got all the way to Beyrout without any serious disaster, and as fresh, apparently, as any of their stronger brethren. Though thus so very useful, they used to annoy us exceedingly by their braying propensities, in which they usually indulged all the night through. It is certainly almost impossible to sleep with a donkey braying every half-hour, within a few feet of you, and with nothing but a thin piece of canvass between. Various were the means resorted to, to prevent this nuisance; and at length upon noticing a few nights of quiet, we were led to inquire into the cause, and found that our muleteers had tried the effectual plan of tying their mouths up! But this seeming rather contrary to the laws of humanity, the poor animals were soon released from the infliction. In process of time, we positively got accustomed to the thing.

Along this road, we met a small caravan of camels travelling, conveying a number of women. They were all covered up, in their usual close method, with veils, and had a kind of framework to sit upon, which seemed a great improvement upon the saddle we had used in the desert.

About noon we came to Sasa, the first village we had seen since we left Tiberias. We saw, what we took to be an extensive old ruin in the distance, on a commanding eminence, and immediately set spurs to our horses and galloped towards it, hoping to find some fine old relic of Roman times; but, on our nearing it, what was our disappointment to discover only a modern castellated pigeon-house-never was deception more complete! We observed, at this place, how the people of the country keep their oil in large earthenware jars, placed in the ground up to their necks, and then covered over with sods, to keep them cool from the sun. (See 1 Chron. xxvii. 28.)

Here we left the desolate plain we had been in so long, and the rugged and rocky country, and all at once entered upon one of a perfectly different character. Now the ground was smooth and green with the richest verdure; the soil, of a dark red colour, was well cultivated, and a fine stream of water ran slowly

through it, enriching it with irrigation as it flowed along. We had, in fact, come now into the vast plain of Damascus, which is so celebrated for its fertility; and, as we proceeded, towards the afternoon, we saw extensive woods, and domes, and minarets in the far distance the city of the faithful itself. But we were unable to reach it that night, though it appeared to be but one or two hours from us, and though our attendants led us to suppose so also; yet, taking into consideration the extreme clearness of the atmosphere, which here deludes so much in judging of distance, we thought it more likely to be four or five hours off, and therefore determined to halt. The loud and most harmonious chorus of frogs accompanied our slumbers all through the night.

March 23.

It took us more than four hours to gain the city. As we advanced towards it, every thing gave signs of greater civilization; the land was better cultivated; some of it was enclosed; and at length we came to the gardens which surround the town on all sides for many miles, and for which it is so famous. These are all within walls, and come more up to our idea of orchards than gardens. Every kind of oriental fruit is found here; the best of which, perhaps, is the apricot, or mish mish, which grows in great abundance; these are dried in the sun, and form an important part of the food of the population; we used them in large quantities all through our travels, and found them most nutritious and wholesome. To these gardens the people of Damascus flock in great numbers in the summer time, when the delighful shade of the trees, and the cool streams running through, is a great luxury to them in this hot climate.

At length we came to the city walls, and passed under them for some distance, till we entered through an old Roman gateway, and up the ancient street, "which was called straight," to our lodging place-a kind of hotel lately set up by an enterprising Italian.

(To be continued.)

FRANCE. RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.-The Committee, after considering various statements from the Corresponding Committee at Paris, have authorized the following prizes to be offered:

1. A prize of 1,000 francs for a book suitable to the present state of France; to contain from six to ten sheets. Such book to be truly evangelical, and to be written in a decidedly popular spirit.

2. Two prizes of 500 francs each for similar works.

3. Twelve prizes of 100 francs each for twelve small works, not exceeding two sheets each, to be like the other books-Christian, suitable to the times, and popular in style.

These prizes will require about £128, without including the subsequent expenses of printing and stereotyping them.

The Society to have a veto before the prizes are adjudicated, and the writers to be clearly and fully instructed that all the works must contain clear statements relative to the fall, the deity of Jesus Christ, redemption through his atonement, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.

The following information has just been received from the Paris Tract Society:

"We will begin by telling you that, thanks be to God, all our operations continue to advance with a pleasing activity, which is in perfect accordance with the numerous demands for tracts made to us on all hands. Our correspondents in France have never felt, as they now do, the necessity of distributing amongst our people an unusual abundance of publications of the same nature as those which we are now disseminating; nor have we ever had such extensive issues to make in all parts of the country as at this time.

ITALY. If we have suspended our notice of continental movements, it is

partly because we cannot but feel astounded with the rapid succession of the most momentous events; and still more because we could not but have the feeling, that the events which a few days might develop would almost render us regardless of past Occurrences. All eyes are naturally on the Pope; and who can tell his present exact position, or his approaching destiny? That at present he has ceased to exist as a temporal sovereign, there can be no question. That he is only living by sufferance, a prisoner in the hands of his enemy, and moved about as a puppet as may best suit the wily intrigues and political objects of those who have him under their power, seems almost equally certain. But by what means, and in what time, the head of Antichrist shall come to his final overthrow, it is not for us to say. There is at present a significant calm over Europe generally. The prospects for France are brighter than could have been expected. The immediate dangers to Berlin and Austria seem to be diminished. Germany is presenting fairer promise. Italy is comparatively tranquil. But we know what combustible materials are still in existence, and we cannot but be anticipating more fearful_heavings of the political earthquake. In the meanwhile, men's minds are singularly becoming impressed with becoming Scriptural views of the times we live in. The public journals abundantly indicate this. The St. James' Chronicle has continually, in its leading articles, identified itself with the views of Fleming. The Morning Herald is not less prominent in its development of its valuable sentiments. Its leading article on Christmas Day was so excellent that we are tempted to give it to our readers as a conclusion to this paper:

