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"you are a noble child; you did what you could." The spirit of this little boy is worthy of all imitation. Would that all the members of our churches would clap their hands when the workers are toiling away. If this were done the work would be better and more speedily accomplished; all would be gainers and none would be losers. Instead of doing so, however, there is a class who sit surly by, and who grumble while others are seeking to narrow the sphere of the destroyer and to beat back the enemy. Shame on you, ye miserable grumbling class! Ye seek to retard the wheels of all progress. Come ye and sit at the feet of this little boy, and let him lead you into the better way of clapping your hands, and crying Amen, Amen, to encourage all those who work for God and man.-Forward.

LABOUR AND HAPPINESS.

"Is not the field, with lively culture green,
A sight more joyous than the dead morass?
Do not the skies, with active ether clean,

And fann'd by sprightly zephyrs, far surpass
The foul November fogs, and slumbr'ous mass,
With which sad Nature veils her drooping face?
Does not the mountain stream, as clear as glass,

Gay-dancing on, the putrid pool disgrace?
The same in all hoids, but chief in human race."

WHY then should man dream of physical or mental health without industry. Labour is the indispensable condition of preserving a sound mind in a sound body. They are pitiable weaklings who yield to sloth. Counteracting the beneficent law of labour, they become strangers to buoyant health, peaceful relaxation and refreshing sleep; ay, they pauperise themselves, and defeat the grand object of their creation. The Marquis of Spinola once asked Sir Horace Vere, "of what his brother died?" Sir Horace replied, "He died, sir, of having nothing to do." "Alas!" said Spinola, "that is enough to kill any general of us all." We wonder not that Dr. Adam Clarke should say, "The old proverb about having two many irons in the fire is an abominable lie. Have all in-shovel, tongs, and poker!"

One thing is quite certain, that the surest way to be happy is to be employed. There is a Spanish proverb-" The hound that is chasing the game does not feel the fleas ;" and the Turks say, "A busy man is troubled with but one devil, but the idle man with a thousand." We

have observed often, that when children, growing tired of their playing, become troublesome, if the parent set each child some trifling tasks, the little folks are happy. There is no doubt that nine-tenths of the sorrows of life proceed from idleness. Inactivity gives birth to evil thoughts, unwholesome comparisons, murmurings, fears, despondings. No man need be slothful from the want of occupation. The Good Master of the vineyard has given "to every man his work." He never designed that one son of Adam should be a mere supine spectator of the deeds of his fellows, but assigned a special service to each, and will expect ultimately an ingenuous account from all. Neither need any man look far for his sphere of toil. It lies before him. In the circle in which he moves, however limited, he will find enough to occupy his earnest, solemn, anxious thought. In addition to his lawful worldly engagements, he has self to conquer; a carnal heart to crucify; evil passions, lurking in the recesses of the soul, to subdue; habits, which indulgence has fostered into a second nature, to break off; and sins to be rooted out, which infest the life with the tenacity of weeds which shoot their knotted fibres into the surface of the garden. Then there are the young whom he may instruct, the poor whom he may aid, the suffering whom he may comfort; there is the Church to help in its militant struggles with darkness, and his generation to serve. The claims of humanity are too pressing, and the wants of the world too great, to allow any man to be idle. From all parts of the earth we are summoned to action; and happy is that man who, with prompt and unreserved consecration, yields his faculties to the work of the Lord.

All ministers of the Gospel have found indolence one of the most fertile causes of spiritual depression among professing Christians. For your own sake, therefore, reader, as well as for the world's sake, and the Church's sake, bestir your energies, be a worker and not a drone!— Quiver.

THE STILL BEAUTY OF NATURE.

If there could be some splendid confusion produced amid the serenity of the present universal order: if some broad constellation should begin to-night to play off from all its lamps volleys of Bengal lights, that should fall in showers of many-coloured sparks and fiery serpents, down the spaces of the heavens; or if some blazing and piratical comet should butt and jostle the whole outworks of a system, and rush like a celestial fire-ship, destroying order, and kindling the calm fleets that sail upon

the infinite azure into a flame, how many thousands there are who would look up to the skies for the first time with wonder and awe, and exclaim inwardly, "Surely there is the finger of God." They do not see anything surprising or subduing in the punctual rise and steady setting of the sun, and its imperial and boundless bounty; and yet there is enough fire in the sun to spirt any quantity of flaming and fantastic jets; it could fill the whole space between Mercury and Neptune with brilliant pyrotechnics and jubilee displays, such as children gaze at and clap their hands. But the great old sun is not selfish, and has no French ambition for such tawdry glories. It reserves its fires, keeps them stored in its breast, spills over no sheets of flame from its high cauldron, but shoots still and steadily its clean white beams into the other; these evoke flowers from the bosom of every globe, and paint the far off satellites of Uranus with silver beauty.-Thomas King.

THE INQUISITION AT ROME.

