himself as a Christian, and received from them their best hospitality. In this way they learned much of the customs and history of those distant lands; and such intercourse supplied to the children particularly a great deal of information, such as we gain from books of travel, or from letters, or from newspapers.

Mary did not begin to go to meeting as early as children do with us. For, even in the best times, the meeting together of Christians was prohibited by the laws against meetings of citizens, and therefore they could not conduct their services in a public way. They used to meet on the Lord's-day, therefore, before light in the morning, and after sunset at night. It was hardly Sun-day to them. When Mary was old enough to understand what worship was, and old enough to be trusted with the secrets, which, if a careless child betrayed, many Christians might be exposed to persecution, her father took her early one Sunday morning to the church where the Christians of the town assembled.

It had not been built for a church, and, in its outward appearance, had nothing to distinguish it from the other buildings around. As Mary went in, her mother kept her with her, and they went and sat with other women and girls, who were by themselves. Her father and her elder brothers sat opposite them, on the other side of the building. As Mary looked round, she could see the minister, whom she knew, opposite the door by which they had entered, standing in a sort of pulpit. Behind him was a table covered with a white cloth, and on this, Mary had been told, were the preparations for the communion. Near the door were some persons together who were penitents, undergoing some discipline for offences. Between them and the congregation were some converts who were not yet baptized. The service began with a simple hymn, and Mary was glad to find she could join in it, for it was one they were used to sing at home. The minister then read from the Old Testament and from the New; and, a part of the time, a younger person, called a reader, read the Scripture. When he came to the passage from the Gospel, he said, "Stand up,-the Gospel will now be read," and began with the words, "Thus saith the Lord." All the people stood while the Gospel was read. Then the minister said to the people, "Peace be with you," and delivered a

sermon to them on the Gospel which had been read. And it would happen sometimes that other brethren would speak also. If they had a letter from another church, it was read to the people. While this service went on, the speaker sat down, and the audience stood. For this was the custom in Africa, as the speakers sitting was in Palestine. (See Luke iv. 20, 21.)

At the end of the sermon, one of the officers of the church bade all faithless to retire. Then the minister offered a very short prayer, as nearly as possible in the words of Scripture. He prayed for all the believers,-for the young persons who were learning the doctrines, and had not been baptized, for the penitents who were passing through any discipline. As these last were spoken of, they left the church quietly; and those of the congregation remained for the service of communion.

Mary partook with her mother in this service. All young people did who had been baptized and educated in the Christian religion. Yet she did not the less go, at the proper times, to be catechized. Here she met with many who had not been baptized, who had only been lately interested in the persecuted faith. There were some persons quite old, whom the deacons and the minister instructed with her in the simple lessons which were necessary before their baptism. Mary had learned all of these at home. They were the Ten Commandments, a Creed which the minister explained to them, and the Lord's Prayer.

After the converts had learned these, and seemed to understand and really believe them, they were baptized, and afterwards took their place with the congregation.

Before they parted, at the end of the service, they all said,-"To God the Father, and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, be honour and might for ever and ever. Amen."

The service of the communion varied but little from the forms common now. The oldest description we have of it— of a hundred years before Mary's time-will shew probably quite nearly what it was then.

"After prayer," says Justin Martyr, "bread and wine and water are brought in. The president of the meeting again prays according to his ability, and gives thanks; to which the people respond, Amen. After this, the bread, wine and water are distributed to those present, and the

deacons carry portions to such as are necessarily detained from meeting. Those who are able and willing contribute what they please in money, which is given to the president of the meeting, and is appropriated to the support of widows and orphans, the sick, the poor, and whomsoever is necessitous."

Frequently, when there was an opportunity, they met on week-days for religious services, of which the forms varied, more or less, from these we have described. Singing was an important part of their exercises. They sang such simple hymns as we have spoken of, and Psalms from the Jewish Psalms. The love-feast, a feast where none but Christians came, and which was accompanied by religious services, was one of these social meetings.

In such a simple life must this young Christian girl have grown up. With an account of the form of her marriage, and one sad story of her life, we will close this history.

She was to marry a Christian. When Mary was married, she and the young man who was to be her husband went to the church wearing wreaths of flowers, Mary wearing a veil, and having on her finger the gold bethrothal-ring which he had put there the day of their public espousal. They carried with them an offering for the poor; they then partook together of the Lord's Supper, and the minister asked a blessing. The bride and bridegroom joined hands, as the pastor blessed them; they kissed each other, and he pronounced them one. From such an union they went forth to a life whose close we know to have been more bleak and sad than we have supposed its opening.

