Whiter Than Snow; Or, True Stories Of Love And Grace

A REMARKABLE story of the infinite grace of God occurs in some of the missionary magazines, and from them we cull the following incidents. We especially direct our readers' attention to the way in which God the Holy Spirit worked in the heart of the subjects of the story. It is a way in which He is now working in different heathen lands, in China, for example, and also amongst the Jews. He convinces of sin, and leads the awakened soul by strange providences to find in the Holy Scriptures the answer for every fear. The conviction of sin occurs while the subject of divine grace is still a heathen or a Jew, and the anxious and longing heart, after seeking rest by a variety of efforts, is led in due time to the fountains of living water.

The subjects of our story are an Afghan saint, or holy man, and his son, a Mohammedan priest. These saints are fierce disciples of Mohammed, and their saintliness expresses itself, among other ways, in that of murdering heretics. The Afghans are a wild and hot-blooded race, impulsive and desperate. The two pictures upon these pages, one of a fruit-seller, the other of warriors, give a good idea of the hill tribesmen of India.

The son of this saint of our story became a priest, and the incumbent of a mosque. There he read the Koran. But while a priest, the sense of the darkness of sin fell upon his soul; a ray of divine light had shone into his heart and made the darkness sensible to him, the darkness of his own sinful and evil self. He read the Koran again and again, but neither light, hope, nor help did it afford him. Now in the Koran there is a chapter called “The Table," and in it God is made to say to Mohammed, “Verily have we sent down the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, which contain direction and light."

Our Afghan priest said within himself, "Had I these books I might obtain what I want—direction and light." But what was he to do? Where were "the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament” to be obtained?

Now in British India, in the Hazara district, not far from the village of our saint and his son, there is a postmaster who is a Hindu. Our Mohammedan priest spoke to him one day about these books. From him he learned that Jesus Christ had not taken up to heaven with Him the Old and New Testaments, when He ascended thither, as the Mohammedans teach, "for," said the postmaster, “I myself was taught out of them in my youth in a school in Lahore."

The priest anxiously enquired what the postmaster knew of these books. The answer was carelessly given, “It was all about the forgiveness of sins, and that sort of thing." The very thing the priest longed to know, but which the postmaster cared not for.

How should these wonderful books be found, was now the one longing wish of the man seeking the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, which the Koran could not afford.

Now at this time, in the providence of God, a zealous and wise Christian lady, a true missionary, and her friend, being in delicate health, sought the mountain air of the Hazara country, in the hope of obtaining renewed vigor.

The Hindu postmaster, hearing of her arrival, at once sent a messenger to his friend, the Mohammedan priest, and he, waiting neither for food nor preparation, set off, nor rested until he stood before the ladies. He immediately asked for the Testament. They handed him the Gospel by St. John. The wonderful book was not in heaven, it was in his very hands!

At once he sat down and read it. A notable picture is this for English Bible possessors to look upon. Behold this priest, caring neither for food nor rest, but caring only for the direction and the light God's word affords! Behold the Christian congregation listening to the Christian teacher as he tells them the Bible is not the truth, though the truth lies in the Bible! He sat down and read. He searched for life and food. Nor did he read in vain, for the light of life shone into his soul. He believed on Jesus; he knew he was pardoned. He was free!

In time, after his return home, an illness seized him. “Thy breath is going," said his father, the saint; " say, there is no God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet,' and ascend to paradise."

"There is no God but God, and Christ, His Son, is the Savior of men," gasped the apparently dying man; "and Mohammed is a vile impostor."

“Impious wretch!" cried his father, and, as he cursed him, said,” Were it not that in a few minutes thou must die, I would myself cut thy throat for that blasphemy."

A few days after, his cousin said to A., “We have been lads together, and have played together, and have been as brothers; so I tell you I have been told to cut your throat to-night, and, if you are fool enough to be here then, cut it I shall." Ill as A. was, he made off, and by night was far away on his journey to a Christian mission. He came under the care of Dr. Clark, and, at his own desire, was baptized.

In time the event reached his father's ears, and he offered a large reward to anyone who would kill his son. However, at the bottom of his wild, rough heart, love to his son was to be found.

A. was living several miles away from his old home, and the father came by train to see his son. He cursed him, and threatened him. But, as he had six hours to wait for his return train, he remained in his son's company. After a while, on the son pleading with, "Come, see my spiritual father," the old man consented, saying, "Yes, I will, that I may curse him also!"

But the greeting that awaited the saint, as he paused on the threshold of Dr. Clark's house, overwhelmed him. It was this— "Welcome, most honored guest."

“Am I indeed welcome?” said the saint, whose mission was to curse.

“Yea, verily, even as cold water to a thirsty soul."

"Then," responded the old man, "in the name of God, peace be to thee and thy household."

The train back did not carry A.'s father home. He stayed for ten days in the teacher's house, and before he left said" The lad is thine, not mine. Christianity is not so bad as I thought it. He has done right. None shall harm him. But," he added, "if he returns to his own land, I must myself cut his throat—how else could I remain a saint?”

Dr. Clark then gave a New Testament to the saint, who departed to his own land. On his return he read the book with deep attention. In time, twelve other learned men joined him, and they all read it together and did so many times. Indeed, their hearts were filled and their minds astonished with its truth.

One day the saint called again. He hardly noticed the kindly greeting of the doctor, “I am not thy guest," said he, “I come not to stay, I am on a message to thee." He then related how he and the others had read the book, adding, “We noticed that it is called the New Testament, which makes us think there must be an Old. If it exists, in the name of God give it to me; if it does not, tell me. Hinder me not; let me return to those who sent me."

He stayed merely long enough to obtain the Old Testament, and again departed.

After some time he returned, saying, “I am come to be thy guest," and he was made welcome. Now it had been his custom to read the Koran daily for two hours, and when the time came for this duty, the book was brought to him. “Let it wait," he said,” I will look at it by-and-by."

Dr. Clark looked on in amazement, and the old Afghan said, "Since I read the other book my relish for this is gone;" and presently he declared, “Why need I hide it any longer? I, too, am now a Christian. The God of my son is my God."

Answered Prayers

A FRIEND gave me the following account of the Lord's dealings with an actress, in whom he and his wife had been interested. Her home was not far from theirs, and on several occasions she had sent for him to ask his advice and counsel. He had endeavored to win her attention to divine things, but found no ear for the name of Jesus, and no desire to hear the story of His love to sinners.

However, as they became better acquainted, she told my friend a little of her history. She had had a godly mother, against whose entreaties she had insisted on adopting the stage as a profession. She had been early married to an actor, and had worked hard for years, and, though she had been remarkably attractive, was now, through failing health, obliged to give up the profession, in which she delighted. Indeed, Mrs. J. became very ill, and, as she grew worse, was made aware that she had a malady which must end fatally.

At this time the Spirit of God began a work of conviction in her soul. My friend, F. D., saw her very often, and, though she knew the story of the gospel well, she did not feel her own personal need of a Savior, and that she herself was a lost sinner, until this time of her illness. But now, she said, she could find no rest until she should know with certainty that salvation was hers.

On one of his visits, when F. D. found her in much anguish of soul as to the burden of her sins, Mrs. J. begged him to pray for her at once, saying, " You must not-mind if I pray too while you are praying. God will hear us both. I must have peace," and then, with tears, she besought the Lord to show her that her sins were forgiven. Then F. D. read many passages of Scripture, which soothed and quieted her, but she could not grasp the fact that the work was done for her.

At the next visit there was a change indeed she was calmly happy, having taken God at His word, and was resting on the faithful promise, " Whosoever believeth shall have everlasting life," and " He that believeth hath." She now took an increasing delight in hearing the Scriptures read, and in prayer, and her one desire was to learn more of Jesus.

By degrees she told F. D. and his wife of a great trouble that was weighing her down, and asked that much prayer should be made on the subject. Her husband was devoted to his profession, and was determined that their only child, a lovely little girl, the joy of their hearts, should be educated for the stage. Mrs. J. said that, since she had been brought out of darkness into light, the very thought that this child should be thrown into the surroundings which she had left was agony. But she would say, "After what God has done for me, shall I not trust Him entirely for my child?”

About this time her friends had to leave home for a while, and were most thankful to see how really Mrs. J. was “resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him." Meanwhile the Lord had Himself been "teaching her to profit."

On their return she greeted them with tears of mingled joy and sorrow; her prayers had been answered for her child. The little one had been taken ill with what proved to be scarlet fever; soon all hope of recovery was given up, and the Lord took her to be with Him. The mother had been enabled to tell the little one of the love of Jesus to sinners which the child eagerly drank in.

Perfect peace seemed to rest on her countenance, as she realized how fully the Lord had answered her earnest prayer in having taken her dear child to Himself. “Safe in the arms of Jesus " forever, sheltered from all the temptations of this poor world. The dear mother rapidly grew worse, and peacefully entered her rest soon after her little one had been taken, C.

Arise, for It Is Day!

THE printer of the first edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs was John Day, who was an Ernest Christian man as well as an eminent printer. His press was employed in printing books designed to promote the Reformation. He died in 1584, about a century after the birth of Martin Luther.

It was usual for printers to have their "signs," and also their "marks." The marks were often very expressive, and a reproduction of some of them would be, especially with an explanation, exceedingly interesting. John Day's mark was characteristic of the man and the great movement which had already aroused the continent of Europe, and stirred England and Scotland from north to south. It was practically expressive of the day-spring of the Reformation. The rising sun was depicted in the background, shedding his early rays around, and upon a man lying apparently asleep in the foreground, who was being seized and shaken by another man, who was uttering the rousing cry, “Arise, for it is day!”

This was happily true: the darkness of Popish dominancy was passing away, chased by the light of God's Holy Word and Gospel teaching; and the voice of God's faithful servants was sounding forth, arousing the slumbering people to behold and walk in the Light of Life. The day of salvation had come, and the true Church of Christ in every land was bidden to arise, shake herself from the dust, and put on the beautiful garment of salvation.

In every succeeding age, as in all those that preceded it, there has been need for this cry, “Arise! arise!" and ever and anon the faithful watchmen on the walls of Zion have lifted up their voices to arouse the slumbering ones among the followers of Christ. There is often an insensibility as to the dangers of the times; the peculiar forms in which evil and error shape their attacks, and urge their destructive forces; and, also, the presence of opportunities and means of aggression on the positions, the forces and territories of the powers of darkness.

The appeals and warning cries of many writers and preachers of former days are hushed in the silence of death, but the arousing calls of some have been handed down, and are still repeated in their priceless hymns.

There are three hymns of this character among those by John Rist (1607-1667). The first is addressed to the world at large:

“Awake, thou careless world, awake!

That final judgment day will surely come;

What heaven hath fixed no time can shake,

Time never more shall sweep away thy doom.

Know what the Lord Himself hath spoken

Shall come at last and not delay;

Though heaven and earth shall pass away,

His steadfast Word can ne'er be broken."

The second is an appeal to the “faithful band” to prepare for the coming of the King:

"Arise, the kingdom is at hand,

The King is drawing nigh;

Arise with joy, O faithful band,

To meet the Lord most High!

Ye Christians, hasten forth,

With holy ardor greet your King,

And loud hosannas to Him sing."

The third is a call to the church to awake to her high privileges, and seize the opportunities which the day brings for work for God:

“Rise, O Salem, rise and shine!

Lo, the Gentiles hail thy waking;

Herald of a morn divine,

See the day-spring o'er us breaking,

Telling God has called to mind,

Those who long in darkness pined."

Every revival of true religion has produced an awakening, and when some have been awakened, they have sought to awaken others. Thus it was at the building of the second temple at Jerusalem. The spirit of the prophet Haggai was stirred by the message which the Lord gave him to deliver to the people, and as he faithfully delivered His message to the heads of the people, " the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God."

There is work to be done now in building up the spiritual temple of God's church, gathering together the outcast and wandering, the lost and perishing, and building them into "the holy temple of the Lord, upon the foundation of "—that as the foundation laid by—" the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." Christians must be astir. There is work to be done; arise and do it in the strength of the Lord! Go in the might of His call! “Work while it is day, for the night cometh!"

We need, in many cases, to seize hold of sleepy churches and drowsy Christians, and cry aloud in their ears, “Arise, for it is day!”

"Arise, and let us, night and day,

Watch for our Lord, and study o'er His word,

And in the Spirit ever pray,

That we be ready when His call is heard;

Arise, and let us haste to meet

The Bridegroom standing at the door,

That with His servants evermore,

We too may worship at His feet."

R. S.

The Arm of Moses

THOSE who read the wonderful story of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, observe how frequently God's arm is mentioned in the story of their salvation. Many times when the Hebrews were serving their enemies God spoke of what His arm would do, and how He would save them, and, indeed, the very magicians of the land who sought to counteract the effect of the judgments of Jehovah on the land by their enchantments, were forced to acknowledge the power of the finger of God.

Now God had preserved Moses, the great deliverer of his people, in a most remarkable manner. He had saved him, when a babe, from the cruel death decreed against the infant boys of Israel, and He had placed him under the control of great Pharaoh's daughter. Thus the son of the parents of the enslaved race became, as it were, a son of the royal house of the oppressor. Every advantage that Egypt could render was given to Moses, and every favor that such a position could bestow was his.

When we add to this, the knowledge Moses had, that he was appointed by God as the deliverer of Israel from the Egyptians, such a combination of power as was his is unparalleled.

Can we present the man, in whom such gifts and honors were vested, to our eyes? He was mighty in the wisdom and deeds of Egypt; he was, as it were, a royal son of the king's family, and as such the Egyptians bowed to him; but now God Himself had intimated to him that he should deliver Israel from their burden. We say, as we thus consider him, he would be more than man if he did not believe that his arm was strong. But God has to teach us, that we are to be weak, if His strength is to flow out from us.

It happened that one day, as Moses was visiting his people, he saw the common sight of the task-master inflicting his blows upon the Hebrew slave; and where this occurred was upon the borders of the cultivated area of the land, and near to the sands of the desert that enclose the fruitful country.

Moses stretched out his arm to deliver the oppressed; he slew the Egyptian, and then buried him in the sand, and he thought he had made the first great step towards delivering Israel.

The next day, confident in his divinely appointed mission and in his own strength, he went again amongst his people. And lo, two of them strove together, so Moses took the part of the oppressed against the oppressor, but only to draw out the taunt, “Wilt thou slay me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?"

No acceptance of himself, no faith in his delivering mission, no recognition of his arm, save to allow that he could slay! Then in a moment all the hopes of Moses fell. He became weak indeed. He had slain, and he feared he should be slain. He fled from Egypt, and was hidden from both Egyptian and Hebrew for some forty years.

Men lived longer lives then than now, but men have to learn the same lessons now as then. The servant of God, though called to serve Him, must needs learn the way of service. It is never by our own strength of arm, it is ever by the strength of the Lord's arm we effectually serve. Position, advantages of education) personal prowess, all had to be forsaken by the deliverer, nay, more, the very sense that he was the appointed servant for the work in hand, had to be chastened, so that in his most mighty service the arm of Jehovah alone should be magnified.

How often does Moses lead us to consider the mighty arm of the Lord! How frequently does he speak of that stretched-out arm gaining the victory! And the least amongst the Lord's servants called to the humblest service, must, if he would conquer, trust not in his own right arm, but in the arm of the Lord.

Athens

AT Athens St. Paul found the notable altar erected “To the Unknown God," a comment, indeed, upon this text, “The world by wisdom knew not God." (1 Cor. 1:21.)

Proud Athens, with its noble temples, its philosophers, its wisdom, knew not God. The wisdom of the then world had only taught men ignorance of the living and the true God. The wisest, the most refined, the most highly educated of men were as utterly and as hopelessly in ignorance of God as most degraded barbarians. What a comment upon the wisdom of the wise and the understanding of the prudent herein lies.

Athens was full of idols, and the apostle's spirit was stirred within him as he saw them. His words, “We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device" (Acts 17:29), have their application not only to heathendom; they should be heard throughout Christendom also, for “God dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands."

The philosophers could not understand Paul when he spoke of Jesus and the resurrection. And indeed the truth of the resurrection is to this day a stumbling block to mere human wisdom. It is not science, but the power of God, and is therefore outside the limits of human philosophy.

The wisdom of the world has not advanced in this direction since the day when Paul stood on Mar's Hill in the center of the philosophers and enquirers. We were hearing of a heathen philosopher the other day, who said to the missionary, " Your doctrine is good, but when you speak of a man who is dead rising again—" and here he could not contain himself, but broke forth into ridicule—the laughter of ignorance! And in like manner in Christendom the truth of the resurrection is sometimes met with loud laughter. However, though some mocked when they heard of the resurrection, others said, “We will hear thee again of this matter," and some " slave unto him, and believed." The seed sown in the unpromising' soil of philosophers' souls sprang up here and there, and brought forth fruit to the glory of God.

Beautiful Athens, with its ruined temples, is, alas, not altogether freed from idols. The Christianity of the Greek Church is sorely leavened with the old corruption that Paul exposed—" Art and man's device."

Beattie's New Boots

IT so happened in the providence of God, that the father of little Beattie who at one time was prosperous, had become poor through the dishonesty of others. Indeed, he had to work for a small remuneration, but even this income did not last long, for poor Mr. W. fell ill, and upon recovery, his master informed him that he would not be able to find him employment again, as work was so short.

After this the mother of little Beattie was also taken ill, and remained a long time, suffering great pain. Of course the food and clothing of the family was not what it used to be in prosperous days.

It was the custom of little Beattie before retiring for the night, to go into her mother's room for a good night's kiss, to pray to God, and to get a text of Scripture. The little girl I had been trained from infancy to ask God in her own words for her felt needs; also to confess her faults, to ask pardon for her sins from I God, and also from her mother. It was no unusual thing to hear Beattie say, “Mamma, I am sorry I was naughty today. Please ask God to make me good, and pray for me."

Mrs. W. would then place her hand upon the child's head and ask the blessing of God upon her little daughter. The child would look into her mother's face and say, "Mamma, will you give me a text, please?” Then the mother would give the child the text she trusted the Holy Spirit had brought to her mind.

One night in last December, after a rainy day, which made the roads very muddy, little Beattie, who had been on an errand for her sick mother, came as usual for her evening blessing.

"I want you to pray for me, please, mother, and to give me a text," said the child.

“Kneel down, and pray for your-self first," was the answer.

So the child knelt, and began—

"O God, please to bless mother and father, and please to make mother well again.

O Lord Jesus, my slippers are old, and the girls at the Sunday-school do stare at them. I do not want to be proud, O Lord, but please send me some new boots. Amen."

Then Beattie's mother gave her child for the text these words of the Lord: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Luke 11:9.)

The next day the child's father sat looking at his boots, when his little daughter happened to be in the room.

“My boots let in the wet," he said, sorrowfully, to his wife. "No clothes will last forever."

“Why don't you pray for some new ones?" enquired the child. “I have, and God is sure to send me some."

The father and mother exchanged glances, and wished they had more childlike faith— that honors God, and believes His word.

