ment and delight infused, and he meets with such transfigurations of soul, that he thinks himself half in heaven. It was Christ's "meat and drink" to do his Father's will. (John iv. 34.) Religion was Paul's recreation. (Rom. vii. 22.) Though I should not speak of wages, the gales which God gives us in this life are enough to make us in love with his service. 2. The second and last consideration is, that millions of persons have miscarried to eternity, for want of making religion their business.—They have done something in religion, but not to purpose: they have begun, but have made too many stops and pauses. They have been lukewarm and neutral in the business; they have served God as if they served him not; they have sinned fervently, but prayed faintly. Religion hath been a thing only by-the-by; they have served God by fits and starts, but have not made religion their business; therefore, have miscarried to all eternity. If you could see a wicked man's tombstone in hell, you might read this inscription upon it: "Here lies one in hellish flames, for not making religion his business." How many ships have suffered shipwreck, notwithstanding all their glorious names of THE HOPE, THE SAFE-GUARD, THE TRIUMPH! so, how many souls, notwithstanding their glorious title of saintship, have suffered shipwreck in hell for ever, because they have not made religion their business! THE HARVEST IS PAST. BY THE REV. THOMAS D. NICHOLSON, aroused, O careless sinner, to consider well your As YOUTH, it may be, has passed away, with all its bloom and freshness; its mornings of sunshine, its vigour, its hopes, and its talents, have all been sacrificed upon the shrine of vanity and folly. The seed time of youth has been neglected-Bible precept and Bible example, have had no sway over the wayward inclinations and habits of youth. A pious father's roof, that sanctuary of praise and prayer, has been like a prison-house to the perverse spirit of youth, and its hallowed exercises counted a weariness of the flesh. In the morning they have sown The harvest of the natural world is past-its seed, but it has been the seed of unsanctified golden grain has been gathered in, and placed desires they have sown to the wind, and, as a in security. Autumn's leaves have strewed consequence, they must reap the whirlwind. the plain, and now the angry blasts of winter The spring, with its gentle winds and mollifying sweep through the leafless woods. All nature showers, with its precious opportunities for lay-dies-how blank and dreary the prospect of ing secure the foundations of the spiritual house, has passed away, and its last setting sun, with its fading beams, has written upon their foreheads "Not saved." Middle-age, with its meridian sun, and glorious season of golden opportunities, and precious privileges, fleets fast away. Be such a death, and how fitting its resemblance to that cold and lifeless tomb, where sleeps the ashes of the dead! The harvest of earth's happiness, with its ripe and mellow fruit, will soon be past to us all, and the cold winter of death will breathe upon us with its withering blasts. FRANCIS SPIRA. To the aged, now in the autumn of life, this should be their harvest of earnest, constant prayer of ripe fruits-and of an ample ingathering of God's sanctifying Spirit. Aged one, if the morning service of your life was devoted to the world, if your noon-day was a season of rejoicing in the sunshine of the world's pleasures, be persuaded now, in your old age, to strive to reap the harvest of Christ's atoning merit, and to obtain a title to that bright inheritance on the other side of the Jordan of death. Your privileges will soon be shortened by disease and infirmity, your tide of life is ebbing fast, your last evening is nearly run, your sky is becoming overcast with clouds, which betoken the near approach of that hurricane which will soon shatter and overpower your feeble bark. Yes; the harvest of life and privilege will soon be past, the harvest home will soon be gathered in, but, alas! for those, when the last echoes of its rejoicings shall pronounce their unalterable sentence" Not saved." May we be found living in Christ and to Christ, and when death comes may we hail it as the messenger of peace, and hear the Judge pronounce that we are saved! Is Christ thy life, then, O my soul? Has he the love of thine heart? Then fear not death, for he says, "I am the resurrection and the life," and " whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." FRANCIS SPIRA. BY THE REV. W. K. TWEEDIE, EDINBURGH. It is often remarked, that all the great principle by which God would guide the world have been evolved | amid controversy and commotion. Without going beyond the Christian era, we see this signally exemplified in the various periodic agitations which have disturbed the peace, but at the same time promoted the progress, of the Church, and the truth of which it is the custodier. When the Christian system, the truth as it is in Jesus, was first fully developed among men, how resolute the hostility which it had to encounter! Good in the highest sense was the object aimed at, and antagonism seemed the condition of achieving it. At the Reformation, again, when great truths were once more disembarrassed, that they might emancipate the souls of men, the same scenes occurred. Truth was not allowed to make progress in silence; but emperors and popes, principalities and powers, banded against it, when the concussion between truth and error was such as to remind us of the reverberation occasioned by the lightning when it enters the cloud. In still more modern times, the same result has been seen. For example, when the grand truth that the