thee from heaven into earth, sends thee from Jewry to Egypt. As thou wouldest be born mean and miserable, so thou wouldest live subject to human vexations; that thou, who hast taught us how good it is to bear the yoke even in our youth, mightest sanctify to us early afflictions. Even of those, whose mature age is full of trouble, yet the infancy is commonly quiet; but here life and toil began together. What a change is here! Israel, the firstborn of God, fled out of Egypt into the promised land of Judea; Christ, the firstborn of all creatures, flies from Judea into Egypt. Egypt is become the sanctuary, Judea the inquisition-house of the Son of God. He that is every where the same, makes all places alike to his : he makes the fiery furnace a gallery of pleasure, the lion's den a house of defence, the whale's belly a lodging chamber, Egypt a harbour. He flees, who was able to preserve himself from danger, to teach us how lawfully we may flee from those dangers we cannot avoid otherwise. He that came to die for us, fled for his own preservation, and hath bid us follow him; "When they persecute you in one city, flee into another." We have but the use of our lives, and we are bound to husband them to the best advantage of God and his church. Herod was subtle in mocking the wise men, while he promised to worship Him whom he meant to kill; now God makes the wise men to mock him, in disappointing his expectation. It is just with God to punish those who would beguile others with illusions. The tyrant's suspicion would not let him rest long. Ere many days, he sends to inquire after those whom he sent to inquire after Christ. The notice of their secret departure increases his jealousy; and now his anger runs mad, and his fear proves desperate. All the infants of Bethlehem shall bleed for this one; and, that he may make sure work, he takes large measures, both after time and place. Doubtless he, who so privily inquired for Christ, did as secretly plan this massacre. The mothers were set, with their children on their laps, feeding them with the breast, or talking to them in the familiar language of their love; when suddenly the executioner rushes in, and snatches them from their arms; and at once, without regard to shrieks or tears, murders the innocent babe, and leaves the mother in a state between madness and death. What cursing of Herod! what wringing of hands! what condoling! what exclaiming was now in Bethlehem! O bloody Herod, who couldst sacrifice so many harmless lives to thine ambition, what could those infants have done? If it were thy person whereof thou wert afraid, what likelihood was it thou couldest live till those sucklings might endanger thee? It is not long that thou shalt enjoy this cruelty. After a few hateful months, thy soul shall feel the weight of so many innocents, of so many just curses. He, for whose sake thou killedst so many, shall strike thee with death; and then what wouldst thou have given to have been as one of those infants whom thou murderedst? In the mean time, when thine executioners returned and told thee they had murdered all, thou didst smile to think how thou hadst defeated thy rival, and beguiled the star, and deluded the prophecies; while God in heaven, and his Son on earth, laugh thee to scorn, and make thy rage an occasion of further glory to Him whom thou meantest to suppress! He that could take away the lives of others cannot protract his own. Herod is sent home. All is clear for the return of that holy family: now God calls them from their exile. Christ and his mother had not stayed so long out of the confines of the reputed visible church, but to teach us continuance under the cross. Sometimes God sees it good for us not to sip of the cup of affliction, but to make a dietdrink of it, for constant and common use. If he allow us no other liquor for many years, we must take it off cheerfully, and know that it is but the measure which those better than ourselves have long been used to. BP. HALL. JOHN OLLARA. JOHN OLLARA was born sometime about the year 1800, in a village in Lancashire. His father was a native of Ireland, and a Roman Catholic; his mother was an Englishwoman, and a Protestant. John was brought up in the religion of his father, and when a mere boy, evincing considerable shrewdness of mind, and having obtained a tolerable education, he was deemed worthy to fill the situation of reader or clerk, at the Roman Catholic chapel in the immediate neighbourhood. How long he filled this situation, or indeed remained in connexion with the apostate church under whose wing he was fostered, I have not been able to ascertain. In 1826, the period when first brought under my notice, he was a confirmed deist, and one, too, of the most daring description that I ever met with: he was then in the employ of a manufacturer of this town as a kind of manager in one of the rooms of a power-loom factory. Mr. W- being favourable to the circulation of religious tracts, under his patronage, and that of his principal manager, a Mr. J -, attempts were made by an auxiliary society to awaken an interest in behalf of such kind of publications, in the minds of the numerous individuals under their care and in their employ, and to a certain extent those exertions were crowned with success. This good work met with some opponents, however, from several of the hands at the factory. John was the leader of them; and, being a man of some reading, with considerable powers of speech, he did the cause no little harm. Such was his contempt at this time for any thing in the shape of christianity, that he used to say to his fellow-workmen, "If ever I am such a fool as to become a christian," a thing which he thought next to impossible, I will