delivery. Eight days thereafter her child was taken from her, and she was placed in a cell in the Inquisition. A young woman was imprisoned beside her, who exerted herself to the utmost to promote the afflicted lady's recovery, but the attendant was soon subjected to the torture herself, and remitted to her cell mangled by the process. As soon as Dona Juana could rise from her bed of rushes, she was in her turn tortured by the Inquisitors. She would not confess. She was placed on one of their instruments of cruelty. The cords penetrated through the delicate flesh to the bone of her arms and legs. Some of the internal vessels burst. The blood flowed in streams from her mouth and nostrils. She was conveyed to her cell in a state of insensibility, and died in the course of a few days. The Inquisitors, for once, pronounced the lady whom they had murdered innocent on the day of the Auto. They feared the recoil which their atrocity might have occasioned; so that in this fiendish proceeding we see Popery in its twofold character-shedding the blood of God's saints, and then like a dastard or a sycophant, fawning upon those whom it has injured, when there is danger of retaliation.

After what has been narrated, our readers will not be surprised to learn that much of the craft and cruelty of the Inquisitors was directed against books suspected of containing heretical doctrines. In 1490 many copies of the Hebrew Scriptures were burnt by Torquemada at Seville. At Salamanca, as we have seen, six thousand volumes shared the same fate. In 1558 the most exterminating decrees were passed against all heretical books, and their authors-a congenial work in which Pope Paul IV. co-operated with Philip II. and Valdes, the Inquisitorgeneral. The punishment of death, with confiscation of goods, was ordained against all who sold, bought, read, or procured any book that was forbidden by the Inquisition. In 1568 these relentless measures were renewed; but in spite of the severest denunciations, many copies of the Scriptures found their way into Spain. From that time to this it has been the assiduous endeavour of Inquisitors to arrest the progress of learning, and suppress all that betokened a departure from the dogmas of Rome; and the result was, that to a large extent, the darkuess which had begun to be dispelled from Spain gathered blackness again, that kingdom became the most Catholic, most bigoted, and priest-ridden among the nations. Why? "The souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and the testimony which they held," will, at the consummation of all things, reply.

Thus do we close our Memorials of the Inquisition. Reflections on our epitome are

It was at one time illegal to send horses from Spain to France. Philip could not suppress the contraband trade till be obtained a bill from the pope to employ the Inquisition, who set themselves with zeal to gratify the king.

393

needless. Though not a tithe has been narrated, yet the incidents described enable us to penetrate to the very heart's core of Popery. Nor is the Inquisition, as some would assure us, an antiquated system, the product of a barbarous age, and lost in the depths of centuries long gone by. So recently as the year 1781 a woman was burned, by the Inquisition of Seville, for heresy. In the year 1805, forty-one years ago, Don Miguel Juan Antonio Solano, a native of Verdom in Arragon, and vicar of Esco, in the diocese of Jaca, was imprisoned for his religious opinions, tried, and delivered to the secular arm, as in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. The execution was delayed, and Esco died in prison; but he was virtually put to death by the Inquisition, and his remains were denied a Christian burial. About forty years ago, then, the Inquisition was plying its horrid trade in blood; and if we would not allow its grasp to be fastened on our liberties, civil and religious, it is time for Christians to awake, and band in one wide-spread alliance, to drive back the aggression, and curb the pride of the returning superstition.

SABBATH FACTS.

AN American writer- the editor of the Western

Herald-gives the following facts, nearly all of which, he states, have come under his own observation. “He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy."

A CIVILIAN.

A gentleman highly gifted, classical, a respected citizen, and much distinguished by civil honours, soon after the Erie canal was opened, invested many thousand dollars in a line of packet boats, which he, against the wishes and remonstrances of many of his friends, ran on the Sabbath. The receipts were large, and promised great and speedy acquisitions to his already competent fortune.

