have not found sweetness by him, or else you could not forget him. If we forget you, let our right hand forget her cunning. We will pray for you, do you pray for us, and our Mediator Jesus Christ pray for us all.-T. Adams.

MARCH 7.

'TO-DAY IF YE WILL HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN

NOT YOUR HEARTS.'-Heb. iii. 15. Seeing our life is so short, do you apprehend the means while it lasteth. Zacharias may be struck dumb; sickness may suspend us for a season, but death doth silence us for ever. Hear therefore while the voice soundeth; To-day if ye will hear My voice, harden not your hearts. Though I trust God will never fail you successively of a diligent pastor, and we wish that those who in time come after us may in worth go before us; that as they succeed us in place, they may exceed us in grace. But because certainly either death must take us from you, or you from us, as it is our part, while we keep on our tabernacles, to take pains; so let this be your part, while you have ears to hear, hear; while you have hearts to believe, receive; while you have hands to work, obey; that while there is a Saviour in heaven, you may be blessed.-T. Adams.

MARCH 8.

'HE SHALL ENTER INTO PEACE: THEY SHALL REST IN THEIR BEDS.'-Is. lvii. 2.

To the wicked death is more than a dissolution, even a destruction of the tabernacle. O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man of prosperity! It is terrible, not only for the separation of his delights, but for the not separation of his sins. Beholding his sins with amazed eyes, he cries to them, O give me one hour's liberty. When he shall say to his lusts, covetousness, pride, drunkenness, Depart from me; and they shall answer, No; thou hast made us, we are thy creatures; we will go with thee to judgment, we will dwell with thee in torment. Let him fear death that desires not to be with Christ: and let him refuse going to Christ that hopes not for mercy of Christ. But to the faithful the grave is but a chamber; Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers'; but a bed; They shall rest in their beds;' a very parlour, where the Lord shuts up our bodies with the key of peace, and opens them again with the key of resurrection.-T. Adams.

other had died chaffing. They that desire death in passion, desire it only for fashion. For when sickness, death's messenger, comes, physicians are consulted, rewards promised, prayers conceived, vows offered, that death may be deferred.-T. Adams.

MARCH 10.

FOR WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED: NOT FOR THAT WE WOULD BE UNCLOTHED, BUT CLOTHED UPON, THAT MORTALITY MIGHT BE SWALLOWED. UP OF LIFE.'-2 Cor. v. 4.

Desire life, with aged Simeon, till thou hast got the Lord Jesus in thine arms; without whom the first death will be terrible, the Miserable soul, second death intolerable. with what courage canst thou set on thy way, which knowest not the Guide of the journey, Jesus Christ? If a man should live as long as Methuselah, if his head were as white as snow, yet it is not fit to melt till he have known Christ. Though his skin were as writhled as parchment, yet it is not time to be folded up till his soul be ripe in the faith. If he knows not Jesus, he is not fit to die. Let us then desire to put off this tabernacle when we are sure of that immortal clothing. 'Swallowed up of life.' Then let us wish to leave the earth when we perfectly know the way to heaven. Desire to live till you are inspired with grace; desire to die when you are assured of glory.-T. Adams.

MARCH 11.

'Now IS THE DAY OF SALVATION.'-
2 Cor. vi. 2.

He that will be good at last must begin at first. Occasion is like manna, it must be gathered before the sun is up; or like the Pool of Bethesda, we must enter as soon as it is stirred by the angel. If we preach, must you not hear? If we preach to-day, ought not you hear to-day? I mean not only with your ears, hear us with your hearts. Show us not only our sermon in your tablets, let us see it in your hands; work it, and so preach it over again with your fingers. Be not mere earthly ships, and fill your shops, and fill your houses merchants, to fill your sails, and fill your traffickers on the coast of Lapland, that they and cannot fill your souls. They write of some often buy their winds of the devil. Take

heed you that grow so rich in purse and poor in conscience, lest you buy your wealth of the devil. And it is a country prayer, God bless hear three sermons a-day, but deceive ten us from the citizens of London; they will plain men in an hour; they have so much preaching that they are the worse. Poor souls, they are mistaken in this: men's wickedness comes not by too much preaching, but by too little practising. The Lord work in us a conscionable obedience, that we may not hear to our condemnation, but comfort. It is our part to preach, yours to practise, God's to accomplish.-T. Adams.

