with fire." Thus the people were led, as also John himself, to look daily for the appearance among them of this promised person. The Spirit of God increased upon John as he proceeded in his ministry, and he had a clearer and wider prophetic vision. The report of the pungency and power of his ministry, together with his declaration that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, spread through the land, and came to the ears of Jesus, and, combining with the Spirit of God, which rested on him, led him to the banks of the Jordan. Who can describe the meeting of John and Jesus? The one knew not the other, and yet the one expected every day to see the other. As they approached, the Spirit of God revealed, in a higher and diviner sense, the one to the other. It was a mutual recognition of person, of relation, and of office. John suddenly paused in his work of baptizing the people, and, agitated and silent, he looked for a few minutes intently on the meek and heavenly man who was approaching him, and upon whom, by a mysterious inner impulse, each one of the vast multitude turned his eyes. Slowly, and with a benignant and assuring expression, did Jesus advance upon John, asking to be baptized. The Baptist recoiled slightly, and forbade him, saying, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus said, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." The vast multitude breathed not, as these two mysterious beings descended into the water. As the sacred person of Jesus stood in the living flood, a mild illumination, in the form of a "dove," appeared in the heavens, and, descending upon him, crowned his blessed head. The multitude was awakened to a comprehension of this great event, by "a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." At this time, and in this manner, was Jesus ordained and set apart to the Holy Mission, with which he was charged by the Father, for the redemption of the world. Nearly two thousand years have rolled away since the baptism of Jesus, and yet its powerful associations are felt throughout the Christian world. By the fifteenth of April of each year, a vast crowd of men, women and children, from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, are assembled in Jerusalem. As the morning dawns on Mount Olivet, the Mahometan governor of the city, with an imposing military brigade, is seen deploying from the Damascus gate; while the pilgrims, some on foot, some on horseback, some on camels, some on donkeys, are assembled outside of St. Stephen's gate; the aged and sick, the women and children, in large baskets or panniers slung over the backs of camels. As the gay cortege of the Turk winds round the western and southern slopes of Olivet, the Christian host, in the most picturesque confusion, follow in his train for protection. At eventide they are on the plains of Jericho, about a mile from the Jordan. The gay tent of the gov ernor is the centre of the thousand groups, which, under the open heavens, are assembled around their little fires. These die out as the night advances, but sleep comes not to the weary and excited multitudes; for they are to bathe to-morrow in the Jordan, where the Lord of life and glory was baptized. At three o'clock in the morning the camp is in motion, and the multitudes eagerly advance in disorder to the margin of the river. The lusty swimmer leaps into the sacred flood - the timid female seizes the branch of an impending willow, and lets herself down three times beneath the water the feeble old man's step is steadied by his brawny son, and, as he comes up from the river, he feels that he is content, for the chief wish of his life is accomplished. Suddenly a faint shriek is heard, and at first a shiver of horror, and then a thrill of pleasure runs through the multitude: the rapid current has carried away a pilgrim, and she finds an enviable burial in the holy river. Scarcely two hours have elapsed, and the vast multitude is retracing its steps across the sandy plain, bearing on high, branches of willow, acacia, or cane, which they have plucked from the banks and dipped into the sacred waters. An hour more, and the rear portions of that wonderful throng have disappeared high up in the dark, craggy mountains of the wilderness of Judea, and at night will sleep around the garden of Gethesemene and the tomb of the blessed virgin, in the valley of the Kidron, under the walls of Jerusalem. A LEGEND OF BOSTON HARBOR. BY THE EDITOR. Lift we the twilight curtains of the Past, A glance upon Tradition's shadowy ground, Led by the few pale lights, which glimmering round, That dim, strange land of Eld, seem dying fast; And that which history gives not to the eye, The faded coloring of Time's tapestry, Let Fancy, with her dream-dipped brush, supply. WHITTIER. ALL along the shores of the beautiful harbor, overlooking which, sits the Queen City of New England, upon her tri-montane throne, are found the relics and remembrancers of a departed race. For the same reason that it beguiled the steps of the early Puritan settlers, and charmed them with its quiet inlets, its more generous soil, its sweet waters and its flowing rivers, into the choice of its shores for the sites of their incipient towns, our well sheltered bay was the chosen hunting and fishing ground of numerous Indian tribes. They have long since melted away, and, like certain extinct classes of the animal family, are only preserved in remembrance by faint and time-worn memorials, or, now and then, by some tall, grim skeleton turned up from beneath the sod by the innovating spade. Their arrow heads, which, when a boy, I have found upon the shore, were always invested with a mysterious interest, and offered to my mind an affecting emblem of their history;-like the flight of an arrow they had suddenly passed away from view. Mounds of shell-fish, strange and poetic appellations of hills and rivers, and the sites of towns, are now the affecting monuments of both their presence and absence. been handed down through the unwritten tales of the nursery and the home-fireside, now invest many of these titles with a romantic interest. No name was arbitrary with the Indians, but all were commemorative of some event occurring in the vicinity, or descriptive of the natural scenery. Old traditions, which have While residing, for a short period, in the little town nestled among the hills at the very extremity of the southern shore of the harbor, I fell upon one of these legends of another century, which mantles a high, bare cliff, jutting boldly out into the waters of the Atlantic a noble headland, from whence a view, unobstructed save by the horizon, can be had of the sublime waste of waters beyond, and within the hearing of that everlasting chant of the waves, as they beat upon the marbled shores of an opposing beach. Its modern associations are painful; for at its feet many a noble vessel has been wrecked, and upon its sands many a sailor has found his dying couch. This rugged bluff, although it appears now naked of verdure, was once covered with a dense forest, beneath |