power, and confer healing, sets forth the eighth article, I believe in the Holy Ghost. 9. The Topaz has two colours, one like gold, the other clearer. In clearness it surpasses all gems, and nothing is more beautiful. It signifies those who love God and their neighbour. According to Ayguan, the topaz, which receives as in a vessel the light of the sun, symbolises that which thus stores up the light of the Sun of Righteousness, the Holy Catholic Church. 10. The Chrysoprasus, which is purple, with drops of gold, signifies those who pass their life in tribulation and suffering, yet constantly abide in charity. This stone shines like fire, and communicates its virtues without diminishing them, and thus typifies the communion of saints. II. The Jacinth changes its appearance with that of the sky. It therefore represents those who, like the apostle, can preach wisdom among them that are perfect, and yet have milk for babes in Christ. Thus was St. Paul a jacinth, for he became all things to all men. The jacinth is also supposed to have the virtue of invigorating, and therefore is a type of the resurrection of the body. 12. The Amethyst is entirely red, and shoots out rosy flames. Its colour signifies earthly sufferings; its emissions, prayers for those that cause them. For it is the virtue of virtues to pray for persecutors, and we read of few who have done so; yet there are two in the Old Testament, Moses and Samuel, and two in the New, the Lord Christ and Stephen.' I do not perceive how the quality of forgiveness can be justly included in the beautiful promise made by Samuel to the erring Saul, 'Nevertheless I will not cease to pray for thee,' as it does not appear that Saul had at any time injured or persecuted Samuel, but that he treated him to the last with reverence and honour. Few things in the books of the Old Testament are so affecting as the love and loyalty which Samuel seems to have felt for Saul and his house-a faithful friendship extending beyond the grave. 'By this time to-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me.' See on these words a short poem of extraordinary beauty by Charles Wesley : 'What can these solemn lines portend? Some gleam of hope when life shall end! Not in a state of hellish pain, A HYMN OF INTERCESSION. Come, poor sinners lowly, Come, whate'er your needs, 1875. Come, for you the holy For his brother Cain, Come, poor sinners lowly, Sold and sent before, Joseph, and no other, Open holds the door. Come, poor sinners lowly, Come, whate'er your deeds! Come, for you the holy Victim intercedes ; Ever at the door, Meets the blood that crieth, Crieth evermore.1 1 'Ye are come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel' (Heb. xii. 24). ON THE JOY EXPERIENCED BY CERTAIN BELIEVERS IN THE NEAR APPROACH OF DEATH. 'Not like the rulers of our vanities, At earthly feasts art Thou, O Love Divine! OSEPH ALLEYNE in dying (writes Baxter) would often commend the love of Christ, speaking of his Lord's sufferings and of His agony, his Loveletters, for so he called the holy history of His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and His second. coming, the thoughts of which would ever much delight him.' From a letter of Charles Wesley's to his brother, describing their father's death: 'He often laid his hand upon my head and said, "Be steady. The Christian faith will surely 1 revive in this kingdom. You shall see it, though I shall not." To my sister Emily he said, "Don't be concerned at my death, God will then begin to manifest Himself to my family." When we were about him his usual expression was, "Now let me hear you talk of heaven." On my asking him whether he did not feel himself worse, he replied, "Oh, my Charles! I feel a great deal. God chastens me with strong pain, but I praise Him for it, I thank Him for it, I love Him for it." On the 25th his voice failed, and nature seemed exhausted, when, on my brother's asking him whether he was not near heaven, he answered distinctly, and with the most of hope and triumph that could be expressed in sounds, "Yes, I am.” Of his admirable wife it is recorded that she desired her children, so soon as she was dead, 'to lift up a hymn of praise, and to sing Halleluiah.’ John Wesley's last words, in so far as I remember, were,' The clouds drop fatness. It is related of Henry Venn that, as death approached, his raptures were so great that his physican said to him, 'Sir, while you are in this state you cannot die.' Of Catherine de Jésus (a disciple of St. Teresa's) we are told, that hear 1 So in St. John's Gospel: 'Except a corn of wheat die, it continueth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' 2 |