on the sacred mysteries; he could not enter individuals committed to his charge; he thus where the priests ministered to the Lord, knows his people, and they know him; and and still less could he lift up the veil that if he carries on this important part of his concealed the Holy of Holies. In that inmost work in a right spirit,—in a manner calcurecess of the sacred edifice, the glory of the lated to win the affections of his flock,—a Lord rested, the Shekinah mysteriously tie will be formed between minister and hovering over the mercy-seat. No Baby- people, which, with God's blessing, will prove lonish eyes could see that transcendent an effectual mean for promoting the growth manifestation, compared with which the most in grace of those among whom Providence brilliant of diamonds and precious stones were has placed him. He can offer instruction, dim indeed. Let Hezekiah think of this, counsel, consolation and warning individually, and he may know that Babylon has no glory where each are respectively needed; whereas, which may compare with the city of the mere pulpit ministrations, apart from pastoral Lord. But he descends from his vantage-week-day labours, can only be made use of ground; he would contend in the "things of the world;" he little thinks that ere long his costliest treasures will be but as an additional trophy among the spoils of nations gathered in the Chaldæan capital. Oh, with what emphasis does St. John cry, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. The world passeth away and the lust thereof." And what does the Christian become who turns back to these beggarly elements; who forgets the Shekinah, and glories amid the treasures of the palace. Oh, let him beware lest he abandon the simplicity that is in Christ. True it is, the ambassadors pass and repass between the city of destruction and the city of God. But let the citizen of the latter take good heed to his true relation with that of the former. If he throw off his armour he is vanquished. If he contend in worldly things, and on worldly principles, he is the loser. Let him boast with the men of Babylon of his riches, or his talents, or whatever be his worldly advantages, and Babylon will be found to have more able champions than he. And when the followers of pure Christianity are in presence of the mystic Babylon; let it be remembered on which side abound the silver and the gold, the spices and the precious ointment, lest in these things an emulation be attempted, whilst on the other side, if there be no more than the word of God's testimony, that is enough, for it will abide whilst the smoke of Babylon's torment ascends for ever. STROLLS THROUGH A PARISH. MIXING with his people during the week, is by no means the least interesting part of a clergyman's duty. Opportunity is afforded him for becoming personally acquainted with the characters and habits of the families and generally. His influence will be increased tenfold, and affection will glow in the hearts of those among whom he ministers, which would never be the case if he was only seen by his flock in the pulpit, no matter how admirable, sound and practical his addresses might be. Let us take a stroll with our kind friend, the Rector of D, and so become acquainted with some of his parishioners. According to his usual practice, he has vacated his study exactly at two o'clock, and he means to make a few calls between now and dinner time, which we believe is to be five o'clock precisely. A very punctual, regular, clock-work sort of a man, is the Rector of D! And a very punctual, clock-work sort of a parish too, is the parish of D Not that it was always so. By no means. When first the present Rector arrived, the whole parish was just half-anhour late; nothing took place at the time it ought to have taken place. If Farmer A. had been told to meet Farmer B. at ten o'clock in the morning, he knew perfectly well that if he kept his appointment just half-an-hour late, he would be in excellent time. else. And so it was through everything Funerals were late, people came late into church, children came late into school, people came late to be married, everything was late! But our good friend the Rector did wonders to remedy the evil; and so quickly too! He talked to them so kindly, and plainly, and simply of the folly and inconvenience of never being in time, that even Bob Green, the cobbler (the most unpunctual man in the parish), declared, that "No one could choose but hearken to the minister, he spoke so sensible-like." It is a positive fact, that this important personage sent home their new shoes to his customers on the very day on which he had promised to do so; this was a great reformation! Here we are, then, setting forth on a round of visits with the punctual Rector of the punctual parish of D We stop at the door of a very small habitation, and the Rector knocks gently. "Who's that?" cries a sharp little voice from the interior of the house. The Rector smiles, and knocks again without answering. "Who's that? can't y' answer whoever y' are, and not have me plagued with opening the door!" The Rector opens the door and enters. “Eh, dear heart alive, its the minister! I beg your pardon, Sir, I'm sure, a hundred times. I thought it was a neebour!" 