Concerning the condition of our children after death, we are permitted to entertain the most delightful hopes. They not only live though they are dead, but they live in a state of the highest holiness and bliss. They are exempt from the trials and temptations that beset them here. There they endure no pains-they shed no tearsthey utter no groans. There they are chilled by no winter's cold, and parched by no summer's heat. There no mephitic vapors poison the atmosphere, or carry with them disease and death-and no mortal body is there to suffer the thousand ills that flesh is heir to. No deathbed scenes are there, where children struggle in convulsive throes; and no mother there bends with bursting, breaking heart over a dying babe. There "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." Your child is now with the blest ones in heaven. It is a companion of angels-itself an angel too. It is clad in light, and arrayed in immortality. Its countenance radiates with the highest happiness and love. Its heart swells with unutterable gladness and joy. Its voice is attuned to the song of the redeemed as it is wafted to the throne of God from the lips of myriads of happy spirits 1 ke itself, who went before it to the skies. It has made a blessed exchange. It has left behind all sorrow, and all cause of sorrow, and ascended to the regions of life and bliss, where peace, and rest, and glory, and pleasures for evermore are prepared for it by the Father's hand that has borne it hence. Surely when we take this view of the case, and look at it in the light which the Gospel throws upon it, we may exchange the doleful notes in which we described hope destroyed, for the joyful tones in which we would sing of hope restored. No bitter tears for thee be shed, Blush'd into dawn and passed away. Thou wast so like a form of light, That heav'n benignly call'd thee hence, And thou that brighter home to bless, After a separation, more or less short, you will be re-united with your child again. David said, concerning his deceased child, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." He will not return to you on earth, but you can go to him in heaven. You can yet go to his coffin that contains his body, and weep over his corpse, but it will not awaken nor return to you. You will go to his grave and plant the flower, and shed the tear of affection there, but he will not return to you. You will lie down by his side at last, and sleep in a grave near to his, and thus you will go to him, but he will not return to you. But there is a higher and nobler sense in which you will go to him. The humble believer in Christ, who trusts in the atonement of Jesus-partakes of his Holy Spirit-and walks in the way of his commandments, will ascend at death to the regions of the blessed, and become an associate with the holy angels. The spirit of your child is an inhabitant of bliss, for Jesus has said, "Of such is the kingdom of God." It is now an angel in heaven. You may then rejoin it there. A life of faith, and piety, and holiness, will bring you to it. In due time, when God in his providence shall dissolve the connection between your bodies and souls, and release you from earth, you shall ascend to the presence of your child. You will meet it again. You have parted from its spirit, and you will now part from its body, but you will meet it again. It will rise again. Death cannot hold the occupant of the grave for ever. It will come forth-" This corruption having put on incorruption, and this mortal having put on immortality." You will again press it to your hearts in everlasting re-unionthere, where the parting tear is never shed, and the parting pang is never felt. The present parting, though painful-for even short separations are painful-is yet not final. You will go to him. Your meeting will be a joyful and happy one. You will know and recognize him, and be with him for ever. You will meet him not in sorrow and pain-not on a sick bed, nor as a corpse-but you will meet him as a smiling, holy, happy spirit-a bright cherub arrayed in the glories of immortality. Let this gracious assurance comfort you. Let it reconcile you to the pain of parting from him now. Think not of hope destroyed, but of hope restored. You will, therefore, resign the dear body of your child to the grave without a murmur, having the assurance that you will receive him again. His flesh shall rest in hope, and you will cherish and insure the hope, that at your death you will go to him, never to part again. LUTHER AT THE SICK BED OF MELANCTHON. L (See Frontispiece.) UTHER by the side of the suffering Melancthon, raising the almost broken spirit of the sick man with the powerful words of life, was a most touching illustration of Luther's faith and power in prayer. Melancthon had suddenly fallen sick at Weimar, while on his way to the monastery at Hagenau. Presentiments of death had accompanied him thither; and a mental affection, which undermined his strength, threatened the speedy dissolution of the almost exhausted powers of life-his delicately strung mind was tormented by the bitterest pain that can assail a poor mortal; he was at war with himself, for his conscience could not find rest from the reproach that he had not resisted more heroically the desires and demands of the Landgrave of Hesse, and had thus, it might be said, sanctioned, in part at least, a public slight offered to the evangelical church. At the call of the Elector, Luther and Kreuziger came to him; the former saw with terror the corpse-like form of his friend, the failing eyes, the fleeting sense. "God preserve me!" he cried, "how has the devil destroyed this organon!"