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CAPTAIN ALLEN GARDINER.

time the guiding star of his life, and seventeen years afterwards he died in seeking to carry it out.

Africa was his first field of labour. He set to work among the Zulus, came home, got another missionary to go out with him, inarried again and sailed for Africa in 1836. The Zulus soon gathered round, and he formed a village, which he named 'Hambauati' or Go with us.' A fierce war between the Dutch and the Zulus broke up the mission, but attention had been directed to that field, and a successful mission is now going on there.

Captain Gardiner next tried South America, but the natives had such a hatred to all Europeans, that he was not allowed to settle there. Did he give up in despair? 'No'; said he, 'I have devoted myself to God, to seek openings among the heathen, and I cannot go back, or modify my vow.'

After several attempts at mission work, and having managed to circulate a good many Bibles in South America, he came back to England, and in 1844 succeeded in forming a Patagonian Missionary Society. This Society agreed to send Captain Gardiner, and a catechistMr Hunt to begin a mission. They arrived in Patagonia in February, 1845, but a native chief named Wissale, threatened and annoyed the two devoted men to such a degree, that they were obliged to return to England to get more help. The friends who had sent them out were much disappointed, but the Captain said, 'while God gives me strength failures shall not daunt me.' He once more tried South America, but was again baffled by the power of the priests. He could not give up Patagonia. He laboured by tongue and pen in England, Scotland, and Germany, to interest christians in the poor savages of Tierra del Fuego, and in 1848, with four sailors and one ship-carpenter, sailed again for Patagonia. The country was so desolate, and the natives so wild and thievish, that they found it impossible to live on shore, and once more came back to England, to get a mission vessel in which they might live.

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A lady offered £700, and Captain Gardiner gave £300 more. Men were sought and found willing to go on this perilous mission. Richard Williams, a medical man, gave up a good practice to carry the gospel to that unfriendly shore. John Maidment, a devoted christian, agreed to go as catechist, Joseph Irwin, the carpenter who had already been with Captain Gardiner, was willing to go again, and three Cornish fishermen, Pearce, Badcock, and Bryant, manned the small vessel. These, with Gardiner, formed the 'forlorn hope' of the Patagonian Mission, and right bravely did they fulfil their task.

They arrived at Pictou Island in December, 1850, with six month's provisions. They had firearms and fishing nets, but their ammunition was unfortunately left in the ship that brought them out, and there were very few fish. The first day they lost an anchor and two small boats. Troubles came thick and fast. Mr Williams and Badcock became seriously ill. Provisions got scarce. No vessel came to supply their needs, but even in these dark days they still trusted in God. Richard Williams, John Badcock, and Joseph Irwin, got rapidly worse. They joined in singing the hymn

'Arise, my soul, arise!

Shake off thy guilty fears!
The bleeding sacrifice

In my behalf appears.

Before the throne my surety stands-
My name is graven on his hands.'

In a few minutes John Badcock's spirit returned to God, and very soon Joseph Irwin and John Bryant joined him in the 'better land;' Maidment and Gardiner were together in a cavern, Pearce and Williams in the cabin of their little vessel. Captain Gardiner and Williams wrote letters and journals, which were found long after the writers had gone to their reward. One letter of Gardiner's closed thus, 'I neither hunger nor thirst, though five days without food! marvellous lovingkindness to me a sinner.' So ended the earthly course of these faithful martyrs, who gave their lives in seeking to save sinners.

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that the Saviour and hope of Israel was at hand. The pride of the Pharisees, the unbelief of the Saducees, the trust of the people in mere descent from Abraham,these were some of the mountains and hills' which he was to level down by his summons to repentance. The publican given to cheating, but taught by John to cheat no more, this was a 'crooked place' made straight. The soldier apt to give way to violence, but by the Baptist trained to gentleness,-this was a 'rough place' made plain. This was the kind of roadmaking which John accomplished. In this work of Reformation, he was preparing the way of the Lord.'

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For all that, there was a literal roadmaking, which was a preparing of the way for the diffusion of the gospel through the earth. The Romans were the great roadmakers for the world. Wherever they went, they constructed roads, many of which remain to the present day. Two blessings at least followed in the wake of Roman arms,-Roman law and Roman roads. These roads became the highways of commerce by and by, when the apostles were ready to set out on their missionary tours, they became the highways of the gospel. The Romans had no thought of this when they were constructing their magnificent ways. They thought chiefly of war, but certainly they never dreamed of anything beyond commerce. Yet God in His Providence had some higher destination in view. And so the Romans, in their own way, were preparing the way of the Lord. In the wilds of Britain, in the forests of Germany, amid the mountain paths of Parthia, they were making many a crooked place straight, and many a rough place plain.