The house was unusually bare of comforts as Christmas drew near, for the long illness of Beattie's mother had been very expensive.

However, about a week before Christmas a Christian over one hundred miles away felt constrained to send some money to the parents of the little girl, and through this act of kindness the husband was enabled to get the boots he so sorely needed, and the wife obtained many comforts necessary for her in her weakness. As for Beattie, she hung up her little stocking on Christmas Eve, and found a pair of strong new boots hanging to it in the morning! These, she declared, God had sent. And surely the child was right.

Little Beattie did not appear much surprised when she saw the boots, but, with her eyes dancing with a great joy, and her cheeks deepened in color, exclaimed "Mamma dear, I knew God would send them, and not let me take cold. Perhaps He did not send them sooner just to see if I would go to my Sunday-school in the old ones, or whether I would be too proud! Because He does try us, doesn't He? "

May all who read this true story trust in God, who is the same now as when He said "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find." RHODA.

The Best Present I Have Had

IN a “conventillo” in Buenos Aires, a poor man lay dying—a lost sinner, passing into eternity “without Christ and without hope." He was ignorant of God's way of salvation, and there was no Bible in the room he and his wife occupied, to which they could turn for guidance and help in their extremity.

That afternoon, however, a Christian woman met the wife of this dying man, and gave her a tract. Although she was unable to read, she took it home, purposing that her daughter, who was coming to pay her parents a visit, should read it when she arrived. Accordingly that evening the daughter read aloud the tract, which contained news of the Savior’s love, and of the salvation procured by Him for lost sinners.

The dying man listened. What news for him! Eagerly he drank in the precious truths, and asked for it to be read again and again, especially the following Scripture, which the tract contained: “Seeing then that we have a Great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."

It became evident that death was drawing near. The neighbors, being alarmed, wanted to send for the priest, but the man would not have him. He needed no earthly priest. His, speech had failed, so that he could not tell them of the Savior he had found, but he pointed them to the tract, and then up to heaven; and in a few minutes he peacefully passed away.

The widow saw the Christian woman the next morning. Great was her loss, but she rejoiced in what her husband had gained, and, relating all that had occurred that night, added she knew he had gone to heaven.

Speaking of the tract, she said, “It is the best present I have had, and I shall keep it forever."

Would not you, reader, like to have handed that tract to that poor woman? Well, if you are willing, God can use you as the channel of similar blessing.

Let us be encouraged. “Blessed are ye which sow beside all waters." W., C. K. T.

The Bible in Many Lands

WE purpose giving our readers, monthly, a page or two of information respecting the great work of distributing the Word of God to mankind. The Bible Society has kindly given us permission to use its papers on the subject, and we trust that our readers will be stirred up, not only to pray God for His blessing on this great and glorious service, but also to contribute at least a little to the work. Freely have we in England received the Word of God, freely let us give it to the heathen or to the people of the world who have never heard so much as one of its sentences!

Abyssinia

Here the door has been at length opened for the distribution of the Scriptures. Thus does Mikael Nagasch, of the Swedish Evangelical National Society, write: “I hear that you will be pleased to learn something of Abyssinia. I travel about with my brethren. Some of the people receive us well and listen to the word of the gospel; others avoid us and will not listen. In the district of Anseha we are generally received well.

“Early one morning we went from Zasega to Addi Hannes, and found many gathered together; among them were two priests; we sat down with them. Afterwards I rose and said to the priests, ' Read some of God's Word to us, or else permit me to read to you.' But they were unwilling. One of the people said to them, ‘Why do you not read to us, or allow this man to read to us, for we wish to hear?' One of the priests answered, ‘We do not read.' Then I took leave to stand up, and read to the people the fifth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, and they listened with pleasure.

“There are good people in Addi Hennes who gladly hear God's Word. Never before had they understood why Jesus Christ came upon earth, and why He suffered and died; but now much inquiry has begun among them. This is the case also in several other towns. Many become distressed about their sins when they hear it. They beg us frequently to pray for them. Therefore, dear father and brothers, remember us very earnestly, that we may read the Word courageously in the power of the Spirit. Yes, that we may be faithful in working for Jesus. May He Himself be with us, both you and us.

“In Dake Doschen they receive us well. At first they were afraid of us, not knowing what our books might. contain; but when they heard the Word read, they took courage and said, People tell us you make no account of the Virgin Mary or the angels. You have done well to come. We hated you on a mere report. Come again, for we wish to hear.'

“I have also visited the district of Sahuti and some of its villages. In all these are individuals who hear us; but in Addi Goadad we have much joy. There I met a tribeman, who took me to his house. It was about half-past three o'clock when I went out to the village place of assembly, and after the people had come together I read to them St. John 3. The afternoon was glorious, and until evening fell we read the Bible to the people. Then we returned to the house, had prayers with the owner, and went to rest. Next morning at eight o'clock the people assembled again to hear the Scriptures read, and listened with great attention. They begged us to build a church for them. I answered that would be indeed a good thing for them, but a better would be, that their hearts should become temples of Jesus.

“They begged me to return, and we parted in peace. Thus, by degrees, all shall become well by God's help and power. Many are the difficulties; famine and suffering are rife. The locusts are a heavy affliction, but we still have hope.

“Farewell. Jesus be with us all."

Dahomey

Ashantee and its eastern neighbor, Dahomey, are two native military States in West-Central Africa. Both are Pagan kingdoms. They keep up the barbarous customs of bygone ages. Aggressive wars, the seizure of entire-populations, wholesale slave-dealing, and the slaughter of large numbers of captives as human sacrifices at their "burial customs," have given the two kingdoms an unenviable notoriety as amongst the blackest spots in darkest Africa.

The power of Dahomey remains intact, its habits unchanged; it is daring, reckless, cruel as ever, fighting, slaving, slaughtering human victims as of old. True, at. Porto Novo, it has suffered reverses at the hands of the: French, but it is still untamed, and attacks its neighbors, right and left, to secure human victims for sacrifice.

Ashantee has now the entire Bible in the vernacular: and what is so well-adapted to mitigate and eventually abolish its savage warfare and cruel rites as the revelation of the God of pity and mercy?

It is proposed to give the like boon to Dahomey, and considerable progress has been already made in this direction.

Close to Dahomey is Porto Novo, with its some forty thousand inhabitants. The Wesleyan missionaries have been at work for more than thirty years, all the while much embarrassed through the lack of a Bible in the vernacular. The native minister in charge of the mission, himself a Popo, Thomas James Marshall, having no English college nearer than Lagos, resolved to set to work to reduce the language to writing, and, with the aid of his co-laborers, to form a translation committee to turn the Scriptures into the Popo tongue.

In 1890 the Epistles were in hand, and he was able to write, “It is delightful to see the Popo Bible, portion by portion, starting into being, and to hear from Mr. Marshall that it is read with facility and grateful gladness by the Christians of Porto Novo."

The difficulty of expressing religious ideas in this language is not so great as might be imagined. Their paganism has made the natives familiar with such ideas as the supreme Deity, Mediators, prayer, sacrifice, confession of sin, penance, the spirit world, etc.

Christianity has taken root in Porto Novo, and from this base, it is hoped, Dahomey proper may be reached.

The success of this mission, as far back as twenty-five years ago, aroused the opposition of the idol-priests and the hostility of the government. The Christians were seized, dragged before the authorities, and charged, to fasten some infringement of the unwritten law upon them, with “wearing boots and using umbrellas," This usurping the prerogative of chiefs. They had, unfortunately, in their esteem for the white man, carried their imitation of his habits a little too far.

For this crime they were banished from their country; and, much as they felt their exile, they bore it, year after year, rather than harbor the thought of giving up the religion they loved. “We think of going back," said one, one day; “let them cut off our heads, for we can't bear this banishment any longer." With the Scriptures in their hands, in their own tongue, they will furnish suitable agents to invade Dahomey and win its peoples from their slave-raiding and human sacrifice.

The Bible in Many Lands

Southern China

A STRANGE habit prevails in China, which is thus described in "The Bible Reporter." Some colporteurs arrived at a village, the wealthy chief of which had died. When they reached the door of the house they found that the Buddhist priests had been employed to make everything as comfortable for him in the other world as their religious system would allow.

A large room had been completely filled with paper imitations of every comfort and luxury that go to make the life of the wealthy man a happy one in this world. Huge boxes crammed with gold and silver, and menservants and maid-servants, and horses and sedan-chairs, and the most luxurious furniture, were arranged in it. Everything was made to resemble actual life as much as possible. Even the usual household dog lay near the door on guard against the beggars by day and thieves by night, and men were handing trays, some containing tea and others sweetmeats, to their master.

In a few days these paper counterfeits would all be burnt with suitable ceremonies, that the whole might appear in the other world, where the dead chief could carry on the same life he had been accustomed to here, only without the presence of his friends that still remained in life.

A number of men were at work in the courtyard, and when they saw the colporteurs one cried out, “See! here are some of the followers of Jesus, who neither worship idols nor reverence their ancestors." The latter part of the charge, viz., that they did not reverence their ancestors, is the most serious one the heathen bring against the Christians. It is everywhere flung in their teeth, and it is the propagation of it that cools many an anxious inquirer's ardor, and prevents many a man who is struck by the beauty of Christianity from taking the final step, and becoming an out-and-out believer in it.

The colporteurs were glad of the challenge that was thus thrown down to them. Advancing into the court) and they said: "Part of what you say is true, and part is not. We Christians are more filial to our ancestors than you are. After they are dead we remember them, and we try and carry out their wishes when they are gone. You consider, on the other hand, that if you worship at their tombs on the anniversary of their deaths, and then offer food that by and by you eat yourselves, you are exceedingly filial. Now, if the dead really accept the offerings you present, you should make them every day. You allow them to go hungry all the year round, and then you give them but a single meal. Is that being filial?"

After some further discussion, one of the working men ran in to tell the gentlemen of the family that there were men at the door who were selling such pretty books, and would they come out and buy.

At once a finely-dressed and refined looking man of about twenty-three came out, accompanied by a number of youths, who were being taught by a private tutor. The moment he saw the colporteurs he put on a very severe look, and, frowning upon them, said: "You ought to be ashamed of yourselves for having abandoned the religion of your fathers and having adopted that of the despised barbarians. It is ours to teach, and for them to listen and be civilized by the doctrines of our sages; whereas you have condescended to become their pupils, and to be taught by men that are sitting in the outer darkness of the grossest ignorance. Why should you consent to demean yourselves thus?" and then he quoted a passage from Confucius that said, "The study of strange doctrines is injurious indeed."

I may here explain that the term "strange doctrines” is a phrase from which every orthodox Chinaman shrinks with dismay. Let only the stigma of these words be attached to any system of truths, and the universal voice of the people will at once condemn them. Of course, to the Chinese mind anything that runs counter to the teaching of Confucius must belong to the category of “strange doctrines."

Whilst he was talking the colporteurs stood by with respectful looks, and made no attempt to interrupt him. This was true Chinese etiquette, and besides they were determined that they would not give him an opportunity of the further reproach against their religion that it made them disrespectful to their superiors.

The crowd stood by whilst this severe lecture was being given—for by this time a considerable number of young men had flocked from the other houses—and the colporteurs saw with delight that an audience such as they wished for, was preparing for them when it was their turn to speak.

When he had finished speaking, one of them respectfully said: "Sir, you ought to be careful how you quote our great sage. You are a scholar, and you have studied his writings, and you know them every word by heart. You remember how he also said, ' Let a man's word be sincere and truthful, and his actions honorable and careful. Such conduct may be practiced by the barbarian tribes of the north and south. If his words be not sincere and truthful, and his actions not honorable and careful, will he with such conduct be appreciated even in his neighborhood?

"No I know that you are a disciple of Confucius, and you recognize him as a sage that all the empire should reverence, and yet I see in the house here signs of a religion that was never taught by him. These paper articles that are to be turned and sent to your father in the land of spirits, and these horses and domestics, are the invention of the Buddhists, and were never prescribed by any of the great teachers of our nation. Buddhism, with its rites and ceremonies, and priests and temples, comes from another land, and is therefore a foreign religion, and yet you censure me for believing in Jesus, the Savior of the world. In this are you quite consistent? "

The scholar was silent, and it seemed as though an instant revolution had taken place in his mind in favor of the colporteurs, for his manner towards them completely changed, and they were able to sell between fifty and sixty gospels, and by and by, when they left, it was with the goodwill and kindly good-byes of the whole party.

Work in Russia

Seldom a month passes without some encouraging sign that our colporteur work among these people is bearing fruit.

I would suppose that from our Kiev center our best work among the Jews is done. These wonderful people are here in large bodies—not capitalists, or sweaters, or well-to-do, but wretched thousands, many of them in a state of semi-starvation, squalid in their homes and in their ways, fighting a terribly uphill battle. They excite our pity rather than our aversion, and when, amidst all their trials, we see how tenaciously they cling to their old faith, how faithfully they conserve many of their grand old characteristics, we not only pity them, but we are constrained to admire a fortitude that is little short of heroism.

In Kiev one section of the Russian people is met with, in Charkov quite another. There are nine colporteurs and hawkers working from this center, and their work is so arranged that no part of their ' great field is left long unvisited. The manufacturing districts of Orel and Vitebsk, the purely agricultural regions of Poltava and Ekaterinoslav, the mining villages in the basin of the Donetz—all secure the services of our loyal Bible-bearers, and the weekly letters of these men, in which they narrate their experiences among so heterogeneous a population, are as interesting as a romance, and deserve a wider publicity than they receive.

Rostov is the business capital of the Don Cossack country. Five colporteurs labor here. One, a German, but a Russian subject, labors on the shores of the Azov and inland among the Mennonite settlers of the province of Ekaterinoslav; another confines his attention to the valley of the Don, accompanying the steamers plying on that river, calling at the numerous little picturesque Cossack settlements on its banks—doing excellent work; a third, a man of great experience, takes the valley of the Kuban, a fertile corn-growing country, but plagued with malaria. Our colporteur here and his family have been fighting bravely against the fever and ague so prevalent all over that region, and their sufferings and losses have been terrible. I do not think we realize enough the position of men like our colporteurs on the Kuban, men whose work it is day after day to plunge along the sludgy roads and visit the fever-stricken villages with their bag of Scriptures on their backs, their hearts all the time full of love and hope. In the government of Stavropol there is another colporteur. His field is really a part of Ciscaucasia, and here we begin to see traces of strange peoples and hear remote languages of which few of us know anything. It is only when Vladikavkaz is reached, where our fifth colporteur is stationed, that we know we are at last in the East.—Bible Society Reporter.

The Bible in Many Lands

New Guinea

NEW GUINEA is the largest island in the world—Australia is called a continent. It is, in fact, three times as large as the whole of England, Scotland and Wales put together!

There are many difficulties in translation work of which, perhaps, you young people have never thought.

The Bible in its stories speaks of snow, ice, lions, sheep, oxen, horses, cocks and hens; and the people in New Guinea have never seen any of these. But what is more difficult than this, the Bible has much to say about duty, faith, obedience, gratitude, sin, and salvation; and the people know nothing about these things—they are " without God and without hope in the world." They do not know there is a God and a Savior and a heaven. The best of their charms—for they have no idols—are stones from the beach, a sea-shell, a piece of alligator's skin, or a carved stick. They are happiest when they have killed and eaten a man, and nave his bones about the house to show how brave they are.

Most of the early translations for the use of the New Guinea people were made by native Christian teachers from the South Sea Islands, who a few years ago were themselves heathen savages, but now are missionaries and translators of the Scriptures.

The story of one of these translations must suffice to show under what circumstances they were made. Mataika and a friend of his were placed by the pioneer missionaries upon an island just off the coast of New Guinea, and, after varying experiences, in which sometimes they came near to losing their lives, they gained the confidence of the people, and settled down to steady work. Mataika, however, was not satisfied, because, as he put it, "Two of them on one station was just one too many when there were such numbers of heathen all around." So he decided to go and take the gospel to the people of a neighboring island, but no one would lend him a canoe, fearing that he might be killed, in which case they would lose both him and the canoe. Not being a man to be done out of his purpose, he made a canoe for himself, and, after commending himself to the care of God, and saying good-bye to his companion, he set sail upon his mission of love. He knew very well the risk he was running, for the people to whom he was going were notorious savages. Indeed, it was only because it could not be decided who should kill the stranger when he landed that his life was spared even for one night.

But it was spared, and he worked among the people for whom he ventured so much, having translated the whole of the Gospel by St. Mark before he died. Though these people have not got much of the Bible, they are very proud of what they have got. In many places there is but one Gospel, but as that is the only book in their language, most of them know it by heart and crave for more.

Papi, a young man belonging to one of the mission training institutions, was, during playtime, frequently discovered by his missionary hard at work trying to learn another language without either a teacher or a dictionary, simply by comparing the Gospel of St. Mark as rendered in his own language with the same Gospel in the Lifu New Testament, and all this that he might read for himself more of the beautiful story of Christ's love.

Think of it!—rough, savage, heathen people, like the man whose picture we give opposite, with the strange shell ornament through his nose, and brutal-looking club on his shoulder, have today the whole of the New Testament in their language; and many dear children are learning now, as you are from your mother and father, what Christ came to this earth to do and say.

And when you remember that every page of Holy Scripture, whether forming part of a portion, part of a Gospel, or part of the whole New Testament, has been a free gift to these people from the British and Foreign Bible Society, I am sure you will thank God for the glorious work it is doing in New Guinea.

This picture gives us an idea of heathen worship in the islands of the South Seas. The poor woman is speaking to a stick. Let us try to form a conception of what it is to be such a heathen! Not to have any knowledge whatever of God, not to know, even by sound, such an idea as rest, or peace, or heaven! We shall be anxious to help on the great work of sending the Bible to these heathen who, having received it, value it in a way that puts to shame multitudes of professing Christians in our own land.

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New Hebrides

We will transport ourselves from New Guinea to the New Hebrides, a not very long voyage.

Epi or Api is one of the New Hebrides, and the Tasiko is the language spoken among the people of the south-eastern part of the island, as well as elsewhere in the group. Mr. Michelsen who labors amongst the natives speaking Tasiko, and who has just translated St. Matthew's Gospel into that tongue, thus writes:-" It may be interesting for you to know that two villages on the south side of Epi, in my district, speak the same language as spoken in Nguna, so that with Mr. Fraser's two translations your Society has now printed the Word of God in four languages spoken on Epi.

“The entire population of Epi is probably not over six thousand.

“I have just seen in a report that the natives have come from distant parts of the islands to purchase the few pages of printed matter already existing in their language; but what joy it will be for our poor natives when they learn that the whole Gospel of Matthew may be obtained for sixpence! Let it be our united prayer that a rich blessing may follow our united effort!

"I pray that I may be permitted to translate more of the Word of Life into that and other languages of our group."

- - -

Loyalty Islands

From the New Hebrides we now pass on to New Caledonia and to the Loyalty group, in which Lifu is the central and largest island.

