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Page 7
* * * * *
ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND.
Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee,
Since God was thy refuge, thy ransom, thy guide;
He gave thee, he took thee and he will restore thee,
And death has no sting since the Saviour has died.
_The Amulet for_ 1828.
* * * * *
St. Martin's, near Canterbury.
[Illustration: St. Martin's, near Canterbury.]
* * * * *
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH ERECTED IN ENGLAND.
(_For the Mirror_.)
The venerable and interesting church of St. Martin is situated on the
side of a hill, (named from it,) at the distance of little more than a
quarter of a mile from the dilapidated walls of Canterbury. It is
generally believed to have been erected by the Christian soldiers in the
Roman army, about the time of king Lucius, A.D. 182, and hence is justly
esteemed as _the first Christian church erected in Britain_, and
indeed nothing appears to contradict this assertion; for the Britons,
before the arrival of the Romans, were, as is well known, in a state of
barbarism and idolatry, and their habitations huts of clay and turf; and
as to its being built after their departure, I do not think it at all
likely, for England was then ravaged and overrun by the warlike clans of
its mountain neighbours, and consequently its inhabitants had not time
or inclination to erect buildings, when their lives and property were
daily in danger. Their successors, the early Saxons, too, I think,
cannot claim any pretensions to St. Martin, they being heathens, and
unacquainted with the Christian religion. Nor could they, entirely
ignorant of Roman materials, have built an edifice completely composed
with them.
Here then was a Christian church and a Christian congregation
established in Britain full 415 years before Augustin's arrival; but as
St. Martin, bishop of Tours, died in the year 395, this church could not
have been erected in his honour; but it might afterwards have been
dedicated to him by Luidhard, chaplain to Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, the
Kentish king; and this is the more likely, as Luidhard himself was a
French bishop.
In conclusion, it may not be unnecessary to state, that though the
papists consider Augustin as the apostle of the English, they do not
acknowledge him as their first instructor in Christianity; for, as it
appears in their service for May 26, Lucius, a British king, wrote to
St. Eleutherius, (who was elected priest A.D. 177,) desiring that he
might be numbered among the Christians. By whom or by what means this
conversion was effected does not appear; but, however, in reply to it,
Eleutherius sent the monks Damian and Fryatius into Britain, from whom
the king and many of his subjects received the gospel.
SAGITTARIUS.
* * * * *
PICTURE OF LIBERTY.
(_For the Mirror_.)
O, Liberty! thou goddess, heav'nly bright!
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight,
External pleasures in thy presence reign.
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