Church of Christ should be Evangelistic, as well as Evangelical, began to be brought forth from its long neglect, many still remember the hostility which it encountered. Assemblies debated against Missions, and voted them down. The worldly-wise derided-the formalist raised the cry of fanaticism and even some of the friends of truth, instead of throwing themselves boldly upon principle, or upon Him who is the believer's rock of defence, were timid and 519 cautious, to an extent that rendered many of them time-serving. In those times of trouble, evil as well as good is developed. If the principle of stedfastness be drawn out into action in those who know the truth, and love it, the opposite principle becomes apparent in others, who fear man more than God, and love a portion upon earth better than the inheritance of the saints in light. There were Judas and Demas in Paul's time as there had been a Jehu in the days of old-and we are now to recount some startling incidents in the life of a noted apostate of the era of the Reformation. Francis Spira, to whom we now refer, lived about the middle of the sixteenth century (1548). He was a doctor of law, and an advocate of high rank in the town of Cittadella, in the province of Italy, then subject to Venice. He was distinguished by his learning and his eloquence, possessed of a subtle mind, and was highly intelligent. His attainments and position secured for him the esteem of many, while his wealth gave him an influence which rendered him one of the most notable men of his community. About his forty-fourth year, Spira's attention began to be turned to the works of Luther and other Reformers. Eager in the pursuit of knowledge, he forthwith began to inquire. The Scriptures were searched, books of controversy studied, and the result was, a conviction that Lutheranism was true, and Popery false. Spira embraced the resuscitated doctrines with so much zeal, that he soon became in his turn a preacher of them-at least among his family. (which was numerous) and his friends he sought to disseminate what he had himself embraced. To some extent he abandoned other pursuits, and urged his friends to depend solely on the grace of God in Christ for salvation. He was well versed in the Scriptures, took a firm hold of their doctrines, and did all that he could to spread the light at once by his life and his lessons. For about six years Spira continued thus to befriend the Reformed cause. He exerted his influence privately at first, but eventually waxed more decided and bold, and the country around Padua became agitated by the truths which he proclaimed. The pardons and indulgences of priestcraft lost their value, the old superstition was assailed and undermined, and threatened to fall. The cry of the craft in danger was accordingly raised, and Spira became the object of hatred and persecution. Calumnies of the grossest kinds were circulated against him, and it soon became apparent that if he would be a Reformer to bless mankind, he must take his life in his hand, and hazard it for the name of Jesus. The pope's legate at Venice at that period was the noted Della Casa, and he entered with zeal into the persecution that had begun against Spira. That functionary was distinguished for hatred to the truth and hostility to its friends, and easily credited the information of the new teacher's enemies. The dominant superstition then, as now, was conscious of the ten thousand points at which its boasted bility is vulnerable, and resented the first & of a wish to unmask its delusions. The enmity against Spira was increased, when it was ascertained that the people on the frontiers of Italy favoured the religion which Luther had freed from the incumbent mass of Popery. Della Casa, therefore, applied to the Senate of Venice to take decisive measures against Spira; while he, on the other hand, was aware that no tenet would be tolerated which tended to the overthrow, or even the improvement, of Popery, and that Papists would lightly forego neither their old superstitions, nor their old modes of defending them-persecution, the inquisition, and death. He saw, in short, that if he persevered in the course on which he had entered, he must prepare for one of two things-exile or death. The only via media was apostasy. Amid his trepidation at the gathering storm, Spira was admonished to take the shield of faith; and those who have written the story of his life, tell us of the struggles and temptations of his mind at this the crisis of his religious state. The apostles and martyrs were set before him as models. Death with the truth, or life without it, were the topics of his frequent thoughts; and it was strongly impressed upon his mind that, at the very least, he ought rather to abandon his country than the truth. Hitherto, then, we have seen little in Spira to reprehend. With characteristic zeal and openness he has been telling the truth as far as he knew it. Having embraced Christ's doctrines, he sought to guide others to do likewise; and had his history closed here, it would have been as the history of a true convert, not of Francis Spira the apostate. But he was not yet a Christian, though he was a Lutheran, and must either become a Christian, or be unmasked, as deceiving and deceived. Amid his forebodings, Spira soon became restless and troubled. Now one purpose, and anon another, swayed him. To-day he was resolved to suffer the loss of all things rather than deny the truth; tomorrow he would listen to the seductive and too successful sophism which has kept its tens of thousands in spiritual bondage for ever-" How can you so far presume on your own sufficiency as to disregard the examples of your