sure I shall be kept in breath. But till you find I grow lazy, pray let that alone. I remember how they used the poor lady my mother in Scotland, and me, in my minority.' Then turning to the bishops, he put his hand to his hat, and said: "My lords, I thank you that these Puritans plead for my supremacy, for if once you were out and they in place, I know what would become of my supremacy; for no Bishop, no King. Well, Doctor," he continued, addressing Raynolds, "have you anything more to offer ?" "No more, if it please your Majesty," replied Raynolds. Then rising from his

came a political

party as well as

a religious sect. Charles lost his head; and Oliver Cromwell

became King in

all but name. It is now come to be acknowledged that

Oliver, Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth," was by far the greatest, wisest and kingliest man who ever ruled England. Yet it is only within what we may call the present generation that Englishmen fairly began to ask themselves

if it is not rash in me to be among the first to pronounce him not a knave and a liar, but a genuinely honest man." In 1845 Carlyle put forth his "Letters and Speeches of Cromwell," a work which was perhaps the first to set the great man right in the world's eye. He now ventures to say: "Working for long years in those unspeakable historic provinces, it becomes more and more apparent to one, that this man, Oliver Cromwell, was, as the popular fancy represents him, the soul of the Puritan Revolt, without whom it never had been a revolt transcendently memorable, and an epoch

whether he was anything other than a mixture of fanatic, hypocrite and knave. No longer ago than 1840, Carlyle, in his "Heroes and Hero-Worship," says, almost apologetically: "As things gradually became manifest, the character of the Puritans began to clear itself. Their memories were, one after another taken down from the gibbet; nay, a certain portion of them are now as good as canonized. One Puritan, I think, and almost he alone, our poor Oliver, seems to hang yet on the gibbet, and finds no hearty apologist anywhere. His dead body was hung in chains; his 'place in history' has been a place of ignominy, accusation, blackness and disgrace; and here to-day, who knows

in the world's history. And then further, altogether contrary to the popular fancy, it becomes apparent that this Oliver was not a man of falsehoods, but a man of truths; whose words do carry a meaning with them, and above all others of that time are worth considering. His wordsand still more

his silences, and
unconscious in-
stincts, when
you have spelt
and lovingly
deciphered
these also out

of his wordswill in several ways reward the study of an earnest man. An earnest man, I apprehend, may gather from these words of Oliver's, were there even no other evidence,

that the char

acter of Oliver

and of the af

fairs he worked in is much the

reverse of that mad jumble of 'hypocrisies,' etc., etc., which at present passes current as such. . . . And finally: We have had our 'Revolutions of eighty-eight,' officially called 'glorious,' and other revolutions not yet called glorious; and somewhat has been gained for mankind. Men's ears are not now slit off by rash Officiality: Officiality will, for long henceforth, be more cautious about men's ears. The tyrannous Star chamber, branding-irons, chimerical Kings and Surplices at Allhallowtide, they are gone, or with immense velocity going. Oliver's works do follow him!- The works of a man, bury them under what guano - mountains and obscene

"Oliver is gone; and with him England's Puritanism, laboriously built together by this man, and made a thing miraculous to its own Century, and memorable to all the centuries, soon goes. Puritanism, without its King, is kingless, anarchic; falls into dislocation, self-collision; staggers, plunges into even deeper anarchy; King, Defender of the Puritan Faith, there can now none be found; and nothing can be left but to recall the old discrowned Defender, with the remnants of his Four Surplices, and two centuries of Hypocrisia, and put up with all that the best we may. The Genius of England no longer soars Sunward, world-defiant, like an Eagle through the storms 'mewing its mighty youth,' as John Milton saw her do the Genius of England, much like a greedy Ostrich intent on provender and a whole skin mainly, stands with its other extremity Sunward; with its Ostrich-head stuck into the nearest bush, of old Churchtippets, King-cloaks, or what other Sheltering Fallacy there may be, and so await the issue. The issue has been slow; but it is now seen to have been inevitable. No Ostrich intent on gross terrene provender, and sticking its head into Fallacies, but will be awakened one day-in a terrible à posteriori manner, if not otherwise! Awake before it comes to that; gods and men bid us awake! the voices of our Fathers, with a thousandfold stern monition to one and all, bid us awake!"

