chiefly to Jerusalem and the immediate neighbourhood; but subsequently he made excursions to more distant places, distributing every where, as he could find opportunity, Bibles and tracts, while his spirit was constantly revelling amidst the most hallowed associations. As it was Mr. Fisk's intention to extend his Christian researches through the most interesting parts of Syria, before he should make a permanent settlement, he resolved to go by way of Tyre, Sidon and Beyroot, to Mount Lebanon, and there to remain during the hot season. Accordingly he left Jerusalem in company with Mr. King on the 27th of June, 1823, and reached Mount Lebanon on the 16th of July. He took up his residence for the sunmer at a place called Antoura, while his associate, Mr. King, went to reside at Der El Kamer, a place about equi-distant from Beyroot and Sidon. On the 2d of September he observed the monthly concert of prayer in company with three others, which he represents as having been to him a most joyous and refreshing service.

In the course of this month, the Rev. Mr. Jowett having arrived from Egypt, Mr. Fisk went to Beyroot to welcome him; after which they went together on some excursions among the mountains, and subsequently travelled in company to Jerusalem. Here Mr. Fisk made his head-quarters, occasionally visiting other parts of the country, for about eight months. He then returned to Beyroot, and towards the close of June set out, with Mr. King and Mr. Cook, an English Wesleyan missionary, on a journey to some of the principal cities in the North of Syria. After visiting Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli and various other places, he went back to Beyroot, with an intention of passing the winter at Jerusalem. But instead of proceeding immediately to that station, he and Mr. King took up their residence at Jaffa, where they arrived on the 29th of January, 1825. Here they continued till about the close of March; and when they reached Jerusalem on the first of April, they found the city in a state of great consternation from the desperate outrages which were constantly committed by the Pasha's soldiers. Mr. Fisk, however, not at all disheartened by this alarming state of things, kept quietly and steadily at his work, having full confidence in the protection of his Master, as well as in the ultimate success of his cause. At length, however, he became satisfied that he could labour to better purpose in some other place, and resolved to return to Beyroot, notwithstanding, owing to the disturbed state of the country, the journey must be attended with some hazard. The Sabbath preceding his

departure—the last that he ever spent in the Holy city—he preached in Greek, and had among his hearers ten priests of the Greek order. They left Jerusalem on the 9th of May, and after encoun. tering some slight molestation on their journey, from the Arabs, they reached the mission family at Beyroot on the 18th of May. Here Mr. Fisk continued, prosecuting his studies, and making, occasionally, missionary excursions in the neighbourhood, till the close of his earthly career.

The season after Mr. Fisk's return to Beyroot was more than commonly unhealthy, a malignant fever prevailing, to which a large number fell victims. On the 11th of October, Mr. Fisk first spoke of being ill, though for several days there was nothing to excite apprehension in regard to the issue of his disease. It turned out, however, that he had the prevailing fever, and the case at length began to assume an alarming aspect. As there was no physician at hand, they sent for one at Sidon, in whom Mr. Fisk had expressed some confidence; but the disease was probably an overmatch for any medical skill. Each successive turn of fever greatly diminished his strength, while it produced a sort of convulsive effect upon his whole frame. It was thought proper at length that he should be apprized of the fact that his case was regarded as hopeless, and he received the intelligence without the least sign of agitation. He dictated various letters to his friends, which breathed the most entire resignation to the Divine Will. At the mention of his aged father, his feelings, for a moment, seemed almost uncontrollable; but he quickly regained his accustomed composure, and remarked that God would enable him to bear it. For two or three days, life was trembling on the point of extinction, while his spirit was lifting itself for its final glorious flight. At three o'clock on Sabbath morning, October 23, 1825, he had finished his education for the world of immortality. His death produced a great sensation, not only in the missionary family from which he was taken, not only among all friends of Christian missions whom the intelligence reached, but among the poor Arabs, who, in all their ignorance and degradation, had learned to look upon him as a friend and benefactor. His funeral was attended the next day; and at his grave, a part of Paul's noble discourse on the Resurrection was read in Italian, and a prayer offered in English. His remains were deposited in a garden belonging to the missionary family. He died at the age of thirty-three.

In this brief sketch, it has been impossible to do more than just to trace this lamented missionary through different parts of his field of labour, without attempting to show what he actually accomplished. As he had to do the work of a pioneer, it were not to be expected that his labours should have been followed by any immediate splendid results; but there is no doubt that he had a primary agency in preparing the way for whatever has since been accomplished in propagating a pure Christianity in that country by other instrumentalities. During the six years of his missionary life, he had acquired four foreign languages, so as to be able to preach the gospel readily in each of them. He had formed an extensive acquaintance, including persons of various nations, and of every character, ranging from the extreme of refinement to the extreme of degradation; and this acquaintance he always endeavoured to render subservient to the great work to which he had devoted himself. It is easy to imagine the extensive service which he might have rendered to the cause, had he been spared to prosecute his labours till the present time; but it is delightful to reflect that he was dismissed from his labours at the time that Infinite Wisdom saw best, and that he served his Master long enough on earth, to receive through grace a glorious crown in heaven.

