had been practised upon my vision, and that I had only been feeding upon airy prospects, which dissolved into nothingness as I approached them. Alas, that such hideous realities should have been enveloped in such a splendid disguise!

For I saw, as I stood there alighted in the depth of that plain, that, although as to its outline it appeared the same as when I had surveyed it from a distance, yet, as to its particular features, it had undergone a complete transformation. What I had thought to be a scene of loveliness was but a scene of desolation. The grass had withered away, and left only a bare waste around me, while above me, the sky seemed a vaulted tomb, hung round with clouds as with a pall. The stately palaces and towers were like whited sepulchres, stored with the filth of the grave. The mighty works were monuments of decay. The busy throngs were spectres of the charnelhouse, and the pageantry, amid which they moved, a carnival of the dead. The sounds of their merriment had died away on the hollow air, as in mockery. Each ghostly shape had fled from the frame it invested with its phantom beauty; and each frame had dropt into rubbish; and the whole plain was covered with mere fragments of skeletons, as the only remains of all that spectacle of life and glory. I had been set down in a valley, which was full of bones.

O strange and terrible illusion (thought I, as I stood gazing around me), that a world of death could wear such an aspect of life, and mere relics of immortal beings clothe themselves with such a fantastic apparition of beauty and glory!

And scarcely had I made this general observation, when I was led forth by the same mysterious conducting Power, to review those skeleton hosts, that thronged throughout the valley.

And as I passed by them round about, straying up and down the plain and surveying the woeful sights it presented, I had confirmed at every step the utter diversity between my present and my former impressions of the region.

I approached the spot where before I had beheld groups of menlike forms, some in the bloom of youth and beauty, and some in the prime of manhood, and all deporting themselves with the utmost freedom and activity; but now a band of dispersing phantoms were all that greeted me, which, as they vanished, left behind them. each the tottering skeleton, which in its turn fell down into mere lifeless ruins, until at length I stood before nothing but bones.

I drew near to the spot where so lately I had seen the well-known faces of friend and kinsman; but there too proceeded the same hideous phantasy, first the spectre, and then the skeleton, and then the bones.

And thus in whatever quarter I turned my steps, I could discover nothing but bones.

And however closely I might scrutinize, I failed to detect so much as a sign of life or motion among them. The sight was

pained with their number, and they lay bare and withered, as if many a sun had bleached them and many a wind had sighed over them; for as I lifted up my eyes and looked far away and then near at hand, Behold there were very many in the open valley, and lo! they were very dry!

Am I awake, or do I dream? (thought I as I surveyed the strangely altered spectacle.) Was it my first vision that deceived me? and is this the reality? Ye shadowy forms, that I have wooed. Ye spectral glories, that I have coveted! how have ye cheated me! O Life, thou art but the vassal of Death! O Death, thou art the King of Life!

But now, whilst I was yet wondering and weeping at the strange sights which I beheld in that valley, there came breaking on the dreary silence that reigned throughout the place, as if thrown into the startled air of a sepulchre, a Voice, that penetrated my inmost soul with its searching tones, and held me mute in fear and wonder: Son of Man, can these bones live?

I looked on the withered and dissevered limbs at my feet; I strove to fancy them jointed together in the perfect frame; and then I tried to imagine the web of sinews knit over the jointed frame; and then the fair and shapely covering of flesh wrought over the sinews; but as often as I had reached the image of the completed form, at once the flesh shrivelled, and the sinews snapt, and the frame was scattered into fragments, and there was left nothing but the dry bones.

So that, whenever I turned away to awswer the Voice, my heart rose in my throat and I could not speak, until at length, bethinking me of that wondrous Power by which I had been brought down into the valley, and to which I knew that all things were yet possible, I looked upward and cried out, as half in hope, yet half in despair:

O Lord God, thou knowest!

But the echoes of my feeble response had scarcely died away on the air, ere they were quickly forgotten and seemed as though they had not been.

And a silence, rendered yet more oppressive by the contrast, was settling down upon the valley. I heard nothing but the sighing of the wind which, breathing over the bones, came to my ear like a melancholy dirge, telling of utter hopelessness and woe. When again that Voice sounded down, loud and clear, into the very depths of my soul:

"Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live; and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

Now, as I stood listening to that Voice, and pondering its strange

mandate, for a long time I was in a maze and greatly troubled, and like one who has been stunned and struggles to recover himself, I could only murmur and repeat after the Voice its words, as querying if indeed I had heard it aright:

"Prophesy upon these bones? Say unto these bones, hear the word of the Lord? Ah, what were it to prophesy upon bones? and how shall sinews and flesh and breath be brought back into bones? Shall a mortal voice like mine proclaim life from the dead ?"

And I could have doubted whether all were not some ugly dream, and longed either to wake at once and know the truth, or forever shut my eyes and ears to all the sights and sounds of that valley.

Nevertheless, remembering still the supporting influence of that Power by which I had been sustained and carried about in the valley, and placed among the bones, and bidden to prophesy upon them, I turned my eyes away from the great open plain towards that part of it where the familiar faces had greeted me.

And advancing thither ward, weeping much the while at the sad sight before me, and being sorely burdened with my task, yet longing to be girded with the energies of the Power which had carried me there, I lifted up my voice, in obedience to the heavenly mandate, and cried out unto the slain :

Awake, thou that sleepest; arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light!

