, and all the family of Bermeki, into prison. The wretched old man lingered nearly two years in confinement; and the unhappy Fuzzul, after surviving his father some time, also expired in a dungeon, and mingled with the assembly of the grave. Not a single relative of this illustrious, wealthy, and munificent family escaped imprisonment or confiscation. The luckless Abbassia, though the sister to the greatest monarch then in the world, was reduced to the necessity of asking alms even in the sight of the palace of her brother. The headless body of the unfortunate Jaffier was conveyed to Bagdad, and hung for some time on a gibbet on the bridge over the river Tigris; but at last it was burned, and his ashes scattered in the air. As an example of the wonderful mutibility of fortune, as it regarded this extraordinary man, a clerk of the imperial treasury says, "I was one day amusing myself with perusing the accounts of the expenditure of Haroon al Rasheed, and saw the following entries: On such a day, by command of the Caliph, was given to Jaffier, son of Yiah, (may his bounty be eternal!) as a present, such and such sums of money, rich robes, horses, and perfumes. I had the curiosity to cast up the value placed opposite to each article, and found the sum total amount to thirty millions of dirrims. In another leaf of the same account, I saw the entry of the expense for burning the body of the same highly favoured Jaffier, thus expressed: "Disbursed for burning the carcase of Jaffier, son of Yiah, four dirrims and half a dangeh, for pitch and straw." (To be concluded in our next.) EUROPE IN THE SUMMER OF 1831. WAR, the fiend of power, stalks from nation to nation, on a crusade of blood; and the great powers of Europe, aroused by his In Poland alone has the fiend of power glutted himself with blood There, war, sanguine and protracted, has been waged during all the months of preparation for the harvest; and the fields, instead of waving rich with the golden ears of plenty, remain desolate, and clotted with the blood of their cultivators and invaders. The hand of Providence has hitherto arrested the potence of him who raged against this band of patriots; and, although few in number, they yet brave the mighty foe, single-handed amongst the nations, crying to the powers around them, "Who will shew us any good?" France evinces a disposition to obey the call from heaven, and come out from Babylon. The nucleus of a society is formed for the establishment of Sunday Schools; half a million of Tracts have been distributed by an increasing society, which is fast maturing; a Bible Society, with extended and extending branches, annually deals out the word of God to the people, and promises shortly to overshadow the land; Missionary Societies, for home and foreign instruction to the rising generation, as well as adults of their own and other nations, are formed and forming; and the views of the conductors of these gradually open, with that experience which is inseparable from benevolent action. In watering others, they are watered them. selves—in blessing, they are blessed. For the Lord of the vineyard sendeth no man on a warfare at his own charge. To say that the present government of France does not oppose itself to these efforts of its citizens, is a negative praise, which sinks beneath the truth; for it forwards them. Yet awful drawbacks exist in France: systems of in fidelity, ycleped St. Simonism, &c. unhallowed under hallowed names, draw multitudes from the Roman communion, and make them two-fold more the children of hell than heretofore. Over Greece, while hope yet lives, we can only mourn. Her senate, on the question, Whether Greece is in a situation to make use of the freedom of the press? has declared in the negative. Refined idolatry has re-introduced paintings in her schools and churches, and prostrated the dignity of wisdom-that wisdom which is from above, before the likenesses of men. Alas, for Greece! When will she awake from the sleep of ages? When will she arise and shine, as she was wont ? "Return, O Lord, deliver this people: O save them, for Thy mercy's sake." The navies of the Sublime Porte float on the Adriatic, and blockade the coasts of Albania. A rebellious pacha, erewhile defeated his utmost potence, and menaced Constantinople; but, in his turn defeated, his capital, Scutari, is menaced, and he who yesterday marched a haughty conqueror, is to-day a prisoner at large amidst his own fortress. Thus does the Crescent waste itself in turmoils with its own chiefs, and effuse the blood of its own citizens, and thus is fed its insatiate thirst for blood. Russia, equally insatiate with Turkey, has had blood to drink. Its armies are wasting, while they have achieved nothing; and its resources impoverishing, while a frightful