But if we in this temperate clime know a little of the pleasant feelings connected with clear streams. and running waters, what must be their force in lands where the severest trials of life are described under the emblem of the fierce rays of the sun! where the protecting care of Jehovah for His dear people is called a "shadow from the heat," the "shadow of a great rock in a weary land!" and where the sweetest joys of the heavenly rest are set before the tired and tempted saints of God, under similar imagery :-"Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb shall lead them unto living fountains of waters!"

In such lands, nothing is more natural than that fresh streams and flowing rivers should be constantly used by the inspired poets and prophets, as emblems by which to call up and shadow forth the sweetest, holiest, and most comfortable thoughts. Is peace spoken of? It shall "flow as a river." Is judgment or righteousness prayed for? It is that it may "run down as waters, and as a mighty stream." The advantages of wisdom in a man's heart are "as deep waters, and as a flowing brook." Is a man under the curse of God? "He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter." Do desolation and confusion spread over the earth, wasting and destroying like an irruption of the sea? The protection and preservation of the saints of God are secured; for "there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." The Lord Jesus is set forth "as rivers of water in a dry place;" He will, by-and-by, bless restored Jerusalem, so long withered and forsaken, and "extend peace to

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her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream;"-He will himself be to Israel " place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." For He is the Fountain and Well-spring of all blessing.

How great must have been the joy and comfort which the ancient people of God took in their rills and brooks wherewith their thirst was quenched, and by which fertility was given to the beautiful and goodly land, that "land of brooks of water," of hills and valleys, which Jehovah had given them, and from which so many sweet images and allusions were drawn, turning their thoughts to earthly and heavenly blessings, and to their gracious and loving God!

And if historical and personal associations often crowd upon the mind, as we walk by the bank of a favourite stream in our own land, endearing it to our imagination and heart,—with what a deepened interest should we tread where every spot is hallowed by some ancient memory, some record of a history in which God himself is the chief actor. Not a rill or river but has some story to tell, some lesson to teach, some song of praise to elicit, in lands where angels talked with men, where inspired poets sang, where prophets and seers unfolded the far-distant future, where the visible glory of God dwelt, where the arm of Jehovah was ever stretched out in blessing, deliverance, protection or chastisement, where patriarchs sojourned, and where, for a while, tabernacled Jesus, the glorious " Word made flesh."

THE RIVER EUPHRATES.

PARADISE. The Fall-Grace-The Promised Seed - SacrificeReconciliation-Righteousness.

BABEL.-The Builders - The Tower The Confusion of TonguesBirs Nimroud.

THE MIGRATION OF ABRAM.-The Mesopotamian Valley-The Cavalcade-Abram and Lot-The Call of Abram-Sojourn at Charran-The Stranger and Pilgrim.

THE MISSION OF ELIEZER.-Prayer-Rebekah-The Return-The Antitype.

BABYLON. - The Hanging Gardens - The Palace - The CourtDaniel - The Great Image-The Kingdom of Christ. THE CAPTIVES.-Israel's Desolation-Seraiah's Mission-The Doom of Babylon-Belshazzar's Feast - The Writing on the WallDaniel's Interpretation--Cyrus-The Last Night of Babylon. SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.-Topography-Ruins of Babylon-The Euphrates Expedition-Physical History-A solemn Contrast.

GENESIS II. III.

A FAIR and goodly scene is spread before our reverent imagination. A broad valley expands on either hand, bounded by distant mountains, whose purple peaks, range above range, glow in the beams of the morning sun. Hill and dale, irregular undulations, broad swelling mounds, and gentle slopes, afford perpetual variety to the surface. Through the centre there flows, in winding course, a broad river, the smooth

ness of whose mirror-like bosom is unruffled by a ripple, as it pours its volume of clear and calm waters onward to the ocean. It is the majestic Euphrates.

This is Eden, the garden of God. Everything that can gratify the sense is here in abundance, unmingled with anything that can hurt or annoy. "Every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food," grows here; the spreading arms of the banian, the baobab, and the terebinth, cover the ground with a

refreshing shadow; the massive forms of the oak and the cotton-tree contrast with the taper elegance of the poplar and the pine; the graceful banana and

plantain wave their broad leaves, cut into strips by the wanton breeze; huge clumps of bamboos nod like gigantic ostrich-plumes on the hillocks; and above all tower up into the sky the light and lofty palms, waving their feathery green coronets against the sparkling blue of heaven.

How temptingly the rich fruits hang and cluster in these spicy groves! On the highest knolls the juicy apple and pear, the velvet peach, the bloomed plum, the golden apricot, and the blushing cherry stand in thick profusion; in the lower glades, walled in by the sheltering groves, are others richer still; the brilliant pomegranate, the yellow guava, the custardapple, so meltingly luscious, the odorous pine-apple, the citron and orange, and the most delicious of terrestrial productions, the crimson mangosteen, invite the hand to pluck them. The queenly datepalm is loaded with its sweet bunches, over which the vine, climbing to its lofty summit, has thrown a drapery of graceful foliage, and formed a natural arbour, thickly hung with empurpled clusters.

The

No trace of winter is here; but the glories of spring, of summer, and of autumn are united in one sweet season, for which earth has no name. opening bud, the expanded flower, the matured fruit, are everywhere seen together in beautiful harmony. The air is redolent with the fragrance of flowers, and the eye is enraptured with their beauty of colour and of form. What gorgeous and fantastic parasites droop from the branches of the great trees! What a magnificence of sheeted bloom is displayed by those masses of purple rhododendrons !

The roses are here without thorns, and the fruits