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TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. tpefr. VOLUME XL., NO. 3> (Contributions. LIVING NO OFFENSE IN ANY THING, THAT THK JIISISTKY liK NOT BLAJiKH. iftr. >i:B. BY L. PIERCE. I have placed these words at the head of my No. 3, not because I have any special need of their specific application in my case, but because they, with the occasion, furnish me with an opportunity to disabuse inanv minds of mistaken views concerning Paul’s meaning of giving offense. He never used it in reference to any displeasure which one brother might improperly entertain towards another because of collisions iu opinion ; never intended as a moral dir y to teach submission to a prejudice rather than a r- a sonable opinion, in order to allay a threat ened storm, for persisting iu something charged to be an offense against a brother. This was my trouble in the days of my ig norance —uu'il in after years, when my mind broke through its shell of menial obscura tion far enough to see that Scripture exe gesis could never be attained r.; -,--n nsr to be inculcating and enforcing sime of it chosen words by adhering too closeiy to their common parlance sense, but eouid al ways be attained to by giving them their sense from the divine theme, in which and of which they held a distinct p’nce a id force according to the original use of the term, whether it was used in its preventive Or re medial force. Accordingly, I discovered that iu its original sense and use it was em 1 ye I only to prevent those uuguard- and acts in suit indulgence which, although not sinful per .it, could not be indulged iu in heathen as.sr.u Idy without violating every principle of rue Christian philanthropy : because rhe indai gence in an open, voluntary assoria'ion, without any protest or sacred ah tinence, would fairly admit of any interpretation hut the one you would claim for yourself, name ly, that you did nothing, not ate anything, in honor of heathen idolatry, and mixed with them only upon the basis of citizenship. Sociality—yes, but you know it, wts with them a religious festival. Ever- animal slaughtered for the occasion was offered in sacrifice <0 the god of the nation or the city, ; —,nd that, whether you went upon invitation, or on your owu account, the managing spirits in the occasion had the just right to assume either of two conclusions, to wit, that their Christian guests were idolaters at heart, or else believed the entertainment to be m rally right. But not to stray off from our main point. Nothing gave forbidden offense but some thing whereby and wherein religion was scantlalized; by corrupting, instead of cor recting, the min Is of others, especially of heathen idolaters —a term that uopliea just as well to our worshipers at Vanity Fair, a it would at a festivaWf Diana of the Ephe sians, in as far as the mixing in of Christian professors with the worshipers ot this -world s feasts and fairs are concerned. Bv. ry mem ber in our Church that goes to th.-atres, ope- ras, circuses, skating rinks, horse-race fairs, dances, and such like entertainments, know ing, as they do, that the leading mind I and spirits in the entertainment are sacrificing only to carnal lusts, gives offense in its very worst sen-e, •.u .e lj, th •-.n.KHvn'. the Christian religion by worshiping at the altars of Baal, as a social privilege, and the causing of the wavering to trip and fall. So I came to see upon a careful examina tion of the subject—for it was and always will be a soul involving question —-whether the thing complained of as giving offense, was of the kind of offenses Paul so earnest ly con femned—because persistence in them might cause a weak brother for whom Christ died to perish—or whether it was off. naive only as it was opposed to som • senseless prejudices in reference to imma -rial tastes and proprieties. I soon found, as things stood seventy years ago, that the offen e against many of these brethren and sisters was that l would not gauge my religion by their measure, and that where it was evident* to my reason and common sense that it --’a - innocent ignorance that leal to the conctu sion, it would he morally wrong in me to yield my better judgment on moral j.trispru deuce to their more obscured moral vision. So, as far back as 1806, in Greene county, 1 drove down my stakes on these tuisas plica tiotis, of giving no offense in anything, de termined to do nothing that could be moral ly wrong in itself, and to refuse compliance with any demand on me for changes in ap paral or iu mariners, where my common sense assured me that ignorance and ignor ant prejudices presided at the courts ot com plaints—as where a brother's offense was at my putting on a frock instead of a round breasted coat. I believed that to yield to these notions was an endor ement o reli gions errors and prejudices, instead of their refutation by godly living. So I told my ag grieved brother, if 1 could not live myself into the confidence of my county friends, as an humble Christian minister, in a frock coat as well as in a round breasted coat, I would jibe and go down. But here I am met by Church members of both sexes, who reason from carnal preiui ses, with the rebuff of a joyous supposed t-amenjss between my principles of self government and theirs. Especially is tlii the case among ladies who, while they pro fees to enroll in the army of Christ, continue to uniform themselves iu the dress of the world, which Christ came to overcome, be cause its friends are by sequence His ene mies. No matter what they would be if they could be it in their own way, their taking their own way is the proof of their cherish ed enmity to God's ways. When St Paul, speaking of the everlasting opposition of the flesh to the Spirit, said, *‘So that ye cannot do the things that ye would, he meant that we cannot do as we please and keep in line To be led by the Spirit of God is indispensa ble to childship wiih Him ; and I take these libertine members to record this day, espe cially our fashionable laoy members, that there is not one of them that inflows fashions for fashions’ sake, that has either any idea or intention of being led hy the Spirit of God. Nay, worse still, there is not one of them of sane mind that Can bring herself to believe that God’s Spirit could lead her to follow fashions, the main phase of which is their utter contempt for any moral rule of dress in reference to God and his Church. Oh, ye daughters of God’s Gospel .lerusa lem, will you corrupt it as your profligate sisters corrupted his .Jewish Jerusahm of old, by their abandonment to corrupting fashion ? I ask your careful considera tion of this allegation. Your utter con tempt for any moral rale concerning dress in reference to God and his Church. If so ciety had done wbat. by the way, it ought to do cutoff from its legitimatized association every woman that voluntarily donned any