John Wycliffe.

He retired quietly to Lutterworth, but the fatigue and anxiety he had undergone brought on so severe an illness that he was nearly at the point of death. The Mendicant Friars, hearing of their great enemy's illness, sent eight of their brotherhood from London to try if they could extort from him a confession of guilt. On entering his bedchamber, the friars having saluted him with wishes for his recovery, they proceeded to remind him of the evil he had done their order by his writing and preaching, and exhorted him in this extremity to repent and confess these iniquities.

At these words Wycliffe's spirit returned, and having made his attendants raise him up in the bed and support him with pillows, he fixed his eyes on the speaker and exclaimed in a firm voice, 'I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the friars.' The startled deputation hurried from the sick man's chamber in no little dismay and confusion.

Wycliffe was right. He lived, and became more energetic than ever, spending some of his time at Oxford but the greater part at Lutterworth, where he preached twice on Sundays and on all other festivals, and fulfilled every office of an earnest and diligent parish priest. At this time Wycliffe also undertook the great work which has endeared him to many pious hearts-the translation of the whole of the Scriptures into the English language. In his preface he states, that the purpose of his undertaking was 'that poor Christians may in some deal know the text of the Gospel.' This translation irritated his enemies to such an extent, that through them a Bill was brought into Parliament to forbid its being read. John of Gaunt, however, again came boldly forward in Wycliffe's cause, and stopped these proceedings by an animated speech, in which he declared that the people of England would not be the dregs of all men, seeing that all nations beside them had the Word of God in their own tongue.' Wycliffe's Bible has been ably translated into modern English by Sir Frederick Madden.

Having devoted himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures, Wycliffe could not fail to perceive that the innovations which had been made on the primitive state of the Church extended to doctrine as well as to discipline; and, in A.D. 1382, he was summoned before Convocation to answer for his views on the Holy Communion. He showed great power of argument, but as it appeared that he denied the truth of Transubstantiation-that is, the change of the elements into the natural material Body of Our Lord-he was expelled from the Oxford University; and it is surprising that he escaped with his life and was permitted to return to his rectory.

These lenient measures were owing to several causes-one of which was the declining health of the staunch reformer in consequence of an attack of palsy. Besides this, the Papal power was then weakened by the election of two rival Popes, on the death of Gregory the Ninth. After his return home, Wycliffe wrote a tract on the Papacy, calling on the country to pull down the whole fabric of Romish domination.

In December, A.D. 1384, while celebrating mass in his church of Lutterworth, he was seized with another attack of palsy, and died two days afterwards without apparent suffering The character of this eminent man defied the malice of his enemies. No one could ever question the

The Hawthorn.

purity and excellence of his life, or deny that it was solely and simply his love of the Truth which led him into strife with Rome-indeed, that strife involved him in the greatest trouble, difficulty, and danger, from his youth upwards.

His disinterested conduct was the chief source of Wycliffe's wide influence, which did not cease at his death, for his doctrine had been spread almost throughout England by certain travelling preachers called Poor Brethren, whom he had sent forth, and who travelled, taught, and preached with much activity. History proves that this early Reformer had given a severe shock to the Papal system-indeed, in A.D. 1414, the Romish Council of Constance, when sentencing John Huss and Jerome of Prague to the flames, declared that the source of their doctrines was the teaching of Wycliffe. The Council, therefore, decided that the latter was unfit for Christian burial, and actually sent an order to England, that the good Rector's body should be taken up and burnt, and his ashes cast into the little river Swift, which runs by the churchyard of Lutterworth.

Concerning this, Fuller says:-'This brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the ocean; and thus, the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblems of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all over the world.'

It is needful to observe, that the indignation and disgust which Wycliffe felt at the corruptions of Popery, led him on some points into opposite extremes, which is the peril of all Reformers. These points are not touched on in this short memoir, but it is certain that Wycliffe did not always proceed with the caution and moderation of our later English Reformers, who, while casting off novelties in religion, were careful to retain all that was primitive.

John Wycliffe, however, fairly earned for himself the honoured title which has been given to him, of the Morning Star of the Reformation.' C. E. M

M

The Hawthorn.

