and Bohemia. In the latter country straightforward for the subtleties of especially, the truths of the English Rome, and its Holy Father, the reformer, who had been laid in his Pope, excommunicated him. He grave a century and a quarter, pro- employed ecclesiastical pleaders, who duced the most decided fruits. went to the Holy city, but who found a prison instead of justice. Being denied an appeal to the Pope, Huss made a formal public appeal to God, and went on preaching with greater boldness and success than ever. This was about the years 1410 -1413. In the year 1414 the great Council of Constance was summoned to reform the abuses of the Church which for forty years had been distracted with internal strife, the storm outside getting stronger and stronger. By the year 1405, when Huss had reached his thirty-third year, his "Bethlehem" Chapel was filled with devout listeners, and the evangelical views of Wycliffe were in this manner disseminated through the country. This was upwards of a century before the final blow was struck by Luther, and it shows how false is the Roman Catholic statement that our Protestantism did not exist previous to the Reformation. It is verily as old as the Bible itself, for it is the Bible which is the religion of Protestants." Well, Huss, who fully sympathized with Wycliffe, wrote as well as preached; and his writings found their way to Wittenberg, where in the next century they were taken up by Luther, who admits that Huss's Sermons greatly influenced him in the view he was taking of justification by faith alone. The more Huss preached the more obnoxious he became to the Holy Fathers; but he cared for nothing but the truths of the Gospel, and when rebuked he appealed from the Pope to the Bible; and when the Most Reverend the Archbishop of Prague burnt the writings of Wycliffe publicly in the year 1410, it enabled Huss to extol their glories more than ever, and the progress of his opinions was rather accelerated than retarded.* But Huss could not long go on in this bold manner; he was too * Milner. This celebrated Council was composed of deputations from England, France, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia, besides other provinces. It was presided over by the German Emperor Sigismund himself, and it consisted of many German princes, among whom were twenty archbishops, nearly one hundred and fifty bishops, about one hundred and fifty other church dignitaries, more than two hundred doctors of divinity, and some say as many as four thousand priests. Their object was to reform "the abuses of the Church," and they began by an impeachment of that arch heretic, the excommunicated preacher, John Huss, who appeared at Constance, under the nominal protection of the Emperor, in his defence. His noble declaration before the reverend "fathers," one of whom was our own English Bishop of Salisbury, is worthy both of the truths he taught and the man who taught them. He declared his reliance on the word of God, which he believed to be sufficient for salvation; "faith," he added, "is the foundation of all virtues; a man must believe in God alone, not in the Virgin, not in Saints, not in the Church, not in the Pope, for none of these are God." This was enough to bring down the thunder of the Vatican upon the Reformer, and he was sentenced to be burnt alive. They took from him all his ecclesiastical vestments, put a paper coronet on his head, on which they had painted three fiends, inscribed him "arch heretic," and cursing him, said, "We devote thy soul to the infernal devils." When the painted paper was placed upon his head one of the bishops exclaimed, "Now we commit thy soul to the devil." "But I," said Huss, "commit my spirit into Thy hands, O Lord Jesus Christ." He was then marched to the stake, declaring his innocence as he walked amidst his guards. They fastened his neck to an upright post, and piled the wood around him; the chief of this infamous scene tempted him to retract, but the martyr exclaimed, with the fire before him and death staring him in the face, "What I have written and taught was in order to rescue souls from the power of the devil, and to deliver them from the tyranny of sin, and I do gladly seal what I have written and taught with my blood." The fire was kindled, and John Huss, in the year 1415, was soon suffocated, having called on God as long as he could speak.* Huss's adherent, Jerome, of Prague, was a man of very superior talents; * Milner. he had travelled in England, and the doctrines he imbibed there he circulated in Bohemia through the writings of Wycliffe. Him they summoned before the Holy Fathers, at the celebrated Council of Constance, and him they likewise condemned to be burnt as a heretic. When the executioner approached the pile behind his back, lest Jerome should see him, "Come forward," said the martyr, "and put fire to it before my face." When he was almost smothered in the flames, and was scorched with the fury of the fire, his body full of large blistersa dreadful spectacle, says his biographer, to the beholders-yet even then his lips continued moving as if his mind was exercised in intense devotion. The fires thus lighted for the destruction of precious lives in the years 1415-1416, were resuscitated after another fashion at Wittenburg about the year 1520, when Doctor Martin Luther fed upon the doctrines which John Huss and Jerome of Prague died a century before to transmit to the true church of the living God; and for three hundred years the quickening heat has stirred the hearts of Christendom, and by God's grace, as one of the last of his witnesses exclaimed at the English stake, they shall never go out. Geneva, being about nine miles in width at its widest part, it has nothing to offer in competition with the other Swiss lakes; its shores are flat and undulating, and the Swiss mountains on the left bank too far in the background to affect the scenery. But the old city, now chiefly peopled with about 8,000 Lutherans, offers a suitable object for the man who considers the truth of God's word the rule of his life; for here are still shown the true "relics" which have remained since the martyrdom of Huss and his friend. There is the minster in the midst of the town, founded in 1052; the great hall, now used as a market-place, where the celebrated Council met; the chairs on which the Emperor and Pope sat; the model of Huss's dungeon, made chiefly of the old material of which it was formed; the car on which he was drawn to execution, and above all, the book which had been his comfort in life and his support in death-his