Many at Lifu and at Mare and Uvea know the language of Lifu, consequently the Lifu Bible will be extensively read. The first shipment of two thousand copies arrived on the 28th of February, 1891, and sales began March 2nd. Up to the end of September seven hundred and fifty copies had been disposed of, at a price representing nearly ten shillings each. A rapid sale had been anticipated, for prayer was made while the books were speeding across great seas, and on their arrival thanksgiving and prayer were offered up to God publicly throughout the island.

As illustrating the joy with which the people have received the Bible, a friend writing from Lifu says: "The people are poring over their Bibles for hours with evident interest."

With regard to the beautiful volume, the complete Bible, now rapidly getting into the hands of the natives, a few more words will suffice. Mr. Creagh translated all the Old Testament excepting Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Job, and the Psalms. The Bible Society finished printing the Bible in July, 1890, the writer of this article also finished his editorial work, every page having been passed with advantage through the hands and under the eyes of his wife. Inexpressibly great have been my thankfulness and joy on the hearing of the unabated and even growing demand for the book. The desire of our pundits, especially of those advanced in years, was to live long enough to see and read the anticipated Bible. He who granted Simeon's desire is granting theirs. They (and also those wives and widows who requested a Bible) well deserved, and have received each a copy.

In March, 1875, many shocks of earthquakes were experienced at Lifu. On the 18th inst. a tidal wave caused an inundation of the sea at Mu, the southeastern mission, and its vicinity, which destroyed twenty-four natives, adults and young people. At Thoth, a village near, a church member's homestead was flooded. He arose, and caring first and chiefly for his Tusi Hmitöt his " Sacred Book," waded all but naked through the water, holding aloft his treasure. Some would hastily and unjustly say that his book was merely his talisman, or fetish; I know differently, and can testify that he loved his book, and had derived spiritual good from it. Similarly I have seen a young girl, educated by my wife, who, on obtaining a copy of the New Testament and Psalms, kissed the volume and clasped it in her bosom as would a fond mother her dear child.

One of our deceased schoolmasters, and pastor of a small station, was commendably zealous in encouraging the young to obtain and read the Bible, and every boy and girl under his influence could read, and has obtained a copy of Scripture.

At an early morning week-day meeting open to all, and at our annual “Mei " missionary meeting, selected church members publicly speak. Their invariable practice is to take a passage of Scripture; consequently their name for such is "Troa cilefe la wesi ula," i e., “To stand up with the Word." We do not discourage but approve of the custom, or of the expression, because in that and other ways the authority of the Scriptures is maintained and honored. Great spiritual sagacity is often illustrated by the selection of a passage, and no little knowledge of the Word of God is also so evinced.

[The above papers under the title "The Bible in Many Lands," are taken from The Bible Society Reporter, and The Bible Seeley Gleanings.]

The Bible in Many Lands

Spain

WHAT follows is a selection of incidents representative or noteworthy in the most recent reports of the Bible Society's colporteurs.

About twenty of these are at work. “In a small provincial town I entered," writes one of the men, “the public wash-house, in which there might be some sixty women at work. As soon as I had offered my books one of the women exclaimed, 'These are Protestant books!’ and if I had not been very smart I would soon have been thrown headforemost into the cistern. I was, however, by a little dexterity able to gain their attention to my words, and before I went away had sold a great many small gospels.

“The day before, I had sold a gospel to a serving girl; this day when I passed before the door of the shop where she worked, the mistress called me, and in great wrath tore up the book, and threw the pieces in my face. With great difficulty I was able to persuade her that she had acted very thoughtlessly, and at last I got her to buy another and promise to read it."

Another of the men says of his labors in these same districts:—" There are some in every place who are disposed to buy and read the Scriptures, and who lend an attentive ear to the explanations we give of the things of the kingdom of God. Thus in the barracks of the Guardia Civil I found an earnest Christian who has the Bible in his house, and esteems it his great treasure, and recommends it to all his friends.

“I visited the school, and was very well received by the teachers, who bought some gospels for themselves, and allowed the children to buy as many as they wished. Here, too, I met several men and women, who make no secret of their evangelical sentiments, and of their desire to leave the Roman Church for a purer faith. What joy such encounters give! I invited the people to meet in their houses to read and study the Book for their mutual edification, and I had out the hope that when they had done so for some time some of the pastors of Madrid would visit them. They were delighted at the idea, and promised to carry out my suggestion."

He adds: “I have read to the people in many houses, and they seemed to appreciate what I read, for they listened with much attention and interest. It is evident that many have a real hunger and thirst for spiritual food, and this explains why they buy so readily the holy gospel."

A third colporteur visited several times the villages near, in one of which large meetings have been held in the theatre hired for the purpose, which have been addressed by pastors from Madrid, and in the neighboring villages he has done good work both in selling and circulating the Scriptures.

In the province of Guadalajara one of the colporteurs has been at work recently. He gives a graphic account of the various towns of his province, and from some of his touches a very vivid idea is obtained of the whole district. Of the province generally he says: “It may be considered one of the poorest in Spain, and one of the farthest back in the matter of instruction. Some of the towns are wonderfully open, and others will need much hard work." Of one of the larger towns, he says: “Seventy-five per cent. of the lower classes are unable to read or write, the commercial part of the inhabitants very insignificant, the wealthier part very resolute for the Roman Church, majority of the rest utterly indifferent —freethinkers many. A small group is inclined towards evangelical religion, but very fearful of the local difficulties and petty vengeance of the clerical party; they are satisfied with cherishing their ideas in secret, and waiting for the time when things will change.' "

Here are his impressions of one of the principal provincial towns: “Its aspect is forbidding to me, a multitude of towers and steeples—the seminary for priests, convents, and no end of churches—the very houses seem to carry the seal of the clerical domination, and look like convents. The number of priests, seminarists and friars is so great that into no place can you enter without stumbling up against one or other of the black fraternity. Everybody is in some way or other related to the priests, and they are the real directors of all business. Even family matters are in their hands the question as to whether this daughter would suit Juan or Pedro, or some other gentleman such a young lady, are submitted to them. And of conversation this is the sum: that the bishop went or is going to the cathedral, that the doctoral (the principal canon) did this or that, that Father A. or B. said such a thing.

“I began, as was natural, with the business people of the place, hut all was in vain. Even the names of the books frightened them; some even, as if they were doing me a great favor, advised me to get away as quickly as possible, as I might get into very awkward circumstances. Some locked at the title-page, and asked who was its author, and on not seeing the ecclesiastical permission flung it from them -a prohibited book. Leaving these merchants to their fate, I addressed myself to the poorer classes, and had some small sales among them.

"In another town I met with a very cordial reception from some, and, I may say, discovered even enthusiasm for the gospel when I had made my explanations."

In Montilla," says another colporteur,” I had a conversation with a young priest, who listened and spoke with respect and interest, so unlike the generality of his kind. He seemed much impressed by my references to the Bible, and still more when, on bringing his own, he found the words to be the same, especially those of 1 John 1:7— ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.'

“One day I sold a Bible to a woman in a shop, and she appeared to be much pleased as I read many verses and spoke of the kingdom of God; and I went away thanking God for His mercy. A few days after I passed by the same street again, and the woman called me in to show me the ashes of my Bible, and the book which in its place the priest had given her."

We will hear again from one more of these workers for Christ.

“In a small town near, the town-crier said to me, ‘There is no one who can compete with you and your Book... Never cease sowing the good seed, for you will reap much fruit. Since you came the first time to this place we have advanced much. At first, not a few books were torn up and burned; now it is quite different: the books are valued, and are being read in every street door.' "

"In T—I visited the threshing-floors, and as I was offering my books for sale, a man tried to prevent me and impede the sale; but we got into discussion about the testimony of the Bible, and all the people in the surrounding floors came up ( to hear, and we spent the whole afternoon discussing, and at the end one woman bought a Testament, and other two or three Gospels."

To show how "Christian" the people are, is 'I the witness of another of these workers among whom our men have to work, I will copy here a charm which is printed in a book sent to me, and which is circulated among these people by their priests. It is entitled: " Curious and mystical secrets to preserve the flocks.—Thou shalt write on parchment on Good Friday during the holy office of the passion the following: Oteos † Oxthow † Noxio,† Bay, † Glay † Apenih †. Then fold up this writing and put it on the top of the shepherd's crook, and, sticking it in the earth in the middle of the flock, it will have the effect of preventing any animal from straying twenty steps from the crook or from his fellow."

A colporteur in his report for May tells that in one village, after visiting from house to house, he got a message by a girl of some thirteen years, that the nuns who have the school wished him to call there. " Thinking," says he, "that I would have plenty of time to do so by-and-by, I went on with my visiting; it was not long, however; before eight or nine girls came running after me to say that I must go immediately to the school. I then went straight to the place, and before I had reached it met several children on their way to their homes, with special permission of the nuns to fetch centimas with which to buy books. When I arrived at the door a nun came out, and I said to her that many men said that the books which I sold were prohibited, and that such men often were, as they called themselves, ministers of the Lord. She answered quickly, I know, I know, but do you sell to all my scholars; the books are very good.' "

“Soon the children came back, and they appeared like a swarm of bees round me, clamoring for gospels. I was sorry not to be able to speak further with the sisters,' as my coach came up at that moment, and I had to take it and go to another village, as it was late, and there was no place to sleep in in that village."

A colporteur, on entering a village, got into conversation with the sacristan, who is also secretary of the Town Council, and they had a long discussion together; and when the sacristan called a halt, saying, it was a long and a grave question, they agreed to continue it the next afternoon at three. The colporteur adds, that there were several muleteers who delayed their departure till the following day in order to hear more. And when the question of the Roman and Protestant Bibles came up, the sacristan brought his own version, thinking to confound the colporteur, but was confounded in his turn; and though the sacristan did what he could to prevent it, two of the muleteers bought Bibles.

The Bible in Many Lands

(From the "Bible Society's Reporter.")

A Colporteur's Adventure in Central Asia

I WAS nearing home one evening, and it was quite dark, as I had missed my road twice already owing to the heavy, and protracted fall of snow, when, all of a sudden an immense black substance loomed up in front of us. My driver was a stranger to these parts, and I could not make it out; at last some sparks appeared, and we both saw that it must be a Khirkiz aul, or tent. My driver echoed my question, “Where have we come to? '' We stopped and i got our, quoting to him the Russian proverb: " You'll not die twice, and the once you can't miss," and told him to wait. I took my knapsack and approached the tent looking for a door, which I could not find. I began knocking on the sides of the tent, when a voice from the other side shouted: “This way, here's the door!” It was very low and narrow, but through it I scrambled.

A Khirkiz was squatted near the fire, another lying full length on some rugs, everything looking so cozy and warm compared with the frost and darkness without. I saluted them with their most polite and flattering greeting: "Aman Karandashlar?" (Goes it well with thee, friend, relation?) “Aman! Aman!’ answered the Khirkiz, ' Where are you going?" "I am selling these books, the Gospels," said I.

On hearing these words the man who was lying on the rugs jumped up and took hold of the Khirkiz New Testament, which by this time I had taken from my knapsack. He looked it carefully over, then asked sharply, “How much?" “Forty kopecks," I said.

On this he at once began to undress, washed his feet, as also his hands, then put on better clothes and nicer boots. His toilet finished, he again took the book, and began to read aloud.

He kept on reading for a considerable time before I asked his companion, “Will you buy a book also?" “If the Mullah—his companion then was a priest,— "allows me, of course I shall." The Mullah, however, continued reading, and took no notice of my question.

The other, seeing that the Mullah was so engaged, asked me in broken Russ, “Will you drink tea?" Yes," said I. "Will you eat nuts with us?" "

"Yes, certainly, I thank you," was my answer.

With this he ordered his wife to prepare the meal. She first of all lighted the samovar, which looked as if it were made of cast iron, the color being a dirty black instead of the usual brassy color. This done, she brought some rice flour in a saucer, added a little parts and never lost the road, so that I was convinced God had led me to that solitary aul that night in order to sell them the Word!

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An Emperor's Letter

The Committee of the Bible Society, in June, 1891, sent to the Emperor Menelek of Ethiopia, with a suitable letter, a gift of the Amharic and Ethiopic Scriptures. They have now received a most courteous reply, with the substantial addition of two large elephant tusks—a gift which will, it is hoped, bear testimony for a long time in the Bible House to the good-will of the Emperor, and to the distribution among his people of the Word of God.

The letter expresses cordial and gracious appreciation on the part of the Emperor of the “precious portion of the Holy Scriptures" which the Committee have sent. “They have," he says,” given me great pleasure, and I render ceaseless praise to God for your spiritual gifts and prayers on behalf of myself and my country.'' The Emperor asks that he may water, then worked it up into a fairish lump of dough. She now took the lump and rolled it into the form of a rope, then passed a knife through it, until it was all cut up into small pieces. She next brought a small iron vessel for cooking, hung it over the fire, then dropped into it a questionable piece of tallow or fat, the small pieces of dough going in next. All this time the Mullah was reading aloud.

The wife spread a most dirty tablecloth on straw; then our feast began! My driver only tasted the so-called dough nuts, but I ate with relish, for I was hungry, thinking with myself, “It is not what is put into the mouth that defiles the man, but what comes out of it."

The Mullah now stopped reading and said, “We must buy this book," so my host took one also. Having finished the meal I rose to go, thanking them for the hospitality I had enjoyed, and invited them to come and see me during the holidays. My host asked me where I lived, and I said, “Seven versts from Kronti-Zook." I then asked if we were far off the main road, and found that we were only one verst. My host accompanied me to the sledge, and gave us directions as to the road. So the losing of myself for the third time on a road I knew so well must have meant something. I had lived all my life in those have an Amharic Bible with Commentary, and says that the Scriptures, “those especially in Amharic and Ethiopic," will be treasured by his people. The motto at the top of this welcome royal missive is, “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has Conquered."

An interesting reference to the Emperor's gift and letter occurs in the journal of Gobau Dosta, the colporteur who has rendered important service at Harar. On June 8th he writes:—" I was out of Harar some days, to see the Prince Ras Makonan, who came back from Shoa. His Majesty the Emperor of Ethiopia is gratified by the present sent him from the Bible Society. His Majesty has written his gracious thanks to the Committee in England." On October 2nd the Prince delivered to Goblin Desta the elephant tusks and the letter of the Emperor. The colporteur adds:—" The Word of God is leavening in secret not only the Abyssinian churches, but also our backbiters of the Roman Catholic confession are reading it for the recovery of their souls. I am, glad to say that among the Abyssinians a great desire has sprung up for the Word of Salvation."

The Bread of Life

A YOUNG woman was admitted to one of our London hospitals suffering from an internal complaint, and, after several methods of treatment had proved ineffectual to remove the mischief; the physicians decided upon another measure. The house-surgeon informed the girl that starvation, in the ordinary sense, was the only hope they had, and time was given for her to consult her friends, and to say "yea" or " nay." In a few days the process was commenced, with her acquiescence. At first a lozenge was allowed, in order to stay the cravings of thirst, but after two days this was stopped, and day by day the patient grew weaker and thinner, until it seemed that life could not much longer be sustained. To starve, within reach of plenty, was indeed terrible, but the brave patient persevered, until the doctors considered the treatment had succeeded.

Then the nurse was bidden to take three tiny squares of bread and offer them to the sufferer. The plate containing these was held up before the helpless creature, in the presence of many interested spectators. When she opened her eyes she asked, faintly, “What is that?" The nurse replied, “Your first meal."

The girl gazed at the bread, as if in a dream, and when at length it dawned upon her that the time to eat had indeed arrived, she burst into tears and exclaimed, “Oh, they are beautiful, too beautiful; place them in front of me, that I may keep looking at them."

The nurse urged her to eat them, but she replied, " They are too beautiful, and will be gone so soon, let me look at them always "; and it was not until the promise of a further supply had been repeated again and again, that the starving girl consented to eat; and when the dainty morsels had disappeared, she fell back, and was soon in a peaceful sleep.

Perchance the reader is a poor sinner, starving for lack of “that bread which came down from heaven." A glorious feast is provided in Jesus Christ for every hungry soul, who will take with the hand of faith the bounties of divine grace.

“Come, ye needy, come and welcome, God's free bounty glorify; True belief, and true repentance, Every grace that brings us nigh, Without money, Come to Jesus Christ and buy."

Will you only look at the good things God brings to you? Alas, how many are content with merely looking at them, and do not make them their own. You need to have Christ for your very self. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." He is the "Bread of Life," and "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." (John vi. 51, 53.) Oh! take and eat this Bread, and calm and peace and rest shall be yours. F. H. F.

The Burning Mount, and the Broken Tables

IN the third month after Israel had left Egypt they reached Sinai. At the burning bush, Jehovah had said to Moses, "This shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." (Exod. 3:12.) And now, after a succession of marvels and manifestations, such as had never been seen before, the whole nation of Israel was assembled in the valley before Horeb.

God was about to reveal Himself to the people from Sinai, but in a very different way from that in which He had revealed Himself from the burning bush. There He had shown that He was with His people in their furnace of affliction; on Sinai, He was about to make Himself known out of “the midst of the fire," in the terror of His righteousness.

The bare and rocky peaks of Sinai were the chosen places for this manifestation of the terrors of Jehovah. There is a great plain facing towards one front of the mountain, and there, it is believed, Israel was gathered together. Certainly, the whole of the people could have stood upon it, and all could from it have had the mountain in full view as Jehovah descended upon it.

The first great lesson Israel, and indeed mankind, was taught at Sinai, was the fact that God is utterly inapproachable on that mount. Bounds were set all about it, and any creature that should draw near to it, and touch it, was under the penalty of instant death. "There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be man or beast, it shall not live." (Exod. 19:13.) It was the highest sacrilege to touch the burning mount where God was. Even after Moses had ascended Sinai to meet God, God sent him down again to warn the people, lest they should approach to gaze upon Jehovah; and, on Moses stating, bounds had been set about it, according to the divine command, " the Lord said unto, him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest He break forth upon them." (ver. 24). By word given, and measures taken, none was able to approach the place where God was. The awful surroundings of Jehovah's presence fixed the same reality into the minds of the people. Thunders and lightnings attested the power of the divine majesty on the mount, while the thick cloud, which hid Him from human gaze, witnessed to His being afar off from man. The earth itself shook, the mount trembled, and was altogether on a smoke, and the devouring fire, where God was on the mount, threatened to consume sinful man.

As the trumpet sounded long and loud, all the camp trembled, and the people removed and stood afar off at "the thunderings, and the noise of the trumpet."

Forty years after the event, when Moses was recounting to Israel the great story of Sinai, he reminded them no less than four times how Jehovah had spoken to them "out of the midst of the fire " (Deut. 5:24), and also what the effect had been upon them of Jehovah's speaking. They could not bear to hear the words save through the mediator—''This 'This great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die....Go thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee " (vers. 25, 27).

By plain words, by signs and terrors, God showed on Sinai that man could not approach Him when He descended to the earth to demand obedience to His laws. Yet these laws, these Ten Commandments, required nothing from man, save that which ought to be rendered by man to God and man.

