All that God does is wonderful. Look at the stars, the nearest of which must be twenty millions of millions of miles awaymore than two hundred thousand times the distance of our sun, and think of the magnitude and majesty of creation. Look at the earth, beautiful at all seasons, with all its living hosts, from the whale or the elephant to the minutest animalcule, each creature perfect in all its parts, and every part, even of the smallest, a microcosm of design and wonder.

Then look at God in Providence, and think how these wait all on Him that he may give them their meat in due season-not as supplying merely the elements of motion or direction to some machine-not without their own agency and co-operation-for that he gives them, they must gather; and then say, if words, wonderful as they are, can say it, how great, how wise, how good, how wonderful He is, as manifested in these works around us.

But there is one thing more wonderful than these. He has magnified His Word above all his name. And the word of God we are now to speak of, taking for our text the phrase already quoted- -"The Words of the Prophecy of this book."

There are two things to be noticed here. What we must do with these words; and what we must not do with them.

The first of these is rather implied than stated; but it will be found plainly enough if we look for it. They are called words of prophecy; but the expression applies to the whole truth of Godthe whole canon of Inspiration, to which they form the solemn close. Looking therefore at the Bible as a prophecy, what meaning are we to attach to the latter term?

Paul tells us in writing to the Corinthians. It is a teaching by which the sinner feels convinced of sin, condemned by it, sorry for it, and prayerful on account of it. "He is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face he will worship God."

If God, then, call these words the words of prophecy, he must intend us to make this use of them-so to read that we may see ourselves to be sinners, and God, the justifier of the ungodly who believe in Jesus.

But some may say, "How do you know that prophesying is teaching-we have always been taught to believe that to prophesy is to foretel things to come." Be it so. And is not this

the very purport of the Bible. Is not its great aim to bring life and immortality to light, and to set Christ so before us that we may say, "This is life eternal that we may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent." All preaching has this prophecy for its great burthen. Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him: woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him." So far, then, every preacher is a prophet.

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Some may say again, "There are so many things in the Bible -which of these must I study?" How our text simplifies this momentous question. "This prophecy" is its comprehensive Christ is the first and the last to whom all the prophets gave witness. Look for Him there, and for yourselves. Give your heart to Him, and take Him into yours. The great end of prophecy is not answered if he be received into the intellect alone : for prophecy must tell upon the feelings and affections as well as on the judgment. The Bible is a dead letter till we are convinced, condemned, penitent, and prayerful. The last link reveals the Christian, "Behold he prayeth."

There is one more duty connected with this word. We have seen what is to be done with it. Now what are we not to do? Two things. We are neither to add to it, nor take from it. And who but pleads guilty to this charge? There have been Pharisees and Sadducees in all ages. The Papist, and the Puseyite, and the Ritualist, are still endeavoring, like their prototypes of old, to make the law void through their traditions. These are they who add. But who takes from it? Of whom was the cold Sadducee the awful type—denying the Resurrection, and saying that there was neither angel nor spirit? Was he not the immature Socinian who makes the Resurrection and the Life himself, but man corruptible and dying? The first dared only doubt that there were spirits the second robs the Forming and Informing Spirit Himself of all his royal honors.

But are these the only robbers of the Word-the only doctors of God's great Book of Truth. Far from it. The Arminian robs the Spirit of his high and unquestioned sovereignty; the Calvinist, of his reforming and purifying energy. And what a host are ready on the other hand to lay burthens on their brethren, which neither they nor their fathers are able, or in any way bound, to bear. The Jews had but one pass-word, when they cried out against

the Gentiles,

Except ye be circumcised, ye cannot be saved." But our tests might be named Legion, not only from their number, but their overbearing intolerance. Look for a moment at professing Christians in the nineteenth century; and then look at Him who in His all-embracing love, thus prayed on their behalf" "That they all may be ONE, as Thou, Father art in me, and I in thee-that they also may be one IN US; that the world believe that Thou hast sent me!"

may

Are they one yet-one in themselves, or one in God and Christ? If not, O unloving and unlovely Christians! how can you wonder that the world is so slow of heart to believe the gospel? Learn to love, that your Master's image may be seen in you; and beholding that image, the world will be transformed into it, till the glory of that love shall merge in the greater glory of your inheritance in light.

NINEVEH AND ITS REMAINS.

