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THE

YOUTHS' MAGAZINE;

OR,

EVANGELICAL MISCELLANY.

FEBRUARY, 1846.

BETHANY.

Descending and leaving the Jericho road, we came quite suddenly upon Bethany, called by the Arabs, Azarieh, from the name of Lazarus. We found this evermemorable village to be very like what we could have imagined it. It lies almost hidden in a small ravine of Mount Olivet, so much so, that from the height it cannot be seen. It is embosomed in fruit trees, especially figs and almonds, olives, and pomegranates. The ravine in which it lies, is terraced, and the terraces are covered either with fruit trees or waving grain. There are not many houses, perhaps about twenty inhabited, but there are many marks of ancient ruins.

The house of Lazarus was pointed out to us, a substantial building, probably a tower in former days, and selected to bear the name of the House of Lazarus by traditionists, who did not know how else than by his worldly eminence such a man could draw the special regard of the Lord Jesus. They did not know that Christ loveth freely.

The sepulchre, called the Tomb of Lazarus, attracted more of our attention. We lighted our tapers, and descended twenty-six steps cut in the rock to a chamber deep

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in the rock, having several niches for the dead.

Whether this be the very tomb where Lazarus lay four days, and which yielded up its dead at the command of Jesus, it is impossible to say. The common objection, that it is too deep, seems entirely groundless, for there is nothing in the narrative to intimate that the tomb was on a level with the gronnd, and besides, it seems not unlikely that there was another entrance to the tomb farther down the slope. A stronger objection is, that the tomb is in the immediate vicinity of the village or actually in it, but it is possible that the modern village occupies ground a little different from the ancient one.

However this may be, there can be no doubt that this is " Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha, nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off." (John xi. 1, 18.) How pleasing are all the associations that cluster round it! Perhaps there was no scene in the Holy Land which afforded us more unmingled enjoyment: we even fancied that the curse, that every where rests so visibly upon the land, had fallen more lightly here. In point of situation, nothing could have come up more completely to our previous imagination of the place to which Jesus delighted to retire at evening from the bustle of the city, and the vexations of the unbelieving multitudes-sometimes traversing the road by which we had come, and perhaps oftener still coming up the face of the hill by the footpath that passes on the north of Gethsemane. What a peaceful scene! Amidst these trees, or in that grassy field, he may often have been seen in deep communion with the Father. And in sight of this verdant spot it was that he took his last farewell of the disciples, and went upward to resume the deep, unbroken fellowship of "his God, and our God," uttering blessings even in the moment when he began to be parted from them. (Luke xxiv. 51.) And it was here that the two angels stood by

them in white apparel, and left us this glorious message, "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him heaven." (Acts i. 11.)—Mission to the Jews.

go into

OUR LIVING LETTERS.

CHAP. II.-BRIGHT DIAMONDS AND DARK.

OUR second meeting this year was appointed to take place at a house most conveniently situated for the greater number of our members, though, in my especial case, it exposed me to a long and somewhat dreary ride over a common and through an extent of coppice wood. We always chose those seasons for our meetings when the moon was near the full; hence I had no difficulty in finding my way throughout by-paths over the common, though I might nevertheless have lost myself in the coppice, had not the light from our friend's study-window glimmered far through the leafless trees, telling me where I might expect a feast of bodily and spiritual refreshment.

The parsonage stands on a gentle eminence, but its dark contour only was visible, as the moon was still low in the heavens directly behind it. I was much struck with the delicate tracery of the leafless branches of the trees in the garden, as they stood out against the pale glory of the sky. Surely something of the goodness of God might be discerned even by the dullest mortal, from the innumerable exhibitions of beauty which are manifested in all the changes of natural things in this present earth; sin, and its consequence death, being in fact the only means by which deformity in this fair creation has ever been produced or carried on.

Warm, in every sense, was the reception which was given to me, the last comer at my friend's house; and this reception was the more agreeable from the circumstance of a severe cutting wind having arisen within the last half hour of my ride, with every symptom of the infliction of a sharp frost. The moaning and whistling of these wintry blasts only added a higher sense of enjoyment to our little party round the tea-table, and such was the flow of our discourse that we had no leisure to hearken to

the tales of other times, and far-off scenes, which our host, who was a man of fine imagination, asserted were often brought to him by the sounds of such winds, when he sat alone and meditating in that room.

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"No one can doubt," remarked Paternus, "that the natural winds of heaven, when heard by one sitting alone, exercise much influence on the thoughts, sometimes bringing forward old remembrances, sometimes carrying the mind forward to future things, and sometimes exciting fear, but oftener sadness. And herein," he added, we see a farther resemblance in the natural type to its lofty and mysterious antitype; for of what are the unseen movements of the air the emblems or figures, but of those of the Divine Spirit? Those, even, who have experienced their influences can no more tell whence they come, than we can say from what cold region of the now-benighted north proceed those blasts which are clamouring at my friend's casements."

"We know, however, that such influences are shed upon the minds of some of us," remarked a Mr. Montague, one of our little society, who occupied a middle position between our oldest and our youngest members, and if," he added, we are to proceed upon the plan fixed at our last meeting, I am prepared to supply a narrative by which the mysterious energy of the Divine Spirit in succeeding the labors of a brother in the ministry under most difficult circumstances, will be most strongly elucidated."

"Let us have it by all means," said Paternus, settling himself in the arm chair of his host,-for of course the principal chair belonged to our father at every meeting,-" let us have it ;" and he crossed his legs, and resting his shoulders against the cushioned back of his seat, seemed to be prepared for great enjoyment. Indeed, he said he was so; asserting that he had no greater pleasure than to hear authentic accounts of a work of grace wrought by redeeming love amongst the sinful children of men. One such instance," he remarked, "if fully authenticated, is as satisfactory to the believing mind, respecting the reality of the truth of spiritual regeneration, as the ascension of Elijah in a chariot of fire was of the existence of a future state at the period of its occurrence."

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Mr. Montague then commenced his narrative without further prelude. "My father," he said, "had formed, when at school,

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