صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

valuable communicant of a Christian church, ready to every good word and work, in season, out of season, serving the Lord. He grew in grace, and ripened for glory. When the Master called, he was found ready and waiting; his lamp was trimmed and burning brightly. With joyful anticipation he looked forward to the day of "final reckoning," because he could claim as his own the triumphant language of the apostle Paul :-" Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God; who also maketh intercession for us."

Reader, has it ever entered into your thoughts, that God has a long unsettled account against you?— an account swollen to a fearful sum of sins committed; of services neglected; of defiance exercised against his law; of scorn cast upon his gospel; of hatred to the way of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ; of despite done to the Spirit of grace? All these things are entered against you in that account, except they have been "blotted out" by Him who says :--" Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Have you ever considered that there is to be a day of settlement, a day of final accounts? Do you not know that the Lord, "the righteous Judge," will come to reckon with all his creatures; that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness? That day will be a very fearful one to the unpardoned sinner. Now is the day of salvation, the accepted time for securing the forgiveness of every unsettled account between God and yourself. Go to him through Jesus Christ, who died that your sins might be blotted out. And since you will not go to him, even for this blessing, without the aid of his Holy Spirit-oh, seek that blessed Spirit's help.

Haste to the Refuge.

HASTE, traveller, haste ! the night comes on,

And many a shining hour is gone;
The storm is gathering in the west,
And thou art far from home and rest:
Haste, traveller, haste!

Oh, far from home thy footsteps stray;
Christ is the Life, and Christ the Way;
And Christ the Light, thy setting Sun,
Sinks ere thy morning is begun :

Haste, traveller, haste!

Awake, awake! pursue thy way
With steady course, while yet 'tis day;
While thou art sleeping on the ground,
Danger and darkness gather round:

Haste, traveller, haste!

The rising tempest sweeps the sky;
The rains descend, the winds are high;
The waters swell, and death and fear
Beset thy path, nor refuge near:

Haste, traveller, haste!

Oh, yes! a shelter you may gain,
A covert from the wind and rain,
A hiding-place, a rest, a home,
A refuge from the wrath to come :
Haste, traveller, haste!

Then linger not in all the plain,
Flee for thy life, the mountain gain;
Look not behind, make no delay,

O speed thee, speed thee on thy way:

Haste, traveller, haste!

Poor, lost, benighted soul! art thou

Willing to find salvation now?

There yet is hope; hear mercy's call;

Truth! Life! Light! Way! in Christ is all :

Haste to Him, haste!

W. B. Collyer.

[graphic]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]

IN the Tower of London, visitors are shown a wooden block and an axe, which they are told were used in the execution of a former queen of England: the second wife of King Henry VIII. Her melancholy history is a striking comment on the inspired text that "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain."

Anne Boleyn, when a child, was appointed maid of honour to Henry's sister-then just married to Louis XII. of France. She was taken to reside at the French court, where, as she grew up, she attracted attention by her loveliness of person. When twenty years of age, she returned from France, and became one of the maids of honour to Queen Catherine. She was not only more beautiful and graceful, but more witty, gay, and clever than any other young lady of the English court.

The young maid of honour soon attracted the notice of the king, who became deeply enamoured with her. Flattered by his attentions, she exerted all her arts still further to please him. After six years of delay, the monarch succeeded in divorcing his lawful and much-enduring wife Catherine, and married Anne Boleyn. Shortly afterwards a public and magnificent coronation raised her to the summit of her ambition: she was an English queen. Her accomplishments and her loveliness, her pride and am

bition, had won for her this high promotion; while Catherine, her predecessor, was languishing in obscurity. Surely for once the maxim was contradicted, that "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain!" But the end was yet to come.

Two or three short years of triumph and prosperity passed away, and then another change took place in the king's affections. He began to loathe what he had once admired; and a new and younger rival drew away Henry's heart from Queen Anne, whose ruin was now fast approaching.

Plausible grievances against the unhappy lady were readily found. Her fondness for admiration during her short career of prosperity had betrayed her into imprudences; and she had many enemies who were ready to turn upon her when they saw that she had lost her husband's love. She was committed to the Tower of London as a traitor.

See her now, as she passes under the gloomy archway of the Traitors' gate, no longer a happy queen, but lower sunk in wretchedness than the meanest of her former servants. Hear her wild and bitter cry, as, falling on her knees before her gaoler, when told of the crime for which she was to be imprisoned -“O Lord, help me, as I am guiltless of that whereof I am charged!"

And soon came the end. It was on the 2nd of May, 1536, that queen Anne Boleyn was sent to the Tower, a disgraced wife, a dethroned queen. Seventeen days afterwards she was led to the place of execution on the Green within the Tower, and laid her head upon the block to receive the fatal stroke of the executioner-a mournful example of the truth of the Scripture, that "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain."

87

« السابقةمتابعة »