starvation and woe from the kingdom, we cannot but remember the day of St. Bartholomew. The 24th of August, 1572, and the 2d of September, 1792, though far apart in the records of time, are consecutive days in the government of God. Henry of Navarre, by stratagem, soon escaped from Paris, renounced the Catholicism which he had accepted from compulsion, and was accepted as the military leader of the Protestant party throughout Europe. The surviving Protestants rallied in self-defence, and implored aid from all the courts which had embraced the principles of the Reformation. England and Germany sent troops to their aid. Catholic Spain, the Netherlands, and Italy sent armies to assist the Papists. Again France was deluged in the woes of civil war, and years of unutterable misery darkened the real. Charles IX., as weak as he was depraved, became silent, morose, and gloomy. Secluding Limself from all society, month after month he was gnawed by the scorpion fangs of remorse. A bloody sweat, or zing from every pore, crimsoned his bedclothes. His aspect of misery drove all companionship from his chamber. He groaned and wept, exclaiming incessantly,"Oh, what blood! oh, what murders! Alas! why did I follow such evil counsels?" He saw continually the spectres of the slain with gastly wounds stalking about his bed; and demons, hideous and treatening, waited to grasp his soul. As the cathedral bell was tolling the hour of midnight on the 30th of May, 1574, his nurse heard him convulsively weeping. Gently she drew aside the bed-curtains. The dying monarch turned his dim and despairing eye upon her, and exclaimed, "O my nurse, my nurse! what blood have I shed! what murders have I committed! Great God, pardon me, pardon me!" A convulsive shuddering for a moment agitated his frame: bis head fell upon his pillow, and the wretched man was dead. e was then but twenty-four years of age. He expressed satisfaction that he left no heir to live and suffer in a world so full of misery. The order of knighthocd deserves recori, as one of the out growths of Christianity. This institution, originating in the eleventh century, was continued through several hundred years as one of the most potent of earthly influences. Guizot, speaking of its origin, says,— "It was at this period when in the laic world was created and developed the most splendid fact of the middle ages,knighthood, that noble soaring of imaginations and souls towards the ideal of Christian virtue and soldierly honor. It is impossible to trace in detail the origin and history of that grand fact, which was so prominent in the days to which it belonged, and which is so prominent still in the memories of men; but a clear notion ought to be obtained of its moral character, and of its practical worth.”1 The young candidate for knighthood was first placed in a bath, the symbol of moral and material purification. After having undergone a very thorough ablution, he was dressed in a white tunic, a red robe, and a close-fitting black coat. The tunic was the emblem of purity; the red robe, of the blood he was bound to shed in the service of his order; and the black coat was a reminder of death, to which he, as well as all others, was doomed. Thus purified and clothed, the candidate underwent a rigid fast for twenty-four hours. then, it being evening, entered a church, usually accompanied by a clergyman, and passed the whole night in prayer. He The next morning, after a full confession of his sins, he received from the father-confessor the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. A sermon was then preached to him directly, usually in the presence of a large assembly, enforcing the duties of the new life of knighthood upon which he was about to enter. The candidate then approached the altar with a sword suspended at his side. The officiating priest took the sword, implored God's blessing upon it, and returned it to the young man. The young knight then kneeled before his sovereign, or the lord of high degree, who was to initiate him into the honors of knighthood; and the following questions were proposed to him :— 1 The History of France, M. Guizot, vol. 1, p. 530. "Why do you purpose to become a knight? If it be that you may become rich, or to take your ease, or to acquire honor, without peforming deeds worthy of renown, you are unworthy of the sacred order." The young man replies, "I desire to acquit myself honorably of all the noble deeds of knighthood, without regard to wealth or ease." A number of beautiful ladies then approached the candidate : and one buckled upon his feet the spurs; another girded around his chest the coat of mail; a third placed upon his breast the cuirass; a fourth brought the highly-polished and glittering helmet; while a fifth presented him the armlets and gauntlets. Thus clothed by the fair hands of ladies, he again kneeled at the altar; and his sovereign, or the officiating lord, supported by a splendid retinue of veteran knights, approached him, and, giving him three slight blows with the flat of the sword, said, "In the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee knight. Be valiant, bold, and true." The young man, thus arrayed as a knight, went from the church, and mounted a magnificent horse held by a groom. Brandishing both sword and lance, he displayed to the assembled multitude the wonderful feats of horsemanship to which he had been trained. Such was, in brief, the ceremony in the admission of knights. It will be seen that the religious element entered largely into its spirit. Indeed, the knight took a solemn oath to serve God religiously, and to die a thousand deaths rather than ever renounce Christianity. A poet of the fourteenth century, in verses upon the character and duties of knighthood, in the following lines shows us what was then understood to be the true elevation of knighthood: "Amend your lives, ye who would fain This institution, which manifestly sprang from Christianity, exerted a powerful influence, amid the anarchy and barbarism of the middle ages, in rectifying disorders, and in protecting the weak against the strong. CHAPTER XXIV. THE CHURCH IN MODERN TIMES. Character of Henry III.-Assassination of the Duke of Guise.-Cruel Ediots of Louis XIV. - Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.-Suneringe of Protestants.-Important Question.—Thomas Chalmers.- Experiment at St. John. - His Labors and Death.-Jonathan Edwards. His Resolutions. — His Marriage. His Trials. - His Death. -John Wesley.-His Conversion.— George Whitefield. - First Methodist Conference.-Death of Wesley. - Robert Hall. His Character and Death. William Paley.- His Works and Death. The Sabbath. - Power of the Gospel. - Socrates.-Scene on the Prairie. The Bible. HE seventeenth century opened with almost universal corruption, outside of the limited circle of the true disciples of Jesus Christ. The moral and political world presented the aspect of a raging sea darkened by storm-clouds, with the waves dashing upon every shore. The utmost profligacy of manners prevailed generally in courts; while the masses of the people were ignorant and degraded. The Papal Church, which had degenerated into a owering organization of worldly ambition, had become corrupt almost beyond the power of the pen to describe. Henry III. had succeeded his miserable brother, Charles IX., upon the throne of France. While Duke of Anjou, he had distinguished himself by his alignant hostility to the Protestants, or Huguenots as they were there called. He was as weak as he was wicked, and never hesitated to employ the dagger of the assassin to rid himself of those he feared. |