Piece by piece we plan the perfect whole;

Fitting in the grey and purple shadows

With the golden flashes of the soul; Brown and russet-red of wayside travel, Tender blue which marks the light above,

Pearly gleams of joy, fair green of promise,

Clouds of hate, and rosy tints of love.

Noble temples rear their marble columns 'Midst the spreading foliage of the land

Temples proud of honour, wealth and learning,

Built on rock, it may be, or on sand. Here and there a broken pillar lieth Prostrate in the dust; while some gay flower

Twines around the shaft its loving tendrils,

Hides the basement in a leafy bower.

Ah! each day a little stone is added,
Once cemented, always to remain;
Ah! each act is gone from us for ever,
Never, never, to return again.

If the colours seem not quite harmo-
nious,

And the pattern scarcely yet complete, Still, at the great Master's awful bidding,

Must the work be laid before His feet.

Avoid it as

A Short and Pithy Sermon. WE no man anything.' Keep out of debt. you would war, pestilence, and famine. Hate it with a perfect hatred. Abhor it with an entire and absolute abhorrence. Dig potatoes, break stones, do anything that is honest and useful rather than run in debt. As you value good digestion, a healthy appetite, a placid temper, a smooth pillow, pleasant dreams, and happy wakings, keep out of debt. Debt is the hardest of all task-masters, the most cruel of all oppressors. It is a millstone about the neck. It eclipses the sun, it blots out the stars, it dims and defaces the beautiful sky. It furrows the forehead with premature wrinkles; it plucks from the eye its light; it drags all nobleness and kindness out of the port and bearing of man. It takes the mirth out of his laughter, and all stateliness and freedom from his walk. Come not under its dominion.

Downward and ever farther,
And ever the brook beside,
And ever fresher murmured,

And ever clearer, the tide.
Is this the way I was going?
Whither, O brooklet, say!
Thou hast with thy soft murmur
Murmured my senses away.

Hugh Latimer, Bishop and Martyr.

1475-1555.

UGH LATIMER was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire; his father was a worthy yeoman, and of him Latimer said, when preaching before Edward VI., 'My father kept me to school, else I had not been able to preach before the King's Majesty now. He married my (six) sisters with twenty nobles a-piece. He kept hospitality to his neighbours, and gave alms to the poor, and all this he did of the same farm.' Hugh Latimer also told of his training in archery. In my time, my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot as to learn any other thing. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms, as divers other nations do, but with strength of the body. . . . It is a worthy game, a wholesome exercise, and much commended in physic.'

At the age of fourteen, Hugh was entered at Christ Church, Cambridge. He was elected a Fellow of Clare Hall, and in 1500 took a Master's degree, and was ordained.

Tidings of the preaching of Luther in Germany having reached Cambridge, the zeal of Latimer was awakened. His energetic nature threw him at once into the contest, and he attacked the foreign Reformers, especially Melancthon, with ardent eloquence. So highly were his efforts prized at Cambridge, that Latimer was elected to the office of Cross-bearer in religious processions.

In 1525, however, the Church of Rome lost the ablest champion of her corruptions, for the eyes of Latimer had been gradually opened to them by his friend the Reformer Bilney, a clergyman of most holy life, who, perceiving Latimer's candour and honest love of truth, had induced him to lay aside his Papal prejudices. All that he learnt, Latimer, with his usual ardour, began to preach openly, and he astonished all Cambridge by his exposition of Scriptural doctrine, his protests against locking up the Bible in an unknown tongue, and his attacks on the prevailing immorality and superstition.

Latimer and Bilney preached not only with their lips but by their lives. They used to walk together on what the Romanists named after them the Heretics' Hill,' and help each other to a clearer perception of Scriptural truth, as well as devise plans for improving the condition of the poor of Cambridge. They also constantly relieved and ministered to the sick and needy, the inmates of the lunatic asylum, the leper-house, and the prison. These two friends were at the head of the reforming party at Cambridge, and the meekness and gravity of Bilney, the cheerfulness, humour, and eloquence of Latimer, and the unaffected piety of both, wrought much upon the junior students.

Latimer was, however, to lose his beloved companion, for Saint Bilney, as he called him, 'died for God's word at Norwich,' converting thereby not a few to his opinions.

Latimer's character was reflected in his sermons, for they were simple and forcible, with a vein of pleasantry running through them, which rendered them popular with all classes. Even the bigoted Bishop of Ely confessed their excellence, although he joined the other authorities of Cambridge in striving to put a stop to them. At last, to the surprise and dismay of his enemies, the powerful Cardinal

Hugh Latimer, Bishop and Martyr.

Wolsey took the side of the harassed preacher, and gave him authority to preach what he would, even under the beard' of his chief enemy.

