Church and forsook her, yet he afterwards returned, (1711) was reconciled to the Church, and then as his biographer says, "he having lately received the holy Eucharist in the Parish Church, desired and received the Absolution directed by the Church, from my hands."

But now, my dear John, I must once more leave you. Think over what I have said. Cease to have those vulgar notions by which these holy things are perverted by the unthinking, and represented to appear what they are not. Get rid of the idea of " Priestly power, "superstitious ceremonies," "tyrannical inquisitions over the conscience," and so forth. Be assured in your charity that the Church cannot in all this but have one end, namely, the comforting distressed souls, awakening those that slumber, and reconciling those that have become alienated from GOD. It is not the water in holy Baptism, nor the bread and wine in the holy Eucharist; but the grace of GoD which is in them, that cleanses and comforts the soul; so it is not the power of the Priest, nor his judgment, nor his words, nor his laying on of hands, nor any other external act which he may perform, but simply the grace of the HOLY GHOST, which through the Priest's com mission coming from GOD, is conveyed to the penitent sinner. Just as you remember the words of holy Scripture "Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and again in S. Paul: "To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also; for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it, in the person of Christ."

"CONSIDER THE LILLIES."

us

IF thou art weary, come with me into the garden, and there following the injunction of our Blessed LORD, let "consider the lillies;" yet if thou would'st be gay come not to them, for they are drooping mournful flowers; they will not minister to those at ease, but to those "troubled about many things."

Perhaps thou hast laid in the grave and hidden from thine eyes, (as Satan in the hour of his triumph will tell thee) for ever, the gladness of thine heart, the only delight of thine eyes, and they are ever

*Brookesby's Life of Henry Dodwell.

turned towards the cold dark earth, where thou hast laid with weeping thy most precious seed. Let us go thither then and see what springs from thence; whether that gladness which lies buried there in death and darkness, which thou hast watered with so many tears, can bring forth any blossom of comfort to thy soul, or of refreshing to thine eyes. Alas! it brings forth only a few fair frail flowers, fit emblems of the form which lies beneath. Be not impatient, but consider, for the spirit lies not on the surface but is hidden in the outward form. If we are faint let us then " feed among lillies; they also die, they lie in the cold earth,

From

"They bear the long dark wintry night, And bear their own degraded doom, And wait till GOD's supernal light, Eternal spring, shall burst the gloom." They come again. From whence? whence have they all this beauty, this elegance of form, this exquisite delicacy of color and pencilling, and above all their fragrance? It is to us, if we have ears to hear, the breathing of an eloquence which words cannot paint; fainter it may be, less roughly discernible, but truer and surer though it be faint with the sense of the mightiness which it is formed to express. Can man create or fashion by his utmost art that which shall rival them? Whence come they then? Is it not from the cold dark earth, from death itself, from all that is most noisome and corrupt, the reverse of all their own sweet beauty, which their frail power of life yet overcomes, drawing their nourishment from it, and turning even evil into good? Surely we have not thus considered them, or it would not seem impossible with us that GoD should raise the dead. Our LORD has said "shall He not much more clothe you oh ye of little faith." At the time He spoke this, it was to the Jews of their bodily clothing, but His blessed words must always carry with them a spiritual meaning also, for Gov's wisdom has so many folds, that since He has told us to consider or to read these flowers, we may (as it were) lift each tiny bell, and hear the whispered music of its lesson in our hearts.

It is remarkable that our LORD used the word clothed and arrayed “to the grass of the field," not formed or created, and that S. Paul in speaking of the resurrec

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tion uses the same word, when he says we desire not to be unclothed but clothed upon, "for if GOD so clothed the grass the field which is only for a day, will He not much more clothe you" with that which is eternal, although it is said "all flesh is grass." If He can bring forth these flowers exquisite to every sense, and altogether perfect; and fruit delicious, fragrant, and having in itself the nourishment of life, can He not much more bring forth man's body, made in His own image, into which was breathed, by the Eternal GOD, the breath of life? Can Henot re-demand of the earth that which He at first formed out of it? Shall He not, by the precious seed of those tears which He wept at the grave of Lazarus, yet reap in joy? They were the human tears of GOD, and shall they not bring forth immortality? Shall He not doubtless return again with rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him, when those who have gone forth with Him shall return with Him, when He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. Satisfied! What a full word this is. Can we imagine what this world will be, when it shall satisfy GOD, the Maker and Creator of all that is good and beautiful, and repay Him for the suffering of that great weight of death for the whole world.

Thus if we "consider the lilies," they are made to us the teachers of the most divine philosophy, and make us really to understand how a thing only of beauty is a "joy for ever," it is so full of hope.

Now we have seen some of its beauty, and tasted some of its joy (as it were), the spiritual honey of the flower, let us seek yet another lesson, and extract the temporal. Another lesson then that our LORD would have us learn from our consideration of the " grass of the field," is one of entire dependence on our Heavenly Father in the smallest matters of our daily life. "They toil not, neither do they spin," they are pensioners but of the bounty of Heaven," yet" Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." Surely we are of little faith.

