if he was provided with them, his sensations may be easily imagined. His knees bent under him, and he felt himself absolutely incapable of advancing or receding a single step. Meanwhile, in the twinkling of an eye the panther reached him. Sporting with its prey, in the manner of a cat with a mouse which she has taken, the ferocious animal began to take different positions, varying into attitudes, and seeking to touch him with its foot, as if to tantalize him; then removing suddenly to the distance of some paces, darted rapidly upon him. The poor youth understood very well, by what he had heard of the unhappy fate of others in a similar case, in what manner this frightful sport was to terminate; he believed that his last hour was come. In this frightful position, destitute of all human succour, he did not, however, forget the lessons of his Christian education, which taught him, that in every extremity man has an invisible friend, the Lord and Maker of animals and men, whose ears are ever open to the cry of the distressed, and who, if he sees it expedient for us, can at any time rescue us from danger. He recommended himself to God, in secret, but fervent prayer. At that instant a noise was heard it was an Arab horseman, armed with a gun, who approached with the intention of passing by the spot. Affrighted in its turn, the panther took to flight, at the moment when, bereft of all strength, and almost sinking to the earth, he whom it had kept a prisoner, was about to become its victim. He returned to the monastery, pour

ing out his heart in gratitude to heaven, for having so miraculously preserved him from imminent danger.

LESSON V.

SWITZERLAND.

No product here the barren hills afford,
But man and steel, the soldier and his sword;
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter, lingering, chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.
Yet still, even here, content can spread a charm,
Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm.
Though poor the peasant's hut, his feasts though
small,

He sees his little lot, the lot of all;

Sees no contiguous palace rear its head,

To shame the meanness of his humble shed;
No costly lord, the sumptuous banquet deal,
To make him loathe his vegetable meal:
But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil,
Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.
Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes;
With patient angle trolls the finny deep,

Or drives his venturous ploughshare to the steep;
Or seeks the den, where snow-tracks mark the way,
And drags the struggling savage into day.

At night returning, every labour sped,
He sits him down the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His children's looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his loved partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board:
And haply, too, some pilgrim thither led,
With many a tale repays the nightly bed.
Thus every good his native wilds impart,
Imprints the patriot passion on his heart;
And ev❜n those hills that round his mansion rise,
Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies:
Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,
And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms;
And as a child, when scaring sounds molest,
Clings close and closer to the mother's breast;
So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar,
But bind him to his native mountains more.

THE work of redemption had been consum

mated; the son of God had returned to his throne

in heaven, after he had left to his apostles the command to preach the Gospel to every creature. For this vast undertaking they required greater strength and illumination-the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to await whose descent they remained at Jerusalem, as they had been directed by their Lord. In the mean time they performed nothing except the election of another apostle, Matthias, in the place of him who had prevaricated. On the festival day, on which the giving of the Old Law on Mount Sinai was celebrated, the perfection of the New Covenant in the Christian Church was effected. The Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles and assembled disciples in the form of fiery tongues, and imparted itself to the new-born Church, that was then collected in one place. Henceforth it continued as the living soul inseparably infused into the body of the Church, preserving it in unity of faith and love. Its influence upon the apostles soon became visible: weak as they were before in faith, doubtful and timorous, they now displayed minds full of faith and of understanding, fervent, courageous, and undaunted, which not even the threat of death could subdue. The festival had drawn to Jerusalem Jews and proselytes from every nation of the earth. These, Parthians and Medes, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and of the provinces of Asia; Jews from Egypt, Rome, and Lybia; Cretes and Arabians, stood in astonishment when they heard, in their own languages, the wonderful things of God, spoken by the apostles; and so powerful was the effect of

the inspired word of God, coming from the mouth of Peter, that in one day three thousand converts added themselves to the Church. Many of these, returning to their native lands, bore with them the seeds of the divine word; so that the apostles, when they went from Jerusalem to preach to the whole world, found in many places the way opened before them. The cure of the lame man in the portico of the temple, and the discourse addressed to the wondering multitudes, by St. Peter, increased the number of believers to five thousand. But the princes of the Jews could no longer remain silent; the priests and sadducees, enraged by the intelligence of our Lord's resurrection, hastened to the temple, seized Peter and John, cast them into prison, and on the following day, placed them before their tribunal. When the prince of the apostles spoke to the council, proving the necessity of believing in Him whom they had crucified, his accusers could do no more than dismiss him, with a severe prohibition of again teaching in the name of Christ. “Judge ye, if it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather than God," was the generous answer of the disciple of Christ.

DÖLLINGER.