which thou receivest the seed, the eternal safety of thy spirit depends. Some are too haughty and arrogant to give the testimony of Jesus a proper place in the inward man. The conscience is benumbed, the heart obdurate, the will rebellious, the affections the ready servants of guilt, and Satan, by his insinuations, speedily effaces every vestige of sacredness from the mind. Some receive the Word with ecstasy and transport. In the midst of this transient glow of excitement, they seem bold and courageous; but in the season of peril and perplexity, their confidence vanishes, and their unbelief appears. Some embrace the Word with readiness, and for a season evince a desire to realise its power; but betimes the fascinations of the world resume their attractiveness, wealth unfolds its treasures, the anxieties of life are ascendant, and the soul is ensnared and unfruitful. And others receive the truth with meekness and docility. The heart is opened by the Spirit of God, the Word is lodged in the inward part, the dew of heaven descends, the seed sends forth the germ of a new life, and yields fruit to the glory of God. "When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.

This is

to

spect merely because he thought the thing opposed common sense, not because divine grace had taught him better things; but a circumstance happened soon after which produced a great effect on his own mind. One evening as he sat conversing with a party of friends after supper, one of them suddenly It seemed to Waldo as if fell down dead on the floor. the death of this man brought to him the message, "Be ye ready." He reflected on the shortness, the uncertainty of life, and began to inquire after the things of another world, where men must live for ever. Waldo then felt himself a sinner, and he knew not how to appease an uneasy conscience. Penances, almsgivings, and absolutions would not do: he did not find any to direct him aright. In this dilemma he thought of the Word of God, that word which is profitable for reproof, for example, for instruction in righteousness; but the Bible was scarcely known to the people, and had he not been a more learned man than in those days was commonly met with, he must probably have remained ignorant of it. Waldo, however, knew something of the Latin tongue; he obtained a New Testament in that language; he read it, and found in it the blessing and the peace he sought; he found he was indeed a sinner, but he found he had a Saviour, he discerned the love of God in sending his well-beloved Son to die for mankind, he felt the love of Christ in undertaking the redemption of a sinful race that could not save themselves, he saw how vain it was to think of other savi ours, to apply to other intercessors, when, by His one offering, He hath perfected for ever them that are sanc

THE HISTORY OF PETER WALDO. WALDO was a rich merchant of Lyons, a city of France, which, in the second century, was very eminent for Christianity, as it also was for the sufferings and death of its martyrs. But in the time of Waldo, Lyons was not what once in this respect it had been; it was sunk in the grossest superstition, and the people were utterly ignorant of divine truth, for the Scriptures were not allowed to be ever read by them. Though the doctrines of Christianity were sadly altered from those the early Christians taught from the Scriptures, still some very great errors were not then generally admitted into the religious creed of persons who belonged to the Roman Catholic Church; one of these was the doctrine of transubstantiation, or the belief that the bread and wine used in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper were really the body and blood of our Lord, and not merely symbols of that body and blood. But about the year 1160, the Pope and his ministers ordered every man to believe that they were actually converted into the wafer and the wine, and in consequence, people were obliged to fall down and worship the consecrated wafer as if it were God. The idea is very shocking, and appears very absurd; it appeared so to Waldo, who, though he was a member of the church whose rulers commanded this doctrine to be believed and this homage to be paid, was so struck by its impiety and unreasonableness, that he boldly opposed it, and freely declared what he thought both of the doctrine and the worship which was the consequence of believing it. Waldo was not at this time a truly religious man; he acted in this re

And having received this blessed knowledge, and this sweet store of holy comfort from the Sacred Scriptures, Waldo could not think of locking within his own breast the knowledge he had gained, and refusing to impart to others the blessings bestowed upon himself. This is ever the effect of divine grace, that it makes those who have received it willing to give, and glad to distribute, of the spiritual good so freely given unto them. Waldo having learned the value of the Sacred Scriptures, set about translating them, in order that he might be able to impart to others the glad things they contained. He then began to teach and preach; great crowds came to hear him; he explained the Scriptures, he taught the truth in simplicity, he set an example in his own life how Christians ought to walk and fear God, and he laboured to convince those who heard him that the religion which then prevailed was not the religion of the Bible, nor were the lives of men then at all like the lives of those who at first professed the doctrines of the Bible. You may easily conceive that such conduct would soon draw upon him the indignation of the Romish clergy. The Archbishop of Lyons was exceedingly irritated, and would have apprehended him; but Waldo had a large party in that place; he had formed a church there, and its members were so attached and faithful to him, that he lived concealed three whole years among them. But the Pope, Alexander III., heard at last of these transactions, and was very angry. He instantly excommunicated Waldo, and commanded the Archbishop to proceed against him and his followers with the utmost rigour. In consequence of this order Waldo was obliged to flee from Lyons, and his followers were all scattered about as sheep having no shepherd. Waldo himself was a wanderer from place to place, being persecuted from city to city, even as our Lord told his disciples they should be. At length he retired into a distant country where he died, after having laboured Wherever for twenty years in the work of his Lord. he went, he had preached the gospel; and as his scattered flock, like the disciples, when they were driven from Jerusalem by persecution, also went everywhere preaching the kingdom of God, the doctrines of the

Reader in judging of Sizzi's logic, beware of one inference, Sizzi was as sane as yourself!