Not long after, the friends of the Sabbath made a united and public effort to arrest its desecration. This gentleman opposed them with all his gigantic powers; and on one occasion, at the head of a mob he had collected, entered a meeting convened to consider what could be done to promote the better observance of that day, and broke it up. Thus things went on, from bad to worse. At length, suddenly, as in a lost its vigour and sunk into a morbid state of deplormoment, his whole system was paralyzed-his mind able melancholy-a more unhappy mortal apparently never existed. A dreadful sense of sin, especially the sin of Sabbath-breaking, rested upon him. This he confessed to his minister, adding that he expected to go to hell. Everything was against him-what he felt was a judgment direct from heaven, in consequence of his opposition to the Sabbath and Sabbath efforts. He seemed to feel, he said, for such wickedness, the arrows of the Almighty, barbed and pointed as the lightnings of heaven, penetrating his vitals, and he warring and pressing against them; the poison whereof drank up his spirits. After remaining in this situation eight or ten years, a terror to himself, and an object of inexpressible anxiety to his family and numerous friends, a kind Providence restored him to his right mind, to his family, and to happiness, a monument of mercy as well as of judgment.

A LAWYER.

A distinguished and wealthy lawyer was kindly reproved for drawing declarations and doing other official business on the Sabbath; for he was surrounded with applicants, and crowded with business. At this he was offended, when the following conversation took place: "Sir, you too have a case, to be tried in the court of heaven, which will come sooner or later, and you are not prepared for it. Your witnesses are not summoned, your advocate is not secured, and all, of any importance in insuring success, remains undone. The case is not a petty one, but involves your all-your eternal life; and it may come on to-morrow. The Sabbath is given you (for the conversation took place on Sabbath) that you may secure counsel, and make every necessary preparation for the important trial; but here you sit, drawing this declaration for your client-devoting the precious hours to the comparatively worthless interests of your client, of the consequence perhaps of ten or twenty dollars, to the entire neglect of your eternal well-being. Now, would you, if you knew the summons would be sent to call you to that dread trial to-morrow, sit here and finish this declaration ?" After a moment's pause, for he had been religiously educated, and could not easily do the violence to his conscience he was about to do, he tremblingly replied, "If I neglect the interests of my clients, I shall lose all my business." And here again he hesitated. The speaker beholding the struggle in his breast, witnessing the sudden changes in his countenance, and fearing lest he would now seal his damnation for ever, was about to relieve him from his difficult and embarrassing position, when he resolutely proceeded "Yes, I would; I would first do my duty to my client!" This was some fifteen years ago; and though he still lives-doing very little in his professional business; from that time he began, like the sturdy oak smittten by the fires of heaven, to wane; his beauty has faded, his heart is hardened long has he been nearly bankrupt in character, and quite so in present and future prospects, as to the riches of this world. His ambition and covetousness have done him no good. The world is against him; God is against him; and he, a poor, miserable misanthrope, seems to be against both and himself also. He complains of everything-nothing gives him pleasure; and it is to be feared that he will at last appear at the judgment unrobed and without an advocate.

A CAPTAIN.

The captain of a long line of packet boats, being much laboured with to keep him from contracting to run them on Sabbath, said, "If I should cause the teams to lie by on Sabbath, it would cost me three hundred dollars at least, and I am not able to sustain the loss." "But, sir," it was answered, "there will be nothing lost in the long run, in obeying the laws of God and our country touching the Sabbath." "I don't know if there would be, but I cannot now sustain any loss." "But, sir," it was replied, "if you violate in this way the law of God, and infringe on the rights of those you employ, how will you answer it at the bar of God?" As quick as thought he replied, "Oh, I expect to repent before I die!" Poor man, and so he did; but the repentance was not unto life.

The next day, being a civil man, he called to apologize for the remark. No doubt, his conscience sent home the answer that he might die suddenly, lose his reason, or become hardened in iniquity, and die accursed. Nevertheless his line was fitted out in fine style-run on Sabbath as on other days, but as we are informed, at a loss of nine thousand dollars. The next spring, the entire concern, horses, boats, furniture, &c., was sold at auction to the highest

bidder. Much of it we saw thus sold, and we doubt not all of it was. The captain was a bankrupt, nine thousand dollars worse off, at least, than he was when he said, "I expect to repent before I die."

