Tholuck, as was the case with our own Olin, can unbend occasionally; and he enjoys a piece of pleasantry, or a sally of wit. student from the errors of skepticism. a great deal, I never saw him laugh in all He tells them what books to read for light | my life." on certain doctrinal points; and in his next walk he never forgets what was said before. Besides a daily walk with some of the students, he has a two hours' talk every other Wednesday evening to all the young theologians in his own house. They are all invited, and all are expected to come. The door to the room is opened some time before he enters, and all the prominent books that have appeared in Germany during the last two weeks are laid upon the table. These are for the students to look at and examine before he enters. Here he talks to them on different subjects. It may be history, travel, or the religious tendencies of the day. Whatever topic he talks to them about, has connection with theology and the progress of religion. Last winter, for instance, one of his topics was a foot-excursion which he made in certain portions of France; another was the history of Leipsic University; and thus he interests and improves the general knowledge of the Halle theological students. He does all the talking, and he is familiar in his manner and style, as much so as at his own fireside. In his own family Dr. Tholuck is most pleasing; and it is there that one is most apt to love him. He is unreserved and communicative, but unostentatious. You forget that he is a great man; you only think of that after you have gone to your room, and reflect upon what he said. It is scarcely necessary to say that he is acquainted with a great many Americans. His name has too long been familiar to us not to be known by us, and not to be acquainted with us. Our great men, in visiting Germany, I mean our theologians, consider it almost a duty to visit him. He never demands letters of introduction, and always considers it a compliment when you pay him your visit without one. An American visited him last year without any letter whatever. "I am glad," said the doctor," that one American has come to see me without a letter of introduction." He does not soon forget those who pay him visits, but remembers all his former American students. On one occasion he spoke in the highest terms of a prominent minister in the American Presbyterian Church. "He has a great mind," said the professor; "but, although I have associated with him It is a well-known custom in Germany to have a Christmas-tree in every house on Christmas eve. The peasant and the prince all reap real enjoyment from the same source. On going through a marketplace in any German town on the approach of Christmas, you get an idea of the love which the people have for such a beautiful custom that will never fade from your memory. The old peasant women bring the green trees into town, and stand them up in different parts of the market-place for sale. The base of the tree is a little box with straw in it. The little box of straw represents the manger where Christ once lay. Then the boughs of the tree are hung with artificial fruits. That, then, is the Tree of Life springing from the birth of Christ. Poor, indeed, is that German peasant who cannot gladden home with a "Christmas-tree." Dr. Tholuck's manner of celebrating the custom is peculiar, and on a larger scale than any other in Halle. He invites forty stu dents, and if there are any Americans in Halle, they are sure to be in the number, provided they ever paid the doctor a visit. The forty guests enter the room in com pany, so that all can get a view of the tree at the same time. A band of singers are singing when the guests enter. The singers represent the choir of angels who celebrate with their songs the birth of Christ. When the Christmas song is finished, the doctor steps out and says a few words by way of welcome and congratulation. A long table extends the whole length of the reception-room. forty places at the table corresponding with the number of guests. On each plate is some confectionery, together with a book, or a pamphlet, with the name of him for whom it is intended, and a line or two of advice written by the doctor himself. The students walk around the table until each finds his own name in the plate, and sees the present for him. The books are often the doctor's own productions, some of his commentaries or sermons, in most cases. In front of each plate is a long round cake, which each student takes home with him when he goes. This is There are the reception-room. That communicates His manner is exceedingly impressive, and he conforms to the pulpit rule in the Lutheran Church, to preach without a manuscript. In appealing on one occasion to the coldness and indifference of the Protestant Church in Germany he said, "What more do we bring from our hearts than a poor, feeble, half-whispered yes or no?' The joyful yea and amen of the bleeding heart never finds its way into any of