sceptre, to express their contempt for his authority; but though despised by wicked men, the Saviour shall finally sway an universal sceptre, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

To lay down the sceptre is to resign royalty, and to have the sceptre taken away, or to be broken, is to be deprived of royalty and to be degraded. Thus when God subdued Assyria and other powerful enemies of Israel, he is said to have broken their staff or their sceptre. 66 Thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff (the sceptre) of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian."-Isaiah ix. 4. The breaking of the sceptre or the staff of office is represented in our engraving.

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.

MOUNTAINS are the memorials of nature. They heave their huge ridges, while their sky-pointing summits seem to threaten the heavens. They are the boundaries of nature, the everlasting pyramids of creation. They are the asylum of independence, the cradle of civil and religious liberty. They are the great magazines of nature; from their bowels we obtain those substances which are required alike by prince and peasant. Mountains have been the scenes of many remarkable incidents in this world's sacred history. When the pelting showers of divine wrath had subsided, the ark, with its voyagers, rested on mount Ararat. Amidst lurid lightnings and rolling thunders, the voice of Jehovah was heard from Sinai's summit. The death of Moses will ever 66 be Pisgah's diadem," and Tabor will ever be celebrated for the glory manifested on its summit. The words of Jesus still seem as though just uttered by his matchless eloquence, echoing among the sunny hills and lovely dales of Judea. But Olivet is encircled with brighter glories. There the Saviour was wont to pray. Thither he oft times resorted to escape the noise and dissonance of the city. There he wept over hard-hearted sinners. There he gave his last command to his disciples. There he pronounced his final benediction. There his footsteps passed from earth to the cloudless glories of the upper sanctuary.

1. Olivet reminds us of a Saviour's prayers and a Saviour's agony. At the foot of this mountain is situated the garden of Gethsemane. It is encircled by two paths, which lead to Bethany. A few aged olive trees still exist within the enclosure. "Thither Jesus oft times resorted to pray." It is night. The setting sun has ceased to crimson the western sky. The moon glides silently across the blue serene. The silvery brook flows on without a murmur. The reeds bend

before the wind. A human form approaches. It is the Man of Sorrows. Jesus comes here to pray. There, shrouded in a leafy bower; there, in its Patmos-like seclusion, where no footfall was heard on either star-lit path, the voice of prayer was ascending to the Majesty of Heaven. And, as it was the scene of his midnight fastings, so it was the scene of his greatest agony. From that lonely spot ascended the prayer, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" and oh! if in that paroxysm of woe, that cup had not been drunk, it must have passed on, and all our humanity been drowned in the flood of divine vengeance.

2. Olivet is connected with a Saviour's example in prayer. Other people would retire to their homes, and recline on the downy pillow of ease, but Jesus would go to the Mount of Olives. He would go there, not to meditate on the beauties of creation, not to speculate on the clouds floating in the blue azure, not to admire the innumerable spheres thronging the blue ethereal expanse, but he would go there to hold communion with his Father; and after witnessing the boisterous merriment and blasphemy of man, truly this was a noble exercise, and there would be flung around that sacred spot holy influence which would endear it to his heart. Let Jesus's devotions be your model. It needs no chivalrous achievement to arrest the ear of Jehovah; no vain imagination, with its meteoric flash; no oratorical pomp; no skill in the nomenclature of science. A Hannah's simple strains, or a Samuel's lisping accents, can bring him down.

3. Olivet bespeaks a Saviour's love. Love is an affection which glows in the breasts of all holy intelligences; but never was it so perfectly exemplified as in Christ. In doleful Gethsemane the love of Christ shone brightly forth. The flesh refused that bitter cup, but love enabled him to hold it fast, and love strengthened him to drink it all. Oh! Christless sinners, do you credit a Saviour's love? Under some false influence you may shout, Hosanna to the Son of David; but Jesus may be weeping over you and saying, "Would that thou hadst known in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes." Remember, that except the visible presence of the Saviour, he is still the same. Many look upon him as though he was s dead Saviour as though Calvary was the last of his eventful life-and should they visit the Holy Land, they would be ready to exclaim, "Is this the grassy mount where he preached that sermon? yon lake, rippling round its pebbly margin, is it the one he so often crossed? and are these the very rocks that echoed the strong crying of his midnight prayers!"

thinking not that he rose from the dead, and is alive for evermore. Others look upon him as an altered and an absent Saviour; but he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and, before he left the grassy steeps of Olivet, he said. "Lo, Í am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Gethsemane's agony, or Calvary's cross, did not quench that love, and his heart still yearns over thee, oh Christless sinner.

4. Olivet reminds us of a Saviour's resurrection and ascension. Christ is laid in the silent tomb. No signs appear of his rising. The third day is about to dawn. Ah! how the Saviour's enemies will reproach and sneer; how those bloodhounds in the palace will rejoice at the success of their scheme! But see, what means that sudden flash which shoots athwart the gathering gloom? What means that low, continued noise? He comes, the same that stood before Pilate, the same that died on Calvary. Now, ye Roman soldiers, now show forth your prowess; why do ye hang back? Ah! had mountains been piled on mountains over the sepulchre, yet still the Saviour would have risen, and led captivity captive.