Let us consider the first two. God's people were to have no other gods than Jehovah. The heathen had their own special gods, and they added to these the gods of adjoining countries, as policy might demand. There can be no mixture in the service of the living God. He is God, and He alone. Every such mixture is abomination to Him. The second is: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and she wing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments."

These words Israel heard, and they were told also, they should not make to God, gods, of silver, or of gold. Nevertheless, hardly had one short month elapsed, and, while Moses himself was still upon Sinai communing with God, they gathered themselves together, and said to Aaron, "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him." (Exod. 32:1.) This appears incredible after such a revelation as they had had, and after such effects had been produced in them by it; but the ingrained love of idols in man is not to be gainsaid. So Israel mule a molten calf of gold, and worshipped it, and sacrificed unto it. They broke God's law almost as soon as they heard it, and before it came to them in written words. Shall we also, who are professing Christians, be unmindful of this sin, and of the tendency of our race that led to it? Let us not forget that in a large part of Christendom the second commandment is omitted in catechisms of Christian instruction, and that in our own land, in our present day, the Ten Commandments, which the reformers had placed prominently in churches, are being quietly removed! The words of it are so explicit, that such as bow down themselves to their graven images, or likenesses, cannot endure the plain word of God, and they find it more convenient to obliterate the words of God from before their eyes, than to give up looking at their images and pictures.

The sin of Israel awoke God's anger. He threatened to destroy the guilty people. But the mediator's prayer was heard. Then God bade Moses go down to the idolatrous people, and as he descended, accompanied by Joshua, the unwonted sound in the camp rolled up the mountain-side. There is a gap in the mount which commands a view of the plain we have mentioned; it is not improbable that, as Moses and Joshua neared this gap, the sound reached their ears. Joshua mistook it, "There is a noise of war in the camp." Moses detected it at once, "It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome; but the noise of them that sing do I hear." Then as they neared the camp, the calf and the dancing around it meet their eyes. His soul was horror-stricken at the enormity of Israel's wickedness. Ingratitude and rebellion of the worst kind were combined in their great sin.

Overcome with the sin he saw, and surely inspired by God so to do, Moses lifted up his hands and dashed down the tables of stone graven with the finger of God.

Israel had broken the law, and Moses broke the tables whereon the words were graven. How could such tables ever be kept in man's custody?

But never let us forget, God cannot break His word The Ten Commandments stand for ever. Neither Israel's idolatries nor the scissors of Christendom can mar or mutilate their truth. God demands obedience to them, and as He does so, He speaks out of the fire! He speaks out of the consuming force of His righteousness. And when He thus speaks none can draw nigh! The impiety, nay, the rebellion against His majesty which excludes one of His Ten Commandments from the tables is a sin of the deepest dye; but what shall be said of those who boast in their Bibles, and yet profess to draw near to God on the basis of their good works, in other words, on their law keeping? God speaks His law out of the fire, and on this basis none can approach His presence and live.

Eventually the law was re-written on tables of stone and brought to the camp of Israel, but the finger that wrote the eternal words of Jehovah was not that of God, but of the mediator.

Caring for the Lepers in India

OUR young friends will be interested to hear a little about the poor lepers in India. There a leper is cut off completely from his kindred and his religion, for the Hindus believe that a leper is accursed in this life, and can hope for no better existence. The hope and joy that the gospel of God brings to these poor outcasts, teaching them of peace here and of glory hereafter, can therefore be in some way understood.

Leprosy is so much dreaded that, no sooner does anyone develop it, than, be it husband or wife, the sufferer is at once driven from the home, to wander an outcast on the face of the earth until death ends a terrible existence.

The disease usually affects the limbs first, and, as it increases, fingers and toes drop off and the flesh comes away, till the poor leper becomes too helpless to do anything whatever for himself. “What do you do when you can no longer feed yourselves?" enquired a Christian visitor of a leper woman. “We turn into our huts, and lie there and die," was the pathetic answer.

It is computed that in British India there are about half million of these poor people.

There is a mission to lepers in India, the main object of which is to alleviate their sufferings, and, above all, to lead them to God, and Christ, and the Savior. This society works by utilizing existing missionary agencies, endeavoring to get the missionaries to look after the sufferers, and providing for them regular medical attendance, and persons who will dress their wounds and show them kindness. This society also assists in the erection of homes for these poor homeless outcasts.

The society also takes especial interest in the care of the children of leper mothers, for, if the children remain with their parents, they are almost certain to take the disease.

In this there has been a remarkable success. In the homes, so far, one child only has fallen a victim to the awful malady.

The poor sufferer is a boy of fourteen, who showed the first symptoms of the disease, as many do, in not being able to feel heat in his hands. He fell against a stove, and not being sensitive to the burning, was taken to the doctor, and when he stood before him, the poor lad put his hands behind his back. Upon the doctor pronouncing that he had the terrible disease, the boy's distress was most affecting to witness.

In the homes very many of the lepers are Christians, and most eager are they to care for their fellow sufferers.

On one occasion six lepers from Ambala wandered down to Taru Tarau, where there is a large government asylum. The native doctor refused them admission, and also forbad them to buy food at the asylum store unless they renounced Christianity. For more than a week, without shelter and with scarcely any food, these poor creatures sat by the wayside. At last the doctor, fearing his conduct might reach the ears of the English civil surgeon, admitted them. Then the six told the inmates, of the joy the gospel had brought to them, and thus some of the heathen lepers heard and believed also. Sometime after, when Mr. Guildford, of the C.M.S., reached the place, he found five of the inmates were truly earnest Christians, and were desirous of being baptized. By and by twenty-two came boldly out from their heathenism for Christ—thus did God bless the labor of love of the six Christian lepers of Ambala.

In the recent famine the lepers in one of the homes, learning that several new cases had been refused admission on account of the scarcity of food and funds, had a fast day, on which they partook merely of one very small meal, thus saving money to assist their fellow sufferers.

The mission to the poor lepers in India commenced in 1874, but the secretary, Mr. Bailey, had his interest aroused on their behalf in 1869, when, together with Dr. Morrison, he visited the leper asylum at Ambala. The lepers had assembled for Christian worship, and the way in which they drank in the truths of the Christian faith astonished him. In 1874 this particular mission was started by Mr. Bailey when on a visit to Ireland.

You, dear young friends, cannot bind up the wounds of these afflicted people, but you can do something to help them. For ₤ 4 a year a leper child can be kept in one of the homes, and for ₤ 6 a man or a woman. One thousand pennies make four pounds three shillings and fourpence. We feel sure a thousand of our young friends will be only too pleased to send us a penny each, and we will forward the amount to India to support a leper child for one yea?: Towards the close of the year we will print a letter from India about the lepers, and, we think we may say, some messages from the Christian lepers to our young readers who have out of love to the suffering denied themselves of some little pleasure for their sakes.

Will you read in the gospels of all that Jesus said to the lepers, and what He did for them? Oh! how kind was He to them! He saved them from their leprosy—He made them clean. And thus does He save and cleanse from sin all who come to Him.

A Chat With the Little Ones

THERE is a very pretty story in the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Mark which makes me think of you, dear little girls and boys. You will laugh when I add that the story is about a young donkey, and that it is because of this that I think of you when I read it.

When the Lord Jesus Christ was here upon earth, He one day sent two of His disciples on an errand to a village called Bethphage. It was rather a strange errand, you will think, but those who serve the Lord are glad to do anything for Him, and servants do not have to question their master as to the work he gives them to do. Now these disciples were to go to a certain cottage in that village, which stood where two ways met, and there, outside the door, they would find a young ass tethered; they were to undo the cord and to bring it to Jesus. And these men did just as they were told.

Now when they were loosing the colt the people it belonged to came out of the cottage, and asked them what they were about, and the disciples said that Jesus wanted their little ass; "the Lord hath need of him!" and at once they let him go, for they loved the Lord, and were glad to give their donkey to Him.

There is not much more than that in my story, but whenever I read it I think of some dear village lads whom I love to speak to of Jesus—little fellows who come to me on Sundays, and it seems to me they are at present just like this donkey, tied where two roads meet; but the day will come, before very long, when they can no longer be tied to village homes, and then the question will be, which one of the two ways will they take when they are let loose?

It will be the same with you, too, dear children. Perhaps you think it rather hard to be tied up so much as you are, and to have to do as your parents tell you, and you are doubtless looking forward to the time when you are older, and will be, as you think, your "own master."

I long to catch you while you are still young; still standing where the two ways meet; and to persuade you to come with me at once to the loving Savior, so that you may only know those ways of peace and paths of pleasantness in which those walk who walk with Him.

In Matthew we read that there were two asses, and Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus sent for the young one of the two. I asked a number of little village lads once which of the two they would have chosen, and some called out " The young 'un!” “Why would you have taken the young one?” I asked. "Because it would live longest," they answered quickly.

And I thought that there was a good deal in what they had said. Jesus sends for you, young children, because, perhaps, you may have longer to live than your elders; although we know that children may die as well as grown-up people, so that it is indeed not safe to be unsaved. But it is so sweet to give one's whole life to Him; to come to Him, just at once, and then to be at His service for as long as ever He leaves one down here. A. P. G.

Christian Experience

WE may enjoy the sunshine and the scent of the flowers in common, but our particular sense of these good things is our own individual experience. In like manner the favor of divine love and the excellent things of His grace are the common portion of all God's people, but none the less is the individual believer's experience of these things peculiar to himself. Our experiences are our own, and very important is the matter of our experience. Some seem to know but little of the sunshine, while others are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Is it that some live more in the sunshine than do others?

We are sure that most Christians desire to be in the sunshine, and we cannot deny that we often fail to be there through our own want of spirituality. Yet some fail to be there because they dwell so much in their own homes, as it were—in their own thoughts about themselves—their own poverty. Like Mephibosheth, whose good the king sought, they dwell in Lo-debar, the place of no pasture. Like him, too, they are infirm and feeble, for Mephibosheth was lame on both his feet. But the king exalted him: David brought Mephibosheth up out of Lo-debar, and gave him a place at his table, and there, in the palace and wealth of the king, he, who was still lame on both his feet, found abundance. The abundance was that of the king, the wealth that of the king, and, though still feeble and infirm in himself; the abundance and the wealth Mephibosheth experienced.

Speaking spiritually, the lameness and feebleness of the believer are no detriment to his enjoyment of the blessings of the Lord. The poorest child is welcome to the sunshine, and the Lord loves to bring up His Mephibosheths from their Lo-debars, and to fully satisfy their hearts, so that they can but say, each one, "My cup runneth over."

Hearing about the sunshine and being in it are not the same thing; but the hearing leads to seeking, and the seeking to dwelling. We rind far more than our hearts can conceive in the Scriptures, there the heart of God and of Christ are opened up to us. Let us take one short text upon dwelling-" God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16.) Here is indeed a home for a Mephibosheth—the love of God! And this we know as its wonders are revealed to us in the Scriptures. Our experience does not construct the home, we dwell in the love. What does our Lord say of God the Father's love? “I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26.) Surely we can but witness that such realization of this most gracious truth can be experienced only when we are seated, as it were, at the king's table. “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me" (ver. 23), we again hear Him say.

As in nature there are things in which we can delight, but which we could not fully explain, so it is in the things of the kingdom of God. “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me," is beyond our comprehension, but we can believe and rejoice. We experience the charm of the sunshine, though we can but little explain what sunshine is; nay, who can accurately say what the sun is? And who shall say who God is? God is love, God is light, and the Father loves us even as He loves His Son! We rejoice in this His love. His love is infinite; we cannot explain it.

There can be no doubt that the happiest Christian experience arises from dwelling in the love, or, to use another figure, from feasting our souls when at the King's table, and we may obtain a happy suggestion from these words, "So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king's table; and was lame on both his feet." (2 Sam. 9:13.) His home was in David's home—his constant repast was where David himself ate—yet for all that Mephibosheth was still in himself the weak man he had been from his infancy.

So long as the Christian preserves his true humility it shall be well with him. True humility questions not the Lord's love to us, and His grace in exalting us, neither does true humility assume of ourselves that we are in and of ourselves other than what we ever were.

We may safely assert that no experience we may have which does other than make us the more exalt Christ, is one which we should desire. Even the apostle was afflicted with a thorn in the flesh after having seen and heard those unspeakable things he was given to realize in glory, for having seen those great things there was the danger, even in him, lest he should be exalted above measure! It seems, at first sight, strange that such things could possibly be used for self-exaltation, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who knows our hearts perfectly, withdrew His servant from the danger of self-exaltation by the thorn in the flesh, so that he might sustain himself in His grace—" My grace is sufficient for thee."

The Congo Mission

MEN and women of sixty or seventy years of age can look back to their school days, when the geography of Central Africa was almost entirely unknown. A vast area in what has been fitly called the “Dark Continent “was supposed to be a desert, and un-peopled. Instead of this, it is now known to be a region of large lakes, almost worthy to be called inland seas, and numerous rivers, with towns and villages, and many tribes of people occupying a country rich in all kinds of vegetable production, and capable of the highest degrees of cultivation. Out of some of the lakes, to the south of the Equator, the river Congo flows for some one thousand five hundred miles at least, crossing and re-crossing the Equator, and pursuing its course to the West Coast. It is fed by numerous rivers, some of which are navigable, and it is, in its gathered strength and volume, a truly mighty river, being seven or eight times the size of the Thames.

A large portion of what is now called “the Congo Free State " was discovered and annexed by the Portuguese some four hundred years ago. Portugal was then a powerful state, and one of the most active in seeking to extend its conquests, and to promote popery. The king of the Congo was subject to the crown of Portugal, and the inhabitants were brought under the influence and authority of the priests of Rome.

Portugal has decayed as a kingdom, and for a hundred years has ceased to exercise direct authority in Congoland. As a con sequence, the priests of Rome lost their influence, their “mission " died out, and little was known of them besides their graves, and the remains of their religious vessels and ecclesiastical symbols. What there was of civilization had declined, and as there was little or no real godliness in the natives—few, if any, real conversions—the state of the people may be described in the language of Holy Scripture as one of "the dark place of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty.”

Of recent years a variety of circumstances has drawn the attention of Christian people in England to Africa as a field for missions.

The successes of Robert Moffatt and other missionaries who labored on or near the East Coast; the wonderful adventures and discoveries of Dr. Livingstone; the researches of Mr. Stanley when in search of Livingstone, and not least the success of the Uganda Mission, all contributed to awaken the zeal of Christians in the direction of the evangelization of Africa, especially in the southern and western divisions of the great continent. The brethren who had labored, or were laboring, in the district of the Cameroons and Victoria had already had their attention turned to the vast Congo district, and the need and the prospects of a successful mission there. This was especially the case with Mr. Tom Comber and Mr. Grenfell.

At home, God was working to prepare the way. While the committee of the Missionary Society were deliberating, an unexpected voice was heard. Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, wrote as follows, in the spring of 1877:—" There is a part of Africa, not too far, I think, from places where you have stations, on which I have long had my eye, with very strong desire that the blessings of the gospel might be given to it-it is the Congo country."

After glancing at the history of the country, and its apparent openness to receive white men if they would come to them, he offered ₤1000 upon certain practical conditions. This was accepted. Comber and Grenfell at once offered themselves for the work, and, without writing for instructions from England, set out from the Cameroons to explore the country. The spirit in which they entered upon the work may be gathered from their own words:—" We are not our own, nor are we in Africa for our own purposes or ends; and in all our movements, especially in such a deeply important one as we feel this to be, we; look up to the gracious Master to fulfill His promise, 'I will guide thee with Mine eye.' "

Mr. Grenfell returned to the Cameroons, and Mr. Comber came to England, to report 3 proceedings. In April, 1877, Comber re'' turned to the Congo with his young wife and three volunteers. They all arrived in good health, but Mrs. Comber was soon struck down.

Exploring the country and founding stations were among their first efforts. With few exceptions they were well, and sometimes warmly received, by chiefs and people alike. One thing became every day more and more apparent, namely, the vast field which awaited the mission of peace and love. Very often must they have recalled the seasonable words of the venerable Saker, when they were set apart to their work:—" While I congratulate you to-night, I should like to utter just this word—that the enthusiasm of this hour will not suffice. We are but beginning a work which will test our fidelity, our faith, our zeal, and it will test our hope also. You may go forth with confidence, because He that commandeth that we bear the gospel to the heathen hath Himself promised that He will be with us. It is not prospective; but He is with us, ' Lo, I am With you alway to the end of the age.' And in the presence of the Master, and armed with His power, your brethren, young as they are, may go forth in confidence."

In the autumn of 1879, Saker's last words in public were uttered in St. Andrew's Hall, Glasgow. Coming from one who was worn to a shadow by missionary toil, they awoke in the hearts of his hearers passionate emotions. “If," said he, " the African is a brother, should we not give him some of our bread and a draught of our water? Oh, that I had another life to go out there. The field is wide there, the multitudes are in darkness still. It is the Son of God calling on us to go forth and preach the gospel to this creature, and we have the promise that He will be with us unto the end! May His blessing be on you and on them."

Large gifts of money flowed into the treasury which was to sustain, financially, these new efforts. Nor were men wanting. To give even the names of all who have gone forth in this holy enterprise would occupy much space. Some of them remain unto this day, but others—and, oh, what a long list there is of them!—others have fallen asleep. A son of the writer, beloved and esteemed by all who knew him, lies there on the banks of the Congo, after a few months of service, struck down through too much exertion in a season of great pressure of work; another passed away the same hour in the same place; and there are other graves at Tunduwa or Underhill. The name of Comber figures conspicuously in the list of missionaries, and not less so in the roll of the departed. Mr. Comber, senior, has been deprived of his entire family by the fevers and toils of the Congo, he having lost four sons and a daughter, and two daughters-in-law, wives of his sons.

Some reference to others may be made further on, if our limited space will allow. Hitherto the work has been chiefly of a pioneer character, and will be partly so for some time to come, as few only of the band of earnest workers have been suffered to continue their labors by reason of death. The men who have to some extent become acclimatized, however, have taken their distinctive work—Mr. Grenfell, in navigating the river and its tributaries, exploring the country, opening up intercourse with the native tribes, and founding new stations for immediate or future occupation; while Mr. Bentley, the next oldest in point of continued labors, has given himself, with a gratifying measure of success, to the formation of a written language, the construction of a grammar and a dictionary, the translation of hymns and of the New Testament into the Congo tongue.

The results, as to hopeful conversions, have been so far gratifying and inspiring. In other words, the drops have fallen here and there, giving promise of a coming shower. Among the young in the schools the prospects are very hopeful, and many of the Congo boys and girls have given tokens of a work of grace begun, and have learned to sing in their own tongue such hymns as—

“Jesus loves me; that I know,

For the Bible tells me so."

