in silence upon his carpet, utterly unmindful of the scenes by which he was surrounded, was a true emblem of the character of his nation. In the countries professing Christianity there has been a gradual progress in art and science during several centuries, but throughout the whole of the Mahomedan empire, the minds of men seemed to be sinking into a lethargy more and more profound, and all the signs of activity presented elsewhere under a thousand different forms were unable to arouse them from their slumber. There was the invention of printing, the introduction of the Newtonian system, and numberless other discoveries arising from the establishment of the inductive philosophy, the application of steam, and a revival of religion more pure and more extensive than had been witnessed from the times of the apostles, but not one of these events, each of which might exert a power sufficient to shake the world, influenced in the least the mass of the Mahomedan population. Within the last few years the sleep of centuries has been drawing towards a close, but the effects of the powerful opiates that have been taken are evident upon the system, and the present excitement is but as the awakening that precedes death.

The religion of Mahomet was established by the sword; it is now perishing by the same process: and the sword of its destruction is drawn from its own scabbard, and wielded by its own arm. The recent rebellion of Egypt has thrown the Ottoman empire into the hands of a Christian power; other Christian powers have only to refuse interference, and its downfall would be the work of little more than a single day. It would be in vain to bring out the old garment of the prophet, the elevation of which would once have been answered by the flashes of a million scimitars, as the virtue of its inspiration has gone for ever. There is a trembling in the hearts of the people, produced by the very power that once gave them courage for the conflict. They then believed that it was written in the book of fate that they must conquer; they now believe that it is written in the same book, in characters equally imperishable, that they must fall.

The changes that are taking place are the more interesting, because among such a people any change is wonderful, and a change for the better is almost beyond the limits of belief. Some of these innovations have not been effected without the shedding of much blood, but the opposition has ceased, and the Turks see daily the most serious inroads upon the customs of their ancestors, without a single conservative movement. The great doctrine to which much of their apathy was to be attributed, has been openly disregarded in the adoption of quarantine, and the establishment of schools of anatomical dissection. The commands of Mahomet have been at all times evaded, but it was in secret: now, they are broken by all classes without shame, or the least attempt at concealment. In an hotel at Alexandria, I saw a party of Turks, high in office, drinking to each other's health in bumpers of champagne. The fast of the Ramzan was last year publicly broken by no less a personage than the governor of Damascus. In some minds there are indications of excitement and enterprise. I met a respectable

Turk, attended by a numerous party, near the top of the highest of the pyramids, who manifested all the eager curiosity of Franks. The prejudices of the people generally have been lessened by the great number of Europeans in the employ of government, and the principal insults that the traveller now receives are from women and children.

Ibrahim Pacha has, perhaps, adopted the modes of thinking common among Europeans to a greater extent than any other Mussulman chief since the establishment of Islamism. The battle of Navarino taught him that the fangs of "the Christian dogs" were not to be despised. It is difficult to form a just estimate of his character, as the accounts are contradictory of those who have had access to his presence. The exercise of cruelty is more frequently accompanied by the forms of law than in his younger days, but it may be equally severe and extensive. It appears from the public prints that he has this year visited the convent at Nazareth, and was present at the celebration of Easter in the church of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

The charges are numerous that might be brought by the Mahomedan world against the church of Christ, and there lies at our door a mass of accumulating guilt, that calls upon us loudly to exert ourselves by every means in our power to effect its removal. The nations conquered by the first caliphs were nearly all infested with the heresy of Arius. There have been Christian churches among them in all periods of their history, but these churches are failen, and have the form of religion without the power. Then comes the important question, By what means were the Mahomedans to receive the true light that shineth from heaven, and be rescued from their error, and led into the way of peace? The Arians had put out the light from before their own eyes, the Greek and other churches had it still in possession, but it was hidden in deep recesses to which no one could approach, and the Protestants looked on with criminal indifference. The recent expansion of Christian benevolence has extended as far as Constantinople, Smyrna, Alexandria, and many other places similarly situated, but the work has been hitherto of a preparatory nature; the missionaries have not yet been able to make any concentrated attack upon the strong holds of Mahomet, and the body of the people have never had Christianity brought before them in its pure simplicity and native power. It is well known that there is a law in existence, that any Mussulman who renounces his religion shall be put to death. Under these circumstances, the principal efforts must at present be made by the establishment of schools, by private conversations, and by the distribution of tracts and of copies of the Scriptures; but missionaries must be at hand to instruct more fully those who, by such means, have received "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," and prepare them for an open profession of the cross, and the consequences of that profession. It is to be feared that without great watchfulness on our part, the spread of knowledge by the instrumentality of the presses now established, will be only the prelude to a more open profession of infidelity; and skepticism, as in too many parallel cases, will take the place of su

