gus of the same red granite, nearly seven and a half feet long, and only three inches narrower than the door by which it was admitted. It gives back, on being struck, a sound like a deep-toned bell. It has, however, been almost destroyed, not by Turks, but by travellers. There are small holes or tubes in the side walls for conducting air into the Pyramid. It is supposed to have been first opened about 1000 years ago, by one of the Caliphs, who expected to discover treasures inside, but found none save what he afterwards deposited on purpose himself, that he might not appear to have been befooled.

THE PURPOSE OF THE PYRAMIDS

Is involved in obscurity. There was long, a unanimous opinion that they were the gigantic tombs of the Egyptian kings. All the Greek and Roman writers who have mentioned them, have this opinion of them. An ingenious theory has been advanced by a modern French writer, Persigny, who supposes them to have been built in order to arrest the progress of the sands from the desert, and thus to have had the patriotic purpose of preserving the cultivated fields of Egypt from destruction. But the old opinion is still the most prevalent and best sustained. Along with one main design, however, collateral uses may have been intended and provided for in their construction.

SIXTY-NINE OTHER PYRAMIDS

Are scattered along the same side of the Nile, for more than a score of miles; but they have proved such convenient quarries for building purposes, that not more than half would now attract the eye of the passer-by, and the process of demolition goes on apace. Had the materials of the great Pyramid been as small as the stones of Dashour, it might, like some of those, be standing up now in palace walls at Cairo. The tombs at Sakhara undergo an equally curious transformation, sometimes into a government factory, sometimes into a pleasure-house for a pacha. The process of demolition, however, has not always been an easy one. Abdallatif relates of an Egyptian pacha that he was persuaded to overthrow the Red Pyra

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mid, viz., that of Mycernius, and sent thither miners, sappers, and quarriers, who tried for eight months to execute their commission; but their utmost efforts, with people raising with picks and levers above, and pulling with ropes and cables below, could not remove above one or two stones a day and after the stone was down at the foot of the Pyramid, they were obliged to break it in pieces in order to remove it; and one of the engineers is reported to have said, that although he were to get several thousand pieces of gold, he could not readjust one of these stones in its former place. If preserved from similar destructive efforts in future, they will last as long as the world! "All things dread Time; but Time dreads the Pyramids." At last they abandoned the attempt.

The same writer remarks: "These Pyramids are constructed of great stones, from ten to twenty cubits long, and two or three cubits in the breadth and thickness. The most admirable particular of the whole is the extraordinary nicety with which these stones have been prepared and adjusted. Their adjustment is so precise, that not even a needle or a hair can be inserted between any two of them. They are joined by a cement, laid on to the thickness of a sheet of paper. The wonder only increases when we begin to imagine how these huge indestructible piles were originally formed. The oldest historical information on the subject is that furnished by Herodotus, who visited them as objects of antiquity even in his day! His account of

THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

states how Cheops closed the temples, stopped the sacrifices, and made everybody work for him :-how some quarried the stone in the Arabian hills, and others conveyed it to the river, and over a bridge of boats; and others drew it to the spot where it was wanted: and how it could be carried and mounted only by a causeway, which of itself took ten years to construct, and which was a fine work, with its polished stones, and figures of animals engraved on them: how 100,000 men were employed at a

time, and were relieved by the same number at the end of three months: how, besides the ten years occupied with the causeway, much was required for levelling the rock on which the edifice stands, and twenty years for the building of the Pyramid itself: how a machine, made of short pieces of wood, was placed on every step, as the work proceeded, to raise the stones for the step above: and how the filling in of these gradations, forming the last smooth surface, was begun from the top: how this surface bore engraved (so that Herodotus himself saw it) an inscription which told the expense of the vegetables eaten by the labourers during the progress of the work: and how confounded the traveller declares himself to be (judging from the sum spent in vegetables) at the thought of the expenditure further necessary for the rest of the food and clothes of the workmen, and their iron tools, during the long course of years required for the whole series of works.

