already referred. It was in the dance that the daughters of Shiloh were taken captive by the men of Benjamin. Jephthah's daughter was a severe sufferer for her love of the dance. The cruel and wanton daughter of Herodias, by her dancing, caused John the Baptist to lose his head. The head of God's holy prophet in a platter, was a refined reward for a pastime as refined.

Children should not be taught to dance. That which it is not proper for a Christian to do, it is not proper to teach, or suffer to be done. Unless it be expedient to impair the health and endanger the morals of the young, unless it be right to impress upon them a love of indecorous pleasure, unless it be proper to familiarize their minds with dissipation in the days of their youth, then it must be wrong to teach children to dance.

or manners.

Dancing is not a healthful relaxation for children. The frail dress, the constrained apparel, the close room, the violent exercise, the extremes of heat and cold, the exposure, are not favorable to health. A dancing school is not a school of good morals "Evil communications corrupt good manners; and such communications are found there. The mingling together of all classes, and the absence of moral culture, which is the only basis of good manners, prove this. Dancing schools and dancing masters must materially change, before politeness or moral principles will be learned from either.

We know not how to reconcile the conduct of those Christian parents who teach their children to dance, with their vows to God, to whom they dedicated their children in baptism. They pledged themselves to train them up in his fear and for his praise. Will the art of dancing help in this momentous work? Will the course of training which dancing requires, the dress, the preparation, magnify the importance of early piety? Will it not rather place, deep down in their tender minds, a love of vain display and sensual gratification? Such seeds, sown at such an age by such hands, must bear pernicious fruits.

Of what avail are counsels, tears, or prayers, from such parents? The voice that prays, encourages the child to tread the paths of folly. The hand that arrays the child for church, arrays it for the ball-room. The authority which guides its feet into the house of God, guides them into the place of unhallowed mirth. In the estimation of the child, the one will be as sacred as the other.

By all that Christ enjoins upon parents, in respect to their children; by all that Christians have vowed before God, in relation to their offspring; by all that concerns the present and endless good of both parents and children, Christians are forbidden to dance themselves, or to teach the unblessed art to their households.

EGYPT AND THE PROPHETS.

EGYPT has for us the highest interest, from the evidence which it furnishes, in the fulfilment of prophecy, of the truth of the Bible. Egypt had been, in the plenitude of her power, the oppressor of the nations; she had proved false to her national engagements with Israel; and her idolatries had corrupted the world. In consequence, that God, whose government extends to nations as to individuals, announced, two thousand four hundred years ago, by the lips of Ezekiel and Zechariah, and two thousand six hundred years ago, by the lips of Isaiah, and placed on record in the Bible, the decrees of God registered in heaven against Egypt. Hear his words, Zech. x. 11: "The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." Ezek. xxx. 13: "There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." Ezek. xxx. 7: "They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted." Ezek. xxix. 15: "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more." Ezek. xxx. 13: "Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy their idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph" (Memphis).

Was it inspiration, or political forecast, which uttered these wonderful words? Was it the discernment of the prophets which spoke, or God himself, to whom the future and the past were equally present? There was nothing in the condition of Egypt, to make such a future probable. What was the condition of Egypt? From the mouths of the Nile, for a thousand miles, up to the tower of Syene (Assouan, the first cataract), from Syene far southward into the heart of Ethiopia, there was one language, one law, one faith, one sovereign. His subjects were counted by millions, and twenty thousand cities obeyed his scep tre. The river, from the heart of Africa, bearing fertility in its

bosom, was trained and led by channel and water-course, until it won the desert for the plough; lentils, lupines, the doura, wheat, with the melons, the onions and the garlic which Israel craved in the wilderness; the olive, the orange, the citron, the fig, the pomegranate, and the clusters of the vine, abundantly supplied the wants of the teeming millions, and poured their excess on the necessities of less favored lands. The young Egyptian grew up amidst those monuments of national greatness which astonish our degeneracy, and put to shame the meaner magnificence of our times.

What was there in such a condition of things, to warrant any unaided wisdom in coming to the conclusion, that Egypt should be desolate and bare, her altars defiled, her people oppressed by strangers, and her line of kings, whose race extended far back towards the deluge, be dethroned for ever? No forecast, unaided by inspiration, could have discerned amid such glories the tokens of future and absolute ruin.

