of judicature and common resort. Here the governors and elders of the city went to hear complaints, administer justice, make conveyances of titles and estates, and, in short, to transact all the public affairs of the place. And from hence is that passage in the Psalmist, "They shall not be ashamed when they speak to their enemies in the gate," Ps. cxxvii. 5. It is probable that the room, or hall, where the magistrate sat, was over the gate, because Boaz is said "to go up to the gate;' and the reason of having it built there, seems to have been for the convenience of the inhabitants, who, being all husbandmen, and forced to pass and repass every morning and evening as they went and came from their labour, might be more easily called, as they went by, whenever they were wanted to appear any business.

in

Captain Hamilton,* giving an account of Fort St. George, observes, that "the gate of that town, called the sea-gate, being very spacious, was formerly the common exchange, where merchants of all nations resorted about eleven o'clock, to treat of business or merchandise." Astronomy, deriving its birth in Asia, and exploring nature and language for new symbols, soon seized upon this allegorical expression as highly descriptive of romantic ideas; and the title was transferred from terrestrial houses to the spheres, or planets and stars. It may here be remarked, that the expression occurs frequently in holy writ, often in the former sense, and sometimes even in the astronomical allusion of the word. In the former acceptation we read in Esther ii. 19 of the Jew, Mordecai, "sitting in the king's gate;" in Lamentations v. 14, that "the elders have ceased from the gate." In Ruth iii. 13 it is used in a sense remarkably figurative, "All the gate (that is, house) my people know thou art virtuous." In the second acceptation, the word as well as the attendant symbol itself, to our astonishment occur in the account of Jacob's vision of the ladder, "Whose top reached to heaven," and in the exclamation, "This is the gate of heaven." It is hence manifested to have been an original patriarchal symbol. A similar idea occurs in Isaiah xxxviii. 10: "I shall go to the gates of the grave;" and in Matt. xvi, 18: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

of

Matthew vii. 13, "Enter ye in at the strait gate." At the banquets of the ancients, the guests entered by a gate designed to receive them. Hence Christ, by whom we enter in to the marriage feast, compares himself to a gate. (John x. 1, 2, 7, 9.) This gate on the coming of the guests was made narrow, the

*Voyage, vol. i. p. 368.

wicket only being left open, and the porter standing to prevent the unbidden from rushing in. When the guests were arrived, the door was shut, and not to be opened to those who stood and knocked without. See the parable of the ten virgins. (Matt. xxv. 11.)

*

Ezekiel xliv. 2: "This gate shall be shut." Amongst other instances of the extreme distance and profound awe with which eastern majesty is treated, Chardin says, "It is a common custom in Persia, that when a great man has built a palace; he treats the king and his grandees in it for several days! then the great gate of it is open: but when these festivities are over, they shut it up never more to be opened. This account may serve as a comment on the words of Ezekiel: "Then said the Lord unto me, This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it: because the Lord God of Israel hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince." In referring to the New Jerusalem in heaven, it is said that "the gates shall not be shut at all by day; and that there shall be no night there." xxi. 25. This denotes that heaven is free to all men.

Rer.

OUR CHILDREN'S PORTION.

SCENES FROM THE HISTORY OF ELIJAH.
No. I.-THE ASSEMBLY AT CARMEL.

IN a shady grove great multi- | idol stood the king, queen, and tudes of people were walking to nobles. The furnace, heated to and fro. Passing between the its highest pitch, was sending up stately rows of trees, they came its roaring flames, and the whole to a large open space, where was image glowed with heat. Upon a huge brazen statue of Baal. a given signal from the priests, Its form was that of a man in a a number of men and women sitting posture, with the arms stepped forward, bearing in their extended to receive gifts. Under hands little innocent babes, which it was a furnace, which was in- they tossed into the arms of the tensely heated. idol. The shrieks of the infant sufferers were drowned by the priests, who sounded drums, cymbals, and other noisy instru*Tom. iii. p. 69.

It was the time of sacrifice. The people were engaged in their devotions, and near to the

ments.

solitary prophet of the Lord-
ELIJAH. It was at his request
that this assembly had been
called. Undaunted he stood up
before them, and, speaking in
an impassioned tone, said, "How
long halt ye between two opi-
nions? If the Lord be God,
follow him."
As the people

The people shouted state, attended by all his princimadly; and the parents, who pal officers and servants. Four had themselves offered up their hundred and fifty of the prophets own children, stood gazing un-of Baal were there, and one movedly upon the writhing victims, till they fell into the furnace, and were utterly consumed. Yet these inhuman wretches were descended from the father of the faithful; and at this time they appeared to be more mad upon their idol than ever. Their idolatry had brought upon them a great national punishment; and the prophet of the Lord, who had foretold this, was, after being long fed by ravens, now hiding himself in a distant country.

raised no objection to this proposition, he continued, "I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them, therefore, give us two Three years and a half before bullocks, and let them choose the crops had failed greatly, in one bullock for themselves, and consequence of the latter rains cut it in pieces, and lay it on being withheld; and during the wood, and put no fire under: long interval that followed, not and I will dress the other bula shower had fallen to refresh lock, and lay it on wood, and the ground. The brooks and put no fire under: and call ye fountains were dried up, the on the name of your gods, and pastures were all scorched and I will call on the name of bare, and scarcely a blade of the Lord: and the God that grass, or an ear of corn, was to answereth by fire, let him be be found. Cattle died; men God." Seeing the fairness of looked anxiously one upon ano- the test, the people immediately ther. Famine, with all its hor-expressed their approbation. rors, was among them.