thing wanting in the evidence of a pervading, dominant modesty, and stuck to it as God will to his law requiring this observance, it would have been observed with a tenacity by thi a time that would have defied the fascina tion of fashion —would have done it, because its observance alone would have kept them in what, in this sense, is now the world—human society. But, as it is, actual nudity, amounting to grots indelicacy, is all 'i :t the Inst of fashion demands. The care a■■■d cultivation of simple, native modesty is given up. Many things now foretell that the t ine is coming when from this drain on na tive female modesty, the convenience of 1; - rer female nakedness on the stage will be nee-ssary ; and the miserable, incrusted dupes from fashion’s preparatory blight will be in abundance. Thousands that wonld die before they would do it, will go to see it. All the present tolerated carnal fashions in dressing are paving the way up to it. This, in nine tenths of these silly devotees at fashions’altars,where true native modesty is daily sacrificed to this versatile goddess, is not intended by iniatuated matrons and maidens ; but it will follow as a sequence here of the public coming up to it whenever stage entertainments demand it and a de p-'rd public t .tte will y-.liotj- it. ‘ st as it did in France. It is not expected mat these factors in this evil work ever imagined its fearful culmination. Satan knows better how to get Eve to ruin her race than to al low one of them to forecast any evil to the sex from their little and little selling off of the native element of modesty. When old time guardianship of female modestv was in vogue, boys’ legs might be seen—girls’ never —hut now ihi> scene is changed : boys’ legs may be seen, but bv a fixed fashion girls’ must be seen. I never enter into a family now where fashion is servilely followed, big what I am disgusted, if there is a daughter twelve years old, at seeing her have to hold on to the hem of her scanty dress to cover her knees. In this way, what was made to be covered, is either left bare, or else sugges tively revealed by abnormal fashions. The Spirit’s vast, meaning in requiring women to apparel themselves in modest apparel is openly ignored. Long within my day, if a young lady that set any price on herself for feminine delicacy had unwittingly come into the presence of a gentleman with her dress p-ened back as tight about her hips as the fabric could endure, she would have bluslipd and flod for refuge to her secret chamber. If it had been told h"r that this gentleman be lieved her fleeing his presence was her affec tation, while her showing herself to him in her abnormal style was her will and pleas ure, she would have collaps-id in an instant and considered herself disgraced. But now, no unblushing maiden lady would corns into the presence of a gentleman until her dress was pinned back tight enough to show her skeleton angles. This is a won derful and a fearful change. Will any lady say it is from good to better? I hear a spon taneous answer from all, No. Allow me therefore to offer the following moral axiom. Every voluntary act that lessens or dulls the na'ive sense ot modesty, ordained as I al firm by the Creator himself, to be conserva tive of virgin purity, lessens also in the very same proportion its moral conservation. It is very true that not. one in a thousand of these silly maidens intends any indifference to proner female modesty, but it is just as ti-. ia hot. one hi ten* tmtusamf ot iheu?' ever did or ever can intend any marked care (or modesty as the gem-jewel in a female dia dent. There is not a female in the land, but who kno vs if she determines to follow fickle fashion she must, ignore all special regard for the common-sense care of cultivated modesty—knows her special modesty must be assumed, in as much as all notable fash ions in women’s attire must leave a delicate watch care over modesty, as granted—not as done. But, ladies, has it never occurred to you in this evil day, that in all cases where the common sense of mankind pronounces anything in the voluntary take on in ladips’ attire to be immodest, it is immodest. The ttnahused existence of this grace is the only proof anv woman can give ot her regard of it. Habitually seem to ignore it, and it is ignored. It is nothing but a name—not a thing, unless it. is what the common sense of gorb-ty settles it. to be. And, dear ladies, you are doing yourselves a great injustice to trifle m any way, or in any wise, with this female virtue. As ladies, it detracts from the glory ofyour sex; as professors of religion it places you in open contempt of God's demand upon you—which is, never to let your style of dressing yourselves encroach upon the sanctuary of your modesty. You ought to see from the specialty of this divine order that it is in your apparel that you will dis play your want of modesty, if at all. But, alas! the very curla’n which the Holy Spirit furnishes for its security fashion has dernol ish' and for its exposure. When I consider women in their devotion to noble endurance for country and friends when duly calls them thereunto, and then look at their utter indif ferenee to this special injunction of the Holy Spirit to guard them against this sacrifice of woman's highest self respect, I am con founded, mortified, grieved, and in despair. It is incontestable proof that whosoever will e the iriend of the world is the enemy of God. No woman can adopt the world s rule iu her apparel until she has practically re -o’.ved to set herself at enmity to God in as far as appareling herself is involved. She in ends to obey the Lord’s commands in any thing but her outward adorning. But right here—the only point where her self denial for ioviug obedience’s sake can and must be seen without ostentation —right here, where worldly fashion will attest friendship with the world, is this evidence of enmity to God seen. Indeed, it is the only door of entrance which Satan can find into the hearts of the present noble race of women. Bat entrance is ail he needs; and if the opening of this door can be secured, with the full endorse of the world that ladies are at full liberty to adorn themselves as sanctioned fashion may demand, without any special regard to the more chaste respect for normal modesty, the wide gate into the broad way is opened ex actly to suit bis purpose. For women tha. will treat this will of God with the utmost practical content p- in this test issue, which says in its moral philosophy that the woman who apparels without due regard to modesty is immodest, will heed no caution so long as this pitiful pasrion is dominant. But reverse the matter, and let it be under stood that the day a lady is seen in what the common sense of mankind regards immod est apparel, she is marked for severance from good society, and there is the end of it. Ladies, I tremble for you. Your moral s'atus is fearful. You