66 Well, Betty, and how are you to-day? Better?" "Better, thank the Lord, Sir, a very deal better. I've pain enough in my old back sometimes to make me skriek out loud; but what's that compared with others. An old woman like me,-past eighty,-sure I'm wonnerful hearty, I am!” "You are, Betty, indeed, and well I know you have a thankful spirit; but I think the greatest, part of your thankfulness is not given to God for your heartiness, is it?” 66 “O, no, no, Sir, no!" said the old woman, changing her tone of voice and looking upward, while a cheerful smile played upon her little wizen face. "If that was all I had to be thankful for, there would be a cold, cheerless prospect for Betty Gibson to look forward too. There's the place, Sir," (pointing to the sky through her little window,)" that I'm thankful for, and eh, dear! how'd I ever get there if my Lord Jesus had not come and died for poor siuful me? Oh, thanks be to him who has loved and given himself for me, thanks be to him!" "Old age will not be felt there, Betty. You'll have no pain in your back there,-no infirmities, no weaknesses,-no trials. There you shall have your strength 'renewed as the eagles; there you will see, who will you see, Betty?" money, and if you send to the Rectory, you will get a little packet of tea and sugar, a present from Miss Emma." "Thank you, Sir, thank you, and may God reward you and yours for your kindness to a poor old woman. Poor did I say? why, 'I have all and abound,"" said the aged creature, ushering her guests from her little room with a pleasant, joyful laugh, and then parting from them with a blessing on her lips. "That," said the Rector, as we left the cottage, "is always a house of refreshment to me. Such a thankful, happy-spirited old woman as she is! Two shillings a-week and a small portion of the sacramental money, is all the certain income she has, and yet you heard her say from her heart, I have all and abound.' By way of contrast we will look in here, en passant.” We entered the house of another old woman, who, although she appeared to be in somewhat better circumstances than Betty Gibson, was of a very different spirit. "Good morning, Sally; I hope you are well to-day." "No, Sir, I'm as I always am, weak and bad; no one knows what I suffer, and I've no one that cares whether I'm well or ill. It's nothing but cough, cough, all the day long, and I get no rest at nights, and I've hardly enough to keep body and soul together, and the pain in my head distracts me, and my joints are so stiff that I can hardly get across the room, and "O Sally, Sally," said the Rector in a pleasant voice; "cheer up, my friend, cheer up! Don't be so fond of looking on the dark side of things. I don't doubt that you have troubles and trials "Ay, that have I, plenty of 'em." "Yes! and can't you remember any mercies you have received as well?” Sally shook her head gloomily. "Come, I must refresh your memory for you. You have very tolerable health compared with poor Ellen Hackett, who has been bedridden for seven years. You have a shilling a-week more from the parish than Betty Gibson, besides getting help now and then from your son. You have a goodnatured little grandchild, who does every thing you bid her, although you are very cross to her sometimes. You are at this moment enjoying a cup of good tea, and some nice bread and butter. I see a very comfortable bed in the corner over there. You have a capital thick, warm, flannel petticoat, given to you at Christmas; and your house is allowed you rent free. O Sally, too often, moreover, excused and indulged Sally, don't make much of your trials, and think little of your blessings. Count up your mercies instead of your grievances; and you will find that if you spent all the day in thanking God, you couldn't thank him half enough for all that he has done for you. And, Sally, remember that there was One opinion of ourselves than we deserve, and who bore a weight of woe, to which your trials are as nothing. He bore all patiently. 'He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.' While on earth, although the 'foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,' he 'had not where to lay his head.' Think that he suffered all for your sake, and my sake; and then, instead of murmuring and fretting because you have some few troubles attendant upon old age, rather let your heart be raised up in praise, and say with David, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." " then we neglect to examine ourselves. While cheerfully ready to extract the mote from our brother's eye, we never think of the beam in our own eye. When the discipline of the rod comes, our behaviour under it is often the reverse of what it ought to be. When we ought to kiss the instrument of chastisement, we try to dash it from us with a rebellious hand. As a remedy for this, the grace of God must be earnestly sought. Philip Henry used to say to his family, 'My dear children, the grace of God will make a little go a great way.' The enjoyment of every outward comfort depends much upon the state of our minds; in the true child of God this state of mind will be thankful, tranquil, and happy, and whatsoever his circumstances, he will exclaim with poor old Betty Gibson, and with an inspired Apostle, 'I have all and abound. " FRANCIS XAVIER. "Very true, Sally, and the Book says something more, for it tells parents not to 'provoke their children to wrath.' Now, I heard you speaking in a very passionate, provoking way to John the other day. I don't want to excuse him, but there are faults on both sides. If I speak a word to John on this matter, quite from myself, will you pray to God to keep you from losing your temper, and from speaking so harshly and sharply?graphers have been exclusively of that comYou know very well, Sally, that I am saying all this to you because I wish you well." Yes, Sir, I know that, and thank you; and indeed I will try and be more gentle, and more thankful to God." "Remember that verse, Sally, 'Without me, ye can do nothing; and now good-bye for to-day." 66 Good-bye, Sir-thank you for calling." "Poor old creature," said the Rector as we walked along, "she is always putting herself to imaginary torture on visionary racks! She is far better off than many others of her sort, and