THE CROSS-AN EVENING SCENE, THE day had been tempestuous; heavy clouds One watcher seemed to guard the sacred spot- Caught his last ray, and, like some lonely star, THE CONSUMPTIVE. The following verses were suggested by the well-known fondness that persons in consumption have for flowers: AH! Hubert, dear Hubert, thanks, thanks for this For heedless I twined in the garland that day The flowers and the fruits are much to me now- The flower that ne'er raises its down-drooping eye, Of which its sweet blossoms have long been the LETTERS FROM ADINA.-(Third Series.) BY REV. J. H INGRAHAM. NO. VI. Jerusalem. Y DEAR FATHER-I have the raising of the daughter of the ruler received with joy your let-Jairus, and of the son of the widow at Nain, ter, in which you say you I have already written you. Besides these shall leave Egypt with the miracles of healing and raising from the dead, next passover caravan, in he has been seen walking upon the sea a order to visit Jerusalem. league from the shore, as firmly as if he trode Already you must be on the way, upon a floor of porphyry; which many of the and are by this time near Gaza, fishermen seeing, they were filled with terror, where my uncle Amos says the ca- and made all sail to flee to the land, where ravan will halt to-morrow night. they spread it abroad. He has restored sight My heart bounds to embrace you, (to the blind, whose eyes were wholly gone; and my eyes fill with bright tears at and created new limbs where legs and arms the thought that I shall once more had been lost for years. Last week, Eli, the gaze upon your noble countenance, and hear paralytic, whom you knew, a scribe of the the loved tones of your paternal voice. My Levites, whose hand has been withered nine happiness is augmented to know that you will years, so that he had been dependent on the be here while Jesus is in the city; for it is alms of the worshippers in the Temple for said, and John, Mary's cousin, asserts it, that his bread, hearing of the power of Jesus, he will certainly be at the Passover. I wish, sought him at the house of uncle Amos, dear father, oh, I wish you to see him, and to where he was abiding; for it was our blessed hear him, because I feel that you would be privilege to have him our guest, for John, his unable to resist the conviction that he is the beloved disciple, being betrothed to the fair very Messias of God, of whom Moses and daughter of uncle Amos, my gentle cousin the Prophets wrote. But if his words, that Mary, always led the prophet to our house. divine eloquence and wisdom which flow from his sacred lips, do not convince you, the miracles he will do in proof of his mission will be resistless. These miracles are daily becoming more and more mighty and amazing. For himself, for his own aggrandizement, and personal safety, (for often has his life been put in peril by his foes) he never resorts to this divine power; but to give attestation to his words of truth that he came from God, to heal the suffering, to relieve the distressed, he daily performs them. If man never spake "Ah, lady, I fear it is too much happiness like him, man never worked wonders such as for me to expect. It is more than I dare he works. He has converted water into wine; dream of. But I have come to him, hoping." healed by a word the dying son of the noble-His voice trembled, and tears dropped from man, Chuza, Herod's first officer of his house- his eyes, as he thought of his family in pohold, though many leagues from him at the verty, and of his own helplessness. time; he stilled a fearful tempest on the sea shall I speak to the great prophet, daughterof Tiberius, by speaking to it and command-I, a beggar at the gate of the temple? Speak ing peace! In the country of the Gadarenes for me, and Jehovah shall bless thee, child. he cast out unclean spirits from many demo- My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth!" niacs, who, in coming out of the bodies of those they had possessed, acknowledged his power, and confessed him, as if against their will, to be the Christ, the son of David. Of Jesus was reclining with our family at the evening meal, at the close of the day on which the uproar had taken place in the Temple, as described in my last letter but one, when Eli came and stood within the door. Humble and doubting, his knees trembled, and he timidly and wistfully looked towards Jesus, but did not speak. I knew at once what the afflicted man came for, and approached him 〈 saying, "Fear not, Eli; ask him, and he will make thee whole !" "How Jesus did not see the poor man, his face being turned towards Rabbi Amos, to whom he was explaining the meaning of the sacrifice of Abel. But leaving this conversation he said, in a gentle voice, without turning round : "Come to me, Eli, and ask what is in thy heart, and fear not; for if thou believest thou shalt receive all thy wish!" At this Eli ran forward, and casting himself at Jesus' feet, kissed them and said: "Rabbi, I am a poor, sinful man; I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of the Blessed!" "Dost thou believe, Eli, that I have power to make thee whole ?" asked Jesus, looking pleasantly upon him. "I believe, my Lord," answered Eli, bowing his face to the ground. 