know that God pro tests against everything I complain of; but, tne language of your life policy is, we must j and will side with the worid in this outward i adorning business. And on it heaven will I be lost. Indolkncb is a stream which flows Blowly on, but yet undermines the foundation of every virtue. PUBLISHED BY J. W. BURKE & COMPANY, FOR UK METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. I WITH TRUNKS PACKED FOR SC HOOL OB COLLEGE ! Within the next twenty days, thousands of young men and boys will leave home to enter upon another year of educational life. Per haps some o c them may chance to pick up this copy of the Apvocate, and to run their eyes down this column. Let a friend give a few words of counsel: Do honest work from the frst hour of the session. Your duties at school, or college, will be marked off into definite, manageable parts. Take good care of the whole by tak ing good care of every part. Every lesson neglected places an unsound piece of timber in the foundation ofyour house. Every idle hour multiplies the chances of your failure in life. Every page, or principle, skipped or unlearned, makes your life and character more and more a pre’ense, a falsehood. Thousands of your former schoolmates are now in farms, in shops, in stores, where they are required to bring daily proofs of attention, Bkill, and increasing efficiency. You should not be satisfied to do le c s than they are doing. Your duties are real. The exactions Blade on by the {Reb’t :ry of school ahd college are real. The wants of your expanding nature are real. The results of this year’s tuition will be real in every case, for good or evil. Rut under your feet forever the miserable pehool boy notion that you are oppressed, aDd that teachers and pa rents are your oppressors. Work cheerfully with those who are trying to bring out your character and your manhood. Be neither an unwilling animal, dragged along, nor a lump of impassive clay. Bea willing, cheer ful, hearty coworker with God and man to fashion yourself into something noble and divine. The first week at school or college, has often given tone to the whole year. And a lost year at school or college has of en been the beginning of a lost life. ‘ Not for wrath, but for conscience sake, - ’ bring to every ringing of the bell the best preparation pos sible. Beware of the , first wrung step. Be afraid of the first trifling or dangerous book, or newspaper. Shun the first advance of a pro fane, or sensual, or reckless young man. I hope very many of you can tru hfully say, to the first invitation from man or woman to touch a card, “ I do not, know one card from another, and I intend never to 1- arn.” Have on hand the ready and unyielding NO, for any invitat.on to go to the bar-room, or to let the bar room come to you. Never smile at any jest which you would not be willing to repeat to your sister. Keep thyself pure. Look out for the truthful, ingenuous, unsel fish, umorrupted young man, and "grapple him to thy soul with hooks of steel;’’ thus forming friendships to brighten your young and your maturer life. But one week’s inti macy, one hour’s companionship with a ruined, plausible young man, may fix re morse on you for life. Take special care of all the money entrust ed to you Perhaps every dollar is the fiuit ot a parent’s personal toil. Certainly, every dollar is a token and [ roof ot a parent’s love. Let it be a sacred thing. Be honest, to a postage stamp. Never go lii debt without a positive warrant lrom home. Never conceal a debt from your parents. Be true to your highest convictions of duty. N’ever be ashamed to bj. hnoyi hr.l jg to a Christian age, and a Christian family. Never blush when accused of reverencing the God of your parents. Be ashamed not to pray to Him. Keep His written message on your study table. Let. no day pass without thoughtful communion with it. Keep your Sabbaths, if possible, up to the level of those at home. Answer every church bell (when you are in health) as punctually as you an swer the college, or the breakfast bell. Are you a Church member the last day you spend at home? Bea Church-member the first day you spend at your boarding-house. Go, an accredited Church member, and introduce yourself as such, to pastor and congregation, in your new home. When Ihe " commu nion-table’’ is first spread there, go humbly and thankfully to your piace. If your fellow students have a weekly meeting for prayer, praise, or Christian conference, be in your place regularly, with your appropriate con tribution, whether silent attention, a song, a word of brotherly exhortation, or an humble prayer. Keep unbroken the free connection until home Writetoyour parents regularly, fully, and affectionately. You cannot know how much it pains them to give up your company just at this season of life. You cannot know the necessary anxietie.s of a parent’s heart. Do not add to them the unnecessary and terrible suspicion, “ My child is forgetting me /” The new educational year is before you, as a fresh and clean sheet of paper. The char acters vou write on it will be imperishable, and will, most probably, determine the style of successive pages iu your life record. See to it, that these characters are such as will not put you to shame hereafter. A mighty volume of prayer should go up from parents, and from all Christians, for this precious material nowgoing from home. Let every absent son be remembered, espe cially, and daily, at the family altar. May this rich current of intellectual and spiritual life be guided by a wisdom higher than that of parents or teachers ! J. H. C. Selections. From the Nashville Christian Advocate. LETTER FROM BISHOP MARVIN. NO. XXXIII. DAMASCUS AND THE BARAPA. Leaving Banias for Damascus the road parses over the rout hern spurs of Mount Hermon. Volcanic rock abounds. In fact, tbe road at one point touches ihe crater of an extinct volcano. The mourn ain sides show the same features as tho-e near the Dead Sea —the same violent contortions of strata with the same kind of stone. I think there can be no doubt that the whole of the Jordan valley, including the Dead Sea at one end and the Lebanon ranges ut the other, was once disturbed by volcanic agencies so violently as to have received its conforma tion front them. Whether tbe unexampled depression of this wonderul valley is due to this cause or not, 1 am sure 1 cannot tell. A few hours of steady traveling puts you on the eastern side of these ridges, and into the border of the great plain stretching east ward toward the Euphrates. Soutb and east some isolated ridges appear, but they are ot limited extent and ot no great elevation. Cultivation in this plain depends wholly on irrigation. In this edge of it many streams coming down out of the mountains are bor dered by fields in the valleys which they make; but in every part where irrigation is impracticable it has the character ot a desert. Before