yet is always complaining. She is not singular in this; among high and low, rich and poor, I have frequently found persons of a like disposition; perpetually crushing themselves under imaginary burdens, and when they have abundance of wholesome manna are still lusting after quails. Nor is this spirit of murmuring confined to people of the world; it is, alas! too often found in the children of God, and THERE is some difficulty in presenting to Protestant readers the life of any member of the Roman Catholic church, when his bio munion, especially when the object in view is to suggest materials of wholesome thought, and to hold up an example of Christian devotedness. The writers to whom we allude have aimed too exclusively at the exaltation of their church, and in so doing, have not hesitated to put forward claims which we must pronounce wholly inadmissible, aud which give a hue of falsehood to their entire narratives. When a Jesuit saint is the subject of biography, and Jesuit writers wield the pen, these elements of error are multiplied with the greatest effrontery. Miracles meet us at every turn, which are vastly more wonderful than those recorded in the Gospels; souls are converted in numbers far exceeding those which were the fruits of Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost. On the other hand, the means alleged to have been employed, are, in our view, utterly inadequate to such effects; and we are left to the conclusion, that so far as these biographers are concerned, they only tend to mystify or sup press all that was real, true, and good, in the men whose lives they pretend to exhibit. Such has been the misfortune of Francis Xavier, a man in whom we might find much to admire and imitate, if only his officious friends had left him to tell his own tale to posterity. He was born on the 7th of April, 1506, in the castle of his ancestors, near the Pyrenees. He was of good family, and his father, Don John de Jasso, was counsellor of state to John III., king of Navarre. Francis was the youngest of several sons and daughters. The elder brothers, most of them, followed the profession of arms; but learning was from the first the chosen pursuit of the future Apostle of the Indies," Until the age of eighteen, his education was carried on within sight of the ancestral towers; but he was now sent to meet the choice spirits of his time, at that great centre of arts, science, and literature, the capital of France, where, at the | college of Sainte-Barbe, in the famed university, he prosecuted his studies with diligence and success, graduated as Master of Arts, and was at length chosen to give instructions in philosophy at Beauvais. Whilst studying at Paris, he came in contact with the man whose singular influence was to be the pole-star for good or evil of his whole life. Ignatius de Loyola, the fanatical founder of the order of Jesuits, is said to have occupied a bed in the same apartment. The same circumstances made him acquainted with Faber, Lainez, Bobadilla, and Rodriguez, the earliest and most devoted of Loyola's adherents. Among these, Faber was the one selected as the object of Xavier's warmest affection. Of very different rank, for he was an humble Savoyard, he seems to have resembled his college companion in simplicity of mind and fervour of zeal. He had been led by youthful impulse to place himself under the superintendence of the Jesuit-chief; and being induced to submit to his prescribed discipline, was completely drawn into the meshes of that system, which at that time was only in its infancy, but has since proved itself the most elaborate net for the souls and consciences of men, that crafty ingenuity ever devised. Francis Xavier was not equally eager with his friend Faber to surrender body, soul, and spirit to this self-constituted despot. Robust in person, handsome, accomplished, and covered with academic honours, his prospects presented a wider field to his youthful imagination than was likely to be hastily abandoned in favour of the proposals made to him by Loyola. The latter, however, was one who knew too well the importance of engaging for his new society the talents and zeal of the youthful and noble Spaniard, not to persevere in his efforts till every scruple was suppressed. The little band of students, which we have enumerated, at length took the vows imposed upon them by their spiritual master, August 15th, 1534. It was in a sepulchral chapel, or crypt, of the church of Montmartre, that they assembled. The day chosen coincided with the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin. One of the company, Faber, had taken priest's orders, and from his hands the rest received the holy sacrament, after which, and under the direction of Loyola, they bound themselves by a solemn oath to a profession of poverty, to a renunciation of all worldly ties, and absolute devotion to the service of God. It was arranged that they should meet three years later, occupying the interval with certain probationary discipline prescribed by Loyola himself, as essential to the members of the new Society. At Venice, in due time, they met, and the vows were renewed in that more stringent form which has ever since been adopted in the Society, and which gives to the Jesuit an isolation from mankind, with a state of bondage, mental and spiritual, to his superior, and makes him a ready instrument for compassing the designs of an unscrupulous hierarchy. Xavier was not idle in the crowded and voluptuous city where the fathers were now assembled; he devoted himself to the most laborious and humiliating duties at the Hospital for Incurables, where he attracted attention by his severe austerities. At this time, Paul III. was pope, and at his command the Jesuit father was summoned