rd on the Sabbath-day, rather than continue sitting
under a few palm-trees, breathing a sultry, furnace-like atmosphere,
with nothing more than just such supply of food as sufficed. He could
not bear the thought of being deprived of the Sabbath rest; it was
needful for our souls as much in the wilderness as in the crowded
city; and if few glorify God in that desolate land, so much the more
were we called on to fill these solitudes with our songs of praise. It
was in this light he viewed our position; and when we had prevailed,
and were seated under the palms, he was excited to deep emotion,
though before quite unnerved by the heat, at the sight of a row of
poor wretched Egyptians who gathered round us. "Oh that I could speak
their language, and tell them of salvation!" was his impassioned wish.

An event occurred at that time in which the hand of God afterwards
appeared very plain, though it then seemed very dark to us. Dr. Black
fell from his camel in the midst of the sandy desert, and none of all
our company could conjecture what bearing on the object of our Mission
this sad occurrence could have. Is it a frown on our undertaking? or can
it really be a movement of his kind, guiding hand? We often spoke of it:
in our visit to Galilee we thought that we saw some purposes evolving;
but there was still something unexplained. Now, however, the reason
appears: even that event was of the Lord, in wise and kind design. But
for that fall, our fathers in the deputation would not have sailed up
the Danube on their way to Vienna, and Pesth would not have been
visited. This accident, which mainly disabled Dr. Black from undertaking
the after fatigue of exploring Galilee, was the occasion of directing
the steps of our two fathers to that station, where a severe stroke of
sickness was made the means of detaining Dr. Keith till they had learned
that there was an open door among the Jews. And there, accordingly it
has been that the Lord has poured down his Spirit on the Jews that have
come to our missionaries so remarkably, that no Jewish Mission seems
ever to have been blessed with deeper conversions. There is nothing but
truth in the remark made by one of our number: "Dr. Black's fall from
the camel was the first step towards Pesth." "Whoso is wise, and will
observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of
the Lord," Psalm 107:42. Indeed, whether it was that we were prepared to
expect, and therefore were peculi