live to see its completion. His successor finished the work, and the cathedral was consecrated in the year one thousand and ninety-two. The day after it was opened for public worship, the spire was struck by lightning and destroyed. Bishop Roger greatly adorned the cathedral, and improved the city. King Stephen became apprehensive that the bishop had some traitorous designs, and therefore seized the bishops' castles. Sarum was afterwards placed under the government of laymen appointed by the king, and frequent disputes arose between the clergy and the military One of the governors of Sarum was William Long-Sword, son of Fair Rosamond, who married the Countess of Salisbury.

Peter

In consequence of the contentions which arose in Sarum between the military and the clergy, the latter resolved to remove their cathedral, and to found the new city of Salisbury. Some writers say that Old Sarum was deserted in consequence of its being badly supplied with water. But Leland says, Sarum had many wells of sweet water, and the Avon ran within half a mile to the west. Blessen, archdeacon of London, in the year 1160, exhorted the clergy of Old Sarum to remove their cathedral in the following words" Old Sarum is a place exposed to the wind, barren, dry, and solitary; a tower is there, as in Siloam, by which the inhabitants have for a long time been enslaved; let us, therefore, in God's name, go down into the level, where the valleys will yield plenty of corn, and the fields are of a rich soil."

About sixty years after this exhortation was given, the Pope granted a bull for the erection of a new cathedral. Soon after the building was commenced, and in the year 1225, the new church, at New Sarum, was opened. New Sarum is now called the city of Salisbury.

New Sarum is only about one mile southward from Old Sarum. After the erection of the new cathedral, Old Sarum began to decay; its inhabitants flocked to the new city. The cathedral and many other buildings of Old Sarum were pulled down, and the materials employed in erecting New Sarum.

Very little of Old Sarum now remains. Where the cathedral and other buildings stood is covered with grass. The castle of Old Sarum and the surrounding lands have belonged to various families. In the manor-house, the celebrated Earl of Chatham was born. The property was possessed by the Pitt family about one hundred years. Until the passing of the Reform Bill, in 1832, Old Sarum returned two members to Parliament.

The locality of Old Sarum is in the county of Wiltshire, about eighty miles distant from London. The city stood on a hill, having three rings of rising ground. The castle and cathedral stood within the topmost ring. The largest ring was a mile and a half in circumference. Where once there stood numerous houses, walls, gates, towers, and a busy population, the ground is under tillage; the hill of Old Sarum remains, but the numerous erections which formerly stood thereon have perished.

In the year 1834 the summer was very dry, and the grass over the site of the old cathedral became very much parched. The traces of the foundation-walls of the cathedral were discovered by the colour of the grass over the foundations. Many old Roman coins, and other ancient remains, have been turned up in ploughing the land at Old Sarum.

In reflecting upon the wonderful change which this place has undergone, we are reminded that all earthly things are subject to change; that we are constantly changing, and are hastening to our great change; that the earth, and all that is therein, will be destroyed. But there is an eternal city which will never be destroyed. Let us, then, prepare for our solemn change, that when we pass out of time into eternity, we may enter into that happy and glorious city which will never be destroyed.

TIME TO SEEK THE LORD.

THE REV. Mr. S had gone out one day, and was crossing some fields, on his way back to his home, when he met one of the teachers of his Sunday-school. "O sir,” she said, "I am so glad I have met you! I have been looking for you everywhere. There is a poor little girl very ill, and she wants to see you very much."

“How did you hear of her? and where does she live?" asked Mr. S

"I was in Mrs. B- -'s shop," said the teacher, "when a woman came in, and said, 'Do you know where a Mr. S-, who preaches at Whitechapel, lives? My girl is very ill, and she will not give me any peace till I find him out. She says she wants to see him directly.' I said I knew where you lived, and I would fetch you. I am very glad I have found you."

