are most of them sober and scriptural, and consequently adapted for the government of human conduct now. It was a grievous error, indeed, to retreat from a happy domestic circle into solitude; but even in this I think we must deal out to him more pity than blame. It was the error of the times, for which the authority of the greatest names might be pleaded, and he did not abuse it to any purpose of indolence, licentiousness, or wild fanaticism. Besides the Ascetica, there are several other productions of the same writer extant, such as Sermons, chiefly in fragments; Counsels addressed to Monks, in number thirty-two; Discourses against the eight vices, Gluttony, Lasciviousness, Avarice, Anger, Grief, Sloth, Vain-glory, and Pride; Directions concerning Prayer, amounting to one hundred and forty-seven; Hortatory Sentences, consisting of two hundred and twenty-nine aphorisms on the moral duties and feelings; a Panegyric on a Nitrian Monk, named Athinianus; an Account of the Slaughter of the Monks of Mount Sinai, in seven narrations; and a large collection of Epistles.

The correspondents of Nilus were very numerous, and included some of the most celebrated men of the age; his letters are generally instructive and always pleasing; some are learned, others familiar, and both the civil and ecclesiastical historian may derive much useful information from them. These epistles were printed separately at Rome, in folio, in 1668, edited by Leo Allatius, and afterwards his whole works appeared there in Greek and Latin in 1673. There is one of his letters addressed to the emperor Arcadius, which was written under the following circumstances. Soon after the banishment of Chrysostom from Constantinople, the city was threatened by an earthquake, and the emperor sent to the hermit of Sinai, to solicit his prayers for the safety of the capital. But Nilus was well aware of the doings within its walls; he was also the friend of the exiled prelate; he was in no humour therefore to attempt to pacify the fears of the emperor who had banished the bishop. On the contrary, he told him not to look for the protection of heaven in behalf of a city the seat of so many crimes, from whose walls the pillar of the church, the light of truth, the trumpet of Jesus Christ, had been unjustly driven!" How," said he," can you desire to employ my prayers for a city which God in his anger punishes with earthquakes and the lightnings of heaven, by which it hourly expects to be consumed, whilst my own heart is itself consumed by the fire of affliction, and my spirit agitated by a continual trembling, caused by the excesses committed within its walls?"

The life of Nilus was a changeful one. Of illustrious birth in Constantinople he had every worldly reason to continue one of its citizens-affluent circumstances, powerful connections, a wife with two children whom he tenderly loved. But in an evil hour the religious fever of the times seized hold upon him, and his naturally strong understanding bowed before it. He felt himself called by a voice divine to forsake houses and lands and wife and children, for the kingdom of heaven's sake; grieved by the manifold iniquities of the world, he thought the path of duty to lie in literally complying with the words of the prophet, "Come, my people, enter thou into

thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast." His purpose being once formed, he was not the man to hesitate about accomplishing it. One day, therefore, taking up his children in his arms, he announced his intention to his wife, to retreat from the mixed multitude, and give up all secular associations. He proposed taking one of the children, a boy, with himself, and leaving the other, a girl, in her care. He told her that it would be in vain to complain, for that his purpose was fixed, and she, aware of his decided character, made no opposition, and they separated after many tears. Sinai was the place to which he directed his steps. It was a sanctified spot in his esteem, for there the Divine presence had been gloriously revealed, and Moses in a cave had seen the heavenly Majesty. Besides, its savage scenery harmonized well with the stern temper of mind under which the recluse was acting. To a man of his stamp, the mount that once burned with fire, and was girt about with blackness, darkness, and tempest, could call up awful associations more in unison with his induced temperament, than any field which the Lord had blessed. The district was already occupied by many recluses, who passed their lives in the natural caverns with which it abounded, or in cells scooped out of the rocks by their own labours. Nilus soon obtained their respect by his austere habits, his grave deportment, his ability and readiness in deciding cases of conscience; and for many years he abode in the desert, content with his lot, while his boy grew up to man's estate, and his cell was often visited by the stranger anxious to see one who was known to be good and great.

