invest them with no ordinary interest. The origin and foundation of the city are lost in the mists of ages, but there is a common belief that he who looks on its lovely plain sees the cradle of the human race, and that it was from its red clay soil that God formed the first man, and also gave him his name of Adam, which is, being interpreted, red clay. If this is true, it imparts an air of probability to another of their legends-this, namely, that it was near Damascus that Abel fell a victim to his brother's envy, and his blood went up to heaven for vengeance on earth's first, if not worst, murderer. Here, on one of the mountain heights to the west of the city, is the place, it is said, where Abraham stood on that eventful day when, following with anxious eye the setting course of star and moon and sun, he abandoned their worship for that of the true God; and there, down on the plain in yonder vast mound, is the sepulchre of Nimrod-that mighty hunter before the Lord, who, as the founder of Babel, looms so large through the mists of four thousand years, the first of earth's old great monarchs.

These traditions, however interesting, may possibly be mere fancies, although in a sackful of such legends there are almost always some grains of truth. But though these were ranked with the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," there are facts associated with Damascus which, after Bethlehem and Jerusalem, invest it with greater sacredness than any other spot on earth. It is interesting as the home of Naaman the Syrian—he who, advised by a captive girl that had compassion on her master, repaired to Israel and lost both his pride and leprosy in the waters of the Jordan. It is interesting as the city from whose gates the proud armies marched forth over which God wrought some of his greatest triumphs on behalf of his ancient people, striking that host of a sudden with blindness, and this with such a panic that with Benhadad at their head, and two-and-thirty allied princes swelling the rout, they fled like sheep before a handful of the warriors of Israel. It is interesting to the students

of Scripture through its association with the two greatest of the prophets. Probably Elijah, but certainly Elisha, walked its street. God had sent him there; and there he unveiled such a future of crime and cruelty before Hazael, that, hardened sinner as the soldier was, he started in horror from his own image, exclaiming, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" But what especially makes Damascus interesting and "holy ground" is, that it formed the scene of an event which, in its influence on the world, takes rank next to the birth and death of the Son of God. It was nigh to this city the great apostle of the Gentiles was converted. And what man occupies such a place in sacred history as he?-did so much in his lifetime, or has done so much by his writings, to proclaim and propagate the gospel? This "chief of sinners," as he humbly, penitently called himself, was unquestionably the chief of apostles-in writings, as in labors and in trials, more abundant than them all. Next to Jesus Christ, whose "name is as ointment poured forth," and than whose there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, no name on earth, in the homes of the godly, is such a "household word" as Paul's; and in heaven, next to our Redeemer, I can believe him to be regarded with more universal interest than any one else in glory. How many have his pleadings moved! how many hearts have the arrows from his quiver. pierced! to how many have his words brought life and comfort! and how many hearts, strengthened thereby, have entered the dark valley singing his own grand song, "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who giveth me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ"! There the light shone that paled a noonday sun, and the darkness fell that issued in quenchless light, and Jesus last visited our world to convert his greatest persecutor into his greatest preacher. For these reasons Damascus will ever be among the sacred places which a Christian would like to visit.

The reputed birthplace of Adam, and certainly the spiritual birthplace of Paul, perhaps the greatest of his sons, this city gave birth to another man, of whom, and of whose remarkable virtues, it has no reason to be ashamed. Domestic servants form a very large, a very useful, and a very important class in society, and it can boast of having given birth to one who occupies a place of as great pre-eminence among them as Paul perhaps did in the apostleship of the Church. And so, appreciating the higher virtues, however humble the sphere be which they adorn, more than for its beauty of situation, more than for its famous fabrics, more than for its hoar antiquity, I regard Damascus with interest as the birthplace of him whose name stands at the head of this chapter the steward of Abraham's house: as his own master calls him, "This Eliezer of Damascus."

