any longer, so he balanced his accounts, and now brings you the half of his earnings with many thousand thanks." Saying this the young man placed several piles of crowns upon the table.

The Elector drew his hand across his eyes to wipe away the tears, and cried out, "What! you are the same ? Did you then gain all this

by the little animal?

"Not exactly," answered the Savoyard, "but what I gained by

that laid the foundation of the other, therefore the half of that belongs to you too; besides, the price of the little animal, and to that you must add the interest of it."

This time, tears started visibly to the eyes of the Elector, and he said, "Worthy young man, did you not know that I was only in joke, about taking half? No, keep your honest gains, and may the Lord God bless you abundantly!"

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THOUGHTS, HINTS, AND BOOKS FOR YOU.

MEDITATIONS ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
THURSDAY MORNING.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass

against us:"

OH! FATHER Which art in Heaven! | not hide and shelter ourselves in Blessed be Thy Name, there is FORGIVENESS With Thee seven times a day! Yes! blessed be Thy Name, though Thy justice is Thyself; yet, forasmuch as Thy Very Self is Mercy too, we may still plead when asking for our daily pardon, as we ask for "daily bread," and confessing at a throne of grace our grievous reckoning of sins-idle and wanton ones-secret and whispering ones-sins done to please ourselves -sins done to please others-coldness of love towards one anotheraggravated by cruel inconsideration of feeling-suspicions,-jealousies, -resentments, and estrangements, all that confounds our daily prayer, "FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS

AGAINST US," and would bring us into everlasting confusion.

Yet, Thou art our "Father" still and though "our offences deserve to be visited by Thy rod, and our sins with scourging," Thou "wilt not abhor us for Thy Name's sake, or, take away from us Thy loving kindness!! Father! what would become of us, if we could

Thee, in Whom we possess all things, even abundant redemption, and an endless source of hope in bitterest tribulation! Oh! let us trust Thee without presumption, fearing Thee with a righteous fear, when verily our repentance doth so need repenting of, and our very tears the cleansing of a Redeemer's Blood!! Remember Thy covenant of love, and reckon the due chastisement of our sins as laid upon Him Who delivered Himself up for our offences, and as on this day ascended into the Heavens, there to intercede for us at Thy Right Hand; and let us not rest till Thou hast set us at liberty from past TRESPASSES, and remitten and FORGIVEN whatsoever OUR DEBTS be, that lifting up pure hands to Thee without doubting, we may in heart and mind ascend, and throughout the day continually dwell where Christ our Lord and Saviour liveth, shewing forth in our works, what faith would display in our minds, and imitating what we honor, to the praise and glory of Thy Name!

Lord God Almighty! let every

OLD NEWS BETTER THAN NONE.

NOTES ON CHURCH HISTORY..

No. IX.

66

Ir was clear star-light and moon-light too, for the moon was come to about half her full size, so that all the principal stars, and those only, were plainly visible; and Joseph Butler was looking up into the sky. All of a sudden he felt a familiar hand upon his shoulder, and at the same moment, a familiar voice said, "I am sure I know which way your thoughts are turning; it must be something about the Church, else you could never look so intent." 66 Well," said Butler, "I cannot deny it. I was thinking how those two planets, Jupiter and Mars, stand now with respect to the moon, and to each other; and how far they will have travelled asunder a month hence; and how after a time they will come together again, in a strange irregular way, to your eyes and mine; but as real astronomers know, according to laws more exact than the most perfect tune in music." He stopped for a moment, looking up again; and Hyde (for it was he) said, "But what of the Church? you have not said any thing of that."

B. " Only a fancy; it was just this-that as those bright bodies in the heavens now meet each other, and now are far asunder, and all by fixed laws, secret to us; so the holy Apostles in their course on earth did some things together and many apart-were now gathered, and now scattered; all, apparently, as it fell out, but in reality, not without some great and special purpose in each case."

H. " Very true; and the last time we met, the talk, if you remember, was of St. Peter and St. Paul being present together at Rome; and of the great purposes answered by it."

B. "Yes; Divine Providence has marked itself too signally to be doubted in that instance. But there comes into my mind another place, in which two great Apostles were most deeply interested, and we never hear of their meeting in that place. I will tell you what place I mean-it is the city of Ephesus, in Asia Minor; and you, perhaps, will be able to tell me what two Apostles I mean."