Before leaving the capital, Nilus had stripped himself of all his possessions, and when he arrived in the desert he was in circumstances of the utmost destitution. He is supposed to be the person referred to in the following story, though it is not certain. When Joseph of Pelusium came into the neighbourhood of Sinai, he encountered a recluse, whose eloquent conversation yet miserable garb, excited his surprise. On the Sabbath he saw the same person at the place where the hermits assembled for prayer, still poorly clad, while the rest had clean white garments. Being told that he had no means of procuring a better dress, Joseph led him to his cell, and gave him a linen habit of his own, with other things necessary for his comfort. The desert, however, with all its privations, was far dearer to the recluse than the capital with its luxuries. When requested by his brethren to accompany a deputation going to Constantinople, to present an address to the emperor, he excused himself, assigning as his reason for declining the service, that he had formerly been the slave of a great lord at the court, referring to the emperor himself, who might constrain him to resume the station he had relinquished, if he returned. Asceticism with all its miseries he had voluntarily assumed, and he repined not under the hardships of his lot, but stuck to his bread and water in preference to all civic feasts. Contentment was not a virtue of which the most pious of the ascetics could always boast-even the vaunted Basil sometimes winced at the bondage to which he had subjected the flesh-Gregory

Nazianzen wrote to Amphilochius, to send him some fine pot-herbs, "if he did not wish to find Basil hungry and cross!"

But notwithstanding his meek endurance of assumed hardships, calamity came upon Nilus, in a form which tried him to the uttermost, and upon which he had not calculated. He had gone into the desert to escape from the world, but the world rudely forced itself upon his solitude. The Sinaite territory was invaded by a party of Saracens many of the hermits were killed, the rest were scatteredNilus and a few others escaping by taking refuge upon the summit of the mountain. He soon learnt that his son Theodulus had been taken captive by the enemy, and for a long time the unhappy father remained ignorant of his fate, but was certain of its being slavery or death. The Saracens sold their prisoner as a slave, and by singular good fortune he came into the possession of Hilarion, bishop of Elusium, who discovering his piety and talents, ultimately ordained him priest. Meanwhile Nilus abandoned Sinai, and went forth a wanderer in search of his son. After many anxious enquiries, and toilsome journeys, he succeeded in finding him at Elusium, where the bishop ordained the father to the priesthood, as he had previously done the son. Both, however, finally returned to their old abode in the desert of Sinai, and practised more rigorous self-denial than ever, in gratitude for the protection afforded them by Providence.

Such was the adventurous life of Nilus, which terminated about the middle of the fifth century. His name is little known to fame; his works are rarely met with, except incorporated with the minor patristical writings; he deserves, however, an honourable place among the fathers medii ævi; and should any one, having the opportunity, be tempted by this sketch to read his remains, he will find much to instruct and interest, and will meet with one quite as much entitled to the name of saint, and perhaps more so, than Basil, Cyril, and Jerom. He belonged to the class of monks, but the reader will soon see from his statements, respecting that class, that he was an exception, and not a specimen. This is the reason why his fellowship is eschewed by the Oxford tract writers; they might refer to him with pride in behalf of their system on the ground of his life, but his works show too plainly that almost every form of demoralization characterized the monachism of his age; they have no wish, therefore, to revive his memory. The poet, professor, and divine of Oxford, prefers indulging his own fancy as to what should be, rather than listening to the voice of history respecting what has been:

"When withering blasts of error swept the sky,

And Love's last flower seemed fain to droop and die.

How sweet, how lone the ray benign

On sheltered nooks of Palestine !

Then to his early home did Love repair,

And cheered his sickening heart with his own native air."

These lines are at utter variance with the truth. Nilus has given us his testimony, living hard by these "nooks ;" and we have the report of one who, in the full glory of the Nicene age, personally

visited them, and who describes the "nooks of Palestine" as worse defiled than any other part of Christendom. The council of Antioch was held in the year 378, and a delegation was appointed by it to visit the eastern churches which had been harassed by the Arians,

"When withering blasts of error swept the sky."