-and turning to the window, he poured out his anxious soul in the boldest and most glowing prayer. Words passed through his soul and crossed his lips which, coming from another mouth, might be condemned as blasphemy, but which in him arose from the very depth of a sublime confidence in God, and from an unconditional faith in the Scriptures. "This time I besought the Almighty with great vigor; I attacked him with his own weapons, quoting from Scripture all the promises I could remember, that prayers should be granted, and said that he must grant my prayer, if I was henceforth to put faith in his promises." He then took the hand of the sick man, saying, "Be of good courage, Philip, thou shalt not die; although the Lord might see cause to kill, yet wills he not the death of the sinner, but rather that he should turn to him and live! God hath called the greatest sinners unto mercy; how much less then will he cast off thee, my Philip, or destroy thee in sin and sadness! Therefore, do not give way to grief; do not become thine own murderer, but trust in the Lord, who can kill and bring to life, who can strike and heal again." Melancthon would rather have passed away in sleep to eternal peace, than have returned to earthly strife; but the spiritually powerful words of Luther recalled him. "No, no, Philip! thou must serve the Lord our God still further!" He recovered; "recalled from death unto life," he says himself, "by divine power;" and Luther rejoicingly said, "He would bring back the Magister Philip, with the help of God, from the grave to cheerfulness." EVERY tree, be it cedar or blackthorn, can harbor its singing bird; and few are the homes in which, from nooks least suspected, there starts not a music. THERE is much virtue which is like the juice of the grape, which has to be squeezed before you can get it; not like the generous drop of the honey comb, distilling willingly and fresh.—Spurgeon's Sermons. THE ASCENSION FROM MOUNT OLIVET-A SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY FROM JERUSALEM. SACRED LOCALITIES.* BY DR. J. T. BARCLAY. NEW spots in all the domain of sacred over which a portion of the monumental church of the Empress Helena still stands, is only about one thousand and thirty-five Ftopopop in are of ingred yards, or rather more the Gentile believer than the place of the from St. Stephen's Gate, by the path usuassumption: and although we are entirely ally traveled, and the same distance from dependent upon a few merely allusive the "Golden Gate" in the Haram wall, paragraphs in the Scriptures for all we now closed. Now this is only half the usual know concerning this interesting spot, estimate of a Sabbath-day's journey, and yet fortunately the language is so specific considerably less than the smallest comthat its location can be ascertained with putation made upon any data whatever. great certainty. From this indisputable We must, therefore, look for some spot on authority we learn that the spot whence Mount Olivet, thus distant from the wall the Saviour ascended on high was on of Jerusalem: and several such places can Mount Olivet; that it was not only on be found, both north and south of the prethis mountain but from a portion of it sent traditionally accredited station. But lying a Sabbath-day's journey from Jeru- the sacred narrative requires that it should salem; and that it was as far as to Be- be not only a Sabbath-day's journey, but thany." (Luke xxiv. 50.) Now the place "as far as to Bethany"-"even unto Beto which tradition awards the honor of thany"-"Ews ES Broaviar." Now, it so being the last to receive the impress of our Divine Master's feet, is on Mount Olivet, it is true (and so are many other elevations just as eligible;) but is neither "as far as to Bethany," nor is it a "Sabbathday's journey from Jerusalem." The spot now venerated as the place of ascension, The illustrations are taken from the splendid work, "The City of the Great King." For sale at the Lutheran Publication House. See advertisement on cover. happens that there is not a more decidedly marked prominence on all Mount Olivet than the hill impending over the ancient "City of Dates," to the top of which is exactly one mile from St. Stephen's Gate, the present place of egress from the city to Bethany, and from the Golden Gate also in the ancient Temple wall. secluded shelter afforded by one of the large projecting rocks that crown the top The of this sterile, desolate eminence is just | except perhaps a small portion of Mount such a retired spot as it might be sup- Zion. Here a meeting with His disciples posed the great Teacher would select for would have been altogether in consonance the delivery of his last charge to the with the custom he seems to have observed Apostles-sufficiently retired yet easily after his resurrection-of appearing only accessible. It may be objected, however, to his disciples, and to them only in the that this spot is not "even unto Bethany" recesses of mountains, on the retired sea-the town lying about five hundred yards shore, or in closed rooms. But such rebelow. But may not the evangelist have tirement could never be found in such a meant the boundary of Bethany, instead fertile, prominent, and public spot as that of the village itself? Such a view of the now regarded as the place of ascension. matter would amply satisfy the demands of It is not a little singular, that a spot posthe case. But still I incline to the