of the most powerful among the Anglo-Saxon chiefs becoming voluntary outlaws-the whole nation visited by famine, pestilence, and storm, we need not wonder that the chroniclers should describe him as "very stern, and also hot". Those who knew little of his stern and moody character, nor had heard concerning his public actions, might have looked with interest on that aged man, when, in the stillness of evening, walking amid the forest-trees, that cast their lengthened shadows on the grass, he loved to watch the fine herds of deer, which at least did not start away from him, though men often did. For, as wrote the Saxon scribe, "though very stern and also hot, he loved the tall deer like a father." That scribe, whoever he was, tells us that he often looked upon him, and spent some time in his court; and that now, in his old age, encompassed with enemies, not knowing whom to trust, almost estranged from his kind, his wife -on whom all that was gentle in his nature reposed-being dead, having no object of sympathy in the world, it is no wonder if "he loved the tall deer like a father". many parts; the foundations of the hills whence they gushed became softened and sunk, overwhelming some considerable villages, and occasioning great loss of life: birds and animals seemed awe-struck; and, to borrow the graphic language of Speed, "tame and demall fowls, as hennes, gueese, peacockes, and the lyke, flede into the forestes and woodes, and became very wilde, in imitation of men, degenerating into savages; for in those times even the churchmen-and therefore less wonder others were unlike themselves. Walter, bishop of Durham, maintained murderers, and was murdered himself. Odo, another bishop, to revenge his deathe, made Northumberland a deserte, beheading and dismembering the poorer sorte, and at great ransomes fining the rich"*. "A sorrowful time it was," as likewise wrote one of the Saxon chroniclers, "in murrain of cattle; and corn and fruites were at a stand, and so much unforwardness in the weather as a man may not easily think. So tremendous, too, was the thunder and the lightning, that it killed many; and it continually grew worse and worse with men. May the Most High better it whensoever it be his will. Who may not be Thus depressed and woe-begone, the Conqueror penetrated with grief at such a season! and who set sail for Normandy. He was attended to the is so hard-hearted as not to weep at such misfor- coast by a vast concourse of people; and many tunes! Yet such things happen for folks' sins, saw him embark, with tears; for, hard and cruel because they will not love God and righteousness. as he ever was towards the English, to his NorSo it was in those days, that little righteousness man subjects he was equally considerate and inwas in the land with any man, but with the monks dulgent. Such among the clergy, likewise, as alone wherever they fared well. The king and lived according to their profession, he greatly head men loved money, and overmuch cove-honoured and enriched; but to the evil-minded tuousness in gold and silver, and recked not how it was got, provided it came to them. The king let his land at as high a rate as he possibly could. Then came some other person, and bade more than the former one gave, and the king let it to the man that bade him more. Then came the third, and bade yet more, and the king let it to hand to the man that bade him most. And he recked not how very sinfully the steward got it of wretched men, nor yet how many unlawful deeds they did; but the more men spake about real law, the more unlawfully they acted. Unjust tolls were erected, and many other iniquitous things were done that are difficult to reckon. "Also, before harvest it came to pass that the holy minster of St. Paul's was completely burned, with many other minsters, and the greater part of the riches of the whole city. "Alas, alas, to think how eagerly the fire assailed that high building, wreathing to the top, and suddenly enveloping the whole in a sheet of flame. As yet the vaulted roof, being of stone, remained uninjured; but when the supporting beams gave way, that gave way also; and, although upreard to such a height that no one might aspire to reach it, suddenly was its glory gone: it was hurled down, as if taken by a besieging enemy. Likewise, about the same time all the chief ports throughout the coast were entirely burned. Alas, rueful and woeful was the fate of the year that brought so many misfortunes"+. Keenly did the Conqueror feel the calamities by which the country was so signally visited. Harassed, too, by internal and foreign foes-some • Complete History of England. William I. By Samuel Daniell. Speed. 