coming into the plain we saw a good many Bmall valleys iu the mountains MACON. GEORGIA, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1877. which were cultivated,* and a god mauj herds of cattle which find sufficient pastupage in the mountains. The' Druses live in the e and in the Lebanon mountains. We were in terested in the first villages of that singular people which we saw. This morning we passed quite a large one on a hill-side. The houses were not so closely crowded together as is usually the case in the villages of this coun try. At at a distance the ranges ot houses rising on the mountain side, one above an o'her, show very prettily. As we came near the village a number of boys came running oat to the road with fossil specimens tor sale. The Druses originated, as nearly as I can gather, soon after the into this region. Those Arabs of the nriun tains were but partially converted to tha* faith; and in the uproar and tumult of ideas then afloat several sects were formed whose beliefs were grounded upon the teachings of Mohammed in part, but modified by tbeir own crude ideas and semi barbarous cus toms. Of these sects the Druses were the most important, perhaps—at least, they have become the most widely known, 1 . bt ught into notice by the maowere oiL They have secret rites of initiation, and their religious beliefs are scrupulously con cealed. Their organization is not purely religions, but political as well. Their chiefs or sheiks, are implicitly obeyed, and have the power of life and death. The Druses, it is said, are hospitable to the last degree toward those who are admit ted to their hospitality. Once the stranger is in the house of the sheik, and has broken bread there, he is not only secure in his per son, but may depend upon being treated with the highest degree of hospitable regard. But to offset this virtue they have many vices. They are deceitful to the last degree. Among Christians they profess to be Christians, and among Mussulmans they profess to be Mus sulmans. Between them and their neighbors, the Maronite Christians, there has been biller enmity for ages. The fault is not wholly with the Druses, for it is not to be supposed tha l those Maronites are very exemplary Chris tians. Intense and bigoted they are in their faith, but as to morals they are little better than the Druses themselves. No doubt it is in the hearts of both parties to exterminate each other. Alter the treaty of Paris of 1850 the con vietion became prevalent here that the Chris tian Powers would abstain from any interfer ence in the internal affairs of the Turkish Government. The Druses knew the hatred of the Turks toward the Christians, and, in the absence of European interference, they knew that the Turkish Government would do nothing to protect them, nor punish any crime that might be committed against them. The moment to gratify the enmity ot ages had come. Indeed, there is no doubt that the Druses and Turks had an understanding with each other. Suddenly the massacre broke out in Da mascus, and spread among the villages in the mountains. It lasted for several days, and many thousands of Christians perished, both in the city and in the villages. In one respect the Druses were right in their expec tations—the Turkish authorities showed no disposition to protect the Christians, nor to ~.l t! irt'.l* .lull, “t., ill Jeieflf.k I- .A : \T calculated in another particular. They did not know the temper of the European Gov ernments. The news of the atrocities arous ed the civilized world, and the Sultan scon learned that unless he took measures to pun ish the guilty parties, and showed himself in earnest about it, the armies ot Europe would avenge the blood of the Damascus martyrs. Not only were the Druse Sheiks brought to punishment, but some French regiments penetrated Syria, and many of the frightened Druses fled to the Hauran, and have never returned. It is said that those who remained here have been declining in numbers and pros per.ty ever since, and that even in the Hau ran a blight seems to have fallen upon them, as if they had filled the measure of their iniquity, and were now perishing. After emerging upon the plain we came upon a flush mountain-stream, not over two feet deep, on the bank of which we stopped for lunch. Its present name I do not re member, but in Naaman’s time it was called the Pharpar. It does not (low through the city of Damascus, but seveial mites aouth of it, though one or two of its canals connect, T believe, with the system of canals from the Barada, or Abana, by which the city and its outlying gardens are irrigated. On a confluent of the same stream we pitched our tent for the night. As we ap proached the camp our eyes were astonished by the fringe of trees —not shrubs—that lined the bank of the stream at. this point. That which was most abundant wc.3 the slender and graceful tree which we call Lom bardy poplar in America, and which is in digenous in Syria. These groves of tall, slender trees constitute a most striking fea. ture in the landscape wherever they occur. The heavy green foliage contrasts most vivid ly with the naked desert. They are found nowhere except along the water courses. It had been our purpose and expectation to reach Damascus on Saturday, but we yund it impossible to do so without overworking the mules that packed our luggage. Our camp for Saturday night was at a miserable village several hours from the city. Should we spend the Lord's day there in pe.-v-„ - 5 objectless repose? or should we ride to Da mascus, and endeavor to join with the mis sionaries in the public worship of God? We determined upon the latter course. But we bad been misled as to the time required for the ride, and had the mortification to spend the entire morning in the saddle, aud find ourselves, on arriving, too late for any Eng lish service. It was a raw, uncomfortable day, and we were glad to find in our tent, the opportunity of reading the word of God, and worshiping in a quiet way. As we approached the city, that most re markable oasis in which it stands came into full view. It is about eighteen miles square, and I presume there is no greener spot on the face of the earth. Trees and gardens cover it with a verdure that is indescribable. We saw it in the early spring, when it was at its freshest and best. The city stands at the foot of the moun tain. just where the river Barada —the Abana of the Scriptures—enters the plain, i his is a small stream, but rushing down from the mountain as it does, with great rapidity, it delivers a large amount of water. So soer. as it emerges from the mountain it is tapped by canals, which distribute the water in every direction through the city, and through the plain around and below the city, to the lagoon, eighteen miles east, in which it is lost. No city could be better supplied with water. The canals, sometimes open, some times running under archways beneath