The Lord God

But have these prophecies been fulfilled? "The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away." It has passed away. hath said: "There shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt!" and what was written in heaven is true on earth. There has been none. Five hundred and twenty-five years before Christ, it yielded to the conquering arms of the Persian Cambyses. Three hundred and twenty-five years before Christ, the Persian dominion crumbled before the overmastering power of Alexander. Thirty years before Christ, Cleopatra ended her vices, her life and her kingdom; and Egypt became a Roman province. In the division of the Roman empire, Egypt pertained to the throne of Constantinople, and there remained until the year 640; when the Saracens, impelled by the vigor of a new superstition, crushed the decaying strength of a corrupt rule, and conquered the land. Their rule was subverted, in 1250, by the Mamelukes; and thus a race of Circassian and Georgian slaves ascended the throne of the Pharaohs. Eventually the Turk, in 1516, overthrew the Mamelukes, and Egypt became a province of the Turkish empire. From 1798 to 1801, it passed under the dominion of France; and subsequently, after a chapter of bloody strife and treachery, it remains nominally attached to the Turkish empire, under the viceroyalty of Mehemet Ali, a Turk himself, holding Egypt without the consent of its people and in spite of 18*

VOL. I.

the Sultan. For two thousand three hundred and seventy-two years, no prince of Egypt has swayed the sceptre of the Pharaohs. The race of old Egypt has dwindled from millions down to one hundred and sixty thousand, whose very language has died out, and would be utterly lost but for their sacred books; and whose proud history and character could hardly be recognized in the cringing servility and degradation of the modern Copts. Is not this the doing of Him who hath said, Ezek. xxx. 19: "I will execute judgments in Egypt, and they shall know that I am the Lord ?"

But let us look at other points in the prophecy. It is written: "Egypt shall be a base kingdom, it shall be the basest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more. Her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted."

The personal character of Mehemet Ali has given to Egypt a measure of activity, and possibly of progress in the arts of life, unknown among the feuds of Mameluke Beys, or under the sleepy rule of the Turk. But it should be borne in mind, that the progress of Egypt under Mehemet Ali has always been in harmony with oriental ideas. Every thing has been done with simple reference to the security and aggrandizement of his throne. He has introduced manufactures, but they are all monopolies. No Arab dare make, even for domestic use, any article which the Pasha manufactures; on the other hand, he cannot sell his raw material except to the Pasha, nor buy it, when manufactured, except from the Pasha, and in both cases at the prices of the government. It is equally true that he cannot sell his wheat, or any product of the soil, until the officers of government have taken what they please, at their own estimate. In addition to this, the land-tax is so heavy on the wretched cultivators, that, even where they own the soil, they often leave it in despair; as the claims of the government, when met, do not leave enough to support the most meagre existence. In consequence, vast tracts of land are left unblessed by the plough, unchecred by the song of the yeoman and the hum of village life, a mere waste, overgrown by halfeh (beach-grass), the covert of the prowling jackal, and an emblem of the political economy of an oriental despot.

Not content with the grinding land-tax, which leaves but the most meagre remnant consistent with life to the laborer, the Pasha has appropriated to himself, by decree, the greater part of

the soil of Egypt, before in private hands; paying for it by an annuity to the owner, terminating with his life, and entirely below its worth. Add to this, that the despotism of the head is transmitted to the lowest functionary of the land, and you may imagine how thoroughly crushing to the population is the government of Mehemet Ali. It centres every thing in himself. It gives him an army and a navy; it extorts from the penury of Egypt more than we should suppose any pressure could drain; but scarcely any thing returns to bless the people. They are left poor, ignorant and degraded; cringing and servile when dependent, cruel and unscrupulous when in power. Their villages are built of sun-burnt bricks; the huts being merely a square wall, about seven feet high, with beams of the palm across the top, covered by corn-stalks, to shade them from an Egyptian sun. "Her cities are in the midst of the cities that are wasted." The life of the fellaheen is so close an approach to nature, that we inquired what was considered a suitable outfit for a young couple entering on married life; and were answered: "A hut, a mat, a water jar, and an earthen pan." The cost of the whole, house and furniture, was estimated at one dollar and forty cents.

The ambition of Mehemet Ali has drained the strength of Egypt. Her children have laid their bones in the sands of Arabia, the savage regions of Ethiopia, and whitened the very plains of Judea. They shrink with horror from the government requisitions, which sweep the population of villages and districts. Men, women and children are swept to the digging of canals, and their toil and exposure are requited by five cents the day for men, two cents and a half for women, and one cent and a fourth for children. But the horror of want and labor under the lash, and of diseases from exposure, is nothing, compared with the dread of military service. Standing on the banks of the Nile, we were surrounded by five boys: one had lost an eye, and three had lost two joints of the fore finger of the right hand; while the fifth had that finger bent over a small bar of red hot iron, until the sinews were crisp and stiff. And yet this horrible act was an act of love; it was the act of a mother, who sought in this cruel method to retain them in her bosom, by making them incapable of serving in the wars. There is no people more degraded. They submit, as to destiny, with the sullenness of despair; at times breaking out into bloody vengeance on subordinate oppressors, to be them