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It is also said that he made some progress in a translation of the Bible. He was famous for his proverbial sayings, many of which have been preserved, and some of his poetical compositions are of no mean order.

Schools were established in different parts of the kingdom, and the children of every freeman were required, if the circumstances of their parents would allow, to acquire the elements of reading and writing, while all that were intended for civil or ecclesiastical appointments were deemed ineligible unless instructed in the Latin tongue. Alfred set the example by sending his own children to school, where they mingled, not only with the children of the nobility, but also with those of the poorer classes.

Works so extensive and various could only be accomplished by incessant labour, and a strict, methodical arrangement of time. We are told that he gave eight hours each day to sleep and necessary refreshment, eight to the duties of his kingdom, and eight to devotion and such other duties as he considered sacred. There were no clocks or watches in these days, but the king had recourse to a very simple expedient for the measurement of time. He made wax candles, marked with circular lines of different colours, which served as hour-lines; and to protect them from the wind he invented a lantern of wood and ox horn, planed until it was perfectly transparent. The same methodical system was carried out in all his domestic concerns, in the division of the officers of his household and the appointment of their duties, and in the division and distribution of his revenue, a considerable portion of which was devoted to religious and charitable purposes.

After fifteen years of peace wisely employed in strengthening his kingdom, and in the moral and intellectual elevation of his people, he was again called to take up arms to resist a series of formidable attacks from the Danes. Hastings, the leader of this invasion, was a veteran hero, well disciplined in the art of war, who for forty years had carried fire and sword through France and Germany. Weary of a life of wandering warfare, he resolved to establish for himself a kingdom in England. His preparations were on a scale commensurate with his designs. One fleet of 250 ships landed its warriors on the south coast, while another of eighty ships, commanded by himself, ascended the Swale. Had it not been for the wise arrangements and defensive measures of Alfred, during the time of peace, the kingdom must have been overthrown. The sagacity and genius of the king, however, defeated every scheme of his powerful foe, and after three years of war by sea and land, Hastings was completely defeated, his wife and children captured, though afterwards generously restored, and his great scheme totally abandoned.

The rest of Alfred's reign was tranquil, but there was time to do

little more than repair the damage done by these three years of fearful war, but he accomplished his work. He laid the foundation of England's greatness, and left to others the task of rearing the superstructure. He died on the 26th October, 901, in his fifty-third year. In the beautiful abbey at Winchester, which he founded, his dust reposes.

Our sketch of the life of Alfred has been necessarily brief, but sufficient has been said to show that he was the best and noblest monarch that ever wielded the English sceptre, and well deserved the title of "Great." He has left to posterity a bright example of perseverance and courage in encountering and overcoming the most formidable difficulties. He was tortured all his life with a painful disease. In early life he was placed in a position of great danger and responsibility, and had to battle during the most of his reign with powerful and crafty foes. At one time his fortunes were so low that he had to wander as a fugitive in the sequestered parts of his kingdom. And yet through all his reverses and discouragements he held on his way with unfailing energy until his foes were triumphantly crushed, and then with equal courage and energy he addressed himself to the pacific but no less difficult task of reconstructing his kingdom and improving the social and intellectual condition of his people, and eventually succeeded in raising England to a higher state of material prosperity, political strength, and mental enlightenment than it had previously attained. In our day the poorest in the nation enjoy in some respects greater advantages for the acquisition of knowledge than the Anglo-Saxon king. In the ninth century books were scarce, and those of any value were written in the Latin tongue. Now the treasures of a varied and splendid literature in our own Saxon tongue are accessible to all. The Bible was to Alfred a sealed book, until at the age of thirtynine he began to study the language in which it was written; now the word of God is in every house, and from early childhood we have access to its pages of wisdom. While we are thankful for our superior advantages, we are filled with admiration at one who under most unfavourable circumstances made such advancement in piety and learning.

We at this distant period owe a great deal to his courage and enlightened policy. There is a vast difference socially, politically, and intellectually between the England reigned over by Alfred and the England reigned over by Victoria-the England of the ninth and the England of the nineteenth century. Then she was small in population, and little known among the nations. Now her name is known and her power felt to the remotest corner of the earth; but the foundations of our naval power were then laid, the germs of those noble political institutions and customs, of that literature and religion which constitute our national greatness were then planted.

We feel a peculiar pride in Alfred, because we belong to the same race as he. England has been overrun by the Danes, the Normans conquered it and held it in subjection, but England is neither Danish nor Norman. The Anglo-Saxon language and race and religion have outlived and absorbed and assimilated every thing Danish and Norman. Alfred is the impersonation and type of the spirit and history of his race-of its energy, its courage, its love of independence, of home, and religion. Like him England has sometimes been brought low, and the exultant nations have prepared to sing her requiem, but she has risen again in might and majesty, and her enemies have quailed before her.

