official and lay members. If, there- And Satan trembles when he sees "which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Such is the promise of the Apostle to all those who, obeying their conscience, have, to a certain extent, awaked and arisen from the dead. "Christ shall give thee light:" yes, Christ, and none other, for he alone knows at once all the secrets of God, and all our secrets; what God is, and what we are; what he desires to be towards us, and what we ought to be towards him; our obligations and our powers, our dangers and our resources, the regulation of our life, the employment of each of our moments, the art of being happy, and the way to suffer,-in a word, to omit nothing, the art of knowing, and the art of being ignorant. This is what we have to expect from Jesus Christ; this is what faith more and more will receive from him. Oh! blessed light of the man truly awakened, truly resuscitated! only light amid the darkness of the world! light and life at once, light and energy of man! rise upon us, illuminate our difficult pathways, surround us on every side! One of thy rays ravishes a soul in anguish; what, then, would be the effect of thy full radiance? what of a perfect day without decline? O Spirit of light! refuse not to shine upon us! And if thou hast aroused us from that heavy and fatal sleep which oppresses the entire posterity of Adam, grant that thou mayest not have awakened us in vain, either for ourselves or others; but let us re THE LIGHT OF FAITH. IN the same manner that, at the first dawning of the day, the loftiest summits of the mountains are first seen, feebly detaching themselves from the darkness, while the light gradually descends and envelopes their base,-anon that same light, becoming brighter and brighter, is reflected from one object to another, sweetly insinuating itself into the smallest crevices and the deepest recesses, till at last everything is defined and discovered to the eye; so, advancing from truth to truth, all truth is finally known to us,-light engenders light, experience joins itself to revelation, and revelation gives a meaning to experience, so that our knowledge ever embraces more and more objects, penetrates all things more tho-ceive the light, and spread it, so roughly, and judges of them more that, seeing our works of light, others surely; thus proving that the path may glorify with us, and we with of faith is as the path of the just, them, our Father who is in heaven! AN ARMENIAN PRIEST. THERE is now living in the city of Constantinople a man who, for a long course of years, was a priest in the Armenian Church. It would be difficult for any one to conceive of the deep darkness of this man's mind in his former state. Although nominally a Christian priest, he knew nothing of the peculiar and distinctive character of the Christian religion. He used to say mass; hear the confession of the ignorant people, and vainly pronounce them forgiven; go to the graveyards, and for a small sum, given by mourning but deluded friends, read prayers over the graves for the souls of the departed; and in a hundred other ways, through the agency of superstition, did he strive to extort money from his flock. He even himself believed in the most soul-besetting superstitions, and thus with a low, sensual, and polluted mind, he was going on to the grave and the judgment, leading thousands with him, by the same path. This individual is now a deacon in one of the evangelical churches at the capital. The Spirit of God has made thorough work in his conversion. There is a moral, intellectual, and even physical superiority about the man, compared with his former self, that cannot fail to make a deep impression on all who have known him from the beginning. He is a judicious, warm-hearted, intelligent propagator of the truth. Much of his time is spent in going about among the people to inculcate day alone can disclose the amount of good they have done and are doing. Many an inquirer has been directed by him in the way of life; many a desponding brother, under the pressure of sore persecution, has been cheered and encouraged by him to hold on to his confidence in the Saviour; many a church has been stirred up to renewed faith, prayer, and Christian activity. AN ARMENIAN PASTOR'S WIFE. AN Armenian girl was brought by her mother to the house of a missionary, to be left there for an education. She had already learned something of the Bible way of salvation, but only a very short time before she was wholly ignorant of spiritual things. When she came to the missionary, she was ignorant and uncivilized, and there was much in her appearance that was forbidding. While sitting at the table she would clean her teeth, by stretching several hairs of her head between her fingers, and drawing them through the interstices of her teeth! I mention this merely as a specimen of what she was in externals. cient help-meet to her husband. She loves to do good to her sex, for the most part neglected and degraded. THE POWER OF LOVE. THERE is efficacy-divine, unspeakable efficacy-in love. The exhibition of kindness has the power to bring even the irrational animals into subjection. Show kindness to a dog, and he will return love for love. Show kindness to a lion, and