But the shrill summons floated out into the air as into vacancy, and there was no motion, nor any that answered.

Then I lifted up my voice again, not forgetting the heavenly mandate, and with increasing agony of spirit, repeated the call: Awake, thou that sleepest; arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life!

So I prophesied as I was commanded. But the dead lay before me, still bleaching in the sunshine; and they moved not, nor gave any sign at my summons.

What an audience! what a sermon! Oftentimes, despite the heavenly mandate, would I be tempted to think it was indeed but foolishness; and when I paused and listened, the vale seemed filled with nought but the empty echoings of my voice, and I would fancy I heard evil spirits in the distance, calling to each other, and tossing my words hither and thither, as in mocking laughter.

But I still kept on with my message, not doubting but that the Power which is able to subdue all things unto himself would yet bring life even from the dead.

And whilst I was thus engaged in the weary proclamation, being now sick at heart for the little good there seemed to be in it, a murmur began to be heard in the valley.

As I prophesied, there was a noise.

And turning to the quarter whence it proceeded, I perceived all over the plain signs of the wildest agitation. There were those

remnants of human beings, that before had in them so little resemblance to men, at last bestirring themselves with a strange show of life and activity; each particular heap of disordered limbs and fragments mysteriously moving and collecting together, as if impelled by an instinct, into their due place and connection, until everywhere around me they had assumed the proportions of the perfect skeleton.

Behold, there was a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

And, stooping to inspect more narrowly the strange transformation which was going on before me, I saw that over each skeleton had been knit and woven the hidden web of nerve and muscle; and then over this had been wrought the fair exterior of the perfect When I beheld, lo! the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above.

man.

But, as I watched the working of that weird cloquence, divided now between hope and fear, scarce knew I whether to weep or to rejoice, so much of life there appeared to be in the midst of death, and so much of death there appeared to be in the midst of life. For, I found that although the limbs had been joined into the frame, and the frame had been robed in the integuments of the full form, and the whole spectacle had begun to assume the appearance of an array of living men, yet there the work had been stayed; the pulse had yet to be beating in the veins; and the cheek had yet to be flushed with beauty; and the eye had yet to be beaming with intelligence. The sinews and the flesh had come up upon them, and the skin had covered them above, but there was no breath in them.

And thus, I knew not whether what I beheld was indeed life prevailing over death, or only death making a mock of life. At one moment, I would think myself gazing upon an assemblage of living men, and would expect to see them immediately start to their feet, like an army moving at the call of their leader; but presently the ghastly spectacle would return upon me in all its reality, and over it be floating the grim, defiant smile of the conqueror amid his prey.

And I stood amid the breathless host, as in an ecstasy of hope and despair, to know what would be the end of this conflict.

And while I was yet waiting and wondering, the Voice came again, but now eager and thrilling, as if not a moment must be lost: Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, Son of Man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon the slain, that they may live.

And I marvelled not, but prophesied as I was commanded. But what I said, or if I spake, I know not, so often would my words fail for sobs and groans, that could not be uttered.

And, as I was thus sighing and longing for the heavenly breeze to come and blow upon the slain and complete the renovation,

suddenly there came to mine ear, at first from afar and then more near, a strain of wild and lonely melody, so mournful, yet so sweet and musical, the air seemed filled with the wandering fragments of some heavenly minstrelsy.

And my spirit drank in the sound, and I grew strong and calm, and was full of a deep and solemn joy.

And the dead heard it, and began to awake; for, there passed among them I know not what secret influence, like unto the wind, blowing whither it listed, the sound whereof thou couldst hear, but mightst not tell whence it came or whither it went, carrying vigour to the languid limb and beauty to the wasted countenance, until throughout the whole pale and motionless host, the signals of life were planted amid the very ruins of death.

On one face and another, lately so blanched and rigid, now became visible the first faint flushes as of returning consciousness, the breast heaving and the eyes unclosing, until at length, with a shudder through the frame and a look of agony in the moving features, there broke from the lips a cry as of one buried alive: 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then there would be a mighty struggle and effort of the whole man, as he stood up on his feet, with a sweet smile on his lips, and methought angelic harpings to echo his words the while I thank God, through Jesus Christ, my Lord.

So the breath came into them, and they lived.

But the things which I now began to behold in the valley, it were not possible for a man to utter; for they which lived were still with the dead, and, as fast as the dead came to life, they were ministered unto by the living.

I saw the living babe breaking away, like a winged cherub, from the arms of its dead mother, and the dead wife joined to the living husband, and the living wife bowed over the dead husband, and living sisters kneeling beside their dead brothers; and here and there, throughout the valley, little groups and companies sighing and yearning for the Wind to come and blow upon the slain, that they might live.

And above them were bright seraph forms, with folded wings and looks of love and pity, waiting to make signal to their companions, whenever one of the dead should come to life.

And the air was full of sobs and wails, that presently ended in songs and praises.

But now, whilst I was yet in the midst of such sights as these, I had my eyes turned toward a spot, where I beheld a group of shining but sorrowing ones gathered around one of the dead, who I perceived had the freshness of youth upon him; and I could see that his frame was not more remarkable for its robustness, than was his countenance for its comeliness. And the shining and sorrowing group wept much as they clasped their hands above him and cried out: Come, O Breath, and breathe upon the slain, that he