Such are the Lamentations of the English Jeremiah, uttered a third of a century ago. Will any one looking at the England of to-day, say that they should not now be repeated with added emphasis? Anything approximating to an adequate life of Oliver Cromwell remains to be written. The materials for such a work are now most abundant. Carlyle's collation of the "Letters and Speeches of Cromwell" with his own running commentary is invaluable. Among a score of indifferent biographies of Cromwell, the least indifferent is that of John Forster, contained in his "Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England."

Our pompous offerings to the poor
Are little worth, through our neglect-
We give at best cold kindliness,

They ask for absolute respect.
And half our efforts are designed
To keep poor people out of sight)
And half our benefits, to serve
Our fancy more than their delight.

THE TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE

BY E. HITCHCOCK, D.D., LL. D

atoms will retain and exhibit an infinitesimal but a real effect through all coming time. These are examples of what is meant by reaction, or reciprocal action of different substances upon one another.

But it is not every kind of reaction that will prove a permanent impression to be made upon the universe by our conduct. The principle is proved and illustrated by the doctrine of mechanical reaction. From the principle, long settled in mechanics, that action and reaction are equal, it will follow that every impression which man makes by his words or his movements upon the air, the waters, or the solid earth, will produce a series of changes in each of those elements which will never end. The word that is now going out of my mouth causes pulsations or waves in the air; and these, though invisible to human eyes, expand in every direction until they have passed around the whole globe, and produced a change in the whole atmosphere. Nor will a single circumgyration complete the effect; but the sentence which I am now uttering shall alter the whole atmosphere through all future time. So that, as Professor Babbage remarks, to whom we are indebted for the first moral application of this mechanical principle, the air is one vast library on whose pages are for ever written all that man has ever said or woman whispered. Not a word has ever escaped from mortal lips, whether for the defense of virtue or the perversion of the truth, not a cry of agony has ever been uttered by the oppressed, not a mandate of cruelty by the oppressor, not a false and flattering word by the deceiver, but it is registered indelibly upon the atmosphere we breathe.

And could man command the mathematics of superior minds, every particle of air thus set in motion could be traced through all its changes with as much precision as the astronomer can point out the path of the heavenly bodies. No matter how many storms have roused the atmosphere into wild commotion, and whirled it into countless forms, no matter how many conflicting waves have mixed and crossed one another, the path of each pulsation is definite and subject to the laws of mathematics. To follow it requires, indeed, a power of analysis superior to human; but we can conceive it to be far inferior to the Divine.

The same thing is true of the waters. No wave has ever been raised on their bosom, no keel has ever plowed their surface, which has not sent an influence and a change into every ocean, and modified every wave that has rolled in upon the farthest shores. As the vessel crosses the deep, the parted waves close in, and every trace of disturbance soon disappears from human vision. Nevertheless it is certain that every track thus furrowed in the waters has sent an influence through the entire mass, such as is calculable by distinct formula; and it may be that glorified minds, by the principles of celestial mathematics, can as easily trace out the paths of the unnumbered vessels that have crossed the waters, as the astronomers can the paths of the planets or the comets.

It is too minute, indeed, for the cognizance of the human seuses. But in a higher sphere there may be inlets of per

and thus render every atom of the globe a living witness to the actions of every living being.