NEAR the Vatican, at Rome, between the Cathedral of St. Peter and the Castle of St. Angelo, there is a street with a fearful name-the Street of the Inquisition. There was situated the notorious tribunal which made the altar the stepping-stone to the scaffold. In 1849, the Government of the Roman Republic, being in want of suitable accommodation, extemporised some stables for the artillery of the National Guard in one of the houses belonging to the Holy Office; that is to say, under theenclosed colonnade of the second court. To break through the inner wall being indispensable to the proper disposal of the horses, the bricklayers found within it a chasm, which they immediately recognised as a trap or pitfall. The rubbish being removed, they descended into a subterranean cavern, damp, dark, and without outlet; with no other pavement than a dark, rank mould, such as is found in cemeteries. Fragments of old clothing, half rotted by time, were strewed here and there. These were the relics of the unfortunates who, thrown from above, died in this vault of their wounds, of anguish, of terror, and of hunger. A coin (bajocco) of the time of Pius VII., found amongst these decayed vestments, clearly indicated the period at which this abode of darkness and despair had not been walled in. On removing the surfacemould, remains of human bones, and of long hair, (evidently women's)

were found. Those who were present at this discovery carried away some of this earth and of these hairs as relicts of priestly tyranny. This pitfall engulfed victims, the disappearance of every trace of whom was important to the Holy Office. The passage by which they were precipitated into the cavern is connected with the second floor of the first block of buildings, and, more precisely, with the vestibule of the chamber of the second father in charge, which is on the same floor with the hall of the tribunal.

Several of the monks' cells presented significant indications of hideous mysteries; in one, the neckerchief of a woman; in another, a small hat, appearing to have belonged to a young girl of ten or twelve years old. In other cells were found sandals and strings, a distaff, small baskets containing medals and rosaries, needles and thread; lastly, a plaything, and some infants' clothing. In one cell, on the ground floor, was noticed a flagstone, like the covering of a tomb: this was raised, and disclosed an opening, leading to a subterranean chasm: this is what is styled a vade in pace, "Go in peace." Here, too, when once the stone descended upon the head of the sufferer, he never more saw the light or heard the sounds of this world. "Peace!" indeed; and the victim, buried alive, died slowly of hunger, between four cold and silent walls.

Some of the other subterranean chambers were closed in the last century, as was ascertained by examination of the walls. In one room some old church-ornaments were thrown together in a corner; having been removed, they disclosed traces of a stone staircase in the thickness of the wall, by which one could descend. After descending thirty steps, this staircase, or ladder, gave access to a small room serving as a vestibule to some larger apartments, the actual prisons of Pius V. The earth here was mingled with lime, and in the walls the ingenious cruelty of the Pope had constructed niches, which brought to remembrance the loculi of the ancient columbarii. In some of these subterranean prisons the condemned were buried alive, up to their shoulders, in earth mixed with lime. This was clearly shown from the position of the corpses which tenanted this horrible dwelling, and upon which one might still trace the convulsive efforts made, in the last moments of life, to disen. gage themselves from the tenacity of the lime, which pressed so tightly on their limbs. Lastly, other corpses were laid at full length, horizontally, side by side; and their heads, which were wanting, were found heaped together in a corner.

On the 4th of April, 1849, the Government of the Roman Republic decreed that the buildings of the Holy Office should be converted into habitations for poor families, whose own dwellings were too confined or unhealthy. The course of events prevented the carrying out of this

intention. The buildings have been converted into modern prisons.

At every step, in the corridors, on the top of every door, you behold. a large figure of Christ, drawn, not according to the Evangelical traditions, with a countenance expressive of sorrow and benignity, but according to the ideas of the Inquisition, with a threatening aspect from the summit of the cross. -Evangelical Christendom.

THE DUTY OF FAMILY WORSHIP.

HOUSEHOLD prayer is an important part of family religion, and a blessed means of maintaining and extending the spirit of Christianity in the dwellings where it constantly obtains. It is, indeed, true that the obligation to its exercise is not stated so directly in the sacred Scriptures as are the injunctions respecting private and public prayers; for, in reference to the one, we are enjoined by our Lord to enter our closet, and pray to our Father who is in Heaven; and in relation to the other we are told by an apostle not to forsake the "assembling of ourselves together." The duty appears, therefore, to rest rather on general principles than on any express precept; yet its reasonableness and importance are so palpable, as strongly to commend it to those heads of families who desire to glorify God, and to realize His blessing in their domestic relations.

It was the recorded resolution of an individual, distinguished alike by philanthropy and piety, that wherever he pitched his tent, in the journey of life, he would rear an altar. This determination was in harmony alike with the dictates of reason and revelation. In tribes involved in heathenism, in ancient and modern times, there has been found, at least occasionally, a dim recognition of the duty in the worship of household gods. Under the earlier dispensations of revealed religion, much attention was paid to family devotion. Abraham was distinguished by the maintenance of household piety; and Joshua resolved that he and his house would "serve the Lord." David returned from the public service of Jehovah to bless his household; and one of the Psalms was composed by him on the occasion of his dedicating his house to God. Christianity, by its baptisms of households, and by its injunctions to "show piety at home," has sanctified the domestic compact, and placed its disciples beyond that threatening of divine displeasure, which is to rest on the families who call not on the name of the Lord.

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