GLASTONBURY ABBEY.

LASTONBURY, rich in historical associations, is richer still in legends. The story runs that St. Joseph of Arimathæa and some other disciples, being put by the Jews into a ship without sails or oars, and cast adrift on the Mediterranean, were miraculously carried to Marseilles; and from thence St. Joseph passed to Britain, preached the Gospel, converted many of the neighbouring natives, and built the first church in the island. On his arrival he planted his staff of thorn, which grew and put forth its blossom every year about Christmas time, till it was cut

down in the reign of Charles I. It is said that grafts and cuttings from it still remain in the neighbourhood. To Glastonbury he brought the Holy Grail, the quest of which forms the subject of many Middle-age romances, and of part of the present Poet Laureate's series of Arthurian Idyls. King Arthur is said to have been buried here, and his tomb was found in the time of Henry II. During the legendary period St. Patrick is said to have been Abbot of Glastonbury. History goes back as early as 708, when Ina built a splendid monastery. This was rebuilt and constituted a Benedictine Abbey by Dunstan in 942. Abbot Herlewin (1101 to 1120) began the construction of the grand pile, of which the remains stili beautify the Isle of Avalon. After him Henry de Blois, in 1125, made substantial

Glastonbury Abbey.

additions to Herlewin's work. A fire in 1184 nearly destroyed their building; and Ralph Fitzstephen, commissioned by Henry II., undertook the work of reconstruction and restoration with zeal and diligence. Especially he showed himself a careful steward of the Abbey revenues. To this period must be referred the Chapel of St. Joseph at the west end of the nave, 110 feet long by 25 in width. This is the best-preserved part of the ruins. It is of four bays and of two stories. At the angles were turret-towers, arcaded above the corbel-table, and surmounted by spires. One of these remains. Underneath it is a crypt, 89 ft. 9 in. by 25 ft. 5 in. at the east end,

and 19 ft. 6 in. at the west, and 10 ft. high. The roof is vaulted, and the arches and groining are Norman.

In 1276 an earthquake made havoc in the Abbey; but the building was diligently restored. Geoffrey Fremont (abbot in 1303) erected the great hall and chapter-house; and Walter de Taunton, after him, erected the front of the choir. John Chinnock, abbot from 1374 to 1420, built the cloister, dormitory, and fratry, perfected the hall and chapter-house, and added to and adorned the Abbey. Richard Beere added to the buildings, arched the aisles of the great church, and built a chapel to Our Lady of Loretto. Richard Whiting, last abbot, finished the chapels and built the kitchen. He was killed for refusing to take the oath of supremacy.

The Lacustrine Villages.

The grand Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was cruciform, and measured 550 feet from end to end. Its nave and aisles were 220 feet in length; the transept, with north aisle and two eastern chapels, was 135, and the apsidal choir was 153 feet. Of this there remain three bays of the south nave-aisle, the eastern pier of the central tower, an eastern bay of each wing of the transept, with the clerestory-wall passage, one of the eastern chapels of the northern transept, and the south wall, with five pointed windows of the choir. The grand entrance-gate on the north side of St. Joseph's Chapel remains, but is now an appendage to the Red Lion' inn. The kitchen also stands. It is an octagonal building, with octagonalpointed roof and a two-staged lantern. The barn, a cruciform building, partly Decorated and partly Perpendicular, lighted by loopholes, is also part of the group of ruins. St. John's Church, of which we also give a picture, is a fine structure of the Perpendicular period, with a noble western tower and interesting monuments.

THE LACUSTRINE VILLAGES.

HE discovery of the former existence of curious clusters of wooden houses built on piles over the lakes of Switzerland was made in the winter of 1853. The season was unusually dry and cold, and the waters of the Swiss lakes fell far below their ordinary level. From one of them, that of Zurich, the authorities of the place determined to raise and drain a tract of land for cultivation, surrounding the recovered soil with banks to preserve it from the renewed inroads of the waters. In carrying out this enterprise the workers found a number of wooden piles and planks, broken pottery, bone and stone utensils, and other objects, which were evidently relics from the ruined habitations of an extinct people. A very clever man, Dr. Keller of Zurich, pursued these discoveries on the other lakes, and it soon became certain that all over that beautiful country men had erected homes after this strange fashion, on platforms of planks laid along upright piles, either sunk deep in the mud of the lakes, or steadied by heaps of stones piled up in the waters, doubtless with the view of protecting themselves and their families from the multitude of wild beasts that roamed almost unchecked through the vast marshes and impenetrable forests of the European continent. In these frail habitations had lived, loved, suffered and died, men, women, and little children, who existed long before the era when we Britons painted ourselves dark-blue, and considered ourselves as grand a set of barbarians as ever were conquered by one invader after another.