Bible. And, in the little suburb of Brühl, just outside the town, the spot in a field is shown where the stake was planted from which, in a chariot of fire, these | holy men went to their reward. A tree was planted to their memories some years ago, which stands out in our frontispiece as nobly as do the lives and deaths of the heroes whose stories we are telling. It is called "Huss's tree." The old town, with its minster, is on the right of the lake; in the foreground are the tops of the vines, which in that charming country are trailed around upright poles and completely cover the slopes of the hills; but the snow-capped mountains are hidden from view, and it was not until after a ride of several hours that their rugged peaks appeared, nor until we reached the exquisite village of Zug that the grandeur of Switzerland was seen. 66 HOW SHALL WE EMPLOY OUR LEISURE TIME easily pass by. A PRIZE ESSAY, BY ERNEST PEWTRESS, (Aged 17). HY has my Creator placed me here?" This is a most solemn question, and one which we may not We are all in the world for a purpose. What then is this purpose? An answer may be found in Luke xix. 11-27. "Occupy till I come," is the command of Our Lord in this parable. We are then to work for the glory of God. While we are young, therefore, it ought to be the aim of all of us to train and prepare ourselves for larger and more extensive labour in God's service when we grow older. Not that we can do nothing to serve Him while we are young; far from this being the case, we can do much, and in many ways. But our present object is to consider how we may render ourselves fit for any service to which God in His all-wise providence may please to call us. Our time is not to be allowed to run to waste, but we are to "Work while it is yet day and to "do all to the glory of God." How are we then to employ our leisure time? And first I answer -by reading. The question then naturally arises: What shall I read? 1. Read the Bible, frequently, carefully, prayerfully. Now, in this happy time of our happy country, when even the poor may become the possessors of the Bible for less than one shilling, and a Testa ment for a few pence, there can be no excuse for neglect of God's holy and precious word. And again, there is no use in our reading the Bible merely, unless we ask God's blessing on our reading, and try to understand what we read. Good mottoes for young persons indeed are the following passages: "Search the Scriptures" and "Pray without ceasing." 2. Read secular books. The choice of books is at once very important and very difficult to those who have not much acquaintance with literature. History deservedly takes a high rank among the many subjects for readers. Rollin, Robertson, Macaulay, Hume, are well known names in connection with this branch of literature. Natural History, with its many and diverse features, is highly interesting and instructive. There is now an abundance of cheap and interesting books, which may be read with much pleasure by any for whom the study of the works of Nature's God have a charm. Natural Philosophy and Chemistry have also their claims upon young men. is very desirable to read good poets and orators, that our diction may be elegant and to the point. Milton, Shakspere, Cowper, Wordsworth, and many others, doubtless well known to you, reader, may be taken up and read with pleasure and profit. It In reading, many find it a great assistance to memory to have a blank page book at their side, to make notes of passages more striking than others. They may then be more easily found and read over than if you have to search through a book for them. It is a good resolution to make-always to have a book in reading. How are we to employ our leisure time? Secondly, I would answer -In the practical study of one or more branches of Natural History. Botany is a branch which ladies more generally take up than any other. And what a fascinating study it is! How much more pleasure one finds in a walk, if at every step a new beauty is presented to us. And after the commoner features are known, when we come across a rarity hitherto unknown to us, what joy is experienced! The same is the case with Entomology and Conchology. Ever varied and fresh scenes open upon us when we commence to study God's works. With respect to Entomology, many feel that it is a cruel enjoyment, and look on it in the same light that they do on the bull fights of Spain. But who can prove that insects feel pain? Their blood is cold and sluggish, so that if they feel at all, it would seem to be in a very inferior degree to human beings. And are not insects, as well as animals, made to minister to the enjoyment of man? Game-birds are shot for enjoyment. Fish, crabs, lobsters, &c. &c., all die at our pleasure. Why then should we hesitate to kill insects, when we do so not for the pleasure of killing them, but to enjoy afterwards "a mental feast of their afterdeath beauty?" But still more enjoyable than Botany, Entomology, or Conchology, I think, is the study of Geology. How wonderful it is to find the remains, more or less perfect, of animals, birds, fishes, shells, &c., that were alive thousands of years ago! With what reverence, almost, one looks at specimens of these creatures, created in all probability ages before man ever trod this earth. Some geologists try to make differences and difficulties in the harmonizing of Nature and the Scriptures. But "any difficulties which seem to exist, arise out of our prejudiced minds and finite capacities; let us at once realize that we know nothing yet as we ought to know,' and be content to wait for God's further teaching to reveal to us the harmony between His acts and His words, and then every wonder of earth, and every revelation of heaven will lead us to a more child-like and rejoicing faith." 6 How are we to employ our leisure time? I would answer, thirdly, by the study of Art. Music. What a deal of enjoyment seems to be contained and implied in that word! Who does not like the music of Handel, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Mozart, and others of world-wide celebrity? How we can revel in their compositions! How the soul feels lifted into another region by the instrumentality of music! Never let us neglect music, my readers; it is one of the greatest enjoyments of life. Draw ing and Painting. How pleasurable to be able to have a memento of places we have visited and loved always by us-to be able to look at them and in spirit to roam among the dear old familiar fields again! And there is Photography, another method of drawing, by which we |