66 66 'My Lord, and my God!" "Thou art now healed, Eli," said Jesus, impressively; "go, and sin no more!" 66 'Master, thou knowest all things! Lo! my sin even was not hid from thee, though I believed no eye beheld it. Men and bre(thren," he continued, addressing those who were assembled, "well did this holy prophet of God say unto me, at the first, my sins were forgiven,' instead of bidding me stretch forth my hand; for it was a sin that brought on my paralysis, as a punishment for it. I had copied a parchment for the Levite, Phineas, the tax-gatherer for the Temple service, and wickedly altered a figure in an amount, by which I should be a gainer of four shekels of silver. Instantly upon writing the last figure, I felt a stroke of palsy, and my arm fell dead at my side. It was God's punatishment. This was eight years ago. eye knew the deed but God's and my own; but I have repented it in deep humiliation. Therefore, as my withered arm was for the punishment of my sin, well did my lord, the mighty prophet, say unto me, my sin was forgiven,' for then would my punishment have been removed; for I felt already at his word the blood coursing through my parched veins!" Thy sins, then, be forgiven thee. Rise and go to thy house, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." "This man! forgiveth he sins also ?" cried the venerable priest, Manasses, who was the table. "He is a blasphemer; for God alone forgiveth sins. Will he call himself God?" And he rose quickly up and rent his robe, and spat upon the floor in detestation. "Manasses," said Jesus, mildly, "tell me whether is it an easier thing to do, to say to this man kneeling here, Thy sins be forgiven thee,' or to say, 'Stretch forth thine hand whole as the other?"" "It would be more difficult to do the latter," answered Manasses, surprised at the question. "Who alone can do the latter, oh, priest ?" "God alone, who first made him," answered Manasses, gazing upon the withered arm, which, shriveled to the bone, hung useless at his side. "If, then, God alone heals, and God alone forgiveth sins, both acts, Manasses, would be of God! Therefore," said Jesus to the paralytic, "I say unto thee, oh, Eli, stretch forth thy hand whole!" No Upon this frank acknowledgment, Manasses cried in amazement, "Truly, God is good to Israel. The hour of his promise is come. Verily, oh, Jesus of Nazareth, thou art the son of the Highest! Forgive a worm of the dust, and my sins also!" And the proud priest fell at Jesus' feet, and bowed his snowwhite locks upon them in adoration and reve rence. If, then, dear father, the secret sins of men are known to Jesus; if he forgives sins as well as heals; if he removes the temporal penalties which God inflicts upon men for their iniquities, what name, what power, what exThe man, looking steadily in Jesus' face, cellence, shall we give to him? Shall we and seeming to derive confidence from its ex-not, with Esaias, call him "the Wonderful, pression of power, made a convulsive move- the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince ment with his arm, which, his mantle falling of Peace, who shall sit upon the throne of off, was bared to the shoulder, exhibiting David to establish it with justice and judgall its hideous deformity, and stretched it ment henceforth, even for ever ?" "Who," forth at full length. Immediately the arm I repeat with Manasses, "who forgiveth sins was rounded with flesh and muscles; the but God alone?" pulse filled and leaped with the warm lifeblood, and it became whole as the other. The change was so instantaneous that it was done before we could see how it was done. The amazed and wonderingly delighted Eli bent his elbow, expanded and contracted the fingers, felt the flesh, and pressed it with his other hand, before he could realize that he was healed. And he then lifted up his voice in praise to Jehovah, and casting himself at the feet of the prophet, cried: How shall I be able to remember and repeat all the other mighty works which Jesus has done in proof of his divine power! You must have heard how he fed, from a small basket of bread, the frugal provision which a lad had brought into the desert for his mother and his brothers, no less than five thousand men, not naming the women and children. This vast multitude had followed him far from the cities to listen to his teachings; people of all classes and tongues, including not a few Roman captains. When the mighty host was ing with us, and sleeping with the peaceful an hungered he caused them to sit down on helplessness of an infant beneath our roofs. the grass, and from the basket he took forth I dare not trust my thoughts to penetrate the bread inexhaustibly increasing unto his hand mystery in which he walks among us in the as he distributed; so that when all had eaten, veiled Godhead of his power. His beloved there were gathered twelve times as much in disciple, John, says, that Jesus has promised fragments as the little basket originally held. the day is not far off when this veil will be Who, dear father, but Messias could do this removed, and we shall then know him who he miracle? He who could thus create bread at is, and wherefore he has come into the world, his will, is he not Lord of the harvests of the and the infinite results to men of his mission. earth? My mind is overwhelmed, my dear The Passover is nigh at hand, when we father-I am filled with astonishment and shall again behold the majesty of his