A FORWARDING HOUSE.

A few years since, in a northern city, great effort was made to persuade forwarders, sailors, and boatmen, to give up their Sabbath occupations. Most of the forwarders readily consented. One of the firins that did not, among the largest, and supposed to be very wealthy, raised many objections, which called for much labour with them, and from many individuals; but all without success. They opened their warehouse, ran their steam boats, vessels, and canal boats on Sabbath, notwithstanding all remonstrances, and that one of the firm was not in favour of it, and another was a member of a Christian Church.

But before the year came around, their large ware house, with everything in it, was burnt to ashes. Their steam boat was much damaged. During a heavy gale, it is said, they lost a vessel and twenty thousand dollars' worth of goods. Upon hearing this one of them exclaimed, "It is because we break the Sabbath." Everything seemed to go against them. The firm was dissolved, and two of the partners of it, we believe, became bankrupt.

ORIGIN OF METRICAL PSALMODY. THE leading feature of the Reformation was the rendering the expressions of devotion in a language | the people could understand. Luther, who was enthusiastically fond of sacred music, and who composed both hymns and tunes, appears to have entertained the notion of a metrical translation of the Psalms into the vernacular language of his countrymen. The credit, however, of taking the first decided step in introducing metrical psalmody belongs to a widely different character. About the year 1540, Clement Marot, a valet of the bed-chamber to Francis I., and the favourite poet of France, tired of the vanities of profane poetry, and probably privately tinctured with Lutheranism, attempted a version of David's Psalms into French rhymes. The author had no design of obtruding his translation into public worship, and even the ecclesiastical censors so little suspected what followed, that they readily sanctioned the work, as containing nothing contrary to sound doctrine. Marot, thus encouraged, dedicated his Psalms to his royal master, and to the ladies of France. After a sort of apology to the latter, for the surprise he was prepared to expect they would evince on receiving the "sacred songs" from one who had heretofore delighted them with "love songs," the poet adds in fluent verse, "that the golden age would now be restored, when we should see the peasant at his plough, the carman in the streets, and the mechanic in his shop, solacing their toils with psalms and canticles; and the shepherd and shepherdess reposing in the shade, and teaching the rocks to echo the name of the Creator."

There was much more prophecy in these lines of Marot than he probably intended-certainly much more than those who first read them anticipated. In short, Marot's psalms soon eclipsed the popularity of his madrigals and sonnets. Not suspecting how prejudicial the predominant rage of psalm-singing might prove to the ancient religion of Europe, the Catholics themselves adopted these sacred songs as serious ballads, and as a rational species of domestic merriment. They were in such demand that the printers could scarcely supply copies fast enough. In the festive and splendid court of Francis, of a sudden nothing was heard but the psalms of Clement Marot; and with a characteristic liveliness of fancy, by each of the royal family and the principal nobility of the Court, a psalm was chosen, and fitted to the ballad tune which they liked best.

Meanwhile, Luther was proceeding in Germany with his opposition to the discipline and doctrines of Rome; and Calvin was laying at Geneva the foundations of a system of Church polity more rigid and unadorned even than that contemplated by his illustrious fellow-Reformer. Both appear to have been disposed to supersede the old Papistic hymns, which were superstitious and unedifying, with some kind of singing in which the congregation could bear a part. The publication of Marot's psalms taking place at the precise juncture when contemplating the introduction of some kind of hymns in the vernacular language, in connection with plain melodies easy to be learned by the common people, the French being the language of the canton, the Reformer forthwith commenced the use of the French psalm-book in his congregation at Geneva. Being set to simple and almost monotonous music, by Guillaume de France, they were presently established as a conspicuous and popular branch of the Reformed worship. Nor were they only sung in the Genevan congregations. They exhilarated the convivial assemblies of the Calvinists, were commonly heard in the streets, and accompanied the labours of the artificer. The weavers and woollen manufacturers of Flanders, many of whom left the loom and entered into the ministry, are said to have been the capital performers of this science. Thus was the poetical prediction of Clement Marot, relative to the popularity of his psalms, literally realized. By this time, too, the Catholics had become painfully sensible of the danger of allowing the people to indulge in the sweetness of religious themes taken from the Scripture, to be sung in the vulgar tongue. At length the use or rejection of Marot's psalms became a sort of test between Catholics and Protestants. Those who used them were considered heretics; those who rejected them, were esteemed faithful.

