LESSON XXIX.

MAHOMET.

"God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie."—2 Thess. ii. 11.

The Eastern Empire was not broken up like the Western. The emperors reigned at Constantinople in great state and splendour, in palaces lined with porphyry and hung with purple, and filled with gold and silver. The Greeks of the east had faults the very contrary to those of the Teutons of the west. Instead of being ignorant, rude, and savage, they were learned, courtly, and keen-witted; but their sharpness was a snare to them, for what they were afraid to do by force, they did by fraud, and their word was not to be trusted. In matters of faith too, they were too fond of talking philosophy, and explaining away the hidden mysteries of God; so there sprang up sad heresies among them, chiefly respecting the two Natures of our blessed Lord; and though there were councils of the Church held, and the truth was plainly set forth, yet great numbers were led away from Catholic truth.

Long ago, the Lord of the Church had warned the Churches of Asia by His last Apostle, that if they should fall from their first faith, He would remove their candlestick—that is, take away the light of His Gospel. The first warning they had was, when the Persians broke out in great force, came to the Holy Land, robbed the churches at Jerusalem, and carried away the true Cross, which had been put in a gold case, and buried under ground in hopes of preserving it. They afterwards went on to the very banks of the Bosphorus, and seemed likely to take Constantinople itself; but the emperor, Heraclius, who had hitherto been very dull and sleepy, suddenly woke up to a sense of the danger, and proved himself an able warrior, hunting the Persians back into their own country, and rescuing the Cross, which he carried up the hill of Calvary again upon his own shoulders.

But a worse foe was growing up among the wild sons of Ishmael in Arabia. Nobody can tell what kind of religion these wandering tribes had in the old times, except that they honoured their father, Abraham, still circumcised their sons, and believed in one God, though they paid some sort of worship to a black stone, which was kept at Mecca. Some bad learnt a little Christianity, some had picked up some notions from the Jews; but they cared for hardly anything, except their camels, horses, and tents, and had small thought beyond this life. Among these men there arose, about the year 600, a person named Mahomet. He had at first been servant to a rich widow, whom he afterwards married. Either he fancied, or persuaded others that he believed, that the angel Gabriel spoke to him in a trance, and told him that he was chosen as a great prophet, to announce the will of God, and restore the faith to what it had been in Abraham's days. He caused all that he pretended to have been told by the angel, to be set down in writings, which were called the Koran, meaning the Book, the first sentence of which was, "There is no God but one God, and Mahomet is His prophet." Mahomet blasphemously pretended to be as much greater a prophet than our Lord, as our Lord was than Moses. He ordered prayers and fastings and washings at set times, forbade the least drop of wine to be touched, and commanded that not only no image should be adored, but that no likeness of any created thing should exist, promising that all who strictly obeyed all these rules, should be led safely over a bridge, consisting of a single hair, and enter into a delicious garden, full of fruits, flowers, and fountains, there to be waited on by beautiful women. He gave men leave to have four wives, and did nothing to teach them real love, purity, or devotion; and thus his religion suited the bad side of their nature, and he persuaded great numbers to join him. Indeed no unbeliever is so hard to convert as a Mahometan.

Some of the Arabs being offended at the new teaching, wanted to put him to death; and he fled from his home at Mecca. On his way he was so closely pursued as to be forced to hide in a cave. His enemies were just going to search the cave, when they saw a spider's web over the mouth, and fancied this was a sign that no one could have lately entered it, so they passed by and left him safely concealed. In his anger at this persecution, be declared that the duty of a true Mahometan was to spread his religion with the sword; and calling his friends round him, they fought so bravely that he won back Mecca, and conquered the whole of Arabia. They did not persecute Christians, but they kept them down and despised them; and any Mahometan who changed his religion, was always put to death. Mahomet called himself Khalif, and ruled for ten years at Mecca, where he died and was buried. Mahometans go on pilgrimage to Mecca, and always turn their faces thither when they pray at sunrise or sunset, throwing water over themselves, or sand if they cannot get water.

The Khalifs who came after Mahomet, went on conquering. The chief tribe of the Arabs was called Saracens; and this was the name given to the whole race whom God had sent to punish the Christian world. The Holy City itself, and all the sacred spots, were permitted to fall into their hands; and though they did not profane the churches, the Khalif Omar built a great mosque, or Mahometan place of worship, where the Temple had once been, so as quite to overshadow the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

They conquered Persia, and spread their religion through that country, putting down the fire worshippers; they seized almost all Asia Minor, where the heretical Christians too easily became Mahometans, and they obtained possession of Egypt, and the great library at Alexandria, where they burnt all the collection of books, because they said, "If they taught the same as the Koran, they were useless, if otherwise, they were mischievous." Then from Egypt they spread all along the north coast of Africa, where the Roman dominion had once been, and were only grieved that the waves of the Atlantic Ocean kept them from going further to the west.

In Spain the Gothic king, Rodrigo, mortally offended one of his nobles, who, in revenge, called in the Saracens to punish him; and the whole kingdom fell a prey to these Mahometan conquerors, except one little mountainous strip in the north, where the brave Christians drew together, and fought gallantly for their Church and their freedom through many centuries. It almost seemed as if these terrible Saracens, who bore everything down before them, were intended to conquer all Europe, and crush down the Church there as they had done in the east; but God was with His people, and He raised up a great warrior among the Christian Franks. Charles Martel, or Charles of the Hammer, so called, because he always went into battle with a heavy iron hammer, led the Franks against the Saracens, when they came up into the South of France; and in the year 732 gave them at Tours the first real defeat they had yet met with. It turned them back completely, and they never came north of the Pyrenees again; but all over the west of Asia and north of Africa, the first places where Christianity had spread, the heavy dark cloud of Mahometanism settled down, and has never been removed.



LESSON XXX.

THE FIRST SCHISM.

"While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." —St. Matt. xiii. 25

Is the West there was no heresy as there was in the East. The simple Teutons believed what they were taught, and grew softened by little and little, as their clergy gained more influence over them. The clergy were usually bred up in the convents, and there read the good old books which had come down from learned times, St. Jerome's Latin Bible, and the writings of the holy Fathers of the Church, from St. Clement, the friend of St. Paul, down to St. Gregory the Great. Each monastery had a few of such books, as well as of the Liturgy, or Communion Service, and Breviary, or Daily Service; and they were worth much more than their weight in gold. The monks used to copy them out, and adorn the borders and first letters of the chapters with beautiful colours and gilding; but such writing took a long time, and when it was done, few but the clergy could read. Except the clergy, only such persons as were partly Roman by birth had any notion of Latin, or cared to read at all; and so changed were things now that the new race were the conquerors, that to be a Roman was thought quite contemptible, and in France there was a less heavy punishment for killing a Roman than for killing a Frank. The fierce Teuton nobles thought nothing but war worth their attention, and yet they were very devout, and would weep bitterly over their sins. They gave richly to churches, founded convents, and paid great honour to clergymen, and to everything belonging to religion.

Sometimes this honour began to run into idolatry. They treated relics, that is, remains, or things that had belonged to holy persons, as having some sacredness of their own, and fancied that they would save him who carried them from harm. And when they glorified God for His saints in Heaven, and thought of the Communion of saints, they began to entreat their prayers, and the more ignorant would even pray to the saints themselves, as if they could by their own power grant the things that were asked. The blessed Virgin was more sought in this manner than any other saint. The pictures and images of saints, and the crucifix or figure of our blessed Lord on His Cross, which stood in all the churches, often had lights burning before them, and people kneeling round in prayer, till there was danger that, in their ignorance, they might be bowing down to the likeness, and breaking the Second Commandment.

One of the Greek emperors named Leo, was much displeased at this practice, and tried to put a stop to it. There was a great uproar at Constantinople, and many profane things were done and said, which shocked the western branch of the Church. At last the Greeks made a rule that there might be pictures of sacred subjects in their churches, but no images, and to this they have kept ever since. The Latins would not agree to this, and kept both images and pictures; and thus began a feeling of distrust between the two branches.

The great Frank king, Charles le Magne, grandson of Charles Martel, was a very religious man, and did a great deal to convert the heathens in Germany, and spread the power of the Church. He saved Rome from some dangerous enemies, and made the Pope a sort of prince over the city; and the Pope, in return, crowned him Emperor of Rome, though without any right to give away that title. He died in 814, and after his time all the Christian west suffered horribly from the Teuton heathens, who lived in Norway and Denmark, and who used to come down in their ships and ruin and ravage all the countries round, especially England and France. They loved nothing so well as burning a convent; and such a number of learned monks and their books perished under their hands, that the world was growing more ignorant than ever, when our good King Alfred rose up in 880, taught himself first, and then his people; and though he died early, left such good seed behind him, that at last his Saxons converted their enemies themselves, and Norway and Denmark became Christian too, through kings who had learnt the faith in England. But all the errors grew the faster from the ignorance of the people; and at Rome, where there was plenty of learning, the power the Pope enjoyed had done little good, for it made ambitious men covet the appointment, and they ruled their branch of the Church so as to ensure their own gain, more than for the sake of what was right. The Patriarchs of Constantinople greatly disapproved of this, and made the most of all the differences of opinion and practice. When the Council of Constantinople had added to the Nicene Creed the sentence which asserts the Godhead of the Third Holy Person of the Ever Blessed Trinity, the third clause had been "Who proceedeth from the Father." Of late the Western Church had added the words "and the Son." Now though the Greeks believed with all their hearts that the blessed Spirit doth come forth from the Father and the Son, yet they said that the Latins ought not to put words into the Creed that no Council had yet authorized; and thus a great dispute arose. Besides, the Popes had begun to think themselves universal Bishops, heads over all other Patriarchs; and to this the Patriarch of Constantinople would not submit, and rightly said that from the old times all Patriarchs had been equal, and had no right to take authority over one another. At last matters ran so high, that the Pope sent three legates or messengers, who laid on the altar of St. Sophia an act breaking the communion between the two Churches, and then shook off the dust from their feet. This was in the year 1056, a very sad one, for here was the first great rent in the Church, the first breach, and one that has never been repaired, for the Greeks will not, to this day, hold communion with anyone belonging to the Western Church, nor will the Roman Church with them; and after the first happy thousand years when the Church was one outwardly as well as inwardly, thus began the time when her unity has become a matter of faith, and not of sight. But it is our duty to believe that all good Christians are joined together, because they are joined to our blessed Lord, as the boughs of a tree belong to one another by their union with the root, though they may grow apart on different branches.

