figurative language of the Scripture, these whirlwinds are termed the command and the word of God (Psalm cxlvii. 15. 18. :) and as they are sometimes fatal to travellers who are overwhelmed in the deserts, the rapidity of their advance is elegantly employed by Solomon to show the certainty as well as the suddenness of that destruction which will befall the impenitently wicked. (Prov. i. 27.) The rains descend in Palestine with great violence; and as whole villages in the east are constructed only with palm-branches, mud, and tiles baked in the sun, (perhaps corresponding to and explana tory of the untempered mortar noticed in Ezek. xiii. 11.) these rains not unfrequently dissolve the cement, such as it is, and the houses fall to the ground. To these effects our Lord probably alludes in Matt. vii. 25—27. Very small clouds are likewise the forerunners of violent storms and hurricanes in the east as well as in the west: they rise like a man's hand, (1 Kings xviii. 44.) until the whole sky becomes black with rain, which descends in torrents. In our Lord's time, this phenomenon seems to have become a certain prognostic of wet weather. See Luke xii. 54.

THE SYNAGOGUE.

BY THE REV. WILLIAM CROSWELL.

"But even un to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away."-St. Paul.

I saw them in their synagogue, as in their ancient day,
And never from my memory the scene will pass away-
For dazzling on my vision, still the latticed galleries shine
With Israel's loveliest daughters, in their beauty half divine!

It is the holy Sabbath eve-the solitary light

Sheds, mingled with the hues of day, a lustre nothing bright;
On swarthy brow and piercing glance it falls with saddening tinge,
And dimly gilds the Pharisee's phylacteries and fringe.

The two-leaved doors slide slow apart before the Eastern screen,
As rise the Hebrew harmonies, with chanted prayers between;
And mid the tissued veils disclosed, of many a gorgeous dye,
Enveloped in their jewelled scarfs, the sacred records lie.
Robed in his sacerdotal vest, a silvery headed man,
With voice of solemn cadence o'er the backward letters ran,
And often yet methinks I see the glow and power that sate
Upon his face, as forth he spread the roll immaculate.

And fervently, that hour, I prayed, that from the mighty scroll
Its light, in burning characters, might break on every soul.
That on their hardened hearts, the vail might be no longer dark,
But be for ever rent in twain, like that before the ark.

For yet the ten-fold film shall fall, O Judah! from thy sight,
And every eye be purged to read thy testimonies right,
When thou, with all Messiah's signs in Christ distinctly seen,
Shall, by Jehovah's nameless name, invoke the Nazarene!

MOUNTAIN SCENE NEAR THE CEDARS OF
LEBANON.

Our way up the side of Lebanon was steep, and in many parts difficult; but we were repaid by the delightful freshness of the air as we mounted, and the grandeur of the views on every side.

It was about noon when we reached a small stream flowing down from the mountain, on the banks of which we halted to refresh ourselves, and soon after reached the village of Sibbeehel above it. We saw here some ancient sepulchres in the rocks, and a new church just finished, the inhabitants being all christians of the Greek communion. There was an appearance of fresher health and vigor in the men than is seen in the plains, and the women were fairer than their lowland neighbors. The former were dressed in the usual costume of the peasantry of the country; but the latter wore a horn of metal, differing in shape and position from any that I had

yet seen. It was placed on the crown of the head pointing rather backward, like a small diadem; and being flat at the top, and larger there than at the bottom, it looked exactly like one of the small boiling kettles of the country reversed. There is a fine spring, in an arched well, just over Sibbeehel, over which is a cross, and at which we drank. The population of the place might amount to 200 persons; and the state of their grounds spoke favorably of their industry.

In about an hour from hence we passed under another christian village on the summit of a high hill on our left. This was called Aytou, and though small, had several large and well-built dwellings in it. The road became here so fatiguing to our horses, as to require occasional halts. It was in many places dangerous too, as it presented only a bed of smooth stones, on which the foot could take no hold. The layers of rock having exactly the same form as the surface of the soil and shape of the mountain, presented in masses, a steep smooth side, over which it was necessary to lead our animals, and to use great caution ourselves. This same cause renders many parts of the road along the coast disagreeable.