opinion sessing so fully all the requisites indicated that Luke meant either the village itself or by the case, should never before have been its immediate suburbs. And fragments regarded as the place of ascension. So of columns lying about the remaining satisfactorily demonstrable is the proposifoundations of houses in the scarped rock tion, that I never feel better assured of just below the south-east brow of the hill, occupying ground once trodden by the which is here rather precipitous, indicate adorable Redeemer, than when I am here; that the suburbs of Bethany once extended unless it may be, when passing over the rather farther towards Jerusalem in this narrow neck of land which connects this direction than at present, so that the tra- elevation with the main body of Olivet; veler on foot would almost reach it at the for over this thin isthmus, where all the end of a mile; while to go around the varying paths between Jerusalem and broad road, he must travel nearly two Bethany necessarily become coincident, miles, for the distance is as of old, just he must have passed many an evening fifteen furlongs. In the expression "ws and morning in journeying between the Els Bŋbaviar," Luke therefore would ap- two places, as his custom was. pear to exhibit his usual accuracy of perceived that the physical features of the diction, instead of having committed a neighborhood singularly concur with the serious blunder, as some conclude that testimony of the inspired eye-witness, to this heaven-guided historiographer has prove that in this instance (as well as in done. How preposterous is the idea others when tested by reason and Revelaentertained by some of the out-and-out tion) oral tradition is as groundless and advocates of tradition-that the suburbs unreliable as the "baseless fabric of a of the village of Bethany should extend vision;" for if Luke knew any thing of three-fourths of the way to Jerusalem the matter, it is utterly impossible that thus making the suburbs of the capital the site pointed out by the finger of tradionly one-fourth as extensive as those of a tion can be the true place of the ascension. little village! The summit whence I cannot but believe the Redeemer to have ascended on high, is within a hundred yards of the direct foot-path leading from Jerusalem to Bethany, but yet is quite retired and out of the way. Instead of being conspicuously situated, and in full view of all Jerusalem, like the site now reputed the place of ascension, it is entirely out of view of the present city, and could never have been seen from any part of ancient Jerusalem, It is thus Perhaps there is not, on all the wide earth, another Sabbath-day's journey so richly suggestive of the future, or so replete in soul-stirring reminiscences of the past, as the foot-path from the Holy City to the Mount of Ascension. American Christian Mission. - Perched upon a bold, rocky promontory of Mount Zion, at an elevation of ninety-one feet above the present level of the Tyropoean, is a cluster of rudely-constructed houses, now occupied as the premises of the American Christian Mission. This spot is undoubtedly one of the most notable localities about the Holy City, though heretofore it has failed to attract the attention not only of tourists and pilgrims, but of professed antiquarians and topographers. This lofty cliff was the great bulwark of the ancient city of the Jebusites, being unquestionably the "stronghold" of Zion, where King David was so derided by the king of Jebus in the taunting language of insult and defiance-"Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither-thinking David cannot come in hither." the city. But not only did Herod Agrippa (called king) have his magnificent palace on this identical spot, but also built by its side another for his beautiful but meretricious sister, Berenice, so unsparingly satirized by Juvenal, before both of whom, as well as Festus, Felix and Drusilla, Paul delivered his celebrated address at Cæsarea. Here also, was the famous hall "for feasting and compotations," to which the great Jewish historian and priest thus alludes: "King Agrippa built himself a very large diningroom in the royal palace in Jerusalem, near to the portico." And truly it was a most delightful prospect. The beautiful, purplish, chatoyant mountains of Moab and Ammon bounding a part of the horizon at the distance of twenty-five or thirty miles; the hallowed ridge of Olivet forming the remainder at the distance of a mile. Then, only one hundred and fifty yards distant was the gorgeous Temple, "exceeding mag This commanding situation must ever have been a very important one, whether in the possession of heathen, Jew or Christian; and accordingly we learn from Josephus that it was successively the site of the royal palaces of the Davidian, Asmonean, and Herodian dynasties of Israel.-nifical, and of fame and glory throughout Herod the Great, however, required a larger area for the display of his magnificent designs; and hence he erected another, and perhaps still more sumptuous palace near the Tower of Hippicus, (which he seems mainly to have occupied,) on the site of the present splendid Anglican Church and Consulate-quite on the opposite side of all countries," crowning Mount Moriah. The deep gorge of the Tyropoon, at that time, perhaps, about two hundred feet below the palace, adorned by the magnificent Xystus Porticos which lay below-the towering Castle of Antonia loomed aloft on the north and on the right were Ophel, Kedron, Siloam, En-rogel, &c. Immediately adja |