There were many other differences. The Greeks and Latins reckoned the time of keeping Easter in different ways, and had not the same way of shaving the heads of their clergy. Besides, the Greeks thought that when St. Paul said an elder might be the husband of one wife, he meant that a parish priest must be married; so if a clergyman's wife died, they put him into a convent, and took away his parish. The Roman Catholics said, on the contrary, that the clergy were better unmarried; and by-and-by they forbade even those who were not monks to have wives; and in process of time a far more serious evil gradually arose in the Western Church. The clergy said that there was no need for the people to partake of the Cup at the Holy Eucharist, so they were cut off from that privilege, though our Lord had said, "Drink ye ALL." The clergy said it was all the same whether the people drank of it or not, since Flesh and Blood were one; but this was thinking for themselves, and over explaining, and so by-and-by they lost the real spiritual devout way in which they ought to have reverently spoken of that great and holy mystery, and thought of it in a manner that answered better to their mere human understanding.



LESSON XXXI.

THE MIDDLE AGES.

"Surely the isles shall wait for Me."—Isaiah, ix. 9.

It is not easy to make out exactly the ten kingdoms to which the Roman dominion was said in Daniel to give place, because sometimes one flourished, sometimes another; sometimes one was swallowed up, sometimes a fresh one sprang forth; but there can be no doubt that the ten horns mean the powers of Europe, which have always been somewhere about that number ever since the conquest by the Teuton nations.

By the time the first thousand years had past, the "little leaven" had thoroughly "leavened the whole lump;" and the ways of thinking, the habits, laws, and fashions, of the western people, were all moulded by Christian notions. The notions were not always really Christian, nor did the people always act up to them; but they meant so to do; and though there was some error, yet there was also the sincere saving Truth, which made those who followed it holy, and led them to salvation. Perhaps the greatest mistake was the craving to see, instead of only to believe; and this led to peoples' putting their trust in many things besides the Merits of our blessed Lord—in relics, in images of saints, in the intercessions of the blessed Virgin, and above all, in the Pope's promises.

The Popes were Patriarchs of Rome, and had thus some right over the Churches founded from thence. They used to send the Primate, or chief Archbishop, of each country, a pall or scarf, woven of the wool of lambs which they had blessed on St. Agnes's Day. Many questions were sent to them to be decided. At first the right way of choosing a bishop was, that the clergy and people of the place should elect him, and the king give his consent; but when the Pope's power increased, ambitious men used to bribe the people to elect them; and affairs grew so bad, that at last the Emperor Otho, of Germany, came to Rome, put down the wicked Popes, and took the choice quite into his own hands. This was wrong the other way; and after two or three reigns, the great Pope, Gregory VII., after a fierce struggle with the emperor, Henry IV., set matters in order again, and obtained that, as the Roman people were not to be trusted with the choice, it should be put into the hands of the clergy of the parish churches at Rome, who were called Cardinals, and have ever since had the election of the Pope in their hands. They wear purple and crimson robes and hats, in memory of the old Roman purple of the emperors.

It had been thought by almost the whole of the Western Church, ever since they had lost their communion with the eastern branch, which might have kept them right, that the Pope stood visibly in our Lord's place as Head of the Church, and that he was infallible, namely, so inspired by the Holy Spirit, that he could no more fall into error than a General Council could. So he stood at the head of all the Archbishops and Bishops, Abbots and clergy, of the west; and whenever a difficulty arose, it was sent to him to be settled. He ruled likewise over the consciences of all men and women. If they sinned, the being cut off from the Church, excommunicated, as it was called, was the most terrible punishment that could befall them; and if a king or country were very wicked indeed, the Pope could lay them under an interdict, namely, deprive them of every office of religion, shut up the church doors, and forbid all service.

Sometimes these threats were of great benefit. It was good for the kings to be forced to think of what was right, to be stopped from making cruel wars, from misusing their people, or living in sinful pleasure; but the Popes did not always use their power rightly; they would become angry, and excommunicate people for opposing them, and not for doing what was wrong, and they did not bethink them of our Lord's saying, that His Kingdom is not of this world. Still the Church was working great good. Holy people were bred up, some in convents, some in the world: St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, who taught her people to say grace at their meals; St. Richard, the good humble Bishop of Chichester; and that glorious French monk, St. Bernard, whose holy life and beautiful preaching made him everywhere honoured.

Great alms were given to the poor, and almost all our most beautiful churches and cathedrals were built by devout kings, nobles, or bishops, who gave their wealth for God's glory. These were built so as to be almost as symbolical as the Temple had been. They were usually in the shape of a cross, in honour of the token of our Salvation; the body was called the nave, or ship, because of the Ark of Christ's Church; the doors stood for repentance, as the entrance; the Font, just within, showed that none could enter save by the Laver of Regeneration; the holiest part was to the east, as looking for the Sun of Righteousness. This portion is called the chancel, and belongs to the clergy, as the Sanctuary did to the priests of old; but the people are not as of old cut off, but draw near in faith, to taste of the great Sacrifice commemorated upon the Altar. The eagle desk for the Holy Scripture, shows forth one Gospel emblem; the Litany desk is for times of repentance, when the Priest may mourn between porch and altar. The dead rested within and around, in the shadow of their church, and constant services were celebrated, that so the gates might ever be open.

Even warriors sought to have their alms blessed by the Church; they bound themselves not to fight on holy-days, such as Fridays and Sundays; and before they could be made knights, they were obliged to vow before God that they would always help the weak, never fight in a bad cause, and always speak the truth. So that all would have been like perfect fulfilment of Isaiah's promises of the glory of the Church, save that man will still follow the devices of his own heart; and there were shrines and altars where undue honour was paid to the Saints, and too many superstitious observances were carried on before their images. Prayers and alms were offered for departed souls, in the notion that they were gone to Purgatory, a place where it was said their sins would be purged away by suffering before the Day of Judgment, and whence their friends might, as they imagined, assist them by their offerings.

People used to go on pilgrimage, and especially such as had fallen into any great sin, would go through everything to pray at the Holy Sepulchre for forgiveness. The Saracens, who had not been unkind to the pilgrims, were subdued by a much fiercer set of Mahometans, the Turcomans, who did everything to profane the holy places, and robbed and misused the Christians who came to worship there. The news of this profanation stirred up all Europe to deliver the Sanctuary from the unbeliever. Monks went about preaching the holy war, and multitudes took the cross, that is, fastened on their shoulder one cut out in cloth, and vowed to win back Jerusalem. The Pope took upon himself to say that whoever was killed in such a cause, would have all his sins forgiven, and be in no danger of purgatory; and this be called an indulgence. These wars were called Crusades. In the first, in 1098, Jerusalem was conquered, and a very good and pious man, named Godfrey, set up to be king, though he would not be crowned, saying he would never wear a crown of gold where his Master had worn a crown of thorns. But as the Greek Christians who already lived there, would not own the Pope, but held to their own Patriarch, a Latin Patriarch was thrust in and was in subjection to the Pope; and thus the unhappy schism grew wider. After Godfrey's death, the Christians in Palestine did not behave well, nor show themselves worthy to have the keeping of Jerusalem; and though St. Bernard preached a second Crusade, and the Emperor of Germany and King of France came to help them, their affairs only grew worse and worse.

In 1186, after they had possessed the Holy City only eighty-eight years, they were deprived of it; it was taken again by the Saracens, and they retained only a few towns on the coast. All devout people mourned that the unbeliever should again be defiling the sanctuary; but the Pope had a great quarrel with the Emperor of Germany, and told the poor credulous people that fighting his battles was as good as a Crusade; and they began to forsake the Holy Land, and leave it to its fate. Our own Richard the Lion Heart did his best, and so did the excellent French king, St. Louis, who died in Africa on his way to the Crusade, but all in vain; and finally the Christians were driven out of Acre, their last town, and Palestine became Mahometan again with only a few oppressed Christians here and there. Then came a much more rude, dull, and violent race of Mahometans, the Turks, who burst out of the East, conquered the Saracens, gained all Asia Minor, and at last, in the year 1453, they took the city of Constantinople, killed the last emperor, Constantine, in the assault, and won all the country we now call Turkey, where they sadly oppressed the Greeks, though they could not make them turn from their true Catholic faith. It was then that the light of truth faded entirely away from Ephesus and the Churches of Asia; a blight fell wherever the Turks went, and cities, once prosperous, were deserted and ruined. Tyre was one of these; and she has now become a mere rock, where fishermen spread their nets to dry upon the sea-shore, as Ezekiel had foretold. However, it was only forty years afterwards, that the last remains of the Mahometan conquerors were chased out of Spain, so that it became again an entirely Christian country.



LESSON XXXII.

THE REFORMATION.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field."—Matt. xiii. 44.

When the Services of the Church were first drawn up, almost everyone in the East spoke Greek, and most people in the West understood Latin; and when the Teutons learnt Christianity, they also, with it, learnt a little Latin. Thus the Prayers and the Scriptures remained in that tongue, but the people themselves spoke each their own language. German, English, French, Spanish, and Italian are mixtures in different degrees of Latin and Teuton, and only learned persons who understood the old language, could follow the Prayers, or read the Bible. So the people missed more and more of the real truth and meaning of sacred things; and some of the clergy who had grown corrupt, took advantage of their ignorance and deceived them. Whereas the Pope had once declared that those who went on a Crusade were sure of dying in a state of salvation, he now declared, that to give alms for building the great Church of St. Peter at Rome, would answer the same purpose; and indulgences, namely, promises of so many years less of purgatory, used to be absolutely sold; and it was very difficult to set these errors right, for anyone who was thought to speak against the doctrine of the Church, was liable to be punished by being burnt to death. This was quite contrary to the ways of the early Church, which, however bad a heretic might have been, never attempted to harm his person, but only separated him from her Communion.

As the Holy Spirit within the Church is ever cleansing and sanctifying it, witnesses against these errors began to be raised up. The way to print books, instead of writing them out, had been discovered in the fifteenth century; and as this art made them much more cheap and common, many more people began to read and to think. In the year 1517, a German monk, named Martin Luther, began to declare how far the selling of indulgences was from the doctrine of the Apostles; and he spoke such plain truth, that he convinced a great number of Germans, and there was a great longing for the cleansing of the Church, especially after Luther had translated the Bible into his own tongue, and everyone could see how unlike the teaching there was to what had been so long believed.

In England, King Henry VIII. separated from the Roman Church because the Pope would not please him by breaking a marriage, which certainly never ought to have been sanctioned; but which having been permitted by the Pope, and having continued twenty years, it was very wrong to dissolve. He called himself Head of the Church in England; and though he believed all the later errors, he allowed the Lessons to be read from a new English translation of the Bible. He pretended to reform the convents, some of which were in a very bad state, and had forgotten their rules; but instead of setting them to rights, he seized their wealth, and turned all the monks and nuns adrift.

