descends from on high, and rests on the waters, and sanctifies them, and makes new sons to God.

When the child is plunged into the water, the priest says :—

N. is baptized for sanctity and salvation and a blameless life, and a blessed resurrection from the dead, in the name of the Father. Amen. And of the Son. Amen. And of the living and Holy Ghost, for life everlasting. Amen.

The deacons sing.

Descend, our brother, marked with the cross; and put on our Lord; and be mingled with His race; for it is a mighty race, as is said in His parable.

And when the child comes out of the water, they sing :

Expand thy wings, Holy Church; and receive the simple lamb, which the Holy Ghost has begotten from the waters of baptism.

Of this baptism prophesied the son of Zacharias. I, said he, baptize with water; but He which is to come, with the Holy Ghost.

The heavenly army surround the baptistery; that from its waters they may receive sons like to God.

From the waters Gideon chose him men, that they might go forth to battle. From the waters of baptism Christ hath chosen worshippers to Himself.

The foregoing office will give a sufficient idea of the Syrian rites of baptism. (From Neale's History of the Eastern Church.)

The bathing of the Syrian Christians in the river Jordan, must be reckoned be reckoned amongst their religious customs, but the ceremony itself is very idle, and, according to some eye-witnesses, ridiculous. These people, however, practise it as an act of devotion, and Greeks, Nestorians, Copts, &c., wash themselves naked in the river, with great solemnity, in commemoration of Jesus Christ's baptism. In this instance, they concern themselves as little in regard to the difference of the sexes as of the sects; for men and women jump promiscuously into the river and plunge down to the bottom. Some of the most zealous devotees dip their handkerchiefs in the sacred stream, others carry a quantity of the water away

with them in bottles; and the very dirt, sand, and grass that grows upon the banks, are all looked upon as sacred relics.*

Twenty yards distant from the convent of Mar Behnam, in Syria, is the baptistery; this is a plain building, of an oblong form, with a semi-circular recess at the eastern end, in which the font is placed. The font is three feet in diameter, and stands about four feet above the ground.

TYRE.

A Christian church was established in this famed city before A.D. 58. (Acts xxi. 3-7.) This church prospered for several centuries, and councils were held here. During this period, Tyre was still a strong fortress, as it was also in the age of the crusaders, by whom it was only taken. twenty-five years after they had gained Jerusalem. It was in the hands of the Europeans till 1291, when it was finally yielded to the Moslems. Its fortifications, which were almost impregnable, were demolished, and since the reconquest of the city by the Turks, it has been in a ruinous condition, and often almost without inhabitants. At present it is a poor town, called Sour. It was half ruined by an earthquake in 1837.

On the eastern side of Sour, are the remains of a church of Gothic architecture. As the early Christians were in the habit of converting heathen temples to the worship of the true God, by way of reparation, this may probably be built upon the site, and with the materials of the temple of Jupiter Olympus, which was destroyed by Constantine the Great, or of that Hercules, who was particularly honoured by the Tyrians. The interior is divided into three aisles,

Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses.

separated by rows of granite columns. At the extremities of the two branches of the cross were two towers, the ascent to which was by a spiral staircase, which still remains entire. This was, no doubt, the cathedral of which Eusebius speaks in his dedication sermon, calling it the most magnificent temple in Phoenicia, of which Paulinus was the founder and the bishop. This see was dependent upon the Patriarch of Antioch, but had under it fourteen suffragan bishoprics.

An ancient baptistery has lately been discovered at Tyre. Rev. Dr. Fish gives the following designs and account of this interesting relic of primitive Christianity :

"I write this sitting on the ruins of ancient Tyre, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. As the subject of prophecy, especially by Ezekiel, and a city of vast influence in the days of its glory, Tyre possesses a thrilling interest to the thoughtful visitor. I have time to speak, however, of only one thing. We were fortunate

enough to reach here when excavations are being made, under German patronage, by Professor Sepp, on the site of the famous church edifice, built about the year 315 after Christ, by Paulinus, bishop of Tyre. Eusebius preached at its dedication. The sermon is in his Ecclesiastical History.

"Professor Sepp received us very cordially, and showed us some wonderful columns of red granite, and other remains, some of them, probably, of a heathen temple that once stood on the same site. Judge of our interest when he said, 'Here is the old baptistery,' as we stood beside a marble structure, close to the wall, evidently as old as

Fig. 62. SECTION OF BAPTISTERY AT THE OLD CATHEDRAL OF TYRE. a. False Bottom. 5 ft. 6 in. length in the clear. 3 feet deep in clear, including false bottom

the church, and an original part of it. I took my tapemeasure and noted the dimensions. It is of white marble, in the shape of a cross. There are four steps at either end, leading down into it, and a hole is seen on the level of the floor for letting out the water. The extreme length, inside, is five feet and six inches. The depth is three feet. The width three feet and seven inches. Professor Sepp said, 'They immersed people here.'

"After a little, I said, 'Did they not also baptize the children?'

"He replied, 'Oh, no; they only baptized the grown people then.'

"But,' said I, 'is it not rather small, taking out the space occupied by the steps.'

"He at once went down into it, and lowered himself below the level of the top, saying, 'This is the way they baptized themselves.'

"As we know, candidates often knelt in the water, and projected the head and shoulders forward, doing it, perhaps generally, three times. There is ample room for this, as one readily sees. The officiating minister stood beside the baptistery. It is cut from a solid block; and the floor was somehow cracked, so that a false bottom of marble and cement was put in. One side is now pretty much broken away; otherwise it is in a good state of preservation. It will likely be removed, with other antiquities, to Germany.

"Here, then, is a new witness for the ancient practice of immersion, and I feel a pleasure in having seen it and called attention to it. It must be remembered that this reaches back very far; and even if the baptistery were found to be less ancient than the church (which I feel sure is not the case), it would only strengthen the force of this evidence;-showing the prevalence of the practice still later.

"The celebrated Origen was buried in this church; so was the great Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. This very day a tomb under the church floor was opened, and I saw the bones and parts of the shroud. Perhaps it was Origen's, or Barbarossa's.

"Four renowned names are thus connected with this silent, but eloquent witness for scriptural baptism, entombed for centuries under some ten feet of rubbish. These names are Eusebius, Origen, Paulinus, and Barbarossa. Add to this the fact that no church in all