6-9, 430. Saxon Chronicles. ↑ Leland's Collection, 23-24. Saxon Chronicles, 292. and immoral he was stern and unrelenting, refusing, uniformly, to promote them to places of higher trust, even if earnestly entreated, and occasionally depriving them of their emoluments. Thus, he degraded his uncle Malgerius, archbishop of Rouen, on accountl of his wicked life, and imprisoned his brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux. But though the departure of the Conqueror was regretted by his Norman, he was followed with the execrations of his English subjects. He took with him a "mighty mass of money," fitted for some great attempt, and wrung from out the coffers of the rich; while the poor were cruelly oppressed, in order to further his designs. The object of his expedition was to wage war with France for the possession of the city of Mantes, with a richly cultivated territory called Vexin, lying between the Oise and Eure, though he pretended to enter into negotiations with Philip the French king for the quiet possession of the territory which he claimed as a right. The French king, being aware of his design, sought to amuse him with arguments concerning the fitness of his claim, in order to divert his attention, while he secretly authorized his chiefs to make excursions on the frontiers of Normandy. William fell ill about this time, and was obliged to keep his bed. Philip, hearing of his sickness, made a joke of it among his courtiers; and his remarks drove the English king almost to frenzy§. Nothing could assuage his irritated mind, so determined was he to revenge the injurious taunt, at the expense of an unoffending people. He swore, according to his Annals and Antiquities of Lacock Abbey. + Saxon Chronicles. Chronicles of Normandy, William of Malmsbury. custom, that he would take signal vengeance; and, in order to render the work of destruction more complete, he delayed his attack on Mantes till the corn was nearly ready for the sickle, and the grapes hung in ripening clusters on the vine. He then ordered his fierce men to advance on the devoted country; commanding them, in the bitterness of his spirit, to march through the standing corn, to tear up the vineyards, and to cut down the pleasant trees; spoiling, as they went, every hearth and home, and turning the inhabitants adrift: old men were not spared on account of their grey hairs, nor playful children because of their innocence. Before those cruel men was a beautiful and smiling country; behind them a desolate wilderness. Mantes was set on fire, and her churches and monasteries despoiled of their plate and ornaments. Such of the people as escaped with their lives had neither friends nor homes to go to, for all were swept away. The beautiful church of St. Mary was destroyed, among others; but the burning of that stately building was associated with the fate of a recluse, who, faithful to her vows, did not think it right to leave her cell even in so great an emergency, and who perished in the flames. This was, however the closing act of the awful drama in which the Conqueror had acted such a fearful part. While looking on the scene of misery, and commanding his soldiers, with savage fury, to add fuel to the conflagration, he approached too near the flames*; his horse trod on some hot cinders, which caused him to plunge violently, and in plunging he inflicted a serious injury on his ridert. Being unable to continue any longer on the spot, he was carried in a litter to the monastery of St. Gervas, at a short distance from the burning town, where he continued for some time in considerable pain. He retained at first much self-possession, and spoke to his attendants on the events of his past life, and the vanity of human grandeur. But when his physicians told him that death was inevitable, he filled the house with his cries and lamentations, bitterly bewailing that death was about to seize upon him before he could effect that reformation in his life which he had meditated‡. • William of Malmsbury. + Orderii Anglia Sacra. : William of Malmsbury, p. 355. The Cabinet. Thy WILL-WORSHIP.-A worship may and will be voluntary, and so a will-worship, in a good sense, when we perform it from love to God, and "in the spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father." The apostle accordingly teaches us that, "if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted," and that God "works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure." " people," saith the Lord, to Messiah, "shall be willing in the day of thy power." But wilful modes of worship, chosen by the reasonings of philosophizing, Judaizing doctors, addressed not to Christ, but to creatures and man-invented mediators, or conducted in ways which God has not commanded, are the most odious and provoking of all abominations. Yet this will-worship has a show of wisdom to us blinded creatures. Men are averse to what God reveals for our salvation, and commands for our rule of life; from the obligation of which they hope to escape by means of human inventions. There is nothing to which they submit themselves with so much reluctance as the simple way of God's mercy, by the merits and mediation of Christ, and the purity of the divine commandments. So that any modes of worship are preferred. They look on them as a sort of satisfaction, ransom, meritorious service which will compensate for a bad heart, earthly affections, lusts indulged, carelessness, vanity, an irreligious, 'godless life.