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It is constructed of blocks of hard lava, which make the road one solid piece of pavement. It is interesting to pause, and examine the dints of the chariot wheels. These carry you back in thought to the time when Roman armies poured forth along this way to distant conquest, or returned crowned with victory. The armies are dust and ashes. The power that wielded them is gone. Only the road remains. But the road testifies to the belief of these old Romans, that their dominion would last for ever. Ways of sand and gravel might do for other nations; but for a nation which believed that its duration would be unending, nothing short of a road paved with slabs of hard lava, all fitted into each other, would suffice. With all the other world powers that preceded it, Rome in its turn has passed away. But the dream of an everlasting dominion will yet be realised in the kingdom and church of Christ. • His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.'

The Appian way was carried over the Pontine marshes on an embankment, and extended in the first instance to Capua. By and by it was continued as far as Brindisi, and connected Rome with the Adriatic Sea. It became the highway, not merely between Rome and Greece, but between Rome and all her Eastern provinces. Here then was a road constructed of the most durable material, stretching over a distance of two hundred miles, tunneling its way through rocks, bridging over ravines, and lifting itself high and dry above marshes. At what a cost of labour and money, all this must have been accomplished! And what an expenditure of engineering skill it must have involved. Yet nothing was too arduous, no sacrifice was too great, when the interests of Rome required it. Engineers planned, workmen toiled, the nobles poured out their treasures. We cannot but admire this devotion to the common good. We cannot help wishing to see similar devotion manifested in connection with the cause of God, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

THE APPIAN WAY.

Every attention was paid to comfort in the structure of the road. On both sides, at regular intervals of forty feet, there were low columns, each of which was a rest-andbe-thankful for weary travellers. Distances of five thousand feet were marked by milestones. All along the route there were inns where refreshment might be had, or accommodation for the night. Nor were statues of the gods wanting, from whom, if so minded, the traveller might solicit a safe and prosperous journey. In all this we have an attention to the comfort of passengers which is very wonderful. We have a testimony in it besides to the fact that this Appian Way must at one time have been a busy, crowded scene. In this respect how great is the contrast it presents now. You may travel many miles on it without meeting even so large a group as that which occupies the foreground of the engraving. Indeed, our only objection to the engraving is that the very long and beautiful vista which it presents is too crowded. What a different scene the Appian Way must have presented when Rome was in its glory! It was alive with the bustle of soldiers going to, or returning from, the capital. Horses and chariots were constantly passing and re-passing. Travellers from all lands, men on all possible errands, thronged it from morning to night.

But the feature that strikes us most in connection with the Appian Way is the border of tombs which lines it on either hand. Take a look at the engraving once more, and you will see that this stately highway is not lined with trees. There is an avenue, but it is an avenue of tombs, which stretches far out to the Alban hills which you see in the distance. There was a law at Rome which forbade interment within the walls of the city. As a result of this, the roadsides on the public highways outside the city were used as places of burial. The Appian Way became the favourite place for the burial of Patrician families, and so it was noted for the multitude and splendour of its tombs. The engraving gives you a very good idea of

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the Appian Way, with its funereal edges, as it exists to-day. But you are not to suppose that this was the appearance which it always presented. For fifteen miles out towards the Alban hills it was adorned with palatial villas, and gardens, groves, and vineyards, interspersed with tombs. Of all these palatial villas, not one remains to-day. The pleasure gardens, too, have disappeared. No trace of the dwellings of the living remains. All that is left is connected with the dwellings of the dead. These tombs are some of them very large, one here and there being used for a little wine shop. But the most remarkable is the tomb of Cecilla Metella. It has more the appearance of a fortress than of a mausoleum. Indeed, it was built so large and strong, that, at one period, it was converted into a fort, and cannon mounted upon it. It was a strange change that converted a monument of the dead into a wine shop. It is something stranger still when a tomb, built to secure the most peaceful place of slumber, is turned into a fort, around which was heard the din of battle.

It was by the Appian Way Paul entered Rome. For nearly fifteen miles before he came into the Porta Capena the way was all suburb. His eye rested on many a statue of the gods, and on many a noble tomb, rich with sculptured marble and the precious stones of foreign countries. Yet, though these tombs existed, they would not strike his eye so painfully, alternated as they were by mansion and garden. It was by an avenue of the living rather than of the dead he entered the great centre of the world's life and activity. Entering Rome by the same Appian Way, you feel that it is by an avenue of the dead rather than of the living. These, at least, are the associations which are uppermost in my recollection of it. Perhaps the explanation in part is, that my first journey along the Appian Way was to visit the Catacombs of St. Calextus. But the description of this great city of the dead under ground must be reserved for another 'Peep.'

A. G. F.

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