Such of them as we have seen in this country indicate a good share of mental ability and general intelligence, and—which is a yet more hopeful sign—a gentle, teachable, and benevolent cast of character, not devoid, however, of strength. But the progress must needs be slow in any direction, as to spiritual results, while the varied claims on the time and energies of the workers are so many and diverse. All kinds of work—in building of houses, schools, and chapels—have to be personally superintended, as also the necessary cultivation of the soil, which is highly productive. Then it must be remembered that there are no roads, no railways, no method for the conveyance of the supplies, all of which have to be sent from England, excepting what little can be procured on the spot, but the great river, and the carriers (" boys " they are called), who convey on their heads or shoulders everything that needs to be transmitted from the ships to the mission stations, the packages being limited to sixty pounds.

The Divine call to this particular enterprise has been seen in the way the needful funds were forthcoming, and it may be traced in the favor which it still finds among earnest Christian people at home; but even more in the raising up of man, and a succession of them, with zeal and enthusiasm, to go forth literally with 'their lives in their hands. There is no place here, and, indeed, in any mission field, for idlers, adventurers, professional men, and those whose chief aim is human applause. Men for any and every Christian work, and for mission work still more, must be "called of God." From such laborers alone can we hope to witness spiritual results.

The kind of men that have given, and still without pause, give themselves to this work may be seen from the dying testimony of one or two.

The last words of the writer's beloved son were, “On the Rock."; and when asked, “What rock?” he added, “The Rock—Christ." Fitting was it, therefore, that Charles Haddon Spurgeon should comfort the bereaved parents by saying in his own inimitable way, "He died in the Lord, and for the Lord, therefore it is well."

Another who fell beneath the force of the climate—Mr. Hartland— gave a beautiful testimony. "I shan't easily forget his look," wrote Mr. Grenfell, "as he gazed at us, and said, Well, I'm not afraid to die. My trust is in Jesus. Whosoever believeth in Him hath everlasting life.'" A little later, in his short illness, he said, " After four years' preparation, and just as I am about to enter upon missionary work proper, it seems strange for me to realize that my work is done; but He knows best." After much cheering converse with Mr. Comber and others, he roused from sleep, and, seeming conscious that his end was near, he, looking up, cried out, “Christ is all in all. Let me go, friends. Don't hold me back; let me go. I must go; I want to go to Him." His struggles ceased; he was gone.

Here we must pause, and pass over any further mention of other laborers in the same field. R. S.

A Converted Infidel

G. W. A. was born of infidel parents. His birthplace was a village in Kent, where he lived till twelve years of age. All that time he was never sent to a Sunday school, nor taught to say a prayer at his mother's knee, nor to return thanks to God for daily food. In the course of his education G. W. A. was sent to a weekday school, and there he won a Bible for a prize, but as soon as he reached his home it was thrown upon the fire, with the remark that it was an indecent and filthy book, and not fit for anyone to read.

At the age of fifteen G. W. A. was very fond of drink, and so early as seventeen was not infrequently drunk. He then worked in some powder mills, and while in that occupation had three narrow escapes of his life—indeed, on two occasions the mate that was working with him was blown to pieces, whilst he escaped with but slight injuries. The last explosion frightened him very much, and made him think, but he soon got over his fear, and from that time he went from bad to worse.

However, about this period G. W. A.'s mother was attracted to hear a young man preach in a neighboring chapel. This young man was twenty years of age, and had just returned from his college, and was the talk of the town. G. W. A.'s mother went out of mere curiosity, but before she had left the building, her infidelity had vanished—indeed, she had become a new creature in Christ Jesus!

It was soon after this event that G. W. A. left his native place with a travelling theatre. He played nightly on the boards, and became more fond of drink and festive life than ever.

His own words relating to this time are as follows: "In my dislike to religion, I had now begun to try to upset or interfere with every open-air meeting I could. Leaving the theatricals, I joined myself to some niggers, and at the end of two weeks had drunk all my money and pawned my spare clothes, and when in this state walked all the way home.

“Soon after this I became acquainted with a young woman, and we married. As I had made a fresh start, we had a good home, but, alas, in less than three years my house and all my furniture were taken from me, and I got into serious trouble, and had to fly to escape serving a term in prison. My wife never heard from me for four years.

“I ought to have said, that soon after my marriage my mother was taken ill, and just before she died she sent for me to see her. She made us all promise to meet her in heaven, but it was a long time before we would do so, because we did not believe there was such a place. However, my father asked me to promise anything, so that she might die easy.

"I took a false name, and became barman to a publican in Colchester. I returned to Ashford, near my home, and there I drank and fought, and was obliged to leave. Then I went to Margate, and there I met my wife again; but, alas, I soon grew worse, and, I am ashamed to say, my wife had to work and keep us.

“I played for Miss Thorne one season in her theatre. At Margate I was sometimes chairman of an infidel club, and sometimes secretary—at that time we were living in one furnished room.

“From Margate. I went to Hastings, and when there, many times have I stopped open-air preaching. More than once, I cruelly ill-used those who were telling out the glorious gospel of the grace of God— such was my hatred of God and His gospel. Soon after moving to Hastings, I became secretary to an, infidel club there. The late Mr. Bradlaugh came to the public hall on two occasions to lecture on Sunday evenings, and on one occasion I took the chair. All this time we were still living in one furnished room, and I was working for a builder.

"The Salvation Army had come to Hastings, and we raised a Skeleton Army in opposition to them, and, much to our shame, we treated them abominably. Many of their `soldiers' suffered cruelly at our infidel and cowardly hands, for they would not retaliate, so we had it all our own way. On one occasion, while the service on the beach was going on, I dared them to continue, and at last flung one of the women into the sea, and she must have been drowned, but for the prompt assistance of the police. I tried to kill her when they got her out, for she would still go on telling me to come to Jesus. On, on I went to the bad, so that people said I should come to an awful end, but my Father in heaven graciously kept me from death. I had upset so many of the Salvation Army meetings, that they would not allow me inside of their barracks, and hence, many a free fight we had as I tried to get in.

“Getting tired of this, I took to stopping another band of workers, and partly succeeded, and this is how they stopped me. They had a week's special prayer, that God would either save me or remove me. All Christian workers were afraid of me, for I seemed to have the power of the devil in me, and my wife and children dreaded the sight of me.

“It was when these good Christians were praying for me, that I had arranged with a mate to have a jolly Sunday with some bad companions in a boat. However, it turned very wet, and we could not go. I kept in bed all that day, and my mate went to the Salvation Army barracks, and-such is God's marvelous grace-God converted him that afternoon. He was a railway man.

"In the evening he came to me, and told me he was saved. I laughed at him, swore at him, and even hit him, but he kept to it, that God had saved him, and stuck to me, begging me also to go to some place where Christ was preached and get saved too.

"How my mate longed for my soul! We had been boon companions, and now he would not let me go. I swore at him in vain, shoved him out of the house in vain—he would stick to me. ‘George,' said he, in answer to my oaths and blows, 'I want you for Jesus.' After some days I got so wild with him that I vowed I would kill him if he came to me anymore. The tears stood in his eyes. I saw he meant what he said, and that he loved me, vile as I was. There could be no mistake about it, he was not the same man he had been, but a new man—my old mate changed, and actually loving me, and wishing to get me like himself.

“’Well," said I, ‘ if you will promise to come to a lecture with me, I will for once go to a meeting with you.'

“He looked very sad, for the lecture was an infidel one. He didn't say a word for a while. I think he must have been praying. At last he said, ‘Yes, George, I will.'

"A special mission for railway men was going on in the town at the time, and we two went there together. How I praise God for making me keep that promise! I sat the service through, for the first time in my life, without making a disturbance! The preacher took his text out of the book of Daniel, ‘Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.' (Dan. 5:27.) He went on to speak, as I then thought, to me only. His words reminded me of many things I had done and forgotten. The text fastened hold upon me, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and convicted me of sin. I saw what an awful sinner I was in the sight of God. As I thought of God I trembled worse than if I had the ague.

“Presently the preacher came and spoke to me. He showed me what God said about me in His own Word, and how He was willing to save me there and then. But my mind was too dark to receive the truth. He prayed with me and for me, but I got no light.

"So I went home in a terrible state, in my soul. The next morning I signed the pledge, thinking that would put me right, but that did me no service. I felt worse and more sinful than ever. I wandered from place to place, seeking light, but finding none. At last I got so frightened lest I should drop into hell at any moment, that I would not move anywhere in the dark for fear I might fall. Hell seemed so real to me, and my agony was so great.

"After being in that awful condition for a month, I turned in to a little mission hall, where a woman was speaking. I had no Bible, for I was afraid to get one, lest it should make me feel worse. I cannot tell what her text was, nor what she said—I only know she gave out an invitation for any that were anxious to be saved to go into another little room, and, when there, she told us neither she nor her friends could save us, but the Lord Jesus only could do that great work, for He alone is the Savior.

"That night, just as the clock was striking nine, now nine years ago, on the l0th March, my burden rolled away. I was born again. Jesus saved me, and I could say, with all my heart—

"'Happy day! happy day!

Jesus washed my sins away.'

"The next night I went to another hall—the one where they had had the week's prayer for me! How the people eyed me! They expected every minute that I was going to play them some trick. It was a testimony meeting, and God gave me courage to stand up and tell them all I was saved. Oh! the joy there was in the hall that night!

“On the following Sunday I stood in the open air with them, and told the people that God had saved me through His Son Jesus Christ, by faith in His precious blood. I could say my sins, which were many, were all forgiven, and from that day to this our blessed Lord has given me strength to tell out boldly what great things He had done for me.

"Three weeks after this, one of my mates, who was working with me on a large building, fell off the scaffold, and fell about forty feet, breaking his back in his fall. The poor man had just been swearing at me for saying I was saved. I stayed with him till he died, and what a scene that was! I never wish to witness such another. He told me he was lost, and I fancy I hear his shrieks now. He begged me to go to the infidel club, and tell them how poor Jack had died, and tell them, too, that he knew that there was a heaven and a hell, and that he was doomed for eternity. As he was passing away his last words were, ' I am lost; I am damned.'

“Oh, how I thanked God for all His past mercies to me, in sparing my life, guilty as I was, and, above all, in saving my soul from an eternal death.

“I went to the club on the Sunday night, as I had promised my dying mate. The men cheered me, and sang He is, a jolly good fellow,' as they saw me come back to the club; they offered me a drink, and told me they knew that they should soon have me back again.

“Then God, in His goodness, gave me strength, and I gave them poor Jack's dying message, and told them how God in His great mercy had saved me, and I knew there was something worth having. I told them salvation was for all, and that Christ was able and willing to save them.

"Praise God, two left the club that night, and mine with me to the mission. They are now converted, and preaching the gospel of Jesus to a perishing world. The club is entirely broken up, and seventeen out of their number are Salvation Army officers! The landlord of the house was turned out through annoying the Wesleyan body, but he, too, is saved, and is now singing the songs of the redeemed ones of glory.

“I am thankful that God has blessed my testimony to many souls. I can only say, to God be all the glory. I cannot boast of anything of my own self; it is ' by the grace of God, I am what I am.'

“I am now a colporteur, and have been so for over six years, and God has been pleased to bless my labors since my conversion. My wife, too, is saved, and my daughter also, and she is married to another colporteur.

“I am not living any longer in one little furnished room; no, I have four rooms nicely furnished with my own property. I owed twenty pounds when God saved me; today I owe not a penny.

"Truly the Lord's ways are wondrous and past finding out. I feel I cannot praise God enough for all His mercies to me and mine. I can only say it is all of His goodness that I am thus at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in my right mind, saved with an eternal salvation, hoping to meet my dear mother in heaven, and, above all, Him who suffered for my sins in His own body on the tree—Jesus, my beloved Savior. Truly I am a brand plucked from the burning." G. W. A., A CONVERTED INFIDEL.

Echoes From the Mission Field

Worth a Life-Time in China

ABOUT a year ago, one Mrs. Ting, an old lady of eighty-one years, came to our little preaching hall near the South Gate, to see the foreigners and hear what they preach.

The Buddhist rosary twisted round her wrist told the tale of a soul groping in the dark, and its well-worn appearance showed that she was by no means careless about her future state. Being somewhat deaf, she pressed close up to the speaker and listened attentively to the end without nicking much comment.

About two days later she was there again, but this time without the string of beads which had been her companion for many years. On being asked how it was, she answered to the effect that being told they were of no use she had of course laid them aside, and was using what she could remember of the prayer she had been taught to the true God in heaven.

Presently the dear old lady sighed, and said, “It’s all very good and beautiful, but it's too late for me! I am old and can't expect to live long, I could never accumulate sufficient merit. Had you come a few years earlier to tell me, this happiness might have been mine, but it's late now, too late!"

It was a little while before she could take in that God's salvation is present and free.

She continued to attend the services regularly, drinking in the truth, her poor wrinkled face lighting up as the gospel was unfolded to her mind, prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive it. The fact that Jesus had returned to heaven to prepare a place for her and was soon coming to take her to it, was very precious indeed to her, and seemed always to be in her thoughts.

The failing memory could not retain very much at a time, but certain things seemed to rivet themselves upon her mind. One day the text, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," was repeated over to her a few times, and when asked if she remembered it, she answered in her own simple style, “He’ll never leave me, and He won't cast me off."

After a time our aged friend came to the conclusion that her rosary would be of no more use to anyone else than to herself; so, quite of her own accord, she burned it. Her love and gratitude to those who brought to her the word of life was very touching, and made one feel it was worth a life-time in China to see this soul saved. From her granddaughter-in-law, with whom she lived, Mrs. Ting met with nothing but unkindness and persecution.

She did not wish to live; her one cry was, “Lord Jesus, come quickly." Twice on recovering from sickness she was disappointed not to go, and once dreaming she was in a very beautiful place, she thought it must be heaven; but one Sunday morning, the desire of her heart was realized, she went in to see the King to “go no more out."

Who of us can imagine what heaven must be to her? and what joy to the Lord Jesus too, to greet one more of His " other sheep"! She truly turned to God from idols, and waited for His Son from heaven. Poor and despised in the eyes of the world, but possessing the true riches of a simple faith in God and His Word; from the very first she was never heard to express a doubt as to the truth of the gospel. How mighty in working is the Spirit of God, who can in so short a time entirely change the heart and thoughts of one who had lived eighty-one years in the darkness of heathenism and superstition.

We were sorry not to be with her at the end; but her friends had closed the door against us, and we did not know she was so ill. A neighbor who was with her to the last told us that the last day she seemed unconscious of what was going on around her. She said she was in a chapel so large! and so clean, and even the little children there could all tell about Jesus.

When we meet her by and by she may tell us then of His faithfulness.—China's Millions.

India
the Story of Rajji

Rajji, the sick girl of whom I am now writing, was one of those people whom one learns to love at first sight. She struck me at the very first, by the contrast between her age and the grown-up patient expression that she wore, and still more so by a look in her eyes, which seemed to speak of a brightness within the soul, and which I found difficult to account for at the time. The reason I discovered later on, and it is in the hope that Rajji's history will encourage some, who, after long and patient sowing, grow faint sometimes and weary in the thought that it has been in vain, that I have been led to write out this story.

Rajji is a Hindu girl and was about sixteen when I saw her; she had been brought into Tarn Taran from some distant village for treatment. Her case was unfortunately a hopeless one from the very first, as she was then in the last stage of consumption, but her parents refused to believe it.

It was a rare privilege and pleasure to be allowed to visit the sick girl every day, as she was always eager to listen to reading from the Bible and the singing of hymns, some of which she would join in herself. She grasped spiritual truths in a way that made me think they were not new to her, and so it proved to be. As a child she had been much with some Christians. She had thus heard enough of the living truths to cherish them in her childish soul for many a long year. At length they brought forth fruit unto life everlasting. At the age of thirteen she was married, and lived in her father-in-law's house for three years; all that time she never heard of Christianity, nor saw a Christian. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that she should recall to mind so much of what she had learnt in her childhood-all unconsciously learnt too.

Her parents, wishing to humor her, encouraged my visits, for they seemed to give her more pleasure than anything else. "She shall be your sister, if you will only cure her," they used to say, "and you may take her away to live with you, but you must cure her."

Rajji said the same, hut with greater sincerity, as she really hoped her parents would allow her to be baptized when she recovered, In answer to something she said to me, about being baptized and coming to live with us as a Christian, I replied, "You are my sister now, Rajji, but Jesus loves you more than we do, and wants to call you to a happier home than you can ever have here."

She understood then that she was not to get well, but her calm, child-like spirit seemed to live quite above any doubts or fears.

The weather became very much colder, and Rajji grew steadily worse, and the end drew very near.

Just then I had to leave home for a few days, but went to say good-bye to Rajji before leaving. She asked me pointedly if it was likely that we should meet again, and was reminded of the happy re-union in heaven to which Christ's people look forward with sure and certain hope.

On my return I found Rajji alive, very weak, but conscious. The night before they had supposed she was dying, and, in accordance with their cruel custom, they had lain her down on the bare ground, with a chirag (little lamp) in each hand to guide the departing soul. But she recovered sufficiently to be taken up and put back on her bed.

" Don't let them put me on the ground to die," she entreated, and, when we begged her parents to grant this last request of hers, they assented, but were too weak-minded to keep their word, as we found afterwards, for they were afraid Rajji's father-in-law would accuse them of having let her die a Christian! When we went to see her for the last time that morning, we took some flowers for Rajji. She thanked us with a happy smile, and, after a little while, she added, “There will be more beautiful things where I am going, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be there." She passed away peacefully that night, conscious almost to the last.— The Punjab Mission News.

Echoes From the Mission Field

THE following extracts from letters, written by different hardworking evangelists laboring in Cuba and South America, will interest our readers. The first, dating from Havana, describes what seems incredible idolatry! What a need there is in this Spanish possession for the pure truth of God's Word! It will be observed that the different correspondents are longing for Bibles and tracts in Spanish and Portuguese, which are gladly received and read by the people. The books, for which they express their thanks, were sent to them from the United States. If any of our readers should be stirred up to contribute to the expense of purchasing Bibles and printing such tracts, their help should be sent to the Editor of FAITHFUL WORDS, care of Mr. A. Holness, 14, Paternoster Row, and it shall be duly acknowledged, and devoted to the end in view. The Editor would like very much to issue in both Spanish and Portuguese the series of reprints from FAITHFUL WORDS that are now published in French, under the title “Recites Vrais," which can be had of the publisher of FAITHFUL WORDS in a one shilling packet.

Cuba
Havana

Havana is the most wicked of towns, it is a veritable Babylon... The people at present are occupied only with balls and festivals, in church processions and other follies, in celebration of the Centenary of Columbus.

Seven leagues east of Havana is the small town of Aguacate, with a population of one thousand six hundred; there they have a sanctuary of the holy “Christ of Salud" (health or salvation). It is made of wood and sticks, and they say it used to sweat blood every Friday, but on account of being profaned by an old woman it ceased sweating blood, and now only cures pilgrims of great faith. It has an altar of silver and possesses $500,000 (i.e., about ₤100,000.) The people celebrate a great fair there for Resurrection day, and yesterday the papers published the request of the Alcalde (Mayor) of the place, to celebrate " Rogativas " (public prayers). There will be three days of feasts, three high masses, and a procession of the “Feather of San Rafael "—for they have there an actual feather from the right wing of the archangel! The "Christ of the trembling’s," ' which frightens everyone—for its body is made of wires and it shakes horribly-will be brought out, and the "Hairy Spider of St. Valencia," an insect that is worshipped, will also be exposed to view. At night three balls for the benefit of souls will be held.

