even thine imagination can extend itself. These are the mansions of good men after death, who, according to the degree and kinds of virtue in which they excelled, are distributed among these several islands, which abound with pleasures of different kinds and degrees, suitable to the relishes and perfections of those who are settled in them; every island is a paradise accommodated to its respective inhabitants. Are not these, O Mirza, habitations worth contending for? Does life appear miserable that gives thee opportunities of earning such a reward? Is death to be feared that will convey thee to so happy an existence? Think not man was made in vain, who has such an eternity reserved for him.' I gazed with inexpressible pleasure on these happy islands. At length, said I, 'Show me now, I beseech thee, the secrets that lie hid under those dark clouds which cover the ocean on the other side of the rock of adamant.' The genius making me no answer, I turned me about to address myself to him a second time, but I found that he had left me. I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating; but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdat, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it.'-Addison.

ST. ATHANASIUS.

ATHANASIUS lived about three hundred years after Christ. About this time Christianity became the religion of the Roman emperor; but though it was thus exalted to the high places of the earth, it underwent a terrible attack upon the purity of its doctrines, from a person named Arius. This person was a priest of the Church of Alexandria, a town in Egypt. He seems to have been an able and very

1 The account that follows is pretty nearly Hooker's in meaning, though not exactly in words.

fair-spoken man; but being of an ambitious turn of mind, he was vexed at seeing one whom he thought his inferior placed above him; and so, giving himself up to an envious and discontented spirit, he grew impatient of authority, and ready to contradict the teaching of the Church; so that at last he was led on to broach the heresy that has since borne his name. He denied that the SON was GoD as well as man; he denied that He was co-equal and coeternal with the FATHER. For this dangerous and false notion he was deprived of his rank by the Bishop of the Church. But far from submitting dutifully to his superior, he only grew more obstinate, more bent upon opposition, more active to entangle men in the snares of his heretical teaching. He so far succeeded, that he won over to his side a large number of great names and able defenders; but after much disquiet, the emperor resolved to take the sense of the Church on the disputed question, and three hundred and eighteen Christian Bishops assembled at Nicæa, a town in Bithynia. Here the Arians, who were a very small minority, were so far overcome by the opinions and arguments of their brethren, that they signed with their own hands the Nicene Creed, or Creed of Nicæa, in which it is declared that the Son is very GoD of very GoD, and of one substance with the FATHER. One must fear that they did not mean sincerely when they did this ; that it was not their intention to forsake their errour; but only to avoid the loss of their rank, and perhaps banishment, for holding out against the decision of the great Council, to which the emperor himself gave his assent. Finding it therefore hopeless, and indeed dangerous, to stir in the matter just at that time, they went to work a different way; professing all the while a deep respect for the Nicene faith, they laboured incessantly to unsettle men's minds; to strengthen their own party; and to attack in every way they could, secretly or openly, the great main

tainers of the proper Divinity of our LORD. Of these the first and foremost was Athanasius. From the time he was consecrated Archbishop of Alexandria to the time of his death, a space of forty-six years, they never suffered him to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable day. They stole away from him the heart of Constantine; they set the succeeding emperors against him; they laid the most terrible crimes to his charge; and by activity, subtlety, and worldly prudence, they at last obtained such power, through the favour of the emperors, and used it so cleverly and so unscrupulously, that they scared their opponents, one by one, from their soundness of belief; and seemed, by fair means or foul, to have completely broken up the party which had so nobly upheld the true faith at the Council of Nicæa. But during all those years of strife and sin, there was one man, this Athanasius, who yielded not one jot of principle; who did nothing but what well became a wise man to do, and suffered nothing but what became a righteous man to suffer. It was, as our great writer Hooker expresses it, "All the world against Athanasius, and Athanasius against it." Yet although these disputes were the cause of much evil, they were also the cause of some good to the Church; for they induced the few that continued sound in faith to defend and explain the great truth which heresy sought to overthrow. And in those times it was that the Creed, containing the doctrines of Athanasius, though not written by him, was composed, and received with joy by the faithful; or, to use Hooker's language again, "accepted as a treasure of inestimable price by as many as had not given up even the very ghost of belief."

He is convicted of not loving his brother who, seeing him in necessity, shares not with him, not only his superfluities, but still more, a portion of his necessaries.-St. Gregory.

The Churchman's

Monthly Companion.

SEPTEMBER, 1844.

SIMEON AND ANNA.

BETWEEN the Old Testament and the New there was a long silence; the line of the Holy Prophets, who spoke of the coming CHRIST, was broken off; their errand was completed; the MESSIAH's coming, the time of it, many of the minutest particulars of it had been foretold; and the prophecies, in which these things were foretold, were added to the other holy books, and formed with them the Jewish Bible, what we call the Old Testament. The last of the Prophets, Malachi, had foreseen what was to be the state of things during this long silence of prophecy; and speaking of it as if he were describing something he had seen, he said: "then they who feared the LORD spake often one to another; and the LORD hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him, for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His Name." To such persons he had added splendid promises of reward: They shall be Mine, saith the LORD OF HOSTS, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him ;" and so on.

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This Simeon, and this Anna, were amongst the

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number of those GoD-fearing persons, who "spake often one to another" about the great salvation, which the Prophets had foretold: and we see how the LORD hearkened and heard them according to His promise. Let us first hear what GOD (reading in His Great Book of Remembrance about Simeon's longing desire to see the words of old prophecy fulfilled,) resolved to do for this aged and faithful servant, who was (we are told) a just and devout man, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

He sent His HOLY GHOST to dwell with him, and to comfort him. The Spirit of that prophecy, (whose revelations in old time were so precious to Simeon, the one subject of his meditations, and of his conversation) descended upon him, after it had been a stranger to God's people many hundred years: and it was revealed to him, that, old as he was, and ready to depart, he yet should not die until he had seen with his own eyes, the LORD'S CHRIST; the promised MESSIAH of JEHOVAH, the God of Israel Conceive what a blessed promise this was to the good old man; it put an end to all doubt; the SAVIOUR was to come to earth in his own days: even before his own aged body was committed to the grave; he was to see the MESSIAH with his own eyes; the MESSIAH of the Prophets, the Hope of Israel, Him whose coming had been the anxious expectation of good men in every age. Imagine how this promise must have been with him in the morning, and in the night season; "Shall I behold HIM this day? How old I am getting, and yet no tidings are abroad of His Coming, whom I am to see in the body. And what will He be like, when I do see Him? GOD's holy servant, the Son of David, who is to possess His FATHER'S throne for ever!" At last the promised day came and the SPIRIT of GOD directed him to repair to the Temple! We know not exactly how the Spirit made its commands and directions known; but the good men who felt it,