mately succumb, and that truth and righteousness must rise and reign on earth. Christ crucifled, rather, Christ risen in the Christian, is the life and power of true virtue. A person pervaded with these facts makes no great parade of empty words, as to what he would do were he assailed by temptation, or required to endure any special trial or affliction. In stillness he sets his heart against the first, and in unmurmuring resignation he welcomes the last. arduous duty presents itself, he calmly goes and performs it, and confidently expects the blessing of God to and it.

Hope, no less than faith, speaks from the bosom of true virtue. If faith is its foundation, hope is its animating spirit. You cannot separate these two. They are knit, like the hearts of David and Jonathan, into each other. As faith gives virtue a solid, present foundation, a spiritual, supernatural life-the will and the power to stand by that which is true and right, even at the sacrifice of all temporal interests, hope cheers this life by impressing upon it assurances that God is leading the way into the future. It is hope in connection with faith that gives quietude and calmness when the waves of iniquity and vice threaten to engulfall of truth, goodness and virtue that is left to us. Hope is the anchor; it steadies the soul; it fortifies the mind. Beyond the clouds which bound the present vision, it sees a clear sky, a cloudless sun, a glorious day. God is in advance of history, and through the principle of hope He speaks back to the soul when, through the confusion of conflicting elements it knows not where to look and says, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."

Virtue, grounded thus in faith and animated thus by hope, is more than the mere embodiment of human resolution connected with a cultivated love of the Beautiful, the Pure and the Good: it has, besides, something of divinity about it-a power to resist and do what nature under its highest forms could not resist and do; and then, realizing the conviction that the right, the pure and the good, whether in the race or the individual, must finally succeed, it can have no motive to yield, at any time, to any extent, or for any consideration, to their opposites. Error and vice, with all that may be found connected with them, must be destroyed. Their successes are but for a moment, and then they are overwhelmed in everlasting defeat. Life is but a span, and then eternity begins. To this brief space are the triumphs of vice confined. It cannot cross the boundary line to pollute the pure atmosphere of heaven. Virtue, though it suffer here, will be happy there; though it be clad in rags here, will be attired in glory there; yea, and even while suffering here, is more really triumphant than vice can be in its boldest and strongest hour. What inducement, therefore, can such virtue have to yield, at any point, to the blandishments of vice under any of its forms? It is better than life; for life may be a great curse, but virtue must be an endless blessing.

Virtue, based on faith and permeated by the Christian hope, is alone the virtue adapted to this world. It alone can see God amid

the terrible vicissitudes of history, leading the way to ultimate truth and purity; it alone, therefore, is able to stand firmly amid the seeming contradictions of Providence, which made the feet of the Psalmist well nigh to slip, aud which have caused many of mere natural virtue to give up confidence in truth and purity altogether, and to open the door wide for all the passions of a corrupt nature. Such virtue sees God and rests upon Him during the night and day-abroad and at home-in secret and in public, and knows that nothing can remain hidden. Faith in God, as He moves in history, and the hope of confidence that God will at last bring truth and purity to a glorious victory-these are the elements which make up the virtue which is invulnerable to the shafts of the world-say to Satan, on the mountain or in the wilderness, or beneath the shades of night, "Get thee hence Satan," and keep thy soul calm and patient amid the sorest trials

Let this be the nature of our virtue. We need it now (1) in view of the civil confusion that surrounds us. Why should God permit this? Why should He allow rebellion to gain such vast proportions? Why should He allow error to gain such a preponderance over truth! Allow not the confusion to divert the mind from God. God is still in history. The night will finally pass, and the day will dawn, and in the light of it we shall see the divine purposes. In the mean time, while the foundations shake beneath us, let us listen to His voice. "Be still, and know that I am God." No truth shall be destroyed-the right will and must triumph. Right, truth-let these enter our virtue; let us not, in view of any temptations, turn from them.