streets and houses, traverse it in every part. In walking through the city one is often taken d'rprwfc... coming upon a spot where the ’ - er rushaateom under a wall; and at A ry turn fdk will fiud fountains in the ba *\nr, in the market, and in niches in the of the houses. One set of canals fur nijhes pure water for use, while another stives for drainage. All the fields and gardens in this oasis are Detected by concrete fences, such as 1 have Sltyi in South western Texas, and made in same wav. The gravel and earth are thrown together into a frame on the spot W4ere the wall is to be made, and beaten dpwn solid with a mall. Upon every few rfadefuls being thrown in it is beaten down; Uus it becomes extremely hard. The frame is then removed, leaving the wall naked. These fences, or more properly walls, are feet, or more, in thickness, and five or mix feet high, so that in many cases the trav horseback can scarcely see the ground irtmde. They mar the general beauty of the place very greatly, being very clumsy, and obstructing the view so largely. 'The population of Damascus is cousidera st .i ~/pr 100,000, but its buildings and ba ire not what one expects. There is very little good architecture here. The 1-ruses are low, and nearly all rather shabby. The bazaar contrasts strongly with that of Cairo. The one very celebrated mosque is a poor style of art. The “street that is called Straight” is something ridiculed by superficial tourists. It is not, in fact, perfectly straight, but is the cjfcly street in the city which holds a persist ently straight course through from one side to the other—a general course which is very direct, and which the short offsets here and there do not interfere with. It is eminently hie straight street of Damascus. In any city having such a system of streets —or, ' rather, such a no system— with one thor onghfare from side to side, bent a little here and there, but keeping a direct course throughout, this very name would be most naturally given to it. All the prophets and patriarchs are hon o.vd by the Mussulmans. Y'ou will find in Damascus the Mosque of the “ Prophet Sol . on.” In fact, you have to come to this i.iutry to learn that Abel and Seth, and almost every man whose name appears iu the Old Testament, were prophets. I am told that the average Arab Mussulman tljinks that Abraham, Moses, Christ, and Mohammed, all lived at the same time, ad being inspired prophets, the greatest ot whom was Mohammed. The dense ignor ance,even of men who seem to he intelligent in many respects, in regard to religion, is beyond belief. -There is a Christian and a Jewish quarter o* the citv. The Christian population is much larger than I supposed, and some of tfe leading business men are of this faith. We had been told that it wonld be worth wltile to gee the inside of one or two dwell ings of wealthy Mohammedan merchants, and that there would be no objection on the part of the proprietors. Our guide, howev er, assured us that it was impracticable, but that we could get admission to Ihe private residences of some Christians. Moreover, he assured us that the most elegant residen ces of the city were the properly of Chris- But it must be understood that the -Av* < ♦ ’■*%' eßtsn-H. F.'Sfe-yii : ‘limited. The one we visited did not impress us favorably on tbe outside, though we were informed it was the best in the city. Inside we found things wearing an aspect of Orien tal magnificence that exceeded our expecta tion. We were very politely received by a woman of thirty five or forty, who was no do tbt the housekeeper. She had an air of good sense, and a propriety of deportment that impressed ns very favorably. The mas ter of the house was at Beyroot, with his fam ily. We were shown seats in a very magnifi cent drawing room, paved with marble ele- Yfantly [ a id in mosaic, and invited to take cof fee, which, for want of time, we declined. The house was of two stories, and tile up per apartments were not at all in keeping with the magnificence of those below. The rooms were small, and the plain pine doors not even painted. What a contrast between the part which was for use and that which was for show 1 Our guide took ns to the “ house of Ana nias,” but we did not go in. The Christians, scarcely less ignorant than the Mohamme •fWns, seem to have no question that, this ,Vfod. rn dwelling is the very one in which the good Ananias lived. They will show you also the window —the very same window— trom which St. Paul was let. down in a bas ket. We saw, in fact, a number of win dows from which a man might be very well lowered over the wall, and so make his es cape front the city. There are many houses which have the city wall for their back wall, with bay windows projecting over the wall of the city, that of the house rising a story above. Nothing would be more inevitable than that a mart’s friends would let him down from such a window, if he were in danger and desired to escape. We saw two —and only two —business houses of good size, both of which were wholesale establishments, and warehouses tor grain and provisions. They were re .lly spacious, having massive walls, and each being surmounted by a rotunda, having a gallery around it at the base. The wooden work of the gallerv had a look of age that W£g indeed impressive. Protected from the > tiiher, and subjected to no friction, it still seems to be wearing out. It looked as if it might date from the period when Darwiti’s ancestors were tadpoles. We noticed the same thing in sevt ral places. Among other places our guide showed us the slave market, where people come two days in the week to purchase Nubian wo men. It was not a market day, but we taw two of the women that were there on sale. They were bad stock, one of them being lunatic, and the other afleeting lunacy with so much skill as to keep purchasers off. I was glad to see, that though they were only an expense to their owners, they were evi dentiy treated with humanity. „ There is a large school here, founded and maintained by some English ladies. It seems to be doing a good work. The Amer ican Presbyterians have a branch of their Syrian Mission here. So far as we had time to inquire, the work seems to be faithfully done, and as good a yield of fruit appears as could be expected from the agencies em ployed. But it is only a drop in the bucket. Yet the leaven will doubtless spread. - Before leaving our camp here we rode out to see one of the places where Saul was struck down bv the manifei-tation of the Son of God. This locality is now just out side the eastern gate, near the Christian burial-ground. Formerly, l understand, it was at a more distant point, and in a differ ent direction. It seems to be shifted about to suit the convenience of those who make tradition a trade, with very little concern about the probable direction in which Saul approached the city. If this is the place, then he came by a very roundabout