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If we believed that, by the hand which guides the universe, the very hairs of our head are all numbered, should we so fret ourselves about the passing anxiety of the present, or provision for the future, which may never come? Should we so "eat the bread of sorrows ?" Should we not be

more willing to be strangers and sojourners, looking for a better inheritance? and better learn the lesson which our LORD SO illustrated, in order to impress it upon His disciples, that their hearts might not be troubled, neither be afraid. Should we not trust to Him who says: "If I were hungry I would not tell thee, for all the beasts of the forest are mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills;" for "the earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof." Yet we cannot trust Him for the daily bread which He has bidden us to ask of Him, although our Heavenly Father is all-wise, all-seeing, and all-merciful, and knoweth that we have need of all these things. Yet we set against His omnipotence our little cares, unwilling yet to cast them upon Him, though by our own experience He has ever borne them.

Yet let us unfold another lesson quite as hard to learn. To attain to the essence or spirit of the flower it is necessary that it be broken, crushed, and that its beauty be destroyed; thus only can it be preserved from altogether perishing. Let us also learn this lesson of humility, of self-abnegation. Thus it was with our Blessed LORD Himself, of Whom it was said :"He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." How hard a lesson for proud humanity to learn. We say, "God hath forgotten to be gracious. Wilt Thou forget me, LORD, for ever ?" We have not patience to attain nearer and nearer to our great Example Who had not where to lay His head; nor understanding to see that if GOD permitted His own Son so to suffer, to be like Him must be the greatest honor; and that, trembling, we should seek, yet hardly dare, to tread the footsteps watered by the tears of that great humiliation by which GoD stooped to lift, and to replace a fallen world.

How slow are we to learn that what seems to the natural eye most empty, is to the eye of faith most full of excellence. Nor have we ambition to be nearer Him Who, alone and undefended, stood forth from the ranks of the vanquished army of humanity, and conquered through suffering and endurance. Truly it is hard to learn. Hard and cold as was the stone with which David slew Goliah, none else

could do it. We only in a little measure by His help, for be sure that Satan knowing that his time is short, will make it hard and cruel to you; he will often say: "All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Oh! let us give him back his lie, and tell him they shall yet be ours without this degradation.

Have we no ambition that our Heavenly Father should say of us, as He said of His servant Job: "Hast thou considered my servant, that he still holdeth fast his integrity ?"

Satan hath marred God's beautiful creation, and through death hath produced a lie, but CHRIST hath wrested his own weapon from him, and through death hath brought forth immortality, therefore we believe not Satan's lie, that death shall triumph over all, but we believe in the truth of the beauty which GOD hath created; for that which the ALMIGHTY and Eternal saw to be very good, was not formed for destruction; and we can bid defiance to our ghostly enemy, cleaving to Him who hath destroyed destruction, and led captivity captive. For, that the earthly substance which composed His body has been taken as first-fruits into Heaven, is the earnest of the renewing of all creation; from whence He cometh yet to shew that He hath taken away, and will rid his inheritance of all that maketh a lie; of all destruction, darkness, coldness, misery, and of all decay, (that fell brood of Satan that has filled the jaws of death, from whence also it came forth;) and riding in the chariot of His Salvation in His majesty," because of truth, and wisdom, and righteousness," shall cause mercy and truth to spring up together, righteousness and peace to kiss each other;" while all nations shall worship Him, saying, "This is our GOD, we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."

A. A. S.

"IN ALL TIME OF OUR WEALTH!" "GOOD LORD DELIVER US!"

Nor thus the heedless world would pray,
But adding riches day by day,
Would rather ask for more, and more,
To swell the still increasing store;
And deem that man most highly blest,
Who this world's goods the most possest.
While faith, with clearer eye surveys
GOD's purpose, and more wisely prays,

If riches must our portion be,
From wealth's temptations set us free!

LORD! if it be Thy Will, from me
Keep rather wealth, than poverty;
Far rather, humbly, let me share,
The lot my SAVIOUR deigned to bear;
Too richly blest, if I may tread
Where His meek footsteps calmly led;
One of His lowly pilgrim band,
Heirs of a far off better land;
Counting all earthly riches loss,
That draw us from His precious Cross,
And clog the fainting spirit's wings,
Tying it down to earthly things.
The moth shall fret the purple bloom,
And rust upon the brightness come,
Riches take wings, and fleet away,
Or time bring ruin and decay.
Ah wasted hours and years! for where
Your treasure is, your heart is there.

Then teach us, LORD, more wise to be,
And store our hearts and hopes with Thee:
If poor, to thank Thee, that dost spare
Our feeble hearts the anxious care;
If rich, to make our riches wings,
By turning all to heavenly things.
And rich or poor, to raise our eyes
To treasures far beyond the skies;
Where honours, wealth, ambition flee,
And all shall as the angels be!