disease, the cholera morbus, hurries to the grave her most renowned sons. The Grand Duke Constantine; the commander-inchief, General Field-Marshal Count Diebitsch Sabalkansky, and others of renown, with thousands of citizens and soldiers, have been swept away, and thousands are following in their train. The Imperial city, St. Petersburg, is in extreme consternation, beneath this desolating malady; and the Imperial family have fled for safety to Peterhoff. Wide does this awful pestilence waste the north, and, extending, menace the south also. Wo to the drunkards in Europe! upon you is this destroyer come. Twenty-three counties in Hungary have memorialized the Emperor of Austria, in favour of the Poles. The mild despotism, as it is denominated, of Austria, may perhaps bend to these remonstrances: but, if Poland is emancipated from the thraldom of Russia, will the remaining provinces continue in bondage to Austria and Prussia? We think not. Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, in general, have their day of peace from the sword, but the pestilence, already in Dantzic, menaces these countries on every hand. Belgium has elected its sovereign, and Prince Leopold has accepted the throne. Peace at length has taken place between Belgium and Holland; and the Dutch are once more left to plod in commerce, aloof from the turmoils of war. From her high station, as a Christian empire, is Great Britain about to descend? Her Bible, her Missionary, her Tract, her School, and her Benevolent Societies, of every form and name, are extended and extending; yet her Sovereign speaks, on a high occasion, to his people-and, for the first time, the name of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, and His providence over the nations of the earth, are unnamed. Amidst the awful turmoil, on the question, who shall, and who shall not elect, the representatives to the legislative assembly, is the wisdom which cometh from above discarded? Behold, the day of the Lord is made a day of feasting; wherein men eat, and drink, and rise up to play: "And to the work of the Lord her nobles put not their necks." Yet Britain ought to weep, yea, tears of brine, for great are the distresses of her sons. Over Portugal the soul of the pilgrim weeps left a prey to passion, instead of piety; to superstition, in place of veneration; to folly, where wisdom in her Cortes erewhile fostered a people willing and obedient, who now go astray every man after his heart's desire. Her ships, her islands, and her commerce, yea, her very capital, become a prey to an enemy, created by her own misrule-an enemy who longs to become her friend; for France has nothing to gain in such a warfare, equal to the cost of contention. Spain is internally struggling for existence. Her treasury is exhausted, her resources cut off, and a loan, which is dictated to her by imperious necessity, is all but impracticable. A change of policy would deliver her at once: but who can hope for change, where folly reigns, to the exclusion of wisdom? Switzerland is armed, and peace is not yet frowned from her domains. The Italian States are beneath the sword of Austria: if they remain quiet, she forbears; but her armies, ever ready to seize the match, discharge instant vengeance on all agitators. Alas for this land of darkness! The Eternal City, so named, has recovered from her late perturbation, and promises herself days of peace: but danger is at hand, and tribulation. Alas, the angel of wrath is encamped against her, and darkness will cover her! Of the Two Sicilies, no note has reached us : beneath their young monarch, the path seems smoothed before them, and they dwell at rest. The Church of Christ, the Living God, in these days of peril, calls forth our particular attentions; yea, all our regards. To this, therefore, we must devote the remainder of this article. "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven: and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and the child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days." This quotation contains a summary of the events which, within and without the church of Christ, affected the cause of the "man-child, who was born to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and who was, in the interim, between his birth and this rule, caught up unto God, and to his throne." It is the history of the church, under the figure of a woman in the wilderness, during the long period of twelve hundred and sixty years. The expulsion of the dragon from his pagan throne, or heaven, in Rome, and over the Roman empire, and the establishment of Christianity therein, have been already dwelt upon in our former essays, and it remains that we note the subsequent events of this interesting period. A. D. 313, the tenth and last