0

N leaving these schools, the traveller will naturally wish to walk through the city, so as to be able to form a correct impression of its principal features. In doing so he will be struck with the fact that while it is situated in the Country of Peace, and was founded, and is governed by the Prince of Peace, it is nevertheless defended by massive walls and ramparts, which appear to have seen hard service in the past, and to be ready for more in the time to come. Indeed, as I was quitting His seminary, the Great Teacher Himself drew my attention to this, as He gave me some useful directions to guide me to the most interesting objects in the town. He told me that this city of the Great King was beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, lying on the sides of the North;* that she had had a wonderful history, and had stood many remarkable sieges, and experienced many memorable deliverances, and that, from time immemorial, God had been known in her palaces for a refuge. His farewell words were 'Walk about Sion, and go round about her tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks, consider her palaces.' +

The reason of the city being girdled with these cyclopean walls is, that although the capital of the Country of Peace, it is a frontier town, exposed to incessant assaults from | Prince Diabolus, between whom and Prince Immanuel there is constant warfare, without so much as a day's truce. Prince Diabolus always nurses secret designs against this city, even when not making open attacks upon it,

and this for various reasons: because its site was the earliest portion of territory that was wrested back from his cruel grasp when Immanuel came to recover His ancient dominion; and when He laid its foundations, the white-robed officers whom He brought with Him in His train from His Father's Court proclaimed, 'Peace on earth, goodwill toward men ;' also because it is the town which lies nearest to his own territory of Darkness and Misery, and to its gates the runaways from his tyranny are wont, as a general rule, to betake themselves; and, lastly, because he rightly considers it in some respects to be the key not only of the province of Peace, but of many other provinces of Immanuel's Empire. Moreover, Prince Immanuel has specially challenged His great antagonist to take this city with its surrounding province from His loyal subjects. When he found it expedient to return for the transaction of high and weighty business to His Father's Court, He assembled the leading citizens of the province, and formally handed over the city and district to them, as representing all their fellow-citizens, in these memorable words, 'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.'§ At the conclusion of His address, which was a very touching one, and breathed the tenderest affection for them, He told them, 'These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the World (which is one of the names of Belial's territory) ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'|| By this His subjects understood that though battle and bloodshed would rage round all the borders of this Province of Peace, aye, John xvi. 33.

Luke ii. 14. § John xiv. 27.

and even under the very walls and gates of its chief City of Refuge, yet that this city and province would never be captured by the Prince of this World, seeing Immanuel pledged His royal word for its defence. He would have also now far more forces at His disposal than those which were at His command when He overcame the World. For His Father, out of His intense love for Him, had now given all things into His hand, even all power in heaven and in earth, and therefore they might be well assured that their peace and their joy no man would be able to take from them.*

Having been directed by the Great Teacher (who also acts under Immanuel's express appointment as Governor of this city during His absence, and as Viceroy over all His Empire), I visited the Charter-room, where I was told I would see the most ancient copies of the charters granted by Immanuel to His subjects. I was the more anxious to examine these, as I understood that many of them had been indited by the Prince after His return to His Father's city and palace, and from carefully reading these venerable documents, ore could learn whether the Prince, after conference with His Father, had seen cause to change His mind, and to modify the farewell promise which He made to His subjects, or even to revoke it. On applying at the door of the Charter-house, I was at once admitted by the janitor, whose name was Knowledge, and to him I showed the line which I had received from the Governor, on which was written, 'Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read.'+ The janitor smiled as he read the line which I produced as my authority for claiming admittance, and told me that that line had been given me to remind me of what it behoved me to do, and to take away any timidity which, as a stranger, I might feel in applying for admittance into this stately edifice, called the Church of the Living God, and the pillar of the truth.

He said that now for a long time, by the express command of Immanuel, this building had been thrown open as a free public library, to which all the citizens, and even foreigners, had free admittance at all hours, whether by day or by night, and that they were at liberty, under the surveillance of the guardians of the house, to handle, study, and copy all the volumes, deeds, documents, and charters contained in the institution, whether in its book

* John iii. 35; Matt. xxviii. 18; John xvi. 22. + Is. xxxiv. 16. + 1 Tim. iii. 15.