to Rome, where he was appointed to preach in one of the churches. He was not, however, destined to remain for any considerable period in Europe, or in immediate connection with Ignatius. Jesuitism has notoriously been able to turn to account all phases of human character. Earnest devotion and simplicity of faith had already manifested themselves in Xavier, but these qualities were not exactly wanted in Europe, although they might be made available to the Society, by shedding on it the lustre of zeal and sanctity from a distance. John III. of Portugal was at this epoch anxious to send active priests to his Indian possessions, and applied with that design in view to Ignatius. Xavier was the man best adapted to the purpose, and the Jesuit General at once despatched him on this mission to the heathen, giving him in such a work, as the former would find an as a brief charge at parting, "Go, set all amount of Mariolatry and legalism which he on fire, and make it burn with love divine." would not desire to promulgate; the latter In the year 1541, Xavier set sail from would discern more approach to Gospel light Europe, to which he never returned, and and too little clinging to the dogmas of the arrived safely at Goa, one of the chief towns church, altogether to satisfy his prejudices. in the Portuguese Indian settlements. Subse- Xavier will continue to be misunderstood, quently to this period of the history we can save that the few who are at the pains to derive but little real assistance from the read his Latin Epistles in some edition of two Romish biographers. If he was the faithful centuries and a half old, will surmise that he and devoted missionary that we believe him was more Christian than Jesuit, and though to have been; if in spite of the network of he never discerned the full force of our Lord's superstition which his early education, and explanation of the parable of the sower, "The still more the "spiritual exercises" of Loyola, field is the world, the seed is the Word of had entwined around his soul, he was able God," he was made an instrument of good, to rise above the darkness, and lead to and at least spread the Christian name, and Christ the poor idolatrous heathen among with it Christian civilization, among thousands whom he laboured, without hope of any of the heathens. We say that he had not other reward than was allotted to him in arrived at the belief that the simple word of the rescue of souls from death, we have a the Lord, as revealed in Scripture, is the great real saint to deal with. Such a reputation instrument. It is soon after he has engaged was transmitted to Europe of the Indian in the work of teaching the natives, that he apostle, but these writers were acquainted describes his method in the following terms: with the term in a Romish sense, and in that character must they emblazon him to the world. Hence their inventive fancy was placed in requisition, and with the most unblushing effrontery they ascribed miracles in magnitude and number sufficient to constitute him a second Thaumaturgus. The Jesuit Bouhours was one of the chief of these unscrupulous panegyrists, or, as we may say, bitter satirists of his own church, implying as he did that no candidate could be introduced into its hagiology but by virtue of a saintship, that differed from the holiness and truth of God's own people, as much as the tinsel royalty of the vulgar stage does from that of Alfred or Peter the Great. The true mirror of Xavier's character is to be found in his Letters, an edition of which was published in the original Latin a few years after his death, and which we may believe to be genuine. In these, we have no miraculous claims, unless it be an occasional illustration of the power of prayer in seconding the efforts of medical skill. Difficulties in the work of evangelization are freely acknowledged as such, the darkened and depraved heart of the Hindoo or Brahmin is described with a fidelity which reminds us of Martyn or Duff, ministerial help is constantly craved, and the means employed in turning men to God are not miraculous but such as a missionary would naturally resort to. We do not discover that these Letters have been translated. It would scarcely suit the purpose of Protestant or Romanist to engage "Wherefore, as we did not understand each other sufficiently, since they spoke the Malabar dialect, and I the Spanish of Biscay, I collected together the cleverest of them, whom I knew to understand both languages. After spending many days together, at last, with great labour, they transfused into the language of the people certain pious prayers-the sign of the cross, the declaration of the Trinity, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, the Salve Regina, and the Confiteor." It appears that he laboured most diligently in making his catechumens commit these to memory. The Commandments were explained one by one, the Creed was rigorously analyzed. He admonished them that to be a Christian was nothing but to believe the articles with a firm and immoveable faith; he taught them to pray to Jesus and to the Virgin for grace to believe; and when he had brought them to avow a faith in these articles, and openly to abandon their idolatries, he baptized them as “sufficiently tried." It is to be feared that, by such means, he built more "hay and stubble" into the spiritual house than "gold, silver, and precious stones;" and of such materials a great part of the work subsequently proved to be, when the day of trial declared it, and the fire tried the work of what sort it was. We are reminded more of Protestant missionary experience when he describes an interview with two hundred Brahmins, who were assembled in one of their temples. He expounded the Commandments to them, and |