persecution of the Christians, was closed by an edict of the emperor Constantine, who himself professed and established Christianity throughout the Roman empire. In the fifth century, however, the Roman empire ceased to be the kingdom of heaven: ambition and avarice filled the throne; the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, stood before the altar, and the dignitaries of church and state sought their all in the enjoyment of pompous distinctions and luxurious enjoyments. Emperors, nobles, generals, patriarchs, bishops, cardinals, &c. "High flown with insolence and luxury," could not bear the spiritual image of the Holy Emanuel to abide in their presence. They professed the name of Christ, but : did not depart from iniquity and they could not bear to behold those who did; their conduct, they conceived, was a standing libel upon themselves. Thus, while splendid palaces and gorgeous temples arose on every hand, and imperial purple shone alike from throne and altar, and in the presence of the dignitaries of each, it was incessantly proclaimed, "Bow the knee," the real disciples of the holy Jesus were thrust into the wilderness in scorn, and followed, even into that dreary retreat, with fire and sword. "Thus was the Redeemer wounded in the house of his friends; and they who did eat of His bread lifted up their heel against Him." The wilderness received the church, "where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there." The church was not devoured; it was wounded and driven forth from the temple, but not slain. God himself prepared a refuge, and amidst that refuge became the Sovereign Protector of the Church in the wilderness; from age to age maintaining it, amidst the scorn and rage of its enemies, twelve hundred and sixty years: for we take a day for a year, as we are elsewhere taught. The providence of Jehovah, attendant upon these Zions in the deserts, proclaimed, "This and that man was born in her; and the Highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there." Happy asylums, yea, happy even beneath the fire and sword of the enemy! These, even these, could not prevent the songs of salvation, “As well the singers as the players on instruments were there;" and of each of these it was said, "All my springs are in thee!" Of the Lord, these isolated societies of Chris. tians were blessed; they were produced and reproduced by His Spirit's operations, and thus perpetuated from generation to generation, amidst the nations; and there never was a moment, from the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem to the present hour, when His holy church ceased from the earth. In the sixth century the secular arm was called into exercise by one who styled himself Universal Bishop, who called himself Father-the Father of all Christendom, and ultimately, the Sovereign of the whole world. This was the Bishop of Rome-the Pope. The secular arm was then, and-during subsequent ages, called into exercise by him and his satellites, in order to slaughter the saints of the Most High, merely because they presumed to worship God contrary to his decrees, yet according to the word of God. "They stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." Herod stood before the virgin, and lusted to devour the child Jesus as soon as he was born; and these Herods, in succession, stood before the church, to devour its converts, from age to age-these infants in Jesus, the moment they were born of God: cast. ing to the flames multitudes who, but for their butchery, would have grown up from children into young men and fathers in Christ Jesus; adorning and feeding the church which He hath purchased with His own blood. This secular arm was anciently the Eastern Roman emperors; for Phocas, who murdered the emperor Mauritius, and seized the purple, created Boniface Pope, and long before these lost their seat of empire, a new secular arm arose, in the western emperors, from Charlemagne to the day in which we live. Heretics, as the saints were termed, were condemned by the Pope's agents, and by them delivered over to these emperors, or the kings which "have one mind, and give their power and strength unto the beast," in order to their being burnt. Awful is the havoc these have made of the church; sacrificing myriads, in the most cruel and vindictive manner, without regard to age, sex, or condition in life. If the beginning of these days of persecution was early in the sixth century, then we must look for the end early in the nineteenth century. The first secular arm ceased to be, in the year fourteen hundred and fifty-three; for, on the 29th day of May, in that year, Constantinople was taken by the Turks, and the Eastern Roman empire was overthrown. The second secular arm is also no more: for, on the sixth of August, eighteen hundred and six, the emperor of Germany, at the dictation of the French emperor, resigned his dignity, and the holy Roman empire ceased. The secular arm is thus broken, and the power no longer remains with the beast. Where is now the potentate, throughout all Christendom, who dares publicly to burn the saints of the Most High? We will inquire into W. COLDWELL. this hereafter. King Square, July 15th, 1831. CELESTIAL PHENOMENA.