cases or in its fireproof safes. He told me that at one period this Charter-house got partly into the hands of a body of ignorant and ambitious men, who, in Immanuel's absence from the city, had wormed themselves into the confidence of the too credulous town's people, and got themselves appointed as custodiers of the Royal Library. No sooner had they got in than they kept the greater portion of it shut up under lock and key, and only gave to the people selections of their own choosing out of Immanuel's books. Even these extracts were translated by them into a language which very few of the people understood. So that the Library, which was designed to be the greatest blessing to the city, was wellnigh useless, partly through the blundering ignorance, and partly through the selfishness of the custodiers, who would not allow the books to be read by any but those who had entered their own fraternity. § At last it was discovered that most of these Librarians were not subjects of Immanuel at all, but were born and bred subjects of Diabolus, and were still in their hearts owning allegiance to him, and trying by craft to win back this notable city to their master's crown. The story of their detection, and being driven out of office, is an interesting one. Enough to relate that a young member of their own guild, who had never been permitted to read these volumes, one day took one of them down from the shelf where it reposed unopened. He read the narrative of young Samuel, dedicated to the Lord by his mother, and growing up in the Temple, while the priests led the people into sin; and this read, he returned day after day, until he had perused a great part of the volume, which was a Latin translation. Some time after he found a volume containing all the documents in the Hebrew and Greek, in which they were originally written. He worked hard to perfect himself in these languages, that he might study the writings at the fountain-head; and when he was able to read the very words that the inspired authors had penned, he spent days, and often nights too, at the desk where this treasure was.¶ He could not carry it to his own apartment in the building, for it was chained to the desk! But here he devoured its pages so eagerly, that at one time, for seven weeks, he seldom closed his eyes. Immediately he began to preach to his fellow-citizens the good things

§ The priests of Rome.

Martin Luther at Erfurt University. In the Augustinian Convent in Erfurt

contained in the Book, and shortly after he devoted his time and talents to translate the whole volume, consisting of a multitude of documents, into the dialect of the part of the country to which he belonged. The printingpress having been recently introduced, he employed it to cast off thousands upon thousands of these words from the Court of Heaven, which he, and multitudes of his countrymen, esteemed more precious than gold, and sweeter than honey.* The book was disseminated through the country, being eagerly purchased by the people, poor as well as rich, and the effect of its being read by the multitude was, that they rose as one man in insurrection against the ignorant and selfish guild of priests, drove them out of the Library, and, with Immanuel's approval, set other officials to guard its treasures, sedulously to study them, and diligently to teach the people.

On being ushered into the Chief Hall, where the most ancient and authentic copies of the documents are preserved, the visitor cannot but be struck by observing that all the head Librarians in this Hall have Jewish features. To these venerable men, the Janitor told me, had been committed the oracles of God, and during the long conspiracy, when the Library was in the hands of the men who excluded the public from the sacred volumes, these Jewish Librarians (who were all distinguished authors) were locked up by them in this great Hall along with their books, and kept close prisoners, being never permitted to walk abroad. When the Doorkeeper had introduced me to one of these august personages (whose name I could not distinctly catch), and I told him that I was anxious to see some of the latest charters of the city, given under the royal seal, after Immanuel had returned to the Heavenly City, so that I might be assured as to whether He had not revoked, or modified, any of the privileges or immunities granted to the Burgesses, he looked at me kindly, and yet with something of reproof in his eye, and said, I will show you the charters, but there is no alteration, for 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.'t I felt somewhat ashamed that I had thus seemed to throw suspicion upon Immanuel's spotless character, and explained (what was the fact) that the thought was not my own, but that just as I was entering the town, after travelling through the country of Carnal Security, a man who was loitering about near the gate, and who was

well-dressed, and looked respectable, accosted me, and with a shrewd wink advised me not to give too ready credence to all that the town's people said about their wonderful immunities, for that he rather thought they were castles in the air. The man accompanied me through the gate in a sort of sneaking manner, as if he did not wish to be seen, and at last I lost sight of him in the crowded square before I entered the School, but his suggestion had lodged unpleasantly in my mind, and that therefore I had come to examine the most authentic copies of the charters for myself. Then a Librarian standing near, who had overheard my remarks, assured me that I ought to have known that 'with the Father of Lights there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' This man struck me as being very venerable, and he spoke with tones of authority. The Janitor afterwards told me that he was a near relative of Immanuel, being his half-brother according to his human pedigree (for I have told you that Immanuel had also a divine nature), that he had long been one of the chief pillars of the Church,§ and that he was called James, surnamed the Just.

The Librarian to whom I was first introduced then told me that the name of my companion who accosted me at the gate was 'Unbelief;' that he was a well-known character, who, though a man of position and power in his own land, where he held high office under Diabolus, had been outlawed by Immanuel; notwithstanding which, he often haunted the precincts of this city, and by means of many disguises and false names, managed from time to time to make his way within the gates, and wrought much mischief to the inhabitants by his malicious talk and abuse of Immanuel. He bade me beware of him, for those who made him their associate and friend would never reach Immanuel's presence, or enter into His Land of Rest, and that, in past days, multitudes had been kept out of this very Country of Peace through the intrigues and wiles of this vile fellow. As my friend handed me down an armful of the precious documents I desired to examine, he said, 'Take heed, brother, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.'||

As one of the servitors carried the parchments to a desk, where I could study them without interruption, we passed a company of persons engaged in earnest perusal of different volumes,