ANY Christian legends have twined around the Hawthorn, the most popular being that of the celebrated staff of St. Joseph of Arimathea, which, planted by him at Glastonbury, became the thorn which still puts forth its blossoms and its leaves at Christmas. The legend has it that one day, as St. Joseph of Arimathea was walking up a hill near Glastonbury, supporting himself upon a thorn-stick, he paused to take breath in his ascent, and, leaning on his staff, he breathed a prayer for the conversion of the heathen around him, and had a fervent longing that his preaching in Britain might be confirmed by some miracle, such as followed upon the teaching of his fellow-workers in other lands. the wish crossed his mind his dry staff rooted itself, and put forth leaves and blossoms, which it has since done yearly on the day before Christmas.

As

Eight per Cent.

CHAPTER III.

S Ingram went back to Barnshill, Isaac met him on the road. What are the housen like, father? Will it do to buy them ?'

'I don't hardly know what to say, lad. The housen are not much to look at, they've settled a bit on one side.' 'If they pay well, I don't see that we need vex ourselves with the looks! We aren't going to live in them,' replied Isaac. Did you look over them, father?'

'Yes, I went over them, and they're the dirtiest dens as ever I set eyes on. That's what they are, Isaac. The building isn't nothing to complain of, and the carpentering work is not so bad but that it might be worse. The roof is a bit wrong, and the boards have started here and there, owing to the walls settling, and the doors hang uneven for the same reason. But for dirt and filth they're as bad as bad, and the folk as live there are a terrible lot to look at. I did not see many of the men, but the women and children were enough to frighten me. I don't fancy being landlord to such a lot, and that's the truth.'

'You're not going to buy the people, father; and if the housen are good, it won't be hard to get in a better set of tenants,' said Isaac, who was anxious not to let this investment slip through their fingers. 'Look at those three housen in Carr's Lane as Mr. Lloyde bought last summer was two years. He didn't like the lot as was living in them— no wonder either, seeing what sort of folk they was; so he cleaned the housen up a bit, and got tidy tenants, and now there's no better lodgings in the town than they are.'

Mr. Lloyde is a rich man, lad; where he puts money he has more to back it,' said Ingram.

'We've got hands if we haven't got money,' returned Isaac; 'and I don't see but that we could do a bit of cleaning and such-like the same as he had done! What he paid for we could do ourselves.'

'Well, lad, we must think it over, and I'll talk to your mother and Dawson. I am not in any way set against the housen, if they are good housen; but I couldn't abide to get my rents out of such a lot as live there now-it would be like picking money off a dunghill; and how they can pay at all passes me: some of them look nigh clemmed.'

Mrs. Ingram and Dawson took opposite views in the matter, as might have been expected. She was for letting the houses go, and waiting till something more suitable turned up.

'We've waited ever so long already, mother,' replied Isaac; and it may be a year or more before we can light on just the thing we want, and the money is doing nothing to speak of.'

'It won't do nothing to speak of in Stour Street,' returned Mrs. Ingram, quietly.

Eight per cent, ma'am !' said Dawson; 'eight per cent! Don't you call that something?'

'Ah, when you've got it.'

'Well, Hiram Moseley is making it, and why shouldn't Ingram do what he does?'

'Because one man can skin a flint while another can't get the peel

off an orange.

Eight por Cent.

I haven't nothing to say against Hiram Moseley, only I thank the Lord he isn't my husband,' and Mrs. Ingram shut up her lips tight, as if she felt that there were many things she might say if only it pleased her to give them utterance.

I never like to differ from ladies,' said Dawson, politely, for he was a little afraid of his friend's wife; but still, I reckon that Ingram's as good a man of business as any I know, and that in his hands this investment will be likely to turn out a good thing for you all.'

'Yes,' said Isaac. And if Moseley is getting eight per cent from the lot that lives in Stour Street now, I reckon he ought to get more when the housen are made a bit comfortable. Better tenants ought to pay better rent.'

'To be sure,' assented Dawson, whose experience had not led him to learn all the difficulties attending on house property.

If the housen weren't good housen I'd have nothing to say to them,' said Ingram; but, being as they are, I'm inclined to the bargain, though I'm sorry the missus is set agen it. What do you say, Bill? We haven't heard your opinion yet.'

'I should be better pleased if they was in better order; I don't like the thoughts of spending money on them,' replied Bill.

