Against the thirteenth of January is marked the name of Hilary. St. Hilary, or Hilarius, is stated to have been the son of parents of distinguished rank. He was born in France about the latter end of the third century, and was educated a pagan ; but, being subsequently converted to Christianity, he became so ardent an advocate of that religion, as to obtain the distinguishing appellation of one of the Fathers of the Church—a title given to those eminent Christian theologians who wrote prior to the thirteenth century. St. Hilary died in 367, at a very advanced age.

St. Prisca was an accomplished Roman lady, who became a Christian at an early age, and was martyred, while yet in youthful maidenhood, for her firm adherence to that faith, under the Emperor Claudian, A.D. 47.

St. Fabian was a Roman, and a most indefatigable advocate of Christianity. He was Bishop of Rome in 236, which dignity he held for fifteen years. He was martyred in the persecution under Decius.

St. Agnes was descended from Roman parents of considerable rank, and was beheaded under the Emperor Dioclesian, A. D. 306. Various miracles are asserted, by Popish writers, to have happened at her execution, and after her death. Her name corresponding exactly with the Latin word for lamb, that gentle animal has been selected as her appropriate emblem; and she is worshipped by the Romish ladies as a saint of most exalted chastity. Hence, even at the present day, the ladies in the north of England practise some singular rites in keeping what they call St. Agnes' Fast, for discovering their future husbands; connected with which, some amusing particulars are given by Mr. Hone, in his "Every-Day Book," Vol. I.

St. Vincent was born at Saragossa, in Spain, in which city he was made deacon. In this office, his indefatigable exertions in the cause of Christianity soon excited the notice of Decius, the Roman governor, by whose orders he was brought in irons to Valencia, where he was put to torture; and, remaining steadfast to his faith, he was burned over a slow fire, A.D. 304.

On the twenty-fifth of January, the conversion of St. Paul is marked for celebration a festival first admitted into the ritual of the Church of England in the year 1662.

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The next day marked for observance is the thirtieth of January; on which day, in the year 1649, King Charles I. was beheaded, in the fortyninth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. Of the causes which led to the unhappy event thus annually commemorated, our English historians furnish copious details; but of the speech made by the unfortunate King on the scaffold, and of his demeanour at the time of his execution, some particulars are given in the following extracts from the newspapers of the period, which are not easily accessible to the general reader. The "Armies' Modest Intelligencer" says, under the date January 30th: 'This daye's proceeding is intelligence enough to finish this week, for the King was brought from St. James's to Whitehall, and after a short stay there, about twelve at noone, came through the Banqueting House, neere which place the scaffold was erected for his execution. Being come to the scaffold, attended with Colonel Tomlinson and other officers, hee made his last speech. Hee first said he would have chosen to have been silent, but that some might thinke he did submit to the guilt as well as the punishment. He said he never did begin a war with the two houses of Parliament, which would be cleared, if the Parliament commissions and his were looked up and acknowledged. That God's judgments were just upon him, for suffering an unjust sentence to take effect. That he forgave all the world. That they (meaning the Parliament and army) were out of the way, and he would put them in the way—to give each his due, the

:

King his due, his successors theirs, and God his due, by calling a national synod. That he was a martyr of the people and being minded by Dr. Juxon concerning religion, hee said he died a Christian, according to the profession of the Church of England. His speech done, the executioner cut off his head."-The Moderate Intelligencer," of the same date, gives a more particular account: The 30th of January, 1648, was Charles, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, put to death by beheading, over against the Banqueting House of Whitehall, the place where formerly King James had all the fencers in London encountered, in their school way, for contempt of the King of Denmark, who came out of his kingdom to visit him; the scaffold being made from the same window, and in the same manner, only larger. But to come to what passed between his sentence and execution: as he was passing, after sentence, to his lodging, there was a cry of Execution;' upon which he, turning towards them, smiling, spake to one of his attendants, saying, Poore creatures, for sixpence they would say as much of their commanders.' Entering the house, one of his servants departed, weeping, which he seeing, said, 'You can forbid their attendance, not their tears.' That night he commanded his dogs should be taken away, and sent to his wife, as not willing to have any thing present that might take him off of serious consideration of himself. The Bishop of London sat up with him all Saturday night. Sunday be dined and supped in his bed-chamber. Monday night he lay at St. James's; being told the next day was for his execution, he declared a great deal of readiness to come to it. He walked through the park, as his former use was, very fast, and called to his guard, in a pleasant manner, March apace!' that he might make haste. The scaffold was laid with black baize, also the rails about it; the block, a little piece of wood, flat at bottom, about a foot and a halfe long. (After mentioning the substance of his speech, &c., as before, it adds.) His speech upon the scaffold ended, he prepared for death, putting on his cap, and off his doublet, and presently he laid his head over the block, which was at one blow struck off by one in disguise, and taken up by another in disguise also, which held up his head, but said nothing."—"No man (says another paper"Perfect Weekly Account") could have come up with more confidence and appearance of resolution than he did-viewing the block (with the axe lying upon it), and iron staples in the scaffold to bind him down upon the block, in case he had refused to submit himself freely, without being any ways daunted; yea, when the deputies of that grim tyrant, Death, appeared, with a terrifying disguise, the King, with a pleasant countenance, said he freely forgave them." For a considerable period, much controversy prevailed on the point as to where the unfortunate monarch was buried; but it is now established, without doubt, that he was interred at Windsor, by the discovery of the royal body there on April 1st, 1813; respecting which, Sir Henry Halford published a most interesting report.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

On all our Clerical Friends we would strenuously urge the necessity of speedily aiding us both with papers and recommendation; and no less those of the Laity who have kindly promised us their support.

"Louisa B." Her letter does her credit.

We shall soon answer her question, by considering how far duties, which devolve on the public, are also chargeable on individuals. In the mean time, we would recommend her to consult her pocket. "X. Y. Z." must send his name and address; so also must “D. D.” and “ 'Amicus,' "C. Randolph." We have received neither the book nor the letter.

W. E. PAINTER, 342, STRAND, LONDON, PRINTER.

A MAGAZINE IN SUPPORT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

[NEW AND ENLARGED SERIES].

FEBRUARY, 1841.

ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL.

BY THE REV. J. W. WHITTAKER, D. D., VICAR OF BLACKBURN. Rev. xii. 10, 11.

"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

" And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."

WE this day, my brethren, have solemnly opened a new church* for the accommodation of the public at the worship of God, the preaching of his word and testimony, and the administration of his holy sacraments. None of you, I am sure, who are acquainted with the neighbourhood, will be disposed to think our labour unnecessary or our task superfluous. And to every reflecting and benevolent mind, duly impressed with the great truths of Christianity, and their vital importance, it must be a source of no small gratification, that from this day forward, the neglected and much misguided population which surrounds this edifice will have the Gospel preached to them in its primitive simplicity and native purity by an apostolically authorised minister of Christ.

And this day, my brethren, which witnesses this joyful addition of one more church to the four which have now for some time been diffusing among you the pure, undefiled word of everlasting lifethis same day is, by the Church, consecrated to the blessed archangel and the rest of the angelic host who have never sinned, and whose delightful employment it is to discharge the tasks given them by the Lord God of heaven and earth.

I trust I shall be able to show you that there is a natural and obvious connexion between the two ideas which the day suggests to us, viz.: additional opening given to the word of God and his testimony among the sons of men on the one part, and angelic ministry for the spiritual benefit of mankind on the other.

I have selected for my text a portion of the epistle for the day, taken from a volume of Scripture, which, from its necessarily obscure nature, adumbrating future events which we are not intended to understand with distinctness until after their accomplishment, is rarely ordered by the Church to be rehearsed for public edification. are there told that "there was war in heaven: Michael and his

We

* Freached at the opening of St. Michael's church, Blackburn, on Michaelmasday, 1839.

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angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." After this figurative description of a spiritual conflict between the two conflicting powers of good and evil among the ruling powers on earth (which we are led to understand by the war between Michael and the dragon taking place in heaven), the blessed apostle, who was favoured with this sublime vision, heard a loud voice exclaim, in the words of our text, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto the death."