-AUG. 1831. The Sun enters Virgo on the 23d at 11 o'clock in the evening: his semi-diameter on the 1st is 15 minutes, 47 seconds, and 4 tenths; and on the 25th, 15 minutes, 51 seconds, and 6 tenths. The moon is new on the 7th, at 3 minutes past 10 in the evening; enters her first quarter on the 15th, at 24 minutes past 10 the morning; is full on the 23d, at 5 minutes past 10 in the morning; and enters her last quarter on the 30th, at 48 minutes past 10 in the morning. She passes near Mars and Saturn on the morning of the 9th. There are five visible occultations this month, and the careful observer will feel much gratification in noticing the approach of the Moon to the Stars, previous to the immersions, and her recess from them, subsequent to the emersions. The conjunctions of the Moon and Stars are as follow:-On the 2d, at 6 minutes 21 seconds past 4 in the morning, with f Tauri; on the 3d, at 57 minutes 20 seconds past 6 in the morning, with Aldebaran; on the 11th, at 51 minutes 39 seconds past 7 in the evening, with 1 y Virginis; on the 30th, at 13 minutes 4 seconds past 6 in the morning, with y Tauri; and with Aldebaran, at 52 minutes 20 seconds past 12 at noon of the same day. The occultations of Aldebaran may readily be seen with a telescope. The planet Mercury arrives at his greatest elongation on the 31st. Venus is still the companion of our evening walks, and embellishes the western hemisphere with her radiance; she passes near ẞ Virginis on the 3d, and her path is noticed to lie among the stars of the Virgin. Mars and Saturn are too near the Sun to be visible; but the young astronomer is amply repaid by the interesting appearance of the noble planet Jupiter, which is in opposition to the Sun on the 10th day, at 9 in the evening: he is consequently visible during the whole of the night, and the eclipses and configurations of his satellites, together with his wonderful belts, afford the diligent observer numerous opportunities of contemplating his magnificent system. On the 3d, at 47 minutes 54 seconds past 12 at night, his first satellite immerges into his shadow; there are also three emersions of this satellite: on the 12th, at 27 minutes 42 seconds past 11 in the evening; on the 20th, at 22 minutes 44 seconds past 1 in the morning; and on the 28th, at 46 minutes 41 seconds past 9 in the evening. There are two immersions of the second satellite; on the 2d, at 2 minutes 36 seconds past 11 in the evening; and on the 10th, at 37 minutes 27 seconds past 1 in the morning: there are also two emersions of the same satellite; on the 20th, at 20 minutes 20 seconds past 8 in the evening; and on the 27th, at 55 minutes 19 seconds past 10 in the evening. There is one emersion of the third on the 17th, at 6 minutes 24 seconds past 1 in the morning. The Georgian Planet is in opposition to the Sun on the 5th, at 30 minutes past 6 in the evening. He is situated to the west of Jupiter. POETRY. GREECE. WRITTEN SOON AFTER THE BATTLE OF NAVARIN. THERE is a brightness in thy stars; The voice of peace-the voice of wars- What god hath burst thy bondage, Greece! The mountains clap their giant hands! Four tribes for thee to battle rushed! The Moslem's vengeance-cloud hath filed! Lo peace and hope come from the skies, O'er thee the wings of paradise Their golden shelter spread: Tell me, O Greece! thou earthquake-born! Of thy new morn? Who may'st thou be? Oh were they not the brave and free, Thine! And dost TROU the proud soil claim Oft, as when sets thy summer sun The blushing east is woo'd and won, So pledged his rise thy proud sun's set, Tho' long the night-tho' dread with gloom- That mighty pledge was seen. The heavens received the earnest fair! May Reason, where she built her throne, May Faith, where erewhile she was known, There build the temple-plant the grove- Oh! then, methinks I hail the day, And, under HER resplendent wings, Then, mightier than thy Hercules, The Hydra-like idolatries, With all their monster sway. Spoils, brighter than thou yet hast known, Thy God, by theo, the Holy Land, Back whence their fathers came; THE NEGRO. R. F. WHOSE shriek is heard at midnight's dreary hour, His rifted flesh appealing unto God! Poor wretched outcast! what a fate is thine! And what awaits The task of vengeance on the pitiless fiends And thought of days when life as gaily fled; That threw a never-dying charm around. |