of one of his Ambassadors to France, and who was subsequently Ambassador from the Court of Charles the Second, to the effect that he was received with the most profound respect in his former character, but found this respect woefully diminished at his subsequent visit, though then representing a crowned head.

B. M. B.

TEMPTATIONS.

Two brothers, hunting together in a thick wood, were suddenly confronted by a huge Wild Boar, whose solitude they had unwittingly disturbed. They paused, to consider what they should do. The younger said to himself, "It would be a fine thing to kill the boar, and carry home his head in triumph; but if I attack him I run a great risk of being gored by his terrible tusks. No, I will keep a whole skin at all events." And turning his back upon the monster, he fled away as fast as his legs would carry him. The thoughts of the elder brother took a different form. "There is danger before me;" said he, "but what of that! Man's business is to conquer; it is a coward's part to flee. I will grapple with this wild beast; I will vanquish him, and teach the world how much may be done by a dauntless heart." He levelled his hunting spear and advanced steadily. The boar rushed upon him, foaming and furious, but after a sharp contest the beast lay dead, and the brave youth remained master of the field, not only unwounded, but with his courage and confidence increased by honourable victory.

Reader, the world is full of wild boars in one shape or another. They meet us at every angle of life; we are surrounded by them daily. They enter our doors, crouch around our hearths, glare upon us from the warm chimneycorner, threaten us with their horrid tusks at every step we take. There are droves of them in the street, in the workshop, in the fields, even in our chapels and churches. They are our greatest enemies, and there is no possibility of getting out of their way. They attack us wherever we go, often wound us, and sometimes gore us even to death. We are very well acquainted with them, but we do not call them wild boars; they are more commonly known by the name of TEMPTATIONS. Ah yes! we all know them by that name; and we all know, too, what terrible monsters they are to battle with. Who is there among us that has never had a

skirmish with them? Who among us has not at some time been overthrown, and come out worsted from the fray? Happy is he who has been more often the conqueror than the conquered, who has got but a few skin wounds, and has not yet been gored to the heart! If some strong man would only kill these dreadful beasts, and rid the world of them for ever, how we should rejoice in the prospect of a peaceable life! But alas! it is impossible; they would spring up again, like weeds, from the ground itself. There are no means of destroying them, and we shall learn some day that it is a good thing there are not. When we are attacked by these creatures which we call Temptations, three courses of action are open to us :-we can either run away, like so many cowards, or we can suffer ourselves to be thrown down and trampled to death, or lastly, we can do as brave men always will, face the danger and overcome it. And the consequences will be that if we run away from temptations, we shall be always running away, and our life the real life of the soul, will go backward instead of making progress; if we yield to them, we shall fall into a gulf of horrors of which the end cannot be guessed; but if we meet them bravely, struggle and conquer, we do what God intended that we should; we cut out for ourselves a path through sin and death to heaven; we set a noble pattern to our children's children, and we earn the conqueror's reward.

Brothers, of every age and rank, be men, be true men, worthy of the name! Meet the temptations of the world, those wild boars that threaten you on every side, meet them bravely, and with earnest hearts. It may be that it is better to fly than to fall, but how much better to conquer than to fly!

Leicester.

F. T. M.

FAITH, Hope, and Love, were questioned what they thought

Of future Glory, which Religion taught;

Now Faith believed it firmly to be true,

And Hope expected so to find it too;

Love answered smiling, with a conscious glow,
Believe? Expect? I KNOW it to be so.

THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL TORMENTS REPUDIATED BY THE "ORTHODOX.”

When, at the beginning of the past month of August, Mary Ball was lying in gaol in Warwickshire, awaiting her death by the hands of the common hangman, the chaplain, a practical as well as a theoretical believer in the doctrine of an eternity of torment by fire, forcibly exposed her person to the flame of a candle; and when she shrunk from the ordeal, and would have escaped from the grasp of her ruthless teacher, he asked her how she would endure the burning of her whole body in hell-fire for an infinite succession of years.

Now, the motive of the Rev. Richard Chapman was good. He saw, or thought he saw, that the convict was impenitent.

He believed that if she died in that state of mind she would

pass from the hands of Calcraft to those of an avenging God, by whom she would be held in the flames of hell for ever; and by giving her a foretase of that torment, he hoped to terrify her into repentance, and convert the scaffold into the portal of Heaven. He made no secret, therefore, of his act; he confessed to a Visiting Justice, the Rev. H. Bellairs, what he had done; and he only denied that he had kept the woman's hand in the flame so long as rwo

MINUTES.