way. One is perpetually disgusted by the absence of all reason and probability in these tradi tions. Having spent Monday in seeing the city, we broke up camp on Tuesday morning, and starred for Baalbec. But before taking a final leave of what is believed by many to be the oldest city in the world, we must ascend the mountain and see it from a commanding point. YVe soon left all verdure behind us, and our horses were toiling up the steep mountain path toward the “ Tomb of the Forty Apostles." Up, up we climbed lor near an hour. From this elevated point we had the city and the entire oasis in full view. The form of the city has been compared to a spoon—it is much more like a huge pipe with a long stem —a very singular contour. This is the only striking peculiarity discov ered in the view, except that which distin guishes this from all other cities in the world —its rich emerald setting. From this position there is nothing to mar the beauty of the gardens, the concrete fences scarcely appearing in the distance, it looks likua tewest, the trees being distri buted so as to conceal th cultivated parts. Everywhere the slender poplar towers above the other trees, giving a most picturesque expression to the landscape bv its graceful figure, and the darker and more decided hue of its foliage. It was an event in a man’s life to touch upon this scene, and we indulged ourselves in reverie for some time. This was already an old city when Romulus and Remus were quarrelling over the mud huts of their village on the Tiber, when the foundation of Tad mor were laid, when the Jebusite built his first rude fort on Mount Zion. This was a center of commerce as long ago as thsre was any commerce. When Abram’s affairs be came so large as to be unwieldly he employed “this Eliezer of Damascus,” a man trained to business here, to take charge of them Perhaps only Babylon was as old or older. But, Babylon is gone, Tad mor is gone, com merce has been shifting its enters a thous and times, nations have come into existence, plaved their great tragedies on the stage and disappeared, while here still stands llamas cus. A hundred revolutions have been con stimulated within its walls. It has changed masters, perhaps, ten hundred times. It saw the dawn of history—it is likely to witness the end of time. The Mohammedans have a tradition to the effect that the prophet, in one of his mercan tile journeys, approached Damascus but on coming in sight of it up here on the mountain, he exclaimed that as no nv n could have hut. one paradise he would not forfeit that in the future by entering this. So he never set foot in the city. Once he had got well inside he would have dismissed all apprehensions of that sort. We descended the mountain on the wes tern side, and in two or three miles came to the diligence road to Beyroot, which follows the course of the Barada for some miles. We were to makecamp to-night at Suk Wary Barada, sr that ourconrse in the main would be along the river, though at one point our dragoman insisted on leaving it for a better road. This we regretted, when we learned that,by taking this course.we missed seeing of the wafers of the lower Barada come out of the mountain in a body. Ail along this stream it is fringed with poplar and other growths, and where the precipitous mountains retreat a little here and there, leaving space for small valleys, every foot is in cultivation. In many places irrigating ditches are taken out and trained along the steep mountain sides, so that even they are made fruitful. I doubt if any one stream of the same volume in all the world nourishes as much life as this one. Villages stand along in the gorge it makes in the mountains, often at, intervals of only a mile or two. All around them is a mass of de sert mountains except those acres that are touched by the water of the life giving river Our tent was pitched in a gorge, and we had a very disagreeable night on account of a fierce, chilly wind. Here we fell in with a party traveling under Cook’s auspices, one of whom was Dr. Philip Sehaff, wito whom we spent a delightful evening. On our leav ing his tent at 9 o'clock, the gray, barren mountains, towering above us on all sides, took on an aspect of weird beauty in the bright moonlight that seemed to me tbe most peculiar I hafl ever seen. The next morning we climbed the moun tains to the right of the road, about a mile f om the village where we had camped, to see the remains of an old Roman road, which, at that point, was cut through a mass of solid and very hard rock. It was just wide enough for two chario*s to pass. The sides of the rock through which it was dug are perfectly perpendicular, showing even yet the tool-marks, and contrasting strikingly with the powder blasted road beds of our time, which leave the walls all reft and ragged. At one point a space was polished and sur rounded by moulding. In the panel thus made is a Latin inscription, setting forth that this road was made by the Emperor Lucius Verus at the expense of the people of Abila. So solid is this rock that the lettering is per fect to this day. This was in the second cen tury of the Christian era. We followed the course of the upper Ba rada to its head, passing over on to a conflu ent of the Litany where we camped for the night. It was difficult to tell where we pass ed from the waters of one stream to those of the other, as there is a continuous depres sion between the mountains from one to the other. On the upper waters of the Barada its val leys are wide, and the mounrams slopes less precipitous, while every available acre is in cultivation, hut much of it is very sterile and will scarcely return the seed committed to it E. M. Marvin. Steamer Espero, KgeanSea , May 4, 1877. What do you think the beautiful word “wife” comes from? It is the great word in which the English and Latin languages conquered the French and Greek. I hope the Freuch will some day get a word for it instead of that dreadful word femme But what do you think is comes from ? Tbe great value of the Saxon words is, that they mean something. Wife means “weaver” Yon must either be housewives or house moths ; remember that In the deep sense, you must either weave men’s fortunes and embroider them, or feed upon and bring them to decay. YVherever a true wife comes, home is always around her. The stars may be over her head; the glow-worm in the night-cold grass may be the fire at her foot ; but home is where she is ; and for a noble woman it stretches far around her, belter than house ceiled with cedar or painted with Vermillion, shedding its quiet light far for those who else are homeless. This I believe to be the woman’s true place aud power.