What is it that gives the Anglo-Saxon race such marked superiority over the other tribes of the earth? It is their religion, their love to the Bible. This was the source of Alfred's greatness. It upheld him under his difficulties, and made him persevering in promoting the good of his subjects. He cherished throughout life a profound sense of dependence on God. The Christianity of England was not so bright and pure then as it is now. Sacerdotalism and superstition adulterated the truth as it is in Jesus. But in such men as Alfred we see it as pure as was possible for them to acquire it at that day, and exhibited in noble and manly development. And the same old Bible makes the country of Alfred unconquerable and indestructible. It is the palladium of her liberties, the source of her courage and resistless energies. It maintains among her people those domestic virtues, that hatred of civil and religious despotism, that love of free institutions which so nobly distinguish her among the peoples of the earth. Deprive England of the Bible, and she would be shorn of her strength; but let her retain the Bible and discharge her high mission in communicating its truths to the other nations of the earth, and though dangers threaten and difficulties beset her, she will remain stable as the everlasting hills. Who can look on the peerless position of our country among the nations of the earth-the hope of the oppressed, the refuge of the exile, the upholder of truth and freedom-knowing the source of her greatness, and not pray that she may maintain unswervingly her allegiance to God and his truth?

And while thankful to that benignant Providence that watches over us, and establishes our nation, let us not forget those human agents who have toiled hard and endured much in laying the foundation and rearing the superstructure of our national fabric, and amongst the rest let us revere the memory and perpetuate the fame of England's noblest king, Alfred the Great.

J. W.

ART. II.-TRUST IN PROVIDENCE.

AN EXPOSITION.

"Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Matthew vi. 25-30.

TH

HESE beautiful words of the Lord Jesus on the subject of worldly care, or excessive anxiety, are about mid-way between rebuke and encouragement. They will answer either purpose. The worldly-inclined Christian, intensely set on accumulation and increase of worldly goods, may feel his worldliness rebuked when his eye comes in contact with these words. The poor struggling Christian who has enough to do to meet the demands, and to keep abreast of the passing day, and is disposed to droop when he forecasts the future with its liabilities, may feel upraised and cheered by these same words. Whether they were intended as rebuke or comfort may be a question. Say they were intended for both and you will not be far wrong. They present either face to the reader just as his state of mind requires. He finds reproof or sympathy in them, or both if he needs both. They are sweet words and simple, logical, without scholastic formality, and profound without obscurity. They are a fine specimen of the easy, natural preaching of the great Teacher. We propose to expand the arguments we find in the section. Before we commence, it may be proper to premise that our vocations in life must be duly attended to, and our duties conscientiously discharged. Trust in providence must not slacken our activity, nor must our honest endeavours breed in us an atheistic self-reliance. Industry and the Divine blessing, we may presume, will enable us to live upon equal terms with the world, to meet legal claims, and enjoy a moderate share of this world's good or comfort. Beyond this, we have no need to be anxious. If our immediate wants are supplied, we ought to be thankful, and not fret ourselves concerning remoter liabilities. It is this that the Saviour teaches. Let us take up his arguments in order. The first argument is—

I. THAT GOD HAS ALREADY SUPPLIED GREATER BLESSINGS THAN THOSE WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT. "Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment ?" Our Maker has given us a soul and a body, both of them of marked superiority to food and clothes. The soul which is the foundation or basis of our being,

is endowed with the noblest faculties, understanding, memory, will and affections. He has given us capacious minds, capable of communion with other rational beings, and with Himself. We say he has given us each a soul. We are sensible of an impropriety in the expression since our souls are ourselves. He has made us souls, understanding, reasoning, self-determining beings, with a nature adapted to immortality. Would he make us such, and then deny us the lower benefits which are suitable and necessary for us during our temporary stay in this world? How much nobler is a soul than food is, than clothes are, than money, or house, or any temporary accommodation? Can we believe that he who made us, and took the copy of the work from himself, modelling us after his own moral excellence that he might see himself reflected in us, can we think, that he will be indifferent about our board and wardrobe? This is the kind of argument that meets us first. The bounty which yields the noblest good, will not be slack to supply what is less costly and valuable. We take a liberty in naming the soul in this connexion. The text does not name it. It speaks of life as a greater gift than food. And that life, what is it? How far is it from the nature of soul? So close is it in neighbourhood to the soul that the same word (4vxn psyche) is several times translated soul in the New Testament. Let a fretful man who distresses himself about the supply of his common wants, bethink himself that God has given him a soul, and dismiss his fears about those meaner things. We come to the thing named in the textlife. Whatever it is, and we are willing to confess our ignorance of its nature, it is a boon decidedly nobler than meat is. "Is not the life more than meat?" Is it not grander than food, and conceivably more difficult to initiate than to sustain ? To our gross apprehension it is more subtle than food, and, humanly speaking, draws deeper on omnipotence to give it being. Given the flame of life, shall fuel be withheld to preserve it? If the pure flame was kindled without material, cannot the same power produce fuel to feed it, or perpetuate it even without food? The lamp being made and lighted shall not go out for want of oil as long as the Maker pleases for it to burn. It is rational to conclude that a benefactor who is free to bestow benefactions of great worth will not begrudge us trifles, and necessary or convenient adjuncts. If infinite love makes us a promise of Canaan, a land abounding in all that is good, we may be sure that the same love will provide wayside comforts for us on our journey to it. If our passage thither should lie through a bare wilderness, he will either make the desert fruitful, or drop our food from a window overhead. In my utter poverty my gracious Sovereign makes over to me an estate in a distant clime, over seas, a magnificent estate, which no amount of service on my part can

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