affairs of husbandry, gave rise to progressive modifications and indulgences, affording uninterrupted leisure for devotion, and for due attention to the ingathering of the several harvests. From the Advent and Christmas solemnities, arose the Winter Vacation; from those of Lent and Easter, the Spring Vacation; and from Pentecost, the third; while the Long Vacation, between Midsummer and Michaelmas, derived its origin, and extended duration, from a consideration of the approaching harvest and other agricultural pursuits, which at that season require particular attention, and are of too great general importance to admit of interruption from any cause what

soever.

The Sundays throughout the year were first exempted from the Term in 517, though all other days were retained, whether festivals or otherwise, and the Sunday considered as commencing from three o'clock on the Saturday afternoon.

About 845, Easter Week, commonly called the Octaves, was exempted from law proceedings, and this precedent led to the exemption of Pentecost, the Feast of St. Michael, the Epiphany, &c. which were subsequently honoured with Octaves.

In 932, the Council of Ertford, in Germany, enacted further regulations with regard to Law Days, that were soon enforced upon all Christians, and are regarded as the foundation of the Terms as they are now observed; though several

alterations, some still retained, and others abrogated, were made by CANUTE; EDWARD the Confessor, who first ordained four Terms in each year; WILLIAM the Conqueror; WILLIAM RUFUS; STEPHEN; HENRY the Second; HENRY the Eighth; CHARLES the First; GEORGE the Second; and GEORGE the Third.

Conversion of Saint Paul.

(25TH JANUARY.)

PAUL, or SAUL as he was originally called, was by birth a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, and by privilege a Roman citizen, from the circumstance of his having been born at Tarsus, the metropolis of Cilicia, to which city AUGUSTUS CÆSAR had granted the freedom of Rome. His Hebrew name SAUL, refers to his Jewish descent; that of PAUL, by which he is now generally called, was given to him as a Roman citizen. The Scriptures speak of him by both names; by that of SAUL, when alluding to him as conversant among the Jews in Syria; and by that of PAUL, when he left those parts, and dwelt among the Gentiles. The Apostle also calls himself by the latter name in all his Epistles to the Gentiles.

Having been well versed in the knowledge of the Mosaic ritual at Tarsus, SAUL was sent to

Jerusalem to study under GAMALIEL, a doctor of the Jewish law, the most learned man of his time, where he soon distinguished himself for the strength and extent of his natural and acquired powers. At an early period of his entrance into life, he became an opposer of the Christians, and in that character exhibited so warm a zeal, that he is recorded by ST. LUKE, as the person who kept the raiment of the suborned witnesses, who stripped themselves as the law directed, before they cast the first stone at ST. STEPHEN, the proto-martyr. The part SAUL took in the murder of ST. STEPHEN, raised him in the estimation of the Jews, who, in order to extirpate the Christians, promoted a violent and general persecution, appointing SAUL the Inquisitor Hæreticæ, an office he filled with unrelenting and cruel vigilance, not only exerting his utmost talents at oppression in Jerusalem, where his duty expressly lay, but evincing a solicitude to extend his power to other places. Accordingly we find him travelling towards Damascus, with a determination to overwhelm all who should dare to avow their belief in our SAVIOUR'S mission; but the ALMIGHTY GOD, whose ways are inscrutable, ordained that this very person, who had hitherto so particularly distinguished himself as an inve terate enemy to the Gospel, should ultimately prove the greatest of its supporters. Arrived near the end of his journey, SAUL and his companions were encompassed by a supernatural light from

Heaven so far exceeding the splendor of even the then glowing meridian sun, that overcome with terror and dismay, they cast themselves prostrate on the earth, "when he heard a voice saying unto him, SAUL, SAUL, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, LORD? And the LORD said, I am JESUS whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, LORD, what wilt thou have me to do? And the LORD said unto him, arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do ?"

SAUL, who had been struck blind by the overpowering resplendency of this supernatural light, was restored to his sight by ANANIAS at the divine command; after which, he preached at Damascus those doctrines which had before called forth his utmost powers to refute and exterminate. This great and important event is thought to have taken place in the year 37, from which period to the 29th June in the year 68, when he was beheaded by the order of NERO, he continued successfully to propagate Christianity in all its natural and sublime purity, leaving behind him fourteen Epistles to different nations and persons, replete with argumentative doctrinal learning, practical instruction, and invaluable information to the students of sacred history. These Epistles have been placed by the antient church in the order they stand in reference to the churches and individuals for whose benefit they were penned;

those to churches, the first in the series (with the exception of the one to the Hebrews) out of respect to whole congregations, and among those congregations the precedency was assigned to that of Rome, then the mistress of the world; the Epistle to the Corinthians has the next station, Corinth having been the capital of Greece; the one to the Galatians the third, because addressed to the several churches established among that people; the Epistle to the Ephesians immediately follows, Ephesus having been the capital of pro-consular Asia; that to the Philippians next, out of compliment to Rome, to which Philippi was a colony; and those to the Colossians and Thessalonians complete the number. The Epistles to Timothy stand first among those to individuals, from the circumstance of TIMOTHY having been of high rank, and the particular friend and disciple of the apostle; and the one to TITUS before that to PHILEMON, because TITUS was a preacher, and PHILEMON only a private person. The Epistle to the Hebrews, although always acknowledged as apostolical, was not at first attributed to ST. PAUL; but when the church was satisfied as to that fact, it was added to his inestimable writings; and, not to disturb the order in which the other Epistles had been placed, it was made of necessity the last in the series, instead of being placed before those to individuals, and in the pre-eminent station it otherwise would have been entitled to.