66

"I at least can guess," said another voice which Butler perceived to be that of Mrs. Hyde, who was standing near them out of the moonlight, and whom Butler had not seen before. "I can guess who was one of the two,-St. Paul, the Apostle

of Ephesus in the first instance; but who could the other be?" She paused a moment, glanced towards the sky, and cried out, "Oh, now I know which of the Apostles you must mean. It must be St. John, the beloved disciple; and shall I just tell you what put it into my head? I happened to look up, and I saw those seven stars; and it brought to my mind the seven stars which we read of in the beginning of Revelations; seven stars seen by St. John in our Lord's right Hand, and explained by our Lord Himself to mean the seven Churches which are in Asia, whereof Ephesus is the first. One is sure after that, that St. John must have had the Church of Ephesus very much in his heart."

B. "Yes; and it is known from old writers, that although St. Paul was the first who preached the Gospel at Ephesus, and founded the Church there, yet St. John was considered as having in some sense the special supervision of the province of Asia Minor."

Mrs. H. "But I have been used to think of St. John as living in Jerusalem, and waiting on the Blessed Virgin, as our Lord on the cross enjoined him."

B. "Yes; as long as she lived. But after her death, which is said to have happened A.D. 48, about the time of the Council in Acts xiv., we are not told what became of St. John for many years, and can only accept the general tradition, that he did the work of an Apostle in Asia Minor, and perhaps still further eastward; for even down to modern times there has been a tradition in a part of India that he preached the Gospel there; and I have read that St. Augustine calls the first Epistle of St. John, A Letter from him to the Parthians.""

H." Then, perhaps, when St. Paul was so much up and down in Asia Minor, St. John might be employed in those more eastern parts; and this may account for the two Apostles not meeting."

B. If they did not meet; but of course many many things happened, more than are set down in the Acts and other histories."

H. “ Any-how, by what I can make out from your sayings, it seems that St. John does not come in sight, as it were, in the general history of the Church, until some time more or less after St. Paul's martyrdom."

B. "Just so.

The chief thing after the two great Apostles' martyrdom for a long while, was the destruction of Jerusalem,

which of course had a great effect in turning men's minds towards Christ and away from His enemies. It happened A.D. 70; and then the Churches seem to have had rest, and to have been multiplied, without any very remarkable event, till about A.D. 96, towards the latter end of the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian. This Domitian, being a cruel and capricious tyrant, became jealous of the Christians, and began a persecution against them; and St. John, who in the mean time had settled many Churches in Asia, and especially one very famous one in Smyrna, was had up to Rome, put upon his trial, and, as far as his own will went, suffered martyrdom; for he was plunged into boiling oil, but by a great miracle, came out unhurt."

H. "Like the three children out of the fiery furnace."

6

Mrs. H. "And so, though he died not as St. Peter, but in some sense, tarried till our Lord came,' yet he truly drank of His cup-His cup of suffering, as He had promised. But I wonder;" here she paused, with a sort of doubtful look.

H. "Don't be afraid, dear Margaret. I am sure you were not going to say any thing you need be ashamed of."

Mrs. H. "Well, I will tell you. I was thinking what could be the reason why this of St. John was not to be remembered, like other martyrdoms of Apostles, in the Prayer-Book."

B." It is remembered, though few perhaps are aware of it. Let us go into the house," (for all this time the three friends were walking up and down in the moonlight, under some very large elms by Butler's garden) " and I will show it you in the calendar."

66

H. "Oh, the calendar. Well, I have a sort of dim notion of the words, of St. John, Port Latin,' being there set down over against some day: can that be what you mean?"

B. 66

Yes, that is it:" look here, (for now they were come in, and had got a light) "here it is, on the 6th of May." H. "But what is the meaning of 'Port Latin?'"

B. 66

Why, as Mr. Jones pointed out to me, Port is an old word that means 'gate,' and this thing happened to St. John just outside of one of the gates of Rome, called the Latin Port, or Latin gate."

Mrs. H. "Ah, then, Rome was honored remarkably indeed, as a place of triumphant martyrdoms, having three, and not only one of the chiefest Apostles martyred there."

B. "We may, perhaps, suppose, that it pleased the Almighty