is the best means to promote virtue, and to this great end Nehemiah next directed his care.

FANNY. How could the people possibly be ignorant with the book of the law in their hands?

MRS. M. That it was not generally in their hands, was their misfortune. Books of all kinds, in every age and nation, must have been but scarce, whilst they could alone be multiplied by the pen. It is to the inestimable art of printing that we are indebted for the blessed light of literature by means of that, the Bible now traverses the globe, and illuminates the palace and the cottage. But few of us can extenuate our sins by the plea of ignorance; for, besides the sacred Scriptures, we have a thousand helps in our way-the very first of which is public instruction on the Sabbath.

CATHERINE. Can you tell us how and when that great benefit originated.

MRS. M. That is the point to which my remarks were intended to lead you to the origin of Christian churches, in the synagogues of the Jews, which, about this period of their history, were instituted as a means of popular instruction. That the churches of the first Christians, were but a continuance of the Synagogue, where they had been accustomed, before their conversion, to worship, was never questioned; but the precise time of their institution is not so exactly ascertained; to the time o Ezra and Nehemiah, however, they are assigned by the best authorities. They are not mentioned in Scripture until after the captivity, wherefore it is argued that they did not exist. Whether these two zealous reformers lived long enough to lend their personal services to the erection of synagogues, we cannot tell; but the conclusion is just,

that the pains which they took to bring the common people acquainted with the Scriptures, and the good effects which were seen immediately to flow from the hearing them read and expounded, first suggested this most excellent mode of instruction.

The temple service, although wrapt in obscurity, was calculated to teach them that they were sinners, and stood in need of continual intercession; but those who lived at a distance from Jerusalem, would receive but little advantage from attending there but three times in the year; and even at these solemn convocations, the males alone were commanded to appear. To these, then, and to the women and children, the synagogue was invaluable; for, placed in all their cities and villages, wheresoever a very small congregation might be collected, they were opened every Sabbath, and frequently throughout the week, and there the sacred books were read and explained, and the assembly united in prayer.

FANNY. Did singing, in our manner, make a part of the synagogue form of worship?

MRS. M. Music, both vocal and instrumental, made a part of the temple service, which was altogether imposing and magnificent, and it was used on other religious occasions, and at the celebration of a great national event; but it has never been, so far as I know, introduced into the synagogue.

The great change in the circumstances of the Israelites, on their re-establishment in their own land, is a good reason for referring the institution of some new mode of enlightening their minds to this era of their history. From the calling of their father Abraham to this moment, they had been guided and governed in an extraordinary manner.

The Divine Oracle had given them counsel from between the Cherubims-fire from heaven had testified the acceptance of their oblations-their prophets had been instructed by visions, and by dreams-and lastly, they had invariably prospered " in their basket and their store," when they obeyed the Divine commands, and were as constantly afflicted when they transgressed. All these marks of a direct superintendance were now to be withdrawn, and they were to participate with other nations in that common Providence which" sends his rain on the just, and on the unjust." The book of the law was now to be their monitor and their guide, and, at this critical juncture, they are provided with the means of becoming acquainted with its precepts. To this judicious measure it is ascribed, that the Jews were never more chargeable with the sin of idolatry. This had been their besetting sin, and a chief cause of their sufferings. They now saw the denunciations of the law against it in all its righteous terrors, and they could no more be allured to the worship of false deities. Their sacred books became more and more dear to them; they preserved them to the minutest letter with religious devotion, and it is owing to that scrupulous care, that they are handed down to us in their original purity.

CHARLES. We are more indebted to the Jews than I had supposed. I shall not, in future, dislike them as I used to do.

MRS. M. To dislike any class of people, my son, is a breach of that charity which we are commanded to exercise towards the whole world of mankind. But the descendants of Shem are entitled to our affectionate regard if they are now blind to their best interests, let us pity them; but let us not forget their claims to our veneration, enumerated in

:

that pathetic plea of the apostle-"To them pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promiseswhose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed for ever!"

PROPHECY.

THE dispersion of the Israelites, and the captivity and restoration of Judah at the time, and in the manner predicted by the prophets, together with many subordinate events, which I have noticed in the course of our Conversations, will have given you some notions of the importance of their writings to the truth and unity of the Scriptures. The conquest, or extermination of the Amalekites, the Moabites, and the Idumeans, foretold by Balaam, also corroborates this remark. No nation with which the Israelites had much intercourse, was unnoticed by the prophets. But the predictions concerning Babylon and Tyre, Egypt and Nineveh, names better known in latter times than those I have just mentioned, would alone establish their divine inspiration. These mighty states were flourishing in the meridian of their glory at the time the denunciations against them were pronounced, and betrayed to the human eye no symptom of declension, from which sagacity might calculate their downfall, unless it might be predicated on their vice and luxury.

Tyre," the daughter of Sidon," as she is called, and after her the greatest and most ancient city of the Phoenicians-the most celebrated place in the world for its trade and navigation—“a mart of nations, the crowning city,