It was fully another hour before we reached the summit of the mountain, this part of which is called Jebel Arrneto. The whole body of this is white lime-stone rock of different qualities, and here the stone has streaks, or layers of red, as if colored by the oxide of iron, or some other metal. There was, at this moment, snow still remaining here, though the heat of the sun was nearly equal to that of an English summer. Flocks of large white long-haired goats were browzing on the rocks, under the care of boys and their faithful dogs; and pines and young cedars of a smaller size were abundant. The view from hence, on looking westward, commanded an unbounded horizon at sea, with the whole of the coast from Ras-el-Shukkah to the extreme northern point of land seen from Tarabolus. The port and islands of that town bore from us about N. by W. W. perhaps fifteen miles; but the town itself was not visible, from the intervention of the hill which overhangs it. The whole of the plain below, with the deep valleys which intersect it, looked beautiful from hence, present

ing corn lands of the freshest green, bare patches of ploughed land, showing a deep red soil, .nd olive trees, and streams of water in abundance. The bluff point of Ras-el-Shukkah, which had been called, according to Strabo, the Face of God, from an idea of its being the end of Lebanon, looked from hence quite insignificant, from being so much lower than our own level; and the white hills and valleys, over which we had crossed with much fatigue, now looked like the little eminences raised by ants, and resembled very much the white hills on the banks of the Jordan, as seen in that valley from the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem. We descended over the eastern side of this Jebel Arrneto, and opened a narrow but exceedingly deep valley, called Wadi Khezheyap. The descent down the perpendicular cliffs of the eastern part of this hill was by winding steps, cut originally in the rock in some places, and formed by stones and earth in others, over which it was necessary to lead our horses down with great caution. The valley was watered by a fine stream, running through it, ana presented on all sides marks of the most active industry. Buckingham's Travels among the Arab Tribes.

SKETCHES OF AMERICAN CHARACTER.

PATRICK HENRY.

Patrick Henry, the second son of John and Sarah Henry, and one of nine children, was born May 29, 1736, in the county of Hanover and colony of Virginia. Until ten years of age, Patrick Henry was sent to a school in the neighborhood, where he learned to read and write, and made some small progress in arithmetic. He was then taken home, and, under the direction of his father, who had opened a grammar school in his own house, he acquired a superficial knowledge of the Latin language. At the same time, he made a considerable proficiency in the mathematics, the only branch of education for which, it seems, he discovered, in his youth, the slightest predilection. He was passionately addicted to the sports of the field, and could not brook the confinement and toil which education required. His father, unable to sustain the expense of his large and increasing family, found it

necessary to qualify his sons, at a very early age, to support themselves. With this view, Patrick was placed, at the age of fifteen, behind the counter of a trader in the country. In the next year, his father purchased a small adventure of goods for his two sons, William and Patrick, and "set them up in trade." William's habits of idleness were such, that the chief management of their concerns devolved on the younger brother, and that management was most wretched. One year put an end to this experiment, and Patrick was engaged, for the two or three following years, in settling the accounts of the firm as well as he could. At the early age of eighteen, he married a Miss Shelton, the daughter of a respectable farmer in the neighborhood: and, by the joint assistance of their parents, the young couple were settled on a small farm, where, with one or two slaves, Mr. Henry had to dig the earth for subsistence. His want of agricultural skill, and his unconquerable aversion to every species of systematic labor, caused him, after a trial of two years, to abandon this pursuit. His next step seems to have been dictated by absolute despair; for, selling off his little possessions at a sacrifice for cash, he entered a second time into the inauspicious business of merchandise. But the same want of method, the same facility of temper, soon became apparent. He resumed his violin, his flute, his books, his inspection of human nature, and not unfrequently shut up his shop to indulge himself in the favorite sports of his youth. His reading, however, began to assume a more serious character. studied geography, read the charters and history of the colony, and became fond of historical works generally, particularly those of Greece and Rome, and, from the tenacity of his memory and the strength of his judgment, soon made himself master of their contents. Livy was his favorite; and, having procured a translation, he made it a rule to read it through, once, at least, in every year, during the earlier part of his life. The second mercantile experiment in a few years left him a bankrupt; every remnant of his property was gone, and his friends were unable to assist him any further. As a last effort, he determined to make trial of the law. No one expected him to succeed; his unfortunate habits were by no

He