If men are deprived of some of their idols, they will manufacture others.

But when the preaching of Divine grace opens a way to the heart, it will facilitate, if the sensible impression to which idolatry cleaves be taken away.

Thus Gallus confirmed the impression that his discourse made, by dashing in pieces the images before the eyes of the wild pagan multitude, and thus giving them ocular demonstration of the nothingness and weakness of their false gods.

At this place the people occupied themselves with gardening and planting fruit trees. Gallus wove nets, and attended to fishing.

His success was so great that he not only supplied those about him, but entertained strangers, and made many presents. A similar instance is given in the life of Bishop Wilfred, who preached the Gospel in Sussex, toward the close of the seventh century. When he first went there, a famine prevailed; the sea and the rivers were full of fish, but the people only knew how to catch eels. He collected all the nets, and instructed them in fishing, till they caught three hundred different kinds. One hundred of these he kept for his own people, a hundred he gave to the owners of the net, and the remaining hundred to the poor.

By this means he won the love of the people; and as they were so much indebted to him for their temporal welfare, they listened to him more willingly when he discoursed of heav enly things.

When they were expelled from the region, and the Abbot Columban was proceeding to Italy, Gallus was prevented. from following him by illness; and this circumstance proved a great blessing to the people among whom he had been residing; for otherwise Gallus would not have been to them what he actually became.

Being thus left behind, he betook himself with his fishing nets to a priest named Willimar, who lived in an old castle, and had already received him hospitably with Columban, and assigned them their residences.

After he had been restored to health by this person's affec

tionate care, he wished to find out a place in the forest for building and cultivating.

He, therefore, applied to the deacon, Hillibald, whose business it was to supply his people with fish and birds, who hence frequently traversed the woods, and was well acquainted with the paths. In company with him, he wished to find out a suitable place for building, with good water.

The deacon gave him a fearful description of the multitude of wild beasts in the forest; but Gallus answered him, with the confidence of one who thought himself scripturally right, saying, "It is an expression of the apostles, If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Has he not said that "all things work together for good to them that love God;" and He who preserved Daniel in the lion's den can deliver me from the power of the wild beasts."

"Put only some bread and a little net in your knapsack,' said the deacon, " to-morrow I will take you into the forest, that God, who has brought you here to us from a distant land, will also send his angel with us, as he once did with Tobias, and show us a place answering to your pious wishes."

Gallus prepared himself for his journey, as every true christian would, with prayer. When they had traveled till two or three o'clock, Hillibald said, "let us now take some bread and water, that we may be strengthened to pursue the rest of our way." Gallus answered, "Do what is necessary for your own strengthening; I am resolved to taste nothing, till God has pointed out to me the desired place of rest.' But the deacon answered, "No; we will share the discomfort together, and then the joy."

They proceeded till toward evening, when they came to a stream, full of fish, where they succeeded in taking a quantity, when the deacon made a fire, broiled some, and prepared his bread.

Meanwhile, Gallus, more intent upon heavenly manna, had retired to a thicket for spiritual contemplation and prayer. Thus engaged, he accidentally fell, which circumstance attracted the attention of the deacon, who hastened to help him; but he refused his aid, saying, “Let me alone; this is my

resting-place for life: here will I dwell." He consecrated the place by prayer, and, after he had risen up, he made a cross with a small twig, planted it in the earth, around which they both knelt to pray. On this spot was erected a building, afterward called by his name, in which he labored for the education of youth, by whom the seeds of christian knowledge were scattered abroad still wider, and temporal and spiritual benefits diffused among the people.

When he received presents from wealthy individuals, he assembled crowds of poor people in the district, and distributed among them what he had thus obtained.

On one such occasion, one of his scholars said to him: "My father, I have a costly silver vessel, beautifully enchased; if you approve, I will reserve it, that it may be used at the Lord's Supper." But Gallus answered: "My son, think of Peter's words, Gold and silver have I none;' and, in order that you may not act contrary to so wholesome an example, hasten and dispose of it for the good of the poor; my teacher, Columban, used to distribute the Lord's body in a vessel of brass."