you can lead him by the mane; you can thrust your head into his mouth; you can melt the untamed ferocity of his heart into an affection stronger than death. In all of God's vast, unbounded creation, there is not a living and sentient being, from the least to the largest, not one, not even the outcast and degraded serpent, that is insensible to kindness. If love, such as our blessed Saviour manifested, could be introduced into the world, and exert its appropriate dominion, it would restore a state of things far more cheering, far brighter than the fabulous age of gold; it would pluck out every poisonous tooth, it would hush every discordant voice. Even the inanimate creation is not insensible to this divine influence. The bud, and flower, and fruit put forth most abundantly and beautifully, where the hand of kindness is extended for their culture. And if this blessed influence should extend itself over the earth, a moral garden of Eden would exist in every land; instead of the thorn and briar would spring up the fir-tree and the myrtle; the desert would blossom, and the solitary place be glad. Biography. JOHN BRADFORD, THE MARTYR. JOHN BRADFORD was a native of the celebrated Martin Bucer, who Manchester. Having received a frequently exhorted him to employ good education, he became an active and diligent servant of Sir John Harrington, treasurer of the king's camps and buildings, in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. For many years he continued in this employment, and was highly respected; but he was afterwards induced to follow the secret impulse on his mind, to adjust his worldly affairs with his master, and apply himself wholly to the study of the Scriptures. For that purpose he left the Temple at London; and such was his diligence in his studies, that the University of Cambridge, within a year of his residence there, conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts; and immediately after, he was admitted a fellow of Pembroke Hall. He was a great favourite of his talents in preaching; and, upon his pleading inability, Bucer used to say, "If he had not fine market bread, he might give the poor people barley bread." Dr. Ridley, Bishop of London, however, called him to the office of deacon; but Mr. Bradford gave no consent to the existing abuses. The Bishop then obtained for him a license to preach, and gave him a prebend in St. Paul's Cathedral. As a preacher, he diligently laboured three years. "Sharply," says Fox, "he opened and reproved sin; sweetly he preached Christ crucified; pithily he disproved heresies and errors; earnestly he persuaded to godly life." He continued in this work, so agreeable to himself, and so useful to others, till he was deprived both of his office and his liberty by the arbitrary council of Queen Mary. The ostensible ground of his accusation was connected with one of the most extraordinary incidents which the history of those turbulent times has transmitted to us. Bourn, who afterwards became Bishop of Bath, was appointed by the Queen's council to preach a sermon at Paul's Cross, to prepare the way for the introduction of Popery. He poured out such bitter and violent invectives against the Reformation, under King Edward, that the people, who at first began to murmur, in the issue rose into tumult, and a dagger was hurled at the preacher, which he narrowly escaped. Bourn, alarmed and trembling, turned to our Reformer, who was near, and begged him to come up and appease the enraged multitude. He accordingly ascended the pulpit, and instantly the crowd cried, 'Bradford, Bradford, God save thy life, Bradford!" He exhorted the people to quietness and peace. But though, after some time, they dispersed, Mr. Bourn, still agitated with fear, begged Bradford not to leave him till he was in safety. To this request the latter readily yielded, and followed close at his back, shadowing him with his gown from the people, till he had entered a house. One gentleman in the crowd exclaimed, "Ah! Bradford, Bradford, thou savest him that will burn thee! I give thee his life; if it were not for thee, I would run him through with my sword." sustaining the patience of those who were his fellow-sufferers in the same cause, particularly Bishop Ferrar. So great confidence was placed in him by his keeper, that he was repeatedly permitted to leave the prison and visit his friends, upon promise of returning at a fixed hour, which he never failed to do. During his confinement, he wrote many treatises and letters, which afforded much comfort to individuals at the time; and, notwithstanding the changes effected in language since, are still read by serious Christians with profit. He was greatly beloved by his friends; and such condescension, charity, and pathos breathed in his addresses and prayers, that even criminals were often by them dissolved into tears. The examinations of the Protestants who were brought before Queen Mary's commissioned judges, as given by Fox, are most of them exceedingly dry, tedious, and uninteresting. There is, however, in those which took place in reference to Bradford, much to attract and rivet attention. We cannot, indeed, follow the historian through all his details. When Bradford was first brought up before the