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE. WHEN the believer speaks of the evidence for the truth of Christianity from the experience of its power on his own soul, the unbeliever may say, This may be all very well for the Christian himself, but it can be no evidence to me. Let us see, then, whether it would be no evidence to a candid man; whether an attempt is not made in this, as in so many other cases, to judge of religion in a way and by a standard different from those adopted in other things. To me it seems that the simple question is, whether this kind of evidence is good for the Christian himself; for if it is, then the candid inquirer is as much bound to take his testimony as he is to take that of a man who has been sick, respecting a remedy that has cured him. If a

395

large number of persons, whose testimony would be received on any other subject, should say that they had been cured of a fever by a particular remedy, there is no man who would say that their testimony was of no account in making up his mind respecting that remedy, though he had not himself had the experience upon which the testimony was founded. If it is said that the evidence to the Christian himself is not well founded, and is fanatical, very well. Let that point be fairly settled. But if it be a good argument for him, then we ask that his testimony should be received on this subject as it would be on any other. The testimony is that of many witnesses; and I am persuaded that a fair examination of facts, and a careful induction, after the manner of Bacon, would settle for ever the validity of this argument, and the proper force of this testimony. Every circumstance conspires to give it force. It is only from its truth that we can account for its surprising uniformity, I may say identity, in every age, in every country, and when given by persons of every variety of talent and of mental culture. Compare the statements given, respecting the power of the Gospel, by Jonathan Edwards, by a converted Greenlander, a Sandwich Islander, and a Hottentot, and you will find in them all a substantial identity. They have all repented and believed, and loved and obeyed, and rejoiced; they all speak of similar conflicts, and of similar supports. And their statements respecting these things have the more force, because they are not given as testimony, but seem rather like notes, varying, indeed, in fulness and power, which may yet be recognised as coming from a similar instrument touched by a single hand. If I might allude here to the comparison by Christ of the Spirit to the wind, I should say that in every climate, and under all circumstances, that divine Agent calls forth the same sweet notes whenAnd this uniform testimony does not come as a naked ever he touches the Æolian harp of a soul renewed. expression of mere feeling; it is accompanied with a change of life, and with fruits meet for repentance, showing a permanent change of principle. This testimony, too, is given under circumstances best fitted to secure truth; given in affliction, in poverty, on the bed of death. How many, how very many, have testified in their final hour to the sustaining power of the Gospel! And was there ever one, did anybody ever hear of one, who repented at that hour of having been a Christian? Why not, then, receive this testimony? Will you make your own experience the standard of what you will believe? Then we invite you to become a Christian, and gain this experience. Will you be like the man who did not believe in the existence of Jupiter's moons, and yet refused to look through the telescope of Galileo for fear he should see them? Put the eye of faith to the Gospel, and if you do not see new moral heavens, I have nothing more to say. Will you refuse to believe that there is an echo at a particular spot, to believe that the lowest sound can be conveyed around the circuit of a whispering gallery, and yet refuse to put your ear at the proper point to test these facts? Put your ear to the Gospel, and if you do not hear voices gathered from three worlds, I have nothing more to say. Will

DISGUISED VICES.-For all the several gems in Virtue, Vice hath counterfeit stones wherewith she gulls the ignorant.

CHEERFULNESS.-I know we read of Christ's weep

THE JEW.

