BOOKS WRITTEN IN PRISONS. which a narrow mind feels toward an intellectual superior, and sent him to the scaffold. The other great man whose name we have coupled with Raleigh was the Spanish novelist, Cervantes, the author of the world-renowned "Don Quixote.' He was first a student, then chamberlain to a cardinal, and then a soldier. He was thrice wounded at the battle of Lepanto, was taken prisoner by the corsairs, kept five years in captivity, and ransomed by his friends. Returning to Spain, he married, entered upon civil employments, traversed wide regions of his native country, and watched well the habits and peculiarities of his countrymen. Monetary embarrassments, rather than political or religious discord, threw him more than once into prison, but his imprisonment was a great thing for the world, since it was occupied by the planning and commencement of "Don Quixote." Open the portals wide; let us admit the greatest prison writer of the second half of the seventeenth century, John Bunyan, tinker, preacher, and author of a religious allegory, which is said to have been translated into a greater number of languages than any other book in the world, with two exceptions, the Bible, and the "Imitation of Christ." He was thrown into Bedford jail because he would not renounce dissent, and there he supported himself for twelve years by making tagged boot laces. He wrote many controversial tracts, preached to his fellow prisoners, and read to them the Bible and "Fox's Book of Martyrs." It was a fine answer that he gave to the clerk of the peace, who advised him to gain his liberty by recanting: "Sir, the law hath provided two ways of obeying the one, to do that which I in my conscience believe I am bound to do actively; and when I cannot by activity, then I am willing to lie down and suffer whatever they shall do unto me." And it showed a vein of humour in his character when he replied to a Quaker who had come to visit him, and who declared that the Lord had ordered him to search for the Bunyan in half the prisons in England: "If the Lord had sent you, you need not have taken so much trouble to find me out; for the Lord knows I have been a prisoner in Bedford jail for the last twelve years." He wrote the first part of the "Pilgrim's Progress" while in prison, a fact that ought to endear his imprisonment to us. POETRY. Poetry. HEAVIER THE CROSS. HEAVIER the cross, the nearer heaven; Whom God had sent beneath the cross. The Christian is by trouble tried. When men have pressed the clustered fruit; If sky and wind were always fair, The sailor would not watch the star: Heavier the cross, the more aspiring; The pilgrim, of the desert tiring, The dove has here no rest in sight, The cross sublimely lifts our faith That faith, hope, love, may flourish there, -From the German. ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Anecdotes and Selections. No GOD.-He dreamed that he was in the parish church, and that he saw the dead leave their graves and gather about him. "The shadows stood congregated near the altar; and in all the breast throbbed and trembled in place of a heart. One, which had just been buried in the church, lay still upon its pillow, and its breast heaved not, while upon its smiling countenance lay a happy dream; but on the entrance of one of the living, he awoke, and smiled no more. A lofty, noble form, having the expression of a never-ending sorrow, now sank down upon the altar, and all the dead exclaimed, Christ, is there no God?' And he answered, 'There is none!' I traversed the worlds, I ascended into the suns, and flew with the milkyways through the wilderness of the heavens, but there is no God! I descended as far as being throws its shadow, and gazed down into the abyss, and cried aloud, 'Father, where art Thou?' but I heard nothing but the eternal storm which no one rules; and when I looked up to the immeasurable void for the divine eye, it glared upon me from an empty, bottomless socket, and eternity lay brooding upon chaos. Then there arose and came into the temple the dead children who had awakened in the churchyard; and they cast themselves before the lofty form on the altar, and said, 'Jesus, have we no Father ?' And He answered with streaming eyes,' We are all orphans, I and you; we are without a Father.' And as I fell down and gazed into the gleaming fabric of worlds, I beheld the raised rings of the giant serpent of eternity, and she enfolded the universe doubly. Then she wound herself in a thousand folds around nature, and crushed the worlds together; and all became narrow, dark, and fearful, and a bell-hammer, stretched out to infinity, was about to strike the last hour of time, and split the universe asunder, when I awoke. My soul wept for joy that it could again worship God; and the joy, and the tears, and the belief in Him were the prayer. And when I arose, the sun gleamed deeply behind the full, purple ears of corn, and peacefully threw the reflection of its evening blushes on the little moon, which was rising in the east without an aurora. And between the heaven and the earth a glad, fleeting world stretched out its short wings, and lived, like myself, in the presence of the Infinite Father; and from all nature round me flowed sweet, peaceful tones as from evening bells."-Jean Paul Richter. LOVE TO CHRIST.