ancestors, and the judgment of the whole Church ?" Under the influence of that, or rather in the state of mind that would listen to that, Spira became more and more irresolute. He could not calmly contemplate "the offensive dungeon, the bloody axe, and burning faggot." The thought of country and of friends, of wife and children (of whom he had eleven), rendered his agitation deeper and deeper. Like Eve, when she consented to listen to the tempter at all, Spira, when he consulted with flesh and blood, was tottering to his fall; and he at last hastened to the legate at Venice, there to confess his heresy, and implore forgiveness. He sought to return to "entire obedience to the sovereign bishop, in the communion of the Church of Rome, without ever desiring to depart from the traditions and decrees of the Holy See." He rehearsed all his errors, and drew them up in a formal deed, which he solemnly subscribed. He was then dismissed to his home, and ordered to emit a recantation there, to abjure the Lutheran heresy, and "acknowledge the whole doc trine of the Church of Rome to be holy and true." All this was submitted to by the misguided man. He had put his hand to the plough, but he looked back. He had once taken up the cross by profession, but he laid it down again. In sunshine he would follow the Lord, but not in tribulation. The world had overmastering power, God and eternity were out of sight and out of mind, and we shall soon see the result. Having once entered on the downward path. farther declension speedily followed. On his return to his home, Spira complied with all the injunctions of Della Casa, though conscience had already begun! to exclaim against his apostasy. Reflection began te bring haunting terrors with it; the folly of seeking peace in departing from God soon became apparent. The guilt of bartering eternal for temporal existence. of preferring the favour of man to the smile of God. and earthly treasures to unsearchable riches, was speedily discovered. The Saviour's suffering for sinners, and Spira's recoil from suffering for him, pressed upon his conscience; and his biographers tell us that the terrors of the Lord thenceforth took hold of him.* The advice of time-serving friends, who set before him all the trials that would flow from stedfastness, but not one of the miseries that would result from apostasy, induced him to make his public recantation. He was present at the celebration of mass, and repeated clause by clause the abju ration which he had formerly subscribed. About two thousand persons were present at the ceremony in which Spira acted so prominent a part, although he confessed that a feeling akin to desperation had already taken hold of him. He was fined in thirty pieces of gold, the greater part of which was expended upon masses, and the unhappy man was restored by an apostate Church to all that apostasy was sure to receive from it. Spira is said to have fainted away after the agitating scenes through which he passed on that eventful day; and from that moment he never more knew peace of mind. He sank into the pit which himself had dug, and, like an oak skaithed, or a tall tower shivered by lightning, he became a signal monument of the retribution of Heaven. The mind of the unhappy man soon became violently distracted by remorse. We know little of the feelings of Judas, except as we infer them from a few incidents recorded concerning him subsequent to his treachery; but those of Spira have been described with accuracy and care. Physicians for the body, and ministers of religion for the soul, were called to the conscience-stricken man. He was removed from Cittadella to Padua, that he might in all respects benefit by the means reckoned most likely to restore his peace of mind; but after mature deliberation, the physicians declared that they could discover no bodily ailment. It was the disease of the soul that was preying on the wasting frame, so that the most skilful men in a city which was at that period "the eye of Italy," saw the resources of their art exhausted in vain in attempting a cure. Spira himself declared that his disease was beyond the * See The Evil and Danger of Apostasy, as Exemplified in the History of Francis Spira, &c., by John Poynder, Esq. FRANCIS SPIRA. reach of human appliances; his exclamation was, "Who can succour a soul oppressed by a sense of sin, and by the wrath of God? It is Jesus Christ alone who must be the physician, and the Gospel is the only antidote." It may easily be supposed that Spira soon became an object of public notoriety. Crowds accordingly resorted to witness what is described as a harrowing spectacle-the sight of one sunk in the darkness of despair. Some from curiosity, others in the hope of ministering to the mind diseased, sought the company of the wretched man; but their kindness and counsel were unavailing. Water to quench his burning thirst was Spira's constant cry. He obstinately refused the use of food, that he might pass the sooner, as he avowed, from the anticipation to the reality of agony; and thus did Spira, at the age of little more than fifty, amid much that might have made life happy, sink into hopeless wretchedness before the time, because in an evil hour he had called the truth a lie, and wilfully trampled upon conscience in the act of doing so. Could we trace, in detail, the various stages by which Spira's spiritual malady developed itself, the narrative might yield warning to the most unreflect ing; but we can only advert to the more salient points in his gloomy history. We shall do so as much as possible in the language which the agonized man himself employed as he passed on to the grave.