Elijah then desired Baal's

This they

In the extremity of the famine prophets to erect an altar, lay the king issued a proclamation, the wood in order, and dress that all Israel should assemble their bullock first. at Mount Carmel. They obeyed. Among the moving crowd was the king, riding in his chariot of

did.

Then approaching the altar they began to call loudly on Baal to answer their prayers,

by sending fire to consume prophet. At length the silence their sacrifice. But no answer was broken. It was the prowas made. Urged on almost phet who, in the voice of prayer, to madness by the taunts of was exclaiming, "Lord God of Elijah, they continued their Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel! vehement supplications till the Let it be known this day that time of the offering of the thou art God in Israel, and that evening sacrifice. They had I am thy servant, and that I leaped upon the altar, and cut have done all these things at thy themselves with knives till the word. Hear me, O Lord, hear blood streamed from them. But me; that this people may know there was no voice, nor any to that thou art the Lord God, and answer, nor any that regarded. that thou hast turned their heart back again." Scarcely was that prayer ended, when the fire of the Lord fell from heaven, and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood, and the stones, and

water that was in the trench.
Filled with wonder at this mani-
festation of divine power, the
people immediately, as if to rend
the heavens, shouted,
"The
LORD he is the God! the LORD
he is the God!"

Calling the attention of the assembly, whose patience was exhausted by watching so long for the result of the prayers of Baal's prophets, Elijah proceeded to repair the altar of the dust, and licked up the the Lord that had been thrown down. Assisted by his servant, he dug a trench round it, laid the wood in order, dressed the bullock, and laid it upon the wood. He then bid the people fetch four barrels of water, and pour it upon the sacrifice; which being done, he desired them to repeat the act three times. Twelve barrels of water were poured upon the altar, proving that no fire was hidden under. The sacrifice, wood, and altar being saturated with water, and the trench full to the brim, the prophet drew near, and placed himself in the attitude of prayer.

All was silent. Not a sound was heard in all that assembly.

Every eye was turned to the

Baal's prophets, full of shame at the exposure of their impostures, and dreading the punishment they so justly deserved, were hurrying away in every direction. But, no! Elijah bade the people "Let not one of them escape;" and they, obeying his word, and disregarding the king's authority, took them down to the foot of the mountain, to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

The assembly was broken up

There was a girl about twelve years old, in a black bonnet and check apron, carrying a child in her arms, and an old woman with a yellow handkerchief over her shoulders, with a basket, half a dozen children of different ages, a poor man dressed in an old fustian jacket and trousers,

and the people were hurrying to their homes. The king was riding in his chariot, and Elijah was running before him, when the sky became overcast, and the heavens grew black with clouds. Large drops of rain began to fall, making the ground hiss like as when water is sprinkled upon heated metal. a decent-looking servant-girl, The drops came faster and faster. People were running to set vessels to catch the water, which to them was as life itself. For a few minutes the drops ceased to fall. Then followed a mighty wind, and there came a great rain.

When satisfying their burning thirst, and watering the cattle that were preserved alive, they could not but repeat, "The LORD he is the God! The LORD he is the God!"

D. MATTHEWS.

and two lads, one dressed in brown and the other in blue.

"What is the matter?" said a lady who was passing. The servant, dropping a curtsey, told her that the girl in the black bonnet, carrying the child, had dropped a shilling. "She ought to be more careful," replied the lady, and passed on.

"What are you all looking for?" inquired a gentleman on horseback, reining in his horse for a moment. "For a shilling, sir," said the poor man, "that a nurse-girl has dropped." Off rode the gentleman on horseback without speaking another word; thinking that he might, perhaps, be expected to open his purse.

PERSEVERANCE, OR THE LOST SHILLING. Ir was about eleven o'clock in the morning of a summer's day, that a dozen or more persons were seen all of them walking slowly backwards and forwards close to the palisades of Squire Allen's garden. Every head was bent downwards, and every eye intently fixed upon the ground, so that it was clear something market-gardener stopped his was lost, which they were en-loaded cart; all these asked deavouring to find. what was the matter, and each

While the group were employed in their fruitless search, a butcher's lad came up, with a wooden tray and a leg of mutton on his shoulders; a baker put down his basket of bread, and a