the child was put to bed, the lamp taken away, and in darkness the little one thought over the dreadful scene in the market; the flames seemed burning before her, she seemed to hear the yells of the crowd and the prayers of the victims; her pillow was wetted with tears, and trembling and afraid, she fell asleep. . When Elizabeth grew older, she was sent by her parents to a convent near Sear, in East Friesland,-now a province of the kingdom of Hanover,-there to learn various arts, and likewise the Latin language. She was not a favourite with the sisters,—her manners, they said, were so reserved; some of them hinted that she was proud of her good looks; others, that she thought herself somebody great, because she belonged to a noble family; and others darkly suggested that she might be touched with the prevailing heresy. However this might be, Elizabeth was always kind and gentle, and never neglected any duty that devolved upon her. She went regularly with the sisters to the chapel at service time; in the morning, the evening, and at midnight, you might have seen her beautiful form gliding along with the rest toward the altar; with them she stood, and sat, and kneeled, and crossed herself, and took holy water, and chanted the Romish hymns; her sweet voice might be heard distinctly above all the rest; and many came to that chapel again and again, because of that nightingale voice. When the nuns worked, she worked with them; when they taught, she was a docile pupil; but her great delight was to steal away into the old library, and turn over the pages of many an antique book,-books nearly all of them of saintly story, religious questions, or devotional exercises. What a As she was one day thus employed, as the twilight shadows thickened round her, she perceived in a dusty corner a book that she had never noticed before. She took it, opened it, found it to be in Latin, and read. strange, marvellous story! things that she had never clearly, but as the foundation of the faith, were now opened out before her. Here was the story of the old world, here the life of the "Man of Sorrows," four times heard of, told! here the record of the first missionary effort; here the letters written by saints and martyrs long ago; and here the glorious vision that the beloved one saw on Sabbath eve at Patmos. It was a Latin Bible. She read it very carefully, till the twilight deepened into night, and hastily placing it under her robe as she heard a step approaching. 66 "Why, still at work, Elizabeth," said sister Ursula ; you are a very model to us all.” The vesper-bell rang out its note of summons, and the nuns sang, and the monks prayed, and the host was lifted amid a shower of incense, and so the service ended. Next day, Elizabeth begged of the lady abbess that she might be allowed to read the book she had found. The permission was given, and she was told that if she pleased, she might have the book, but to read it with great caution, for fear of heresy. So Elizabeth read the Bible; prayed to the great God for light upon its sacred page; saw in it a clearer way of salvation than that which the church prescribed; saw that Jesus Christ had died for the ungodly, and that without masses, without works, without the intercession of the saints, without the authority of Rome, without fastings and vigils, heaven might be gained; and so she approached her Saviour in the words we sometimes sing "Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling; Help me, Saviour, or I die!" But now she felt the full difficulty of her position. She was a mere child,--" a tender damsel," an old chronicler calls her, and she knew not what to do. She could no longer join the service of the chapel, she could no longer enter the confessional, and pour out her heart before any human being,-what was she to do? She resolved to escape. Though the nuns had never at any period been very partial to Elizabeth, she was a favourite with one or two of the servants, and those who came to the convent with provisions. Among these was a milk-girl, in whom she thought that she could trust. She told her all the truth. The girl resolved to help her. They exchanged clothes, and in the grey morning the Lady Elizabeth escaped in the garb of the milk-woman, her preserver afterwards accomplished her own flight from, the house. "Elizabeth confided," says her historian, "in the fatherly providence of God Almighty." A weary, weary way she travelled,-homeless, friendless, knowing not which way to turn. She avoided the public roads, for fear of being followed, and turned and doubled like a poor hunted hare. She had been away from the convent some four or five days, and it was a cold, drizzly evening, in the fall of the year. Her strength was completely exhausted, and she sank down by the hedge-sideto die! In this condition she was found by two goodnatured people, who carried her to their own home, and tended her as carefully as the good Samaritan in the parable. It was a long time before she recovered from the severe illness which came upon her; but when she did, to her great joy, she discovered that her preservers were Protestants. If I was writing fiction instead of truth, I think I should leave off here, and say, like some of the old story-books, "that they lived happy and comfortable ever after;" but it cannot be. "On the 15th of January," says the historian, "reckoning the beginning of the year from New Year's day, Elizabeth was apprehended. When they who were to take her came into the house where she lived, they found a Latin Bible." So the "tender maiden" was carried to the councilhouse, and on the next day two capuchin friars took her to the block-house, and placed her before the council. The examination need not be detailed here. They questioned her as to her opinions, and she boldly maintained the Protestant faith. They accused her of being possessed with a devil, and she replied in the spirit of her Master. They led her away to the torture tower, and Hans, the sworn tormentor, applied the thumb-screws, so that the blood rushed out from under her nails! but she cried to the Lord." Help, O my God, thy poor handmaiden; for Thou art a helper in the time of need." They then applied screws to her ankles, and she fainted, and they said, "She is dead!" but after a little, she recovered again, and they loosened the iron screws, and spoke to her with entreaties. It was in vain,-God was her helper in the time of need, and gave her strength to bear her testimony to the Gospel of his Son. "After this," goes on the record, "the sentence was pronounced upon Elizabeth, in the year 1549, on the 27th of March, and she was condemned to death by being drowned in a sack, and thus she offered up her body a sacrifice to God!"-The Teacher's Offering. THE PERIL AND THE VOW. ON a pleasant summer day, two young men were off the coast of Cape Cod in a small boat, fishing. Interested in their pastime, they did not see the rising cloud, nor heed the white crests increasing around them, till a wild wave, dashing against their frail bark, aroused them to their danger. It was too late to gain the shore; and, driven before the gale that blew off the land, they were at the mercy of the billows. It was a fearful hour for the youths, who had neglected their souls, and were unprepared to leave the stormy sea for eternity's ocean. It was proposed by one, that they should promise God, if spared to reach the coast, to serve Him the remainder of their lives. His companion refused to make a vow, but felt that he had too long perilled his soul. The distressed young man who desired the mutual pledge, kneeled on the bottom of the boat, and promised the Lord, if he would save him from the waves, he would live for His glory. God protected that tossing skiff, till, outriding the surges and the storm, it was laid upon a beach, many miles from its pleasant moorings a few hours before. The rescued youths hastened to the embrace of friends. But the heart upon which the vows of God rested, after a brief performance of outward duties, returned to old habits of sin with a lawless indulgence, as if to recover the time lost in the transient regard to religion. The companion became thoughtful, attended all the means of grace, and sought earnestly the salvation of his soul. He was soon a devout, believing disciple, and continues to honour Christ. In these two experiences we have a suggestive exhibition of the human heart, and God's saving grace. The terrified sinner, who was in haste to conciliate God with a vow of repentance, like thousands on a dying bed, who mistake the remorse and promises of the dire emergency for a work of salvation, went again to his sins. His friend was truly awakened by the Holy Spirit, and, feeling his guilt, sought with his whole heart the pardoning mercy of God. What an eventful scene was that upon the deep! What a widely different thing is a promise extorted by danger, and a sense of vileness in the sight of a holy God! And if that reckless covenant-breaker" perish, how will he, amid the howlings of an eternal storm, remember the billows of the angry sea, and, amid the shoreless waves of despair, exclaim with anguish, "Thy vows are upon me, O God!"-American Messenger. "TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD." A young person of amiable temper, of agreeable manners, and giving indications of a pious disposition, seldom passes into eternity, but the exclamation is uttered, "He was too good for this world;" and this is supposed to be the chief, if not the only reason of his apparently premature removal to another. Much misapprehension, not altogether of an innoxious |