FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. OTHERS AND OURSELVES.-It is THE COMING OF CHRIST is the a failing of human nature, that if we can get others to do something for us, we will not attempt to do it ourselves; and then this becomes a habit, and we think we can do nothing. CLOUDS OF TROUBLE may cover us, and darken our prospects, but, as we cover the cages of birds to teach them to sing, so these clouds may be spread over us to teach us to sing of mercy and judgment. Gems. BLESSING OF HUMILITY.-He that feels that he is unworthy of the least of all God's mercies, may expect the greatest; for God "resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the lowly." OUR PRAYERS purchase nothing, because they possess no intrinsic value; yet they obtain much, because they are according to God's appoint ment. THE CONSOLATIONS OF GOD are unspeakably precious, but the God of consolation is more precious still; let us therefore look more at God as our portion, than at the gifts conferred by him. THE MORE WE FEAR GOD, the less we shall be afraid of him; the fear of God brings us near to him, greatest event predicted in God's word, and the most momentous results to nations and individuals hang upon it; let us therefore think of it, look for it, expect it, and be prepared to rejoice in it. Poetic Selections. MY FATHER'S HOUSE. And heart-aches of this vale of tears. At thought of meeting loved ones there, To be for ever with the Lord! Pattishall. I MUST DIE! S. S. and gives us boldness before him, “And the time drew nigh that Jacob must so that we cannot dread either his presence or his power. Our WEAKNESS and our STRENGTH. -He that feels that he can do no. thing, and yet sets to work in the strength of Christ, can do more than any man; as the strength of Christ is made perfect in our weak ness. MUCH DEPENDS UPON PRAYER, for God says, "I will be enquired of;" no one can tell what is lost by neglecting prayer, or by allowing prayer to dwindle into a mere customary service. die." Оn, solemn thought, I soon must die! My guilty, stony heart. Of vast eternity, O sweetly whisper thou didst Me, To live for ever there! WHEN the morning light drives away the night And it draws its line near the hour of nine, For 'tis there we all agree, All with happy hearts and free, And I love to early be At the Sabbath-school. CHORUS.-I'll away, away, I'll away, away: On the frosty dawn of a winter's morn, When the holy day is come, And the Sabbath-breakers roam, I delight to leave my home, For the Sabbath-school. I'll away, &c. In the class I meet with the friends I greet, And our hearts we raise in a hymn of praise, In the holy book of truth, I'll away, &c. 66 THE SPANISH INQUISITION. We expect that there can be but few of our readers who have not heard of this horrid tribunal, impiously called the Holy Office." A very interesting book has lately appeared, called "Ladies of the Reformation," by the Rev. James Anderson. The nations to which these ladies belonged are Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain. The chap ter on Spain is introduced by a history of the Inquisition. We now give a sketch of its institution. We intend to give more extracts relating its infernal proceedings. "Luther had not long lifted up the standard of defiance against the pope as Antichrist, when in Spain his opinions awakened attention, and found converts. After the elevation of Charles V. to the imperial dignity, Spain, from the more frequent intercourse then maintained between it and Germany, became accessible, in a still greater degree, to the inroads of the Lutheran heresy. The diffusion of the Protestant principles in Spain was, at an early period, promoted by the works of the German Reformer, some of which in Latin, and others of them translated into the Spanish language, having been printed at Antwerp, were sent into the Peninsula, where they were eagerly read. Those learned Spaniards who, on visiting foreign heretical countries, as England and Germany, became infected with heresy, were also instrumental, on returning home, in propagating the contagion among their countrymen. And in Spain, as in other nations of Europe, the stability of Popish superstition was greatly shaken in many minds, and the doctrines of the Reformation extended by vernacular translations of the Scriptures. From the vigilance of officers placed at all the seaports and land-passes to search every package and the person of every traveller that should enter the kingdom, it seemed a task of great, apparently insuperable, difficulty to introduce these translated editions of the Scriptures into Spain. Yet, in 1557, Julian Hernandez, who, from his small stature, was usually called Julian the Little, undertook the seemingly desperate enterprise, and, by his address, succeeded in conveying safely from Geneva by land to Seville, two large casks filled with the vernacular Scriptures and other Protestant books in Spanish. Pretending commercial speculations, he deceived the officers by concealing the precious