The spirit as distinguished from the mere opinions of these times, will be tolerably apprehended by an expression of another astronomer, a young German, Martin Horky. "I will never," says he, "concede his four new planets to that Italian, though I die for it." Horky was very valorous, but the suspicion is, he would rather have made Galileo die for it. Nothing of this uproar disturbed the calm and even soul of the great Florentine, or bent him from the way of truth; and he simply replied to the vagaries of the thousand Sizzis, "That although these arguments might have force in inducing us to believe beforehand, that no more than seven planets existed; they were hardly sufficient to annihilate those new ones which were actually seen to exist.' The following is a letter written by him at that time, to a man after truth's own heart,-John Kepler: "Oh my beloved Kepler, how I wish that we could have one long laugh together! Here at Padua is the principal professor of philosophy, whom I have repeatedly and urgently requested to look at the Moon and planets through my telescope, which he pertinaciously refuses to do! Why, my dear Kepler, are you not here? What shouts of laughter we should have at all this solemn folly! And figure the Professor of Pisa labouring before the Grand Duke with logical arguments, as if with magical incantations, to charm the new planets out of the sky!" Galileo could well afford to laugh, for he knew that the telescope would become a common instrument, and that, on behalf of all his discoveries, the universal sense of mankind would soon be with him. Of course it has been so. Looking backwards to that time, the eye discerns much cloud and dust, the school-boy world sulking and noisily refusing to be taught. One figure alone is clear, standing indestructible, with his far-reaching tube-in a niche in the temple of Truth!

It was evident from the first what would befal Galileo. He was too near the centre of the power wielded by these metaphysico-theologians, to escape; and in those days there were no counterbalancing powers.

In the first place, the idea of the motion of the Earth was declared heretical at a formal and solemn meeting of the Sacred College; and Galileo, its most celebrated defender, was cited before the reverend tribunal, and asked to retract his theory. Firm and moderate although he was, the instincts of humanity at first prevailed, and he entered into an agreement, not again to demonstrate that the Earth moved. I verily believe, that the venerable astronomer-for then his head was

blanched, not by grief or care, but by effect of delightful watchings-I verily believe, that, trusting to the ultimate consequences of what he had already done, and nothing doubtful of the issue of truth, he meant to fulfil his promise! But as well might the old man have aimed to rule the whirlwind or chain the thunderbolt! The feeling of Truth,-the feeling that he was possessed of great discoveries, would have burst all the bonds within which he could possibly have compressed himself. Nature does not give a man a great secret that he may repose with it. Love of the heavens accordingly prevailed, and again Galileo taught the grandeur

There is a whimsical incident connected with Horky. He had been introduced to Galileo by Kepler; and like other creepers,

imagined that abuse of Galileo would please his patron. Finding himself grossly mistaken, he sought to be reconciled to Kepler to receive pardon. Kepler writes, that he had pardoned him, but not until he had compelled him to look through a telescope, and to confess that he saw Jupiter's satellites! The penance was indeed severe !

At the age of seventy, blind old Galileo was placed under restraint, because he had unravelled to man the beauty and simplicity of the order of the celestial spheres. No longer, then, could he trace and mark the motions of those pure orbs, but in thought they were the same to him still; and perchance that short period of sorrow called into more vivid action those energies and ethereal imaginings which are most suitable for a less troubled sphere.

During the confinement of Galileo, he had one visitor, whose fame is as enduring as his own. While on his travels through Italy, our Milton, under all risk of obloquy, sought out his residence, and held converse with the astronomer. It is clear they had talked of all things but misfortune; nor could Milton have wished otherwise, than that if ever his fates were untoward he might be like Galileo. And the wish had been prophetic! The days came when all around the illustrious bard-both moral and physical worlds—were dark, dark as the extinguished orb of noon! In that moral midnight, when birds of evil were screaming and screeching around him his heroic soul remembered of Galileo. The Florentine cheered his gloomy term, by visions of the bright stars, and the immortal poet by dwelling on those principles of justice, of beauty, and love, which guide the moral providence of the Almighty.

THE PARABLE OF THE FIG-TREE:

A DISCOURSE.

BY THE REV. JOHN PAUL,

One of the Ministers of St. Cuthbert's Parish, Edinburgh. "He spake also this parable: A certain man had a figtree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none," &c.-LUKE xiii. 6-10.

IN a former Discourse upon this subject, we directed attention to two different heads of instruction, suggested by the parable before us, and we now proceed to remark,

III. That when men fail to make suitable returns for the privileges bestowed upon them, this is such an aggravation of their guilt, that sentence of condemnation is ready to go forth against them.