— Buskin. BISHOP MARVIN AT THE WESLEYAN CONFLUENCE, AT BRISTOL. The Secretary of the Conference intro duced to the President and the Conference Bishop E. M. Marvin and his traveling com panion, the Rev. E. R. Hendrix, represen atives of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Bishop Marvin said that, he and his col league had beeu paying an official visit, to their Mission stations among the remote heathen in China. Since then they had been on a tour of inspection of missionary work, for practical ends, through India and Syria, Turkey and Egypt. They were now passing through Europe. It was their purpose from the beginning, if they could so arrange their stages of travel, to see the Wesleyan Con ference ; but they expected to do so on their own personal account merely. During their absence from home, however, the College of Bishops, at their annual meeting in May last, acted formally in the matter, and em powered them to act as their representa tives. He had no need to say any thing about the extension of Methodism in the United States of America; but, with all modesty and humiliVi he would remind the Conference that Mr. Hendrix and himself represented the largest body of Methodists in the world except one, viz: the Method ist Episcopal Church, North, which was about twice as large as their own. (Hear.) But in their remote homes and remote la bors they always thought of the Wesleyan Conference in England as “ Jerusalem, the mother of us all.” (Hear, hear.) The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, num bered 700 000 members. He wished to state a few facts without going too much into de tail. In the first place, the Methodist Epis copal Church, South, was not inert with regard to the great enterprise that was in tended to evangelize mankind. There were eleven weekly denominational newspapers printed and supported by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. S true of these were of a very high order of weekly reli gious literature, and all of them maintained a high religious tone. (H-ar, hear.) Be sides this, they had a Publishing House, a very large one, that printed and circulated great numbers of Wesley’s Sermons, Wat son’s “ I’heological Institutes. ’ and other s andard books. (Hear, hear.) In addition to this general religious literature, there were three Sunday-school periodicals pub lished at Nashville, and these had a large circulation As to the matter of education, he might state that they had eleven respec table colleges, the bona fide property of the Church, and some of them tolerably well en dowed —institutions of learning that would compare respeetatjly with any other colleges in the country. (Hear, hear.) Besides that they had one great university—the gift of one man, and he not a member of their Church—a very large building, with all the faculties of law, medicine, theology, in ad ditioti to a very thorough curriculum in the scientific and literary department,. That in stitution was situated ut Nashville, Tenn., with a permanent endowment of half a mil lion dollars. (Applause.) They would see, therefore, that that Church of 700,000 mem hers had not been entirely inactive. (Hear, hear.) A gre-t deal of earnest work had f m k* "i 4 Y-- results. The per cenlagc ol Methodists ou the population of the Southern States was as large or larger than that in the Northern States ; and in several of the Southern States their Church occupied a most commanding position. As to their missionary operations, hey were not doing what they desired to do. But it should be remembered that the entire country occupied by them had been desolated by war. They did not complain of anybody—they accepted it with humility. He believed that the piety of the Southern Church had been deepened and elevated since the war, and they had the fullest faith that the effects of it had been of a most hap py and salutary character upon the Church at large: (Hear, hear.) When the war was ended their missionary treasury was SBO 000 iu debt, and they were left without resources. They struggled under it for some years, but now God was smiling upon their fields again, and they had to day in the way of Missions : 1. An Annual Conference of nearly twenty members amongst the native Indians—the aborigines of the country—and a very great work was being done there. 2. A German Mission in Texas, which was accomplishing a great deal amongst the Germans. 3. A Border Mexican Mission, that had a won derful history. 4. Missions in Mexico, where a revolution had been going on for the pat fifty years. The Mexican people were struggling for constitutional liberty, but the priests were against them, and had been so trom the beginning. The Methodist Ectisco pa! Church, South, however, had fairly es tablished itself in the heart of that country. (Cheers.) 5. They had also a Mission in Brazil: and fi. They had three missionaries, and were now sending out a fourth mission ary, to China. That was what they were do ing in the way of Missions. (Applause.) He might say farther, that of late their people had had the missionarv spirit stirred up within them in a remarkable manner; they were showing an interest and a zeal in the subject beyond all precedent and all history. fHear, hear) And now he brought to the B itish Conference the greeting of 700,000 Methodist people that loved God. loved the doctrines of Methodism, who revered ihe name of YYesley, and looked to them as “Je rusalem, the mother of ns all.” (Applause.) One thing was a little singular. In Demo cratic America Methodism had flowered at once into Episcopacy, and yet such was not the case in England. But thev believed in lay representation (hear heart ; their lay men never clamored for it; there was no desire for it; no layman ever said to them, “ Give us a place in the Conference;’’ but they saw that their laymen were taking too litile interest in the Church ; they were leav ing everything to the ministers ; and so they said bring the laymen into the Conference. (Hear, hear.) He wa bound to say that with them this had acted like a charm, so far as they were concerned He did not pre tend to know what was the exact state of feeling of English Methodists in reference to that subject; but they were evidently mov ing in the direction he had indicated ; and yet such were the anomalies of human node ly that just now, all at once, by a single bound m the hierarchir-al direcion, they had put themselves aba-lutely under a Pope! (Laughter and cheers.) He ha I seen the Wesleyan Conference, bv a large and enthu siastic vote, enthrone a Pope over itself. He had seen it with his own eyes. One thing, however, took awny all regret upon the sub ject, " and that is,” said he, addressing the President, “ that you are the Pope 1” (Re uewed cheers,) That made *dl the differ ence iu the world, and he was disposed fully to acquiesce iu the vote of the Wesleyan Confereuce, and to make him his Pope while he remained iu England. It should F. M. KENNEDY, D. D., Editor J. NY. BURKE, ... Assistant Editor A. G. lIAYGOOD, I). 