-Bishop Wilson's " Lecture on Colossians." Poetry. SONNET. (For the Church of England Magazine.) O THOU first, best, divinest gift to man; How much of sublunary bliss to thee By heav'n vouchsaf'd for thine eternal dow'r ! To thee on earth whatever things are true, Fraught with all virtue, worthy of all praise, LAYS OF A PILGRIM. R. B. E. ON THE DEATH OF MRS. JAMES GRAY. BY MRS. H. W. RICHTER. (For the Church of England Magazine.) "The thought of those before us gone-the lov'd of other years-Gone where affection's cup hath lost the taste of tears." MRS. HEMANS. WHEN death's pale shadow on the gifted lies, Dearer than fame, affection loves to trace The Christian love that gave each action grace; That hearth is cold; thy step returns no more: A guest in heaven, freed from each earthly care, Miscellaneous. WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY.-With the diameter of the earth's orbit-a base of one hundred and ninety millions of miles-astronomers have succeeded in proving that, if lines are drawn from the extremities of this base to the nearest fixed star yet discoveredviz., a centauri—the two lines will form an angle of nearly one second. This angle is called the parallax of the star, or the parallax of the earth's annual orbit. Hence it is easy to calculate, and the result is certain, that the distance of the star from the earth is about 21,000,000,000,000 miles, or about 12,000 times the distance of Uranus from the sun; and from another calculation, equally simple and certain, it follows that, in the space round our solar system devoid of stars, there is room in one dimension, or one straight line, for 12,000 solar systems; in two dimensions, or in one plain, there is room for 130 millions of solar systems; and in actual sidereal space of three dimensions, there is room for 1,500,000,000,000, or one and a-half million million of solar systems the size of our own. GUIANA. The rev. W. Blood, at present stationed at St. Margaret's, Berbice, gives the following account of his visit to an Indian settlement, in a letter dated August 10, 1845:-"The sphere of usefulness which I now occupy having become vacant by the departure of the last minister, the bishop of the diocese transferred me to this post. There are only two estates here. The church is at an equal distance from each, and will accommodate about 200 persons. We have a Sunday and a week-day school. The Indians from the interior frequently visit me, and many of them speak English. They having invited me to visit their country, some seventy miles up the river, I promised to go. They came for me about two weeks since, bringing with them a very large canoe. It measured nearly fifty feet long, four feet wide, and three feet deep, cut out of the solid tree. In going up the river Corantyne, we were obliged to stop in the woods all night. The Indians struck a light, made a fire of the dried branches, which they kept constantly burning to keep off the wild animals, having swung to the trees the hammocks, in which we placed ourselves, around the cheerful blaze, and there under the overspreading trees, spent a very comfortable night. The next morning we arose before the sun in the distance, the river taking a sweep to the left, the high land began to appear; and the lofty chalk hills, which overhang the river, received his golden beams. It was the only high land I had seen for sixteen months-all this country being perfectly flat. The amber light, reflected in the distance from the white and brown clay cliffs amidst the encircling deep green, made the view look like magic. At last we arrived at Orialla, the red man's home. Here a post-holder is stationed, partly to look after the crown lands, and partly to protect the aborigines. He lives in primitive, patriarchal style. Of course, there is no market near; and, therefore, with unwearied industry, he cultivates, for the benefit of his family, his own vegetables. He has his huntsman, an Indian, who goes out to the forest every day, and comes home laden with game-the deer, bush-hog, bush-cow, wild rabbits, birds in good variety. I made several visits to their wigwams, and found them not at all ignoraut of politeness and hospitality. As soon as my servant entered, one of the squaws went to the burning embers, and took off half a-dozen of small fish, which had been broiling. These she placed in his hands, together with no small quantity of Casara bread. I found, afterwards, that during my stay he had his home in the wigwams, and fared very comfortably. I had my quarters in the house of