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1846.]

Tyndale the Martyr.

109

EULOGISTIC VERSES ON TYNDALE THE MARTYR.

The picture of this distinguished martyr preserved in Magdalen Hall, Oxford, represents him with a Bible in his hand, and this distich:

Hac ut luce tuas dispergam, Roma, tenebras,

Sponte extorris ero, sponte sacrificium.

That light o'er all thy darkness, Rome,

With triumph might arise

An exile freely I become,

Freely a sacrifice.

Underneath an old copper Portrait of Tyndale, engraved in Holland's "He" roologia," is the following Latin inscription:

Te puram docuit Christi Sapientia legem
TYNDALLE, optatæ quæ tibi causa necis.
[Freely translated.]

O Tyndale! Christ instructed thee,
His pure law made thee wise,
To win the martyr's glorious crown,
That rare, celestial prize.

[Another translation.]

Thy Lord, O Tyndale, made thee wise,
His pure law was thy richest prize;

For thee the martyr's crown it won,

The highest fame beneath the sun.

[The character of Tyndale is thus drawn by old Francis Quarles, the author of the "Emblems."]

"Zeal crowned his heart, and made him to outvie

Papistic stories of hell-bred tyranny;

He feared them not, but boldly would dispute
Against their swelling errors, and confute
Their principles with a most dexterous art;
His tongue was never traitor to his heart.
Truth was the hand that pointed to the way,
Where full content and rich salvation lay.
'T was not a loathsome prison could divorce
His ready lips from the profound discourse
Of true religion; nothing could prevent

His just endeavors. Time, he thought, misspent
If not employed in good. Reader, admire!
His body flamed to make his soul a-fire."

VOL. III.

[London] S. S. Teachers' Magazine. 10

A SUPERINTENDENT'S APOLOGY.

A FEW evenings since, says the New York Sabbath School Monitor, we attended a Sabbath School Concert in this city, at which we were to address the children. The superintendent of the school is a very punctual man, but it so happened that this evening he was a few minutes too late; and when he came in, the exercises had commenced. The superintendent thought an apology was called for, and he made one so happy, and so instructive to both teachers and scholars, that we think he will pardon us for giving it to our readers, as nearly as we can now recollect it:

"My dear children," he said, "I owe you an apology for being late to-night. I had the impression, I hardly know how, that the hour for commencing was a quarter before eight, instead of half past seven. I feel mortified because I was not here at the time; and the mortification is greater, as this is the first time I have been late for sixteen years. I do not wish to excuse myself, however, at all. On the contrary, I assure you that my want of punctuality was the result of carelessness, nothing else. So I hope no one will ever plead my example as an excuse for being late. There is no excuse for not being in season. Carelessness is almost always at the bottom of it, as it was in this instance."

TEACHER'S RELATION TO THE PASTOR.

[Rev. Mr. Childe, of Islington, in an address before the Church of England Sunday School Institute, makes the following judicious remarks in regard to the teacher's relation to the pastor.]

As a teacher, it is your primary duty to seek the acquaintance, sanction, and approval of your own spiritual pastor. Thus did the founder of the system, the venerated Raikes, and approved himself in all things a fellow-helper to his min

1846.]

The Word of God hid in the Heart.

111

ister. Nothing could be more fatal to order, more unfaithful to the design of your office, than a desire for independence of action; nothing more destructive of your efficiency. By an affectionate, confidential, yet respectful intercourse with him, you will learn to enter into ministerial sympathies, acquire an insight into ministerial trials and responsibilities, and so be quickened to more importunate and fervent intercessions in behalf of those who watch for your souls.

THE WORD OF GOD HID IN THE HEART.

WE hide the word of God in our heart, when we read it, love it, remember it, and submit to it. We hide it in our heart, when we so possess it that we habitually obey it in our thoughts, affections, words and actions. But how can we thus hide it in our hearts, without having it treasured up in our memory, and ready at the command of our recollection? We need to know the truths of God's Word, as the apothecary knows his medicines. He knows what medicines he has, and where they are, so that he can lay his hand upon them at once, when called for. But how sad would be the confusion of his shop, if his medicines were all thrown together in a mass, and he could not readily find a particular article, nor even be sure at once whether he had it or not! We need to have the words of God at our command as thoroughly as the apothecary has his medicines. We need to have them thus hid in our heart, each, as it were, in its proper place, or so connected, associated, or arranged in our minds, as an apothecary's medicines in his boxes, that we can at once recall the truths or words which we wish to use.

To do this we must be very familiar with some words of God-not merely with the truths they contain, but with the very words which contain them. We want to use the very words of Scripture. No words will serve us better than those

identical words, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart"-thy very word—or that very word into which the careful study of many wise and good men has translated God's Word. How can I so suddenly on an emergency command better words? No. I want the very words of God; and that I may have them at command, I must commit them to memory.

God has constructed his word with this apparent design. Some portions of the Scriptures in the Hebrews, are composed alphabetically; that is, the first verse begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the second verse with the second letter, and so on. In this manner chapters 1, 2, and 4 of Lamentations are constructed. In chapter 3d, the first three verses begin with the first letter, the second three with the second letter, and so on. In Psalm 119, the first eight verses begin with the first letter; the second eight verses with the second letter, and so on through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Psalms 25, 34, 37, 111, 112 and 145, are so constructed in general. The design of this arrangement was, without doubt, to aid the memory.

Since, then, God would have his people of old, hide in their hearts the very words he gave them, let us hide in our hearts. the words of truth which are graciously provided us; and let us use all such helps for this purpose as we can devise, or such as others have devised for us.

F. C.

"To arrest the attention, to cultivate the understanding, and to excite the feelings, so that these may all harmonize, should be the constant object of the teacher; otherwise, the just balance of mind which should exist between the teacher and the scholars will become so unequal, that those communications which were designed for good, may either not attain to their full elevation, or being destitute of some essential property needful for efficiency, may leave a shadow, instead of a substance, or at most, produce a sickly, instead of a thriving plant."

1846.]

The Great Deceiver.

113

THE GREAT DECEIVER.

"The heart is deceitful above all things." Others may deceive, but this is the great deceiver. In its power to blind the eye and ensnare the steps of man, it has no rival. To illustrate this fact, we may notice the manner in which men yield themselves to every flattering delusion, and are beguiled of heaven. True religion evidently is founded on right views of God, and right views of man. If God, the great object of religious worship, be not understood, or man, the subject of religious impression, be viewed in a false light, then erroneous doctrines will be believed, and a wrong standard of duty adopted. And how widely has the device of human imagination departed from the simplicity of truth in both these respects! how incorrect and foolish the judgment of the great mass of mankind concerning both God and man. True it is, and stamped on every page of man's history, that "the world by wisdom, knew not God," neither by wisdom did they know themselves.

Look out on the entire heathen world in every generation. How "vain their imaginations" of God and man; "their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things." But these blinded idolaters are not the only persons whom the heart deceives in the knowledge of God. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." It is true of the whole human family, where the light of revelation has not shined, that "the world by wisdom knew not God." And even those who have the Bible are easily blinded. Many, like Israel of old, judge that Jehovah is like one of themselves, and therefore try all the principles of his government, and scrutinize all his attributes, with as overweening confidence and presumption, as if they were sitting in judg

VOL. III.

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