good voice, had attended the chapel with the singers till her marriage. At this period, she not only knew much of her Bible, but also gave some pleasing symptoms of a change of mind. But alas! she gave her hand to a young man who was destitute of the fear of God, and who became a snare to her. How many that in youth promise fair to be the followers of Jesus, are ruined by improper marriages! Oppressed with domestic cares. poor Mary now neglected even an occasional attendance on the means of grace. She had run well, but sin deceived her. Daily misery however preyed on a constitution at all times delicate. A dropsy threatened her with death. No sooner was she confined to the bed of affliction, than she recollected the truths which once she took delight in learning. She remembered God and was troubled;' and her neglect of those things which, she well knew, belonged to her eternal peace, filled her mind with anguish.

"I had been with her the day before; how bitterly did she then lament her conduct! How hard she found the way of the transgressor! I reminded her of what St. John says- -If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.' She seemed a little encouraged to expect mercy; we engaged in prayer, and parted. But now she was evidently dying. As I entered the room, I beheld a face distorted with pain, and heard an exclamation, distressing enough to pierce any heart, 'O! I cannot die:-I want to see his face! Never did I enter so fully into the importance of Balaam's prayer, 'Let me die the death of the righteous; and let my last end be like his.' I asked her whose face she wished to see. Her reply was, 'The reconciled face of Jesus.'

"Have you no hope of an interest in Christ?' I inquired.

"No, I have no hope; I am lost; I cannot die!'

"How I longed for some careless people whom I knew,

to witness the end of one who had neglected-and that against the dictates of her own conscience-the great salvation!"

The writer of this account then endeavoured to point her to the blood of Jesus. "O," she exclaimed, "that I had an interest in that blood!" He soon after left the room with feelings not to be described, and in a few minutes she expired.

O let those who have enjoyed religious instruction in youth, and afterward neglected the Saviour and salvation, consider what miseries they are preparing for themselves hereafter! And let them remember her whose last words, almost, were, "O, I cannot die! I cannot die!"

SECTION III.

The Dying Persecutor.

1. SOME OF THE EARLY PERSECUTORS.

It is remarkable that few of the emperors, distinguished for their cruelty and their persecutions of Christians during the first three centuries, escaped some miserable end or other. Tiberius and the other "three Neros" after him, suffered violent deaths. After Nero, Domitius Galba within seven months was slain by Otho; and Otho afterwards killed himself, being overcome by Vitellius. Vitellius shortly after was drawn through the city of Rome, and after he was tormented, was thrown into the Tiber. Domitian, after having poisoned his brother, Titus, and proved himself a cruel and vindictive persecutor of Christians, was murdered in his chamber-his wife knowing and consenting to the deed. Commodus likewise was murdered by Narcissus. Pertinax and Julianus experienced a like end. Severus was slain in England, and his son Geta was killed by his brother Bassianus, who was in turn murdered by Macrinus. Heliogabalus, a glutton in habit, a monster in cruelty, was killed by his own people, drawn through the city and cast into the Tiber. Maximinus, having slain the emperor, his benefactor, three years after was slain by his own soldiers. Maximus, Balbinus, and Gordian, were all three slain. The wicked Decius was drowned, and his son slain in battle at the same time. Gallus and Volusianus his sons, emperors after Decius, were both slain by a conspiracy of Emilianus, who within three months after was also slain himself. Valerian was taken prisoner by the Persians, and was there made the butt

of ridicule by Sapores the Persian king, who also used him for a stool to leap upon his horse. Galienus was killed by Aurelian. Aurelian, also a persecutor, was slain by his secretary. Tacitus reigned six months and was then slain at Pontus; Florinus, his brother, reigned two months, and was murdered at Tarsis. Diocletian and Maximian both deposed themselves from the empire. The miserable end of Galerius is described in another place. Maximinus died a miserable death; and Maxentius, after being vanquished by Constantine, was drowned in the Tiber. Licinius also, after being deposed from his empire, was slain by his soldiers.

Thus did the just vengeance of God fall upon the wicked and cruel emperors who arrayed themselves against the cause of Christ. The punishment of God, though long delayed, is certain to fall upon the wicked.

2. DEATH OF SEVERAL PERSECUTORS IN THE REIGN OF MARY.

THE miserable end of many of the principal actors in the persecutions carried on during the short but infamous reign of "bloody Mary," is not less striking, and is even more strongly marked by the judgments of God, than that of the earlier persecutors. Bonner is mentioned elsewhere. Gardiner, transferred from the Tower, where he had been confined by Edward VI., to be lord chancellor by Queen Mary, was not inferior to Bonner in unrelenting cruelty, and certainly exceeded him in duplicity and faithlessness. His death took place in 1555, while yet the bloody work of persecution was going on; and his last moments were imbittered by the compunctions of a guilty conscience for his cruelties, when, upon his death-bed, he was reminded by a bishop present, of Peter denying his Master. "Ah!" said he, "I have

Morgan,

denied, but never repented with Peter." who succeeded Farrar as bishop of St. David's, was stricken by the visitation of God soon after being installed in his bishopric. His food passed through his throat, but rose again with great violence. In this manner, almost literally starved to death, he terminated his existence.

Bishop Thornton, suffragan of Dover, was an indefatigable persecutor. One day, after he had exercised his cruel tyranny upon a number of pious persons at Canterbury, he came from the chapter-house to Borne, where, as he stood on a Sunday looking at his men playing at bowls, he fell down in a fit of the palsy, and did not long survive.

The successor of Thornton, soon after he had been ordained by Gardiner, fell down a pair of stairs in the cardinal's chamber at Greenwich, and broke his neck. He had just received the cardinal's blessing-he could receive nothing worse.

Grimwood, one of the perjured villains employed to secure the conviction of Protestants, died while at work stacking up corn in the field, from having his bowels suddenly burst out.

Sheriff Woodruffe, was one of those who rejoiced at the death of the saints, and whose offices were never wanting to effect it. He treated with unfeeling cruelty the martyr, John Bradford; and at the execution of Mr. Rogers, he broke the carman's head, because he stopped the cart to let the martyr's children take a last farewell of him. He was struck with a paralytic affection, and reduced to a most pitiable and helpless condition; and the misery of his last hours presented a striking contrast to his former activity in the cause of blood.

Ralph Lardin, who betrayed the martyr, George Eagles, was afterward arraigned and hanged. At the bar, he exclaimed, "This has most justly fallen upon me,