Here, my brethren, we have a description of a glorious victorya prodigious and noble triumph, which is to be achieved at some future period by the word of God and the Spirit of truth over the powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The angelic powers, and their warfare on the part of truth, are evidently stated as conducive to it—but not solely. The holiness, the purity of the brethren who so overcame their great and malignant accuser, were also instrumental in that conquest-but not exclusively. They overcame their enemy 66 by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;" the pertinent observation being added, to account for their triumph-"they loved not their lives unto the death." The brethren, then, here spoken of, that is to say, all those spiritually united to Christ in the indissoluble bonds of his holy Church, are here represented as either perishing for his sake, or prepared to lose their lives for him-the greatest proof of a living faith which mortals can exhibit. They overcame "by the blood of the Lamb;" that is to say, by their unflinching reliance on the efficacy of that all-availing sacrifice of Christ on the cross, where he shed his blood to atone for the sins of all mankind, the great and fundamental article of the Christian faith. Thus, in these particulars, the statement given in the Apocalyptic vision agrees with the words of the apostle : This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." But it is added, "and by the word of their testimony." Now whether we understand, by this expression, the verbal or oral testimony which the faithful members of Christ's Church bear to his truth when brought to answer for themselves before earthly tribunals, or the word of the testimony, in which they found and possessed the truth of God by revelation, it will amount to the very same thing, viz.: the revealed word of God-the Scriptures, the word and the testimony, without reference to which no divine truth can be attested. Thus, my brethren, does this passage of Scripture point out to us two things, viz.: that the victory to be achieved by the Church of Christ over falsehood and demoniacal agency is to be won by faith in Christ, and also that the rule of that faith, its standard, the judge by which it is to be measured and calculated, is the word of God,

the Bible, the book given by inspiration of God, and written, by dictation of the Holy Spirit, by holy men who were inspired of God.

We see, therefore, that although the conquest here spoken of was in great part owing to the angelic prince Michael, who commands the spiritual chivalry of God; though the holy and blameless lives of the saints of God were much conducive to it, still the victory was of faith in God, and that faith fixed and settled by the revealed word of truth which he has given to his Church.

In truth, and to state the case in the simplest possible terms, the contest which has been, is, and will for a long period still be, carried on in the earth, is between the word and will of God, and the word and will of man. These, i. e., the pure and holy God, and depraved and sinful man, as he is by nature, are irreconcilably at variance. The Church of Christ consists of those who, through faith and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, place their sole reliance on God, on his word, the covenanted salvation of which they are sharers with the rest of the elect, and submit their earthborn wills, their passions, their minds and reason, to the will and word of God. The synagogue of Satan consists of those who follow the bent of the natural man, who refuse God and will none of his ways, who will have a word and a testimony of their own different from his, who will do their own and not his will, are determined to follow their own devices, and while they boast of a fancied liberty in so doing, are enthralled in adamantine chains by their spiritual adversary.

Now consider the situation of man, whose breast, the workings of whose mind, wonderfully gifted by Providence, is the object of this momentous conflict between good and evil. Even had mankind been left, at the fall, in perfect possession of free will, he would still have been left in a perilous condition, had he been exposed to the machinations and subtle devices of his spiritual enemies. For free will, implying an even balance of the mind between good and evil, implies a liability to fall; and any such spiritual contrivances of our ghostly enemy must obviously destroy that equilibrium of the soul: consequently, the idea that God should be pleased to counteract, in some measure, that Satanic agency by a more benign influence, that he should send us good angels to minister aid in our trials, lest evil ones should obtain ascendancy over us, is every way agreeable to our notions of the divine benevolence. I say, this is a reasonable and supposable thing, even had man been possessed of natural free will: how much more so, then, under existing circumstances, which we know to be directly the reverse, when man possesses a depraved nature, and affections so alien from God that he cannot turn towards God, cannot admire holiness or practise virtue without grace from above.

But we are not left to conjecture on this subject. Of angelic existence there can be no doubt, on the part of those who believe in Scripture. The God whom we worship has made his name known to us by a very peculiar title: "the Lord of Hosts "-Jehovah Sabaoth; which does not mean, the Lord of the Sabbath, as some persons idly imagine, but the Lord of armies, or hosts; meaning the arrayed host of angelic beings. Of these we have reason to believe