-You may love, you may pity, you may help one of Christ's little ones without having Him before your thoughts, just as you may admire a broken sunbeam without thinking of the crb of light; nay, more, the further He and the relationship are for the moment out of sight, the more purely and entirely the sympathy and aid springs ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. spontaneously from seeing, and admiring, and loving in a suffering brother the meekness and the gentleness, the patience and the devout submission which the Christian faith inspires, the clearer and less doubtful the evidence that the same faith dwells in your own bosom, working there like results. The charity which flows unbidden from the inwrought kindredship of disposition, by which all true followers of the Lamb are characterized, waiting not, when it sees a suffering brother, to make the inference that his belonging to Christ confers upon him a title to relief-springs not from any anticipations of reward. It flows at once out of that love to Christ, supreme, predominant, which has taken possession of the heart. And hence the explanation of the answer which the righteous are represented as making to the declaration of the Judge, the simple, natural utterance of humility and surprise: "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered and fed Thee? or thirsty and gave Thee drink? when saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in? or naked and clothed Thee? or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came to Thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, ye did it unto me."-Hanna. DECISION FOR CHRIST.-After the disgraceful defeat of the Romans, at the battle of Allia, Rome was sacked, and it seemed as if at any moment the Gauls might take the capitol. Among the garrison was a young man of the Fabian family, and on a certain day the anniversary of a sacrifice returned, when his family had always offered sacrifice upon the Quirinal Hill. This hill was in the possession of the Gauls; but when the morning dawned, the young man took the sacred utensils of his god, went down from the capitol, passed through the Gallic sentries, through the main body, up the hill, offered sacrifice, and came back unharmed. It was always told as a wonder among the Roman legends. This is just how the Christian should act, when decision for Christ is called for. Though he be a solitary man in the midst of a thousand opporents, let him, at the precise moment when duty calls, fearless of all danger, go straight to the appointed spot, do his duty, and remember that consequences belong to God, and not to us. I pray God that after this style we may witness for Christ. SCANDAL.-It is a curious reflection to make, but probably a just one, that scandal flourishes all the more because scandal-mongers receive no gain from their proceedings. Many other crimes are attended by personal gain; and what is gained often furnishes the means of detection and of punishment. If, by a merciful provision of nature, it was arranged that a portion of the character taken away by scandal should attach itself to those who invent or propagate the scandal, the world, like the birds in the fable, would be very ready to fly upon the scandal-mongers and deprive those daws of the plumes thus gained. But in the present state of affairs, these lovers and THE FIRESIDE. propagators of scandal do not gain the smallest shred of honour or reputation by their scandal-mongering, and consequently they feel much less shame and meet with much less reproof, as their evil sayings are attended by no personal advantage. It is only very nice and sensitive consciences that enable their owners to suffer remorse when they have heedlessly invented or furthered scandal.-Good Words. The Fireside. AN EXPERIMENT WEEK. A GREAT many things are at least worth trying for a day. Politeness, for instance, patience, good temper, neatness, gentleness, industry, charity, and so on. We often see a great deal written about these and other virtues, and between ourselves, I'll admit the repetition gets to be just a little tiresome now and then. The best of folks dislike to have one set of ideas constantly thrust at them. I do, that is, and you do. But if there was only some way, you say, to make such subjects really interesting, it would be a great deal pleasanter. I'll tell you what can be done. Let us, just as an experiment, give each of these fine qualities a fair trial for a day. Then if we find that all this talking about them is, in the main correct, if we find that they are really pleasant and profitable-if, in short, they "pay"-why, you see, we'll have found something worth holding on to. That's all. Would'nt it be fun to have a sort of experiment-week? On Monday, for instance, we'll be resolutely good-tempered all day long-every minute from waking until sleeping; on Tuesday, we'll be absolutely neat; on Wednesday, polite; on Thursday, industrious; on Friday, thoughtful; on Saturday, gentle; and on Sunday-there, we ought to have commenced with Sunday, ought we not! On Sunday so much that is good and sweet and holy comes to us, that it at least would make a better beginning day, would'nt it? Then again— Oh! I know! Let's begin to-day-whatever day it is-and whether Sunday comes at the beginning, or the end, or the middle, its blessed influence will help us, I know. You see, I have not once mentioned the highest reason of all for trying these experiments. I have a special motive for just giving these much-praised qualities a trial from simply commonplace motives. I know we'll find that the virtues will get mixed up, we'll find them running into each other on different days, in spite of us. But never mind that. In the course of our experiment, we may find this mixing up of the virtues to be one of its very greatest advantages. Who knows? Now, who'll begin an experiment week this very day? |