We need this virtue (2) in view of the dangers that beset the Church. Let us not fear for her safety amid her present fiery trials. To celebrate her safety was the special object in the composition of this Psalm. "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early . . . He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire Be still, and know that I am God." Therefore no weapon formed against Zion shall prosper. There is a virtue which when dangers threaten either Church or State, readily yields to the pressure, and becomes reckless. It is faithless and hopeless.

We need this true virtue, finally, in view of the dangers that beset our own souls. We shall be tried on every side. We live in a day of recklessness. Floods of iniquity are dashing over the world. To be true and faithful to ourselves-to our sense of right, require strong virtue. Let us be still, and gaze upon God. Let us hear and labor. Thus let us die.

DO THE RIGHT. Of all the forms skepticism ever assumed, the most insidious, the most dangerous, and the most fatal, is that which suggests that it is unsafe to perform plain and simple duty for fear that disastrous consequences may result therefrom.

LIFE-PICTURES FROM CHURCH HISTORY. No. 4.

ANSVERUS.

FROM THE GERMAN OF F. LUEBKER OF PARCHIM.

BY L. H. S.

Where now the old city of Schleswig and the ancient and venerable Church of Haddeby are found, opposite each other, on the woody banks of the Schley, a bridge over the Schley formerly united the two places under the name of Haddeby or Heidebo. In the eleventh century of our era, one of the most celebrated men of the country, named Oswaldus, had enormous possessions at that place extending thence to Holstein. To this brave knight, who was attended by many freemen as followers, and his pious spouse Agnes, who was a model of a holy life rich in works and testimonies of faithful love, God gave, in the middle of the century, two boys in succession, the elder of whom entered early in life, under the stimulus of temporal honor and earthly fame, upon deeds of chivalry in the world, remained abroad many years and nothing being heard of him, his afflicted parents were obliged to give up all hope of seeing him again. On this account the younger, who was called Ansverus, was designated and selected, even in his fifteenth year, as the heir to the great possessions of his parents. But his soul aspired after spiritual possessions and that wisdom which is of heavenly origin, and therefore his associations with his paternal possessions did not satisfy him. Either through the advice of the Bishop of Schleswig, or the wonderful guidance of his own inclination, he came, in his solitary and inquisitive wanderings, to the monastery founded near Ratzeburg, about the time of his birth, by the pious Slavonian Prince Gottschalk, in honor of Saint George. On the road a dream had predicted, that he would wander thither and himself attain the position of superior of the same, and that he would serve God faithfully to the end of his life. His purpose was then matured to devote his life to such peaceful deeds and works as were pleasing to God. With cheerful spirit he knocked at the gate of the monastery. The Abbot opened it and granted his request. He became then a monk, after the order of St. Benedictus, and devoted himself to all the practices and teaching, which conduct to the road to everlasting life. Henceforward he devoted himself with zeal, as the rules of this order allow and favor, to the study of the sciences, not exclusively to earthly knowledge, but with equal care to that holy wisdom which is pleasing before God. An old monk was detailed to instruct him, in obedience, humility, and abstinence. His zeal in all was so great that he excited surprise

with the well-meaning brothers, and ridicule with the proud, as is even yet the nature of sin and the way of the world. The friendliness of his nature, the purity of his soul, his unceasing desire after learning, involuntarily attached the better class of monks to him. He bore the cruel and unjust accusations of some of the brothers with humble calmness, but at the same time with the most happy results, since his irreproachable character was acknowledged He attached himself with special intimacy to a brother of the cloister, called Oswaldus, which may be accounted for by the circumstance that he bore the same name as his loved father. This monk, moreover, entertained also great and hearty love for him and saw him in spirit set apart for great things, as the frequent visions, which he had with reference to him showed. Indeed, the attention of all the brothers was directed to him in such a degree, that, when he was accustomed to seek a solitary place for prayer and private meditation, they attributed to him secret communications with the angels. In time with nearly all, hatred and aversion were converted into love and admiration. To this end they related many wonderful stories, which originated in consequence of this and have been widely circulated. When the Abbot of the Monastery died, the monks unanimously selected Ansverus as their Superior. Then there was shown in the life of this man, that all tribulation, which is temporal and light, dare not be considered in comparison with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Ansverus lead his monks, convinced in heart and conscience, with justice and mildness, through precept and example, to a life in faith, love and patience, so that his contemporaries said of him: "He followed in faith Abraham, in hope good old Simeon, and in love the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who has mercy on sinners, awaits their repentance and wills not the death of the sinner, but rather that he may live."

