common with all other plants, contains that unchanging substance called carbon, which has never been obtained in a separate state, of which the taste, the smell, and colour are unknown. Infusible and indestructible by the action of caloric, it can, therefore, neither be laid hold of nor detained, when the vegetable in which it dwells has fallen to decay, although existing completely formed in the tenderest blade of grass or the smallest flower that opens to the sunbeams. Who, in looking at the simple daisy, could discern the unalterable carbon that dwells within her? Who might conjecture that, when her flowers are seen no longer, and her leaves have lost their greenness, withering from off the parent stem, and seeming to be lost for ever, there would arise from out the decaying leaves, as a spirit from its earthly tenement, a gas, a vapour, which the eye may not behold, and which, either hovering around the place from whence it rose, or floating through the air, waits only for the emerging of the daisy, or of some herb or flower from the parent earth, at the return of spring? Into these it becomes absorbed ; and then again its active ministry is seen in the developing of leaves and blossoms, which are destined, as the months roll on, to undergo a similar decay and renovation. Thus are we instructed by the simple daisy, in common with her kindred of wood or field, to remember that one of the constituent parts of both animal and vegetable bodies remains unaltered amid the changes and decompositions which continually take place. It follows, therefore, that, though the pins of the mortal tabernacle have been pulled up, and the dust has returned to its kindred earth, from one generation to another, yet that the component parts are still unchanged, ready to enter into a new and glorious combination, whenever the fiat of Omnipotence shall call them forth again. Man, in his folly, may query "How can the dead be raised up? with what body do they come," when not a trace of them remains? To this there is an answer; for the whole creation is filled with emblems. Invisible things, that relate especially to our present state of being, are made known by the things that are : even the shrubs and flowers which grow beside our path-way are faithful monitors, and, either in their decay or renovation, suggest to us thoughts of hope or consolation. Most of them, when months have done their work, grow weak in their decrepitude, and, yielding no longer flowers, nor yet leaves, with which to gladden the place where they have grown, die down into the earth. Still they are not lost; for, again upspringing from the root or seed, the same plant apparently, though not the same, is seen, as if rejoicing in the consciousness of its new existence. The young herb or flower that thus opens to the sun, sparkling with the dews of morning, and fresh from out its earthly bed, bids the passer-by not to sorrow for those who are departed as one who has no hope, but rather to see in its beauty and its freshness the emblem of their rising up. Mourr. not, then, child of sorrow, A voice thou hearest never, But by its strong might known, On mountains brown with heather, In valleys reft and lone, Call'd forth each fair flower sleeping, Where crushing rains have been; Or fierce tornadoes sweeping, Have marred the sylvan scene. Now list the wood-lark singing, The murmur of the rill; And lo, sweet flowers are springing Beside thy pathway still. And thus, for Christ's dear sake, The Cabinet. THE FATHERS.-We venerate the primitive fathers and martyrs of the Christian church, as examples of holiness and of patient endurance in the faith; but they were fallible men like ourselves, and, as authoritative teachers, stand at an immeasurable distance from the inspired apostles of our blessed Lord. Hence we are alarmed at hearing any exalt the authority of the traditions of the fathers in the interpretation of Christian doctrine, or set up any rule by which scripture is to be interpreted, except that of comparing one part with another in a spirit of prayer: "Let us reverently hear and read holy scripture, which is the food of the soul. Let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the Old and New Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of men's traditions (devised by man's imagination) for our justification and salvation:" "Read it humbly with a meek and lowly heart, to the intent you may glorify God, and not yourself, with the knowledge of it; and read it not without daily praying to God that he would direct your reading to good effect; and take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it" (first homily). So we are alarmed at hearing of any reserve in setting forth the truths of scripture-of any reserve in following out to the utmost extent our blessed Lord's command: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved: he that believeth not shall be damned." We deprecate any reserve in putting the gospel into the hands of any who desire to receive Christian instruction. I refer to these subjects with a view to caution you against leaving the pure word of God," which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness," in which will be found strong meat for those of your flocks who may be "of full age,' and "milk" for those who may be as "" babes."Charge of the bishop of Bombay in 1841. SABBATH RECREATIONS.