the postholder. On Monday, according to previous announcement, a congregation of about sixty or seventy Indians, consisting of Arrawacks and Warrows, attended. We assembled under a large tamarind tree. This tree had been planted by the Moravian missionaries, who had once a settlement here, but left about forty years since, and removed to Surinam, on the opposite side. The ample shade of this majestic tree, which spread its branches over the whole congregation, screened all from the rays of the mid-day sun. The Indian women were dressed in their best attire. There was no lack of necklaces and bracelets. They brought their little ones with them, and eleven were presented for baptism. Some stood, and others sat on the green sward, while I took my stand by the side of the venerable tree, and read part of the beautiful liturgy of our church. In the front, and all around, the orange, the coffee, the cocoa, and the lemon trees were in bloom. The post-holder acted as clerk, and read the responses in an audible voice. Having sung one of the songs of Zion, I directed those simple children of the forest to the love of God, in the gift of his wellbeloved Son. Most of them understand English: one of them, however, partly interpreted. At the conclusion, I dedicated eleven of the children to God in baptism. Bishop Coleridge had been here; and in the same place he had baptized about fifty. It would be well to have a school established here, and a Sunday XXXVI. service"-Soc. Prop. Gospel, Quarterly Paper, No. London: Published for the Proprietors by EDWARDS and HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's: and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH ROGEREON, 24, NORFOLK-STREET, STRAND, LONDON, THE ABBEY OF JER POINT. JERPOINT is a very small town, or rather village, in the county of Kilkenny, on the river Nore. The abbey was founded A.D. 1180, by Donogh O'Donoghue, king of Ossory, for Cistertian monks, who richly endowed it, and dedicated it to the virgin Mary. In 1202, the remains of Felix O'Dullany, bishop of Ossory, were here buried; which gave to the place the odour of great sanctity. Innumerable miracles were supposed to have been wrought at his tomb; and the abbey became a choice place of burial. This abbey was in a very flourishing condition at the dissolution in the time of Henry VIII., when it was, of course, surrendered, and was by Philip and Mary granted to James earl of Ormonde. The ruins are extensive, displaying some beautiful specimens of the later Norman style. There VOL. XX. is still extant the square, embattled tower over the cross of the transept, supported by four massy square pillars, and the arches which spring from them; but the whole is rapidly falling into decay. The church was cruciform. There are some curious and interesting monuments. Opposite to where stood the altar, in the great north aisle, is a tomb, upon which are the figures of a male and female, supposed to have been, from their costume, those of the founder, buried here 1185, and his wife. The male holds in his right hand the remains of a crucifix. His left hand is directed to a small harp hung from his left side. Many figures surround the tomb. There is a very extraordinary tomb of black marble, on which is placed the statue of an abbot, in his full ecclesiastical attire, holding a crozier in his left hand; his head reclining on a very beautiful pillow: a kind of serpent is represented P gnawing the lower end of the crozier. There is long found barren, Isaac, at his own earnest ennothing to show who the abbot was. Another treaty (Gen. xxv. 21), had received of the Lord very beautiful and most exquisite monument ex- two sons, Esau and Jacob, of whom, while yet unists. On it rests the figure of another abbot; the born" in order that the purpose of God accordcrozier of excellent workmanship; and in the ing to election might stand" (Rom. ix. 11)—the right hand is a sprig of trefoil. The altar-slab on Lord had said to Rebecca: "The elder shall serve which the figure is placed is covered with trefoils the younger." This revelation Rebecca had reand roses. Other monumental remains lie scat-ceived in faith, but kept the saying secret in the tered among the ruins. depth of her heart. Her subsequent conduct proves both these suppositions. JACOB THE PATRIARCH. "Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice."GEN. xxvii. 