our congregations when they listen to the word of God." It is a fact, and his heart bled when he told it to his audience. In speaking of the German ministry on the occasion of the annual Reformation sermon he said: with another room by two large foldingdoors, which are thrown open. This smaller room is still more interesting. In the center of it there is a large square table, and on it is a farm scene. A beautiful miniature barn and stable occupy the most of the table. There is also on it the farm-yard, with sheep and cows. The whole scene is complete. All this represents the manger where Christ was born. The four singers stand on one side of it and sing Christmas melodies several times during the evening. It is a beautiful sight to stand by the table and look through into the large reception room. There rises from the middle of the long table a beautiful Christmas tree, and from its boughs flame up many a beautiful light, which makes the whole a dazzling and beautiful scene. "Where once the pure doctrine was preached, not with the lips alone, but with warm, believing hearts, the people took the preacher for an angel of God. Then the dead arose under their sermons, and hundreds beat their breasts with their hands, and exclaimed, Man of God, what shall I do to be saved?" But now, though there are not a few of warm, believing witnesses of the word, when do we ever hear of the dead arising under the influence of their preaching? The great crowd scarcely ever comes into the church, and if it ever happens to come, there it remains, dumb and cold. The Lord himself can preach with his judgments, with the pestilence and cholera,* with the pangs of hunger and the terrors of war, but dumb and impenetrable is every heart. Our hearts are just as the stones in the streets; the rain falls upon them, they are trodden by the foot, the sun shines again upon them, and they are just what they were, stones." On one of these occasions there happened to be two or three Americans standing together admiring the novel and charming sight. The doctor saw them and came to them. "What would one of your American professors think," he asked, "if he were to see this? I am sure he would consider it a very childish affair of mine." "We are not accustomed to these things," said one of the Americans, "but we can appreciate it better on that account.' Toward the last, as the evening grows late, the four singers take their places by the side of the square table, and sing some beautiful Christmas song. Last winter the closing song hap-glish by a young Scotchman, who was pened to be one of Luther's, as touching a one as he ever wrote. The doctor then advanced and made some beautiful remarks relative to Christmas day. He made a practical application of the festival, and no one present could forget how eloquently and touchingly he dwelt upon the blessings we receive from the Saviour's birth. Very recently a selection of his sermons has been made and translated into En some time one of Dr. Tholuck's students. They are published in Edinburgh, and I hope an American edition of the volume will soon appear, for it is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to our theological literature. Dr. Tholuck is the university chaplain, (Universitätsprediger,) and the students listen to him as to an oracle. The citizens of every social class take the same interest in his sermons, and I am sure the veriest stranger could walk the streets of Halle on a Sabbath morning and be able to tell from the countenances of the people whom he meets whether or not Dr. Tholuck is to preach that day. An old woman who once heard Dr. Clarke preach, said on her return from the *The cholers had just put the town of Halle in mourning for hundreds of her sons and daughters, and the war-cry of the Revolution was just dying away in the German towns and cities. church that she did not think the doctor had preached a great sermon, because she understood every word he said. Whether Dr. Tholuck's capacity for preaching is ever measured by the same standard is a question; but certainly he lies open to the same charge. He preaches to the people, not to the student alone, but to the humblest mechanic. He never preaches on disputed theological questions, and his appeals are always more to the heart than to the head. Of his other published works I may mention his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans," the first edition of which he gave to the world when but twenty-three years of age. Then commenced a battle which he has been waging ever since against that spirit which has been trying, by criticisms and cavils, to oust the Deity from the Old Testament, to resolve all miracles and prophecy into myths and natural circumstances, and to set up reason as the judge in all matters of faith. His "Hours of Devotion" is a book that can be read with religious profit and improvement by every class of society. Many of the German theological students read it regularly with the Bible, and from