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GREECE.

perstition. Ibrahim Pacha was asked by a friend of mine whether he himself would put to death one of his own people who might embrace Christianity, and his reply was this:-"It is a hard question: we have laws It is the opinion of those competent to judge, that neither Ibrahim nor Ali Pacha would carry this law into execution, but it is probable that the first native converts might suffer from private revenge or a gene-reference is made in the New, are included Achaia, ral attack of the people.

THE northern boundary of Greece cannot be defined with precision, as its extent was not the same at all periods of its history; but its southern boundary was at all times the Mediterranean sea. No place in Greece Proper is mentioned in the Old Testament, but among those places to which

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ATHENS.

Athens, Berea, Corinth, Illyricum, Macedonia, It was one of the noblest triumphs ever achiev- Philippi, and Thessalonica; and if the term Greece ed by the gospel, when the hordes who burst from be extended to all the places inhabited by Greeks, their fastnesses in the north of Europe upon the it will also include, in the provinces of Asia Minor, Roman empire, and established themselves even Bithynia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Colosse, Galatia, in the centre of the imperial city, were converted Iconium, Lycaonia, Lycia, Myria, Mysia, Pamfrom idolatry to the religion of Christ. With these phylia, Phrygia, Pontus, Pisidia, Tarsus, and the conversions the victories of the cross appeared to seven churches of Asia. By the prophets Greece cease. The conquerors of the Roman empire is called Javan. Isa. lxvi. 19; Ezek. xxvii. 13, 19; were many of them conquered in turn, by the Daniel xi. 2. In the vision seen by Daniel, he Turks and Saracens; but in no place was the re- beheld a he-goat that came from the west, that ligion of the victorious Mussulmans abandoned for had a notable horn between his eyes; and he tells that of the vanquished Christians. For the space us, the rough goat is the king of Græcia, and of nearly one thousand years there was not a sin- the great horn that is between his eyes is the first gle instance of a national conversion to Christian- king." Dan. viii. 21. The prophet Joel charges ity. The front of cruel and relentless hostility the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon with having was exhibited by the Moslems towards the Naza-sold the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the rines, whom they suffered to exist within the bor- Grecians. Joel iii. 6. In the Apocrypha there are ders of their land, and their opposition was so suc- several references to Greece. The word Greek cessful, that the law against conversion slumbered is sometimes equivalent to Gentile in the writings in its concealment, and few have been the spirits of St. Paul. The ancient states were many of from among the followers of the false prophet, them well peopled, but the population of the mowho, for Christ's sake, have been willing to suffer dern kingdom of Greece does not much exceed death, or found worthy to join the noble army of a million souls, and its superficies has been calcumartyrs in heaven. It is, however, to be hoped lated at 1100 geographical square miles. that there have been conversions in secret, that were known only to God. A fellow traveller informed me that a muleteer, with whom he entered into conversation in Greece, confessed to him that he was a convert from Mahomedanism. When travelling between Ancona and Loretto, in Italy, I was told that at one of the villages through which I passed, a Turk had a few days before been publicly baptized. The signs of the times are in some respects fair and promising, and though there is much to depress the servants of Christ who are laboring in these regions, there are other circumstances, in the book of prophecy, as well as in the opening volume of providence, that demand a continuance at the post of danger, and encourage the expectation of better and happier times. The inarch of the Mahomedan conquerors was first arrested in France; they have since been driven from Spain and Hungary; they have been annihilated in Greece; they have been weakened in Turkey and Persia; the mightiest of their empires now tremble at the prospect of an approaching dissolution; and though the future | be dim, there may be discovered in the distant horizon, by the eye of faith, the form of the crescent wasted to an almost viewless streak, and it is setting in darkness behind a mighty pile of prostrate walls, ruinous domes, and fallen minarets; whilst, in the opposite sky, the sun of righteousness proclaims its approach by tints of light that play at intervals along the firmament, and a voice breaks forth from the silence, as the sound of many waters, "There is no God besides Jehovah, and Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world."