"It is impossible (says Dr. Clarke) to leave the Pyramids of Djizeh without some notice of the long list of philosophers, marshals, emperors, and princes, who, in so many ages, have been brought to view the most wonderful of the works of man. There has not been a conqueror pre-eminently distinguished in the history of the world, from the days of Cambyses down to the invasion of Napoleon Buonaparte, who withheld his tribute of admiration from the genius of the place. The vanity of Alexander the Great was so piqued by the overwhelming impression of their majesty, that nothing less than being ranked among the gods of Egypt could elevate him sufficiently above the pride of the monarchs by whom they were erected. When Germanicus had subdued the German empire, and seated "a Roman prefect upon the splendid throne of the Ptolemies," being unmindful of repose or of triumph, the antiquities of the country engaged all his attention. The humblest pilgrim, pacing the Libyan sands around them, while he is conscious that he walks in the footsteps of so many mighty and renowned men, imagines himself for an instant to be admitted into their illustrious conclave. Persian satraps, Macedonian heroes, Grecian

bards, sages, and historians; Roman warriors, all of every age, nation, and religion, have participated, in common with him, the same feelings, and have trodden the same ground. Every spot that he beholds, every stone on which he rests his weary limbs, have witnessed the coming of men who were the fathers of law, of literature, and the arts-Orpheus, Thales, Homer, Lycurgus, Solon, Pythagoras, Plato, Plutarch, contributed by their presence to the dignity of the place. Desolate and melancholy as the scene appears, no traveller leaves it without regret, and many a retrospect of objects which call to mind such numerous examples of wisdom, of bravery, and of virtue! WONDERFUL THINGS,

HALLELUJAH!

By Old Humphrey.

THERE are some words that require others to make them intelligible. Some are perfect in themselves; some have but little force and meaning when they are understood; others are full of power and significancy-of this latter kind is the word Hallelujah! or, Praise ye the Lord.

But Hallelujah is not only a word, but a sentence and a song. Does the lowliest sinner, melted with a sense of the grace and mercy of his redeeming Lord, attempt to give utterance to the thankfulness of his heart? His language is Hallelujah. Does the highest archangel desire to magnify the name of Him that sitteth on the throne of Heaven? A Hallelujah bursts from his lips, rebounding through the mansions of the skies. Hallelujah is the language of sinners and saints, men and angels, earth and heaven. "Praise ye the Lord. Oh give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." Ps. cvi. 1.

Hallelujah is thanksgiving, praise, and exultation. Fill the heart with Hallelujahs, and it will give glory to God in the highest, and manifest good-will to men. said that it would be no bad method to find

It has been out the law

fulness or unlawfulness of our pleasures, and the spiritual or worldly state of our affections, were we to ask ourselves this question in the midst of every enjoyment, "Can we put up a hearty Hallelujah at the end of it?"

When we regard ourselves and our Almighty Maker— when we look at our lowliness and His loftiness, our weakness and His power, our folly and His wisdom, our exceeding sinfulness and His unsullied holiness -well may we lie down in the dust; and when from the dust he lifts us up; when from the dunghill he raises us to be princes, can we do less than offer him our reiterated Hallelujahs?

"Let earth and heaven His righteous praise resound,

And endless hallelujahs echo round."

The young should praise the Lord for their youth, and for the hopeful prospect that is before them of health and length of days. The old should praise the Lord for their years, and for all the benefits bestowed on them in their past pilgrimage. Those who have neglected to call on the Lord have cause to thank him for his forbearance in allowing them time for repentance. And such as have been taught that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, even to the pardoning of their sins, being justified through faith in the Son of God, and sanctified by his Spirit, should be loud in their thanksgiving; so that the young and the old, the awakened and the unconverted, have reason to mingle together their Hallelujahs.

Hallelujah is the aspiration of a spirit longing to manifest its grateful emotions, and to glorify the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. The incense of praise is an acceptable offering to him, and Christians should be ready at all times to raise a real Non Nobis, a true and hearty, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake.” When the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord, praise will be the universal language. people will rejoice in thanksgiving,

And countless millions join the sacred song,

And hallelujahs burst from every tongue."

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