* When his troubles began, then, Spira anxiously wished that "some one would shorten his days;" and in describing the misery which dictated the suicidal desire, he detailed the crime he had committed, and its accompaniments, in language so impassioned and affecting, that he made the bystanders weep; nay, some of them trembled at the recital. When they attempted to console him, his constant exclamation was: "My sin is greater than the mercy of God." "I have denied Christ voluntarily, and against my convictions. I feel that he hardens me, and will allow me no hope." Referring to the doctrines which he had abjured, he declared that "he believed them while in the act of denying them;" adding, that now" he believed nothing-he had neither faith, nor confidence, nor hope." "I am a reprobate like Cain or Judas, who, rejecting all hope, fell from grace into despair. My friends do me great wrong in not suffering me to depart to the abode of the unbelieving, as I have justly deserved." His friends were anxious to read the Scriptures with the agonized man, in the hope of alleviating his misery; but terrified by the attempt, he roared out in anguish, beseeching them to desist. The physicians, we have seen, declared that there was no bodily distemper; yet, from hour to hour, his misery grew more and more intense, and the pitiable spectacle became intolerable to the onlookers. Paul Vergerio, bishop of Justinopoli, and others, tried from time to time to soothe him; but all was rejected. His mind seemed Spira's case has been described by Matthew Gribaldo, a learned civilian of Padua, who was eye-witness of his wretchedness. Henry Scrimger, a celebrated Scotsman, and a professor at Geneva, was also a witness of Spira's closing scenes, and published a description of them. Other accounts have been given in various languages. 521 to become acute and inventive of arguments with which to torment himself, by repelling the sugges tions of his friends. He clung to the conviction that he was a reprobate, and declared "there was no room in his heart for aught but torment and agitation." Roaring in bitterness of spirit, he exclaimed: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." "I have a whole legion of devils who take up their abode in me, and possess me as their own, and that justly, for I have denied Christ." In one of his paroxysms he exclaimed: "I desire nothing more than to come to that place where I may be certain of enduring the worst, and of being delivered from the fear of a worse to come." Rarely has the appalling termination of such a career been so stedfastly contemplated. There was a kind of method in his agony, for he never ceased to affirm, that "when he renounced his opinions, he believed them to be true, and yet he abjured them before the legate." His mind, through this torturing process, gradually settled down in the conviction that he had sinned against the Holy Spirit, and intrenched behind that conviction, no created power could move him. He spoke of his mind as corro led by the reprobation of God, who had hardened him; and "I find," he adds, "that from day to day he hardens me more and more." When he reasoned regarding his punishment, he always justified the ways of God, declaring that "there was no punishment which he did not deserve for so detestable a crime;" and adding, "I assure you, it is no little thing to deny Christ, and yet it is more common than is imagined." At another time he exclaimed, "O, could I only experience the least sentiment of the love of God towards me, although it were but for a moment, as I now feel the weight of his wrath burning like the torments of hell within me, and afflicting my conscience with inexpressible anguish! Assuredly despair is hell itself!" "I re Painful as are these passages in Spira's life, they are but like the opening scene in this tragic drama. "Here is the truth of my case," he exclaimed when his anguish grew more and more overpowering: "I tell you, that when I first abjured my profession at Venice, and when the declaration was recorded, the Spirit of God admonished me often, and yet while at Cittadella, I in some sort set my seal to it." sisted the Holy Spirit, and signed, and sealed it; and at that very moment I sensibly felt a wound inflicted even on my will." And subsequently to this, clasping his hands violently together, and raising himself up, he exclaimed: "Now I am strong, but I sink into decay by little and little, and consume away.”. . . . “I see my condemnation, and know that my only remedy is in Christ; nevertheless, I cannot persuade myself to embrace it. Such is the punishment of the damned." Did our space allow, it would be instructive to trace the conduct of Spira while his friends persuaded him to repeat the words of the Lord's Prayer after them. "Our Father which art in heaven," the disconsolate sinner began to say, but he suddenly paused, and burst into tears, explaining his grief by the words, "I perceive that I am abandoned by God." As he repeated the other clauses, or rather paraphrased the passage, he shed abundant tears, insomuch that all about him were melted into compassion. 