I SAILED from Ægina, July 24, in company with a Belgian gentleman, who had espoused the side of the king of Holland during the late war. The sailors of our caique manifested great pride in pointing out to us the spots in sight, that had been consecrated by the deeds of their fathers. There was not a cape, or cove, or island, that has not been written in words that will never die. The well-known letter of Servius Sulpicius to Cicero, came with great force to my remembrance. Before us was Athens; behind us, Corinth; on our right, Ægina; and on our left were Megara, Salamis, and Eleusis. The sun was setting as we entered the Piræus, and when our little bark had glided into smooth water, we had leisure to give ourselves up to thoughts of other years. We slept in the vessel, as several robberies had of late been committed in an olive-grove, through which we must have passed before we could enter the city. The Piræus now contains only a miserable coffee-house and a small bazar, though it once rivalled Athens in the splendor of its edifices.

In the morning we rode forward to Athens, a distance of about four miles, upon mules that in the mean time had been procured for us from the city. I was kindly entertained at the house of the Rev. Jonas King, of the American Board of Missions, to whom I had brought a letter of introduction from his brethren in Beirout.

The ancient city is said to have been founded

that was preferred against him, we are simply told, that "Paul departed from among them."

The topics chosen by the apostle were admirably adapted to the circumstances of his situation. The thoughts of the Grecian sages, as they sat in silence, must almost involuntarily have essayed toward "a feeling after God," when the apostle extended his hand towards the horizon, and point

66

pages of history the thoughts, and words, and deeds, of its immortal citizens. A more extensive acquaintance with the teachings of a diviner record, takes much away of the admiration we once felt toward the characters of antiquity. We learn to pierce the halo that was thrown around them by our immature conceptions, and whilst in youth we are too apt to look only at that which we suppose is of the heavens, heavenly, in later age weed at mountain, and island, and sea, and spake of are perhaps too much disposed to dwell upon that the "God that made the world and all things which is of "the earth, earthy," in the character therein, that he is Lord of heaven and earth, and of man. The ancient Athenians may be less wise dwelleth not in temples made with hands:" and and less good than we once supposed them; but when he turned away from this magnificent scene the alteration in our sentiments never extends to of earth and ocean towards the Acropolis, studded that which belongs to the powerful in intellect or as it was in every part with images and temples, the beautiful in taste. The most lovely imagina- the contrast must have exhibited one of the most tions ever revealed by the pencil or struck from splendid triumphs ever gained by truth, as he prothe stone were once collected within the walls of ceeded in his argument, and cried out, fearlessly, the Parthenon, and its visiters were the master within the very precincts of the most sacred spot spirits of the universe. Nor are we in these re-ever consecrated to idolatry during the long sweep spects in danger of being deceived by those mists of its empire over men, Forasmuch then, as we with which time, and distance, and ignorance, so are the offspring of God, we ought not to think often lead us astray. We can yet listen to their that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or magic numbers, their philosophy is the exhaust- stone, graven by art and man's device." It is less quarry from which men of meaner intellect enough to say that the preacher was Paul, that continue to hew systems, we can walk among the the place was Athens, and that the auditors were columns of their matchless porticos, and the blood philosophers and the stern judges of the Areopayet creeps, and the life yet radiates, in the forms gus, and there is matter for deep thought; but that were thrown from their sculptors' hands. It the scene presents a still grander aspect, when was here too that the tree of liberty was first we look a little forward, and mark some of its implanted, which was afterwards carried to Rome, portant consequences. The young students from then disappeared from the sight of men during an Rome would join in the mockery with their old age in which, from century to century, there was and brow-furrowed preceptors at the earnestness but one cold and comfortless winter; and after of Paul, and at the strange doctrines he taught; various fruitless attempts to spring up in other but little did they think, as they turned from the places, it at last struck root in an island probably figure of the apostle towards the monuments of unknown to the wisest of the sons of Athens, their own greatness, to indulge in the smile of dewhere it flourishes in luxuriance, and offsets have rision without observance, that the time would already been carried from the parent stem that it come when THE UNKNOWN GOD should be acis hoped will one day be familiar to every soil, and knowledged as the only God throughout their exovershadow every land. tended dominion, and when that Parthenon, and their own still prouder Capitol, and all the deities, heroes, and devils, they contained, should not have upon the whole earth one single votary to come even by stealth and do them homage or whisper their praise. It cannot be said, that in the early ages Christianity shrank from a contest even with the most enlightened men of whom the heathen world could then boast in the infancy of its existence, when as yet it received no aid whatever from name or numbers, it thus grappled with the mightiest of its opponents in the centre of their own citadel, and was triumphant.