These townspeople also permit the peoples of Africa to bring forth their idol “Grugru” and "Santa Barbara," the martyr of Alexandria, which the Africans here worship as the goddess of sorcery. The Africans will have their unclean dances after the manner of the Congo.

The townspeople will also have, in the sacred door of the church, games with ducks. These unfortunate creatures are hung up by a cord, and the person who succeeds, in pulling off the head of the poor bird gets the prize-and can you believe it?—at the hands of the image of Christ. What blasphemy!

All this proceeds together with great devotions to the monstrous spider and also to demons, which these poor creatures confound with that Good Being "who so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

We ask you, for the love of Christ, to continue sending us your valuable publications. God will reward for so much love shown to this work in Cuba. Pray for us. J. M.

Guanabacoa

It will be three years this month that we have been here spreading the gospel of the Lord. Neither sickness, nor prison, nor enemies have separated me from His love for a moment. In my sufferings I find comfort in having all my hope in the Lord; in my prayers to Him I entreat for you and for those who are helping in the propagation of the gospel.

Here, brother, we have to fight with the greatest difficulties. The people are the poorest in the island; there are many who seek the charity of the Fathers, whom the Government pays for.

In no place is missionary work more difficult, and, nevertheless, without resources, we have been doing what we could these three years, and thanks to the Lord, we continue in His service. I hope that you will continue sending us your publications. It is upon such help we count, and upon Jesus Christ, whose words we keep with love, and through whose love we hope in our brethren and their love to Him that they will not forget Guanabacoa, where the gospel is so much needed. D. H.

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Peru
Sullana

Your letter has filled me with much joy. It has comforted me, because I see that in the gospel mission we have not been forgotten by those who are anxious to escape from the darkness in which Christianity has been involved. The tracts and periodicals received are a powerful means for the diffusion of the truth, and for my part it will be a great satisfaction to the distribution of such sound teachings.... I. B.

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Brazil
Caixa

Your suggestion, that of my sending you the Portuguese translations to print is the best of all. It has, however, this drawback, and that is, at present we have no means of helping in the expenses. We have here, as you know, a small press which is struggling along bravely, but our discouragements are great. Type, paper, etc., are very expensive her; one ream of common paper costing thirty milreis, which is equal now to about $15. Therefore, if you could print the tracts and send me some thousands, we might sell some (for we both sell and distribute freely) and then we would remit to you the financial result.

Brazil is a vast place. Our press is struggling hard to spread abroad the knowledge of Him who is able to save, but it is not able to do much... Therefore any encouragement given to this press helps both us and the Lord's work in Brazil.... The Italian tracts which you offer will be most acceptable, fox Italians abound in this land.

Argentine Republic
Chacabuco

I received the packages of paper and tracts. Scarcely had they been received before they were distributed, causing in this town great wonder and interest. Thanks be to God. May He bless the work of that worthy undertaking-printing tracts. F. P. DE S.

Rosario

The Lord grant His richest blessing... for the many tracts you continue sending... I doubt not these will produce their fruits. I have distributed many and all have been received as good news... Helped by another, we have six meetings a week, three in the colony and three in the town, where many souls appear to be interested in the preaching of the gospel. D. B.

Rio Cuanto

Could you send me occasionally some tracts in Spanish for circulation here? The Andine Province is very large and there is no Evangelical literature here among the people. Bibles are very scarce, and I cannot get them in these towns between Rosario de Santa Fe and San Luis, near to Mendoza. I have been here four years working for the Lord, and I am praying to the Lord to send some tracts in Spanish. The fields are white, and God will reward what may be done. F. A

Echoes From the Mission Field

NOTE— In our January number we made an appeal for the lepers of India, who are under the care of Mr. Bailey. We are glad to say we have received sufficient in small gifts, and also through the promised help of a Sunday School, to send out four pounds. This will maintain one poor leper child for one year. The smallest contribution was one penny, sent by a poor child, whose mother found the cost of a penny postage on the letter which contained the humble donation rather a tax upon her. We trust our young readers may be stirred up to a little self-denial in regard to pennies, and that they may be found giving, as they are able, to help the suffering.

Mr. Parrott, whose papers on China, which appeared in FAITHFUL WORDS a few years ago, having become qualified to practice as a doctor has sailed for China. He promises to send us tidings of the work in which, if God will, he will be shortly engaged.

Echoes From the Mission Field

NOTE.—Will our kind friends who have sent us help for the lepers, and other work, be so good in all cases as to forward us their names and addresses? We have received some sums of money enclosed in an envelope, but without name or address, and we desire to acknowledge what we receive in a business manner.

The following incidents are culled from "China's Millions."

A CHRISTIAN man, rather well-to-do, had a dear young Christian son, who died at the age of twenty-two; he was his only son, and he did love him. They say that when dying his last words were, ' I wish I had done more for Jesus;" and the old father of seventy could not forget his dear boy's last words, and so by and by, he, along with his good wife, who is also an earnest Christian, decided that they would do what their son had not been able to do. The country house was his own; the church here gave five dollars towards fitting it up, the remainder he made up himself; and in the spring of this year the chapel was opened, with "Jesus' Hall" in large characters over the door.

At Fu-kia the work is going forward; there are some more enquirers there. There are likewise a good number of enquirers here at Kwei-k'i some very old women are coming. One day when the pastor's wife and I were out visiting we came across a poor old woman, to whom with others in the house we told the gospel. Next Sunday, while I was taking my class, who should appear, carried or her son's back, but this dear old woman, just a bundle of rags! After the meeting one of the Christians gave her some clothes, and she has come constantly ever since. She seems already to have taken in a little of what Jesus has done for her. She cannot come here alone, as she is so very frail, and so he son brings her every Sunday, and comes for her after the afternoon class.

It is five years today since I left home, and it has been goodness and mercy all the way. How much of the Lord's love I can testify to have known during these five years! Trials there have been sufficient to keep me close to Him; some of them deep enough at times, but out of them all He has brought me. I have not needed to leave Kiang-si once; I have been so happy in the work that I have not wanted to go, and so well in health that I have not needed to go. I have enjoyed the best of health ever since coming to China; I feel more and more grateful for this precious gift, as year by year I hear of others being laid aside. I can only render it back to the Lord in glad, willing service.—

By the Lord's goodness we saved the fourth son of the commander-in-chief (T'i-t'ai) from death by opium-poisoning. It would seem that after calling a native doctor, and using all the means they could think of, his excellency sent his card inviting me to come and save his son, a young man of twenty-five years of age. At once I went, and after half a night's hard work was able to pronounce him out of danger. During the night the grandee himself gave assistance; he seemed much concerned, and was very much afraid it was all over with his son.

Six days after the T'i-t'is again sent for me. After seeing his son, he sat with me while I preached Christ and Him crucified to him, notwithstanding he was about to go outside the city to review the troops,, previous to the Fu-t'ai's (Governor's) arrival a day or so after. How surprised he was to hear of the resurrection!

Such a grand spell of gospel work we have had, both before and during the Fu-t'ai's visit. As most of the soldiers lodged in our part of the city, very many of them and other visitors came to our preaching shop, and our evening meetings were crowded out.

The attention and respect paid to the gospel message was most encouraging. Still, very many more heard the glad news in the streets. Quite a good number of officers visited us; and one, a captain from Tsen-feng Cheo sent us a present of P'u-rh tea and pastry by way of thanks for some medicine given him.

We have sown the good seed, and now it is being carried and scattered far and near, and no doubt much of this precious seed has fallen into good ground. Numbers of our tracts and books are on their way to many out-of-the-way places that in all probability will not be visited by us for some time to come.

On our arrival at a village we were met by one of the men whom we had gone to see. His work in the fields being over earlier than usual, he was just returning home. He led us, before introducing to his own home, to the house of the other man, who has two little motherless girls. This man has taken down all his idols. He got us something to drink, and much wished to prepare food for us, which we declined, though pressed very hard. I had taken some bread with us in the cart, that we might not be a burden to those we had gone to visit.

After we had had a little rest and something to drink, the other man then led us to his home. As we were going along, and others following, he suddenly turned down a rather steep bank into a tiny courtyard, in which stood a solitary cave. I wondered where they were leading us. Was he ashamed to take us to his own house, because of his idols not being yet destroyed, and so was taking us in here instead? As we got to the door they stepped back for me to enter, and what did I see but a little miniature meeting-house! It was here they met to sing and pray. Though ' small, it was beautifully clean; new mats on the tiny kang, and a number of small booklets hanging from the wall, each being honored with a separate nail and piece of string—rather an encroachment on the lines of Chinese frugality! Here we had prayer with them, a crowd looking on. As soon as we had risen from our knees one in the crowd said he had made up his mind to take down his idols. Would we go and be witnesses? We were only too glad to consent to his request, but went first to the house of the man whom we were following, where we found food all ready waiting for us. It was a surprise. We had a nice time here among the crowds; and after having food, went to the house of the man who had decided to take down his idols. We had prayer, and then down they came—only pieces of paper—the god of riches, the god of the kitchen, and the god of skill the last belonging to the girls of the family, and supposed to make them clever in the use of the needle. Oh, it was good to see them torn down from their time-honored thrones. May he not only turn from, but turn to! I tried to point out to him how useless it was to turn from the false gods if he did not learn to know the true God, and by what he said he seemed to see it.

One Sunday evening we went to visit old Mr. Chao, who was, I think, the first Christian in Sih-Chau. The poor old man is now quite blind, and was very ill, apparently dying. I was very sorry to see his poverty. I am afraid that his wife, who is not a Christian, wished him to die, and was nearly starving him. He was overjoyed at meeting us again, and we were glad to find that he was eagerly awaiting death, not with fear, but joy, and was simply trusting in Jesus, and looking forward to seeing Him. Although he was quite a skeleton, and must have suffered much, not a murmur escaped his lips, but he was very thankful for any little help we gave him.

Soon after Koh first believed he was much persecuted, and he has also had much trial in his home. Only about two weeks ago, at the time of the drought, his villagers beat him very badly, because he would not pray to the idols, accusing him of being the cause of the drought. They first beat and kicked him, and then tied his hands together, and carried him to a village three ti distant, where he became insensible, and they had to drench him with water to restore him; but it was not until evening that, bruised and stiff, they let him go free. They also made him pay a thousand cash to give a feast to the men who had beaten and carried him.

Yet he does not seem to bear them the least and it was good to hear the poor fellow relating how, when they were carrying him, he remembered that Stephen, while being stoned, prayed for his enemies; and he began to pray for his, asking the Lord to forgive them. But this made them all the more angry, and they beat him worse, saying, “He will still pray, pray to his God, will he?"

The news of foreigners having arrived soon spread, as only in China such news can spread, and before we had been long in the hall it was filled to overflowing with men, women, and children, who discussed us in their usual candid fashion. Dear people! they all gave us such a kindly welcome; every face beamed approval of us, despite the small drawbacks of fair hair, light eyes, etc.! In a little while the men returned to their work, some of the children went off, and we were able to talk to the women, Who soon became quite at home with us.

Soon Mrs. Li came and pointed out first one then another of those who had given up their idols, and who said they wanted to worship God. Two of the Christian men from Kwei-k'i had come out at the invitation of Mr. Liu, who has opened this hall.

In the evening a great many men came, and we found that Mr. Li had service every evening.

On Saturday morning wheelbarrows arrived to take us out to a village five ti away, the home of Mr. Liu's daughter, who is married. Her father-in-law is really on the Lord's side, and his bright face does one's heart good; but his wife is a vegetarian still. Not many months ago she would have nothing whatever to do with foreigners, or with the gospel of Jesus. Now she is much softened; she spent the whole morning we were there in preparing us a grand dinner, for which we were sorry, for it gave us no opportunity of speaking to her. Yet we were glad too—" The Lord's beginnings involve endings," and it is only the Holy Spirit who has so changed her feelings towards us.

On Monday morning again, wheelbarrows arrived to take us to another village, to breakfast with an old man of eighty, and his wife of seventy. We found this whole household, consisting of the old man and his wife, their son and his wife, their grandson and his wife, and also a daughter, rejoicing in the Lord.

Four or five years ago this old man, who is still able to walk the five long li between his home and Liu-kia on Sunday, was in Kwei-k'i, and heard the gospel from our pastor. He went home, and, though he heard no more, left off worshipping the idols, and, as far as he knew how, worshipped the true God he had heard of, and taught his family to do the same. When he heard that someone was preaching of God in Liu-kia, he at once went off to hear more; and he soon invited Mr. Li to go out and burn up all the false things which until then had remained in his house, although he had ceased to worship them.

We spent several days in visiting the homes of those who are enquiring the way of life, and learned to know them better. There are about forty people who regularly attend the Sunday services, most of them are just like children, knowing nothing beyond the barest facts of there being a true God, whose Son, Jesus Christ, died for their sins.

But they know this, and are following on to know more.

One man we were specially interested in, and drawn to pray for—a Taoist priest, quite young.

He has, as far as we know, given up all his old false ways, thereby, of course, giving up his means of obtaining a living, and is coming to the city to seek lawful employment. He is a man of some education and ability, and one whom we trust the Lord will use by and by to bring others to the light.

After a fortnight's visiting in the villages we returned, with hearts full of praise to God for what He has done. “The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."

Echoes From the Mission Field

The Holy Land
Jerusalem

OUR new Bible depot at Ramallah has proved itself a most valuable missionary agency, and is certainly the most directly aggressive one we have in this district. It has quietly, but effectually, been reaching the class it is our special aim to reach, and has scattered the Word of God in at least a score of villages, not only in the immediate neighborhood, but also in places two, and sometimes three, days' journey distant. I have my self visited a few more villages, to which I had never been before. Also, during the building of the mission-house here, I held services two or three evenings a week for the workmen engaged on it. We had an average attendance of forty-five or fifty, several of whom were Moslems, and who always listened most attentively.

Though directly aggressive work is terribly hampered by the hostility of the Turkish Government and by our being so short-handed, yet there is a very real, though silent, change taking place throughout the country in the relations of Moslems to Christians, and in the attitude of the former towards Christianity. Not so long ago nothing of any importance could be done by Christians without calling in Moslems as witnesses. No document of any kind was binding unless one or more Moslems witnessed it. No marriage could take place, in the villages at least, without the presence of a Moslem, who had to be well paid for attending. I have been told that in Damascus, where the streets were provided with side-walks, no Christian was allowed formerly to walk on them. If a Christian, in a public place, happened to sit down on a Moslem's right, he was instantly greeted with cries of " Ishmal ya Nusrani!" ("Go to the left, you Nazarene!") Formerly the witness of Christians was inadmissible in the Turkish courts; now it has not only been allowed, but Turkish law has actually defined its value, the testimony of two Christians being equivalent to that of one Moslem. Regarding evidence, I was once told a curious thing (which, however, I have not been able to verify), that formerly the evidence of butchers and pigeon dealers was never received in the law courts, because the trade of the former made them cruel, and because the latter, as a class, were notoriously dishonest, much of their stock-in-trade being stolen. If this be true, it throws an interesting side-light on our Lord's words to those whom He cast out of the Temple, “Ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Islam, it is true, still holds the sword, but in the declining condition of the country this is a source of weakness, and not of power. Military service is Compulsory on the Moslem population, while Christians are prohibited from bearing arms. This causes a constant drain on the Moslems, which is felt increasingly year by year. In the villages, also (where the bulk of the population live), a much larger proportion of the Moslems remain unmarried than of the Christians. This is owing to their greater poverty. For, poor as the country is, and bitterly as all classes feel the oppression of the government, the Moslems are worse off than the Christians. Russia has assumed the guardianship of the Greeks, and France of the Latins, and this fact acts as somewhat of a check on the government. But in the case of the Moslems, there is no one to help them or to speak a word for them. The immense influx of Jews into Jerusalem and other towns, causing the diversion of much of the trade and business of the natives into their hands, has been severely felt by all classes, but especially by the Moslems. I have been told, on good authority, that there are many Mohammedan families in Jerusalem, who a few years ago were well off, who are now on the verge of starvation from this cause.

Nazareth

We try to keep before the minds of the teachers the one great object for the existence of the schools, viz., the winning of some of these young people for Christ, and the planting the precious seed early in their hearts. The necessity for such work is all the more evident when one knows something of the terrible effect that the home influence has upon the children. One boy, who was remonstrated with for beating his mother, replied, "Father is away, and there is no one else to do it." With the New Testament as the chief text-book of the school, we may hope that ere long such things will be no more heard of.

For years our colporteurs have tried to spread the word of God in Nazareth and the villages round it, but not with very much success.

The Mohammedans turn from the Christian truth; but they are not, I grieve to say, the only enemies the Society's colporteurs have had to meet. Here is passage from the report of 1886: “The Latin monks made a bonfire before the statue of the Virgin in the outer court of the monastery at Nazareth, on August 26th, 1885. The priest had carefully searched the houses and gathered more than fifty copies of the word of God. In the presence of many school children, and a dozen or more adults, he burned them all. One woman is said to have in vain begged hard of the priest to spare her Bible."

But there are pleasanter messages now and then from the little valley and the villages round it. Here are some from later reports. The colporteur says:— "At Kabatiyeh I found a man who was very ill. After I had asked and heard how he was, he told me that he had lost a great treasure. I asked, What have you lost? ‘He answered, Some time since I was ill, and went to the hospital at Nazareth, where the doctor persuaded me to buy a Testament. During my illness I found very great comfort in reading it, and now that I have lost it I am very sad indeed.' I supplied him with a Bible, to his great joy, and spent some time with him reading to him, and left him much cheered.

"At Tawoun I arrived in a heavy storm, and no one would give me shelter. So I crept into a place hollowed out of the earth, where the animals are kept. A woman called to me from the house above: What do you want here? ‘I answered, Shelter for a little while; when the storm abates I will go.' Wet and cold, I stood for a long time. There was a fire above, but, there being only women about, I could not go there. At last a man came and invited me to warm and dry myself, but, soon after I was seated, the master came in and ordered me out of his house. It was, he said, no place for me nor any like me—the fire was for believers only, and not for infidels. I begged him not to turn me out, and told him that I had bread for myself and fodder for my ass, and that I would pay for permission to sit by his fire. But the man got very angry, and cursed the other who had invited me in. The latter said, ‘Truly thou art not a God-fearing man! This stranger will cost you nothing, and you will be receiving a guest for God's sake'; the only reply to which was, ‘Get out and take him to your house, if you have compassion on Nazarenes.' Then said the friendly Moslem to me, ‘Get up, brother, and come with me, and bring your ass also.' I went to his house, and was treated with great kindness; food was set before me, and no remuneration was accepted. Then I read to him and to all in his house from the word of God, at which all seemed pleased, staying there until the storm was quite over."

