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s, ivi]en they expressed a wish it in their paper—and that I should re quest you to re-publish it. You will find it in year JB4G —VoI. 14, No. 28. Perhaps when that brother learns that he has ma ny sisters in ludiana, who are interested in his letters, he will write again, and tell us of his where abouts at this time. We claim him as a dear brother in the Lord— and the Hill Country of Judea, which he describes as having vallies as weil as hills, we think we have seen, and aie willing to testify with him that he has described the country correctly and edifyingly. Yours, in full fellowship, ANN JOHNSON. Hill Country of Judea, Nov., 1846. To tiie Editor — l have understood that at this season of the year, when the volume of the Signs is drawing to a close you are not apt to be crowd ed with as many communications for publication, as in the earlier part of the volume. If my infor mation be correct, perhaps you can find a spare corner for this communication, without excluding something of more importance. You will perceive by the place of my date that I write from the hill country of Judea, but 1 beg you not to conclude that I am high upon the moun tain, for such is not the case: you are sufficiently acquainted with geography to know that where there are hills, there are also vallies which lay along between them : it is certainly so in the land of Judea, as eve'v well taught Israelite can testify. For my own part lam neither peimanently locat ed on the hill, nor in the valley ; and sometimes I have entertained serious misgivings whether 1 have not mistaken the country altogether. But if in the couutry at all my present place is in the Valley of Kidron, hard bv the Wilderness, and in one of the most barren parts of the country. It is now many y'ears since I trust the mark of circumcision was made in my heart without hands, and I ad mitted to mingle with the congregation of the Lord ; but it is but seldom that I am permitted to go up to Jerusalem to worship, or to witness the presence of the Lord in his Holy Temple. But when, even from the low grounds where I spend the greater portion of iny time, I am enabled to pray, with my face toward the Temple, although from the lowness of my position I have to look up ward, jet it the Temple be in sight, I always find deliverance from my distress and relief from all my burdens. And 1 have even sometimes thought that 1 could most gladly glory in mine infirmities, if I might only ei j .y a full view of the city and the Temple. But there are seasons when the sight is hidden by intervening mountains, and then instead of contemplating the delightful privileges I have Hi other times enjoyed, I am very prone to mur mur and complain of such inconveniences as I find ppPWi 1 cannot seems such a although Rome parts of it are in sight of the Temple and not very remote from the Tower of David, which was builded for an armory, whereon there Langa thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men ; yet, from other parts, more obscure, I have often bad to cry out, I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of tire desert: I w T atch, and am as a sparrow upon the housetop.— I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. My days are like a shadow that declineth ; and I am withered like grass.”— So lonely and depressed do I sometimes feel, that I can hardly think myself suitable company for any sociely. Too unclean for the congregation of the Lord, and vet the vanities of the Gentiles have no chaims for me. But another affliction attends me, away down here in this gloomy place, I sometimes experience such chilling damps, and log*, that freeze my zeal for God, and love for my brethren. If I would sing a song of Zion, I am admonished, that I am in a strange land ; if I would call upon the name of the Lord, the fog is so dense in this valley that I loose the points of the compass, and hardly know which way to look for the Temple: and for me to prajq without some assurance that my face is toward the Temple, is sorry work indeed. But it is not meet that I should dwell altogether on the disadvantages of my situation, although I am very prone to do so, especially when in certain moods and temperaments of mind. There are ad vantages here which should also be duly consider ed. lam amazing heady, high-minded and much inclined to vanity, and should I be permitted to have my own way, perhaps I might soon think even Jerusalem itself hardly good enough for me. There have been times since I came into this val ley, that before I was away my soul made me like . the chariots of Aminadab. I have sometimes mount . 6d up with wings, like an eagle, have run without weariness, and have walked without fainting. But these exercises, few and far between, as they bav&, been, have generally raised me up quite out of the valley and set me on Mount Ojivet where I have enjoyed a most commanding view of the city of my God. And O, how transporting, to see her foundations and gates, to mark her bulwarks, aud tell her tow'ers, to consider her palaces and report her generations to come. I have sometimes thought I could judge of the emotions of Peter and John, when they said, “It is good to be here,” and like them, I have longed for permission to prepare for a lasting residence upon the mount. But my Lord, who knows infinitely better, what I can bear of prosperity and of tribulation, what is for my good and for his declarative glory, causes the vision of the mountain to pass, and 1 at once settle again into the valley below. I have spent so much of my time for the last thirty four years in the valley, if it were not that I am a most unaccountable dull scholar, I might mis I have spent in to teach others, I need myself to be taught more perfectly the first principles of the faith of God’s elect. It is consoling sometimes to remember that Je sus used, in the days of his incarnation, frequently to visit this valley ; and often, when he would im part to the saints some special lessons, he took them out of Jeiusalem, led them into this vallev, crossed over the Brook Kedron, and ascended with them into the Mount of Olives, where he was wont to sit and teach those things which his Spirit, winch he promised to send after his ascension should bring again to their remembrance. And when I remember that on the very night in which he was betrayed, he selected this spot for his agony ; here he entered the garden ; poured out his supplications with bitter groans and crying ; that here he sweat, as it were, great drops of*blood falling clown to the ground, I feel mortified and ashamed that I cannot watch with him here one hour. I find it profitable, however trying to spend my time in this consecrated spot; for here my proud spirit is reproved, my heart is melted with in me, and here l am led to rejoice in the assur ance that Jesus, the High Priest of our profession, has been tempted in all points as we are, and that he knows how to succor them that are tempted.— But then again, how soon my unstable mind for gets all the advantages of my situation, and I be come again dissatisfied and my soul is disquieted within me. In my low estate, in this valley, I have sometimes been permitted to “Drink of the brook in the way, and my Head (Christ) has been ex alted.” Psa. cx. 7. For the Brook Kedron runs through this valley; but there are seasons of drought when this brook yields no supply to my thirsting soul. In my solitude such visions slitter athwart my mind, as to lead me to doubt the reality of my hope in God; my interest in the blood and right eousness of the RedeemerTof sinners, and of my having ever been in reality born again. These trials sometimes overwhelm me with lamentation and wo. And then there are other times when the evidences of my adoption by grace are no brighter, but instead of sorrow and grief, I seem to be as in sensible as steel; so easy, stupid and careless, that I shudder to think that I cannot shudder! and I mourn because I do not mourn. But I have in this valley many serious conflicts; and the most potent adversary that 1 ever encoun tered, is known to every Israelite by the name of UNBELIEF. I have often been astonished at my own weakness to resist his crafty insinuations. — Many a time after I have enjoyed a banqueting season with my Lord, when he has strengthened my confidence in him as my Lord and my God, and when my faith has arisen so as to triumph over all my doubts and fears, old Unbelief has dropped in, with such sleight and deception as has led me to regard him as an angel of light; all my powers of resistance have been at once paralyzed : and I have been led by him a captive at his will. —