The Grand Prior of the monks of Debra Libanos is second in dignity; then the bishops; next the priests and deacons. Monasteries abound, and they are generally placed on eminences near running water, and amid scenes of beauty and sublimity. An easy ceremony admits to the monkish order, and the life of the professed is one of ease and indulgence, consequently the land swarms with monks, who are in reality the greatest of pests and plagues. Every church establishment is supported by certain lands and villages particularly set apart for that purpose, and to these are added various fees for baptismal, funeral, and other clerical services, besides the voluntary contributions of the superstitious people. These ecclesiastics, taken as a body, are ignorant, superstitious, and immoral, fearful of innovation, hating heretics, and observant of religious forms, some with the sincerity of devotees, and others as the business-like followers of a gainful profession. Of the doctrines of justification by faith or regeneration by the Holy Spirit, the Abyssinians are said to be entirely ignorant; but it is possible, it is even probable, that there has been some misapprehension upon that point. It is very easy for foreigners, in a state of society so new and strange, to misapprehend the purport of what they behold, or to arrive at wrong conclusions, from given premises, in consequence of prejudice and partiality. We trust that the Divine Inhabitant has not entirely forsaken this polluted temple, and that the sacred fire is not utterly extinguished, although the surrounding atmosphere may be impure. At any rate, there is hope, since the Scriptures are the foundation of the faith of the Abyssinian Church, and there is no infallible pontiff, consecrating with his authority the manifold corruptions from which that authority sprung, and by which it is perpetuated.