Consider his position in life. He was a servant. He belonged to a class which the Bible highly honors, and by which it should be highly honored in return. Gratitude for the estimation in which it holds those whom many despise, and for the elevation to which it has raised some whom it found treated as slaves and trodden in the dust, requires that. The oldest and best of books, this Book, for the rules it supplies for this life and the hopes it presents of a better one, is adapted to all classes of society, and should be equally valued by all. This was well expressed by two very different but both impressive scenes. There in yonder palace, where a royal lady, about to leave her home and rise in time to the position of a queen, receives a deputation. They have come to offer her, in the name of the women of her country, a parting marriage gift. It is no costly ornament, fashioned of gold and flashing with precious gems-diamonds from Indian mines or pearls from the deep-such as the wealth and willingness of the donors could have purchased. A healthy sign of the age and a noble testimony to its religious character, the gift is a copy of the Holy Scriptures-this, as in long centuries hence it will be told, was the marriage gift it was thought

worthy of a Christian nation to bestow, and worthy of a royal princess to receive. And there also, on yon stormy shore, where, amid the wreck the night had wrought, and the waves, still thundering as they sullenly retire, had left on the beach, lies the naked form of a drowned sailor-boy. He had stripped for one last brave fight for life, and wears naught but a handkerchief bound round his cold breast. Insensible to pity, and unawed by the presence of death, those who sought the wreck as vultures swoop down on their prey, rushed on the body and tore away the handkerchief-tore it open, certain that it held within its folds gold-his little fortune; something very valuable for a man in such an hour to say, "I'll sink or swim with it." They were right. But it was not gold. It was the poor lad's Bible—also a parting gift, and the more precious that it was a mother's.

Equally suited for a royal princess and a cabin-boy, and all indeed upward from the broad base to the apex of the social pyramid, the Bible deserves to be held in higher esteem by no class than by servants. There is none in the world on which it bestows a higher honor, to whom indeed it addresses a call so high and noble-it being to servants, or rather, (for such were most of those whom he addressed,) to slaves-to them it says, "Adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour." He who so orders his life and conversation as to bring no dishonor or reproach on religion, who gives no occasion to its enemies to blaspheme, nor by his falls and inconsistencies furnishes scandals to be told in Gath and published in the streets of Ashkelon, does well. He may thank God that amid life's slippery paths he has prayed, nor prayed in vain, "Hold up my goings that my footsteps slip not." He does better still in whose life religion presents itself less in a negative and more in a positive form. For while it is well to depart from evil, it is better to do good; nor does he live in vain who exemplifies by his daily life and conversation the pure, and virtuous, and holy, and beneficent, and sublime, and saving, doctrines of God his Saviour. The first is good, the

second is better, but the last is best of all. So to live as to be beautiful as well as living epistles of Jesus Christ, seen and read of all men-so to live as to recommend the truth to the admiration and love of others-so to live as to constrain them to say, "What a good and blessed thing is true religion!"—as in some measure to win the encomium of her who, looking on Jesus, exclaimed, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked!" so to live, in fact, as to resemble those books which, in addition to their proper contents, are bound in gold, are illuminated and illustrated with paintings, or those pillars which, while like their plainer neighbors supporting the superstructure, are also its ornaments, rising gracefully from the floor in fluted columns and crowned with wreaths of flowers,—this is best of all.

A Christian can aspire no higher. And let it be remembered that for a work so sacred Paul singles out servants. It is not kings on their thrones, nor lords in their castles, nor high dignitaries of Church or State, but these, the humble occupants of the kitchen, the sun-browned laborers of the cottage and fields, whom he calls, not merely to exemplify or illustrate, but to adorn, the doctrine of God their Saviour. Let others respect them; any way, let servants respect themselves. Such honor have not all his saints. Ample compensation this for what the world regards as their humble position-as it were to the lark, could she be dissatisfied with her grassy nest, to think that though no singing bird has such a lowly home, none soar so high as she, or sing so near to the gates of heaven. Eliezer belonged to this class, and is a grand pattern to all servants who are seeking through grace to fulfill their high calling and adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. It will be my aim to set him forth in this light as we proceed. Meanwhile, I go on to show that his condition in life was below even that of a servant, as we understand the term. My object in this is not to detract from, but rather add to, our admiration of the man, such a circumstance being calculated to