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published in one volume folio of French text, with numerous wood engravings, and forty engraved plates; the glass, mosaics, encaustic tiles in colours.

This volume is the fruit of a lengthened residence in Jerusalem, during which M. de Vogue was aided in his researches by Mr. Waddington, the well-known archæologist, and Mr. E. Duthoit, architect. Every facility was granted to the party by the Moslem authorities for prosecuting their investigations at leisure inside the sacred enclosure; and they were thus enabled to measure, sketch, and photograph at their ease, the very important monuments contained in that interesting and inaccessible spot, and all details of Mosaics, stained glass, sculpture, Arabic inscriptions, etc., with a copiousness and care never before attained by any other traveller.

The topography of the Holy City is elucidated by levels taken throughout the town, and by excavations, which have disclosed a portion of the "second wall" of Josephus, and an ancient gateway.

The volume further contains remarks on various points of Hebrew archæology and art.

The Libraries of Constantinople.-As the literary treasures of Constantinople will at last become accessible to the public, let us hope they will also be explored in the interest of Judaism. We copy the following from a literary journal:-"It is perhaps not generally known that the capital of Turkey possesses a large number of public libraries, a general catalogue of which is now being made. According to an estimate which is considered reliable, the total number of manuscripts thus catalogued will exceed a million. Unfortunately, however, many of these MSS. have been so damaged by lying in heaps in damp cellars or worm-eaten chests, as to be partially, and in some cases entirely, illegible. It is to be regretted that, until now none of the treasures of the early periods of Byzantine literature, which it was hoped would be brought to light, has been found. It has, on the contrary, been proved that all the works of those times which are known to have existed have been ruthlessly destroyed. The remaining works are consequently chiefly in Arabic, or in other Semitic languages; but they form, on the other hand, the richest collection of oriental literature in existence. Ahmet-Vafik Effendi SubbiBey, and other Turkish men of letters, have proposed that this inestimable mass of literary treasures be collected in one building, so as to render it accessible to students engaged in historical researches, and there is every reason to believe that this proposal will be adopted, notwithstanding the opposition it has hitherto met with. The first step towards the formation of an imperial library has already been taken by placing 40,000 volumes of good works, in various European languages, and which belonged to Il-Hami-Pasha, in the Dar-al-Fanoon, the building of the University. Orders have been given to increase this collection considerably, so as to create a tolerably complete library for consultation, to which the public will be freely admitted. Adding to such a collection the MSS. already mentioned, Constantinople would be superior to any capital in a literary point of view, especially if by some lucky chance the plays of Menander,

or the lost books of Livy, or the remaining tragedies of Eschylus, were suddenly brought to light from amidst the parchments now being so carefully examined."

The Immaculate Conception; appalling calamity in Chili.-The steamer "Atrato" arrived at Southampton at the close of January, and brought the intelligence of a terrible calamity at Santiago, the capital of Chili, resulting in the sacrifice of not much less than two thousand persons, mostly ladies. This melancholy event occurred at the festival of the "Immaculate Conception," and resulted from the Church of La Compania taking fire when crowded with devotees honouring the newest doctrine of the Popish church. This doctrine was promulgated in 1854, and to celebrate it special devotions, lasting from November 8 to December 8, are ordained by the heads of the Roman Catholic Church. The period of special devotion was about to terminate when the catastrophe, particulars of which will be found below, took place; the unfortunate victims principally belonging to the chief families of Santiago, and representing the youth, beauty, and fashion of that capital. The Panama Star and Herald of January 8 supplies the following account of this calamity :

"One subject occupies the mind in this republic, the particulars of which make men's blood run cold, and the awful news of which will be received in every part of the world with the utmost horror. We do not remember to have heard of such a calamity—so sickening, so awful. The country seems to be stricken, and no wonder, under this awful judgment of God. All political matters are suspended for the present. Men can think of nothing but this calamity; for in Santiago, the capital, scarce a family but mourns some of its number, having searched in vain for a vestige of their remains, while whole families have entirely perished. Nearly two hundred cartloads of burned corpses have been taken from the awful pile and carried to the cemetery, where fifty men were too few to dig a hole large enough to bury what the fire left of the richest and best families of Santiago.