The new notions were favoured by his break with the Pope. The whole Western Church was in a ferment; the reformers were constantly writing and preaching against the many errors of the Roman Church, and were rejoicing over the real treasure of true faith they had found hidden within her. Many other sincere and good men were shocked at such disobedience to what they had once respected; and unhappily, almost all the Italian clergy and cardinals were so food of the riches and power in which they were maintained by misleading the people, that they dreaded nothing so much as having them set right.

The Emperor, Charles V., strove hard to bring about a General Council of the Church, as the only hope of making matters right, but he was much hindered by his wars with the King of France, and by the double dealing of the Pope; and in the meantime Luther and his friends drew up a protest against the false doctrines of Rome, and were, for that reason, called Protestants. In Switzerland and France, another reformer, named John Calvin, was preaching against the doctrine of the Pope; and though he neglected what the Church of old pure times had decided, and thus threw away much that was good, as well as much that was untrue, great numbers followed him; but unfortunately, none of the higher clergy on the Continent would listen to these views, and there seemed no choice but to accept falsehood, or to break into a schism. After many trials, Charles V. got together some Italian, Spanish, and German clergy at Trent, in the Tyrol, and called them a council; but this was far from being a true General Council, as there was nobody from the Eastern Church, nor from many branches of the Western. The Protestants knew they should not be fairly treated, and that if these Italians should decide that they were heretics, they might very probably be burnt; so, instead of coming to it, they acted as the early Christians never did, they took up arms and fought, and this attempt at a council broke up in confusion.

Things were happier in England. After the death of Henry VIII., Archbishop Cranmer, and the other guardians of his little son, Edward VI., set to work to clear away the corruptions from the Church in England, so as to make it as like as they could to what it had been in the Apostles' time. The Bible had been translated, and they put the whole Prayer-Book into English, leaving out all that savoured of idolatry, all the notions about purgatory, and everything of error, and keeping the real old precious services of the early Church, restoring to the people the blessed privilege of the Cup, while the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, went on in an uninterrupted line, as from the beginning. On Edward's early death, his sister, Queen Mary, who was married to Philip II., the son of the Emperor, thought all these changes very wicked, and endeavoured to put them down. Four Bishops, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, and Hooper, were burnt for their share in them, with many other persons, and England was again reconciled to Rome; but Mary only reigned five years, and her sister Elizabeth was a sound Churchwoman, and held fast by the Catholic English Church in her reformed state.

Philip II., the son of Charles V., managed to accomplish another sitting of the Council of Trent, and the Church of Rome considers it a true council, though there were only two hundred and fifty-five Bishops, and they condemned the Protestants without hearing their defence. It did some good to the Romish Church by putting down the sale of indulgences, and some bad practices of the clergy; but it bound her to all the errors renounced by the Reformers, and put her into a state of schism from the Catholic Church.

The Lutheran Protestants in Germany, and the Calvinists in France, Holland, and Scotland, as they could have no bishops, made up their minds that none were needed, though this was quite contrary to Scripture, and to the ways of the Apostles. There was a sad time of warfare through all the centre of Europe; and the Spaniards and French horribly persecuted the Protestants and Calvinists, thinking in their blindness that they were thus doing God service; but Queen Elizabeth stood up as the firm friend of all the distressed Reformers; and at last matters settled down again, though not till all Christianity had been grievously shattered and rent, and there was no more outward unity.

There were four branches of the Church Catholic keeping their Bishops, the Greek, the Roman, the English, the Swedish; but none of these were in outward communion the one with the other, though still owning one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, and waging the same fight with the Devil and his works. The Roman Church was spread over all Italy, Spain, France, and great part of Germany, and tried to force down all differences of opinion by cruel and bloody means, caring more for unity than for truth, and boasting of being the only Catholic Church, instead of only one branch of it. The Lutheran doctrine was taught in Norway, Denmark, and many parts of Germany, and the Calvinist teaching gained a great hold in Holland, Scotland, and on such French as were not Roman Catholic. The Greek Church meanwhile stood fast through much tribulation in the Turkish dominions, and had gradually won the whole great Russian Empire, where, as the people ceased to be barbarous, they became most devout members of the ancient unchanging Greek Catholic Church.



LESSON XXXIII.

COLONIZATION.

"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes."—Isaiah, liv. 2.

Just as the Reformation was beginning, fresh lands were being found beyond the Atlantic Ocean, where the knowledge of the Gospel might reach. Christopher Columbus, a gallant Genoese mariner, and deeply religious man, was full of the notion that by sailing westwards he might come round to India, and thence make a way for winning back the Holy Land. After much weary waiting, and many entreaties, he obtained three little ships from Queen Isabel of Spain; and with them, in the year 1492, came to the islands which he named the West Indies, lovely places, full of gentle natives with skins of a dark ruddy colour, wearing, for their misfortune, golden ornaments. To get gold was the great longing of the Spaniards, and they did not care what cruelties they used so that they could obtain it. The Pope, finding in the prophecies that the isles of the sea should belong to the Church, considered that this gave him a right to give them away to whomsoever he pleased; so he made a grant of all to the west to the Spaniards, all to the east to the Portuguese. Thereupon great numbers of the Spaniards went over to America; they conquered the two great empires of Mexico and Peru, and settled in the West-Indian Islands, robbing the poor natives of their gold and silver, making slaves of them, and hunting them with blood-hounds when they tried to run away. Many good priests who went out as missionaries did all they could to hinder these horrors, but in vain; and when at last the poor delicate Indians began to dwindle away and die off, the plan was resorted to of bringing negroes from Africa to work in their stead. Though it was a good man who thought of it, in the hope of saving the Indians and making the negroes Christians, it came to most horrible cruelty, and was a disgrace to Christian Europe.

However, these faithful priests worked hard in teaching and converting the Indians all over South America. One brotherhood, called the Jesuits, had great establishments, where they trained up large villages of Indiana in Christian habits, and taught them to be very faithful and industrious. But at home, in Europe, these Jesuits did harm by stepping out of their work as ministers, interfering with governments more than was right, and trying to keep up the authority of the Pope more than real Catholic truth. They taught so many false stories as articles of faith, that at last clever people, wise in their own conceit, began to believe nothing, and became like the fool who said in his heart, "There is no God." So there came to be a bad feeling against all the clergy, and the Jesuits, who had made themselves very meddling and troublesome, were put down at the entreaty of several kings. When they were taken away from their converts in South America, it turned out that the poor Indians had not steadfastness enough to take care of themselves; so all their well-ordered establishments were broken up, and the people ran wild again. All the Spanish settlers, of whom there were many, still held fast to their Church, and all the coast of the Continent of South America is Roman Catholic.

The English and Dutch had not been slow to find their way to the West, but they went to the colder North instead of to the South, and sought good land more than gold. Some of the English had, during Queen Mary's reign, made friends with some of the Dutch and German Calvinists, who fancied that whatever Roman Catholics had done must be wrong, instead of only a part, and who cared nothing for the ways of the Apostolic Primitive Church. So when the true Catholic faith was upheld by Queen Elizabeth; by James I., who caused our translation of the Bible to be made by forty-eight learned Hebrew and Greek scholars; and by Charles I., who gave Bishops and a Prayer-Book to Scotland, there were many persons who grew impatient and angry that more changes were not made. These broke away from the Church, calling themselves Puritans and Independants, and living in a state of schism. Some, too, thought the king had too much power; and in Charles's time a great many went away and settled in North America, that they might have freedom, and worship in their own way. Those who stayed at home went on to that rebellion against Church and King, which ended in the Scottish Calvinists betraying King Charles, and the English Independants putting him to death for upholding the Bishops, after Archbishop Laud had been beheaded. For nearly eleven years the Bishops were put down, the clergy persecuted, and the use of the Prayer-Book forbidden in England, while all sorts of sects rose up and explained the Bible as they pleased. When, at length, Charles II. came back, and the Church was re-established in England, many more went to the colonies; and though there was a Church settlement in Virginia, the great mass of the North American colonists were Calvinists or Presbyterians, as they are called, because presbyters are their highest order of their ministry, though they cannot be really commissioned priests, never having been ordained by Bishops come down from the Apostles.

The English began to spread fast on every side, as their nation grew stronger and more numerous. They conquered several of the West-Indian Isles, and the Church was there established; but, to their disgrace, they carried on the slave-trade, to supply the settlers with workmen. In the East-Indies, too, they began to acquire large tracts by conquest and by treaty, and a few churches were built there; but they had not tried to convert the great number of heathens who became subject to them, fearing that, should they take offence, they would shake off their dominion. Such clergy as did go out were ordained in England. There was as yet no Bishop to overlook the colonial Churches, so that they could not take deep root.

Still the English Church was living as a witness of the truth at home, with many a great and holy man within her, such as Bishop Taylor, whose beautiful writings are loved by all; Bishop Ken, whose loyalty to Church and King witnessed a good confession, and whose hymns are like part of the Prayer-Book; Bishop Wilson, whose devotions for home and at the Holy Eucharist are our great guide, with more good and humble men and women than the world will ever know of; and this, under God's mercy, saved the nation from falling into the unbelieving state of France, where people thought it fine to laugh at all religion. There, in the end of the eighteenth century, a terrible outbreak took place against all authority, human or Divine; the King and Queen perished by the hands of their subjects; quantities of blood was shed, and for a time it seemed as if the country was given up to demons; the faithful clergy fled or remained hidden; and though at last people began to return to their senses, the shock to loyalty and religion has never been entirely recovered in that country.



LESSON XXXIV.

THE SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL.

The fearful effects of infidelity in France roused good men everywhere; and the Church began to show that power of reviving and purifying herself, which proves that the Lord abideth with her for ever.

Some time before things had come to this pass, an English clergyman, named John Wesley, had been striving to awaken people to a more religious life; but he did not sufficiently heed the authority of the Church; and his followers, after his death, quite separated themselves from her, and became absolute schismatics, with meeting-houses and ministers of their own, calling themselves Methodists. Still his fervour and earnestness stirred up many within the Church; and from that time there was much more desire to fulfil the mission of Christians by bringing others to the knowledge of the truth. Sunday-schools began to be set up to assist the catechizing in Church enjoined in the Prayer-Book, and often instead of it; and there was a growing eagerness to convert the heathen abroad. The great possessions and wide trade of England seemed to mark her as especially intended for this work. Some persons went about it by giving their money to any Missionary Society that made fair promises, without heeding whether it were schismatic or not; others had more patience, and trusted their alms to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which was managed by the English Bishops.

The American colonies had, by this time, grown impatient of the English Government, and had shaken it off, calling themselves the United States. The Church people among them obtained some Bishops from the Scottish branch of the Church, which the Calvinists had never been able to put down; and every one of the many United States has now a Bishop of its own.