"We are about to close the most eventful year which has passed over Europe since the occurrence of that

great event we this day commemorate. A year which even liberal' journals are accustomed to describe as the earthquake-year;'-a description the most accurate that is possible, since it was first used by the Apostle John, just 1752 years ago; and used under guidance which could not possibly mislead.

"The 'earthquakes' of Holy Writ, however at least those alluded to in the prophecies of Scripture-are not events of a few hours' or days' duration. There are many reasons for supposing, that the convulsions which have commenced in 1848 will be continued for several years to come. Such is the apparent tenour of St. John's prophecy, and such is the most probable view of the case, viewed merely through an ordinary and political medium. Half-a-dozen kingdoms, thoroughly disorganized, cannot, without a miracle, become calm and peaceful, and submissive to regular government, in a few weeks or months. In the south of Europe, too, affairs assume a more threatening aspect daily.

"The prevalent commotion and warfare seem to have passed towards the south. The northern parts of Europe-Denmark and Prussiahave improved their position and prospects since the summer; but in Italy and Spain the atmosphere grows more and more troubled. Reckless revolutionists are gaining the ascendency at Rome, Florence, and Turin. The King of Naples is kept in check by the Sicilian insurrection; and Austria has Hungary on her hands. The opportunity must be evident to Gioberti and Mamiani, and they must be the most incapable of men if they do not use it. An Italian confederation, including all central Italy, might supersede the Papacy, threaten and alarm the King of Naples, and make Austria doubt the expediency of retaining her grasp of Lombardy. Towards Italy, then, for some time to come, the eyes of all Europe must necessarily be turned.

"But amidst all this distress of nations, and perplexity,' our first duty, especially on such a day as this, must be, at the close of so wondrous

and so fearful a year, to stir up our feelings of gratitude to God, for his singular mercy to this highly-favoured land. While the whole Roman earth -the western empire, ruled over by Honorius, and afterwards divided, as predicted by Daniel and St. John, into ten kingdoms-while this portion of the globe has been shaken and tossed by convulsions which have not yet ceased, England, which was no part of Honorius' empire, and which, for three centuries past, has been no part of the territory ruled over by the Papacy-England has been preserved in the greatest safety -has been carried through various perils and is found, at the end of 1848, more united, more powerful, and more tranquil than she was at the beginning."

(To the Editor of the Longford Journal.)

SIR-A friend has sent me a German paper, die Frankfurter Zeitung, to look at, out of which I extract the following for the information of your readers, as I do not think that it has appeared in any of our English or Irish journals:

"FLORENCE, Nov. 18.-Although the name of Pius IX. still is intoned in songs, the first ardour for the man is extinguished, which the European movement had in a certain measure occasioned. It is probable that the revolution is grown out of the Pope's management, yea, that it may be dangerous to the Popedom. The unsteady position which the Prince of the Church had lately assumed, his frequent retrogressions have so diminished the confidence that was placed in him, that the Italians, how far soever they might stand aloof from the territory of religious reform, appear by degrees to be forced into it. The removing of the cardinals from the ministry will soon draw after it further consequences. In all the print-shops already portraits of Savonarola are prominent, who was the first Protestant of note in the West, and all Italy is beginning to study his forgotten history, and enquiries after what is believed and done on the other side of the Alps. One may almost say, that in Italy no

political revolution can now take place without a religious one."

66

FLORENCE, Nov. 20.—The revolution at Rome has here also not been without its effect. All men's minds are filled with excitement. If one asks the Italians where are they to get money for the war, they reply, that the accumulated treasures of their churches and convents will be sufficient to maintain Italy against the whole of Europe. Indeed Italy would, if it came to extremities, produce treasures such as no other European country could pretend to. It is a singular fact now, that suddenly far and wide the land is as it were sown with Italian translations of the Bible. If the British Bible Society has occasioned this fact, it could not have chosen the moment more favourably."

The account that is given of Savonarola in Church history is as follows : "Jerome Savonarola, an Italian monk, by his zeal, learning, and piety, incurred in an eminent manner the hatred of the court of Rome. Notwithstanding the repeated menaces of the Pope, he continued to preach the word of God with great vehemence, and with a degree of light and knowledge which seems superior to that of most, if not of all men, in that age. In 1496 he upheld the standard of the Gospel at Florence, though many warned him of the danger to which he was exposed by his great boldness. At length, in the year 1498, he and two other friars, named Dominic and Silvester, were imprisoned. During his confinement, he wrote a spiritual meditation upon the thirty-first Psalm, in which he describes the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, a subject peculiarly evangelical, and which needs some real exercise of practical godliness in order to be duly understood and relished by mankind. The Pope's legates arriving at Florence, Jerome and his two companions were charged with maintaining various heretical opinions, one of which deserves to be distinctly mentioned, as characteristic of the times in which they lived. For example, they were accused, in explicit terms, of having preached the FEBRUARY-1849.

doctrine of FREE JUSTIFICATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST; and after they had persevered in what was called an obstinate heresy, they were degraded, delivered to the secular power at Florence, and burned to death in the year 1499."