"Perhaps never in any country has a calamity so dire and unmitigated, so sudden and awful, ever happened. It is scarcely known how much influence the priests of the Church of Rome exercise amongst the people of these republics; but for some years past all reason seems to have been banished from the minds of chiefly the female part of the people of Santiago, and a return has gradually been making to a worse than pagan idolatry in their worship. Since 1857, the year of the invention at Rome of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the church of "La Compania" has been the focus of devotion of a large number of the ladies of Santiago, and every year, from 8th November to 8th December, was carried on a celebration in the most splendid style-a festival in which was orchestral music, singing, and an astonishing prodigality of incense, lights of every kind, etc. Every corner of the building, from the ground to the ceiling, and especially about the altar, was a sea of muslin and drapery, flooded with every variety of illumination. But, not content with such display, the chief priest of the church, a man named Ugarte, would outstrip the Catholic world, and had invented a celestial post-office,' by

which direct communication by writing was obtained with the Virgin Mary, and in which offerings accompanying the letters were to be deposited. The same man recently got up a religious raffle for the benefit of the Virgin; but it was on the evening of the 8th of December that these celebrations were to reach their climax.

"The church of La Compania, built in the end of the seventeenth century, had a spacious nave, but a roof of painted wood of very recent construction. The only door of easy access was the principal door, the small side doors opening only half, and obstructed with screens; near the high altar was a small door into the sacristy. This evening was the closing day of the month's celebration-over three thousand women and a few hundred men had crowded into the church. Ugarte was to give a closing discourse; the nuncio from Rome, Eizaguirre, was also to preach; and hundreds had turned away from the door, unable to obtain admittance. Those who had the best places had been admitted early by tickets, and were mostly young ladies, the flowers of the beauty and fashion of the capital. Twenty thousand lights in long festoons of coloured globes filled the church, with gauze and drapery of every description, pasteboard mummery and figures in every direction. There could not have been better preparation made for a sudden conflagration than had been prepared for this fatal night.

"The performances had not yet begun when the crescent of lights at the foot of the gigantic image of the Virgin over the high altar communicated fire to the drapery overhanging, and to the pasteboard devices, and in an instant a sheet of flame rushed along the festoons of lights to the roof, and in a shorter time than we can write it the fire had spread over the building in all parts. The suddenness of it was awful, and words fail to tell of the horrors that ensued. At once nearly the whole people rushed to the principal door-fainting ladies fell down and were trampled on. The scene at the door who shall describe, as jammed, squeezed into one solid lump, the door was blocked by the people? Arms were wrenched from bodies which could not be extricated, and from the lintel to the arch of that awful passage became a crushed heap of mangled bodies. Most of the men escaped by the doors of the sacristy, and a few by the side-doors; but inside of the area of the church only a few minutes elapsed ere the lamps suspended so plentifully from the roof poured a rain of liquid fire down on the people below, and in less than a quarter of an hour over two thousand persons, mostly females, were no more than blackened corpses.

"It must have been awful! The conduct of the priests is simply this, as reported in the Mercurio of Valparaiso: When the fire broke out, and people were escaping by the sacristy, they blocked up this door that they might more undisturbedly save their gimcracks. After saving these they all sought their own safety, except that one priest favoured the agonising victims with his absolution, and Ugarte requested them to die happy, because they went direct to Mary.'

"The news of this event will be received with deep sorrow all over the world, and the people of Santiago may be assured of the sympathy of all who hear of their bitter trial."

THE

JOURNAL

OF

SACRED LITERATURE

AND

BIBLICAL RECORD.

www

No. X.-JULY, 1864.

ECCENTRICITIES OF HYMNOLOGY: EARLY MORAVIAN HYMN

BOOKS."

