Simplicity of Faith, HE late King of Sweden was greatly exercised upon the subject of faith sometime previous to his death. A peasant being once on a particular occasion admitted to his presence, the king, knowing him to be a person of singular piety, asked him what he took to be the true nature of faith. The peasant entered deeply into the subject, and much to the king's comfort and satisfaction. The king, at last, on his death-bed, had a return of his doubts and fears as to the safety of his soul, and still the same question was perpetually in his mouth to those about him, "What is real faith?" His attendants advised him to send for the Archbishop of Upsal, who, coming to his bedside, began, in a learned and logical manner to enter into the scholastic definition of faith. The prelate's disquisition. lasted an hour. When he had done, the king said with much energy: "All this is ingenious, but not comfortable; it is not what I want. Nothing but the farmer's faith will do for me." The New Jerusalem. ERE on my gaze what dazzling visions burst! A new creation rising; past the first; New heavens, and heaven-like earth; where sea no more Severs, intrusive, shore from kindred shore! On the glad spousal morning beautified, For her loved lord; from opening heaven she came, And hark, what voice shouts with exulting swell,— There battlements of jasper charm the gaze; While beryl, sardonyx, and topaz, blend their rays! And gates of massive pearl, like silver, gleam; No temple there around, no sun above; All sun, all temple there, where all is God and Love! REV. THOMAS GRINFIELD. A. M. Matthew. Chrysolite. Truth. "Follow me. And he arose and followed him." HE CHRYSOLITE is the precious stone of the seventh foundation of the City of Saints, where it bears the name of Matthew. In Exodus, instead of chrysolite, we find the word, diamond; which variation may easily be accounted for by the fact that the general title of chrysolite was applied to any gem in which was prevalent a golden or yellowish hue; and this is the case with many of the oriental diamonds. Indeed, some mineralogists affirm that the unmixed white gem was, in all probability, very rare in olden times. As the white were the most prized and costly, we must assume that none other would be selected to grace, in figure, this glorious edifice. The most valuable of all precious stones from its hardness, transparency, and dazzling brilliancy, the diamond, sometimes also called the adamant, seems to be most worthy to symbolize TRUTH, in its several phases of innocency, courage, fidelity, and integrity. As the diamond is powerful in reducing, polishing, and impressing other hard substances, so is truth invincible in conquering the most obdurate heart; and as it shines in quenchless radiance even amid the obscurity of the mine, so, in like manner, does illustrious truth, with its inspired coruscations, illuminate the darkest regions. In imitation, unquestionably, of the Jewish High Priest, Diodorus Siculus relates, that the chief judge among the Egyptians "did carry about his neck an image, or zodiac of precious stones hanging on a golden chain, which was called Truth." And another old writer asserts that the Egyptian chief priest wore an image about his neck of the sapphire stone, which was called Truth. Of Saint Matthew, the man so highly honored in having dedicated to his name the most lustrous and magnificent of the stones of fire, there is no phrase recorded by either of the Evangelists. In his own gospel, the earliest written, and also the most minute and comprehensive of the four, he, with an admirable modesty, sums up his personal history in the brief sentence cited at the head of this chapter. Luke makes of him the additional |