Did the Rev. H. Bellairs, who holds and inculcates the doctrine of eternal torments, applaud the deed? No! He indignantly suspended his brother-clergyman, and reported his conduct to the other Visiting Justices, who confirmed the suspension; and Mr. Chapman is to be tried, and will perhaps be dismissed, at the next Court of Quarter Sessions.

Yet the Magistrates-a majority of them, at least-are nominal believers in eternal punishments. They profess to believe that millions upon millions of the human race will be burned in hell-fire, not for "two minutes" only, but for ever and for ever; and not as Richard Chapman burnt Mary Ball, for their reformation, but the satisfaction of Divine vengeance.

Their lips profess this belief, but their deeds deny their words. The religion of their hearts rejects the religion of their creed. They shrink with instinctive horror from the cruelty of the chaplain in torturing a murderess—the destroyer of her husband by poison-for a few brief moments; and yet they go through the form, thirteen times in the year,

of dooming thousands of their fellow-men for a mere difference in faith, to the pains of hell-fire through all eternity.

We say the "form;" for clearly it is but a form. They do not really believe that their Heavenly Father will do for ever what Richard Chapman has been discarded for doing two minutes. The “divinity within them" scouts the cruelty, and is more true to God than their creed.

THE PARABLES OF CHRIST.

LECTURE IV.

The Leaven, MATT. XIII. 33; The Hidden Treasure, MATT. XIII. 44; The Pearl of Great Price, MATT. XIII. 45, 46.

STILL Occupying the same position "by the sea side," Jesus addresses another parable to the vast concourse of people assembled before him. It is the parable of The Leaven, Matt. xiii. 33. "The kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."

Leaven is yeast, or barm, to ferment bread. "Three Measures of Meal," says Livermore, were "the quantity used at one time in making bread," and each would be "equivalent to one peck and a half English."

It is "the property of leaven to change, or assimilate to its own nature, the meal or dough with which it is mixed (Dr. A. Clarke.) And so it is the property of the Gospel to assimilate or change to its own nature, to its own spirit, individuals and communities at large. They become like it, in their own spirit, and character, and conduct. Morally and religiously, it will make them new creatures; even supposing that it commences its influence upon them from their earliest infancy and that they are free from every moral, natural, or original taint; for even then, it will make them different creatures from what they would have been, if they had been left to nature: superior creatures. It begins to renew, to improve, and to perfect that nature from the first; that is, to impart to it a new influence; until, in the end, it becomes divine, a " partaker of the divine nature," (2 Peter i. 4). It is a divine process carried out, and leading to a new creation. And when man has lived in the many transgressions of God's holy laws, and has been a poor lost wanderer in the paths of sin and misery, it will change his nature by bringing him to repentance and obedience. He will be spiri

tually born again. It will make him a new creature. So that old things shall pass away, and all things shall become new. In thousands of instances it has wrought this wonderful and happy change; and what it has done in the past it may do again, for such is its divine influence and power. Hence it is said, that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;" God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works," (2 Cor. v. 17, Eph. ii. 10). And hence we may learn when the Gospel has its proper influence over us, and when we are Christians in deed and in truth. Do we resemble it in the temper and disposition of our minds, in its holy and heavenly spirit? Are we like it in all that we are and do? If so, our profession is sincere; we have the power of godliness, as well as its form; we are Christians in spirit and in life. But if we are not leavened into the nature and spirit of the Gospel, it has not had its proper influence upon our hearts, and our profession of it is all in vain, we are yet in our sins.

The leaven, says our Saviour, was put into three measures of meal. It began to ferment, and continued to do so till the whole was leavened. "As the leaven would not cease its action till the whole mass was affected by it, so religion would not cease to work in the heart and in the world until it has leavened the whole with its own spirit and power." This is the view which Livermore takes of the parable. And it is evidently the drift of our Saviour's illustration. The whole is to be leavened. And this is to be effected by the Kingdom of Heaven or the Gospel. Thus the Gospel is to leaven the whole world: not a part of it but the whole of it. It is finally to pervade every heart, to influence every temper, to regulate every conduct, and to govern every life, until “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea; and nothing shall hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain." This is its grand design; and to accomplish so glorious a result it is admirably adapted, în its doctrines and precepts, its most precious promises, and its most transporting hopes. It is calculated to bear down all opposition, and to win all hearts. And when it is firmly believed, and thoroughly imbibed, how can it fail to transform the soul into its own likeness? It may not, for a time, manifest itself openly. But it "cometh not with observavation;"" for, behold," said Jesus to his disciples, "the kingdom of God is within you," (Luke xvii. 20, 21). It works in secret. And as it is of God, it cannot work in vain,