sorts which clash together in Palestine, if to the detriment of all, yet to Christianity the most injurious, cannot fail to render the mission at Jerusalem a difficult and a slow undertaking, and the labours of the missionary in that country both onerous and arduous in the extreme.

These spiritual labourers have indeed to toil hard in pulling down fabrics and levelling and sweeping the pathway before they can build anything like a superstructure. In other words, they must, in the first instance, seek to unprejudice the mind, to subdue the proud and rebellious spirit, and to cultivate the understanding as well as the heart, by whose power also the contemplated change can only be effected. All this must be achieved by dint of perseverance in healthy combinations in a place whose very records, traditions and reminiscences act only as so many incentives to the Jew to adhere to a blind and obstinate perseverance in that stubborn ancestorial track which has defied the sword as well as the power of persuasion. These difficulties, formidable enough it is seen, beset a path which, without

SPIRITUAL LABOURS IN THE EAST. 159

them, would present obstructions sufficient to shock and appal the most sanguine mind. We can only hope, as faith would inculcate, that the spirit of God is abroad to smoothen asperities, and to help the labourer at his work; and so prosper the desires of those who may feel inclined to pursue the substance of their mission, with the zeal and discretion requisite to ensure a share of success in the end.

Religion was, as it still is, a name which conveyed that stimulus, whose effect led the wandering step of Israel's sons, to revisit the land of their fathers, after a toilsome sojourn in foreign lands, with the desire to linger out their measured days in devotional tranquillity. Hence it would not be without a severe struggle, that the Jew, in his declining days, could be prevailed over to give up the religious sentiments imbibed in early youth. I repeat my conviction, therefore, that nothing but the spirit of God working conjointly with the efforts of His servants, can surmount impediments of this complexion; and a large amount of the same spirit is neces

sary. The prayer of every member concerned, ought to be for a greater and more abundant supply of that divine agency, to encourage them in their work.

CHAPTER X.

The quarter assigned to the Lepers-Queen Helena's Cistern-The Khamseen-Rain in Palestine-The Bishop's Encampment The Consular Champs Elysées.

WITHIN the Bab Nebi Daoude, or gate of Zion, and not without its portals, as we might suppose from the scriptural account, is the quarter assigned to the lepers, who, as a separate body, are still to be met with in Palestine, living in strict seclusion from the rest of the population, and building for themselves small cabins of clay or mud. This separation is rigidly preserved in all

VOL. I.

M

the relations of life, nor can these afflicted people intermarry otherwise than among themselves.

Being compelled also to subsist upon their own resources, as best they can, the most profitable of their occupations appears to be begging, or, as the act may be softened, by the asking of alms, which is considered no disgrace in eastern countries. These lepers infest the high roads leading to the city, and either singly or in bands carry a wooden bowl for those donations which charity rarely refuses. Besides which they are gleaners of the fields, and collect wood, fruit, &c. from the country people who attend the markets. By the laws, both of Moslems and Jews lepers are considered unclean; yet this difference exists between the two races, viz., the Jews, view leprosy as a mark of sin, and consequently are not susceptible to the amount of pity by which other people are moved; whereas the Moslems attaching no such stain to these wretched outcasts are moved but by the ordinary impulse of compassion, the indulgence of which moreover their law teaches to be meritorious or renders obligatory.