6

A bit of whitewashing on the walls won't cost much,' replied Isaac, sharply. To hear you talk about spending money, anybody would think father was going to pull them down and build them up again!'

'It's easy to begin spending, but it's not so easy to stop as some folk think,' replied Mrs. Ingram, who did not like to see Bill snubbed. 'That's true,' agreed Dawson. 'If housen is to be made pay good interest, you can't stop to mend every pane of glass. Don't you go to do too much in Stour Street, Ingram. I'm not agen folk being clean, far from it but it's the nature of some people to like dirt and to make dirt; and if you are to keep 'em neat and comfortable, it'll take you all your time to do it, and you'll get no thanks, either.'

6

I reckon them as owns Stour Street housen will never own aught but styes,' put in Mrs. Ingram. We whitened our sty once, but the creatures seemed all put about, same as I might be if I'd got to do my work in a grand silk dress. It weren't many days afore they messed it up though. I doubt it will be the same with the housen at Hailesworth, and the people as lives in them.'

'Mr. Lloyde's housen, down in Carr's Lane, are not like pigstyes, mother,' replied Isaac; and I never heard tell that he did more than clean them up, the same as father talks of doing.'

You never heard tell of it, my lad, but there must have been more done than whitewashing to make Carr's Lane sweet and clean. But I'm not going to bother any more about it; you and the father are set on these housen, as is plainly to be seen, and when men-folk don't want to see a ditch they're bound to tumble into it before they'll believe it lies in their road.'

Then you agree to buying the housen, mother? asked Isaac, eagerly.

Let

'I don't agree; but I won't say anything more about it. your father please himself. I know well enough he wants to do the best he can for us all.'

Eight per Cent.

'Ah, Polly, that I do! and eight per cent is a sight of money coming in where there's a family.'

But Mrs. Ingram only shook her head; she was not going to be enticed into further argument, or to repeat her belief that they would never see eight per cent on any money laid out in Stour Street.

Little more was said that night, but it was understood among them that the purchase was to be made, and when Dawson left he was empowered to speak to Hiram Moseley on Ingram's behalf.

The next evening Moseley called, and saw Ing: am alone. During this interview the purchase was arranged, and, before any one in the village knew what he intended to do, the two houses in Stour Street had passed into Ingram's possession.

CHAPTER IV.

'WELL, Ingram has made a mess of it!' said Mr. Stansfield to Mr. Cowen, the Vicar, as they met one day. 'A good, soft-hearted fellow like that, to buy such a place! He won't get any rent.'

'How do you mean?'

Why, such people as live in those houses never pay, unless it's wrung out of them.'

เ

He tells me he is going to improve them, and get a better set of tenants,' replied the Vicar. I dont think Ingram could reconcile it with his conscience to own those buildings in their present state.'

'How has he got that notion into his head ?' said Mr. Stansfield. It accounts for his buying the place at all, which I could not understand; but how does he mean to make Stour Street houses into decent habitations?'

He seems to think that they only require cleaning!

He means

to whitewash the walls and make the tenants scrub the floors! He expects to do in Stour Street what Mr. Lloyde has done in Carr's Lane.' 'Does he know what money Lloyde spent on the work?'

'No, I suppose not; he fancies little more was done than what he proposes to do.'

Then he has made a great mistake; I know that the cost of making those houses in Carr's Lane what they are was rather over half the purchase-money, and that Lloyde is now getting about three and a half per cent for the capital laid out.'

'Ingram reckons on eight per cent,' said the Vicar.

And

Which he will never get. Moseley got it, but then he would sell the last rag off a dying child if the parents owed him rent ! Ingram would not do that. Do you know Stour Street, Mr. Cowen?' but I am going to preach at Hailesworth this afternoon, and I shall go and see it.'

No;

'I guess the outside of the houses will be enough for you! But if you go inside, notice the sanitary arrangements and the water supply, and then you will see what chance Ingram has of making the place clean and neat without an outlay far beyond his calculation.'

Mr. Cowen did go and inspect the houses that afternoon. It was a cold and damp day, and the inhabitants were not now hanging about the doorways, but had taken refuge in their respective rooms. Having been a curate in the east end of London before he became Vicar of Barnshill, Mr. Cowen knew where to look for the defective