1).,-...Editorial Correspondent WHOLE NUMBER 2068 be remembered, however, that a good Pope was the servant of the servants of God. (Ap plause.) Would they bear with him while he said in general terms that he concurred heartily with the sentiment he had heard expressed a day or two ago—namely, that the Methodist movem nt constituted one of the greatest epochs in ■ he Church of God ? In his classification of the epochs there were: 1. The < .'.aversion of heathenism. That was impei.. ctly accomplished. Heathenism took possession of the Church in part, whilst Jupiter ana Minerva were dethroned. 2. Then came the Lutheran epoch, which was a doctrinal epoch. 3. Then came John Wes ley, who embodied the gospel in his personal consciousness, and by the power of his per sonal influence and faith, under God, pro jected it upon the world. (Hear,hear.) The document which had been read to the Con ference in the morning of that day intima ted that they would gladly welcome a repre sentative from the English Conference. The letter which had been forwarded them last year had greatly refreshed their spirits in the Lord. The reply which had been sent was written by Dr. Hamilton, one of the great est men the Church in America had ever known. They would greatly rejoice to see a represueta'ive from England at their next General Conference, which would meet in May, at Atlanta, in Georgia. That was a matter, however, which they left entirely with themselves. It they found it inconvenient to comply with their request, they would, of course, acquiesce, and would do so heartily, because they knew that they loved the peo ple of God who were called Methodists all over the world. He prayed that God’s bless ing might descend upon them in rich abun dance, and that they might he increased a thousandfold. (Applause.) The Rev. E. R. Hendrix said it was not necessary that he should add many words to what had already been said. He simply wished to offer his fraternal greetings and love; toinvose upon them God's blessing; to bespeak in behalf of the Church he repre sented, their sympathies and prayers; and to express his hope that at some future time they would send them representatives.— (Hear, hear, aud applause.) Dr. Punshon, on being called upon to re ply, said that the only fitness he had to stand there in response to the address they had heard, and to which they had listened with bo much pleasure, was that he had trodden some part of the ground, and had some very pleasant and profitable intercourse with some of the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and some of the congrega tions ot that Church, which had been go ably represented that day. He should never for get an interview he had with Dr. Pierce, some years ago, in Columbus, in Georgia. That venerable man—-ninety years ot age, or thereabouts, and yet with a spirit as elastic and buoyant as though he were just in the prime of his ng'^e.^outh —spoke of his trials and triumphs hfthe%ospel, and his interest in the spread of the kingdom of Christ. He (Dr. Punshon) formed at that time an ex ceedingly favorable estimate of the work that was being done in tbe South by the in strumentality of Methodism. One thing he was especially astonished to hear, aud yet not astonished when he began to inquire in to* t.hei reasons of gs. Xfc-| void him that Methodism in Savannah had hardly prospered at all since Mr. Wesley was there. But he remembered that it was Wesley the Ritualist, and not Wesley the Methodist, at that particular time. (Hear, hear.) He heard also that while in Savannah Method ism was weak, in the State of Georgia itself the influence of Methodism was exceedingly wide spread and deeply rooted, so that it might be regarded as the predominant type and form of godliness in that particular State. After all, just as the sick were healed in for mer time by the shadow of Peter passing by, so some of the collateral influences of Wes ley’s labors might be found after these many days. (Applause.) He rejoiced very greatly in the presence amongst them of a Bishop ot the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his companion (hear, hear, ; and he trusted it would be the prelude of a deeper fraterni zation — a more thorough oneness of sympa thy—as they were one all over the world now in the bonds of the one transforming gospel. (Hear, hear.) He was quite sure that they had one end in view, and he was sure that they sought to promote that end by tbe same means So long as they preserved their integrity, and compared themselves to a spir itual confederacy, intended to spred scriptu ral holiness through the land and through the world, let them breathe one spirit; and, united in one spirit, to their Head, no force could make them quail. (Loud applause.) He had great pleasure in moving: “That the Conference cordially welcomes the es teemed brethren who have come as the re presentatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Bishop E. M. Marvin and the Rev. E. R. Hendrix, and is gratified to renew fraternal intercourse with thot numer ous and important branch of the Methodist Connection.” (Hear, hear.) Dr. James had much pleasure in seconding the resolution, and suggested that a committee be appointed to look at the question of send ing a representative thither. (Hear, bear.) Tbe resolution was put to the Conference, and cordially approved. Bishop Marvin expressed his thanks and the thanks of bis colleague for the very cor diul and happy reception that had been given to them. He bad only to say that if a mes sage or messenger came to them they would receive him as the messenger of the British Conference and as the messenger of Christ. HARMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES. Alter all that can be said and kuowu of the varied attractions of the Bible as a book —simply as a book —it remains that this is but incidental to its main purpose, the plu mage of the angel that publishes glad tidings. To dwell too much on these external beau ties of the Scripture seems to carry peril with it, as if one should value the silver trumpets of the priests more than tbe jubilee they were appointed to proclaim. As the skillful player on an organ useth one stop after another, now evoking the shrillness of the reed, uow the mellowness of the flute, now the vibration of the harp, now the clear ringing of tbe clarion, and now the heavy swell of the diapason, so did the Spirit of God, in the preparation of one book, for all men and for all time, make use of all the va ried accomplishments and faculties of human kind: the learning of Moses; the shepherd songs aud royal minstrelsy of David ; Solo mon’s ingots of solid gold, the condensed expressions of eternal wisdom; Isaiah’s burning prophecies; Jeremy’s plaintive ele gies ; the nervous eloquence of Paul ; Love’s gentle soliloquies in the person of John ; and the sublime visions of the Apocalypse, the thuuderings, aud voices, aud earthquakes : forming out of them all oue holograph —the one incomparable harmonious book of the world.—Dr. Adams.