the unfettered mercy, the free, unpurchased grace of God in Christ. Jesus came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'

"Ah! repentance,' answered the grandmother' repentance! my very repentance requires to be repented of.'

"There was a pause for some minutes, as if Alice were at a loss how to meet so undeniable a truth; but as if strength had been renewed, she soon repeated several passages one after the other, one of which was, 'Come unto Me all ye that labor!' and another, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white And then she asked tenderly of her grandmother, 'Do you doubt my love for you?'

as snow.'

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Nay, my own child,' was the reply.

“Yet what is my love for you, to that which our God and Saviour has for his children; for His love is stronger than death. Death could not quench it; it arose in added strength from the dominion of the grave.'

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Then, not being answered, she began to enumerate many of the earnests of Divine love which her venerable parent had received during a long life, and especially that sweet token of Divine goodness through which the last few weeks had been solaced by every possible earthly comfort.

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'Might I receive these last happy weeks as tokens of love?' asked the old lady in a faltering but emphatic voice—“ might I Alice? I think I might! Oh, those weeks were sweet; they were beginnings of peace: do you say they were earnests? Does He can He love me--but, I fear-.'

"Nay, my dear grandmother,' cried Alice, not a word of fear if you feel this love kindling up its image in your own heart—if you love him who first loved you, there is no room for doubt, for perfect love casteth out all fear. It is wrong in you to struggle against conviction. Let us be silent; let us pray for more faith, and then await the influences of his Divine Spirit. Yes, yes,' she added, with her hands clasped, and her head raised as if looking up, it is when death seems almost victorious over the poor body, that the Spirit of God often manifests himself most fully to the soul. Be still, dear grandmother; speak not your own words, but wait-I will pray for you.'

"Whilst she spoke, the eyelids of the dying woman fell, as if

in sleep; and Alice, rising, stood for an instant looking on. There was a stillness in the chamber very impressive, an almost imperceptible rustling among the leaves of the trees in the neighbourhood alone disturbed the dead silence

"On turning from the bed, the young girl saw me, and beckoned me to step in and take a seat, giving me a look which said, 'Oh! you are, indeed, most welcome.' We seemed from time to time to ask each other what is to follow this sleep;' for the dying person still slept-' will her soul pass before she wakes to know us, and to converse again with us?' Who amongst us has not often experienced what it is thus to wait in silence, the moment of the departure of a soul; and who can give account of the thoughts which pass through his mind in those waiting hours, or say how precious the Saviour is to the believer at such awful times. Several rapid convulsions glancing over the face of the sleeper, at length prepared us for her awakening. Suddenly her eyes were opened and raised, as if to some object far above her ; the wonted anxious expression of the countenance was gone, and exchanged for that of adoration and amazement, too vast for the endurance of a fleshly nature; for none can see that which she then saw, and live.

"Peace,' she said, in a slow and solemn voice, He hath spoken peace, and I am saved-saved, not because I am a whit less sinful, but because He is infinitely gracious! Blessed be His name! He has pardoned my iniquity, because it was great!' The hands which she had raised when uttering these blessed words then dropped, and with one deep sigh the redeemed soul departed, and the body lay a lifeless heap.

"Alice started up, and raising her eyes and hands, stood wrapt from all present things in the deepest sense of gratitude for the evidence which had been vouchsafed her, whilst I stepped forward and closed the eyes of the corpse. What I felt, I say not. I could not feel; far was it, I trust, from me to feel that I had done this, yet was it sweet to remember that in this awful hour, how I had years before been employed by my Saviour to administer the words of truth to that faithful child whom I had first met in wandering about my parish with no decided object." M. M. S.

(To be continued.)

SPIRITUAL DEADNESS CONFESSED.

:

THOU, LORD! hast imprinted a pulse in our soul, but we do not examine it; a voice in our conscience, but we do not hearken unto it. We talk it out, we jest it out, we drink it out, we sleep it out; and when we wake, we do not say with Jacob, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not" but though we might know it, we do not, we will not. But will God pretend to make a watch, and leave out the spring? to make so many various wheels in the faculties of the soul, and in the organs of the body, and leave out grace, that should move them? Or will God make a spring, and not wind it up?—infuse his first grace, and not second it with more, without which, we can no more use his first grace, when we have it, then we could dispose ourselves by nature, to have it?

