him. He feels it with regret, with pain. Again the vision comes before his sight, but fainter now that fire is burning, and dimmer shine those happy faces, and the room grows dark. He sinks slowly from the stone, where he had been sitting. He stretches. himself upon the bare ground, a rock for his bed, a rock for his pillow. Quietly he lies now, quietly he sleeps, the struggle is over, the gallant, noble, suffering spirit is gone, gone to Him, who gave it, gone to Him, who, if He afflicts here, will tell there why He has afflicted. And the waves still roll darkly round that desolate shore, and the icy wind still moans, and sighs, and howls over the sleeping wanderers, and seems to say, "There is nothing! There is nothing." Sleep on, brave hearts! sleep, till the winter snow shall cover you, and be your shroud, your sepulchre, and your monument. Yes, love! for it seems to say And a voice from the murmuring waves, The moon from her starry throne The soldier lifts his head And a voice falls on his ear And mountain, shore, and plain Peace! Peace! Peace !— Now friend and foeman stand, Each sheaths his shining brand, Each grasps a brother's hand, War, strife and tumult cease, January, 17th, 1856. S. G. SOMETHING ABOUT CRANMER. (Continued from p. 23.) Now, papa, a bit more of Cranmer, please," said Robert, "you said he was afraid of Henry. I am sure I should have been, too, I should have been always afraid of having my head cut off; but did Henry ever quarrel with Cranmer, or do anything to hurt him?" "No, Henry seems really to have liked Cranmer, and always to have treated him with much respect." "Cran "And when the King was dying, Robert," said Emma,' mer came to see him. Henry's temper had grown to be so very bad, that all his courtiers were afraid to tell him even how ill he really was; was not that shocking?" "Yes, to be angry then," said her brother; get to tell him at last." 66 "but did any one Oh, at last," replied Emma, a gentleman took courage to go up to him, and to ask him whether he wished to see any clergyman, as he was not likely long to live. Henry, who was not so angry as they had expected, then said he should like to see Archbishop Cranmer. Cranmer was accordingly sent for, in all haste, but when he got to the palace the King could not speak, though he knew him, and pressed his hands a few minutes before he died." I wonder," said Robert, after a short pause, whether Cranmer was sorry for Henry's death, he must have been so pleased that that nice boy, Edward VI. should be King." 66 "And it was easier now," said Mr. Morton, "for Cranmer to carry on the great work of reformation. The late King had always seemed in his heart to cling to the Roman Catholic religion. He had allowed the Bible to be translated indeed, but afterwards he had forbidden it to be read, except by a very few people; and the prayers were still said in Latin at church, by his orders. Now, however, a great change came. Henry had appointed in his will a body, or council, of learned men, to govern the kingdom till Edward was old enough; and as most of these men were Protestants, they did all that they could to help Cranmer in his great undertaking.' "That was a good thing, said Emma, "and Edward was a Protestant too, for Cranmer had been his tutor; I suppose, Cranmer was made a great man of, now, papa?" "Yes, love, he was employed together with a very good man, named Ridley, in making great changes in the way of conducting the services at church, the prayers were translated into English, so that the people were now able to follow them with their understanding and heart. ” "It was really good of Cranmer, рара, said Emma, "to try so much, to make the people religious. I do like him for that, how grateful all the poor must have been to him, for getting the Bible and Prayers translated for them, so that, if they could not read themselves, they could understand them at least, when they heard them read. "Yes, indeed," said Mr. Morton, "I was reading the other day, a very interesting account of the eagerness with which the Bible was received, when it was first allowed to be read by all classes; workmen used sometimes to meet in the church to study it, after they had finished their day's work, and when service was over on a Sunday evening, many of the congregation would stay behind in the church yard, and seating themselves upon the grassy graves, would listen attentively, while one of them read aloud from the Scriptures. You are right to admire Cranmer for being so anxious to procure this blessing for the English; but you will be sorry to hear a little story I am going to tell you. One would think, that a man who had studied the gospels so much as Cranmer must have done, would have learned from them charity and forbearance towards all men, but Cranmer unhappily so far misunderstood their teachings, as to throw into prison a poor woman, who did not think like himself on religious subjects, and when he found that even by this cruel treatment, he could not make her say that she agreed with him, he determined to have her burned alive. 66 Oh, papa, how very shocking!" cried Robert, "well, and was she really burned, then?" "Before putting her to death," said Mr. Morton, "it was necessary to obtain the King's consent, so Cranmer carried the order, or warrant, as it was called, for her execution, to the palace, in order that Edward might sign it; Edward however, who was a kind-hearted boy, refused for a long time to do so, but—” 66 Oh, papa, did he do it?" "Cranmer repeated to him over and over again, that it was his duty to condemn this woman to death, so at last he took up a pen, and bursting into tears, wrote his name to the warrant; Cranmer carried it away, and Joan of Kent, as this poor creature was called, was burned alive. "I am very, very sorry for that," said Emma, poor Edward, and Cranmer too. I wonder, papa, whether Cranmer thought he was doing right all the time?" "Most likely, he did, my dear, for those times were very different to the present; let us be thankful, that we have learned something since then, and that a change has come on for the better. Bob, your eye-lids look as if they wanted props to keep them up; nay, don't deny it my boy, there's nothing to be ashamed of in being sleepy we have talked enough for to-night, so good night, my children. (To be continued.) That which we foolishly call vastness is, rightly considered, not more wonderful, not more impressive, than that which we insolently call littleness, and the infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable—not concealed but incomprehensible; it is a clear infinity; the darkness of the pure unsearchable sea.—Ruskin. THE DAYS THAT ARE LONG GONE BY. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith; quit you like men, be strong." ABOUT 300 years ago, in the reign of Queen Mary, great things happened, and great men lived in England; aye, and brave men, too-men who loved their faith better than their life, and were ready and willing to lay down wealth, honour, and existence itself for the right. And not men alone; brave women, and young children also, because they thought and read for themselves, or held to the faith which had been taught them, were sent out of the world by fire and sword, at the hands of cruel and inhuman men, who cared not what they did to extirpate "heresy." And what was heresy? It was reading the Bible; it was thinking differently from the established religion; it was following the doctrines of the great reformer, Luther, rather than the dogmas of a blind faith, which blunted the faculties and bound the mind in fetters.-Oh! those were terrible times, times that tested the faith and tried the hearts of believers in the reformed religion, and brought many into the valley of the shadow of death, and more within the gate of tears, weeping for those who had died the death of the righteous, and gone before to that land, which no mortal may know. And so died Cranmer, and Ridley, and Latimer, and many, many more, faithful and true, rather than yield the truth to their enemies. "And is he dead, whose glorious mind Lifts thine on high? To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die!" The names of these will live in "hearts they leave behind" and can never die; for to them, and men like them we owe the privilege, which we now possess, of reading and keeping the Bible in our houses; of judging and thinking for ourselves on religious questions, of free religion and the right to worship the great Father, every man according to his own conscience, without the fear of death before his eyes. We are not called upon to die for the Christian faith, but we can and may help to forward it, and with the example of such as these before us, can we do nothing? "Oh, though oft depressed and lonely, All my fears are laid aside If I but remember only Such as these have lived and died-" It was a dark October evening in the year 1555, just three hundred years ago. The wind moaned by the house, and there was the sound of many feet passing in the street below, to and fro, |