become a proper fool at once, and declare myself a Roman Catholic." From the situation which he filled, John had a degree of influence over the minds of several young persons who were in a measure committed to his care; and it being found that he was not contented with being a solitary wanderer in the path of error, but that he was using all his influence to mislead the unwary, much to the credit of his employer, though a trusty and valuable servant, he was dismissed by his master, rather than the risk should be run of his being the means of imbuing with infidelity the minds of the young around him. If all masters who have in their employ hundreds of their fellow immortals, particularly the young, were to act after this manner, it would not only be better for the interest of individuals, but for that of the community at large; but the misfortune is, that too many of them regard their workmen, without any reference to their situation as rational and immortal beings. The right of private judgment should be revered, and held as inviolate; and a man, being a good servant, ought not to lose his situation for his opinions, though these may be at issue with such as are cherished by his employer; but when a man so far forgets his duty as to make use of the influence that his situation may give him, to spread what his employer cannot but regard as moral poison, the dismissal of such a servant becomes a matter of duty and not of choice. From Wigan, John Ollara removed to Bolton, and afterwards to a village in the neighbourhood of his native place; and here it pleased the great Disposer of events to visit him with sickness. At the commencement of his illness he was as thoughtless as ever; but when he saw week after week pass away, and the prospect of his recovery become more remote and doubtful, he began to be restless and apprehensive. Conscience, which had long been silent, began to speak out, and he was most wretched indeed. It was at this time that he began to read some of the publications of the Religious Tract Society, which in the season of health he had not only despised, but endeavoured to turn into ridicule and contempt. The bible, that blessed book, which had often been the object of his scornings, next was inquired after, and became the companion of his solitary hours. The refuge of lies which, in a time of health, had been his trust, had failed him, and to his sorrow he felt that infidelity may do for a time of prosperity, but not for a season of adversity; that in health men may vauntingly speak of its powers, but that in sickness they find something more is wanted, to nerve the mind, than either deism or the world can give. "Let Reason vainly boast her power To teach her children how to die; The sinner in a dying hour Needs more than Reason can supply. Deeply affected, and fully convinced, he saw and felt that he was a sinner; he ventured to pray, nor were his supplications without strong cries and tears. His was the sighing of a contrite heart. He was desirous to have the visits of a christian minister, that his mind might be informed as to the way of peace and salvation. His father, who heard of his wish, was desirous of bringing to him the Roman Catholic priest; but John would only have the man of his own choice, assigning as his reason, that when resident in Wigan he had occasionally heard a person who preached the same doctrines, and that his statements, though he had endeavoured to make light of them, had made a deeper impression upon his mind than he was willing at the time either to allow, or even to suffer himself to believe. The minister no sooner heard of Ollara's wish than he called upon him. On his first visit there was a degree of reserve. On further intercourse that, however, wore off; and John, without hesitation, made him the confidant of his feelings and state of mind. His convictions were deep; he had been no common sinner; his contrition, so far as the eye of man could reach, was sincere, and his repentance without disguise. The minister preached to him Christ, and him crucified, as the way of a sinner's justification before God, and made known unto him the consolations of the gospel of the grace of God; and it was not long before he seemed to have found the peace resulting from believing in the Saviour. He now became most anxious to undo the mischief which he had occasioned by the propagation of his infidel sentiments, and for that purpose sent for several of his fellow-workmen, whose minds he had endeavoured to mislead by his principles. When he saw them, he was deeply affected, and for a time was unable to address them; but at length, after a copious shower of tears, in a firm and composed tone of voice, and with something very solemn in his manner, he said, “I have sent for you that I may tell you that I have seen my errors, and deeply bewail them. The principles which you have often heard me advocate, I believe to be false and delusive, and have therefore renounced them. The gospel contains the ground of my hope; for the Lord Jesus is my salvation." He added, He added, "You have often heard me say when in health, that I would not die a hypocrite; believe me then, upon the testimony of a dying man, that what I have said is true, and the real emotions of my soul in the near prospect of eternity." Speaking of his illness to them he said, "You may think it strange, but I give God thanks for it. It has been a hard and trying time, and has now been of fourteen weeks' duration; but it has been to me a season of mercy as well as a season of suffering; and I feel that I never can be so grateful to the Divine Being as I ought, that he has not only given me time and space for repentance, but a disposition to improve it." |