Calcutta was the first English colony to receive a Bishop, in the year 1814. The second Bishop was Reginald Heber, whose beautiful hymns seem the birthright of our Church, like those of Bishop Ken, one hundred and fifty years before. Still very little was done with the natives of India; they were attached to their foul old religion, and Government forbade any open measures against it, though here and there was a conversion; and there have at length come to be three Bishops' Sees, and in the south of the peninsula, in the See of Madras, there are a hopeful number of Christians. The work would everywhere proceed better if there were no schism, so that all Christians could work together. Ceylon also has a Bishop, and many are there gathered in. On the borders of China likewise there is an English Bishopric; and within that empire the French Roman Catholics have been working steadily for many years to win a few of those obstinate heathen to the faith, but with little success, and often receiving the crown of martyrdom.

The French are very ardent missionaries, bearing joyously all kinds of privations, and forming their stations wherever they see any hope of gaining converts. The Sisters of Charity—good women under a vow to spend their lives in nursing and teaching—do much to show what the real fruit of Christianity is; and they are to be found wherever there is trouble or distress. There is a great college at Rome, called the Propaganda, where every language under the sun is taught, in order to fit persons for missionary work,

Our own St. Augustine's College at Canterbury is intended to prepare young men to become English missionaries; and north, south, east, and west, are the good tidings spreading, now that the days are come of which Daniel said: "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."

The English West Indies were first forbidden to import slaves; next, all the slaves were set free; and there are now four Bishoprics for their black and white population. All negroes seized in the ships of other nations, on their way to be made slaves, are brought back to Sierra Leone, on the coast of Africa, there set free, and taught to be Christians under a Bishop of our Church; and the Christian blacks are beginning to carry the message of salvation into the other parts of Africa, where the climate is so hurtful to Englishmen, that only the negro race could there do the work.

South Africa has three Bishops to rule their English settlers, win the Dutch farmers to the Church, and convert the Hottentots and Zulus. And from them a Missionary Bishop has been sent out to the heathen tribes in the interior of the continent.

North America contains nine great Bishops' Sees, and the huge Island of Australia six. New Zealand, scarcely discovered till within the last fifty years, has three Bishops of her own, ruling over a population of English, and of Christian natives, men whose fathers were cannibals, but who are now hearty Christians; and it is the centre whence a Mission Bishop is seeking to gain to the Church the inhabitants of the beautiful islands that thickly dot the Pacific Ocean. Many of these islanders have become Christian, under the teaching of missionaries from the other Societies; and though great numbers still remain savage heathens, yet the light of the Gospel is in the course of shining upon all the islands far away. Everywhere the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue, are being taught, and each convert is gathered in by baptism and fed by the Holy Eucharist, as when the apostles first went forth; and no one can mark the great spread of the Church within the last fifty years, without feeling that the blessing of God is with her. The Greek Church has done less; but though still enslaved in Turkey, in Greece she is free, and the yoke of the Mahometan is there shaken off, after her long patience and constancy.

There are dark spots in all this brightness, for Rome still teaches the same errors mixed up with the truth, and the spirit of unbelief is to be found far and wide, questioning and explaining away all the mysteries it cannot understand.

We know that it must be so, for it was to fight with sin that Christ came into the world, and left His Church there; and St. Paul prophesied that evil men and seducers should wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Daniel too, foresaw that the little horn should spring up, and do very wickedly; and all the tenor of prophecy in the Epistles declares that times of trouble and temptation must try the Church.

It seems that there has been, even from the Apostles' times, an evil spirit opposing himself to our Lord, and therefore called by St. John the Anti-Christ. His manifestations have broken out in many ways—in Arianism, in Mahometanism, perhaps in the great errors of Rome, and more lately, in Infidelity, and in Mormonism; and it would seem that there is to be some much more dreadful development of "that wicked one" exalting himself against Christ, and severely trying the elect. But we have a certain promise, that come what may, Christ will never forsake His chosen flock; and those who try to hold fast the faith once delivered to the Saints, and to keep the law of love, clinging to their own true branch of the Church, may be sure that He Who has redeemed them, will guard them from all evil, and that they will share in His glory when He shall come with all His holy angels to put all enemies under His feet. Then He shall sit on His great white Throne, and gather His elect from the four winds to dwell in the eternal Jerusalem, which needs neither sun nor moon, for the Lamb is the light thereof.



QUESTIONS.

LESSON I.

1. In what state was the Earth when first created?

2. To what trial was man subjected?

3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man?

4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent.

5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?—Gen. iii. 15.

6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow?

7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable?

8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring?

9. How did Seth's children fall away?

10. What was Enoch's prophecy?—Jude, 14, 15.

11. Who was chosen to be saved out of the descendants of Seth?

12. How was the world punished?

13. In what year was the Flood?

14. Where did the ark first rest?

15. What were the terms of the covenant with Noah?

16. Which of Noah's sons was chosen?

17. What was the prophecy of Noah?—Gen. ix. 25, 26, 27.

18. What lands were peopled by Ham's children?

19. What became of Shem's children?

20. What became of Japhet's children?

LESSON II.

1. Whom did God separate among the sons of Shem?

2. What were the terms of the covenant with Abraham? A. Abraham believed, and God promised that his descendants should have the land of Canaan, and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed.

3. What was the token of the covenant with Abraham?

4. Which son of Abraham inherited the promise?

5. Who were the sons of Ishmael?

6. What measure was taken to keep Isaac from becoming mixed with idolators?

7. Which of Isaac's sons was chosen?

8. Why was Esau rejected?

9. What was the promise to Esau?—Gen. xxvii. 39, 40.

10. By what names were the descendants of Esau called?

11. Where did the Edomites live?

12. What sea was named from them?

13. What were the habits of the Edomites?

14. Who is thought to have been the great prophet of Idumea?

15. What was the prophecy of Job?—Job, xix. 25, 26, 27.

16. How was Jacob's name changed?

17. Who were to be in the covenant after him?

18. What prophecy was there of the Israelites going into Egypt?—Gen. xv. 13.

19. Which son of Jacob was to be father of the promised Seed?

20. What was Jacob's prophecy of the Redeemer?—Gen. xlix. 10.

LESSON III.

1. Who were the Egyptians?

2. What kind of place was Egypt?

3. What remains have we of the ancient Egyptians?

4. What were the idols of Egypt?

5. How long were the Israelites in Egypt?

6. How were they treated in Egypt? 7. What prophetic Psalm is said to have been composed in Egypt?—Ps. I. xxxviii.

8. Who was appointed to lead them out?

9. How was Moses prepared for the work?

10. How did God reveal Himself to Moses?

11. What wonders were wrought on the Egyptians?

12. What token of faith was required of the Israelites at their departure?

13. What feast was appointed in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt?

LESSON IV.

1. How many Israelites did Moses lead into the wilderness?

2. How were they supported there?

3. What was the difference between the covenant with Abraham, and the covenant on Mount Sinai?

4. How did the Israelites forfeit the covenant?

5. How was God entreated to grant it to them again?

6. What signs of the covenant did they carry with them?

7. How was Moses instructed in their observances?

8. What was the Tabernacle to figure?

9. What did all the ceremonies shadow out?

10. Why were the Israelites to be kept separate from other nations?

11. How were they trained in the wilderness?

12. How long did they wander there?

13. Why did not Moses enter the land of Canaan?

14. What were the two great prophecies of the Redeemer which were given in the wilderness?—Num. xxiv. 17. Deut. xviii. 15.

15. What books were written by Moses?

16. What Psalm was written by Moses?—Ps. xc.

LESSON V.

1. In what year did the Israelites enter Canaan?

2. What kind of country was Canaan?

3. Where was the first seat of the Tabernacle in Canaan?

4. How was the inheritance of the tribes arranged?

5. Why did not the Israelites occupy the whole of their territory at once?

6. Who were the Phoenicians?

7. What were the chief cities of the Phoenicians?

8. Who were the chief gods of the Canaanites?

9. How were the Israelites governed?

10. What was the consequence of their falling from the true worship?

11. Who were their chief enemies?

12. In what book in the Bible is this history related?

13. For how long a period did the rule of the Judges last?

14. What crime brought on them the loss of the Ark?

15. How was the Ark sent back?

16. What was the prophecy of the Redeemer during this period? —1 Sam. ii. 35.

17. Who was the first of the Prophets and last of the Judges?

LESSON VI.

1. When did the Israelite kingdom begin?

2. Who was the first king of Israel?

3. On what conditions was Saul to reign?

4. What was Saul's great error?

5. Who was chosen in Saul's stead?

6. Of what tribe was David?

7. What was David's great excellence?

8. What were David's exploits?

9. How was David prepared for the throne?

10. What terrible massacre did Saul commit in his hatred of David?

11. What prophecy was thus fulfilled?—1 Sam. ii. 32, 33.

12. What was the beginning of David's kingdom?

13. What was the end of Saul?

14. Who reigned over the rest of Israel?

15. What became of Ishbosheth?

16. What were David's conquests?

17. What is the meaning of the name Jerusalem?

18. How did David regulate the service before the Ark?

19. Which are David's chief prophecies of our Lord?—Ps. ii.—xvi.

20. Which Psalm marks David as our Lord's forefather?—lxxxix.

21. Why was not David permitted to build the Temple?

22. How long did David reign?

23. What was the site of the Temple?

24. How was the Divine Presence marked there?

25. For what was Solomon's reign remarkable?

26. How did Solomon fall away?

27. What was to be his punishment?

28. What are the prophecies of Solomon? A. Prov. viii. and ix.—where our Lord is spoken of as the Divine Wisdom.—Ps. xlv. The Song of Solomon on the mystical union of Christ and His Church.—Eccles. iv.

LESSON VII.

1. How did Rehoboam bring about the accomplishment of the sentence on Solomon?

2. What tribes were left to him?

3. How was he prevented from making war on Jeroboam?

4. Who was the Egyptian king who invaded Judea?

5. Who succeeded Rehoboam?

6. Who succeeded Abijah?

7. What was Jehoshaphat's great error?

8. Into what danger did Ahab send him?

9. What great deliverances were vouchsafed to Jehoshaphat?

10. How did Jehoram act on coming to the throne?

11. How was he punished?

12. What became of Ahaziah?

13. Who was Athaliah?

14. Why could she not entirely destroy the seed royal?

[Footnote 1: These references are to the Prayer-Book version.] 15. What prophecy was fulfilled by these massacres?—2 Sam. xii. 10.