council, Gardiner, the lord-chancellor, stated that he had been a long time justly imprisoned for his seditious behaviour at St. Paul's Cross, August 13, 1553, but now the time of mercy was come, if he would do as they had done. In reply, John Bradford, after due obeisance made, spake as follows: On the same Sunday, in the afternoon, Mr. Bradford preached at Bow "My lord, and lords all, I confess Church, Cheapside, and sharply re- that I have been long imprisoned, proved their seditious behaviour. and (with humble reverence_be it For this act of humanity, within spoken) unjustly; for that I did three days he was summoned to ap-nothing seditiously, falsely, or arropear before the Queen's council. He was charged with raising the sedition, which he had so generously laboured to suppress. He was committed to the Tower, and sent from prison to prison, till a violent death, by the hands of his enemies, put an end to his sufferings. While this good man was in bonds, he is said to have been signally useful in strengthening the faith and gantly, in word or fact, by preaching or otherwise, but rather sought peace, truth, and all godly quietness, as an obedient, faithful subject, both in going about to save Mr. Bourn, at St. Paul's Cross, and in preaching for quietness accordingly." At these words, the chancellor charged him with speaking gross lies; and Bonner, Bishop of London, declared that he himself saw him impudently take upon to lead and rule the people. Then Bradford said, "My lords, notwithstanding my lord bishop's seeing and saying, yet the truth I have told, as one day the Lord God Almighty shall reveal to all the world, when we shall come and appear before him. In the mean season, because I cannot be believed by you, I must, and am ready to suffer, as now your sayings be, whatsoever God shall license you to do unto me." Bonner again asserted that he himself saw him at Paul's Cross "take too much upon him." Bradford replied, "No, I took nothing upon myself undesired, as my lord of Bath would testify if he were present. He wished me to help him to pacify the people, and not to leave him till he was in safety." Here we are tempted to repeat the well-known law maxim, " Dolus in generalibus versatur." Why was this loose, indefinite charge of taking too much upon him, left to stand upon bare assertion? Why was not Bourn present to confront the prisoner, or some other witness to repeat the words which had been uttered, or state the facts of the case? But such a course, which common justice demanded, would not have answered the purpose of these iniquitous judges. When Bradford was questioned upon matters of doctrine, he said that he had six times, in the days of King Edward, taken the oath against the Pope's supremacy and authority, and neither could, nor would, on any account, perjure himself. And here he pleaded Gardiner's own book, "De Vera Obedientia ""Of True Obedience"-in which the lawfulness and necessity of that very oath was maintained. But the chancellor, instead of blushing at his own inconsistency, or giving a reasonable answer, continued still charging the prisoner with vainglory, stubbornness, and hypocrisy, heaping upon him all the scurrilous and contemptuous epithets which his vocabulary of abuse could furnish. Bradford underwent several examinations, in which he appeared to great advantage. Amidst all the frivolous, idle, false, and malignant things alleged against him, he preserved such presence of mind, that not one heated, acrimonious, or undignified expression escaped his lips. His answers were solid and pertinent, firm and respectful, evincing at once the meekness of wisdom, and the magnanimity of innocence. After he was condemned, Bonner, tender-hearted man! went to his prison, and also employed his agents to offer him proofs of their Christian charity, and try to convert him, and save his soul. Charity and generosity! Yes, indeed, these might have been more easily found in Barbary and Turkey at that time than in the dominant party in England. Had a man among infidels or pagans risked his own life to stop a spreading conflagration, or a rising tumult on the point of breaking into deeds of violence and blood, he would have received thanks and a reward rather than have been punished as an incendiary, and a mover of sedition. That Bradford's calmness and constancy rose from the strength of faith, not from the want of feeling, appears with abundant evidence, particularly in a letter addressed to his mother, just before he was committed to the flames, which is as follows: "God's mercy and peace in Christ be more and more perceived of us. Amen. "My most dear mother, in the bowels of Christ I heartily pray and beseech you to be thankful for me unto God, who thus now taketh me unto himself. I die not, my good mother, as a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, etc.; but I die as a witness of Christ, his Gospel and verity, which hitherto I have confessed, I thank God, as well by preaching as by imprisonment, and now even confirm the same by fire. I acknowledge that God might justly take me hence, simply for my sins, which are many, great, and grievous; but the Lord, for his mercy in Christ, hath pardoned them all, I hope. But now, dear mother, he taketh me |