The teacher told Mr. S

where the little girl lived, and he went to her directly. It was not very easy to find the place, for he had to turn out of the wide street into some little streets, and then into a dirty court, and then into another dirtier and darker still. The opposite houses were very near together, and the cheerful sky could not be seen from them. When he found the house, he saw that it was not clean and pleasant, like the houses in which many of our readers live. The panes of the windows were broken, and stuffed with rags. There were no chairs to sit upon, only one or two old stools, and the room smelt badly. There were children crying and quarrelling, and a woman, with a loud voice, scolding and swearing at them. Mr. S. hardly liked to go into so dirty and wicked a place; but he was a minister of the Gospel, and he knew that he ought to be ready to go wherever there was any good to be done.

The room was so dark, that when Mr. S-- first went in he could scarcely see about him. As he looked around, however, he spied a little bed in the corner. Indeed, I ought not to call it a bed, for it was only some straw laid on an old wooden bedstead. A little girl about thirteen years of age lay upon it. She looked very ill, and she had no nice

blankets and sheets about her-nothing but a piece of dirty sacking as a counterpane. When she saw Mr. S—, she rose up on her bed, and stretched out her thin hands to him, and said, "O Mr. S―, I am so glad to see you-I have been wanting to see you so long."

"How is this? I do not know you, my little girl," said Mr. S――

"O sir-but I know you! I heard you preach, and I wanted to see you," she said,again.

"Where did you hear me preach ?" Mr. S

asked.

"I should like to tell you, sir, if you please," said the little girl, and she began her story. "I have been ill for a long time," she said; "and one Sunday afternoon I felt weary and ill, and I tried every place in the room, but I could not rest; and mother said, Why can't you sit still? You had better go out and take a walk.' So, sir, I went out, and I walked down Whitechapel till I was very tired, and I wanted to sit down and rest. I did not like to sit down in the street. Just then I came to a church, and I thought that if I went in there I should find a place to sit down. It was your church, and you were preaching to the Sundayschool children. The text was, 'It is time to seek the Lord.' I thought, as I listened to the sermon, 'I am very ill. I get weaker every day. Perhaps I shall die soon. It is time for me to seek the Lord.' So I did seek him, and I hope I have found him, and I am so happy. I wanted to see you, sir, to thank you, and to tell you how happy I am.”

You may be sure that it gave Mr. S― much pleasure to hear all this. He talked to the little girl, and asked her many questions. It seemed as if she had, indeed, found her Saviour, and as if he had himself taught her by his Word and his Spirit, for she had no one else to teach her. She could read, and she had a little Testament and an old Hymnbook, and she read these very much. Mr. S asked a good woman in his congregation to visit her, and she, too, was much pleased with her. He went again himself very soon, and talked to the little girl for some time. He took up her hymn-book, and found several of the leaves turned down. He read some, and asked her why she liked them,

"Because it is just as I feel, sir," she said. They were beautiful hymns, and such as no one could feel who had not been taught to feel them by the Spirit of God.

I think Mr. S

quite sure.

to hear Mr. S

saw her a third time, but I am not The last time he went he saw the little bedstead in the corner, but the little girl was not on it. The mother was in the room, and Mr. S- turned to her for an explanation. “Well, I will tell you about it," she said. “On Saturday I was peeling potatoes by the window, and she called, Mother!' I went to her, and she raised herself up in the bed, and put her arms around my neck, and said, 'Mother, I want to speak to you, and I want to kiss you. I am going to die; but I am so happy. O mother, do go preach, and ask father to go, and do let my brothers go to the Sunday-school. O mother, I am so happy!' She went on so till she was quite tired, and she let go my neck, and fell back on the bed. I went on peeling my potatoes, and when I had turned round, she was dead." Mr. S was very sorry that he had not been there when the dear little girl died. Two or three days after, he thought that he ought to go and see the poor wicked mother, and try to do her good. He found the house shut up, and he knocked and knocked without getting any answer. last a woman looked out of a window in the next house, and asked what he wanted. "I want Mrs. —," he replied. "Oh!" said the woman, "you will not find her. The father has been sent to prison, and the mother and children went away in the night, and no one knows what has become of them." Then Mr. S. felt thankful that God had taken the dear child to be with himself.

At

had only heard one Perhaps you have

My dear little readers, this little girl sermon, but she attended and believed. heard many without feeling or minding them, or being any the better for them. Is it not time for you to seek the Lord ? -Episcopal Recorder.