the king with his wand, and said, 'Before you quit this circle, tell me what answer I shall take back to the senate.' Antiochus, confounded at his stern mandate, replied, 'That he would conform to the views of the senate,' and Popillius then held out his hand to him as a friend. Thus the ships of Chittim did come against the King of the North, and he was grieved, and did return. There is only one other passage in the Scriptures in which Chittim is mentioned; and as that speaks of the close of that mighty country, we have placed it last. It occurs in the extraordinary and most wonderful prophecy of Balaam, Numb. xxiv. 24, "Ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever." Parkhurst has supposed that Eber, in Gen. x. 21, is not the name of a person, but of a class, as the word means 'to pass over,' and that thus Shem was the father of the pilgrims, or of the Israelites, who were pilgrims and strangers till they arrived in the promised land. But names appear to have been given frequently to the fathers of our race from peculiar circumstances which occurred in their lives. Thus Peleg, the son of Heber, acquired his name from the division of the earth which took place in his time; and if Heber be identical (as there seems no reason to doubt) with the prophet Houd of Arabian tradition, who wandered about exhorting idolaters to return to the God of their fathers, and threatening the disobedient with judgment, his name of pilgrim might have been bestowed upon him from this very circumstance. all events, there is no reason to suppose that the Jews were not included under the Eber of Balaam's prophecy. Thus then it reads:-The Romans shall afflict Assyria, (then one of the greatest of kingdoms) and shall afflict

At

;

but their power

the Jews and their kindred nations shall not always remain, for they also shall perish for ever. And thus we find in the scrolls of that early, but far-reaching prophecy, in which the visions of Daniel and the Apocalypse are rolled up, like the graceful ear of wheat inside the tiny corn, that Asshur shall be afflicted -Eber shall be afflicted-but Chittim shall perish for

ever.

A day will come when the Lord of Hosts shall bless Assyria, the work of his hands, and Israel, his inheritance, (Isaiah xix. 25); but no such promise is held out to Kittim. She appears again, long after Daniel had gone to his rest, though not by the name of Kittim; and we shall have, in a future paper, to mark her history and her doom when she passes from the country of Italy, and its adjacent islands, to become "that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Revelation xviii, 18.

X. Y. Z.

IRISH ORPHANS.

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength.”

DEAR MADAM,

In a letter recently written by the wife of one of those ministers whom God has so highly honoured as the heralds of his salvation among the benighted inhabitants of Kerry, the following sad fact is related.—“ In a village at the other end of the strand, a pitiable sight was discovered; two sisters were lying dead in one bed; their children crying with hunger, and none to help them.'

I was going to ask permission to plead, through your pages, for additional contributions towards the relief of the sufferers in Ventry and Dingle. I was going to ask English Christians to endeavour, as instruments, to make the abode of the poor converts a Goshen in our plague-stricken land. But when I began, it seemed almost a work of supererogation. English Christians well know the names of Ventry, Donquin and the Blasquet Islands, and those whose wealth is their Lord's pound, gaining ten pounds, will not, cannot suffer the poor of His flock, who in days of comparative plenty, forsook all and followed Him, to be an hungered, naked, sick, and not minister unto them. They have done much for Dingle and Ventry; surely they will do much more. But there are young readers of the Magazine to whom the story of the two dead mothers and

their crying, starving children, might suggest a plan of usefulness, which juvenile zeal, aided by the faith that removes mountains, might easily carry into execution. Could not a few English children or young persons, who love the Lord Jesus, and are filled with holy enterprise for his name's sake, undertake to provide a fund for the maintenance of orphans in Kerry? Famine and pestilence are doing terrible work there, as in other parts of Ireland, and many little boys and girls may be left without any to care for them, but the good ministers who teach the ignorant people to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ instead of the Virgin Mary. Let the boys and girls of England give food and clothing and a shelter to these orphans, that the kind clergyman may be able to watch over them, and see them brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

Perhaps some young reader's heart may beat high at the thought of beginning a scheme so useful.-I would say to him or her: "Humble yourself in the sight of God; "-"Let nothing be done through vain glory." Remember that David says: "By thee I have run through a troop; and by the help of my God I have leaped over a wall," and be not discouraged by little obstacles; seek help from the same God and then begin. You" can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth you."-Influence your brothers and sisters, your schoolmates and young correspondents to become collectors; say to them: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men." Their influence will branch out in other directions, all bringing accumulated mites into one treasury that will send food and clothing, provide a home, and perhaps the bread of life too, for the weeping children of the two dead sisters, or others who may be yet more destitute.

Let your purpose and your efforts be noble and godlike. I do not ask you to erect a fine building, or to pursue expensive measures. Hitherto any orphans provided for in Ventry have been placed with Christian families, according to the course adopted by the Protes tant Orphan Society in general. Christian fathers and mothers, who have left the superstitious religion of Rome, in which they were brought up, from love to the word and true worship of God, must be well fitted, like Lois and Eunice of old, (see 2 Tim. i. 5.) to cause those desolate ones to "know the Holy Scriptures," even from their childhood. But whatever method those, to whom the expenditure of your gifts would be com→ mitted, might see most advantageous to adopt, let the means put into their trust be adequate to the support of many orphans. Think, when you hear, as we have lately done, of one poor child left alone, the only one of its whole family not taken away by fearful disease, that God by His terrible providence says to you, "take this child and nurse it for me," and let your Kerry orphan fund be sufficient to gather in such lambs to the fold which belongs to Christ in that distant county. Two or three hundred children "trained up in the way they should go" might hereafter be as the "salt of the earth," and do much to purify the dark places of Ireland from the superstition and cruelty, the sloth and ignorance, that now defile them.

Subscriptions from such a Juvenile Association for the maintenance of Orphans in Ventry, &c.; will be received by the Secretary of the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Irish Society, at the office of that Society, 17, Sackville Street, Dublin.

*In the parish of Aghadown, near Skibbereen.

A. N.