civilization, though opposed in nature, were associated perhaps in the highest degree possible. The doctrines and rites of polytheism were embellished and sustained by the highest efforts of wealth and genius. Art, learning, riches, power, policy, prejudice, the splendor of literature, and the force of genius, were all arrayed on the side of superstition; as if it were the intention of the all-wise, GOD to demonstrate the baleful influence of mistakes concerning his nature upon mind in the highest stages of human cultivation.

The church of Antioch, in Syria, sent into Asia Minor two missionaries: one a young man from the schools of Tarsus and Jerusalem, the other a native of Cyprus, and perhaps more advanced in years. Behold them landing in Pamphylia, with a single attendant, and he, alarmed by the hardships and dangers of the enterprise, forsaking them almost immediately.

Behold this same young man entering the port of Ephesus in a Corinthian galley, accompanied by two mechanics. While descending, with his companions, from the Corinthian vessel, and mingling with the crowd, suppose that some sage of Ionia was standing by, and was told that these persons were come to render the temple of the great goddess Diana despised, whom all Asia and the world worshipped. With what scorn would he have regarded such chimerical enthusiasts! And yet, in the space of four years, through the blessing of GOD on the labors of these missionaries, and those of a young and eloquent preacher from Alexandria, the danger of this very result, by common consent of the inhabitants, had become most imminent. And thus it was everywhere in Asia Minor. Not more than a dozen preachers are named in the New Testament as connected with the missions in Lesser Asia, and only three of these were apostles.

Bithynia was reserved for the apostle Peter; and we find the gospel firmly rooted there when Pliny, the celebrated Roman governor of Bithynia, came into the province not many years the death of that apostle.

after

THE ANCIENT ROTUNDO AT THESSALONICA.

THIS is one of the few remnants of antiquity in that city, whose name is so familiar to every reader of the New Testament. It was constructed of large, square stones, and its appearance in the engraving indicates no less its exposure to the elements for hundreds of years, than that solidity of architecture which has enabled it to resist the attacks of time and violence. The crescent on the top,, with surrounding Mahometan buildings, plainly indicates the gloomy power which now occupies that site of one of the primitive churches.

The situation of Thessalonica, on a fine eminence on the Thermaic Gulf, with a slope which exposes it advantageously to the view of one approaching it by water, renders it conspicuous and attractive from a distance; but as it lies out of the principal routes of travellers in our day, it is still but seldom visited. The date of this ancient tower, we believe, has never been determined, but is allowed to be very early. The name of the city was Therme, in the time of Herodotus and some subsequent writers, having probably been derived, as well as that of the bay which it overlooks, from warm springs: to which the celebrated pass of Thermopyla owes its appellation. It is also said to have been once calied Halia. The name of Thessalonica was given by Cassander, in honor of the daughter of Philip, whom he had married.

Under the Romans this city became an important port, for the commerce of Asia Minor and the Hellespont, and soon increased to a large city, exceeding all others in Macedonia, and enjoying peculiar privileges. In the first century of the Christian Era, it was a considerable place, though probably inferior to Philippi. The account of Paul's first visit to it, in the 17th chapter of Acts, though brief, is interesting, and shows the spirit with which he was received by many of the inhabitants; while the Epistles "to the Church of the Thessalonians," prove that some of them had been so improved through his instructions, as to draw many warm expressions of love and approbation from his eloquent pen, and those animating invitations to exalted lives which are there so much admired: calling them ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, and saying: we ourselves glory in you

in all the churches of God."

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The ancient tower we here present, has been the witness of great revolutions in modern as well as in early ages. Thessalonica, after passing into the hands of different masters in successive ages, yielded, with all Greece, to the miserable and degrading rule of the Turks. Among the Greek population who were found there in late years, were several families warmly devoted to national freedom, and possessing a spirit which engaged them in the earliest plans for the liberation of their countrymen. The neighborhood of the mountains, and their almost inaccessible nature, offered great facilities to such as were inclined to the wild and independant life of the Kleftes; and among those patriotic men were found some of the best of the Thessalonians.

The modern name of the city is Salonica, a very natural abbreviation from the ancient; and, the accent being laid on the letter i, and that being pronounced e, the American reader may easily determine how the name of the city was probably spoken in former imes.

17

LET us here pause awhile, and gaze on the ruins of nations that nave gone before us. Few things are more striking to the imagination, and few calculated to convey instruction more effectively, than the remains of empires, the glory of which has departed, and the power of which has long been abolished. There is something deep and mysterious in the relics of a people with whom we become acquainted only in the silence of their desolation; there is something appallingly picturesque, frightfully effective, in its in