Were this the only world, and this the only life, it might have been a duty incumbent upon every worshipper of the beautiful to make a pilgrimage, once during his existence, to the Acropolis; but revelation takes away from its glory, and invests with far sublimer interest a little hill at its foot, that would otherwise escape our notice, and is hidden by its shadow at the rising of the sun. It was apparently by accident that the apostle Paul visited this city. "The brethren at Berea sent away Paul, to go as it were to the sea.... and they that conducted Paul brought him to Athens." In all places he remembered the divine commission he had received as the apostle of the Gentiles, and as he waited for his companions that were expected, "his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." It would seem that for some time no official notice I LANDED at Kalamanchi from Athens, July 30, was taken of his proceedings, though he not only near the site of the ancient Cenchrea, at which disputed in the synagogue of the Jews, and with Paul embarked for Ephesus. I and my comdevout persons, but also in the public market. It panion had some difficulty in procuring animals, has been questioned whether Paul appeared before and we were furnished at last with an ass, a mule, the Areopagus as an accused person, or merely a pony, and a camel. We crossed the isthmus as a stranger with whom the philosophers wished to have some further converse; and it must be confessed that he was at first treated with great courtesy, and even afterwards, though the charge might have been easily proved, if it was a charge

CORINTH.

in about three hours, where the Isthmian games were formerly celebrated, to which frequent aliusion is made by the apostle Paul in his epistles to the Corinthian church. The situation is well adapted to the purpose for which it was appro

priated, presenting an extended plain, in a central position between the capitals of all the more celebrated states. In the evening we arrived at Corinth.

be wise, had become fools, and he had now to address himself to the victims of sensuality, and warn them that "the end of these things is death.” Aquila and Priscilla, who had come from Rome, The city of Corinth lays claim to an origin received him into their house, and he wrought at nearly as ancient as that of Athens. It appears their occupation, for they were of the same craft, as if intended by nature to be the seat of an ex- being tent-makers. The Jews, to whom he testensive commerce, as it could communicate with tified that "Jesus was Christ," having opposed the Ægean sea by the port of Cenchrea, and with themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, the Ionian sea by the port of Lechæum. It was and saying unto them, "Your blood be upon your at one time the most extensive city of Greece, own heads," he turned unto the Gentiles, and and in palaces, temples, and statues, could chal- dwelt in the house of Justus, "one that worshiplenge the world. Its licentiousness has passed ped God." The chief ruler of the synagogue havinto a proverb. In the time of the apostles it was ing been converted, as well as many of the Cothe residence of Gallio, brother of the celebrated | rinthians, the Jews made insurrection and brought Seneca, and deputy of Achaia, which included Paul before Gallio, the deputy, but he refused to nearly the whole of the Peloponnesus. The listen to their dispute, and "drove them from the Acro-corinthus is a steep rock, at a little distance judgment-seat." The two epistles that were from the city, that rises upwards of 2,000 feet. There may be seen from it the provinces of Thebes, Attica, Achaia, Argolis, and Arcadia, the acropolis of Athens, the mounts Helicon and Parnassus, and the view includes the birth-places of many of the principal warriors, sages, painters, architects, and sculptors, whose names are renowned in Grecian history. Independent of all these associations, had the country around it never been inhabited by man, it would still be thought to stand almost without a rival, in the clearness of its atmosphere, the soft azure of its sky, the majesty of its hills, and the many sinuosities of the many waters that encompass its islands and roll upon its shores.

