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ing field, and assure them that though they sow in tears they shall reap in joy: though now constrained to weep, while scattering the precious seed, they shall, with their Divine Master, come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves.'

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Those words remind me of one who has just left our shores on a Mission of a very singular interest; and whose heart is much set on scattering some of the same good seed among the Mussulmans, the days of whose predicted continuance as a people seem to be well nigh expired.'

'Dear Wolff! Yes, he has gone forth fully confident of rescuing our two countrymen, of whose reported murder scarcely any reflecting person now believes a word; and I am sanguine of his success. He has, on every ground, a strong claim on our continued prayers to the God of Israel for his preservation, and an abundant blessing on his comprehensive work. That noble fellow, Captain Grover, will never have cause to regret either the exertions or the sacrifices that he has made to set this mission on foot; and of him, as of our Jewish brother it will be surely said, They have done what they could.'

THE

CHRISTIAN LADY'S MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1843.

THE TOUCHSTONE OF HISTORY.

CHAPTER VI.

WE now bid farewell to the comfortless region of heathenism, and what a glorious field lies outspread before us! A field, indeed, of which we can say, that it has scarcely ever, if at all, been spanned by the measuring-line of a purely Christian survey, or depicted on a tablet where the hand of truth mixed the colours, beneath the sun-light of divine revelation. Human prejudices and worldly principles have so uniformly intruded themselves into the plan, that, more or less, every thing is tainted by them; and neither men nor their actions are fairly tested by the standard to which all must be brought and all be judged at last.

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There is a beautiful work, Quin's Historical Atlas,' comprising a series of maps of which the first DECEMBER, 1843,

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CHRISTIAN LADY'S MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1843.

THE TOUCHSTONE OF HISTORY.

CHAPTER VI.

We now bid farewell to the comfortless region of heathenism, and what a glorious field lies outsprend before us: fed indeed, of which we can and that it has startez if at all, been spanned bi the measuring-ine a purely Christian survey depicted on a here the hand of truth gilgait

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consists of a small yellow speck, in dimensions not exceeding those of a half-crown-piece, surrounded by broken clouds, and beyond them the whole sheet is one expanse of deep, unbroken, black darkness. That spot exhibits so much of the earth as man may venture to shape forth, by the light of revelation alone, previous to the Deluge. The blessed, but forfeited spot called Eden; the four rivers that watered the garden, Mount Ararat, and the land of Nod, with a bordering portion of Ethiopia. At the next period we have the Assyrian Empire, with Syria, Canaan and Egypt; but with nearly as wide an expanse of black terra incognita. Hence, at every succeeding period, the map enlarges, the clouds roll further and further from the central plan; and at length we behold the world as now it is known to us, with its vast territories, save in the near vicinity of the poles, portioned out, and named, and an accompanying letter-press description, very fairly, though briefly, tracing the rise, the changes, the disappearance of successive kingdoms, of enormous empires and petty sovereignties, each distinguished on the maps by its appropriate tint, until it leaves us at the present epoch with little more for man to reclaim from the beasts of the forest, however vast a prize for his avarice or ambition to wrest from his fellow-man.

Over this Atlas we have oft pondered, while tracing the gradual lifting up of the veil from another and another immense tract of this habitable globe, as men multiplying upon it required more room to dwell. For many an age there existed but one lamp of real light in the midst of all that knowledge, and power, and magnificence which combined to extend

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