TALK of pedigree, forsooth! tell us of the Talbots, Percys, Howards, and like mushrooms of yesterday! Show me a Jew, and we will show you a man whose genealogical tree springs from Abraham's bosom, whose family is older than the decalogue, and who bears incontrovertible evidence, in every line of his Oriental countenance, of the authenticity of his descent through myriads of successive generations. You see in him a living argument of the truth of Divine revelation; in him you behold the literal fulfilment of the prophecies; with him you ascend the stream of time, not voyaging by the help of the dim, uncertain, and fallacious light of tradition, but guided by an emanation of the same light which, to his nation, was "a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night:" in him you see the representative of the once favoured people of God, to whom, as to the chosen of mankind, he revealed himself their legislator, protector, and king; who brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You behold him established, as it were, for ever in the pleasant places allotted him; you trace him, by the peculiar mercy of his God, in his transition states from bondage to freedom; and by the innate depravity of his human nature, from pros perity to insolence, ingratitude, and rebellion; following him on, you find him the serf of Rome; you trace him from the smouldering ashes of Jerusalem, an outcast and a wanderer in all lands; the persecutor of Christ, you find him the persecuted of Christians, bearing all things, suffering all things, strong in the pride of human knowledge, stiff-necked and gainsaying, hoping all things. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob."-Blackwood's Magazine.

EXTRACTS FROM FELTHAM'S RESOLVES. DANGER OF GOOD FORTUNE.-Felicity eats up circumspection; and when that guard is wanting, we lie spread to the shot of general danger. How many have lost the victory of a battle, with too much confidence in the good fortune which they found at the beginning! Surely it is not good to be happy too

soon.

DANGEROUS FRIENDS AND ENEMIES.-I will take heed both of a speedy friend and a slow enemy. Love is never lasting, that flames before it burns; and hate, like wetted coals, throws a fiercer heat when fire gets the mastery.

TIME TO ADMONISH.-To admonish a man in the height of his passion, it is to call a soldier to counsel in the midst, in the heat of a battle. Let the combat slacken, and then thou mayest expect a hearing.

HUMILITY. Of all trees, I observe, God hath chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall; of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb; of all fowls, the mild and galless dove. Christ is the rose of the field, and the lily of the valley. When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar, nor the sturdy oak, nor the spreading plane; but in a bush-an humble, slender, abject shrub; as if he would, by these elections, check the conceited arrogance of man.

FORTITUDE.-A wise man makes a trouble less by fortitude; but to a fool, it is heavier by his stooping to it.

FAITH. Assuredly, though faith be above reason, yet is there a reason to be given of our faith. He is a fool that believes he neither knows what nor why. RECONCILIATION.-It is much safer to reconcile an enemy, than to conquer him. Victory deprives him is less danger in a will which will not hurt, than of his power, but reconciliation of his will; and there in a power which cannot.

IDLENESS.-When one would brag of the blessings of the Roman State, that since Carthage was razed and Greece subjected, they might now be happy, as having nothing to fear, says the best Scipio: We now are most in danger; for while we want business, and have no foe to awe us, we are ready to drown in the mud of vice and slothfulness."

PRIDE IN HUMBLE LIFE.-Too great a spirit in a man born to poor means, is like a high-heeled shoe to one of mean stature; it advanceth his proportion, but is ready to fit him with falls.

PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER.-What if I be not known to the Nimrods of the world, and the peers of the earth? I can speak to their better-to their Master, and by prayer be familiar with him.

ASSOCIATING WITH WORLDLINGS.

SERIOUS people often complain of the snares they meet with from worldly people, and yet they must mix with them to get a livelihood. I advise then, if they can, to do their business with the world as they do it in the rain. If their business calls them abroad, they will not leave it undone for fear of being a little wet; but then, when it is done, they presently seek shelter, and will not stand in the rain for pleasure.-Newton.

A MORTAL SIN TO READ THE BIBLE. SOME time ago, a friend of ours was talking with a very inoffensive old man, a Roman Catholic, who was employed at one of the public departments, when, the conversation turning on some religious subject, a remark of the old man induced our friend to exclaim with surprise," What! do you never read the Bible?" The old man, as much astonished that he should ask such a question, raised his hands, and, with great solemnity and emphasis, replied, "The Lord forbid that I should be guilty of such a mortal sin as to read the Bible!! "_ "-Investigator.