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their feet, and their staff in their hands. So St. Paul counsels the christian warrior (Eph. vi. 14.) to "stand having his loins girt about with truth, and his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Our Lord himself also has bidden us to hold ourselves in readiness for departing at a moment's warning; and while we lean on him as our staff, he will be our support even through the "valley of the shadow of death." They were to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. St. Paul writes thus, (1 Cor. v. 8.) "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And also, (1 Cor. xi. 25.) "Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread." And oh, how well does sorrow, and repentance, and bitter tears become those who daily deny their Lord! As partakers of Peter's crime, so should they be followers of Peter's grief.

To ensure the preservation of the Israelites from the calamity inflicted on the Egyptians, the blood was to be "struck upon the lintel, and on the two side posts." Of this St. Paul beautifully explains the meaning, (Heb. x. 22.) "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." St. John also writes, (1 John, i. 7.) "If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." It is not unworthy of notice, that in sprinkling the blood of the animal sacrificed, according to the Levitical law, in order to render the blood capable of being sprinkled

(for on becoming cold it would congeal), it was necessary to mingle water with it; thereby typifying in what manner the blood of Christ was to be applied. To this St. Paul alludes when he says, "having our bodies washed with pure water." St. John also relates, that when our Lord had expired for our sins upon the cross, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.

Moreover, it was to be applied with a bunch of hyssop; and the same herb is used in cleansing the leprosy, (Lev. xiv. 4, 6, 51, 52.) in composing the water of purification, (Num. xix. 6.) and sprinkling it. (v. 18.) It derived its name from its detersive and cleansing qualities; a proper type of the purifying virtue of the bitter sufferings of Christ. And it is plain from Psalm, li. 9, that the Psalmist thus understood its import.

It is not unreasonable to suppose, that at the observance of this feast, the heart of every pious Jew would swell with gratitude as he commemmorated his people's miraculous and merciful deliverance, and he would feel happy in the observance of so great a festival. But was gratitude all? Doubtless, no. Many a good old Simeon saw, through faith, in the bleeding lamb the sufferings of Messiah. So does the faithful christian, while his heart o'erflows with love, look forward to the time when by virtue of the death he now commemmorates, his last of foes shall be destroyed; when shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory."

(To be continued.)

HISTORY OF ST. JAMES.

ST. JAMES, surnamed the less or younger, (Mark, xv. 40,) to distinguish him from James, the son of Zebedee, who was elder than he, also known by the name of James the Just, from his extraordinary sanctity, was brother of Judas Thaddeus or Lebbeus, and Simon Zelotes, sons of Alpheus or Cleophas, who was also a disciple, being one of the two to whom our Lord appeared on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. They are called Christ's brethren, i.e. his cousins, in which sense the word is sometimes used, because their mother Mary, was sister to Mary, our Lord's mother; for it was no unusual thing among the Jews to have more children than one of a family called by the same name.

St. James was a person of great authority among the apostles, and was by them made Bishop of Jerusalem the year after our Lord's passion. Hence in the council which met at Jerusalem to decide the dispute about the necessity of circumcision, we find him as president of the meeting, summing up the debate, and wording the decree, (Acts, xv. 13, &c.) and giving the sentence in his own name (v. 19). He was the author of the general epistle extant among the books of the New Testament.

The occasion and manner of his death is related with the following circumstances: The governing part of the Jews, enraged at the disappointment of their malice against St. Paul by his appeal to Cæsar, revenged it upon St. James. The death of Festus gave them an opportunity of acting in this matter

more arbitrarily than otherwise they durst have done. In the interval, therefore, between that and the arrival of his successor Albinus, Ananus, the high priest, summoned St. James, and required him to renounce the christian faith. That he might be compelled to do this in the most public manner, he was carried up to the battlements of the temple, and threatened to be cast down in case of refusal. He, on the contrary, with greater vehemence confessed and exhorted to the faith of Christ, in the presence of those who met to hear his renunciation of him. Provoked by such inflexible constancy, they threw him headlong down. The fall broke his legs, yet he prayed. The rabble below received him with showers of stones; and at last one with a club, such as is used by fullers in dressing their cloths, gave him a blow on the head, after which he presently expired. A deed condemned even by their own historian Josephus, and said by him to be so by all persons who bore any regard to justice or the laws; insomuch that the high priest, by whose authority it was committed, was in a few months degraded and another put in his stead.

Such was the general reputation of St. James for piety and virtue, that, as we learn from Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, Josephus thought and declared it to be the common opinion, that the sufferings of the Jews, and the destruction of their city and temple were owing to the anger of God excited by the murder of St. James. This must be considered as a strong and remarkable testimony to the character of this apostle, a it is given by a person who did not believe that Jesus was the Christ.

MARTYRDOM OF ROMANUS.

OUR blessed Redeemer, before he was offered up an offering for the sins of the whole world, left his few, faithful followers, as a check on the vain hopes they might entertain of a favourable reception of their message, or toleration of their religion, this salutary warning, "In the world ye shall have tribulation ;" and never were words more truly fulfilled. As the sufferings endured by the primitive christians, as well as their faith and fortitude, form a strong argument in favour of our most holy religion, it may not be uninteresting occasionally to narrate a few instances which have been handed down to us. We perceive in their lives such faith, such submission to the will of God, as should shame the lukewarm christian of the present day; which shewed that they thought not their fiery trial some strange thing happening unto them, but that whereunto they were especially called, because Christ also suffered for them, leaving an example that they should follow his steps. Faith was not to them a theory only, but the very food by which they nourished their souls to everlasting life. They not only experienced the truth of the fact, that in the world they should have tribulation; but fervently believed that as Christ had overcome the world, so they through the merits of his death would rise triumphant above all their sufferings.

Romanus, a native of Palestine, was deacon of the church at Cæsarea. At the commencement of the christian persecution he was at Antioch, and when the imperial order arrived for sacrificing to idols, he was

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