-We are not wishing to set up the standard of ritual exactitude on this point, or to say that by those whose occupations confine them closely during the week no part of the intervals of public worship may be spent amidst the calm and contemplative scenes of nature, where, as in the eventide meditations of the patriarch, the soul might converse with God. But that such is not the end for which sabbath recreations are usually taken let our parks tell, as along their crowded drives the carriages are heard murmuring in hoarse blasphemy: let our public gardens tell, where fashion advertises her last- | is visited, and the sun shines upon them in his invented freak, and where woman, forgetful of her strength, the light streams from them with a brillofty duties, will stoop to be made a card for dress-liancy and splendour which dazzles and delights the makers, or a gazing-stock for lounging vacancy: let eye, and which cannot be mistaken, so that they are our suburban tea-grounds tell, as cup and glass pro- deemed at once as fitting ornaments of a monarch's duce harsh discord with the evening chimes, and the crown. O, brethren, this is like the work that is carryhushed stillness of a sabbath-sky is broken by mirth ing on now in preparation for the great day; the and song and jocund revelry: let our thronged steam- hidden secret operation of the Holy Spirit in the boats tell-but what need have we of further wit- hearts of his people. By nature the children of nesses? Sabbath recreation, as we all know, is only wrath, even as others, he forms them to be "a crown another name for sabbath desecration; and the pre- of glory in the hand of the Lord, a regal diadem in text of seeking health for the body is but an excuse the hand of our God." When the Sun of righteousfor an enjoyment which is either to famish or to ness shall arise upon them, then shall the true chacorrupt the soul.-Sermons on the Sabbath, by the racter of that divine work be recognized in all its rev. D. Moore. distinguishing, in all its surpassing brightness: "then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not:" "they shall be as the stones of a crown:" then shall the hidden source of their light and glory, even God their Saviour, be fully and everlastingly revealed. Brethren, if this be so, see, I beseech you, that this work be really, effectually carried on in your hearts. CONTENTMENT.-Not so with him who has learned contentment in the school of Christ. The basis of his contentment cannot be shaken. Friends may fail like the summer brooks; and the unkindness and treachery of man may sorely grieve his spirit; but he has a friend in the everlasting courts above, that "sticketh closer than a brother." And the storms which rage without only endear to him more and more the refuge and sanctuary where he has sought, and where he has found his everlasting peace. The riches which the "rust and moth doth corrupt" may fail: the costly house must, perhaps, be parted with ; the expenditure limited; the table curtailed of its wonted portion. But his heart and affections are already fixed upon the enduring riches; and what is left is enough to sustain him in his pilgrimage to Zion. "He eats his meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God;" and the rich vouchsafements of spiritual strength and comfort which he receives impart a double relish and sweetness to it. And, even should darker clouds gather round his path; should the prospect of leaving his wife a widow, and his children fatherless and destitute, awaken melancholy bodings, yet can he trust his God enough to leave to him his fatherless children and his widowed wife. But who, O who can speak the contentment of his spirit on the eve of his departure for that scene to which his earthly trials have long since turned his hopes and his fondest desires? for he is on the border of that land where universal contentment reigns, purer than ever fancy pictured amidst its imagined peaceful groves, and tranquil vales, and fields of everlasting repose.-Rev. Denis Kelly. BELIEVERS THE JEWELS OF GOD. There is one remarkably expressive figure in reference to this subject in the book of Malachi: "In that day will the Lord make up his jewels." The precious stones which are to be from the bowels of the earth are fit emblems of the people of God, then to be brought forth composed of the common materials of the flint and sand and clay which we see around us, they owe all their beauty to that secret transformation effected beneath the surface of the earth, which art has tried in vain to imitate, and which so fits them for their bright destiny, that, when at length the mine : From rev. Edward Arnold's sermon on "The Manifestation of the Church at the Coming of the Lord." No. 1 of the Lent lectures of 1844, on Prophecy, pp. 21-23. J. Nisbet, 1844. Poetry. THE DRESS-MAKER*. BY THE REV. W. MI'LVAINE. (For the Church of England Magazine.) Undimmed thine eye by sorrow's scalding tears, Like trampled flower, in premature decay, "Tis not for present pain tears dim mine eyes; ISAIAH xliii. 26 (AND CONTEXT). "Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." (For the Church of England Magazine.) LORD! if my cause be tried, * See No. dlxxxviii., p. 382 THE BROTHERS OF LA TRAPPE.-The following curious and exact particulars of this ascetic order were gleaned during a recent visit to the monastery of La Trappe, whilom the Bernardine abbey, situated a short distance from the manufacturing town of Mortagne, Normandy. The monastery is at present composed of twenty-five fathers, comprising the most rev. Louis-Marie, general of the Trappistes, and of fifty lay brothers. The establishment consists of an immense house, with extensive gardens, fish-ponds, stables, sheepfolds, cow-houses, &c., covering a space of several acres, and nightly tenanted by sixteen horses, twenty-six cows, one bull, one hundred sheep, a magnificent ram, sixty pigs and sows; and three hundred geese. The wheat upon the estate is very fine, almost every blade carrying eight ears; and the fruits and vegetables are of an extraordinary size. We remarked a water-mill of English construction upon one of the ponds, which abounded with pike, carp, tench, roach, &c. Close to the convent is the grotto of St. Bernard, the founder of the order, which was re-established and reformed in 1663 by abbé de Rance. The fathers of La Trappe wear a white serge Rom. viii. 26. gown, with a hood attached to it, and the brothers EARLY RISING.