16. How was Joash preserved?

17. How was he restored to the throne?

18. How did Joash reign?

19. What was the sin of Amaziah?

20. What was the sin of Uzziah?

21. How was the sin of Uzziah punished?

22. Who reigned in Uzziah's stead?

23. Who began to prophesy in Uzziah's time? A. Isaiah.

24. What was the character of Ahaz?

25. How was the sin of Ahaz punished?

26. What were Isaiah's chief prophecies of our Lord? A. Isaiah, vii. 14.—ix. 6.—xi.—xii.—xxxii.—xxxv.—xl.—xlii.—l. 5, 6.—li. 13, 14, 15.—liii.—lxiii.

LESSON VIII.

1. Where had the greatness of Joseph's children been foretold?

A. Gen. xlix. 25, 26. Deut. xxxiii. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.

2. How did Jeroboam forfeit these blessings?

3. What warnings did he receive?

4. Who overthrew the house of Jeroboam?

5. What kings reigned next?

6. What city did Omri make his capital?

7. How had the site of Samaria been made remarkable?—Deut, xxvii.

8. What was the difference between the sin of Jeroboam and the sin of Ahab?

9. How was Ahab influenced?

10. What prophet warned him?

11. What proofs were given that the Lord is the only God?

12. Who were the chief enemies of Israel?

13. What was the fate of Ahab?

14. Who became prophet after Elijah? 15. Who executed judgment on the house of Ahab?

16. How long was the house of Jehu to continue?

17. How did Joash disobey Elisha?—2 Kings, xiii. 19.

18. What prophets succeeded Elisha?—A. Hosea and Amos.

19. What was Hosea's prophecy of Redemption?—Hosea, xiii. 14.

20. What was Amos' prophecy of Redemption?—Amos, ix. 11-15.

21. What was the end of the house of Jeroboam?

22. Who were the two allies against Judah?

23. What generous action was done by the Ephraimites?

LESSON IX.

1. Who founded the Assyrian Empire?

2. What is the description of Nineveh?

3. What prophet was sent to warn the Ninevites?

4. How did the Ninevites receive the message?

5. What prophetic book besides Jonah is concerned with Nineveh?

6. Which King of Nineveh was contemporary with Ahaz?

7. Why did Ahaz seek the alliance of Tiglath Pileser?

8. What victories did the Ninevites gain?

9. What was the effect upon Judah?

10. What profanation did Ahaz commit in the Temple?

11. Who was the successor of Ahaz?

12. Who was the last King of Samaria?

13. What partial reformation took place in Israel?

14. What was the punishment of the Israelites?

15. Where were the Israelites placed?

16. What was the next conquest attempted by the Assyrians?

17. How was the danger turned away?

18. What apocryphal book mentions the history of an Israelite captive?

19. What great mercy was vouchsafed to Hezekiah?

20. How did he show that he was uplifted?

21. What was the rebuke for his display? 22. Who was the King of Nineveh after Sennacherib? A. Esarhaddon, also called Sardocheus, and Asnapper.

23. What apocryphal history is supposed to have taken place at this time?

24. How did Esarhaddon fill the empty land of Samaria?

25. What request was made by these heathen colonists?

26. Of what race were they the parents?

27. What additions were made to the Holy Scriptures in Hezekiah's time?

28. What is Micah's chief prophecy?—Micah, v. 2, 3, 4.

29. Who reigned after Hezekiah?

30. How were the crimes of Manasseh punished?

31. What was the end of Nineveh?

32. What is the present state of Nineveh?

LESSON X.

1. What was the character of Amon?

2. What reformation did Josiah make?

3. What discovery was made in cleansing the Temple?

4. Why was the Law of Moses so awful to Josiah?

5. What answer did Huldah make to Josiah's inquiries?

6. What was the great merit of Josiah?

7. What prophecy did Josiah exactly fulfil?—1 Kings, xiii. 2. 31, 32,

8. Who were the prophets of Josiah's time? A. Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and a little later, Habbakuk.

9. What was Josiah's situation with regard to his neighbours?

10. Why was he forced to go out to battle?

11. How does Jeremiah speak of Josiah's death?—-Jer. xxii. 10.

12. How had Isaiah foretold it?—Isaiah, lvii. 1.

13. What two names had the successor of Josiah?

14. What fate did Jeremiah foretell for him?—Jer. xxii. 11, 12.

15. Whither was Jehoahaz carried captive?

16. Who was set up instead of Jehoahaz?

17. What did Jeremiah predict concerning Jehoiakim? Jer. xxii. 18, 19.

18. By whose favour had Jehoiakim been set up?

19. Who was Jehoiakim's enemy?

20. What injury did Nebuchadnezzar inflict in 606?

21. What prophet was then carried captive? A. Daniel.

22. What was the promise of Jeremiah?—Jer. xxv. 12.

23. Why was Jeremiah persecuted?

24. What was the great wilfulness of these kings?

25. What was the end of Jehoiakim?

26. By what names was his son called?

27. What does Jeremiah say of Jehoiachin?—Jer. xxii 24 to 30.

28. Was he really childless? A. Either he was childless, and Salathiel was his adopted son of another branch of David's family, or else it meant that his son should not reign.

29. What became of Jehoiachin?

30. What prophet was carried off in this captivity?

31. Who was the last King of Judah?

32. What message did Ezekiel send Zedekiah?—Ez. xxii. 25, 26, 27.

33. What was Ezekiel's lamentation for the sons of Josiah? —Ez. xix. I-9.

34. What were Ezekiel's chief prophecies of the Redeemer? —Ez. xxxiv. 23, 24.—xxxvii. 24, 25, 26.

35. What was Zedekiah's duty?

36. How did he show his want of faith?

37. What was the consequence?

38. What was the prophecy of Ezekiel that Zedekiah thought impossible?—Ez. xii. 13.

39. What were the sufferings of Jeremiah in the siege of Jerusalem?

40. What prophecies of Moses had their first fulfilment in this siege?—Deut. xxviii. 52, 53.

41. Who boasted over Jerusalem?

42. What was the desolation of Jerusalem?

43. Which book in the Holy Scripture mourns over it? A. The book of Lamentations of Jeremiah.

44. What became of Jeremiah?

45. How did the remnant act who were left in Judea?

46. Who was the prophet who spoke against Edom? A. Obadiah.

47. What was the great prophecy of Jeremiah?—Jer. xxiii. 5, 6.

48. What was the year of the taking of Jerusalem?

LESSON XI.

1. Who were the Chaldeans?

2. What does Isaiah say of the origin of the Chaldeans?—Is. xxiii. 13.

3. Who was their chief god, and how was he worshipped?

4. Describe Babylon.

5. What were the prophecies of the state of the Jews in captivity?—Lev. xxvi. 33, 34.—38, 39.—Jer. v. 19.

6. What change for the better passed over the Jews?

7. Who were the royal children brought up as slaves?

8. How had their slavery been foretold?—Is. xxxix. 7.

9. What instance of self-denying faith was given by them?

10. How was Daniel's inspiration first made known?

11. What was the first dream of Nebuchadnezzar?

12. What was the interpretation?

13. What judgment is recorded of Daniel in the Apocrypha?

14. What proof did the other princes give of their faith?

15. What is the hymn of praise said to have been sung by them in the furnace?

16. What was the effect on Nebuchadnezzar?

17. Where had Edom's fell been foretold? A. Numb. xxiv. 18-21, 22.—Jer. xlix. 7-22.—Obadiah.

18. What other conquest did Nebuchadnezzar effect? 19. Where had the fall of Tyre been predicted? A. Is. xxiii.—Ez. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.

20. How soon was a new Tyre built?

21. What was to be the recompence for the toils of the siege of Tyre?

22. Where is the ruin of Egypt foretold? A. Is. xix. 1 to 20.—Jer. xliii. 8 to 13.—xlvi.—Ez. xxx. xxxi. xxxii.

23. What was the end of the Pharaohs?

24. What was Nebuchadnezzar's second dream?

25. What was the meaning and the fulfilment?

26. What acknowledgment did Nebuchadnezzar make?

27. In what year did he die?

28. Who was his successor?

29. What was the first vision of Daniel?

30. What was the interpretation?

31. What was the second vision of Daniel?

32. What was the meaning?

33. How were the visions explained to Daniel?

LESSON XII.

1. What was the power which was to overcome the Assyrian?

2. How had the Persian power been figured in the visions?—Dan. ii. 32.—vii. 5.—viii. 3, 4.

3. What was the meaning of the two horns of the Ram?

4. What was the difference between the Medes and Persians?

5. What was the religion of the Persians?

6. What was the character of Cyrus?

7. Who was the reigning King of Babylon?

8. What was the trust of the Babylonians?

9. But what had been foretold concerning Cyrus?—Is. xlv. I, 2, 3.

10. How did Cyrus attempt to gain an entrance?

11. How were the Babylonians prevented from being on the watch?

12. What awful warning interrupted Belshazzar's feast?

13. Who interrupted the writing?

14. How had Jeremiah foretold the taking of Babylon by the Medes? —Jer. l. 35 to li.

15. How long was the captivity to last?—Jer. xxv. 11.—xxix. 10.

16. What had been the promise of Moses?—Lev. xxvi. 44.

17. What had been the prayer of Solomon?—1 Kings, viii. 46 to 50.

18. What had Isaiah said of Cyrus?—Is. xliv. 28.—xlv. 13.

19. Who made intercession for the fulfilment of these prophecies?

20. How was Daniel's prayer answered?

21. What great promise was made to Daniel?—Dan. ix. 24 to 27.

22. In what year was the decree for the restoration of Jerusalem given?

23. Who governed Babylon?

24. What was the proof of Daniel's faith?

25. What story is told of his destroying the worship of Bel?

26. How had Isaiah foretold this overthrow?—Is. xlvi. 1,2.

27. What was revealed to Daniel in his last vision?

28. What was Daniel called? A. The man greatly beloved.

LESSON XIII.

1. How many Jews returned from the captivity?

2. Who were the leaders of the return?

3. Who was Zerubbabel?

4. Why is it supposed that his father was only the adopted son of Jehoiachin? A. Both because Jeremiah sentenced Coniah to be childless, and in Luke iii. Zerubbabel's descent is derived from David, through Nathan.