ADVENT.

F. F. B.

THERE are three Advents of the LORD. The first, to take our flesh; the second, to our soul; the third, to judgment. The first at midnight, the second in the morning, the third at noon.

The first Advent has now passed away: for CHRIST was seen among men, and had His conversation among men. We are now in the time of the second; and if we are such that He may vouchsafe to come to us, we are secure; He will come to us and He will tarry with us. Of the third it is most certain that it will come, but it is most uncertain when. We must prepare therefore that we may rather prevent death than be prevented by death. He prepares himself prudently who keeps himself from the contagion of sin. Oh! how blessed is he who can say with security" My heart is ready; Ó GOD, my heart is ready."-From a Sermon of Peter of Blois, Archdeacon of Bath, at the end of the Twelfth Century.

THE FATE OF SACRILEGE.

(Continued from page 176.)

CHAPTER VI.

DURING the summer succeeding Mrs. Colville's decease, Bridget was doomed to more than one disappointment and trouble. Mrs. Hume was expected at Irwin to stay with the Northcotes', but she never eame; and good Mrs. Northcote could not refrain from commenting on her sister's absence as "cruel and unnecessary," though on such outbursts Mr. Northcote looked grave, and she invariably blushed, furtively pressing her husband's hand, as if in meek acknowledgment of the deserved. rebuke. Bridget so much wished her dear old friend Miss Rosalia to see and love Mrs. Hume, even as she did herself. No pleasant woodland rambles now, with Mr. Irwin to escort them, and Marguerite's gay laugh to ring through the woods, as the healthful breezes wafted bloom to her pale care-worn cheeks. Marguerite was not coming for another summer holiday, and Bridget almost wept. Marguerite was busy with her portrait painting, said Mrs. Northcote mildly, and Mr. Hume was not very well; and Sarah spoke scornfully of poor second-rate portrait painters, and wondered "how that Mrs. Hume presumed to give herself such airs."

Then another trouble of a different nature befel Bridget; her darling squirrel, the delight of her heart, unfortunately escaped from his comfortable cage, and actually bit Sarah's finger, when that young lady endeavoured to dislodge him from a nest he had formed for himself behind a sofa pillow. Great was Sarah's wrath, when the blood flowed down her white muslin robe, for the bite was a severe one; but she said little, and Miss Tamasina, who happened to be present, and a witness of the scene, was heard to expatiate loudly on the wonderful selfpossession evinced by Sarah, and the calm temper with which she endured the injury. But there was an expression in Sarah's eyes, when her gaze followed Bridget, who carried off the offending pet in her bosom, remonstrating with him nevertheless on his naughty behaviour, which, perhaps, Miss Tamasina did not see, or, if she had seen, might not have been able to construe. For the pupil had outstripped her teacher

in some knowledge, and in some feelings which it were better had never been aroused.

Satan, we know, walks to and fro upon the earth, and his evil agents are always busy. If his rambles extended just then to Irwin Hall, by Sarah Irwin's side, how the fallen one must have exulted in that diabolical expression, and shook his dark unhallowed wings, as a frightful bird of prey waiting and hovering round his intended victim.

A few days afterwards, Bridget on entering her own chamber, and seeking her little pet as usual, with dismay and grief found him dead on the bed of moss; no marks of violence visible, but the soft fur on his pretty throat disarranged, as if cruel fingers had pressed it to his death. A thought flashed athwart Bridget's mind, and in her first sorrow she fell upon her knees, poor child, with the little dead creature in her hands. Before she rose again, Bridget had prayed to Him, Who turns not a deaf ear to the smallest pleading of His creatures; and though Bridget mourned but for a little squirrel, the anguish was real and deep. Bridget prayed to GOD that she might not harbour the thought which would intrude itself the thought that her dear sister Sarah had wrought this cruel and revengeful deed. But the thought would come, and Bridget flew to old Bestie, and silently held out her dead darling. At length she sobbed "O Bestie, what will Mark say? Who could have done it-my pretty, pretty dear little pet." And Bridget sobbed aloud, and hid her face on Bestie's bosom, where her infant griefs had been so often hushed. Bestie was loud in lamentations and expressions of wonderment as to who could have been so wicked;" then suddenly she said: "The creetur bit Miss Sarah! Sarah! I see-and the LORD help methis comes o' the Colville teaching; but Miss Sarah's done it, sure as my name is Bestie, and the staircase ought not to be at Irwin. Miss Sarah was always vengeful and spiteful from a babby."

:

"Hush, Bestie, hush please; you must not speak so of my sister, you don't know that Sarah killed my squirrel."

"And who else, Miss Bridget? Who else ?" persisted Bestie. "Miss Sarah comes of a race of stiff-necked stubborn Methodies, who harbour malice."