But the other half of the prophecy, communicated to Ansverus, that he would faithfully serve God until death, was also gloriously fulfilled. The Sclavonians still sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, their hearts were hardened and the seed fell on stony places. Even in Gottschalk's soul wonderful changes had taken place before the truth obtained the victory and governed him. His father Udo, who reigned as Prince of the Obotriten from 1025 to 1041, was at heart inclined to Christianity, but kept quiet through fear of the Saxon Duke Bernhard and had his son baptized and brought up as a Christian in the monastery of St. Michael at Lünaburg. When Gottschalk learned that his father Udo had been slain by the hand of a Christian, he fled from the Monastery, forswore his Christian faith and persecuted the Christians in such a manner that he broke into Holstein with a marauding band which he had collected together. But he fell into captivity under Bernhard, repented of his misdeeds and again obtained his liberty. After this he acquired great reputation in the long wars of Canute the great against the Norwegians and the English, and married a Christian relative of the same. He returned then to his fatherland, which had become free through the death of the despot, and so en

larged his domain that he was acknowledged as king of the Obotriten, Vagrians and Polaben.

Notwithstanding the great zeal for the Christian Church and its Institutions, which he exhibited from this time, still it happened that the distant Ratzeburg, without his being able to prevent it, fell into the possession of the Saxon Duke Ordulf. Then a rebellion broke out among the heathen Obotriten, which a second time nearly annihilated Christianity in these regions. Terrible outrages were committed and Gottschalk himself was surprised at divine service, in the church at Lenzen on the Elbe, and slain. July 15, 1066 a swarm of heathen Sclavonians, with unprecedented fury, fell upon the Monastery of St. George, and "like wild lions full of cruelty tore the sainted Ansverus with his twenty-eight brothers of the Monastery from the same and dragged them to Riesberg two thousand paces distant" (this, however, is not clearly proven) in order that they should there be stoned to death.

Ansverus went to meet his destiny with the courage of firm faith. In order to make sure that no one, through the terrors of an impending death full of torture, should be induced to recant, he requested that he might die last of all, which was granted him in the false hope that he would still alter his views. Their invincible firmness only inflamed their enemies to a redoubled rage; they crushed twenty-six monks with stones in one assault. But this even awoke new fruits of faith. Wonderful phenomena accompanied this heroic deed of faith. A wife said to her husband: Seest thou not the dazzling brightness of God and the angels, who conduct the souls of the sainted martyrs to eternal joy? With this sainted company we will abide, and it is useless for us to separate from them, on which account we will openly acknowledge that Christ is the Son of God in whom we believe, and we will declare that we are Christians." The man, who had not the same measure of joyous faith, answered: "But we have still many little children at home, who are under our charge." The wife undismayed added: "The heavenly Father is a Protector and Helper of the orphans, whom He has created, and we will undergo this death to the praise of His name and in His honor; but He will take care of them and will be their truest Guardian and Protector." with firmness underwent a martyr's death.

Both

But when also the last two monks of the Ratzeburg Monastery had fallen, Ansverus returned thanks to the Lord for the fidelity of these men and recalled to his mind in fervent prayer the example of St. Stephen, whose death should strengthen him to a steady imitation. All the corpses were now gathered together and buried in the neighborhood where they had been stoned, but Ansverus was buried in a hewn stone vault of the Monastery which he had occupied. And a miraculous blessing even rested on his grave. About two hundred years later a blind man accidentally coming to this vault and praying there to God-his sight was restored him. When this miracle was made known to Evermodus, Bishop of Ratzeburg, he had the corpse of Ansverus disinterred, and carried