cruel death, at the very place so set apart for acceptable sacrifice; and which almost immediately afterwards became, and to this day continues, inaccessible to any of the race. In Him also I see every prophecy fulfilled; and I now know by blessed experience, He hears and answer prayer, and enlightens the dark eye, and satisfies the hungry soul. He has invited me: I have come to Him, and by the issue of this plea I will abide.'

'I will talk no more to you,' said Da Costa, turning to the wall, against which he lay with his forehead pressed, writhing with bodily and mental anguish, while Alick, in tender pity, secretly prayed for him.

A scanty supply of the same coarse sustenance was handed into the cell at sunset; and from this it appeared that their doom was postponed at least till the morrow. Alick mentioned this to Da Costa, and pressed him to take some of the food; but with a look, where pride and rebuke strove with the languor of exhaustion, he replied, I cannot eat with you.'

'Neither need you,' answered Alick mildly, ‘I have not touched this, only the vessel that contains it; I will not partake, for indeed, I do not need it; but you are faint and feverish; and I, alas! have aggravated your sufferings, unwillingly, yet unavoidably!' The mournful tone in which he spoke, induced Da Costa to turn and look at him: and he could not but be touched by the spectacle. His bruised cheek and swollen lip, the stain that he had himself applied, and the garments in which he had clad him to his destruction, added to the sunken appearance of his eye, the total change that had come over his young life, now probably about to experience a violent close, smote him with agonizing self-reproach.

At the same time there was a holy calmness, an elevation of soul depicted on the youth's patient countenance, and a tenderness of sympathy in the anxious look he bent upon him, that to such a nature as Da Costa's was irresistible. He looked up to Alick, beseechingly, as he took the beverage from his hand, and said, 'Dear Cohen, think again: oh, forsake not the faith of your fathers, nor separate from your scorned, oppressed, persecuted brethren, still the chosen people of the Most High!'

Da Costa, I never loved them as now I do: my heart cleaves to them; and to its last throb, my prayer will arise for the welfare of Israel, for the peace of Jerusalem, dear, dear Jerusalem, on which we have so lately looked, never to behold her again!' Tears filled his eyes, and Da Costa, no less moved, was silent. At length he said, 'Will you listen quietly to me, Alick ?’

'I will, indeed.'

Da Costa then sought by every argument he could call up to shake his faith, and to induce him to recal its avowal; but Alick derived new strength from the weakness of his objections, and remained unmoved. Night closed, and found them still discussing the momentous point: morning returned, and Da Costa was restless, yet taciturn, and seemingly revolving in his mind some things that greatly discomposed him. Alick, on the contrary, was radiant with hope and joy, strengthened by prayer, and marvelling how he could so long himself have resisted the truths that he had been enabled to set forth to his friend. It was not until near noon that the door of their prison was opened, and the usual tasteless mess handed in, of which Da Costa insisted that Alick should freely

partake, saying, 'Prepared as it has been by the unclean and abominable, I see not how it can contract farther defilement. If there be sin in it, let it be counted as one of those unhappily unavoidable things for which, by the inscrutable decree of God, no means of purification are left to our race.'

'Whatever sin I commit,' said Alick, ‘and truly I sin every hour, let it be washed away in the blood shed to redeem my soul! I plead the atoning sacrifice, ever present, ever available to faith; ever well pleasing to God.',

Shortly after this, the same officer who had visited them the preceding day entered; and ordered Alick to follow him. 'God be with you!' exclaimed the youth, as he grasped Da Costa's hand, but no more could he add, being violently pulled away by two soldiers. They had scarcely entered the long passage when a messenger met them, acquainting the officer that the governor had entered on an investigation likely to last for an hour; but he replied, 'Lead on: this young dog of a robber shall not return to concert a story with the other. They did not expect to be examined separately.'

Accordingly they proceeded, and Alick found that, after passing through various covered passages, they were ascending to the roof of what seemed a spacious house. Stiffened by bruises, and cramped by the confinement he had undergone, he found it difficult to mount the steep stairs of rugged stone: but once on the top, he saw, beneath an awning, an elderly man, splendidly habited, smoking his pipe, and hearing the particulars of a dispute between two ecclesiastics, which had led to an affray. Alick was surprised at the number of individuals who found space

to stand there in groupes; and not a little dazzled and overcome by the blaze of day. He was ordered to stand aside, and roughly pushed by his guard to a corner of the parapet, whence he looked down, looked round, and then, clasping his hands over his eyes murmured, this is Egyptian sorcery!'

But again he gazed, and rich, full, overpowering was the flood of delight that seemed to roll in upon his very soul: he was in Jerusalem, the city of his fathers, the city of his God. There stretched along her broad Eastern wall, and beyond it rose the Mount of Olives, with its gently undulating outline threecapped, and sweeping down to the deep valley of Jehoshaphat, sunk far beneath his ken. Northward of where he stood was the ancient Salem, the city of the Jebusites, and towards the west the well-remembered tower of Hippicus, David's castle, while David's city, crowning the lofty hill of Zion, clustered on the south, and spread down the slope to the Tyropæon valley, where he knew the Jewish quarter lay. But at this point an object saluted his eyes which made his very heart thrill with the strongest emotions it was capable of. The abomination of desolation stood there in the holy place: the superb mosque of Omar, glittering with its profuse decorations, occupied the site of Solomon's temple, appropriating to itself the wide enclosure of Mount Moriah, which, with the Turkish burial-ground, reached to the very foot of the dwelling on the top of which Alick was placed. With mingled delight, reverence, indignation and horror, he looked upon the spot, never before so completely brought before him; the desecration of that hallowed ground, the proud crescent gleaming on the dome of that magnificent but polDECEMBER, 1842.

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luting edifice, filled him with anguish, but still it was the ground so unutterably precious to the soul of a Hebrew. There had his father Abraham bound the unresisting son of his love, and prepared to offer up a sacrifice vividly typical of that which was to be offered for him. There, at the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, had David's intercessory prayer been mercifully accepted, and the angel had sheathed his sword, and Jerusalem was spared. There, by divine appointment, Solomon erected the glorious Temple, of which earth has never had a rival; and the thoughts of Alick wandered over the tale of Jerusalem's triumphs, her sins and woes, until all else was but as a dream to him. Finally, he cast his eye on the mysterious gateway leading directly towards the Mount, which has, for so many generations been closed, built up with stones, according to Ezekiel's prophecy, "shut," for there the God of Israel had entered, when, descending the Mount of Olives, he came into the Temple, “Meek and lowly, and having salvation, riding upon an ass," but heralded by triumphant shouts, with branches of the palm, and garments strewn on his path, and welcomed by the hosannas of his chosen ones. Alick well remembered hearing Captain Ryan speak of that closed gate in connexion both with the past and the future; and his heart swelled with transporting joy as he hailed in silent songs of praise, the King of Zion as his King, his Saviour, his own present hope, and the future glory of His people Israel. Where was the sadness that but a few days since had weighed down his soul when looking on Zion? It was gone; and by faith in the Son of God he was enabled to see, as if already present, the peace, the prosperity