the flames, on the gibbet, by the sword, or the rack; others, following the direction given to the early Church, fled from the scene of their persecution to such places of refuge as they could find: and the remnant sank under the weight of calamities that had left them a mere handful, scattered up and down in what was now an enemy's country. Public teaching was of course unthought of, where men dared not assemble three or four together for private exhortation and united prayer, lest one of the number should prove a traitor. Ordinances ceased from among them all means of grace were withheld; and the light of the gospel faded away, and the tree which the Lord had planted, withered and drooped, and cast its leaves, a bare, desolate monument of what it once had been.

By such means has the great Mystery of Iniquity always prevailed in warring against the saints, where power was permitted answerable to its wicked will. Its dragon voice has been heard to the uttermost bounds of the earth, saying to its agents, "Arise, devour much flesh." It is only when some limit is placed to its external working, that the lamb's horns are exhibited in ostentatious meekness to a deceived world, and the 'servant of the servants of God' ceases to fulminate decrees of universal slaughter, breathing out gentle tones of humility and peace. We have seen, so far, its operations against the true followers of the true Lamb: it will be our next step to show the actual embodying, the solemn ratification, the indelible stamping and sealing of Papal Rome's most murderous principles, as acted out in the twelfth century, in an unrepealed decree of the infallible Church, now in full force all over the world; and even now, thanks to the desperate infatuation of nominally Protestant rulers, in full opera

tion HERE, in Great Britain, the supposed fortress of Protestantism, the chosen and favoured, but, alas! not the faithful witness among all nations, of those truths for which her noblest and her lowliest children yielded with equal freeness their lives at the stake, as a testimony against what their descendants are warming and cherishing in their bosoms, to give new vigour to the sting already aimed at their immortal souls. The fourth Council of Lateran was held during this pause of death, and we cannot lightly pass it over.

C. E.

CHRISTIAN WARFARE.

"The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty."-2 Cor. x. 4.

ON, Christians, rush ye boldly on,
The weapons of your warfare wield,
Lay not your mighty armour down
Till the last foe hath fled the field.

Though armed hosts encamp around,
Soon shall thy blest deliverance come ;
Then shrink not from the dreadful strife,
And faint not till the fight is won.

The gates of Heaven shall open then,
There victors ye shall entrance gain ;
There ye shall rest from care and toil,
And there the conqueror's wreath obtain.

Then, Christians, on! rush boldly on!
The weapons of your warfare wield,
Lay not your mighty armour down,
Till the last foe hath fled the field.

PAUL BEFORE NERO.

CHRIST'S presence is sustaining. The apostles were wonderfully calm and collected men. People, considering that they were, many of them, unlearned and ignorant, were amazed at their dignified composure in most difficult circumstances. It was scarcely possible to alarm or agitate them. When brought before kings and rulers, it was usually their judges who trembled, but they themselves were tranquil. And Paul tells us the secret of it. When he himself was brought before Cæsar, it was an agitating occasion. Nero was a cruel prince, and the people looked on his palace much as they would have looked on a leopard's den. An order has arrived to bring the Galilean prisoner to the emperor's judgment-hall. The apostle has just time to warn a few friends, and like enough they came and condoled with him; but they thought it prudent not to go with him into court. It might compromise their own safety, and it could do him no effectual good;—and he did not urge them. The soldiers arrived, and he went away cheerily with them—the old weather-beaten man-without his cloak, for he had left it at Troas; without his friends, for he had left them behind at his own hired house-as forlorn as ever prisoner stood before Cæsar. And how was it that the infirm old man passed, with so serene a look, the clashing swords, and scowling sentries at the palace-front? How was it that he trod the gloomy gateway with a step so full of merry innocence

and martyr-zeal, and never noticed Nero's lions snuffling and howling in their hungry den? And how was it that in the dim and dangerous presence-chamber, where cruelty sat upon the throne of luxury,-how was it that, with that wolf upon the judgment-seat and those blood-hounds all around him-with none but pagans present, and not one believing friend to bear thee company-how was it, O Paul! that in such an hour of peril, instead of pleading not guilty, and falling down on suppliant knees, thou didst commit the very crime they charged against thee-the crime of loyalty to Jesus -and urge Christ's claims upon Cæsar? Why the secret of this strange courage was, "At my first answer no man stood with me, but all forsook me. Notwithstanding, THE LORD stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion."-Rev. J. Hamilton.