Several of the canoes of these defunct Lacustrians are still to be discerned through the clear waters of Lake Bienne, one of the roughly hollowed boats being still laden with pebbles, just as when it foundered with its cargo on that far-off day in the forgotten ages. It is supposed that these canoes would probably crumble to dust if they were raised and exposed to the action of the air, yet the attempt has been made in the case of one small boat, which is exhibited in the Museum at Neufchâtel.

H. L.

ADVENT tells us, CHRIST is near: CHRISTMAS tells us, CHRIST is here!

A MESSAGE FROM PARADISE.

HE other day, in a sermon, we were told that in a churchyard was a little boy's grave, and on the tombstone, in golden letters, were these words:

'If I live to grow up, I should like to be a missionary; but if I die, I should like this put on my grave, that some one else may go instead of me.'

The old sexton testifies that at least more than one, in consequence of these words, has gone instead.

Are they not beautiful words from a little boy's grave? And yet I would carry out the idea still further. Every one of you, boys, and girls, too, can be a missionary in the Temperance cause, by example, by influence, by interest. You need not speak from your graves, but from your lives; and you need not wait to grow up.

The above is quite true. What one boy has done another can do, and some of you can go instead of him. ANNIE CAZENOVE.

Short Sermon.

BY THE LATE REV. CANON KINGSLEY.

THE GLORY OF GOD.

John, xi. 4.- - Jesus said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.'

HIS was Jesus' answer when Mary and Martha sent to Him to tell Him that Lazarus was sick. A strange answer, seeming almost at first sight a cold answer. Especially as we find that Jesus, instead of going to the help of Lazarus, stayed still three days in the same place where He was; stayed, in short, till Lazarus was dead. We shall not, I think, understand this answer of our Lord unless we understand the meaning of the glory of God; clse we shall be apt to say to ourselves, How strange that God should send sickness to a man, give him pain, and fear, and misery, and death itself, for the sake of raising His own glory! Suppose a man did this; suppose a man for the sake of his own glory, for the sake of making other people admire and respect him more and understand him better, were to put any one else to pain or sorrow, to put even a dumb beast to pain or sorrow, should we not call that selfish and cruel? And can God be cruel? can God be selfish?

Such thoughts are honest and right thoughts. I believe God wishes us to have such thoughts, and I am sure it is no answer to them to say, as some do, God is Almighty; He has made everything, and He can do what He likes with His own. If He chose to create millions of human beings, only to send them to eternal torment, as some people say, He has a right to do it. If He chooses to do what seems to us cruel and tyrannical, we have no right to complain; His will is almighty. I know some people think that they advance God's glory by talking in this way; that they will raise God in people's eyes by talking about His right and power to send every human being to hell if He chose. And it is quite true as far as it goes; but it goes only a very little way. God shows Himself to us in His Bible, not merely as a God of almighty power, but a God of boundless, everlasting love. God is almighty-true; but that God is love is just as true. No one has a right to murmur against His will-true. And why? Just because we may be certain that His will is always a righteous and a loving will; that He willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance' (2 Pet. iii. 9). Thus we have no right to think about God's power without thinking about His love; no more right than we have to talk of a man as if he were an animal only, without remembering that he has also an immortal soul. It is not God's power only which is His glory; it is His love, His holiness. And if we think of such stories as Lazarus's sickness only as proving God's power, we shall begin to think of God with slavish fear, as if He were a tyrant; while if we go into the matter a little deeper we shall see that God shows forth His love rather than His power in afflicting His own children. We shall see that, so far from God being selfish in doing things for His own glory, He is loving