Latimer's fame for bold and eloquent preaching reached the ears of Henry VIII., and procured his appointment as one of the Commissioners to examine the question of the invalidity of Henry's marriage to his late brother's wife. Soon after this, Latimer preached before the King in a manner that greatly impressed him, and he became so attracted by Latimer's frankness, courage, and earnestness, as to regard and treat him as a friend. Latimer, however, would not flatter even a royal friend and patron, and when Henry made a proclamation forbidding the use of the Bible in English, the favourite Court preacher wrote to him a letter of remonstrance and reproof. This letter is a memorial among many of the disinterested love of truth with which the Reformers of our Church were endued. It shows, too, how far Latimer's ideas had advanced, for he maintained the long-discarded principle that persecution is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, 'for they who do persecute be void and without all truth.'

Although this letter did not move the King to give up his decree, yet it gave him a still higher reverence for the writer. Latimer had many friends at Court, and among them the noted physician, Dr. Butts, and Thomas Lord Cromwell, the statesman, and they desired that he should have some high post in London, where his abilities might have full scope and be helpful to the King in his contest with Rome. Latimer, however, preferred taking a quiet country parish, for Court life was distasteful to him, vexing his pure and heavenly mind, and he was content to preach to the lowliest of his brethren that message of salvation which, in his own words, 'was sealed with the Blood of our Saviour Christ.' Gladly, therefore, did the eminent preacher retire to his obscure parsonage of Kenton in Wiltshire, where, though now in his fifty-fourth year, he laboured with youthful energy among his parishioners; and besides this, he obtained from the University of Cambridge a general license for preaching, and by this means taught the primitive doctrines of the English Reformation throughout Wiltshire, where the pulpits were willingly opened to him; and he also preached frequently at Bristol.

The people heard Latimer gladly whenever he appeared, but many of the parish clergy bitterly opposed his teaching, and after vainly attempting to silence him for three years, they persuaded Stokesley, Bishop of London, to summon him, and on his alleging that he was not in that Bishop's jurisdiction, they persuaded Warham, the Archbishop, to do the same.

Latimer considered it his duty to comply with this regular summons at once, and although his friends advised him to escape, and he was suffering from severe illness, the brave old man travelled to London in the depth of winter. Before departing he had written to Stokesley, who was commissioned to examine him, and observed, among other things,- Methinks it were more comely for my Lord, if it were comely for me to say so, to be a preacher himself, than to be a disquieter of preachers. Either my Lord of London will judge mine outer man or mine inward. If he will have to do only with mine outward man, how I have ordered my life, I trust I shall please both my Lord God and also my Lord of London, for I have taught according to the

Hugh Latimer, Bishop and Martyr.

Scriptures, and with all diligence moved my auditors to faith and charity; but if my Lord will needs invade my inner man, and break violently into my heart, I fear then I may indeed violently offend my Lord of London. Finally, as you say, the matter is weighty, even as weighty as my life is worth, and ought to be well looked to. How to look well to it I know not, otherwise than to pray my Lord God, night and day, that as He hath boldened me to preach His truth, so He will strengthen me to suffer for it, and I trust that God will help me; which trust if I had not, the ocean sea should have divided my Lord of London and me by this time.'

On reaching London, Latimer had to appear before a Court of Bishops and Doctors, and a paper was given to him wherein were drawn up the special Popish doctrines concerning Purgatory, the Mass as a sacrifice, the absolute power of the Pope, the doctrine of merit, and the adoration of images; and Latimer was desired to sign it. Having read the document, he returned it unsigned; whereon the Primate, with a severe frown, expressed a hope that at the next meeting the recusant would be in a better frame of mind.

This scene was frequently repeated-Latimer continued inflexible, and his examiners continued to torment him. Three times a-week they cited him to appear, putting to him captious questions, and hoping to teaze him into compliance, or beguile him to declare his opinions.

Latimer afterwards, in a sermon, thus described one of these meetings:

'I was brought to be examined. . . but whereas before there was a fire in the chimney, now the fire was taken away, and an arras hanged over the chimney, and the table stood near the chimney's end. There was among these Bishops that examined me one with whom I had been very familiar, and whom I took for my great friend, an aged man, and he sat next the table-end. Then, among other questions, he put forth a very subtle and crafty one, and when I should make answer, "I pray you, Master Latimer," said he, "speak out, I am very thick of hearing, and there be many that sit far off." I marvelled at this, that I was bidden to speak out, and began to misdeem, and gave an ear to the chimney, and there I heard a pen plainly scratching behind the cloth. They had appointed one there to write all my answers, that I should not start from them. God was my good Lord, and gave me answers; I could never else have escaped them.'

At length, being ill and wearied out by this hard usage, Latimer wrote an excellent letter to the Archbishop, remonstrating against it, and vindicating his conduct; but all to no effect, until the schemes of his enemies were unexpectedly overthrown by the King himself, who interposed, rescued Latimer from their hands, and sent for him to come to his Court.

The Protestant Queen, Anne Boleyn, and the Lord Cromwell, thought that Latimer was well qualified to promote the Reformation, and they easily persuaded the King to offer to him the vacant Bishopric of Worcester; and as it had not been sought by Latimer, he considered his appointment as the work of Providence, and it gave great joy to the friends of the Reformation throughout England. To Latimer himself it was only an incentive to increased lowliness of mind,