If light falls upon a solid body, the body reacts upon the light, which it sends back to the eye with an age of it self. The solid earth, too, is alike tenae of every impression we make upon it. Not a foot or beast is marked upon its surface that

int of man not pernia

In view of these facts, we cannot regard the glowing language of Babbage an exaggeration, when he says, "The soul of the negro, whose fettered body, surviving the living charnel-house of his infected prison, was thrown into the sea to lighten the ship that his Christian master might escape the limited justice at length assigned by civilized man to crimes whose profit had long gilded their atrocity,

will need, at the last great day of human accounts, no living witness of his earthly agony. When man and all his race shall have disappeared from the face of our planet, ask every particle of air still floating over the unpeopled earth, and it will record the cruel mandate of the tyrant. Interrogate every wave which breaks unimpeded on ten thousand desolate shores, and it will give evidence of the last gurgle of the waters which closed over the head of his dying victim. Confront the murderer with every corporeal atom of his immolated slave, and in its still quivering movements he will read the prophet's denunciation of the prophet king."

Men fancy that the wave of oblivion passes over the greater part of their actions. But physical science shows us that those actions have been transferred into the very texture of the universe, so that no waters can wash them out and no erosions, comminution, or metamorphoses can obliterate them. The principle which I advance in its naked form is this: Our words, our actions, and even our thoughts, make an indelible impression on the universe. This principle converts creation into a vast sounding gallery, into a vast picture gallery, and into a universal telegraph.

HIGHER.

BY MRS. E. L. SKINNER.

OH, I hear your voices chanting through the star-encircled

spaces,

And I see your white robes trailing in the glory-laden air; And my heart leaps forth exulting, like the rider at the races, With the goal in view before him, and his triumph waiting there.

Oh, Jerusalem, the glorious! grand, eternal, higher city!

Where earth's jarring discord melteth into harmony sublime; Oh, ye saints, white-robed and waiting, look adown on us with pity,

Who linger still and groan beneath the scourging lash of Time.

Here our highest thoughts and holiest, are stained and sinstained polluted;

Our joys are quickly swallowed by a swift-pursuing pain; All our costliest sacrifices with self are still diluted, And we never walk so upright that we stumble not again.

We never see the sunlight flood the earth in Eden beauty,
And happy flowers smile back again the glad thanksgiving ray,
But shadows lurk like sentinels, who, eager to their duty,
Sweep o'er the flowers, crush back the smile, and chase the
beam away.

We never strike the psaltery with our praises and thanksgiving, But the crash of curses round us mingles with them on the strings:

We never give the thirsty drink and smile at the reviving,
But wails from lips we cannot reach prick all our smiles with
stings.

Oh! for peace and rest eternal; oh! for light undimmed, unfading;
Oh! for harmony unbroken on my tortured ear to fall;
Oh for purity unblemished, free from earthly line and shading,
And the love of God, like banners, waving softly over all.

Oh, ye saints, white-robed and waiting, look adown on us with pity,

Pierce earth's shadows with your vision, as ye stand without the gate.

Oh, Jerusalem, the glorious, grand, eternal, holy city!

Oh, Lamb! the light, the joy thereof, I yearn, I call, I wait!

WASTE.-We waste our time in moments, our money in dimes, and our happiness in trifles.

THE WATER-TORTURE IN JAPAN.

He was The water

THE Eastern nations have ever been distinguished for refinements in the art of torture, and not a few of those which have rendered the Spanish Inquisition infamous among men of all creeds have an Oriental origin, although the imitators have scarcely equaled the diabolical ingenuity of their teachers. In all the records of torture, there are none which in completeness exceed those inflicted in the seventeenth century upon the Christians in Japan. Among those, an account of whose sufferings has come down to us, is Francisco Mastrilli, an Italian Jesuit of noble birth, who, about 1640, landed in disguise in Japan, where a terrible persecution of the Christians was then raging. immediately arrested and put to the torture. torture, in its mildest form, was the first to which resort was had. He was lifted up by his feet, and repeatedly dropped, head foremost, into a vat of water. This forced the water into his throat, which he could disgorge only by intense agony. This, however, was only a prelude. He was then laid upon a kind of framework, to which he was firmly bound, his right arm, below the elbow, being left free, so that he could raise it by way of signal if he wished to say anything. A funnel was then placed in his mouth, passing down to the throat, and water in small quantities was poured in, so that he must swallow a little at every inspiration. When his stomach could hold no more, a board was placed upon his body, upon which two men | jumped, forcing the water, mingled with blood, in jets from his mouth, nostrils and ears. Human strength could endure such torture for only a brief time at once; but it was repeated at intervals, as he could bear it, for a long time. Afterward, other forms of torture were applied, until at last, when just upon the verge of death, he was beheaded.