The expences of the deputation were paid by the emperor, and it proceeded on its mission under Gregory of Nyssa. He resided for some time at Jerusalem with three pious and noble ladies, Enstathia, Ambrosia, and Basilissa; he visited the holy places which had once been honoured with the presence of the Saviour and his disciples; he expected to find a superior sanctity of mind and manners among the religious connected with such scenes; but he found vice, schism, and faction, and retreated in disgust back again to Antioch. There is an epistle of his on record to the ladies who had entertained him— a word of warning-cautioning them against the artifices of those who sought to make a prey of them. Afterwards, when asked whether it was an essential part of religion to make the tour of Palestine, one of the favourite notions of the day, he frankly declared that perils both to soul and body attended the pilgrim, that the journey might be dispensed with, and that the Spirit of God might more reasonably be expected in Cappadocia than in Jerusa lem, where every species of immorality abounded. So much for Nicene Christianity, as exhibited in the "sheltered nooks of Palestine!"

There is a description of Christianity among the works of the fathers, which was furnished before the age of monachism commenced, and which is far more scriptural than the views advanced by the men who met in council at Nice. It is not known who wrote the Epistle to Diognetus, though it is usually attributed to Justin Martyr-as improbable a supposition, from a comparison of style, as that the clear and polished periods in the Spectator, and the rough involved paragraphs of the Elizabethian authors were written by the same hand. The following passages are so true, beautiful, and apt to the occasion, that I quote them:

"The Christians are not separated from the rest of mankind by country, or by language, or by customs. They are confined to no particular cities, use no peculiarity of speech, adopt no singularity of life. Their doctrine embraces no tenet built upon the reasoning and subtlety of crafty men; neither do they, like others, uphold the opinion of any man. Dwelling in the cities, whether of Greeks or barbarians, as every man's lot is cast, following the customs of each country in dress, and diet, and manner of life, they yet display the wonderful and indeed astonishing nature of their own polity. They dwell in their own country, but as sojourners: they partake of all things, as denizens; they endure all things, as strangers. Every foreign land is their country; their own country is to each a foreign land. Like other men, they marry and have children; but their

Greg. Nyss. Oratio de iis qui adeunt Hierosolymam. Epistola ad Eustathiam, Ambrosiam, et Basillissam.

children they expose not. They are in the flesh; but they live not after the flesh. They abide on earth; but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the laws which are established; and in their own lives are superior to the laws. They love all men; and are persecuted by all. Men know them not, yet condemn them. Being slain, they are made alive being poor, they make many rich; deprived of all things, in all things they abound. Being dishonoured, they are thereby glorified; being calumniated, they are justified; being cursed, they bless: being reviled, they give honour. Doing good, they are punished as evil-doers: when punished, they rejoice, as being made alive. The Jews oppose them as a strange people: the Greeks persecute them; and they who hate them can allege no reason for their enmity.

"In a word, Christians are in the world what the soul is in the body. The soul is dispersed over all the members of the body; Christians over all the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is no part of the body; Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The soul, invisible herself, is guarded in a visible body: Christians are known to be in the world, but their worship is unseen. The flesh hates the soul, which never injured it, and wars against it, because it is thereby prevented from indulging in its pleasures. The world hates Christians, who injure it not, because they are opposed to its delights. The soul loves the body, and the members which hate her. Christians also love their enemies. The soul is inclosed in the body, yet she restrains the body. Christians are shut up and guarded in the world, yet they restrain the world. The soul, herself immortal, dwells in a mortal tabernacle. Christians dwell among the corruptible, looking for an incorruptible state in the heavens. *

"God gave his own Son a ransom for us, the holy for the unholy, the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else was able to cover our sins but only his righteousness? How should we disobedient and impious be justified, but only in the Son of God? O sweet interchange! O inscrutable dispensation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! that the iniquity of many should be hidden in the Just One; and the righteousness of one justify many sin

ners."

Oct. 2, 1840.

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF A PROTRACTED MEETING.

(To the Editor.)

M.

MY DEAR SIR-IT is not without very considerable hesitation that I have at length determined to furnish you with the following particulars; the propriety of their publication will of course rest with yourself. The reason of my hesitancy was the consciousness of my own liability to be influenced by a wrong motive, or my possible exposure to suspicion, if innocent. My objection has been overruled by the repeated recommendation of my much honoured friend, Dr. Redford, of Worcester.

N. S. VOL. IV.

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