Carmel

Upon Carmel there were some delightfully refreshing little bits of work amongst the fellaheen (peasants), many of whom we found living in areeshies made of twisted leafy branches, and all of whom seemed never to have heard of the Savior, and were so ready and eager to be taught. One remarkably beautiful girl, named Zahra (a flower), I was very fond of, and frequently visited her and her mother, and future mother-in-law, in their areeshi. On one occasion it was very cheering to find that a text I had taught in a little village more than a mile distant, down in one of the picturesque slopes of Carmel, had been passed on and learnt by another girl, who, when she met me in the areeshi, asked whether I was the sitt (lady) who had taught it.

Gaza

Our schools are well attended, especially the girls' school, in which we have about thirty Moslems and seventy to eighty Christians. The boys' school has not its old number, but the scholars are returning again as their expectations of the Greek school have not been verified. It is a great pity that the Word of God is not taught in those schools.

Our schoolmistresses praise the conduct of the Moslem girls, and find that they are much more attentive and obedient than the Christian girls. The girls are very expert in all kinds of fancy and needle work, which would do credit to any school in civilized countries.

We are very thankful that the Committee have granted us the means to have a Bible-shop here; for though the sales of books are few, it is such a useful place for the gathering of the people, that it is a real preaching station to which everybody has the liberty to resort. Some people come to the shop quite regularly and read for hours in the Bible, New Testament, or in any religious book they find on the table.

The Bible-classes, or mothers' meetings, which are held twice during the week, are another source of hope. Here the women hear the most simple truths, and may ask questions if they do not understand what they hear; but we find the visiting in the houses even more useful than the meetings. The missionary finds in the houses of the Moslems even less opposition than in houses of the Christians, most of whom are “rich and satisfied."

Salt

Speaking of his class of youths, the writer speaks of one about sixteen years of age, suffering from necrosis in his thigh; “But his loathsome disease has brought him to Christ. I used to visit him occasionally with our doctor and schoolmaster, the doctor to relieve him of his bodily pain, and I to lead him to the Physician of our souls. The blessed Jesus was pleased to bring him unto Himself. After the first surgical operation he decided, of his own free will, to join our church, and to come regularly to our school to learn more about Jesus; and he tries to teach others what he learns at school. His father has lately joined our church. Early this month the doctor operated on him for the third time. When he laid himself on the operation table, he said, ‘Ya-ya-soo Mokhalisi Ar-ham-ni ' (' Jesus, my Savior, have mercy on me '). The doctor took out several pieces of bone, and he was under the greatest pain. I then said to him, Dear Yed, look up to Jesus,' and from his inmost soul he exclaimed, Ira-ma-se-hal Rabbi anta oreni ' (‘O Jesus, the Lord, Thou art my help ')."

Jaffa

The people are but waking up slowly, as it seems to me, and few are more than half roused as to the realities of Christian life, and the absolute necessity of definitely coming to Christ for salvation and openly following Him. Much seed has been sown; now, surely, should come the gathering in of fruit to life eternal!

As to more definite “mission work” I can say but little. It has been interesting to gather the women round me in the houses, and to talk to them by the interpretation of the Bible-woman, or others, and, latterly, to read to them short passages out of the Gospels. More than once Christ's love has seemed to comfort sorrowful hearts, even though they hardly believed in His presence and power, and the boys in my Sunday class show a great degree of intelligence and interest in the word of God. Till one can speak colloquially to the people, it seems to me one cannot deal very definitely with souls; but in answer to prayer, I am beginning to have a little idea, of the language, but very little still.

Our wild girls in the Friday class are getting a little more subdued. Last year, when I was in England, the Bible-woman would not undertake them during my absence, but while I was in the mountains this year, she taught them all the time, and I found them much improved on my return.

Sometimes they are very attentive, at others the wild spirit breaks out, and then they are quite unmanageable, but much less frequently than at first. They learn hymns and texts, and remember them; and if God's words are once fixed in their minds, they will do them good, for has He not said, “My word shall not return to Me void "?

- - -

The Jews, though slowly coming back to Palestine, are scattered all over the earth, and remarkable movements are taking place amongst them. One observable feature is the rapid increase of their numbers. It is computed that at the present time their total is twelve millions. Their persecution by their northern oppressor is again quite a sign of the times, and a portent of what will yet occur on the earth.

God Is Working Among the Jews

That which must delight the heart of the Christian is the fact that in many parts of the earth the Jews are reading the New Testament. Mr. Baron, of the Mildmay Mission 'to the Jews, tells us that within the last few years he, and other missionaries, have distributed among them in different parts of the world some five hundred thousand Testaments.

In Hungary, not so long since, he and a brother missionary were literally besieged by the Jews, who desired to hear the story that was told about Christ. As it is not lawful in that country to preach in a hall, or to gather together an audience for religious purposes in a public building, their only course was to invite the Jews to their bedroom in the hotel. So hiring the largest bedroom they could obtain, they used it as a preaching station. This room was crammed continually. The people stood as closely together as they could, the speakers being in a corner of the room. The very bed was covered with people standing upon it. Thus, for hours, did the missionaries speak to their brethren, according to the flesh, of Jesus, exalted by God to His right hand, Lord and Christ, a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins. The road to the hotel was crowded with Jews waiting to hear the wonderful words of life, and many hundreds of New Testaments were gladly received.

In our country—indeed, in all English-speaking countries—where so much religious liberty is possessed, it is difficult to realize the thralldom and the idolatry of many parts of Austria and Hungary. There the Jews say, No doubt the Christ of the Christians did come to this earth, and this was His mission, to establish idolatry and to the persecution of the Jews! There is much truth in this idea of the Christianity of the darkest parts of Roman Catholic Europe. Idolatry and persecution of the Jews is not a bad description of what Spain's religion was a few centuries ago, when eight hundred thousand Jews were banished from that land, and multitudes were burned solely because they were Jews, while the Christianity prevailing was merely the worshipping of idols.

The Jew abhors idols. But he sees in the churches idols of God, of Christ, the Virgin, and countless saints. To these idols men bow and worship, and offer incense and prayers. And the Jew, in such countries, thinks that this religion is that of Christ, though really it is that of Antichrist.

Some few years ago Rabbi Lichtenstein, a well-known man in Hungary, was led to read the New Testament, and by reading it he became a Christian. All around him was idol worship in the Christian Churches, combined with cruel persecution of the Jews. Strangely enough, he had had the copy of the New Testament in his library for thirty years, but it was to him an evil book, and he had not opened it. However, by means of certain circumstances connected with the persecution of his people, he desired to find out, if he could, what Christianity really was. He found it in the book of God. He said, Christ was the Son of God; the Christianity around him was corruption. He began to preach the words of Christ in his synagogue; the Jews crowded to hear. They were moved by the wondrous teaching. To them it had no connection with the Christianity surrounding them. And so it went on, until the Rabbi printed and circulated his experience and confession. Then there was a storm indeed! The other Rabbis declared he was not the author of the pages, but he said he was, and told them Jesus is the Messiah. At length he gave up his synagogue, but he is working amongst his nation, telling them of Jesus. He is nearly seventy years of age, and may God prosper his hands.

Such an instance is not solitary. In many parts of the earth, God is opening the minds and hearts of the Jews to receive Christ.

As Mr. Baron observes, the Jews are now moving about from place to place; they are, as said the prophet, being tossed about in a sieve, and are thus being scattered amongst all nations. Therefore the apostolic way of going from place to place is the only successful one of reaching them.

We may be truly thankful that God is raising up servants for this great work. Let us not forget His ancient people! Let us pray for their salvation. Let us remember, that in yet a little while the olive shall flourish again, and bear fruit, and give light to the world. God will ever have His light bearers on earth, and when the pride of Christendom ends in darkness, God will once more cause His truth to shine over the earth through the agency of His ancient people.

Echoes From the Mission Field

America

IT is well known that religions of a most strange development are to be found in parts of the United States, while in South America, Romanism has, in some localities, lapsed into a state but little better than paganism. The following account from the pen of a Christian worker will show what Romanism has become in

Pernambuco

When I arrived in this city a fortnight ago I was much struck with the beauty of the place. Everything is so clean, white, and bright. I was also astonished at the open godlessness of the people.

There is scarcely any Sunday here; everything goes on the same as on week days. The Sunday I arrived was the opening of a carnival, which lasted three days. It was a sickening sight to see these poor, blinded souls parading the streets. There must have been hundreds of processions made up of all kinds of people, from the very white to ebony black. They were dressed in all sorts of diabolical and curious dresses, and were singing, shouting, dancing, and playing all kinds of instruments, from a tin whistle to a tin pan.

This religious scene lasted three days, and now all are quiet, as it is the holy season. It would make your heart ache to know the sins of this city. The immorality is beyond estimate.

Truly the god of this world hath blinded their minds, and the priests seem to blindfold these poor people more still. I heard of a young man today, who said, when he went to the chapel, that it was just like taking a box in a theatre, to hear the music and see the fireworks, for they send up prayers in fireworks!

Oh! how I do long to tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

The beauties and wonders of this tropical land are very great. Large mangoes trees, bread-fruit, orange and cocoa-nut trees, and palms, bananas, lemons growing everywhere. Fireflies at night would surprise you. Ants, mosquitoes, and lizards are all over the house.

- - -

A correspondent writes from

Santa Catalina

In this vast country there is a great need for the children of God to go and work, and victory is sure, as our labor is not in vain. The promise, “I, even I, will both search My sheep and seek them out," is the incentive for us to go forward and win some by the Spirit which God has given us for His glory.

It may be interesting for you to know that the peace of God and pardon was revealed to me by His own words in a tract. I was living in the East Indies, and on the Plains of Bengal the words, “Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life," brought the light and love to me. Since then I have loved the work of distribution of the words of life. The field is a large one, and close to this village we have Rio Cuarto, a city with a population of some twenty or thirty thousand, and not one place of evangelical worship. One great comfort is, the poor people are always very glad to receive the tracts, and we are praying they may also believe the words too. Several souls are interested and anxious, and I believe they will soon find the truth.

Rome truly rides over the souls and bodies of thousands, but yet to see their eyes light up and their quick attention as Christ is lifted up, believe me, 'as worth the conflict.... 'Tis a good thing for me to feel my weakness, as it draws me to One that is mighty, and in quietness and confidence is our strength. Many times comfort has come to me when the power of God is manifested while pleading with my fellowman. My desire is to be kept as an empty vessel-washed in the blood of the Lamb. And now, may God bless you in your efforts and work. E. E. A.

- - -

Another thus speaks, who labors in

Trinidad

In due time I received the various packages you sent, for all of which I am very thankful Toe tracts have not only been well received, but have produced fruit by the grace of God. My prayers, and, I believe, those of many in those parts, have accompanied these papers, and God has heard us. To Him be the glory.

- - -

Cuba

It is my duty to say that there has been indeed a blessing from God upon this work, and not only have I been able to give a tract to each of those who have attended the meetings established here, but also the tracts have served as a powerful help in my visits to other towns, for after preaching I have been able to leave behind a "Buenas Nuevas" (Good News), to serve them by making snore clear the little they have heard. In this town there are many families which have never come to our meetings—but there are very few where there has not penetrated a “Buenas Nuevas," and in this way the message of our Savior has formed a focus of light, which not all the priests of Rome will be able to extinguish.

Here we have remained because we have seen the danger for the gospel... and this has made me with more care to put forth efforts, and something has been accomplished, for they cannot say we are not Christians, and they cannot make people believe, as at the beginning, that we are Jews, whose custom is to burn sulfur and call upon the devil. What has passed God knows, but we have done all for the love of God. We trust that He will hear our prayers, and give in His mercy better days to His gospel in Cuba. Some ten missionaries are all there are in Cuba today supported by the missions. This is very few, and it is difficult here, there being so few who can go on with the work without support. If indeed it is true that I do so, yet all cannot, as their work is very different from mine, which leaves me some time free for the gospel... Would that some could find time to spare for the gospel.

The priests do all in their power, they have money, and four hundred years of masses, the confessional, and other powers, and it is not possible that customs so long rooted can easily be overcome... I see but little interest in this country, notwithstanding it is only a few hours distant from Florida and the United States. It is God, in whom I hope, who will care for His gospel, and we pray lie will grant that we may be kept in His love and faith, and may be able to give fresh proofs of love to Him, and that He may give us the needed skill to serve Him in that which may be according to His will. D. H.

- - -

As an instance of the debasing character of the teaching and practices of Rome, when removed from the light of gospel truth, we offer our readers some strange incidents, sent us by a Christian worker in the States, concerning the In Southern Colorado and throughout New Mexico the men, and even the women, of a strange brotherhood are reproducing religious ceremonies, fanatical and barbaric, that have come down from the dark ages, and on Holy Friday many of their number will be crucified, some of them probably to die.

A few years ago the ceremonies of the Penitentes could be seen in almost every town in New Mexico, but now they must be sought for in remote hamlets.

The village of Taos, hidden away in a little valley among the Rockies, has still many Penitentes.

The order was established in Spain. The custom of self-whipping seems to have been borrowed from the Flagellantes, and the ignorant fanatics of the new world have elaborated the system of penance until men are actually nailed to the cross.

During most of the year the Penitentes are so quiet that their silent “moradas," with broken crosses scattered about them, are the only evidences of their existence. With the beginning of Lent they renew their activity with ceremonies and processions, which reach their climax during, Holy week.

During the early part of Lent the performances of the Penitentes are comparatively mild, but in Holy week all the horrors of this peculiar order are put into practice. On a hillock at some distance from the brotherhood-house is painted a cross to represent Calvary. Day after day processions march from the lodge to the cross and back, its members doing penance in a variety of ways.

One of the commonest scenes is the march of the Flagellantes. A companion bears a crucifix, and then follow the brothers doing penance. Naked, except for their drawers and the cloth over their heads, with bare feet cut by sharp stones and lacerated by clinging cacti, the self-applied disciplines causing ridges and gashes in their backs, from which drops of blood trickle down and discolor their single garment, the brothers of the order march on.

The crowning event occurs on Holy Friday, when the anniversary of Christ's death is celebrated with a drama of the crucifixion. The event opens with a procession from the "morada" to the hillock representing Calvary. These pilgrimages are repeated until afternoon, when the climax of this strange ceremony is reached.

When the time for the crucifixion has arrived, the "chief brother" and an assistant enter with the victim. He is led to the place of crucifixion, perhaps a newly-selected Calvary, and the procession follows. At Taos he is a volunteer. A huge cross lies upon the earth, and at its base is an excavation. The victim walks firmly to the cross, and lies down upon it at full length, his back to the standard and his arms outstretched upon the cross-beam. Several “Hermanos de Luz" (Brothers of Light), who attend Flagellantes but do tot scourge themselves, take a stout hempen rope and lash the arms and legs of the prostrate Penitente to the cross. They draw the bonds so tightly that the strands fairly sink into the flesh, but not a whimper is heard from the victim.

If he is particularly courageous and fanatical, he may rebel at this method of undergoing the ordeal. He may cry out, "For the love of God do not dishonor me! Not with a rope! Nail me! For the love of God, nail me! "

The weight of the hanging man causes the binding ropes to sink deep into the arms and legs. Some of the onlookers kneel, and their lips move in silent prayer. Nearby a Penitente brother may be lying on a bed of cactus or suffering some other torture without a sound.

After a prescribed time the Brothers of Light loose the bonds of the crucified one; the motionless form is then picked up by two assistants, and he is rudely nursed into strength again.

If our readers will compare this strange story with the description of the religious fetes held in Havana, which were given in our March number, he will see Rome in a far more realistic light than he could do anywhere in England. Its middle age paganism is softened down in Protestant countries, in which it adapts itself as much as it is able to the feelings of Bible readers.

- - -

We have received a very kind letter from some Christian friends in America enclosing ten dollars (realizing £2 os. 5d.), in response to our appeal for help to send gospel literature to the handful of Christian workers in South America, who are struggling to give the people new texts and gospel papers. We trust others may be led to assist in this good work, and so enable us to forward the desires of the missionaries in these lands. Let us not forget that very many of these people never see nor hear the word of God, and that, though nominally Christians, they are really in as great darkness as the pagans who once peopled the land.

- - -

The growth of paganism in Christendom is a most sorrowful feature of our times. In England we have Buddhists amongst the fashionable class, and what we may come to in England within a few years it is not possible to predict. Let the Christian reader see what is actually taking place within the area of the United States, and what is being done by people speaking our own tongue, nay, by our very flesh and blood, for such Americans are.

The extract we give is taken from an American source, and is illustrated by pictures of the idolatrous ceremony. The locality in question is in the outskirts of San Francisco.

“Hitherto the rites of the club have been enacted far from the city in the northern redwoods, but the discovery of a splendid grove under the shadow of old Tamalpais induced the club to come nearer home.

“Last night the members of the club gathered about a huge image of Buddha sixty feet high, the head up among the branches of the great redwood grove. This Buddha was built after the fashion of a. great bronze Buddha far away in Japan. It stood at the end of a splendid redwood grove, with an avenue leading to it a hundred yards long.

"At nine o'clock the heavy tones of a ponderous bronze gong, made many years ago in Japan, rung forth, and to the singing of the choir and to the playing of musicians two hundred and fifty friars of the noble house of the order of San Franciscan marched slowly and solemnly up the aisle to the feet of Buddha. They were all in white, with heavy cowls, and with ropes about their waists.

“It was a strange sight. There was the statue of that Buddha who lived thousands of years before Christianity seated among the great redwood trees and worshipped by men, who were in a country which had known civilization a scant fifty years.

“Right at the base of the statue, the friars grouped themselves in a circle, while eight high priests, led by the archpriest, performed the holy ritual of the mystic belief.

“Then the other high priests followed with verse or story. The sermon was preached with 'The Myriad Leaves' for a text, the orator being one who has become a saint of ' Bohemia,' "as this paganism is called."

- - -

The sinking back of professed Christians into paganism, whether of the self-crucifier's type, or that of the milder form of music and groves, as in San Francisco, is painfully suggestive. Both conceptions are borrowed from the worship and the penances of China and India. The Scriptures declare that in the latter days. some will depart from The Faith, i.e., the Christian Faith, and will give heed to seducing spirits (1 Tim. 4:1), and the same Scriptures enjoin upon the true Christian, in the face of this departure, the duty of making, known the truth. The exhortation enjoins attendance to reading, exhortation, and doctrine, and over and, over again bids the faithful preach the word in season and out of season. In our day the Christian has unexampled opportunities for the fulfillment of this service. He can advance the truth in a variety of ways, and can, help in the gospel by contributing to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures and also of sound gospel truth.

Echoes From the Mission Field

MISSIONS IN CHINA.

IN our April number we mentioned that our friend Mr. Parrott had sailed for Singan in China, taking with him his wife and two children, and having also accompanying them a devoted Christian lady. The party has arrived safely, and was on its way towards the great heathen city of Singan, when a call to labor for a short time in another station detained them.

