ing death, as foretold by our Lord; "knowing," said he, "that shortly I

must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shewed us?"

Soon after he had thus written, it is probable that he repaired to the expected scene of his suffering, and met his doom-met it, undoubtedly, as became one taught by experience, to know his own recurring weakness, admonished often by the remembrance of that eye which had once beamed in mild reproof upon him; but which, I doubt not, he beheld in the hour of his last trial and dying agonies, fixed upon him with tender encouragement and approving love; while, in his closing ear, seemed once again to sound the welcome promised to the devoted follower of the cross, "well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

We, of these latter days, can see the founder of our religion only in the record of his word, and hear him only in his ever-enduring precepts; but, though we hear him not externally with our ears, he still speaks in the heart of us all, if we will but listen to his purifying voice; and though the look of his reproachful eye cannot be beheld by us only with our mental vision, still, that eye is continually over us; and when, like the apostle, we are tempted to feel too great security in our own strength, and to neglect to implore the assistance which cometh from above, let us recal the look which Jesus gave to the offending Peter, and remember that the same eye, although unseen, is watching and regarding us still.

Oh! could we ever lie even upon what are called trifling occasions, if

we once believed the certain, however disregarded, truth, that the Lord takes cognizance of every species of falsehood, and that the eye, which looked the apostle into shame and agonizing contrition, beholds our lying lips with the same indignation with which it reproved him, reminding us that all liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," and that without the city of life is "whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

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CHAP. XVII.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

I SHALL not give many individual in

stances of those whom even the fear of death has not been able to terrify into falsehood, because they were supported in their integrity by the fear of God; but facts are on record. The history of the primitive Christians contains many examples both of men and women whom neither threats nor bribes could induce for a moment to withhold or falsify the truth, or to conceal their newly-embraced opinions, though cer

66 we are

tain that torture and death would be the consequence; fearless and determined beings, who, though their rulers, averse to punish them, would gladly have allowed their change to pass unnoticed, persisted, like the prophet Daniel, openly to display the faith that was in them, exclaiming at every interrogatory, and in the midst of tortures and of death, Christians; we are Christians!" Some martyrs of more modern days, Catholics, as well as Protestants, have borne the same unshaken testimony to what they believed to be religious truth; but Latimer, more especially, was so famous amongst the latter, not only for the pureness of his life, but for the sincerity and goodness of his evangelical doctrine; (which, since the beginning of his preaching, had, in all points, been conformable to the teach