-It is a certain sign that our hearts are set upon a work, when the thoughts of it cause sleep to depart from us, and we awake readily, constantly, and early to the performance of it. David delighted in the holy exercises of prayer and meditation; therefore "he prevented the dawning of the morning," and was beforehand with the light itself; therefore his "eyes prevented the watches,” that is, the last of those watches, into which the night was by the Jews divided: he needed not the watchman's call, but was stirring before it could be given. Climate and constitution will, doubtless, make a difference, and claim considerable allowance; but, by Christians who enjoy their health in temperate weather, the sun should not be suffered to shine in vain, nor the golden hours of the morning to glide away unimproved ; since of David's Lord, as well as of David, it is said, "In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”—Bishop Horne. In a verdant nook of the beauteous valley of the Ure stands the sequestered ruin of Jerveaux abbey. The name of the river was formerly spelt "Yore;" and that of the abbey is easily derived Jore-vale, or Yore-vale. On the tombs in the building it is uniformly "Jorevallis ;" and Jerveaux is merely the French form of the Latin word. For some miles round, almost every house by the road-side has some memorial, plundered from the ruins, built into the walls; and from this cause, and many others, little surprise can be felt at the present shattered state of this once elegant temple. And yet Jerveaux, as a ruin, is an exquisitely beautiful and deeply interesting pile. The approach presents a far different aspect to that of the noble Rievaulx, in consequence of the church, so conspicuous a feature in the fair abbey of the Rye, being here almost completely demolished; while the majestic refectory and other domestic arrangements of the monastery stand forth in all their massive grandeur against the surrounding foliage. The abbey wall and moat remain, with a run of the clearest water for the use of the abbey; and an ancient causeway leading to it may be traced on the road leading from Kilgram Bridge and Bedale. It is a curious circumstance that so many abbeys were removed from their original place. Byland abbey, near Easingwold, before the monks built the present structure, had been founded at Old Byland and Oswaldkirk; the rea VOL. XXI. son assigned for leaving the former place being the odd one that the monks could hear the bells of Rievaulx, which disturbed them at their devotions. Jerveaux Abbey was also once removed In the time of Stephen, Akarias, son of Bardolf, lord of many possessions in Yorkshire, gave to Peter de Quinciano, a devout man and able physician, and other monks of Savigny, one carucate and-a-half of land in Wandesley-dale (Wensleydale) at Fors, called Dale Grange, to which he added three carucates more in Worton, where Peter and his companions began to form an abbey, and so erected simple edifices A.D. 1145, first called Fors, then Wandesley-dale, afterwards the Abbey of Charity. It was Cistercian, and made subject to Byland; from whence, in 1150, an abbot and twelve monks were sent, who, in 1156, grew dissatisfied with the locality, and removed by consent of Herveus, son of Akarias, the founder, to the present situation, taking the bones of Akarias and his wife with them. There John de Kingeston, then abbot, began to found the present building, dedicating it to St. Mary. It was richly endowed from time to time, and flourished till the dissolution, when Adam de Sedbergh, the last abbot, was hanged for his opposition to the king's measures, and the abbey church reduced to a ruin. The following curious letter relates to its destruction (Dodsworth's MSS.): "A letter from Richard Bellycys, 14 Nov. "Pleasythe your lordship to be advertysed, I have taken down all the lead of Jervaux, and made it into pecys of half fodders, which lead amounteth to the number of eighteen score and five fodders, with thirty and four fodders and ahalf that were there before; and the said lead cannot be conveit, nor carried until the next sombre, for the ways in that countre are so foul and deep that no caryage can pass in wyntre. And as concerninge the raising and taking down the house, if it be your lordship's pleasure, I am minded to let it stand to the next spring of the year, by reason of the days are now so short, it wulde be double charges to do it now. And as concerninge the selling of the bells, I cannot sell them above 15s. the hundred, wherein I wolde gladly know your lordship's pleasure, whether I sholde sell them after that price, or send them ૨ to London; and if they be sent up, surely the caryage will be costly from that place to the water. And as for Bridlington, I have done nothing there as yet; but spayred it to March next, because the days are now so very short; and from such time as I begin, I trust shortly to dispatch it after such fashion, that when all is finished, I trust your lordship hath appointed me to doo; and thus the Holy Ghost ever preserve your lordship in honour.-At York, this 14th day of November, 1558, by your lordship's most bounden beadman, (Signed) "RICHARD BELLYCYS." At the dissolution the yearly revenue amounted to 4557. 10s. 5d., Speed ;2347. 18s. 5d., Dugdale. The site was granted to Matthew earl of Lenox, and now belongs to the marquis of Aylesbury. From this time to the present century, the abbey continued in an utter state of desolation, subjected to a systematic course of plunder to build cottages and mend roads with, and became blocked and obscured by earth and rubbish, "with nettles skirted, and with moss overgrown." It has been, however, by the liberality of the noble proprietor, completely excavated; and its present state certainly reflects the highest credit on all parties concerned. The excavation brought to light several curious tombs and altars, and a magnificent tesselated pavement, which, however, soon perished on exposure; but some portions, preserved in a summer-house, sufficiently bear witness to the former splendour of the whole work. There is nothing very remarkable in the architecture of Jerveaux: there are some specimens of transition-Norman, probably the work of the first abbot; but the general style is pure and good |