the success it has met with among the laity, there can be no doubt that it is read in many a family circle throughout the length and breadth of the Protestant world. In a book entitled the "Teaching of the Sinner and the Pardoner," he gives his own religious experience and the happy result from his intercourse with Neander. He has also published commentaries on the "Evangel of St. John" and on "Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews," a "Practical Commentary on the Psalms for the Laity," several volumes of sermons, an "Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount," besides a number of practical works, to say nothing of his philological treatises, which were his first efforts in authorship and the fruits of his earliest studies. His exegetical works possess the rare quality (especially among the German scholars) of containing many practical teachings, and his books for the general classes are really an adapta tion. The engraving that stands at the head of this sketch is copied from the English portrait of Doctor Tholuck. He was much younger when it was taken, but it is better than the one most common in Germany. His health is better now than when this portrait was painted. His face is broader, and perhaps has more flesh on it. He is not waiting for death to come to him, but toils on with all the elasticity of youth. His greatest labors are past, but the good he has done will long continue to bless the German people. A man of his talents seldom takes such a hold upon the popular mind as he has done. I believe it is an error to suppose that the greatest uninspired books are the most read, and as a proof of it we have only to inquire how few (not how many) of the uneducated classes make a study of Milton, or Shakspeare, or Pope's translation of Homer. The labors of the greatest men seldom suit the taste of the great masses of people, but Doctor Tholuck has made it a point, as Wesley did, to apply his knowledge to the wants of the people, and to give it to them in such a way that they can be interested and improved. His labors in exegesis have been to meet the Rationalistic school on their own ground, and not from any innate predilection. His commentaries prove him the thinking scholar. They all assert, ay, they make you believe it, too, that there is something more than natural in the Bible. The mantle of Neander fell on him, and Iwell did it fit him, and well does he wear it. Those two names are inseparably connected with the great war with Rationalism in Germany. The influence which he has been exerting upon the students in Halle for nearly thirty years cannot be without its benefits on this side of the Atlantic. More than one American student by his kindness and advice has been saved from the dark abyss of skepticism and rationalism. When he dies there will arise hundreds of young Germans, lovers of the Holy Bible, to assert the truths that they have heard from Doctor Tholuck's lips, and to labor in the same beautiful vineyard where he has spent such a useful lifetime. It will be a sad day in the old town of Halle when the bells toll his death and the number of his years. But may that number be large, and may he live to see more of the good that he has already done. THE time for reasoning is before we have approached near enough to the forbidden fruit to look at it and admire.-Margaret Percival. THE CORDILLERAS AND THE ANDES. all the objects in nature, none strikes of the lofty Cordilleras penetrate the con and sublimity than mountains. Nowhere, in the vast continent of this Western world, can the mind acquire such conceptions of vastness and infinity, as upon the summits of the everlasting Andes! About the equator, too, our globe affords in the smallest space the greatest possible variety of impressions from the contemplation of nature. Among the colossal mountains of Quito and Peru, furrowed by deep ravines, man is enabled to contemplate alike the families of plants and the stars of the firmament. Here, at a single glance, the eye surveys humid and rich forests, and majestic palms, while above this growth of tropical vegetation appear oaks, the sweet-brier, and the umbelliferous plants. Here, the traveler, turning his eyes to the intensely blue vault of heaven, at a single glance beholds the constellation of the Southern Cross, the Majellanic clouds, and the guiding stars of the Bear, as they circle around the Arctic pole. In the New World the summits our globe, and here still remain the subterranean forces which once upheaved these towering monarch mountains, still shaking them to their foundations and threatening their downfall. On the contrary, the chain of the Himalaya is wanting in the imposing and awful phenomena of volcanoes, which amid the Andes often reveal to the inhabitants, under the most terrific forms, the forces which pervade the interior of our earth. Chimborazo, with its everlasting fires, presents a height twice that of Mount Etna, and although the mountains of India