5. What story is told of Zerubbabel's gaining favour with Darius?

6. What title did Zerubbabel bear?

7. What was the only inheritance left for him?

8. What was the blessing of God to Zerubbabel for his faith?—Hag. ii. 21 to 23.—Zech. iv, 6 to 10.

9. What were the prophetic blessings to Joshua the priest?—Zech. vi. 11-15.—Hag. ii. 4, 5.

10. Of what typical vision was Joshua the subject?—Zech. iii.

11. What are Zechariah's other remarkable prophecies of Redemption?—Zech. ix. 9 to 12.—xi. 12, 13.—xii. 8-10.—xiii. 1, 6,

12. What was the condition of Jerusalem?

13. What was the promise of restoration?—Zech. viii. 3, 4, 5.

14. What was the first measure of Zerubbabel and Joshua?

15. Where had directions been given for the new Temple?

A. In the latter chapters of Ezekiel, but these were a further prophecy of the New Tabernacle in Heaven.

16. How soon was the Temple begun?

17. What were the feelings of the people?

18. What promise did Haggai give?—Hag. ii. 6, 7-9.

19. What rebuke did Haggai give the Jews?

20. What interference befell the Jews?

21. Why was all intercourse with the Samaritans forbidden?

22. How did the Samaritans revenge themselves?

23. What was the state of the Persian court?

24. What was the end of Cambyses?

25. What was the story of the impostor, Smerdis?

26. Who became King of Persia?

27. What history did Darius's governors send to him?—Ezra, v. 7, &c.

28. How were they answered?—See Ezra, vi.

29. What revolt took place in the time of Darius?

30. What prophecies were here fulfilled?—Ps. cxxxvii. 8, 9. Is. xlvii. 7, 8, 9.

31. What were Darius's two vain expeditions?

32. What was the great expedition of Xerxes?

33. How had it been predicted?—Dan. xi. 2.

LESSON XIV.

1. Who is Ahasuerus supposed to have been?

2. What was his great act of tyranny?

3. By what means did he try to repair the loss of Vashti?

4. Of what race was Esther?

5. Why would not Mordecai bow down to Haman?

6. What benefit did Mordecai do the king?

7. How did Haman seek revenge for Mordecai's scorn?

8. How did Esther conduct her intercession?

9. What great deliverance was given to the Jews?

10. What fresh aid was given to the building at Jerusalem?

11. What was the date of Ezra's arrival?

12. What is counted from this date?

13. Who was the other assistant who arrived?

14. How had Nehemiah obtained leave to come and assist?

15. In what state did he find the city?

16. What prophecies were' there of her desolation?—Ps. lxxx. Is. xxxii. 13, 14.

17. What was Nehemiah's great work?

18. How were the Jews obliged to build?

19. How had this been foretold?—Dan. ix. 25.

20. What blessing had been laid up for Nehemiah?—Is. lviii. 12, 13.

21. What reformations did Ezra and Nehemiah bring about?

22. What became of the schismatical priest?

23. Where was the Samaritan temple?

24. Who was the last of the prophets?

25. What were his great predictions?—Mal. iii. I, 2, 3.

—iv. 2, 5, 6.

26. What books are thought to have been compiled by Ezra?

27. What Psalms were collected by Ezra?—From cvii. to the end.

28. What prophetic verse is ascribed to the time of Ezra?—cxviii. 22.

29. What were the songs of degrees?—Ps. cxx. to cxxxiv. 30. Who had the keeping of the Scriptures?

31. In what tongue were the early Scriptures?

32. What tongue was commonly spoken after the captivity?

33. What was therefore done when the Law was read?

34. What arrangement did Ezra make for public worship?

35. What was the synagogue service?

36. How were the Jews dispersed?

37. In what state was the Persian Empire?

LESSON XV.

1. Who were the Greeks?

2. Who was the chief Greek god?

3. What were the Greek philosophers trying to find out?—See Acts, xvii. 27, 28.

4. What were the Greek games?—See I Cor. ix. 24, &c.

5. Which were the two chief Greek cities?

6. What was the most learned of all cities?

7. Who subdued all the rest of Greece?

8. What was the name of the great King of Macedon?

9. How was Macedon figured in Daniel's visions?—Dan. vii. 6.—viii. 5, 6, 7.

10. What yet older prophecy was there of the Greek invasion?—Num. xxiv. 24.

11. What was Chittim? A. The east end of the Mediterranean.

12. In what year did Alexander enter Asia?

13. How was the swiftness of his conquests shown?

14. How did Darius go out to battle with him?

15. What cities did Alexander take in Palestine?

16. What was Zechariah's prophecy about Tyre?—Zech. ix. 2, 3, 4.

17. What was his prophecy about the Philistine cities?—Zech. ix. 5,

18. What about Jerusalem?—Zech. ix. 8.

19. How was Alexander received at Jerusalem?

20. What did he declare that he had seen?

21. What city did Alexander build in Egypt?

22. What became of Darius? 23. How far did Alexander spread his conquests?

24. What city did he wish to make his capital?

25. How did the Jews at Babylon show their constancy?

26. What befell Alexander at Babylon?

27. How had this been foreshown?—Dan, viii. 8.—xi. 3,4.

28. What was the year of Alexander's death?

29. What difference did his conquest make to the East?

30. What language was much learnt from his time?

31. What became of Babylon after his death?

32. How had the ruinous waste of Babylon been fore- told?—Isaiah, xiii. 19 to 22.—Jer. li. 43.

LESSON XVI.

1. How was the division of Alexander's empire foreshown?—Dan. vii. 6.—viii. 8.

2. What were the four horns?

3. What was the Greek power in Nebuchadnezzar's dream?

4. Which of the Greek princes came in contact with Palestine?

5. What did the Angel call them in Dan. xi.?

6. What was the name of all the Greek kings of Egypt?

7. What were the names of the Greek kings of Syria?

8. To which of them did the Jews belong at first?

9. What colony did Ptolemy Lagus bring into Egypt?

10. What prophecy was thus fulfilled?—Isaiah, xix. 18.

11. How were the Jews treated?

12. Who was the high priest?

13. How is he spoken of in Ecclesiasticus?—Ecclus. I.

14. What was Simon's work with regard to the Holy Scripture?

15. What translation was made in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus?

16. What is the Greek translation called?

17. By how many persons was it made?

18. What marriage took place between the royal families of Egypt and Syria?

19. How had it been foretold?—Dan. xi. 6.

20. What revenge was taken for the murder of Berenice?

21. How was the expedition of Euergetes foretold?—Dan. xi. 7, 8.

22. How were the Jews becoming corrupted?

23. What had been the doctrine of Joseph?

24. What did Sadoc declare after him?

25. What were the disciples of Sadoc called?

26. What were the doctrines of the Sadducees?

27. What were those called who held aloof from them?

28. What kind of kings followed Ptolemy Euergetes?

29. What attempt was made by Ptolemy Philopator?

30. How was it frustrated?

31. What was the prophecy of Philopator's invasion?—Dan. xi. 10.

32. What cruelty was attempted by him on his return to Egypt?

33. How were the Jews saved?

34. To whom did Judea give itself up?

35. How was the treason of the Jews predicted?—Dan, xi. 14.

36. In what year did the Jews pass from the Egyptian to the Syrian power?

LESSON XVII.

1. How was Antiochus's punishment of the traitors foretold?—Dan. xi. 14.

2. What were the conquests predicted in the 15th verse?

3. How did he treat Judea?—verse 16th.

4. What alliance did he make?

5. What was the prophecy of this marriage?—verse 17th.

6. What expedition was predicted in the 18th verse?

7. What checked him in this expedition?

8. What became of Antiochus the Great?

9. How was this predicted?—verse 19.

10. Who were the Romans?

11. What were they in Nebuchadnezzar's dream?—Dan. ii. 33.

12. What were they in Daniel's vision?—Dan, vii. 7.

13. Why were they like iron?

14. To what were they most devoted?

15. What great Phoenician city had they conquered?

16. What yoke did the Romans impose on Syria?

17. What was the name of the successor of Antiochus?

18. How does Daniel describe him?—Dan. xi. 20.

19. What sacrilegious attempt was made in the time of Seleueus?

20. How was it punished?

21. What was the end of Seleueus?

22. Who succeeded him, and by what means?

23. How was the success of Antiochus Epiphanes foretold?—Dan. si. 21.

24. What was he in Daniel's vision?—Dan. viii. 9.

25. What was his character?

26. How was his preference of Roman to Greek gods foretold?—Dan. xi.

27. What terrible apostasy took place among the Jews?

28. How had Zechariah predicted the fall of the Priests? Zech. xi. 16.

29. What war was predicted in Daniel xi.?

30. What wickedness was being perpetrated at Jerusalem?

31. How had this sacrilege been foretold?—verses 30, 31.—viii. 11, 12.

32. How had the martyrdoms been foretold?—viii. 10.

33. What Psalms are applicable to this persecution?— lxxiv.—lxxix.—lxxx.

34. What were the most remarkable martyrdoms?

35. In what apocryphal book are they recorded?

36. What was the remarkable difference between these and Christian martyrs?

LESSON XVIII.

1. What deliverers were raised up for the Jews?

2. Why was the family of Mattathias called Asmonean?

3. How was Mattathias first roused to resistance?

4. What purification did Mattathias make?

5. What were the predictions of him and his sons?—Dan. xi. 32, 33.

6. Who succeeded Mattathias?

7. How arose the name of Maccabees?

8. What was the great work of Judaa Maccabaeus?

9. What was the end of Antiochus Epiphanes?

10. How had it been predicted?—Dan. xi. 44, 45.

11. What was the death of Eleazar?

12. How was the varying success of the Maccabees foretold?—Dan. xi.

13. What was the death of the apostate Menelam?

14. How had Zechariah spoken of him?—Zech, xi. 17.

15. How had Zechariah foretold these wars?—Zech, ix. 13.

16. Who succeeded Maccabaeus?

17. With whom did Jonathan make a treaty?

18. What success did Jonathan gain?

19. What became of Jonathan?

20. Who succeeded him?

21. What work did Simon complete?

22. What was the end of Simon?

23. Who was the successor of Simon?

24. What conquest was made by John Hyrcanus?

25. What prophecies were fulfilled by the fall of Edom?—Ps. cxxxvii. 7.—Is. xxxiv. 6, to the end.—Joel, iii. 19.

26. What is the present state of Idumea?

LESSON XIX.