FORGIVE AS WE FORGIVE."

JOHN the almsgiver, Bishop of Alexandria, was one day visited by a nobleman. In the course of conversation, the nobleman declared, with warmth, that he would never, to his dying day, forgive a certain man who had cruelly wronged him. Just then the bell in the bishop's private chapel rang for prayers.

Entering the chapel, the two men knelt before the altar. Presently the bishop began to repeat, in a loud voice, the Lord's Prayer, and the nobleman repeated each petition after him.

"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread." The bishop stopped abruptly. The nobleman went on alone: "and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." Then, finding that he alone was praying, he also stopped. The bishop remained kneeling, but was silent. Suddenly the sense of the words of the petition he had uttered rushed on the nobleman's mind. He was appalled at his own prayer. Silently he arose from his knees, went forth, and finding the man who had injured him, frankly forgave him.

WHEN a man goes thirsty to the well, his thirst is not allayed by merely going there. On the contrary, it is increased by every step he goes. It is by what he draws out of the well that his thirst is satisfied. And just so it is not by the mere bodily exercise of waiting upon ordinances that you will ever come to peace, but by tasting of Jesus in the ordinances, whose flesh is meat indeed, and His blood drink indeed.-McCheyne.

GOD'S GLORY SHINING IN JESUS.

[ Delivered in the Church of the Strangers, New York.]
BY THE EDITOR.

"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."-II. Cor. iv. 6.

Ir men have prejudices against God, the servants of God cannot expect to escape misunderstandings and contumely. They befell Paul.

No other man seems ever to have given plainer proofs of his devotion to what he considered the truth and the interests of the race than did this man Paul. No one seems less a self-seeker, less crafty, less intent on promoting his per

science in the sight of God. He did not seek to lord it over men's consciences, but considered himself the "slave" of others, humbling himself to a servile position, so that he might promote the spread of the Gospel for the good of men and for the glory of God.

If, then, men could not see the glory of God in Jesus, the fault was no longer in the Gospel nor in the preacher, but in the hearer; the vail was on the hearer's heart.

It was because he had seen the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ that Paul made such exertions of body and mind to bring others to that greatest and best possible knowledge. He did not preach what he did not know. He was not a mere professional. He was not merely filling engagements. He was enraptured with a most bril

sonal ease, emolument, and fame. And yet, through the whole of his wonderful Apostolate, he was misunderstood, misrepresented, maligned, and persecuted. He was charged with dishonesty, with handling the word of God deceitfully, with failing to preach the Gospel frankly and faithfully.

But, he "fainted not," and therein is an example to all his brethren of the aftertimes, who must endure the same discipline.

Nevertheless, he earnestly protested against such misrepresentation. He did not seek his own; he sought the glory of the Lord. He did not deceive his hearers; he "used great plainness, unreservedness of speech," as he says in the preceding chapter. He did not play the priest, and by tricks add names to the list of the professors of Christianity; he commended himself to every man's conVOL. IV. No. 1.-5.

Now, to make any other human being behold that sight seemed to Paul to be worth the work of a lifetime. Therefore he forgot himself, and knew only Jesus. Therefore he never preached himself, but only Jesus. He was willing to bear everything if he could only secure this end.

It is to be always remembered that ministers do not make the objects of faith. These exist. They stand out in the universe. They are facts. They do not depend upon being believed by men. No man may believe in their existence, but that has not the least effect on their existence. What