.afterwards written to the Corinthians, bear strong internal evidence of authenticity, as the corruptions for which they are reproved, are precisely such as we might suppose would arise from the peculiar temptations of the people. The city has been many times destroyed since the Acts of the Apostles were penned; but amidst all its changes, it has ever retained a profession of the faith of Christ; and although "the church of God, which is at Corinth," is at present of smaller extent than it has been in any previous period of its history, the thought is at least gratifying, that the only place of worship now attended by its inhabitants is dedicated to the service of the same Lord who appeared by night unto the apostle, and said, “I have much people in this place."

The present city is more ruinous than Athens, without the ancient edifices to relieve the character of its desolation. There are a few Bavarian soldiers, who have nothing to protect but ruins; there is a market, but scarcely any thing in it ex-| The evening on which I first approached the posed for sale; and the miserable inhabitants have shores of Greece was one of the loveliest I reno visible means of present support or future sub-member to have ever seen. The sun was setting sistence. Eight columns standing together, not behind the mountains of Arcadia, as I sailed up of the Corinthian order, are all the remains of an- the gulf of Argolis, and before its final departure. tiquity I observed, with the exception of a few the sea, and the sky, and the hills upon which so capitals and pillars, scen in detached fragments many great men have walked, appeared as if all among the ruins of modern houses and mosques. converted into gold. I have witnessed scenes It is said to be the intention of the king, when his more splendid, but none more beautiful, as I could minority shall expire, to make Corinth the capital look on the whole without pain, though every obof his dominions, in opposition to the regency, who ject was glowing with tints of the deepest richhave fixed upon Athens. There needs not a mo- ness. It afforded a striking contrast to the gorment's thought to discover which is the most eli-geous sunsets that are exhibited in the tropics. gible position for the capital of the Greeks, whose shipping must for some time continue to be their principal interest.

Some of the ravines

The scenery of Greece presents almost every variety of character. The valleys sometimes flow in gentle undulations, and are capable of the Upon the opposite side of the gulf of Corinth, I highest cultivation, whilst the hills above them could distinctly see the mountains of Helicon and rise in majesty towards the clouds, and are broken Parnassus, but was not tempted from my course at intervals into precipitate ridges, covered with to drink of the classic spring, or consult the Del- firs and other similar trees. phian oracle. I was more interested by objects through which I passed were thickly set with nearer the city, which must have been looked oleanders, which contributed much to the animaupon by the apostle Paul, as he resided here "ation of the scene, as they were then in full bloom. year and six months," being encouraged by a The harvest was just concluded, and in many vision from the Lord; and even after this time, places the horses were treading out the corn."he tarried here a good while." It was upwards On one floor I counted seventeen horses in one of 200 years after the destruction of the city by line engaged in this service. On the northern the consul Mummius, and during the existence of coast of the Morea vineyards are numerous, and the Corinth of Julius Cæsar, that the apostle "de- the low vine is cultivated from which our dry curparted from Athens, and came to Corinth." In rants are produced. The peasants often present. Athens he had contended with the worshippers of ed me, without solicitation, with bunches of grapes intellect, with men who, professing themselves to when I passed through their villages.