Mr. Fisk, as we have already intimated, could not be considered as possessing any extraordinary intellectual powers; but he possessed highly respectable powers, and he made the most of them. His perceptions were clear, his judgment sound, and his knowledge of the human heart deep and accurate. He had also an earnest, loving, trusting spirit, that qualified him for warm friendships and high enterprises. And more than all, he had a spirit of devotion, a love for the souls of his fellow-men, a confidence in the providence and grace of God, an utter oblivion of self in his blessed vocation, that at once rendered the missionary work delightful to him, and gave him mighty influence as a missionary. It was but for a few brief years that he was permitted to speak for his Master here upon earth; but ever since he was laid in his grave, he has been speaking through the word of what he was and what he did, to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; and so he will continue to speak, till that grave shall give up its dead, and he shall ascend from the land which the prophets and apostles once occupied, to that better country, even an heavenly, which is to be the final home of all the ransomed and glorified.

LEVI PARSONS.

LEVI PARSONS, the second son of the Rev. Justin and Mrs. Electa Parsons, was born in Goshen, Mass., July 18th, 1792. During the period of his childhood he was exceedingly fond of home, and by his uncommonly amiable disposition, became a great favourite in the circle of his relatives and acquaintance. His parents were greatly desirous that he should not only become the subject of a genuine conversion, but that he should devote himself to the Christian ministry; and in the hope that this might actually be the case, they sent him abroad to school. He was not without his seasons of temporary anxiety in respect to his soul's salvation, during his childhood and early youth; but it was not till a revival of religion which occurred in the year 1808, that he gave evidence of being renewed in the temper of his mind, and made a public profession of religion by uniting with the church under his father's pastoral care.

In 1810 he became a member of Middlebury College, his father having, in the mean time, removed with his family to Whiting, Vt., and become the pastor of the Congregational Church in that place. During a revival which occurred in Middlebury, the year after he entered college, his mind became deeply agitated in regard to the genuineness of his own previous religious experience; and for a considerable time he was tossed on the billows of painful doubt, not to say of absolute despair. After a somewhat protracted season of anxiety and suffering, he emerged from the cloud into the clear light of a joyful confidence in his Redeemer; and from this baptism of fire and of the Spirit, he seems to have received the elements of a stronger faith, a more entire consecration to the service of his master. Though at the time he fully believed that he had never known the power of regenerating grace, yet, at a subsequent period, when he could examine his exercises more calmly, and compare different states of mind with each other, he was rather inclined to the opinion that the commencement of his spiritual life dated back to the period at which he had originally fixed it.

The period of his college course was signalized by several revivals of religion in Middlebury, in which the college had a liberal share, and in which he was himself eminently active and useful. As he was somewhat straitened in his worldly circumstances, he spent some of his vacations in teaching school; and here also, while he was most assiduous in cultivating the intellects of his pupils, he looked well to their moral and spiritual interests, and laboured, according to his ability, for the promotion of religion in the several neighbourhoods in which he resided. In each place, he left behind him. a most grateful savour, and some individuals there is reason to believe, who were permanently benefited by his faithful counsels and instructions.

In the autumn of 1813, just at the commencement of his Senior year in college, he accepted an invitation from the people of Lewis, Essex county, N. Y., to instruct a school and aid an infant church in the devotions of the Sabbath. As he was crossing Lake Champlain in the evening, on his way to Lewis, he had a narrow escape from death. The schooner in which he was crossing being about half-way over the lake, the ferryman blew a trumpet as a signal for having a light placed on the opposite shore. They soon heard a voice, which was instantly followed by a musket-ball, which passed within two feet of Mr. Parsons. The ferryman then halloed, but got no response; and he remarked that they were undoubtedly preparing to give them a broadside. But instead of a broadside, there quickly appeared a skiff, with a number of armed men, approaching them with great speed, determined apparently to do a destructive work. After making a few inquiries, however, they became satisfied that all was right, and withdrew without attempting any injury. Such is the fact, as recorded by Mr. Parsons in a letter to his parents-the explanation of it doubtless is, that he was in a frontier part of the country, and that this was the time of our last war with Great Britain.

Mr. Parsons had a highly respectable standing as a scholar, and was graduated with honour in 1814. He pronounced, at the commencement, a eulogy on the character of John Knox; a subject into which he entered with great enthusiasm, and which not only brought into vigorous exercise his intellectual powers, but quickened and elevated his moral and religious aspirations.

Within a few weeks after he graduated, he joined the Theological Seminary at Andover. He had for years been silently agitating the