presence. awe, when I reflect upon the might, power, I have just heard that Lazarus, the amiable and majesty of Jesus, and I fear to ask my-brother of our cousins Mary and Martha, is self,-Who more than man is he? Is he ve- taken suddenly ill, and I close this letter in rily the awful and terrible Jehovah of Sinai,order to accompany my cousin Mary and her visible in the human form? Oh, wondrous father to Bethany, from whence they have and incomprehensible mystery! a man with sent us an earnest message of entreaty. May Almighty power, and manifesting the very God preserve his life. attributes of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, Your devoted daughter, walking the earth, conversing with men, dwelling in our habitations, eating and drink ADINA. TIME'S CHANGES. "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up."—Psalms, 27th ch., 10th v. THE JUBILEE YEAR. HE recent Year of Jubilee, properly regarded, was of deep interest to the true friends and followers of Jesus. The Venerable Society whose institution it commemorated, and whose interests, and the interests generally of the great work committed to it, were thereby intended to be promoted, has been an honored instrument of God in a large diffusion of the blessings of His grace. It is devoutly to be hoped that there has been, throughout the Reformed Catholic Church, such a general attention to the peculiar claims of the year, and the spiritual benefit that should have been sought from it, in Dioceses, Parishes, Missionary stations, and individual ministers and members, as will leave behind it an extensive, permanent, and growing blessing. Its catholic character renders it peculiarly interesting to the Christian heart. It appealed to the religious principles, sensibilities, and sympathies, of the pious towards God, and the earnest in love to man, and called to prayer, and Holy Communion, and pastoral instruction and exhortation, in the drawing of hearts towards its commemorations and its holy objects, throughout the world-wide British Empire, and the length and breadth of our Republic. It beautifully illustrated the essential oneness, though, in non-essentials, they be somewhat diverse, of the Catholic Churches in England, Ireland, Scotland, and America. This point is eminently deserving of devout practical reflection. One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church; Regarding our respective branches, national, diocesan, and parochial, in their connection with this one universal Church, and indeed as being legitimate churches of Christ only as existing in that connection, and regulating their affairs in conformity with its essential unity, is eminently favorable to the due cherishing of spiritual, as distinguished from secular, views of the Church. The one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one communion of the body and blood of Christ, and one Apostles' fellowship, which the Bible makes essential to true Christian unity, are bonds binding together the whole of Christ's Catholic Church on earth; which, overlooking all the more secular ties and arrangements which distinguish earthly sections, draw the faithful members of that Church to a just appreciation of the inestimable blessing of being all one in Christ, guided in His one service, and drinking into His One Spirit, through the ministry, ordinances, and worship, which He has appointed as means of intercourse between Him and His people. The great Roman perversion of the Church and religion of Christ, by introducing a visible headship as the centre of union for all Christians, in utter contrariety to the principles of Scripture and primitive catholicity, has thus set itself against the spirit and authority of the gospel, and therefore loosed its hold on the promises made by Christ to the Church, as established by Him. The consequence is, its deluded followers cannot repose securely on the Divine Arm, but must utterly secularize their boasted head, and There are, indeed, endearments of a vir- give him worldly policies, and armed hosts, tuous and holy kind, and which furnish legi- and princely powers, and civil diplomacy to timate motives for Christian zeal and enter-urge, and battles to enforce, his will, that he prise, in considerations connected with our national Church, our Diocese, and our Parish. Let them be cherished, and be constant motives for prayer and effort in the cause of Christ. But they should by no means be allowed to estrange the mind and heart from thought and care and love, warming to devotion, and energizing to effort, and prompting to generous contribution, in the good working of our faith in those oft-repeated articles of the Christian creed, which, as they contain truths everywhere equally true, so do they enforce a charity equally enlarged-" The may keep his spiritual children in his chosen way, even though myriads of them fall by his slaughtering bands. Time was, when this iniquitous desecration of the Church brought upon the world the heaviest curses of tyranny and oppression, of bloodshed and cruelty. And even now, miserably contemptible as are the civil and military headship, the municipal authority, and the international negotiations, of the prelate who affects to wear the mitre and the crown, to wield the sword and the Bible, to save souls by grace, and to destroy lives by battles, to |