surpass the Cordilleras by their astonishing elevation, they cannot, from their geographical position, present the same inexhaustible phenomena which mark the latter. On the southern declivity of the Himalaya, at an elevation of eleven or twelve thousand feet above the sea, the region of perpetual snow begins, and thus limits the development of organic life in a zone nearly three thousand feet lower than that where it is found in the equinoctial silver mines, and approached by a frightregion of the Andes. ful zigzag road, along the side of a mountain. One of them, Santa Rosa, has a perpendicular depth of five hundred and twenty feet. The miners are Indians, and labor hard amid the wet and cold for sixtytwo and a half cents per day; and the ore, when refined by mercury, yields twentytwo per cent. Upon those burning plains that rise but little above the level of the sea are found the families of the banana and the palm. To these succeed, in the Alpine valleys, and the humid clefts of the Cordilleras, the tree ferns with their lace-like foliage, and the cinchona, from whose febrifuge bark we obtain the world-renowned quinine. The medicinal strength of this remarkable bark is said to increase with the moisture imparted to the tree by the light mists forming the upper surface of the clouds which rest over these elevated plains. Next come the cold regions, and here are the grasses, one vast savannah covering the immense mountain plateau, and reflecting a yellow, golden tinge to the slope of the Cordilleras, and here graze the lamas with the cattle domesticated by the European settlers. Then succeeds the region of perpetual snow, which, resplendent in their own purity and whiteness, crown the summits of the Cordilleras. Our illustrations are derived from Lieutenants Herndon and Gibbon's Report to the United States Government of their explorations in the valley of the Amazon, and its inhabitants, during the years 1851 and 1852. They started upon mules from Lima on the twenty-first of May, 1851, for the mountains where the Amazon was supposed to take its rise, and in two days reached Yanacoto, a village built on an elevation of more than two thousand feet above the Pacific. Still at this height there were cases of chills and fever, the people, for a cure, drinking spirits just before the chill, and during the fever, the juice of the bitter orange, with sugar and water. A little beyond Yanacoto terminates what is called the coast, and the Sierra commences, and there is no tertian fever above this point. The climate is one perpetual spring, free from frosts as well as the damp fogs and sultry heats of the coast. This is a delicious climate for invalids, many of whom resort here. So fine is the evening air that the stars sparkle with intense brilliancy, and a pocket spy-glass distinctly discovers the satellites of Jupiter. Soon the traveler reaches the silver mines of San Mateo, situated on both sides of the Rimac, and at an elevation of ten thousand two hundred feet above the level of the ocean. Two miles west are the Lamas are employed to carry the ore to the grinding mills. They are admirably adapted by nature for these abrupt mountainous regions, safely traveling where the mule would not venture, but by short stages not over ten miles a day. Seven hundred and thirty pounds are a load, and he will carry no more, nor even move when overloaded and tired. A large portion of the silver which constitutes the specie circulation of the world is dug from this range of the Cordilleras, and most of it is mined out of that slope drained into the Amazon. The introduction of steam upon that noblest of rivers, with Christian civilization and commerce, may one day turn this stream of the precious metals from the Pacific to the Atlantic side of the continent. Thus would our great city become the distributer to the world of the precious metals from California and the Andes. In these lofty ridges are also found the copper mining haciendas, which metal is closely mixed with silver. A miner will get out about one thousand pounds of copper per day, and it is worthy of remark that the ore is melted in furnaces built of brick imported from our own country. Three miles from Morochota the traveler obtains a view of the mountain Puypuy, which is said to be higher than Chimborazo. To reach this lofty eminence the road crossed a range of lower hills from seven hundred to eight hundred feet high, and running diagonally, with a most toilsome ascent on foot and with mules. From its summit the view is most splendid. Cone-shaped, it rises in solitary majesty from a cylindrical base, running up into the blue vault of the heavens fifteen thousand feet above the sea. When the sunlight, bursting from the clouds, rests upon its summit, it appears transcendently beautiful and grand. Lieutenant Gibbon almost froze while taking the sketch of which our plate is a copy. It is remarkable that snipe, ducks, with other aquatic birds, are found in these high regions. |