"But alas, that is not our case; we are all prodigal sons, aud not disinherited; we have received our portion, and mispent it,— not been denied it. We are God's tenants here, and yet here, he, our landlord, pays us rents; not yearly, nor quarterly, but hourly and quarterly; every minute he renews his mercy, but we will not understand, lest that we should be converted, and he should heal us."-Donne.

THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE.

"

THERE can be few events in English history of more interest or importance than the first appearance of the Bible in our native tongue. Yet, until the recently-published work by Christopher Anderson, entitled "The Annals of the English Bible," a volume evincing indomitable perseverance and research, and stored with facts of the most thrilling character, there was no work extant upon the subject.

The parentage of William Tyndale, to whom we are indebted for this invaluable treasure, is not very clearly settled; though it appears certain that he was descended from a good Gloucestershire family, and was born somewhere about the year 1484. From his earliest years he was brought up at Oxford, whence he seems to have gone to Cambridge, where he is said to have

* London. W. Pickering. 1845. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 1300.

"the

taken a degree. About the year 1518, he returned to Gloucestershire. "As the place where he lived," says his biographer, Mr. Anderson, "only eight miles south from that of his birth, is well-known, and the house under whose roof he spent his best and zealous exertions in discussing and defending the Word of God, is happily still in existence-to all such as may take an interest in his history, there is not a more heart-stirring spot in all England. The halls of our colleges, wherever they stand, have never given birth to a design so vitally important in its origin, so fraught with untold benefit to millions, and now so extensive in its range, as that which ripened into a fixed and invincible purpose in the dining-hall of Little Sodbury manor-house. It was in this house that Tyndale resided for about two years as tutor; and adjoining to it, behind, there still stands, with its two ancient yew trees before the door, the little church of St. Adeline, where, of course, the family and tenants attended." Beneath this roof, endeared to every Englishman as birth-place of the English Bible," Tyndale remained until 1523, the majestic purpose he had formed in his mind burning more and more intensely, and leading him on several occasions into actions and expressions that excited considerable suspicion among the Romish ecclesiastics by whom he was surrounded. Conscious of the integrity of his purpose, and the omnipotence of his cause, he argued the matter plainly and boldly with those who came more immediately in contact with him. Here, too, it was that "happening to be in the company of a reputed learned divine, and in conversation having brought him to a point from which there was no escape, he broke out with this blasphemous exclamation," We were better to be without God's laws, than the pope's!" This was an ebullition in perfect harmony with the state of the country at the moment, but it was more than the piety of Tyndale could bear,-"I defy the pope," said he, in reply, "and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than you do." It was one of those significant bursts of zeal which will sometimes escape from a great and determined mind. It meant even more than met the ear, for by this time Tyndale might have said, with Jeremiah of old, and perhaps did so, His word was in my heart, as a burning fire

shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

In search of patronage in this great undertaking, Tyndale came to London, and obtained an interview with Bishop Tunstal, who was little likely to countenance such a scheme as that which formed the absorbing desire of Tyndale's mind. He was, however, struck with the scholarship of his applicant, and advised him to seek employment in London, where he assured him that such as he "could not lack a service." Finding neither convenient place nor opportunity to carry forward his design in London, Tyndale embarked for Hamburgh, where he stayed some time, and went thence to Cologne, arriving there in the spring of 1525.

Here his English New Testament was put to press; but he had only proceeded as far as the tenth sheet when the work was interdicted. Tyndale and his amanuensis, William Roye, having therefore secured the printed sheets, sailed up the Rhine to Worms. This first edition, which was in quarto, although extending to 3000 copies, does not appear to have been proceeded with to its completion. It was unfortunately preceded by a "Prologge," and illustrated by marginal comments, which its single-minded translator foresaw might give some show of reason to the clamour raised against it; and he therefore determined, with that true nobility which had always distinguished his labor in the cause, to put forth in lieu of this edition, another without gloss or comment. So entirely had this first edition been lost sight of, that it was unknown to have existed until the recovery of a portion of it only a few years ago, the third edition printed a year later, and at another place, having been always regarded as the first. The history of this curious discovery is given at length by Mr. Anderson, and forms not the least attractive portion of a work unusually interesting.

Of the small octavo edition which succeeded it, only one copy is known, which having been bought for Lord Oxford, by one of his collectors, Mr. Murray; the earl was so delighted with his purchase as to settle £20. a year on Murray for life.

In January, 1526, Tyndale's translation of the New Testament first reached his native land; and the alarm having been sounded in London, a rigid search was made for the volume in