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thrill with ecstasy of anticipation: "Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" for "verily I say unto you, forasmuch as ye have done" these works of love "unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done them unto me."

TREES.

THE tiel tree is named but once in scripture; but it is by that diligent observer of nature, the prophet Isaiah. In shadowing forth the final restoration of the remnant of the people of God, he uses the following beautiful figure: "As a tiel-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, though they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof," i. e., of the renewed nation of the Lord. I have before observed, that the greater number of trees, shrubs, and herbs spoken of by Isaiah, are such as flourish in the northern part of the ancient kingdom of Israel. The lime is among the most beautiful of these: it grows in the forests of Lebanon, and extends to Bashan along with the oak. It is found on Caucasus, and all the hill country, to the Himalaya mountains, and to China. The

great beauty and longevity of the tiel, or linden, have procured for it the honour of sharing with the oak in something like religious honours. In many places it was under the great linden, instead of the oak, that the councils of the tribes of halfcivilized men took place: there were held their markets and their feasts; and many a legend and ancient story tells of the trystings under the linden, for council or for war. Even now, in some old undisturbed communities, the traveller

in Germany will find the linden of the villagegreen the resort of the old for gossip, and of the young for sport. Every part of the linden is valuable to man; an infusion of the flowers, separated from the bracts, is considered to be a sovereign remedy for headache, in Switzerland and Germany. But it is as pasture for bees, that the tiel-tree is most to be desired; and, in a country such as Jewry, one of whose temporal blessings it was to be a land of milk and of honey, the tiel must have been a most welcome indweller. One of the poets of the Hebrews sings, that though the bee" is little among such as fly, yet is her fruit the chief of sweet things." The beehives of Palestine were curious things, imitated indeed from nature; the modern shape (and no doubt the ancient form was the same) is a hollow earthern tube, from two to three feet long, and six or eight inches in diameter, entirely closed at one end, and nearly so at the other; eight or ten of these tubes are laid pyramidically over each other, and thatched, so that the piles reminded Hasselquist of Swedish pigsties. These pyramids are found sometimes near an Arab's hut, oftener under a tree; and when, as is the case with the tiel-tree, the blossom affords pasture for the bees, the honey, that great luxury of the east, may be gathered frequently, without destroying the insects, during the flowery season. At some of the sugar-farms in South America, I was surprised to see clusters of hollow trunks of trees, generally placed under shelter of the verandas about the house. On inquiry, I found they were natural bee-hives, brought in from the forests. As soon as a bee-tree in a convenient situation is found, if the tree is of moderate size, the trunk' is sawed

off above and below the nest, which is then brought home, and fresh swarms raised, as we raise them from our straw hives. And such hives in hollow trees appear most probably to have furnished the model for the Jewish, Arab, and Syrian earthen tubes. But to return to the tiel-tree. The timber is remarkable for softness, lightness, toughness, and durability, so that the turner and the carver are equally its debtors. One species of tiliaceous tree is called shoe-wood in Brazil, because the soles of the clogs worn universally by the Portuguese in the rainy season are made of it. Another of the same family furnishes the light timber of which the massoolla or surf-boats at Madras are built. But perhaps, after all, the bark is the most important part of the linden. From it cordage, sacking, and other things of the kind, are manufactured; and it is from the soft inner part that, from time immemorial, the warm pliable garden-mat has been woven. We formerly imported these mats from Holland, whence they were called Dutch or Bass mats; but now they have the proper name of Russian mats, because, by a direct commerce, we have them from the country where they are made. The linden flourishes in all the provinces, both European and Asiatic, of that huge empire; and these mats often serve for clothing and bedding, as they formerly did for sails, even to vessels of considerable size. The ravelled strips of bark from the garden mat are much used for tying up delicate or trailing plants, and for knotting together bunches of cut flowers. The ancients appear to have done the same; and, moreover, from some fancied virtue possessed by the bark itself, it was used to tie up the flowers for coronals at feasts, in order that its

refreshing qualities might prevent headache. The

Roman poet says—

"I detest

The grandeur of a Persian feast;
Nor for me the linden-rind
Shall the flowery chaplet bind."

EGYPT.

NO. II.

CAIRO is the first city of modern Egypt. It lies near the site of the ancient Memphis, which, in the bible, is called Moph, or Noph, Hosea ix. 6; Isa. xix. 13; Ezek. xxx. 13.

On the eastern side of the eastern branch of the Nile, are situated the cities On, Pithon, and Raamses. On means the sun: the Hebrews, on that account, translate the name by Bethsemes; the Greeks, by Heliopolis, that is, City of the Sun. Opposite Raamses, on the western side of the eastern branch of the Nile, lay Bubastus, which gave its name to that part of the river on which it stood. At On is still standing the lofty granite obelisk of Pharaoh Osiriosao; that Pharaoh whose dreams Joseph interpreted, and whom the patriarch Jacob blessed.

The land of Goshen, which Pharaoh allotted to the children of Israel, was the eastern side of the Delta of the Nile, the most fruitful district of Egypt, which would be so much more agreeable to the Israelites, on account of its contiguity to the wilderness, which they could occupy in the winter with their herds. The fertility of the country extends no further than the inundation; beyond that point, the dark soil ceases, and the red sand of the desert begins. In the Delta, most of the Egyptian cities were situated which are

mentioned in the bible; as, for example, Zoan, or Tanis, Tehaphnehes or Daphne, Psa. lxxviii. 12; Ezek. xxx. 18; Jer. ii. 16, xliii. 7. In Upper Egypt was No, or No Ammon, namely, the house of Ammon; also called Thebes, of which some noble ruins are still in existence.

NUBIA AND ABYSSINIA.

The upper region of the Nile is called Nubia; and the country near its source, Habesh, or Abyssinia. In the bible, these countries are called Cush, and Ethiopia. Tirhakah, mentioned in 2 Kings xix. 9, was a king of Nubia. Colossal monuments of a prosperity and opulence that have long since passed away, are to be seen in every part of Nubia: now the whole land is a sandy desert,

Two rapid streams, the Tykazze and the Bahr el Abiad, by their junction form the Nile. Their steep and inaccessible rocky shores form a kind of island of the land between the two streams, which is called Meroe. For a long period, this country was governed, not by kings, but by queens, who bore the name or title of Candace. Meroe was, therefore, the residence of the eunuch, the first fruits of the Gospel in Africa, whom Philip baptized, Acts viii. 26-39. As the rocky shores form a kind of natural entrenchment, it is called by the prophets, "the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia," Isa. xviii. 1: Zeph. iii. 10. There are glorious promises to be fulfilled in the last times to these people, who, for the last three centuries, have been distracted by civil wars. Isa. xviii. 7; Zeph. iii, 10; Psa. lxviii. 31.

LIBYA AND CYRENE.

The ancients reckoned Egypt as belonging not

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