were crucified with Jesus were of this order. And this will explain how, with all their "blood-guiltiness," they were well acquainted with the character and professions of the Holy One who was crucified between them.

But how fared it with the transgressors with whom Jesus was thus numbered? The story, as told by Luke, is very touching. Matthew tells us that when the chief priests and scribes and elders mocked the crucified Jesus, and said, "He saved others, himself he cannot save, the robbers also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth." (Matt. xxvii. 44.) But Luke tells us that one of the malefactors railed on Him, and that the other rebuked his fellow, saying, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation ? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss." (Luke xxiii. 39-41.) Whether both malefactors joined at first in the blasphemies of the multitude, according to the letter of Matthew's narrative, or whether Matthew spoke generally of the "robbers," simply because it was not his plan to enter into details, and only meant to convey an idea of the extreme indignity to which Jesus was subjected, we cannot say. But the story of the penitence and salvation of one of them is one of the most precious in the Gospel narratives.

There is no mystery in the knowledge shown by the penitent robber when he testified of Jesus, "This man hath done nothing amiss," or when he prayed to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." There was no class who had better opportunities of know

The wonder in

ing all that was moving the public mind and heart than those free booters and banditti which roved from place to place, and, while indulging their passion for violence and murder, professed an interest in all that affected their national freedom. The claims of Jesus of Nazareth, of whose works and words they must have heard everywhere, may have been often discussed by these men in those many hours in which their very occupation doomed them to idleness. this man is, that, spite of every appearance to the contrary, he could see in his fellow-sufferer a King,that he understood His kingdom to be not such as the Jewish nation desired to see, but a kingdom that had to do with the soul and with the spiritual world, and that, whether with or without a present recollection of the second Psalm, he believes that the Lord who sitteth in the heavens would laugh to scorn the counsel which rulers and people had taken against His anointed. Jesus himself had said, "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his work. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

(Matt. xvi. 27, 28.) And to the High Priest, when he adjured Him to say whether He was the Christ the Son of God, Jesus said, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven."-(Matt. xxvi. 64.) Whether the dying robber knew of these particular utterances or not, we cannot say. But he knew the profes

sion and claims which they involved. And now he believed in them with all his heart.

So far as any human means of this faith is concerned, we have it in the demeanour of Jesus on the cross. Had He come down from the cross and saved Himself by miracle, there would not have been more of divinity in the act than there was in the meekness, and patience, and lovingness, and forgivingness of His entire spirit while enduring the contradiction of sinners against himself. That He could come down from the cross, who could doubt that knew that He had raised the dead? And that He did not choose to come down from the cross, but endured its shame and agony patiently, touched the heart of His fellow-sufferer more than any display of physical power could have done. There was more of God in this than in any prodigy that could have confounded His enemies.

And we need

not look farther for the means by which the dying robber was led to faith in Jesus as the Son of God, the very Christ that should come into the world. And what besides means we need to account for it, we have in the words of Christ to Peter:-" Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

Of our Lord's answer to the petition of the dying malefactor we need only say that it is "a glorious example of what we may not unfitly call the prodigalities of the kingdom of heaven, of the answers to prayer, infinitely larger and more liberal than the suppliant in the boldest ventures of faith had dared to suggest-To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." A glorious triumph, this—an earnest of the fulfilment of His own words, " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

FROM what a small source springing

The mightiest river flows,
Its arms on all sides flinging,
Increasing as it goes:

A streamlet from the fountain
May water all the plain,
As, winding down the mountain,
It stretches to the main.

That tree-its branches spreading
So lofty and so wide,

Where beasts in shade are treading, And birds in covert hide,

Was, as by Nature planted,
A tiny, branchless shoot,
Till Heaven its influence granted,
And rained upon its root.

The works of Him how wondrous
In whom all Being lies!
He speaks-the earth heaves under us,
And up at once they rise-
The river from the fountain,

With ever-flowing tide:
The tree upon the mountain,
Extending high and wide.

not be thought out of place. It is much to be regretted that so little is known of Marvell's private history, but amongst his contemporaries none dared to incur the odium of taking out a license to publish the life and writings of the disinterested and firm friend of John Milton, and the wellknown adherent of the Commonwealth; so that our knowledge of his principles and talents has to be drawn from State Papers, chance notices of him by writers of his time, the relics of his most popular works, his letters on parliamentary debates, etc., and the manuscripts of his poems preserved by his descendants.

When the servant of the late Protector took his seat in the House of Commons, it was with no ambitious ends in view. He entered Parliament not to increase his humble means, but simply to serve his town, his country, and the cause of freedom. Never had man, before or since, a fairer chance of securing wealth and titles than he. The good-natured Charles II. had sense enough to admire and appreciate wit, even when its keen edge was directed towards himself, and, fascinated by Marvell's conversation and easy manners, he desired his presence at Whitehall, and spared no pains to induce him to withdraw his hostility to the royal party. These flattering attentions were much more dangerous than threats and bribes; but against all three Marvell was proof, and contentedly occupied the second floor of a court in the Strand, and dined off his "broiled blade-bone of mutton," rather than mingle with the profane and impure, and feast at the expense of honour and truth. We may imagine with what sad forebodings good men in Marvell's time

VOL, IV.-NEW SERIES.

saw the gravity of the Commonwealth give place to the follies, extravagancies, and profligacy that came in the train of the Restoration. The vices, that had slunk out of sight or counterfeited virtue during the ascendancy of the Puritans, soon cast off disguise, and stalked forth in all their hideousness. Encouraged by royalty, the corruption spread fast and wide, contaminating all classes, and nearly every section of society. Marvell saw with grief and dismay the sycophancy, worldliness, and often open immorality of men professing to be the successors of holy apostles, and followers of the lowly Christ Jesus; and his indignation was poured forth in language that made bishops tremble, and hate the man that drew such faithful portraits of themselves.

But it was not until the Rev. Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, exerted himself SO conspicuously in the truly Christian work of persecuting nonconformists, and attacked that "Prince of Divines," Dr. Owen, with the lowest abuse, that Marvell brought into the field his invincible artillery of wit and satire, and showed that he was a match for any antagonist in a literary warfare. Parker was notoriously servile, he could accommodate his opinions to whatever was popular or led to preferment; and beginning life as one of the strictest of Puritans, he ended by declaring himself in favour of transubstantiation, and the worship of saints and images. At the Restoration Marvell says he journeyed often up to London, where he spent a considerable time in creeping into all corners and companies, horoscoping up and down concerning the duration of the government." Bishop Burnet

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