This is the man whose likeness is now exhibited prominently in the windows of the print-shops in Florence, and whose almost forgotten history is read with avidity by the Italians. He preceded Luther by about a quarter of a century, and suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Church of Rome, just before the expiration of the fifteenth century, for affirming the doctrine of "justification by faith," which is written as with a sunbeam in the Epistle of Paul "to the Romans."

Thus, as the awful hour approaches, when God will require at the hands of her who says, "I sit a queen, and

there is none beside me," all the blood that has been shed upon the earth, the Italians are discovering that the supposed heretics whom, at the bidding of Pius the Ninth's predecessors, their fathers had put to the cruel death of burning, were no other than the prophets and saints of the Most High. And they have need now to make their escape out of the mystic Babylon in haste. For when the hour of her judgment comes, no one can tell how soon, all they shall receive of her plagues, as partakers of her sins, who shall still be found lingering in her communion.

Let Catholic Ireland," which in the massacre of 1641, at the bidding of the Roman Jezebel, shed the blood of 160,000 Protestants, look to herself in time, and be warned. He that so speaks to her is the friend of her and of her children.

WILLIAM DIGBY.

GERMANY.-RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.-The Committee have received letters from Dr. Craig and the Rev. I. G. Oncken, of Hamburgh; and, looking to the great openings in Austria and other countries for the increased circulation of tracts, have voted a grant of £100 to the Lower Saxony Society, and £150 to

F

the Hamburgh Tract Society, the latter society having, during the present year, circulated about 540,000 tracts.

The following extracts are from letters lately received from Mr. Oncken:

"Our wants for tracts are so rapidly increasing, that I am compelled again to appeal to your wonted liberality.

"We have distributed lately large numbers of tracts among the soldiers returning from Holstein, as we consider it a most excellent opportunity of introducing these witnesses of God's truth into the remotest villages of almost every part of Germany.

"The demand of our brethren at Vienna for larger supplies of tracts is so urgent, that before this reaches you 20,000 copies will have been sent there.

"About 40,000 Hungarian tracts are now printing at Pesth on our account, for which I have just remitted 200 gulden C. M.

"For East Friesland, from which I have just returned, and where I have engaged a colporteur and tractdistributor, we shall require a large supply of Dutch and German tracts. Of the former we intend to print three or four without delay, 10,000 each.

"For Hesse, Baden, and Mecklenburg, where we have, within the last fourteen days, appointed colporteurs and tract-distributors, we also require a large supply of tracts.

"Our general circulation is also increasing; for we are trying to rouse all our churches to make the best use of the opportunity now presented for the spread of the Gospel.

"And what encourages us much, is the fact that God is blessing in a remarkable manner this part of our missionary efforts.

"During the war in Holstein, we sent, constantly, small parcels of 100 or 200 tracts to our brethren in the army, who distributed them among their comrades; and these have, in connexion with the verbal instructions of our brethren, been so far blessed by God's Spirit, that in one Prussian regiment alone there were sixteen praying men, who were in the habit of meeting for the worship of God.

"By the circulation of tracts among the soldiers, we have also become acquainted with several believers in

the army, which otherwise we should have never known. These have been refreshed and encouraged at our public services and at our houses, whilst connexions have been formed by which we trust the kingdom of our Lord will be advanced. One of my fellow-labourers will proceed to Vienna in eight days, as we hope that the field is there most inviting; and if God go with him, we trust that sinners will be converted and united upon solid New Testament principles in that great city, and that by them God's truth may be spread far and wide, and many sinners brought to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."

"New fields of labour are opening before us in almost every direction, and the Lord accompanies our labours with his rich blessing; so that in the midst of our revolutions many precious souls are converted to Christ, and the Gospel is more widely diffused than at any previous period. If your committee can do anything for us this year, to help us on, it will be doubly appreciated.

"I requested in a former letter a grant of Dutch tracts, which I now earnestly renew, as our colporteur for East Friesland has many opportunities of distributing them, and we have none to supply him with. Trusting that your committee will be able to render our society some further aid, I remain," &c.

'Having just returned from a missionary tour to Oldenburg, &c., I beg to state in addition to my last, with a view to induce your respected committee to render our Society speedy and powerful aid in the circulation of tracts:

"1. We have now circulated, in course of the present year, upwards of 500,000 tracts, to which about 40,000 copies more will be added before the close of the year. In consequence of this uncommonly large issue of publications, our funds are completely exhausted; so that unless we obtain speedy aid, the machinery now in happy operation, to the good of millions, must be stopped.

"2. The field of labour is enlarging in every direction; new doors are opened to us on every hand. The