THERE may still be persons who treat as caricature or slander, passages in some of our older writers where sarcasm is poured upon the old Moravian hymns, and upon the phraseology which they represented. It is however no exaggeration when Bishop Lavington exclaims, "How pretty is it when the infants, babes, and weaklings of grace, require daily to be borne on the sides of Christ, and be dandled upon his knees,-till they come to

1. A Collection of Hymns, with several Translations from the Hymn Book of the Moravian Brethren. The third edition. London: Printed for James Hutton, near the Golden Lion Tavern, in Fetter Lane, MDCCXLVI.

2. An Appendix to the Collection of Hymns, consisting chiefly of Translations from the Hymn Book of the Moravian Brethren. The third edition. London: Printed for James Hutton, opposite Westharding Street, Fetter Lane, 1746.

3. A Collection of Hymns, with several Translations from the Hymn Book of the Moravian Brethren. Part II. London: Printed for James Hutton, in Fetter Lane, opposite Westharding Street, MDCCXLVI.

4. A Collection of Hymns, consisting chiefly of Translations from the German Hymn Book of the Moravian Brethren. Part III. London: Printed for James Hutton, Bookseller, in Fetter Lane, over against West-Harding-street,

MDCCXLVIII.

5. A Collection of Hymns, consisting chiefly of Translations from the German. Part III. The second edition. [J. Hutton, 1749.]

6. The Song of the Redeem'd: or Hymns compos'd for the Use of Immanuel's Church Meeting in Petticoat Lane, near Whitechapel Bars. O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely, Song of Songs, chap. ii., 14. London: Printed by J. Hart, in NEW SERIES.-VOL. V., NO. X.

S

walk continually under the droppings of his blood! They see the sweet Jesus shewing his lovely face; and his favours and precious promises drop down his lily lips like sweet-smelling myrrh. They know that his arms are round them; for his arms are like the rainbow.' To which may be added part of a Lilliputian hymn, composed by Count Zinzendorf, the Moravians' infallible bishop:

'Chicken blessed,

And caressed,

Little bee on Jesu's breast;
From the hurry

And the flurry

Of the earth thou'rt now at rest.' "b

The reference given for this quotation, is "Hymn 33." And on turning to the fourth of the books on our list, we find it at p. 26, accurately given, except that the original has "this earth" in the last line, and runs on as follows:

"From our care in lower regions,

Thou art taken to the legions

Who 'bove human griefs are rais'd;
There thou'rt kept, the Lamb be prais'd!
Chicken blessed,

Bee caressed!

Thou that sleep'st on Jesu's breast."

Popping's Court, Fleet Street; and sold by J. Lewis, in Paternoster Row, near Cheapside; and at the place above-mention'd, 1749.

7. A Collection of Hymns of the Children of God in all Ages, from the beginning till now. In two parts. Designed chiefly for the use of the Congregations in Union with the Brethren's Church. "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord," Eph. v. 19. London printed; and to be had at all the Brethren's Chapels, MDCCLIV.

8. Collection of Hymns, chiefly extracted from the Larger Hymn Book of the Brethren's congregations. London: Printed and sold at the Brethren's Chapels,

MDCCLXIX.

9. A Collection of Hymns for the use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren. [Quotations from Ps. c. 2; lix. 16; Col. iii. 16; 1 Cor. xiv. 15.] London printed; and sold at the Brethren's Chapels in Great Britain and Ireland, MDCCLXXXIX.

10. A Collection of Hymns, for the use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren. Revised and enlarged. [Same texts quoted as in No. 9.] Bath: printed and sold by J. Hazard; sold also by Henry Haslop, No. 10 Nevil's Court, Fetter Lane, London; and at the Brethren's Chapels in Great Britain and Ireland, MDCCCI.

11. Liturgic Hymns of the United Brethren; revised and enlarged. Translated from the German. London: printed in the year 1793.

12. Liturgic Hymns of the United Brethren; revised and enlarged. Second edition. Translated from the German. Manchester: printed by Nanfan and Davis, 1811.

The Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compared. In three parts. London: 1754. Part ii., p. 5.

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