vout Cornelius, "Behold he prayeth :" and these fervent requests for the coming of the Messiah, may surely be considered to have been answered in after years by the revelation of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to his soul.

His longings for this great reconciliation, and his expectation of it in answer to his prayers, increased from day to day; to see the Messiah, to share his favour, to be renewed by his grace,—such were the thoughts that filled his mind. A grove not far from his dwelling,

was the chosen scene of his meditations and devotions : here he was wont to pour out his soul before God, in the words of the forty-second Psalm, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God! My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?" While gaining hope and courage as the time went on, his heart was filled with blissful anticipations of the glorious event, and his imagination seems already to have beheld, the knowledge of the Lord about to cover the earth as the waters do cover the seas, the curse removed, all sin destroyed, and all mankind, the holy, faithful, happy subjects of Messiah's universal kingdom. A modern Jewish writer on the prophecies,* also numbers it among the blessings of the Messiah's coming, that he will teach all nations, the word of the Lord; bring all to the knowledge of the true faith; reading as we do, the destruction of the covering and the vail, (Isa. xxv. 7.) as the removal of all the ignorance, sin,

* Dissertations on the Prophecies, by D. Levi.

and folly, of mankind. Even so, may Thy kingdom come, Lord Jesus!

A year was the space of time, set apart by this zealous Israelite to continue these prayers, and six months passed away in the manner described. He had returned from Piatka, to spend the period of his illness under the parental roof; and his altered conduct, and whole deportment, attracted the notice of his father, who remonstrated with him upon his persisting in exposing himself to the cold air contrary to the advice of his physician; which, with his other observances, appears to have been dangerous in the state of his health. His father could not, however, find out what was the matter with him, or obtain any satisfactory answer. He, therefore, had recourse to one of his intimate friends, from whom he found, that the mind of his son was distressed on account of his sins, and anxiety respecting his salvation; that he had come to the conclusion from Eccles. vii. 20, "there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not," that all men were destitute of righteousness, and consequently, that salvation through their own strength was impossible; and that he was therefore praying earnestly in the adjacent grove for the appearance of the Messiah, from the expectation of which he derived all his comfort.

It may be supposed that his father was extremely concerned at this account, and, totally unable to sympathize with the feelings of his son, he consulted with his grandfather as to the means to be taken to divert him from these proceedings. The two learned

Rabbins, by the united influence of respect and affection, succeeded in making an impression upon his mind, and anxious to withdraw the child of their love, from penances and prayers, which they considered unnecessary for his soul and injurious to his body, they endeavoured to persuade him, that it was more becoming an aged Tsaddik like his grand-father to offer up prayers for the Advent of the Messiah than himself; that to expect an immediate answer was vain, for holier persons than himself had prayed for the same, and been denied; and that he was to look for remission of his past sins, and strength against new transgressions, in the diligent and persevering study of the Talmud.

They succeeded; his love and reverence for them united to render him obedient to their counsels, and when he left them to return once to his residence at Tshidnow, it was with a promise, to apply himself to his former studies, and trouble himself no further respecting the Advent of the Messiah.

This promise he faithfully kept, and obtained by his assiduity an extensive knowledge, and a great celebrity: so much so, that his father, unable from bodily weakness to perform his office as Rabbin in a satisfactory manner, intended to appoint him his successor. Enchanted with this prospect―a very honourable one amongst the Jews—with a conscience lulled by human praise, and a heart at rest in human affection, his former convictions, by the voice of the charmer, were stilled in his soul. Doubtful is the condition of any heart where the conviction of sin slumbers, and retro

grading is the state of that Christian, who is unconscious of the daily trangression. True faith which leads us to look for pardon through the blood of Christ, will never render us heedless of sin. Is sin destroyed in the heart, the moment it believes? Is the separation immediate, final, and complete? No: the apostle, the devoted faithful apostle, represents sin as dwelling constantly in him: (Rom. vii.) the life of a Christian, a truly spiritual life, must be a continued warfare;

Soldier, rest! but not for thee,

Spreads the world her downy pillow,
On the rock, thy sleep must be
While around thee roars the billow;
Hosts thou canst not name nor number,
Steal upon thy guarded slumber.

"The assurance of our hope,' observes an eminent writer, must vary as the experience of our sanctification:' at all events it ought to do so; for there is no hope to be entertained of the life of a tree, which puts forth no fruit; and we can have no experience of our sanctification except as we are engaged in the daily, earnest striving against sin. "If any man would be my disciple," said the Lord, "he must take up his cross daily; " if we do not know what it is daily to oppose our own inclinations, wishes, feelings, we cannot be living to the Lord. It is only,' as is remarked by the writer before quoted, as we can say with all the conscious integrity of St. Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," that we can also say, with all the full assurance of St. Paul, "Henceforth there is laid up

for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day"-May God grant to us to live unto Him, that we may also die unto him!

About this time, in the the year 1821, an epidemical disorder, occasioning great mortality and snatching away those whom it attacked in a few hours, made its appearance at Tshidnow. The recollection of the disease which prevailed in our own country a few years ago, is sufficiently recent to enable most of us to imagine the terror of the pestilence which "walketh in darkness" the sickening feeling of the uncertainty of the tenure by which we held all that was dear to us in life; the passing dread which must sometimes have occurred even to the most thoughtless, whispering to them in the silence of night, "Are you ready?" These remembrances, and such as these, may carry our hearts with painful sympathy, to a crowded town, where great mortality prevails; and how must the dread of that unseen foe have been heightened in the mind of one whose every idea of death was replete with horror, and whose conviction of sin and of consequent judgment, rose as it were in new strength, from their temporary slumber. 'Terror,' says he, 'seized upon me; my transgression both of the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the ceremonial law,* and of the ten commandments of the moral law of Moses, brought me in guilty before my conscience. I consulted the Talmud for comfort, and

The 613 precepts of the Talmud, the observance of which, amongst other "burdens grievous to be borne," have been laid on their followers by the Rabbins.