nor

'Tis a remarkable circumstance that whilst, the Jordan daily discharges into the Dead Sea an immense volume of water, the lake loses none of its peculiar properties, but remains as pungent and salt as ever; does its size augment, but continues year after year, at all seasons, the same in extent. The old idea of a supposed subterranean exit is now superseded by the calculation, that nearly equal the body of water received daily into the lake is carried off by evaporation. Before the awful judgment of God fell upon the cities bordering on this lake, it most probably emptied itself in the Gulf of Akaba through Wady Mousa, which was discovered by Burkhardt to extend the whole of this distance from north to south.

Every two or three years a large quantity of jet black bitumen, of a high polish, and brittle, is found floating on the surface of the water, which is collected by the Arabs and brought to Jaffa for exportation. This article was formerly more used in Europe, than it is now in the manufacture of cerecloths. When burnt it emits a bright flame and a very fetid smell. The most probable opinion as to the source of this mineral appears to be the existence of active volcanoes under the lake, which at stated seasons send forth their eruptions, and contribute to preserve to the water its peculiar properties. Besides this, small masses of a hard fetid igneous lime-stone are occasionally found on the shores of the lake; these are collected by the villagers of Bethlehem and worked into amulets, small cups, and other fanciful articles. The natives call it "Hagiar Mousa," or the Stone of Moses. Moreover the whole valley of the Jordan, as far north as Bysan, retains to this day evident signs of having been subjected to the powerful action of fire.

The account given by Josephus of this singular inland sea, tho' much tainted with the superstitious exaggeration of his time, is very curious in its details, and deserves to be reproduced in the present description. He writes:

"The nature of the lake Asphaltitis is also worth describing. It is, as I have said already, bitter and unfruitful. It is so light

[or thick] that it bears up the heaviest things that are thrown into it; nor is it easy for any one to make things sink therein to the bottom, if he had a mind so to do. Accordingly, when Vespasian went to see it, he commanded that some who could not swim, should have their hands tied behind them, and be thrown into the deep, when it so happened that they all swam as if a wind had forced them upwards. Moreover, the change of the colour of this lake is wonderful, for it changes its appearance thrice every day; and as the rays of the sun fall differently upon it, the light is variously reflected. However, it casts up black clods of bitumen in many parts of it, these swim at the top of the water, and resemble both in shape and bigness headless bulls; and when the labourers that belong to the lake come to it, and catch hold of it as it hangs together, they draw it into their ships; but when the ship is full, it is not easy to cut off the rest, for it is so tenacious as to make the ship hang upon its clods... This bitumen is not only useful for caulking of ships, but for the cure of men's bodies: accordingly it is mixed in a great many medicines. The length of this lake is five hundred and eighty furlongs, where it is extended as far as Roar, in Arabia, and its breadth is a hundred and fifty. The country of Sodom borders upon it. It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up. It is related how, for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that divine fire, and the traces [or shadows] of the five cities are still to be seen, as well as the ashes growing in their fruits, which fruits have a colour as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes. And thus what is related of this land of Sodom hath these marks of credibility which our very sight affords us."

In Holy Scripture this body of water has received various appellations: it is called the Sea of the Plain, the Salt Sea, and the East Sea; Josephus and the Greek and Roman writers call it the Lake Asphaltitis, i.e.

the Bituminous Lake, and the Arabs at the present day know it under the names of "Bahar il Mout" the Dead Sea, or 'Bahr Loot," the Sea of Lot.

CHRISTIANITY is not a system of well digested and orthodox doctrines, which enlighten the understanding, but neither affect the heart, nor are used as a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the paths.-Christianity is not the momentary ebullition of excited af fection, nor the ground less and presumptuous hope of an unenlightened understanding and heated imagination. Christianity is not the cold, and regular, and mechanical observance of formal and ceremonial institutions, nor even of moral duties. The essence of Christianity consists neither in orthodox opinions, heartless services, visionary hopes, nor enthusiastic reveries: but Christianity is a system of sound principles, engrafted by the Holy Spirit upon a renewed nature, exercised by a lively faith and pure affections, and thus rendered steadily and permanently operative:-principles which have Divine revelation for their authority: heaven and hell for their sanctions: essential truth for their bases: God in Christ for their object: and consequently eternity for their duration.

Give no quarter unto those vices which are of thine inward family, and having a root in thy temper plead a right and a propriety in thee. Examine well thy complexional inclinations. Raise early batteries against those strong-holds, built upou the rock of nature, and make this a great part of the militia of thy life. The politic nature of vice must be opposed by policy, and therefore wiser honesties project and plot against sin; wherein, notwithstanding, we are not to rest in generals, or the trite stratagems of art. That may suceed with one temper which may prove successless with another. There is no community or commonwealth of virtue, every man must study his own economy, and erect these rules unto the figure of himself.Sir Thomas Brown.

"Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; 90 doth the sweetness of a man his friend, by hearty counsel,"

THE PAST.

How wild and dim this world appears!

One long, deep, heavy sigh,
When o'er our eyes, half closed in tears,
The images of former years

Are faintly glittering by!
And still forgotten while they go;
As, on the sea-beach, wave on wave
Dissolves at once in snow.

The amber clouds one moment lie,

Then, like a dream, are gone!
Though beautiful the moon-beams play
In the lake's bosom, bright as they,
And the soul intensely loves their stay,
Soon as the radiance melts away,

We scarce believe it shone !
Heaven-airs amid the harp-strings dwell;

And we wish they ne'er may fade ;-
They cease-and the soul is a silent cell,
Where music never play'd!

Dream follows dream through the long nighthours,

Each lovelier than the last;

But, ere the breath of morning-flowers,
That gorgeous world flies past;
And many a sweet angelic cheek,
Whose smiles of love aud fondness speak,
Glides by us on this earth;
While in a day we cannot tell
Where shone the face we loved so well,
In sadness, or in mirth !

Professor Wilson.

Since business and gaiety are always drawing our attention away from a future state, some admonition is frequently necessary to recall it to our minds; aud what can more properly renew the impression than the example of mortality which every day supplies? The great incentive to virtue, is the reflection that we must die; it will, therefore, be useful to accustom ourselves, whenever we see a funeral, to consider how soon we may be added to the number of those whose probation is past, and whose happiness or misery shall endure for ever. -Rambler.

The valley of Wady Mousa is at the western point, a stony but cultivated valley of moderate size without much character or beauty, running in a direction from east to west. A lesser hollow, sloping down to it from the southward, meets it at an angle: at the upper end of the latter valley, is the village seen over stages of hanging fruitgrounds, which are watered by a spring. Some hundred yards below this spring begin the outskirts of the vast necropolis of Petra. In advancing, the natural features of the defile grew more and more imposing at every step, and the excavations and sculpture more frequent on both sides, till it presented at last a continued street of tombs, beyond which the rocks, gradually approaching each other, seemed all at once

to close without an outlet. There is however one frightful chasm for the passage of the stream, which furnishes, as it did anciently, the only avenue to Petra on the eastern side. It is impossible to conceive any thing more awful or sublime than such an approach; the width is not more than just sufficient for the passage of two horsemen abreast.-the sides are in all parts perpendicular, varying from four hundred to seven hundred feet in height,-and they often overhang to such a degree, that, without their absolutely meeting, the sky is intercepted and completely shut out for one hunhred yards together, and there is little more light than in a cavern. The screaming of the eagles, hawks and owls, who are soaring in considerable numbers, seemingly an

noyed at any one approaching their lonely | habitation, adds much to the singularity of the scene.

On arriving at the theatre, the ruins of the city burst on the view in their full grandeur, shut in, on the opposite side, by barren, craggy precipices, from which numerous ravines and valleys, like those we had pas sed, branch out in all directions; the sides of the mountains, covered with an endless variety of excavated tombs and private dwellings, presented altogether the most singular scene we ever beheld;—and we must despair to give the reader an idea of the singular effect of rocks, tinted with most extraordinary hues, whose sumimits present us with Nature in her most savage and romantic form, whilst her bases are worked out in all the symmetry and regularity of art, with colonnades and pediments, and ranges of corridors adhering to the perpendicular surface.

This truly singular city-singular not merely from its ruins, as exhibiting its ancient opulence and grandeur, but also from its being literally a city hewn out of the rock has been minutely illustrated in the 'Voyage de l'Arabie Pétrée,' by M.M. Leon de Laborde and Linant.

The tomb, of which a view is here given, deserves particular notice, there being a latin inscription engraved on it with the name of a magistrate, Quintus Pretxtus Florentinus, who died in that city, being governor of that part of Arabia Petrea, about the time of Adrian or Antonius Pius.

Remedies for the Tooth-ache.