Among their children was a boy whom they named Marion, in memory of his mother's name. He grew up devoted to the faith into which he was born and baptized. He, too, was early taught to read in the Scriptures, and so well did he read, that as he grew up he was appointed one of the readers in their church, who read sometimes alternately with their bishop or minister, and sometimes alone. A great pleasure this to Mary, to see her boy growing up to be really of use in that service of God which she loved. We do not know how old young Marion was when made a reader, but boys of tender age were sometimes appointed to that office. He must have been still young when the minister, whose name is lost, started once upon a journey, and took with him Marion and one of the deacons, whose

name was James. They stopped one night at a place called Muguas, near where the city of Constantine now stands, in Algeria. Unfortunately, it proved that the people and Roman officers here were carrying on a bitter persecution. They had even seized on some persons who were there in banishment from their old homes, and had tried and punished them for their Christianity. Here the "stationaries," as the governor's deputies were called, suspecting our travellers to be Christians, seized them, and hurried them off to prison to be tried. The whole narrative of their fate is told with a simplicity which seems to shew that, as it professes, some friend wrote it. They were examined by torture, hung by their thumbs only in the air, with heavy weights fastened to their feet, and then thrown into prison. The story goes on to tell the dreams of Marion and of some of his fellowprisoners, but does not tell as much as we should be glad to know of them or their previous lives. After some days' imprisonment, they were brought out before one of the magistrates. A Christian in the immense mob around them shewed so much interest in their fate, that he was seized and joined with them, as they were all dragged before the governor. The journey was long and tedious, and the delay afterwards, from the great number of Christians who were tried, still more long and tedious. At last their turn came. They were sentenced, with all the others who held any office in the church, to death.

They were led out to die into a valley with hills on both sides, where were crowds looking on. A great number of the Christians were ranged in order, to be beheaded. Their eyes were bandaged, and they said to those near them, that they saw in vision white horses mounted by riders in white -recollecting the vision in the book of Revelation. Marion said aloud, that vengeance would come for their innocent blood, and that plague, pestilence and famine would ravage the world. These were their last words before they were beheaded.

And his mother Mary was there. They had sent for her, that she might be near him. When she saw him dead, she thanked God that she had given birth to such a son, embraced his lifeless body, and kissed it again and again.

And thus closes the very little we know of Mary of Numidia and her son Marion.

Text-LUKE ix. 23-26.

THE PALM-TREE.

THE palm-tree is one of the most beautiful in the vegetable creation, growing up in a stately column, from thirty to fifty feet high, and in some cases much higher. We have no tree like it in England; it must therefore be described in a plain and particular manner. The stem is regularly notched all the way to its summit; this is occasioned by the old leaves dying away; for the tree has no other leaves than those which grow on the top of it, and these are sometimes as much as eight feet long, and very broad; they are used for different purposes, but especially for covering the tops of houses or tents. The palm-tree will flourish and bear fruit when it is a hundred years old. The fruit is called dates, and grows in clusters below the leaves; a tree will yield of this fruit from two hundred to four hundred pounds' weight every year. We see so few dates in this country, that we can scarcely imagine them to be so very important as they are in other lands. In passing along the street, we occasionally observe a box of dates in a grocer's shop-window; but in Egypt, Arabia and Persia, many people hardly ever taste any other kind of food.

A more intimate acquaintance with trees and their various uses, would have a tendency to make us think more highly, reverently and gratefully of the wisdom and goodness of their Almighty Maker. The palm-tree supplies, in a variety of ways, the wants of the inhabitants of those countries where it grows. Do their camels want food?— the stone of the date satisfies their hunger. Do they require brushes and mats, couches, baskets and bags?—the leaves of the tree enable them to manufacture these articles. Do they need cages for their poultry, and hedges for their gardens?-the branches are suitable to their purpose. Are thread, ropes and rigging in request?-scarcely could they be furnished with better materials to form them with than the fibres of the boughs; while a liquor of a spirituous kind is obtained from the sap, and fuel from the trunk of the tree.

This tree cannot but rise in our estimation, if we give credit to what is narrated in its favour; for the historian Gibbon says, that the inhabitants of the East apply the trunk, branches, leaves, juice and fruit, to three hundred and sixty different uses.