We entered Mosul on the 10th of April. During a short stay in this town we visited the great ruins on the east bank of the river, which have been generally believed to be the remains of Nineveh. We rode also into the desert, and explored the mound of Kalah Sherghat, a vast ruin on the Tigris, about fifty miles below its junction with the Zab. As we journeyed thither we rested for the night at the small Arab village of Hammum Ali, around which are still the vestiges of an ancient city. From the summit of an artificial eminence we looked down upon a broad plain, separated from us by the river. A line of lofty mounds bounded it to the east, and one of a pyramidal form rose high above the rest. Beyond it could be faintly traced the waters of the Zab. Its position rendered its identification easy. This was the pyramid which Xenophon has described, and near which the ten thousand had encamped: the ruins around it were those which the Greek general saw twenty-two centuries before, and which were even then the remains of an ancient city. Although Xenophon had confounded a name, spoken by a strange race, with one familiar to a Greek ear, and had called the place Larissa, tradition still points to the origin of the city, and, by attributing its foundation to Nimrod, whose name the

ruins now bear, connects it with one of the first settlements of the human race.

Kalah Sherghat, no less than Nimroud, was an Assyrian ruin : a vast, shapeless mass, now covered with grass, and showing scarcely any traces of the work of man except where the winter rains had formed ravines down its almost perpendicular sides, and had thus laid open its contents. A few fragments of pottery and inscribed bricks, discovered after a careful search amongst the rubbish which had accumulated around the base of the great mound, served to prove that it owed its construction to the people who had founded the city of which Nimroud is the remains. There was a tradition current amongst the Arabs, that strange figures carved in black stone still existed amongst the Arabs; but we searched for them in vain, during the greater part of a day in which we were engaged in exploring the heaps of earth and bricks, covering a considerable extent of country on the right bank of the Tigris.

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On the morning following these discoveries, I rode to the encampment of Sheikh Abd-ur-rahman, and was returning to the mound, when I saw two Arabs of his tribe urging their mares to the top of their speed. On approaching me they stopped. Hasten, O Bey," exclaimed one of them-"hasten to the diggers, for they have found Nimrod himself. Wallah, it is wonderful, but it is true! we have seen him with our eyes. There is no God but God;" and both joining in this pious exclamation, they galloped off, without further words, in the direction of their tents. On reaching the ruins I descended into the new trench, and found the workmen, who had already seen me, as I approached, standing near a heap of baskets and cloaks. Whilst Awad advanced and asked for a present to celebrate the occasion, the Arabs withdrew the screen they had hastily constructed, and disclosed an enormous human head sculptured in full out of the alabaster of the country. They had uncovered the upper part of a figure, the remainder of which was still buried in the earth. I saw at once that the head must belong to a winged lion or bull, similar to those of Khorsabad and Persepolis. It was in admirable preservation. The expression was calm yet majestic, and the outline of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art scarcely to be looked for in the

works of so remote a period. The cap had three thorns, and, unlike that of the human-headed bulls hitherto found in Assyria, was rounded and without ornament at the top. I was not surprised that the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. It required no stretch of imagination to conjure up the most strange fancies. This gigantic head, blanched with age, thus rising from the bowels of the earth, might well have belonged to one of those fearful beings which are pictured in the traditions of the country, as appearing to mortals, slowly ascending from the regions below. One of the workmen, on catching the first glimpse of the monster, had thrown down his basket and run off towards Mosul as fast as his legs could carry him. I learned this with regret, as I anticipated the consequences. Whilst I was superintending the removal of the earth which still clung to the sculpture, and giving directions for the continuation of the work, a noise of horsemen was heard, and presently Abdur-rahman, followed by half his tribe, appeared on the edge of the trench. As soon as the two Arabs had reached their tents, and published the wonders they had seen, every one mounted his mare and rode to the mound, to satisfy himself of the truth of these inconceivable reports. When they beheld the head they all cried together, "There is no God but God, and Mahommed is his prophet!" It was some time before the sheikh could be prevailed upon to descend into the pit, and convince himself that the image he saw was of stone. "This is not the work of men's hands," exclaimed he, "but of those infidel giants of whom the Prophet, peace be with him! has said, that they were higher than the tallest date tree; this is one of the idols which Noah, peace be with him! cursed before the flood." In this opinion, the result of a careful examination, all the bystanders concurred. I now ordered a trench to be dug due south from the head, in the expectation of finding a corresponding figure, and before nightfall reached the object of my search about twelve feet distant. Engaging two or three men to sleep near the sculptures, I returned to the village and celebrated the day's discovery by a slaughter of sheep, of which all the Arabs near partook.

Before leaving Nimroud and reburying its palaces, I would wish to lead the reader once more through the ruins of the principal edifice, and to convey as distinct an idea as I am able