1. Who was the first Asmonean King?

2. What prophecy thus had a fulfilment? A. Zech. vi. 13; but this was only really accomplished in our Lord.

3. Who reigned after Aristobulus?

4. Who after Alexander Janneus?

5. What dispute broke out between the sons of Alexandra?

6. Who fostered the ill-will between the brothers?

7. To whose decision was the dispute referred?

8. What was it that made the Roman power so terrible?

9. How did the Romans extend their dominion?

10. What were the Roman triumphs?

11. How was the Roman army composed?

12. What was the Roman standard?

13. How did the Romans rule their conquered provinces?

14. Who alone could obtain law and justice?

15. Who had long ago described the Romans exactly? —Deut, xxviii. 48, 49, 50, 51.

16. What Roman general first invaded Palestine?

17. By what means did Pompey take Jerusalem?

18. What presumptuous act did Pompey commit?

19. What was the punishment of Pompey's sacrilege?

20. What became of Aristobulus?

21. How did Pompey arrange the affairs of the Jews?

22. What troubles did Pompey meet with at home?

23. Who gained the chief power at Rome?

24. What country had Julius Caesar invaded?

25. What arrangements did Caesar make in Palestine?

26. Who was Herod?

27. What became of Julius Caesar?

28. Who divided his power on his death?

29. How did Herod gain favour from Antony?

30. Who put an end to the reign of Hyrcanus?

31. What exploits were done by Herod?

32. How did Herod make himself King?

33. Who was Herod's wife?

34. Who was High Priest?

35. What crimes did Herod's jealousy of the royal line lead him to commit?

36. How were the High Priests appointed after the murder of Aristobulus?

37. How did Herod try to make up for his crimes?

38. Who had become Emperor of Rome?

39. What was the state of all the world?

40. What general expectation prevailed?

41. What had Augustus been told at a heathen temple?

42. What prophecy was fulfilled by Judea having an Edomite king? —Gen. xlix. 10.

43. How long was it since the walls of Jerusalem had been built?

LESSON XX.

1. In what year of the world did Augustus number his people?

2. What was the object of Augustus?

3. What was the real cause of this taxation?

4. What prophecies had foretold that the Messiah should be born of a woman?—Gen. in. 15.—Is. vii. 14.—Jer. xxxi. 22.—Micah, v. 3.

5. How was Bethlehem fixed for His birth-place?—Micah, v. 2.

6. How was His birth foretold?—Is. ix. 6.

7. What allusion was there to His being received into a stable and rejected by His townsmen?—Is. i. 3.

8. What were the rejoicings?

9. By what rite was He made obedient to the Law?

10. By whom had His Name been previously borne?

11. Who had prophesied of that Name?—Jer. xxiii. 6.

12. How was His presentation in the Temple foretold?—Hag. ii. 7 and 9.

13. How was Simeon's greeting of Him foretold?—Is. xxv. 9.

14. How had He been marked out to the eastern nations as a Star?—Numb. xxiv. 17.

15. What predictions were there of the coming and the gifts of the eastern sages?—Ps. lxxii. 10-15.—Cant. iii. 6.—Is. lx. 3.

16. How had the massacre of the holy Innocents been predicted?—Jer. xxxi. 15, 16, 17.

17. How had the flight and return from Egypt been foreshown?—Hos. xi. 1.

18. What was Herod's last crime?

19. What children did he leave?

20. Who first succeeded him?

21. Why was Archelaus deposed?

22. How was Palestine divided?

23. Who governed Judea?

24. What regulations for the Roman empire were made by Augustus?

25. What languages were everywhere spoken? 26. Who succeeded Augustus, and in what year?

27. What were the predictions of our Lord's childhood?—Is. vii. 15.—liii. 2.

28. How had David declared the wisdom He showed in the Temple?—Ps. cxix. 99, 100.

29. Mention the prophecies of His forerunner?—Is. xl. 3.—Mal. iv. 5, 6.

30. How had baptism with water been already employed?

31. How did our Lord sanctify baptism?

32. What had been the object of the Law which St. John brought to a point?

33. How did He show how the sins of which His disciples were sensible might be removed?

34. Who were the first disciples?

35. Whom did they acknowledge in our Lord?—Deut. xviii. 15.

36. How had the miracles been promised as marks of the Messiah?—Is. xxxii. 3, 4.—xxxv. 5, 6.

37. How had His gentleness been foretold?—Is. xi. 1 2, 3, 4.—xlii. I, 2, 3.—lxi. I, 2, 3.

38. How had the cleansing of the Temple been foretold?—Ps. lxix. 9.—Mal. iii. 1, 2, 3.

39. What was the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist?

40. What was it that prevented the Jews from recognizing the Messiah?

41. How had their rejection of Him been foretold?—Ps. lxix, 7, 8.—Is. liii. I, 2.

42. How had the triumphal entry into Jerusalem been predicted?—Ps. viii. 2.—cxviii. 26.—Jer. xvii 25.—Zech. ix. 9.

43. How had the plots of the Pharisees been foretold?—Ps. x. 10, 11.—xxxv.—vii.—lvi. 5, 6.

44. Mention the prophecies of the treachery of Judas.—Ps. xli. 9.—lv. 12, 13, 14, 15.

45. How had the price been already made known, and likewise what became of it?—Zech. xi. 12, 13.

46. What was to be the end of the traitor?—Ps. cix. 7, 8, 9.

47. What blessed mystery was instituted on the night before the Passion? 48. How had the joining of different authorities been foreshown?—Ps. ii. 2.

49. How the testimony against Him?—Ps. xxxv. 11.

50. How the judgment?—Is. liii. 8.

51. How His silence before Pilate?—Is. liii. 7.

52. How the insults of the soldiery?—Is. 1. 6.

53. How the scourging?—-Ps. cxxix, 3.—Is. liii. 5.

54. How the disfigurement?—Is. lii. 14.

55. What was the accusation on which the Jews condemned Him?

56. What that on which Pilate condemned Him?

57. Why was crucifixion the manner of His death?

58. How had it been predicted?—Ps. xxii. 17.—Is. xxv. 11.—Zech. xii. 10.—xiii. 6.

59. How had the desertion of the disciples been foretold?—Ps. lxxxviii. IS.—Zech. xiii. 7.

60. How the derision of the Jews?—Ps. xxii. 7, 8.

61. How the parting of the garments?—Ps. xxii. 18.

62. How the sponge of vinegar?—Ps. lxix. 22.

63. What had been the prediction of-the sense of desertion by God?—Ps. xxii. 1.

64. What of the dying among the wicked and the burial?—Ps. lxxxviii. 3, 4.—Is. liii. 9.

65. What of the Resurrection?—Ps. xvi. 11.—Is. xxv. 8.

66. What of the effect on us?—Is. xxvi. 19.—Hos. xiii, 14.

67. What of the Ascension?—Ps. lxviii. 18.

LESSON XXI.

1. What was fulfilled by the one great Sacrifice?

2. What were the ceremonies of the Law?—Heb. x. 1.

3. What was the difference between circumcision and baptism?

4. How had baptism been enjoined?—Mark,xvi. 16.

5. Where had its regenerating power been declared?—John, iii. 5.

6. How had the promise of being cleansed by His blood been held out in the Old Testament?—Ps. li. 2.—Is. i. 18.—lii. 15.—Joel, iii. 21.—Zech. xiii. 1. 7. How were the faithful invited to constant partaking of pardoning grace?—Ps. xxxvi. 8, 9.—Is. xii. 3.—xliv. 22.—lv. 1.—Ezek. xlvii. 9.—John, iv. 14.—vii. 37.—See Rev. xxii. 17.

8. How had the Passover come to the true fulfilment?—1 Cor. v. 7.

9. How had the deliverance of the redeemed been foretold?—Is. xxxv. 8, 9,10.

10. Which day of the week was to be kept in remembrance of their rescue?

11. How was the great Sacrifice to be partaken of?

12. How had it been instituted?—Luke, xxii. 19, 20.

13. Where had it been predicted?—Prov. ix. I, 2, 5.—Zech. ix. 17.

14. How was the bringing near in prayer made known? Is. lxv. 24.—Mai. I. 11.—Matt. vi. 9.—xxi. 22.—Mark, xi. 24.—John, xvi. 23, 24, 26, 27.

15. How had the day of Atonement come to fulfilment?—Heb. ix. 24.—Rev. v. 8.

16. How was our Lord revealed as a Shepherd?—Gen. xlix. 24.—Ps. xxiii.—Is. xl. 11.—Jer. xxxi. 10.—Ez. xxxlv. 23.—xxxvii. 24.—Zech. xiii. 7.—xi. 7.—Matt, xviii. 12, &c.—John, x. I, &c.

17. How is the Old Testament shown to be only explained in our Lord?—Is. xxix. 11, 12.—Rev. v. 1-5.

18. What were the believers in the new Covenant to be called?

19. What is the meaning of Church?

20. How many believers met at first?

21. Whom did they choose into the place of Judas?

22. How was he consecrated?

23. What gift was thus bestowed on him?—John, xx. 21, 22, 23.

24. What was the meaning of the name Apostles?

25. What was the second order of the ministry?

26. What festival was taking place?

27. What did the Feast of Weeks commemorate?

28. How was the great work completed?

29. What is the inward work of the Holy Spirit? 30. With what outward signs was His coming manifested?

31. What was the promise of His coming?—Joel, ii. 28, 29,—-John, xvi. 7.

32. What were the first-fruits of His coming?

33. What was the occasion of the appointment of the deacons?

34. Who was the first martyr?

35. What was the end of Pilate?

36. Who succeeded Tiberius?

37. What was the history of Herod Agrippa?

38. Who was the great Pharisee convert?

39. How was it made known that the Gospel might be preached to the Gentiles?

40. What had been the promise to Abraham's faith?

41. How had it been foretold that the Gentiles should come in?—_Ps_. ii. 8.—xix. 4.—xviii. 43, 44.—xxii.—lxviii. 11.—lxxii. 17.—xlix. 6.—_Is_. lii. 7-10-15.—liv. 1._lvi. 6, 7.—lix. 19.—_Matt_. xxiv. 14.—_Luke_, i. 79.—_John_, x. 16.

42. Who was the first Gentile convert?

43. Which Apostle was first martyred, and by whom?

44. What was the end of Herod Agrippa?

45. What were the different missions of the Apostles?

46. What is the tradition about the Creed?

47. What are the texts thought to be allusions to the Creed?—Luke,i. 4.—1 Tim. vi. 20.—2 Tim. i. 13.

48. Why was not the Creed commonly rehearsed?

49. Which was the first of the Gospels?

50. What was the difference between the treatment which the Apostles received from the Jews and Romans?

51. To whom did they always go first?

52. What advantages did they derive from the Roman power?

53 What was going on in Britain?

54. Who was Roman Emperor?

55. How had the persecutions been predicted?—Matt. xxiv. 9.

LESSON XXII.