66 'My crime is not one iota less than that of Judas," was subsequently his averment; and that conviction, accompanied with the feeling that it was impossible for him to believe, began at last to overmaster his ingenious mind. His biographers tell us, that the wretched man "felt a continual hell tormenting his mind;" while he refused to be moved away from the harassing conviction, that "his present state was worse than if his soul, separated from the body, were with Judas and the rest of the damned." Cain, Saul, and Judas he regarded as his precursors in crime and condemnation; while, with perverse ingenuity, he turned away whatever tended to con sole him. With considerable theological accuracy, he drew the distinction between his former condition, when God, he thought, was known, and his present, when God had been abjured—evincing all too plainly that his intellect and reason were untouched, while his conscience was stimulated to an extent which transferred Spira, in effect, to the vicinity of Sinai and Horeb. "I know not what else to say, than that I am one of those whom God has threatened to tear in pieces," was the language in which he described both himself and his condition. At other periods, Spira gave clear evidence that though he could not apply the Gospel to himself, he yet could preach it to others. He urged his friends to "exalt the glory of God continually; and not to be afraid of legates, inquisitors, prisons, nor any kind of death." These moments, however, were few and infrequent; and incidents sometimes occurred to rouse him to intense vehemence of feeling. Antonio Fontanina, a priest who had been with him when he recanted before the legate, came to visit him, and reminded the wretched man of their last interview: "O the accursed day!" he exclaimed; "O the accursed day! Would that I had never been at Venice! Would to God I had been then dead!" At a subsequent time, a priest attempted to exorcise Spira as one that was possessed of a devil, when he confessed that he was "under the power of demons; but they could not be cast out by any charms." The priest, however, proceeded with his incantations, loudly adjuring the spirit to come to Spira's tongue and to answer. The unhappy man, deriding such efforts, turned away with a sigh.* Such are the prescriptions of Rome to heal a wounded conscience. But the efforts of that superstition were not yet exhausted. Exorcism had failed; yet may not the sacrament, the mass, avail? But Spira refused. Vergerio endeavoured in vain to persuade him. He held it to be a scriptural truth, that whosoever would deny Christ, Christ would deny before his Father who is in heaven. Spira felt that he had denied him, and clung to the letter of Scripture, in spite of all attempts. He quoted the texts, Heb. vi. 4, 5, x. 26; and 2 Pet. ii. 21; and reinforced by these, neither the exorcisms of superstition, nor the entreaties of affection, could bring one ray of comfort to his troubled soul. Amid his agony of spirit, his tears See Evil and Danger of Apostasy, &c. sometimes flowed copiously; his constant longing was for death; and yet, said he, the Scriptures are fuifilled in me-"They shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." "O miserable wretch! 0. miserable wretch!" was the sentence which he pronounced upon himself. He implored his friends and brethren to take warning by his misery; while the words, "Whosoever shall love father or mother, or houses or lands, more than me, is not worthy of me,"), were to his soul like nitre on a fresh wound. Men who are not acquainted with the strong struggles of the soul when it discovers what sin is on the one hand, and God on the other, without also discovering what Christ is, as the mediator between God and man, may call this raving. But the friends of Spira were convinced by his arguments and appeals," which continued acute and forcible to the last, that neither frenzy, as ignorance concluded, nor sorcery, as superstition supposed, had any share in his malady; and some of the statements of Gospel truth which he made on his death-bed show that their opinion was correct. He himself reprobated the charge of madness, telling them that they might thus escape from the lesson which God was teaching them, or speak perversely of the ways of God in giving such an example of his truth; but with all that, he said, they were only evincing the ignorance of the natural mind, which knows not the things of the Spirit, nay, regards them as foolishness. While warning his friends, one of them took occasion from his words to say that that was not the language of a reprobate. Spira immediately replied, "I only imitate the rich Epicure, who, though himself in hell, was anxious that his brethren should escape from torment." While justifying the dealings of God toward him, that also was pointed out as a token for good; but the reply was ready: "Judas, after betraying his Master, was obliged to own his sin, and justify the innocence of Christ; and if I do the same, it is neither new nor singular." Towards the close of his life, he addressed some young men in most solemn and instructive terms, warning them from his case to beware of a religion of form, or of making faith their saviour. He spoke of the merits of Christ as " a strong rampart against the wrath of God;" but added that he had "demolished that bul- | wark with his own hands," and was now overwhelmed by the deluge. He urged those around him to beware of being " almost Christians," as he had been, and then broke out into vehement emotion indicative of his strong internal agony. "Give me a sword," he exclaimed. "Why? what use will you make of it ?" “Į cannot tell," he rejoined," to what act my feelings may carry me, nor what I may do." He subsequently declared to Vergerio, when his friends began to take leave of him," that he felt his heart full of cursing, hatred, and blasphemy against God," instead of being softened by the prospect of being left alone; and on the following day, he attempted self-destruction, without success. For eight weeks did he continue in this lamentable state, refusing nourishment, except as it was forced on him, and gradually becoming emaciated and haggard. He was constantly in dread, not of death, but of life; became by degrees his own. 66 |