And now, after spending forty days on the earth, he stands once more on Olivet's venerable summit. His little band is around him. They receive his last blessing, his farewell look, when a cloud receives him out of their sight, he is escorted by a band of the angelic choir, the whole empyrean rings with their shouts, and he enters through the pearly gates into the Heavenly Jerusalem.

Let us admire the amazing condescension of the Saviour. He was the Creator of this grand universe; he lifted those hoary mountains; he spread out the rich drapery of nature; he formed those luminous spheres that twinkle in the nocturnal gloom, like so many sparkling gems; and yet he deigned to die for rebels against his government; he condescended to make the steeps of Olivet his couch, to endure the most poignant sufferings in dark Gethsemane, to allow the bolt of wrath to fall on his devoted head. Let Olivet be our incarnation monument. Let Jesus be our model and our guide. May that last command meet with a response in every bosom. May that last look kindle such a heavenly zeal in every heart, as shall make us feel within the circle of the sublimest satisfactions, and, like the men of Galilee, make us loth to quit the Mount of Olives.

誓

Neavias, of South Shields. [We shall be glad to hear often from Neanias.-ED.]

THE BIBLE CLASS.

ENOCH'S PIETY AND TRANSLATION.

THE class should read over carefully the following portions of Scripture:-Genesis v. 18 to 24; Hebrews xi. 5; Jude 14, 15.

In the history of the antediluvian age, we meet with two individuals of the name of Enoch. The one was a son of Cain, and the first city of which we have any mention in Sacred History was built by Cain, and called after his name. The Enoch, however, who was translated to heaven was a descendant of Seth, the younger brother of Cain. Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and was born, it is supposed, about the year of the world 622, or 3,382 years before the birth of Christ.

The biography of this good man is summed up in a few brief, but beautiful and comprehensive words, and they lead us to entertain a most exalted idea of his piety. In one short sentence the sacred historian furnishes us with the most exalted idea of the moral history and religious attainments of this distinguished man. Enoch," says he, "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him."

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It was amidst scenes and examples of abounding wickedness that Enoch lived, for it was at the time near to the flood, when the earth was filled with violence, and all flesh had “corrupted its way upon the earth," yet he was found pursuing a course of holy obedience with singular resolution and constancy of mind. "He walked with God," said the historian. What an encomium is this. How do all worldly distinctions and honours fade in the comparison! Like the rest of mankind Enoch was by nature estranged from God, and manifested the natural enmity of his heart towards God for some time; for we find nothing said of his piety until after he was sixty-five years of age. After this, it is said, "he walked with God for the space of three hundred years.' While unconverted he walked according to the course of this world-a stranger and an alien; and before he could walk with God he must have been divinely changed; for "how can two walk together except they be agreed ?"

Enoch was privileged with devotional intercourse with God. This, perhaps, may be regarded as the principal thing intended by the phrase "walking with God." Enoch would approach to God through the appointed sacrifices and the peculiar modes of worship adopted in those early times; and God, perhaps, would, in return, converse with him by imme

diate revelations, by dreams and visions of the night, and, perhaps, by audible voices and visible manifestations of his presence and glory. It was in this way God conversed with Abraham and Moses, and it is presumable Enoch would enjoy similar privileges.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews the apostle makes special mention of Enoch's faith. He is there represented as having obtained "a testimony that he pleased God." The expression is designed to express the same idea as that employed by the historian in Genesis; and mention is made of faith as the principle by which Enoch was actuated, and which secured so exalted a privilege. Faith is thus represented as having a peculiar connection with the approbation or pleasure of God— faith in divine truth, so far as it was at that time revealed. The institution of animal sacrifices, which we have reason to believe took place immediately after the fall, was clearly intended to foreshadow and prefigure the great atonement to be offered for sin on Calvary; and the offering of such sacrifices by enlightened and pious men, such as Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, must be regarded as an expression of their faith in the great atonement to which they refer, and from which alone the efficacy and value of such sacrifices were derived. To this all-prevailing sacrifice, therefore, did Enoch, by faith, approach when offering up the bleeding victim. Before this altar did he bend under a consciousness of depravity and guilt, assured that because God had appointed the sacrifice as the method of penitential approach, and to foreshadow or prefigure the great atonement, he would have respect unto his promise, and accept the person of the prostrate believer.

And

The allusion to Enoch in the Epistle of Jude introduces to us another interesting feature in the character of this holy man as a prophet; and we cannot but look upon that allusion as a precious fragment of antediluvian history, preserved to us by the special providence of God. Jude is referring to scoffers who should appear in the last days-" Ungodly men who should turn the grace of God into lasciviousness." says he, "Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these things, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly of all the ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Such, then, was the character and piety of this distinguished man; and can you, for a moment, wonder that God would honour such excellence with signal approbation? When recording the event of his removal from the world, the