The vacant bishopric of Cosnitz was offered to Gallus, but he preferred discharging the quiet duties of a teacher, and, therefore, declined the office.

He obtained the appointment for the deacon, Johannes, a native of the country, who studied the Scriptures under him.

At the consecration of the bishop, a great multitude of persons came from all quarters, when Gallus availed himself of the opportunity to impress upon the hearts of those who had recently been converted to christianity, the love of God, as exhibited in creation and redemption; and to trace, in a connected manner, the leadings of God's providence for the salvation of mankind.

He entered the pulpit with his late scholar, Johannes, who interpreted to the people in German a discourse which he delivered in Latin.

Speaking of the creation, he said: "God created beings endowed with reason, to praise him, and to be happy from him in him, and through him. You ought to know the

cause of your creation, my christian brethren, in order that you may not regard yourselves as reprobate beings, and abdicate your dignity by living below your privilege.'

He then deduced the origin of evil from the desire of rational beings to have in themselves the ground of their being, life and happiness; hence arises that internal emptiness, since the creature, turning away from the fountain of life, and left to itself, must fall from fullness to emptiness, from reality to nothingness.

Thus was the fundamental principle of the christian life, -union with Christ,-taught by this man.

No extended history is given of his life, nor any thing of his death; but, doubtless, he who observed the calls of Providence while in the world bowed submissively to the heavenly mandate at last, rejoicing to close the scene of his earthly labors when his Divine Master had nothing more for him to do, and pass to that land where the weary spirit finds grateful rest, yet free and joyful activity in a better and more perfect service.

CHAPTER XIX.

Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans.

EARLY TRAINING AND STRONG DESIRE TO PREACH THE GOSPEL; TEMPER OF HIS SPIRIT INDICATED IN HIS WRITINGS;

MANNER OF HIS DEATH.

ONIFACE, or Winifred, according to the Anglo-Saxon, was born at Crediton, in Devonshire, in the year 680, and deserved to be honored as the father of the German church, though he was by no means the first who brought the

seeds of the gospel into Germany.

Many had already labored in that field before him, but the efforts of scattered and isolated individuals were not sufficient to secure the continued propagation of christianity.

Settled ecclesiastical institutions required to be added, and this was first effected by Boniface, from whose agency the salvation of so many proceeded, even down to the present time.

The seeds of religion were early developed in his heart. As in England, the custom had been kept up, which was introduced by the first pious Irish missionaries, for the clergy to visit the houses of the laity, and to deliver discourses on religious subjects before their families; the children, in such cases, often listened attentively, and they gladly conversed with them on the things of religion. His father tried to repress his inclination for the ecclesiastical profession, as he had intended him for a post of secular distinction.

But, as it often happens, the inclination which his father aimed to subdue only acquired greater force; and, at last the impression of a severe illness induces his father to give up further opposition to his son's views.

He was, therefore, educated in several English convents, where he became intimately acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, which were to be a light to his path in after life, among the savage tribes.

His mind was certainly narrowed during this period by many prejudices, which kept him from the pure knowledge of Scripture doctrine, and which must necessarily have been a hindrance to him in his missionary labors; for the more pure and free, and unmixed with human schemes, christianity is, the more easily it makes its way into the hearts of men, and the more easily can it preserve in undiminished vigor its Divine attractive power over human nature.

The missionary requires especially the spirit of christian freedom, that he may not obstruct the word of God in the soul by human alloy, or prevent Christ, whose organ alone he ought to be, from obtaining in every nation that peculiar form which is exactly suitable to each one.

This stand-point Boniface certainly did not occupy, and it was, during this whole period, unknown in the development of the church.

The nations were obliged, first of all, to receive christianity