1.

CRUCIFIXION.

THE Coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, his sufferings and death, are the greatest and most important events, which have ever taken place in our world.

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, came into our world, took upon him our nature, and suffered the penalties of the divine law, in our stead. By his sufferings and death, by crucifixion, he hath brought "life and immortality to light;" he hath opened a glorious way whereby fallen and depraved man can be reconciled and received into the favour of God.

"In the hour of Christ's death," says an elegant writer "the long series of prophecies, visions, types and figures, was accomplished. This was the centre in which they all met; this the point towards which they had tended and verged, throughout the course of so many generations. By that one sacrifice which he now offered, he abolished sacrifices forever. Altars on which the fire had blazed for ages, were now

to smoke no more. Victims were no more to bleed, "Not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own blood, he now entered into the Holy Place, there to appear in the presence of God for us."

"This was the hour of association and union to all the worshippers of God. When Christ said, 'It is finished,' he threw down the wall of partition, which had so long divided the Gentile and Jew. He proclaimed the hour to be come, when the knowledge of the true God should be no longer confined to one nation, nor his worship to one temple; but over all the earth, the worshippers of the Father should serve him in spirit and in truth.' From that hour, they who dwelt in the uttermost ends of the earth, strangers to the covenant of promise, began to be brought nigh.' In that hour, the foundation of every pagan temple shook; the statue of every false god tottered on its base; the priest fled from his falling shrine; and the heathen oracles became dumb forever."

"In the hour when Christ expiated guilt, he disarmed death, by securing the resurrection of the just. When he said to his penitent fellow sufferer,To-day shalt thou be with me in Par

adise" he announced to all his followers the certainty of heavenly bliss. From the hill of Calvary, the first clear and certain view was given to the world, of the everlasting mansions."

The manner of crucifixion by which our Saviour suffered, was considered the most dreadful of all punishments, both for the shame and pain of it; and so scandalous, that it was inflicted as the last mark of detestation upon the vilest of people. The Cross was made of two beams, one of which crossed the other at the top at right angles, like a T, or in the middle of their length like an X, and the criminal's hands and feet nailed thereon. The Cross to which our Saviour was fastened and on which he died, was of the former kind; being thus representted by old monuments, coins and crosses.

2.

MARTYRDOM OF THE APOSTLES.

After the Crucifixion of our Lord, the Apostles were scattered abroad in various parts of the They preached the gospel wherever

world.

they went, and the most of them were called to seal their testimony with their blood.

St. James the Great was by trade a fisherman, and partner with Simon Peter, and related to our Lord, his mother and the Virgin Mary be ng kiswomen.

When Herod Agrippa was made governor of Judea by the emperor Caligula, he raised a persecution against the Christians, and particularly singled out James as an object of his vengeance This martyr, on being condemned to death, showed such an intrepidity of spirit, and constancy of mind, that even his accuser was struck with admiration, and became a convert to Christianity. This transaction so enraged the people in power, that they likewise condemned him to death; when James the Apostle, and his penitent accuser, were both beheaded on the same day, with the same sword. These events took place in the year of our Lord 44.

St. Philip was employed in several important commissions by Christ, and being deputed to preach in Upper Asia, laboured very diligently in his apostleship. He then travelled into Phrygia, and arriving at Heliopolis, found the inhabitants so sunk in idolatry as to worship a large