ST. ATHANASIUS.

:

A sea of troubles tried thee, till at length,
Borne back by thy strong sinew, they upreared
Thy might, and sternly bore thee in thy strength
Onward, till on the Eternal Rock appear'd
Truth's loyal champion, to all time rever’d.

Great Athanasius! beaten by wild breath
Of calumny, and exile, and of wrong,

Thou wert familiar grown with frowning death,
Looking him in the face all thy life long,

Till thou and he were friends, and thou wert strong.

The "Eye of Alexandria," raised on high,

Unto all Christendom a beacon light:

Thou from our tossing waves and stormy sky

Art in thy peaceful haven hid from sight;

But still thy name hath leave to guide us thro' the night.

THE CATHEDRAL.

B

LIFE OF ST. ATHANASIUS.

CHAPTER I.

Yes, thou art launch'd on the great sea of being,
Nor aught of things that are, or things to be,
Can wrest thy birthright—Immortality!
"Tis a dark, rough sea,

But there is one hath made a bark for thee,
And sitteth at the helm to guide thee hence
Unto a shore where all is innocence.

REV. J. WILLIAMS.

1.

BIRTH OF ATHANASIUS-EARLY TRAINING-HIS CHILDISH SPORTS WITNESSED BY BISHOP ALEXANDER-RESULTSHIS EDUCATION-CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA-ITS SCHOOLATHANASIUS THE PRIMATE'S SECRETARY.

WE are familiar with the name of Athanasius, from its connexion with that form of words read in church on certain appointed Sundays and Holy days, known as the "Confession of our Christian faith, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius."

Whether that confession is indeed the composition of him whose name it bears, is extremely doubtful. It seems more probable that it is the work of a somewhat later period, and of an unknown author, though it has been commonly received in the Christian Church as a correct exposition of the orthodox faith, and embodies the doctrine which it was the object of St. Athanasius' life to maintain. But his name is also connected, for those who have any acquaintance with early ecclesiastical history, with the composition of that creed which forms a part of our Communion service, and takes its name from the great council held at Nice, A. D. 325, where it was accepted and promulgated as an antidote to the errors by which the Church was at that time threatened. And St. Athanasius must always be numbered by the ecclesiastical historian among the greatest of those holy saints, martyrs, and confessors, to whom the Church has long since given the title of "the Fathers," thus commemorating them as men to whom her childhood owed its spiritual nature, and to whose writings (many of which we are so happy as yet to possess), she has been accustomed to look up with a filial reverence.

Of St. Athanasius it has indeed been said, that to commend him is to commend virtue itself; that he was the pattern for bishops, and his doctrine the rule of orthodoxy; he was an eye and a light to the