1. How had St. Paul first been converted?

2. How did he spend his time after his conversion?

3. How bad education fitted him to be an apostle to the Gentiles?

4. How was he introduced to the apostles?

5. What was his first mission?

6. What name was first given at Antioch?

7. How were SS. Paul and Barnabas first set apart?

8. What was their first journey?

9. Who was their companion?

10. What was the occasion of the first Council of the Church?

11. Why must the decisions of a truly general council be right?—Matt, xviii. 20.

12. What was the decision of the first Council? Antioch?

13. What question arose between SS. Paul and Peter at

14. How did St. Paul differ with St. Barnabas?

15. What was the further history of St. Barnabas?

16. Who were the companions of St. Paul's second journey?

17. How far did his second journey extend?

18. What argument did he hold at Athens?

19. Who were the Athenian philosophers?

20. What were written at Corinth?

21. Which Gospel is said to have been here written?

22. When did St. Paul's third journey begin?

23. What was his first station?

24. What was the cause of the tumult at Ephesus?

25. Which Epistles were written in his third journey?

26. How far did his third journey extend?

27. What caused his return to Jerusalem?

28. What were his troubles at Jerusalem?

29. How was he rescued from violence both of Jews and Romans?

30. Before what tribunals was he brought? 31. Why could he not be set at liberty?

32. What were the events of his voyage to Rome?

33. How did he live at Rome?

34. What are the Epistles of his captivity?

35. To what bishops did he write instructions?

36. What apostle ruled the Church at Rome?

37. What are the writings of St. Peter?

38. Which Gospel was superintended by St. Peter?

39. What became of St. James the Less?

40. Which was the first persecution?

41. Which is St. Paul's last Epistle?

42. How did St. Paul and St. Peter die?

43. How had the manner of St. Peter's death been foretold?—John, xxi. 18, 19.

44. What Church was founded by St. Mark?

45. What was the death of St. Mark?

LESSON XXIII.

1. How had the apostles been martyred?

2. What Church was left in Ethiopia?

3. What Church was left by St. Thomas?

4. Which apostles left writings?

5. Who alone survived to hear of the destruction of Jerusalem?

6. How had this been foretold?—John, xxi. 22.

7. How did the Jews bring punishment on themselves?

8. How did they misread the prophecies?

9. How had our Lord predicted their self-deception?—Matt. xxiv. 5-11.

10. What Roman was sent against them P

11. How was he called off?

12. What warning was thus given?—Luke, xxi. 20, 21.

13. How did the Christians profit by the warning?

14. How were our Lord's predictions of fearful sights and signs from Heaven fulfilled?

15. Why was the city more than usually filled?

16. Who was the Roman general?

17. In what year did Titus besiege Jerusalem? 18. How had the Jews called down vengeance on themselves?

19. How had our Lord mourned for them?—Luke, xiii. 34.—xix, 41.

20. How had St. Paul mourned for them?—Rom. ix. 2,3.

21. How had the manner of the siege been predicted?—Deut. xxviii. 52.

22. How had the dreadful famine been foretold?—Luke, xix. 43.

23. What was the state of the city?—Deut. xxviii. 53-56.—Lam. ii. 20, 21.

24. How was the entrance effected into the Temple?

25. What had been the intention of Titus with regard to the Temple?

26. Why could not the Temple be saved?

27. What condition was the city found to be in?

28. What prophecy was fulfilled?—Matt. xxiv. 2.

29. What became of the treasures of the Temple?

30. What became of the Jews?

31. How had their dispersion been predicted?—Deut. xxviii. 64-68.—Ps. lix. 11.

32. How have they lived ever since?

33. What warning does St. Paul give the Gentiles?—Rom. xi. 18.

34. Why were the Jews so utterly rejected?

35. Who were accepted in their stead?

36. How had the acceptance of the sons of Japhet been foretold?—Gen. ix. 27.

LESSON XXIV.

1. What were the events of Domitian's persecution?

2. How was St. John a martyr in will?

3. What was revealed to St. John in a vision?

4. Where was the latter part of St. John's life spent?

5. What were the instances of St. John's love?

6. What are the writings of St. John?

7. In what year did he die?

8. What were the habits of the early Christians?

9. How did they meet for worship? 10. What was their practice on the Lord's Day?

11. How did they arrange themselves at their assemblies?

12. How did the heathen try to find out what they did?

13. Why did Trajan dislike them so much?

14. What had befallen the old Roman temper?—Dan. ii. 41.

15. Who was the great martyr of Trajan's persecution?

16. What is told us of St. Ignatius as a child?

17. What is a Father of the Church?

18. How was St. Ignatius put to death?

19. What did he say of himself?

20. Who was St. John's other pupil?

21. What had been said to St. Polycarp in the Revelation?—Rev. ii. 10.

22. In what persecution did St. Polycarp suffer?

23. What did he say of himself at the tribunal?

24. What was his last thanksgiving?

25. What was the manner of his death?

26. What was the story of the Thundering Legion?

LESSON XXV.

1. How had our Lord forewarned His followers of their sufferings?—Matt. x. 16, 17.—John, xvi. 2.

2. How had they been told to meet their afflictions?—Matt. v. 12.—1 Peter, iii. 14.

3. What had He said of confessing or denying Him?—Matt. x. 32, 33.

4. What had been promised through St. John to such as overcame?—Rev. ii. 17.—iii. 5 and 21.

5. How had the lot of the martyrs been shown to St. John?—Rev. vii. 14-17.

6. How many periods of persecution had been predicted?—Rev. ii. 10.

7. Name the ten chief persecutors.

8. How is Severus memorable in Britain?

9. Who were the martyrs of Carthage?

10. Who were the chief martyrs of the persecution of Valerian?

11. What were St. Lawrence's treasures? 12. Why did Sapricius fail?

13. What became of Valerian?

14. Whose was the fiercest persecution?

15. How did the Theban legion witness their confession?

16. In what manner were Christians brought to trial?

17. Mention some of the martyrs of the Diocletian persecution.

18. Who was the British martyr?

19. Who shielded the Britons?

20. How was the Empire divided?

21. What was the difference between a martyr and a confessor?

22. What was the remarkable end of Galerius?

LESSON XXVI.

1. Who was the first believing monarch?

2. How was Constantine converted?

3. Tell me a few of the promises that Gentile sovereigns should obey the Church?—Ps. lxxii. 11.—Is. xlix. 23.—lx. 4.—lxvi. 12.—Rev. xi. 15.

4. What was the date of Constantine's conversion?

5. What was Helena's expedition to Jerusalem?

6. How did she do honour to the holy places?

7. What did Jerusalem thenceforth become?

8. What prophecy thus had a partial and material fulfilment?—Is lx. 10.—lxvi. 20.

9. How did Constantine change the capital of his empire?

10. To whom was his chief church dedicated?

11. Who were the patriarchs of the Church?

12. What name was given to the patriarch of Rome?

13. What were those called who retired from the world?

14. What is a heresy?

15. How had our Lord foretold that heresies would arise?—Matt. xviii. 7.

16. What warnings had He given against them?—Matt. vii. 15.

17. What warning had the apostles given?—Acts, xx. 29, 30.—1 Tim. iv. 1.—Titus, iii. 10.—2 Peter, ii. 1, 2. 18. What had St. John given as the test of the truth?—1 John, iv. 15.

19. What was the heresy of Arius?

20. What council was held against it?

21. Who was the great champion of the truth?

22. What creed was drawn up at Nicea?

23. How many bishops signed the Nicene Creed?

24. How was Arius punished?

25. Into what error did Constantine fall?

26. How was the Church spared from communion with Arius?

27. In obedience to what commands were obstinate sinners cut off from the Church?—Matt. xviii. 17. 1 Cor. v. 4, 5.—Titus, iii. 10, 11.

28. When was Constantine baptized?

29. How was the Church tried under Constantius?

30. How was it tried under Julian?

31. What profane attempt did Julian make?

32. How was it frustrated?

33. What is the meaning of Catholic?

34. What great confession of Catholic truth was drawn up at this time?

LESSON XXVII.

1. Who were the two brothers who reigned together?

2. What evil habit prevailed in their days?

3. What was the great work of St. Jerome?

4. Into what tongue did he translate the Bible?

5. What was the bishopric of St. Ambrose?

6. How was he chosen?

7. How did St. Ambrose resist the Empress Justina?

8. Why did he hold out against her?

9. Who was the Catholic Emperor?

10. What fresh heresy had arisen?

11. What fresh confession of faith was made at the Council of Constantinople?

12. What was the sedition of Antioch?

13. Who preached repentance at Antioch?

14. How were the men of Antioch relieved? 15. What offence was given at Thessalonica?

16. How did Theodosius punish the murder?

17. How was he brought to a sense of his cruelty?

18. How did he humiliate himself?

19. What prophecy was literally accomplished in his reign?—Is. lx. 14.

20. How soon did St. Ambrose reconcile Theodosius to the Church?

21. What Father of the Church was converted at this time?

22. What writings did St. Augustine leave?

23. What hymns are ascribed to St. Ambrose?

24. Who finished the conversion of the Gauls?

25. How was St. Chrysostom promoted?

26. How was he persecuted?

27. What prayer is known by his name?

LESSON XXVIII.

1. How had the Roman power decayed?

2. Of what were the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's statue made?

3. What nations had attacked the Romans?

4. What was the faith of the Teutons?

5. Under what form did they first learn Christianity?

6. Who ruled the Roman empire?

7. What portion first was lost to Rome?

8. Who conquered Britain?

9. How was Ireland converted?

10. What prophecies were there that these distant places should be won to the faith?—Is. xlix. 1.—lxvi. 19.

11. What great act of self-sacrifice marked the last Triumph?

12. Who conquered Rome?

13. How did Alaric treat Rome?

14. Who was the first Christian King of France?

15. How was Spain brought to the Catholic faith?

16. What led to the conversion of the English?

17. Who was the first missionary to the Saxons?

18. Who sent St. Augustin? 19. Who was the first Christian Saxon King?

20. What devotions were arranged by St. Gregory?

21. What did he do for Church music?

22. What was the work of St. Benedict?

23. What were the habits of the monks and nuns?

LESSON XXIX.

1. What evils prevailed in the East?

2. What heresies were there taught?

3. What threat had been made in the Revelation?—Rev. ii. 5.

4. What alarm befell the East?

5. How was the true Cross recovered?

6. What false religion sprang up?

7. Who was Mahomet?

8. What was his false prophecy called?

9. What were the requirements and promises of the Koran?

10. In what year was the flight of Mahomet?

11. How did he spread his religion?

12. Where did he die?

13. How do the Mahometans honour Mecca?

14. What was the chief Arabian tribe called?

15. How did they treat Jerusalem?

16. What did they build there?

17. What did they do with the library at Alexandria?

18. How far did they extend their conquests?

19. Where were they brought to a stop?

20. Who turned them back?

21. Are there any sayings in the New Testament that can be applied to such a falling away as the Mahometan heresy?—2 Tim. iii. 13.—Rev. ix. 2 to 11. (supposed.)

LESSON XXX.

1. What was the danger of the Western Church?

2. Why were the people so ignorant?

3. What respect did they pay to religion?

4. What errors began to prevail?

5. What Greek emperor tried to prevent image worship?

6. What different decisions were arrived at in the east and west?