"That housell is Christ's bodye, not bodylie, “but ghostly."

CROSS WRITING.

A French bishop writing letters at the same time to Cardinal de Fleury and the duchess of C-n, by mistake, directed one letter for the other: that intended for the duchess, but which the cardinal received, was as follows:

"I have just now written to his old reverence, 66 my charming queen, to entreat his leave to "return to Paris; I make no doubt but he will. "grant it; as for the rest, the air is so pure here, "that I have acquired a good state of health, as

you will perceive, when I come to have the "happiness of seeing you."

The prelate was unconscious of the blunder he had committed, until he received the following answer, which the cardinal immediately sent him:

"His old reverence advises you to extinguish your passion: his majesty commands you to "remain in your diocese till further orders, and requires that your life and conversation may "be as pure as the air you breathe; and that

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you make no other use of your good state of "health, but to discharge the duties of your "function."

EPISCOPAL BENEVOLENCE.

Richard de Beavy, bishop of Durham, in the reign of Edward the third, had every week eight quarters of wheat made into bread for the poor, besides his alms duties, fragments of his house, and large sums of money which he bestowed on his journies.

One of bishop Burnet's parishioners, who was in execution for a debt, applied to him for assistance. The bishop requested to know what would serve him, and reinstate him in his trade? The man named the sum. Burnet instantly called his servant to give him it. " Sir," said he, "it is all we have in the house." "Well, give it to this poor man, you do not know the plea"sure there is in making a man glad."

An ancestor of Richard Cumberland, of the the same name, who was consecrated bishop of Peterborough in 1691, was of so humane and generous a disposition, that no church revenue could enrich him. At the end of every year, he distributed to the poor whatever surplus he found upon a minute inspection of his accounts, reserving only one small deposit of twenty-five pounds, which was found at his death in his bureau, with directions to employ it for the discharge of his funeral expences, a sum, in his modest calculation, fully sufficient to commit his body to the earth.

PRUSSIAN MONK.

Frederick the Great of Prussia, was more conspicuous for brilliancy of talent than for attachment to the Roman faith, or indeed to any other religious establishment: desirous of recovering the revenues of one of his forests from a monastery long in their receipt, he demanded of the principal, upon what authority such sums were diverted from his own coffers, and was instantly informed that the income had been given in consideration of the engagement of the holy brotherhood, daily to say masses for the repose of the soul of one of his Majesty's ancestors. "How much longer," said Frederick, with evident vextion, "will that holy work continue requisite?" Sire," said the wary prior, "it is impossible for me to speak of the precise time; but when it "shall have been effected, I shall instantly dis

Virgin Martyrs always obtained a particular veneration in the early ages. Vows of celibacy were considered not only highly reputable among women, but peculiarly acceptable to the Deity, in whose honour they were made. At first these "chaste spouses of the church" retired to dens and caves, to avoid the fascinations

of the world, wholly dedicating their existence to devotion; and this practice was much commended by the writers of the fourth century: but in the following century, when regular establishments were first formed for "that holy purpose," the zeal of the church to promote religious seclusion became ardent in the extreme; St. Ambrose urged the propriety of virgin vows with particular vehemence, and other writers offered incitements of a most blaphemous tendency, identifying the votaries with the deity. Even St. Jerome advocated the cause in a manner not to be reconciled to modern feelings upon that subject; and in his letter to Eustochium the Nun, expressly calls her his Lady, because she was the spouse "of Christ, and reminds her Mother that she had "the honour to be God's Mother-in-law!"

THE PATRIARCH NICON.

The celebrated Nicon, the patriarch of Russia, in 1652, was remarkable for his beneficence. In time of scarcity, the poor flocked in crowds to partake of his bounty; and not a day passed in which he did not distribute bread and money. He built four hospitals at Novogorod; one for the infirm; another for widows; a third for orphans and a fourth for those who were without the means of subsistence.

IRISH VISIONS.

As the Rev. Philip Skelton was once walking on the road near Monaghan, a fine dressed servant came riding up to him and asked him if he knew a Mr. Skelton? He said he had a right to know him a little for he was the man himself. The servant then gave him a letter he had for him signed ****, a lady of fortune, who told him that her dear husband was just dead, and as she had more dependance on him than on any man alive, she begged he would come to her family to teach her children, for which she would allow him an ample salary, and also sufficient leisure to pursue his studies. The offer appearing advantageous required some consideration. He therefore informed the lady by the servant, he would give her a positive answer in a day or two. The rest of the day he passed in anxious thought: and at night he lay sleepless in his bed, without a fixed resolution; towards morning he fell into a dose, and saw clearly a vision, he said, which determined his choice. He saw, he assured us, the appearance of a wig block rising by degrees out of the floor of his room, which continued thus to rise till it got above the floor, and then moving back and forward, said in a solemn voice, "beware of what you are about," and then