The remedy for the tooth-ache should always correspond with the exciting cause. Pain from pressure is commonly relieved by the removal of the offending substance from the cavity. When sympathetic with some organ of the system, it must always vary with the state of that part. Avoid, if you can, whatever may produce it. Toothache from cold may be cured by anodynes, such as opium, hyoscyamus, belladonna, or such astringents as concentrated acetic acid,

strong nitric acid, nitrate of silver. Should the tooth-ache have arisen from heat suddenly applied, or from sharing in the inflammation of neighbouring parts, then the mouth ought to be fomented with a warm decoction of camomile flowers, or poppy heads, and some one of the essential oils be dropped into the painful cavity: or, what is better, flannel dipped in spirits and sprinkled with pepper, laid upon the cheek. Hot brandy may used, oil of cloves, cinnamon, cajeput, lavender; kreosote is extremely pungent, but very disagreeable to use. If the pain gets unusually bad, have recourse to the warm bath, and let leeches be applied to the temples. Where swelling of the gums is present, repeated scarification will do good. Tooth-ache is sometimes sympathetic with a deranged and irritable state of the alimentary canal. It grows worse towards the evening, and may come on at night without any apparent cause, especially when getting warm in bed. Local applications, in this case, are of little use. You must attend to the actual source of the pain. A gentle emetic has frequently cut short an attack of tooth-ache. About a wine-glassful of ipecacuan wine is a very mild and safe emetic. To keep up nausea until the pain abates, may be to many a less formidable method of accomplishing the same thing. An attempt is made now and then to burn out the dental nerve by means of heated wire. It may, indeed, touch the tender point and give pain, but cannot destroy the nerve; for a wire of the thickness to be applied to the tender cavity cannot be carried from the flame to the mouth, and through the moisture in the cavity, without being so much cooled as to be of no service. In short, it is a barbarous practice, and has been followed by serious consequences. After all experience, extraction is the sovereign remedy for decayed teeth.

"Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn of his ways, and get a snare to thy soul."

PEACE AND FORGIVENESS.

I have often tried to reckon in how many ways a good man may be a blessing to the neighbourhood in which he dwells; and I am continually adding to the list. My mind at such times is sure to revert to my early and venerated friends, whose whole character exemplified that saying of the wise man,

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life." One particular in which they were very useful, was in promoting a spirit of peace and forgiveness among the neighbours, who were too apt to indulge a litigious or a malicious spirit. It often happened that when a quarrel began, both parties feeling sure that their part was the right, proposed appealing to Mr. N, and both were generally sent away more out of conceit with themselves, and more disposed to peace with each other. "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God;" and truly enviable is that person whose endeavours, under the Divine blessing, prove the means of banishing the spirit of contention and discord, and promoting that harmony and peace by which earth may be made in some degree to resemble heaven.

Let me set down a few excellent rules for living in peace.

"Mind your own business." Half the quarrels among neighbours arise from the idle curiosity, impertinent meddling, and foolish talking about the affairs of others. "Keep your tongue from evil." If you cannot speak well of a neighbour, speak no evil. Never be afraid of the tongue growing rusty for want of use: give it no work but what is really profitable: keep it constantly under the direction of the law of wisdom, and the law of kindness; and they must be quarrelsome people indeed that will quarrel with you. If a spark from their temper should fall, it will soon go out for want of fuel. It is the second blow makes the fray. A peaceful man is not likely to strike the first blow; let him resolve not to strike the second, and the matter will soon end.

ill

"Do not contend for every trifle, whether it be matter of right or of opinion." There is a great dignity and magnanimity in yield

ing a just right, rather than indulging contention; and as to matters of opinion, nothing can be more foolish than to wish other people to see with our eyes, or to desire a law that all the clocks in the parish should strike at the same moment with ours. If we think that others are wrong, we may with meekness instruct those that oppose themselves. If called upon to defend our principles or our practice, our contest should be for truth, not for victory; and truth is best sought in the spirit of peace.

"If others neglect their duty to you, be sure that you perform yours to them.' The rule is, "Do to them (not as they do to you, but) as you would desire them to do to you.' To return railing for railing is to return sin

for sin.

"If you have an enemy, make him see and feel that you love him." Love in return for hatred, and good for evil, penetrates like oil in the bones; it subdues without striking a blow.

Beg of God for universal charity." Whenever you pray for yourself, pray for all mankind; especially remembering those who have done you evil, or attempted to do it. Pray for grace to forgive them from your heart, and beg of God for Christ's sake to forgive them too. Remember Him who prayed for his cruel murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

"Be humble." Have no lofty claims, no high conceits. Think how insignificant, undeserving, and guilty you are; then you will be slow to perceive or to take offence, prompt in forgiving and forgetting, and incapable of revenge. When any injure you, think, "If I did not deserve this particular injury at the hand of my neighbour, I deserve far worse at the hand of God." get the faults of others, and remember your own. Forgive any body rather than yourself.

For

"By faith wait for the providence of God." Be not hasty in vindicating yourself, but commit your cause to Him that judgeth righteously, and in due time he will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noon-day. "Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on