This is plainly declared to us at the conclusion of the sixth verse, where it is said of the owner of the vineyard, when he came seeking fruit, that he found none; and in consequence of that, said to the dresser of it, "Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" A severe sentence, no doubt; but not too severe when we consider not only the criminal, but also the highly aggravated conduct which calls it forth. The heinousness of that conduct is here set before us in a double point of view.

1. The proprietor of the fig-tree is here repre

sented to have come three separate years seeking fruit, and finding none.

How far the allusion here made may have a reference to the three eras in the Jewish history, when God, in a manner, came to the Jews at one period of time before the captivity, at another subsequent to it, and at another by the preaching of John the Baptist and of Christ himself, or to the three years of our Saviour's personal ministry which were just expiring, or to the nature of fig-trees themselves, which, it is alleged, if they disappoint the expectations of the planter three years together, after the time at which they should have at first yielded fruit, may justly be rooted out, and looked upon as for ever barren, is a matter of pure curiosity, but of no consequence. The circumstance itself denotes, in the most striking manner, the long-suffering patience of God. This patience long endures and attends upon men ere any determination to punish them is taken up. God does not upon the first symptoms of provocation, proceed to the execution of his wrath. No. But he waiteth to be gracious. He gives to them all space to repent. He earnestly invites them to return to him. He swears that he is not desirous of their destruction. He inculcates the truth, that he is ready to forgive them; that he delighteth to show mercy; that he opens the arms of a reconciling affection to prodigals that will return; and that unable though they be either to count the number, or to set forth the value of the mercies they have already received, yet that he is still willing to multiply their mercies, if they thereby may be reclaimed. No doubt he does take account of the days of his forbearance; yet fury is not in God, and we perhaps say enough in proof of his forbearance, when we say, that though he is not obliged to spare them at all, he yet abstains from punishing them in the very act of sin; that though they give to him daily occasion for the very extremity of his displeasure, for acts of his highest and most signal vengeance, yet he makes only here and there examples of his sore justice, and endures the affronts of those whom he sustains, and raises them up when he might utterly ruin them.

He expects from his people an improvement corresponding to the opportunities which they enjoy, and in this prospect he waits patiently toward them all. The Jews experienced this. We also have experienced it; and notwithstanding that he has often come seeking fruit, and found none; notwithstanding that he has often found us, instead of trading with our talents, and multiplying them by a profitable employment, absorbed in secular or sensual gratifications, and supposing that, because we have not been already cut off, our unprofitableness will always meet with a like successful impunity, has hoped for our reformation nevertheless, and spared us in the view of our amendment. And this it is which enhances the guilt of those who receive God's gifts in vain, namely, that he has already so long borne with them. Atrocious, indeed, is their conduct, who not only frustrate the grace of God, but despise

the riches of his long-suffering, after these riches have been expended upon them, and derive encouragement for their sloth even from the very forbearance which has been so long exercised toward them. My brethren, God's Spirit strives with us, but he will not always strive with us. He will maintain the honour and the interest of his goodness. He will not, he cannot, endure men always to scoff at it; and he will convince them at last, and make even their mouths to justify it, that the more they have been accustomed either to presume upon or to despise his patience, the greater have been the loads of their guilt, and the deeper are now their obligations to his vengeance.

2. But there is a second circumstance of aggravation here mentioned, as warranting the severe sentence that is ready to be put forth. The figtree is represented not only as unfruitful, but also as positively hurtful, as the occasion of injury to the trees that were around it. It cumbereth the ground; it occupies what might be taken up with trees that would grow, and extend, and gather strength, and render their fruit in due season. This was unquestionably the case in respect of the Jews, who, besides turning to no account their own spiritual privileges, occasioned no small injury to the spiritual improvement of others. And in general, we may observe, that when men under the Gospel are equally negligent, offering no return for the concern that has been lavished on them, besides being unprofitable themselves, they often lower the quality, and abridge the measure of fruitfulness in other men. And this is chiefly owing to the influence which they may naturally enough have acquired in society. Besides, being of a contagious nature, their conduct sets forth a dangerous example, and more or less tends to obstruct the personal improvement of those who observe it. And what aggravated wickedness is included in this! Upon such, there is some ground to fear that judgment is already preparing to fall. For, only but observe the alarming charge that in the parable is given respecting the tree: "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" Of the execution of this, we have a signal monument in the destruction of the Jews as a nation and people; in the desolation of their city and temple, together with all the calamities that were consequent on it. And what happened in their case is but too accurate a picture of what shall be the doom of those men whom God has favoured with endowments demanding a corresponding improvement of them, and yet who not only fail themselves to produce fruit, but infuse the poison of their example into others, who would have borne and brought it forth. Oh! that all of us, ashamed of our past unfruitfulness, would no | longer remain unmoved at those dismal effects of which such conduct will be productive; that, instead of remaining heedless in our unprofitableness, we would remember that we are one day to be overtaken with sickness, and stretched on the bed of death, and appear before the judgment-seat of Him under whose government we now are; that