13. MEDITATION. THIS is the reply of Rebecca to the expostulation of her son Jacob, who was afterwards to be called "Israel," and from whom, through his twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel were to descend. Hear then a mother absolving her son from the anticipated curse of her husband, while she braved it in requiring implicit obedience on his part. What train of circumstances can have led to an enterprize which brings into conjunction a father's curse and a mother's commands? The narrative contained in this chapter is a fearful one: it is, indeed, a melancholy episode in the history of the patriarchs: it is so eircumstantially related, and is so faithful a picture of the infirmity of human nature, that it becomes full of instruction; and we shall do well to meditate upon it at some length. Let us consider briefly their history. Within a few hundred years after the deluge, vice and idolatry had infected all the descendants of Noah; and Abram had been called forth by the Lord "from his country, and his kindred, and his father's house," that he might be saved from this spreading infection. The blessing of the Lord was on his journey; and, at the same time, the promise was given: "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xii. 3). He had in stantly obeyed the call, great as this trial of his faith must have been (Heb. xi. 8, 9), and had "sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country." Esau, the first-born, becomes a cunning hunter, a man of the field ;" and Jacob, the younger, "a plain man, dwelling in tents." The one ranged the mountain and the forest in search of game: the other dwelt within the tents of his parents, and tended their flocks. Moreover, we learn, that "Isaac loved Esau," because he did eat of his venison; but Rebecca loved Jacob. How full of human infirmity are all of us! how mixed are the motives of all our actions! Isaac loved the elder, partly, as we learn, from so sensual a motive as gluttony; and Rebecca loved the younger from a cherished promise, which she feared to share with her husband-the promise of the blessing to him. In process of time, Esau, wearied with the chase and faint with hunger, breathless and exhausted, and, as he thought, "at the point to die," on the solicitation of Jacob, sells his birthright-not, as he hoped, his blessing (compare Gen. xxvii. 36 with Heb. xii. 6)-for a pottage of lentiles, and confirmed the sale by an oath. O miserable example! Behold two brothers, equally the gift of God: the one careless of his inheritance; the other anxiously solicitous for it, and willing to profit by the necessities of a brother; Esau profane, and Jacob full of craft, while full of faith. died." 66 Time wore away, and "Esau took to wife two Hittites, daughters of the Canaanites, who were dwellers in the land," sisters, probably, of his associates in the chase, which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebecca." Isaac, full of years, and his eyes dim, so that he could not see," calls his eldest son, Esau, and bids him "go out to the field, and take venison such as he loved,” so that, refreshed and gratified, as of old, by the savoury meat, "he night bless him before he Now begins to appear the fatal error of Rebecca, in having withheld God's promise to the younger from her husband and her elder son. She heard this speech of Isaac, being separated from the part of the tent in which he was sitting (as is customary in the east) by a curtain only, dividing the day apartment of the men from that of the women-she heard the command, and she saw Esau depart to obey it. And we now see why the Lord God called Abraham out of the land and kindred of his fathers; for the first child of her, whom indeed he had received by a sign from God for his son's wife, proves how far the fear of God had departed from before the eyes of the family of Nahor. Instead of going at once to the aged father of her children, and making him acquainted with Still faithful in cherishing this promise, Abra- the promise revealed to her, she resolves to deceive ham had provided with especial care a wife for his him into a fulfilment of it, by disguising her son, and had received a sign from God, pointing younger son Jacob in the skins of goats, in order out for him his cousin Rebecca, a daughter of that he may personate his elder brother. Jacob his own country and kindred, "lest he should is startled, not at the baseness of his mother's prohave taken to wife of the daughters of the Ca-posal, but at the fear of discovery, "lest he might naanites, among whom he dwelt." From her, bring upon himself a curse" from a deceived and Again, the angel of the Lord, after another most decisive proof of his faith, had proclaimed to him: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 18); and the same gracious promise had been renewed to his son Isaac, in Gen. xxvi. 4. The faith of the father and the obedience of the son had been thus rewarded. Abraham, trusting in God, had offered up that son, "of whom it had been said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called;" "accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;" and Isaac, in filial obedience, had submitted uncomplaining. Thrice blessed sight!-faith in God overcoming all the tenderest claims of earth; and such filial obedience attending, that it was held to be a type of the most perfect obedience of the only begotten Son of God. |