cargo in double casks, THE SPANISH INQUISITION. holding a small portion of French wine between an outer and an inner range of staves. The Spanish converts included many of the most learned and the most distinguished of all ranks. In Spain,' says a contemporary Protestant author, Cypriano de Valera, many very learned, many very noble, and many of the most distinguished of the gentry, have for this cause been led forth to the scaffold. There is not a city, and, if one may so speak, there is not a village, nor a hamlet, nor a noble house, that has not had, and still has, one or more that God of his infinite mercy has enlightened with the light of the gospel. It is a common proverb in Spain in the present day, when speaking of a learned man, to say he is so learned that he is in danger of being a Lutheran.' 'Perhaps,' says Dr. M'Crie, there never was in any other country so large a proportion of persons, illustrious either for their rank or their learning, among the converts to a new and proscribed religion. This circumstance helps to account for the singular fact that a body of dissidents, who could not amount to fewer than 2000 persons, scattered over an extensive country, and loosely connected with one another, should have been able to communicate their sentiments and hold their private meetings for a number of years, without being detected by a court so jealous and vigilant as that of the Inquisition.' 6 Such was the progress of the Reformed faith in Spain, that within a short time, had not severe measures been adopted, it would, in all probability, have become the prevailing religion in that kingdom. The character, talents, and zeal of the converts, threatened this dreaded consummation. Had not the Inquisition interfered when it did, says Paramo, heresy would have run like wildfire through Spain, so disposed were persons of all degrees and of both sexes to embrace it. An emphatic testimony to the same effect is borne by the contemporary Roman Catholic historian, Illescas, in his Pontifical History. 'Formerly,' says he, Lutheran heretics were now and then apprehended and burned in Spain; but all these were foreigners-Germans, Flemings, or English. At other times mean people, and of a base race, used to be sent to the scaffold, and to wear san-benitos in the churches; but in these latter years we have seen the prisons, the scaffolds, and even the burning pile crowded with persons of noble birth, and, what is even more to be deplored, with persons illustrious, in the opinion of the world, for letters and piety. I withhold their THE SPANISH INQUISITION. names, in order not to tarnish, with their injured reputation, the fair fame of their descendants, or even of some illustrious houses to whom this poison attaches. They were such and so many, that, it was believed, if two or three months more had been suffered to elapse before applying a remedy to this mischief, the conflagration would have spread itself all over Spain, and brought upon her the most dire misfortunes she has ever seen.' 'If you will but stay persecution for four months,' said the celebrated Cazalla to the inquisitors at one of his examinations, we shall, at the end of that time, be equal in number to yourselves.' The great instrument by which the Reformation was resisted and ultimately suppressed in Spain was the Inquisition. The general principle upon which the Inquisition was founded may be said to have been acted upon as far back as the fourth century, when the secular power for the first time sent out searchers to discover, arrest, and deliver up heretics for punishment. But as a distinct tribunal it did not exist till the thirteenth century, when it was established for the special purpose of assisting in the war for the extermination of the Albigenses in France. It was soon extended to Spain. This has been called the old Inquisition, in distinction from the modern or the new form in which it was organized in Spain towards the close of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Then it was revived by statutes and regulations so severe, as, under the control of able but sanguinary inquisitors, to become the most effective and dreadful engine for the repression of heresy which it is perhaps possible for merciless and envenomed bigotry to invent. This properly constitutes the Spanish Inquisition, for the tribunal under this terrible form was confined to Spain, Portugal, and their dependencies. The avowed object of the establishment of the modern Inquisition was to prevent the Spanish Jews who had professed the Christian religion from relapsing into Judaism, and to punish such as had relapsed; but the real or the principle motive was to prosecute against the Jews, whose wealth was immense, a vigorous system of confiscation. Ferdinand was easily persuaded to adopt a measure which promised to replenish the royal coffers, exhausted by the expenses of protracted wars; and the humane scruples of Isabella, at establishing so severe a tribunal, being overcome by the priests' working upon |