and zeal, he was styled "the great apostle of the north."

An information against him having been forwarded to Bishop Bonner, his friends apprised him of his danger, and advised him to withdraw from the kingdom: but his zeal was of too ardent a character to admit of his profiting by this counsel; and anticipating the fate of martyrdom, he ordered his steward to provide him a long white garment to wear at the stake, and awaited with composure the arrival of the expected messenger with the order for his arrest. He was soon apprehended, and set out for London on horseback. His favourite maxim was, All things are for the best!" Proceeding on his journey, the horse fell and broke the rider's leg. "Is all for the best now ?" said one of his attendants jeeringly. "I still believe so," replied the good man, and so it proved; for the accident detained him, and before he was sufficiently recovered to finish his journey, Queen Mary died. The summons for further proceedings was withdrawn, and instead of coming to London, he returned home in triumph, to the no small joy of his parishioners. The remainder of his life he devoted to the cause of Him who had preserved his life from destruction. And at last Bernard Gilpin died in peace in the Lord, after illustrating the truth:-"All things shall work together for good to them that love God'."

When sensible that his end was approaching, he told his friends of his apprehensions, and spoke of his death with great composure. He was soon after this confined to his chamber, but retained his senses to the last. A few days before his death, he desired that his friends, acquaintance, and de

1 Rom. viii. 28.

pendants, might be called into his chamber; and, being raised on his bed, addressed himself to them on matters of eternal concern. To his scholars, called in by his request, he said, "that this was their time if they had any desire to qualify themselves for being of use in the world; that learning was well worth their attention, but virtue much more so." He also sent for several persons, who had hitherto made no good use of his advice, and upon whom he imagined his dying words might have a better effect; but his speech began to falter before he had finished his exhortations. The remaining hours of his life he spent in prayer, and broken conversation with some select friends, mentioning often the consolations of the Gospel; declaring they were the only true ones, and that nothing else could bring a man peace at the last 2.

"All's for the best."

Deserted by each faithless friend,

When fortune's smiles no more attend,
Submissive to his Father's will,

The patient Christian trusts Him still;
Still walks in duty's rugged way,
Looks up to God both night and day,
His joy and peace, oh, who can tell?
In weal and woe with him "All's well."

Or passing through death's gloomy vale,
If fears invade, and doubts assail,
While leaning on the staff and rod
Of his unchanging, faithful God,
A gleam of heavenly light appears,
The Saviour wipes away his tears;
Triumphant over death and hell,
In life and death with him All's well.

2 Chalmers' and Gorton's Biog. Dict.

THIS ingenious writer, and accomplished officer and statesman, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was the son of Sir Henry Sidney, of Penshurst, in Kent.

This great man being sent with English troops to assist the Dutch against the Spaniards, received a wound in the thigh from a bullet at the battle of Zutphen, of which he died. "As he was retiring,' says his biographer, "from the field of battle, pale, languid, and thirsty, with excess of bleeding, he asked for water to quench his thirst. The water was brought, and had no sooner approached his lips, than he instantly resigned it to a dying soldier, whose ghastly countenance attracted his notice, saying, 'This man's necessity is still greater than mine.'

Sir Philip Sidney was an illustrious patriot, and pious Christian. A soldier dying a Christian death, is a noble and animating spectacle. The military character is then really great, when it is

exalted by the genuine virtues of a Christian. Sir Philip retained a calm and undisturbed spirit, and made a public confession of his faith to the holy ministers of religion who encircled his bed, to men eminent for their goodness and edifying piety. This confession is said to have been such as no book but the heart could truly and feelingly deliver. They afterwards accompanied him, at his own earnest request, in a devout prayer dictated by himself, and uttered with much energy and affection, the free and fervent effusion of a heart deeply penetrated with a true sense of sin. "His sins," he said, "were best known to himself, and out of that true sense he was more perfectly instructed to apply the eternal Sacrifice of our Saviour's passion and merits to himself."

In the course of his illness he introduced a topic of conversation, the most serious and sublime that can engage the attention of man, the Immortality of the Soul. The day on which he died, he called for music to compose his disordered frame. His mind was soothed and tranquillized, anticipating, as it were, those delightful strains of celestial melody, with which the angelic choir encompass the throne of God. With a patient submission to the Divine will, he bade adieu to his most afflicted brother, in words which deserve to be engraven in letters of gold. "Love my memory; cherish my friends; their faithfulness to me may insure you that they are honest. But above all, govern your will and affection by the will and word of your Creator, in me beholding the end of this world with all its vanities." He died in the arms of his dear friend, Mr. William Temple'.

If we often thought seriously and practically on 1 Zouch's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Philip Sidney.

the immortality of the soul, our vain desires, worldly pleasures, and sinful courses would be checked, and our attention directed to that fixed state of being, in which an eternity of pain or happiness must be our portion for ever. May the Holy Spirit direct us in our choice, and guide our feet into the paths of peace.

SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM.

DIED 1590. AGED 89.

ONE of the great men who formed the ministry of Queen Elizabeth. His daughter was married to the celebrated Sir Philip Sidney. Sir Francis had deep impressions on his thoughtful mind concerning God and a future state, as we may see in a few lines of a serious letter which he wrote to the Lord Chancellor Burghley, in which he says, "We have lived long enough, my lord, to our country, to our Sovereign, and to our fortunes: it is time that we begin to live to ourselves and to our God."

The retirement and unusual pensiveness of this great man, then Secretary of State, being looked upon by his friends at court as a fit of melancholy, some of them came to him on purpose to divert him. But Sir Francis soon checked their jocular humour, saying, "Ah, my friends, while we laugh, all things are serious round about us: God is serious, who exerciseth such patience towards us; Christ is serious, who shed His blood for us; the Holy Ghost is serious, who striveth against the obstinacy of our hearts; the holy Scriptures bring