"We started," says our friend, "in a large Chinese house-boat. It had four small rooms, two masts, and four boatmen, beside the captain. This boat was to carry us up the Han River to a large town about four hundred miles from Hankow, called Lao-he-keo, for just over four pounds, and to occupy about three weeks' time on the voyage. Can you fancy a journey of three weeks from London to Edinburgh, and for four pounds?

“When we had gone a week's journey, a special messenger from Hankow arrived with letters, urging us, if possible, to return to Hankow for the summer, and to take charge of Dr. Hodges' Medical Mission there, as Mrs. Hodges was seriously ill, and needed to be taken away as quickly as possible." As closing the two hospitals under Dr. Hodges' care would involve serious consequences to many sufferers, Mr. Parrott returned, and assumed the charge of the work. His Chinese soon came back to him, and a good opportunity was made for the two ladies to forward themselves in the language.

“We get all classes of people," he continues; "one of the chief magistrates of the capital of the Hupeli province sent his daughter to me a week or two ago. Yesterday I operated on a gentleman, a Confucianist, from the neighboring province of Ho-nan; others who come are too poor to even pay for their own food whilst they remain in the hospital.

“I have been here just upon two months, without one death occurring. The Lord has been very good to us in this respect.

“Today, in going round the wards, one man felt, and indeed was, so much better that he called me over to his bed as soon as I entered. ‘Doctor,' said he, by the great grace of God you have cured me of a very difficult disease. You chased it out of one lung into another, and then down towards my feet, and now it is gone!' This man is a friend of a Christian in the country, and appears to be interested in Christ himself.

"Last Sunday morning another patient, a man who is paralyzed in both legs, raised himself up in his bed when I went to him, and asked if this was not the day for worshipping God. I replied, the Christians worship God every day, and meet together specially on the first day of the week. He replied, ‘It is good to worship the true God, I worship the true God; ' and, as he spoke, he bowed himself many times, repeating the words, ‘I worship the true God.'

“While there is much to encourage, there is also much to sadden. The heartlessness of some of the people is hopeless. Missionaries have lived in this town of seven hundred thousand inhabitants for more than thirty years. There are some thirty missionaries here today, and yet when one walks in any part, excepting the two or three main streets, one is called foreign devil' by the children and men alike. We give them medicine for nothing, we restore life to several who try to poison themselves with opium, and, more, we tell them of the love of God, and show them love and interest in many ways, and still we are hated and reviled."

Now that Mr. Parrott is at work, and fitting himself and his co-helpers by the study of Chinese for the great object in view, mission labor in Singan, we can ask our readers to further the work.

The Chinese are very fond of pictures, and pictures illustrating the Bible will interest them considerably. They like long, narrow scrolls with writing or printing upon one side over and under the picture, and these they hang up in their houses as ornaments. It pleases them to have two of these, one to match the other. Now we are going to send out, to begin with, before Christmas, pictures of a blind man, such as was Bartimæus of Jericho; also one of a fisherman, such as was the apostle Peter; also one of a sower and one of a reaper of Palestine. Passages from the Bible applying to these subjects will be printed upon the scroll in Chinese, and thus those who help in this work will be able to send portions of the Word of Life, illustrated by some of the pictures from FAITHFUL WORDS, to the Chinese home.. The Chinese printing will be done in China, and Mr. Parrott tells us that the commonest paper we use in England will be better than that which can be obtained there. However, we shall send out the same paper as that which you now hold in your hands, so as to make our pictures look as nice as possible.

Echoes From the Mission Field

The following incidents are taken from “India’s Women."

Punjab
the Dying Sikh Woman

LAST night we were sitting by the bedside of a dying patient, a beautiful Sikh Jatni woman. The old, long-bearded, white haired father-in-law sat watching in great distress. Alas! heart-disease of the most acute form, brought on by exposure during rheumatic fever, was fast hastening the end.

Presently he turned to me and said, “Tell me, who is Jesus. Do you not say when you come into our villages to teach, that He is the Son of God? Tell her a little of Him now."

I began to tell, in a low voice, of that dear Savior, the only Friend of sinners, whether living or dying. Presently the old Sikh turned to the dying woman, and said, “Daughter, you must look to Jesus now; there is no other Savior to help us in death."

It was just midnight when I knelt, with the dear woman's hands clasped in mine, as with struggling breath she prayed in her own words, " Lord Jesus, Son of God, save me, a sinner ' deliver me in this hour of pain." Before daybreak all was over.

- - -

Calcutta

Since our June holiday I have had the great pleasure of going once a week to a village school, to Bon Hughli—where there are over thirty little Hindu girls, whose ages vary from four to eleven. I soon got to know the pretty Bengali names of the elder girls—meaning " Dearest," "Diamond," " Truth," etc.

It makes one very sad to see so many temples with such hideous idols, and the devout but ignorant worshippers folding their hands and bowing their heads as they pass. How it makes one long and pray, “Thy kingdom come," with an intensity of feeling which is unknown until face to face with heathenism. We are sure there are brighter times coming for this dark land. There is a readiness en the part of the people to receive instruction, and there is a spirit of inquiry abroad, for which we must indeed thank God and take courage.

- - -

Bengali Work

A letter received from a former school-child runs thus:—" I write to you often, but cannot send the letters—my mother or brother snatch them from me and scold me much, saying, ' We believe you wish to be a Christian;' they beat me, but it makes no difference. My mind is all for the love of Jesus. Pray for me every day, that I may be one of Jesus' people. I read His life and pray every day. I shall certainly go to Jesus; He will receive me, for He has said, ' Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.' This I believe with all my heart."

In a later letter this girl writes: “I wanted to come to the school to see you today, but suddenly my mother prevented me. Pray for my mother that Jesus may soften her heart, that I may be allowed to come to you."

- - -

A few weeks ago we had the joy of being present at the baptism of a whole family from Andul. The little girl of ten attended our school there, and her elder sister used to come to our Howrah School. For some months before their baptism they were visited and taught by our Bible-woman, and on our weekly visits to Andul much of the day was taken up in teaching them. The mother is so gentle and good, and her strong faith, earnestness in prayer and practical living out the lessons given, have been a great joy to us.

One little child attending one of our village schools has endured persecution rather than bow down to idols, because, as she said, “God had forbidden it."

This little one fell sick, and her school-fellows said, “Ah! you see the gods are punishing you Still she remained steadfast, and when well she said, " Now see, my God to whom I prayed has made me well."

Her father and brothers refused to allow her to come to school any longer, saying, “She is all but a Christian; but we will beat it out of her."

- - -

Among the Mohammedans

Two of the most advanced girls at Mehtar Parah come on Sundays to our Hindustani service; they show themselves really in earnest in their love for the Bible. We cannot accede to the pleadings of one of them for baptism, as she is only nine years of age. Miss Martin spoke to the father the other day of his child's desire, offering to support her at an up-country Christian boarding school, if he would allow it, and telling him that she should come back after some years to be a little Bible-woman in their midst like Mary! She urged how very much better this would be than for her to marry a sweeper. The following letter (which we translate) shows how much the poor child needs our prayers:—

“To the dear Miss Sahiba (Miss Martin).

“I trust this will find all the Miss Sahibas well. We are well, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since you asked my father to allow you to put me in a boarding-school (Christian), everybody is unkind to me—they wish to stop my going to church at all. I am Jitni, your child. Don't tell my father what I have written to you—he will beat me. He says, before he lets me become a Christian, he will cut me up in pieces and sacrifice me."

- - -

Poor wives of India! I wonder if any English girl can imagine herself in their circumstances. Mohammedans are such fatalists. The mother of one ill-used wife complained most bitterly of the condition of her daughter, so I said one day, “But, Bebu, why did you marry your girl to such a man; surely you must have known he was a bad man? He could not have developed into such a character all at once."

She said, " Oh, ma'am! we thought he would become good; but what can we do, all this sorrow was in my daughter's fate?" I said, " Oh, no, Bebu, don't say that; she would have had none of these trials if you had not married her to that particular man." She said, “Oh, but God ruled it so. He could have prevented. it. He had written it all on my daughter's forehead." Fancy putting it down to God, when they begin to search the whole country round for a husband for a girl directly she is nine years old, and they marry her off, no matter how bad the husband may be! All the old women get together and say, “He will be all right; he will reform." If they are disappointed fifty times, they do not mind trying the same experiment with the very next girl in the village.

- - -

Zenana Work
Bengal

We have some most encouraging and interesting pupils—one, a Burmese lady, whose husband is a Christian. She is still a Buddhist, but very thoughtful and intelligent, and we would ask prayer that the teaching given may be blessed to her conversion.

One pupil whom I mentioned last year is waiting on God, and watching for an opportunity of confessing her faith by baptism. She is sometimes fearful about her future among strangers, and said one day, “I can see the light shining on the road, but can I be sure it will shine all the way?” When sad at the thought of leaving all, she said, "When I have left all who love me, will you let me call you mother, and tell you when I feel sad and lonely? I know I shall have Jesus, but I think I shall want you too.

In another house into which we were one day called, we soon perceived the “Bow " was earnestly seeking salvation by faith; she seemed to quickly grasp the truth. The others in the house are most bigoted; her Bible was taken away, and a stop was put to our visits.

Cut off from all earthly teaching, we trust her to Him who sent us to her with His own invitation to “come unto Him."

- - -

One of our most hopeful pupils and her mother have been very thoroughly taught by some Scotch Mission ladies up country. They know their Bibles well, and believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior; but they shrink from taking up the cross and following Him fully. They acknowledge that they ought to “come out and be separate," but lack courage.

- - -

The people are very fond of singing, and they seem to remember the words sung, for we are often asked to sing again what they have heard on a former visit. In one house the women would not let us go until one of the number had written out the hymn. One of the listeners, who is suffering from leprosy, seemed just to drink in the words of life, “Oh! " she said, " my heart is so full of sin, I fear it can never hold Christ. I love to hear these words; why must you go, cannot you stay all day and talk to us?"

We have had an earnest Bible-woman at Andul during the year, and through the kindness of friends, we have also been able to establish one at Barahnagore. We go round with these women once a week, and in one house often get ten, fifteen, and twenty women together who listen most attentively.

- - -

The Sindii Mission

The Gujerati women are very accessible, there is no difficulty in getting a number together to listen to the Bible. Usually they will send out and call their relatives and neighbors in to hear “the Book " read. Often a woman will say, “I was eating when I heard you were here, but I left my food to come and hear about God."

Some very decided tokens of individual blessing came under notice during the year. One was that of a well-to-do, intelligent women, named Gunja, who had come from the Native State of Kattyawar to visit a relation. She happened to come into a house where Mrs. O'Connor was reading to the women, and sat down to listen. She very soon became deeply interested; she said she had been a long time seeking to know about God, and begged that she might be taught every day about Him, as she would soon have to go away. She was visited daily, and seemed quickly to grasp the truth of the Bible. She felt the burden of sin, and after a time fully confessed her belief in the Lord Jesus. Christ as her Savior. She had been very unhappy because her children had all died, and her husband married another wife. In her own words, she said, “I was always fretting about my husband and children; but now I have found peace and am happy. I was like one tied with cords I could not undo, or like one shut up in a room without any way of escape; but now I am free, my one desire is to serve God, and to wait for that place He has prepared for them that believe on Him."

When Gunja realized that God was her Father, and that she could go to Him and tell Him all her sorrows and cares, she used to rise very early before the others were awake, that she might have a quiet time to pray. She was able to read, and we gave her a Testament. After this, a woman said to her, “Are you not going to hear the Brahmins read?" Gunja replied, “No; I have got something better in this book. I have done with idols, and believe only in God and Jesus Christ His Son."

Another woman, hearing this, said to Miss O'Connor, “Won’t you give me a book, too? I am going, to my country. My son is at the mission-school, and has learned about Jesus; he will read it to me."

There is noticeable amongst the Karachi women a greater sense of their own ignorance, and a desire for better things for their children. The mother of one schoolgirl said one day, "Teach my daughter well, and make her wise and clever. I don't want her to be like me. We poor women are like animals, without knowledge or understanding; but"—pointing to a lamp—"that lamp will not burn unless it is trimmed, and how can we learn without a teacher?"

There are open doors on all sides, and very distressing it is day after day to have to refuse invitations to, "come in and read to us."

Everlasting Love

EVERLASTING love! This love can be only divine. Everlasting! We can hardly apply this word to any earthly thing, unless, indeed, speaking poetically, we refer to the " everlasting hills," or something, which by comparison with the essentially transient, is stable and permanent; but divine love shall never decay, and when the hills are no more, and when this earth shall have fallen out of existence, it shall still be everlasting. As the year comes to its close, and many memories of what once was, but now is no more, are before us, and as we lay our finger upon our own hearts and consider how short our time is, we do well to consider that which is everlasting.

The everlasting love of the everlasting God is a magnificent theme for the heart. Here is a love which has ever loved; here is a love which never changes, and which no future shall terminate.

"I have loved thee” are the inspired words, telling us the heart of the Lover and the object of His love. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love "—yes, with the love of His own heart, and the unchangeableness of His own glory. And as these gracious words were addressed to His Israel of old, so are they the believer's now, for all the promises of God are to us yea and amen in Christ Jesus.

The prophet who was inspired to utter these divine words was he who mourned so bitterly the transgressions and perversity of Israel, and at a time when Israel was suffering under the chastening hand of Jehovah. But at that very time, as God looked upon Israel's affliction, He said, " Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jer. 31:3.)

As the year closes, and as life draws towards its close, there is a great rest for the Christian in filling his soul with these words of his God, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Our individual retrospect must be one of shame and humiliation; we have nothing to say of ourselves that is worthy; but He is love. Our love has too often been faint and almost imperceptible, but His love has ever been everlasting. Such is the character of the love wherewith He loves His people. Here let us abide; His love shall be our dwelling-place.

An Experience

BEING brought up in the fear of, God by my parents, I was very early in life deeply impressed with the importance and necessity of religion. I used to have thoughts such as these: If I spend my life in pleasure and sin, without making any preparation for death, even should I live to be old, death will come, and what will it be to be unprepared at the last? But how was the preparation to be made. I had heard much about conversion, and thought that it was a thorough change of heart, which took place instantaneously, and that when this took place I should be enabled to love God, and love everything good, and for this I prayed and tried to live.

As a little boy I had been condemned for playing on Sunday, so I gave it up, and left the other boys; but still the looked-for change did not come. Perhaps I was not religious enough, I thought. Friends began to talk to me, and once at a prayer meeting, as they were speaking to me, and asking me if I didn't think the Lord had forgiven me, I was led to answer "yes." But I was never satisfied. A dream gave me some hope, for I thought the judgment day had come, and that ever so many of us children had to go before the Judge, one at once. But to my great pleasure, when my turn came, the Judge smiled. However, resting in the dream did not satisfy me.

Then I tried praying more earnestly, and went to the penitent form time after time, till I was told I didn't half pray; but I felt no more satisfied.

I had heard from the pulpit that we must be willing to do anything, and go anywhere, if we would be saved, and this troubled me.

What was I to do, what could I give up, in order to get the satisfaction and rest I longed for? But no rest came.

Then I began to look upon God as a hard master, requiring hard things, and the more I tried to do as conscience told me, the more I was condemned, and the more in earnest I was in seeking, the further off I seemed. Everything I did appeared to be done with a wrong motive, till I began to say in my heart it is of no use trying, let come what may I can do no more. However, all the time there was a secret thought in my heart that I was wrong in my ideas respecting faith and conversion.

At this time I began to turn to the Word of God, and to think of passages of Scriptures like these: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (1 John 5:1.) “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." (John 6:29.) Thus I began to think of Christ as my Savior and Friend, as the One who loved me, and had paid my debt, and so I began, without knowing it, to believe and to trust in Him.

As I began in this way to rest upon Christ, and to cultivate living to Him, and looking to Him, love began to spring up in my heart for what He has done. As I have been enabled to lay hold of Christ in this way as my Savior, I have felt my desires strongest to live right and to glorify God by a consistent life.

I am now getting on in years, and can say,

"Now I have found the ground whereon

Sure my soul's anchor may remain;

The wounds of Jesus. . .”

Faith is now to me a believing on Christ that He is what He is said to be, even the Savior of sinners; and that He did what He is said to have done, that He died to save us from sin and its consequences. I am a sinner, and I rest on Him for salvation. Assisted by the Spirit of God, I look to Christ, and desire to follow Him. When this faith is exercised the mind is drawn heavenward. J. K.

A Few Personal Words

DEAR READERS—We have entered upon a new year, and have commenced a new series of FAITHFUL WORDS. For twenty-one long years we have been enabled to carry on our magazine, and now, having passed our twenty-first year, we have left behind us our life in its form of youth, and have begun a course, which, if pursued, must end in old age. We decided, therefore, to commence afresh; to be, as far as a magazine can be, young once more, so we offer ourselves to you as No. 1.

The work of our magazine is necessarily for the hour in which it exists. When the Master said to the laborers, “Work today in my vineyard," there was not only a day's work for the men to do, but a work which needed to be done that particular day. We can most assuredly say, that the Christian world is not by any means the same this year, as it was twenty-one years ago. But the identical needs of individual hearts and minds exist, the service of the pruning knife, the water-pot, the spade, are all as necessary for today as they were in the years that will never return.

So long as God permits our magazine to exist, we hope and pray we may use faithful words, loving and tender, but true and faithful. Bitter indeed is the so-called kindness which deceives. And nowhere more bitter than in the case of such as speak falsely on spiritual things.

Never, never forget that the truth cannot change. The nineteenth century will have to bow in the end to the truth, as will each and all who live in it, and as have done all previous centuries and all former generations. Tyre and Sidon in their desolation testify to the truth, the ruins of Capernaum proclaim the truth, and the day is at hand when the story of our times shall do the same. The truth about themselves was incredible to those cities—it is apparent to us.

We ask our Christian readers for their kind co-operation. Some can help in one way, some in another. We shall be glad to receive papers for our pages, the character of which can best be judged by reading this present number. Also we shall greatly value such help on the part of those who can do so, as that of giving away a number or two of our magazine to those who have not previously seen it. Above all we should prize the prayers of those who seek its prosperity.

That every blessing for time and for eternity may attend our readers is the sincere desire of

THE EDITOR.

The Five Senses

MOST boys and girls in reading the Bible have noticed the great variety of expression and illustration contained in it. For instance, the whole of the five senses are alluded to in the Scriptures in connection with the character of the Lord Jesus as Savior of the lost.

You know what the five senses are: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Now I want to remind you of a few Scriptures in which one or other of these five senses is brought in. The first is connected with SIGHT.

In Isaiah 45:22, we read, " Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." You have perhaps heard of the conversion of Mr. Spurgeon, the great preacher. When he was about fifteen years of age he heard someone preaching in a little chapel from that text, and by faith he looked up to the Lord, and was saved. The Israelites who were bitten by the flying serpents were healed when they look d upon the serpent of brass. And this is what we desire for you, to look to Jesus, who died upon the cross, that you might be saved.

“So now, the message comes to you,

Oh! look and prove the promise true."

Our next Scripture appeals to our HEARING. In the same book of Isaiah, 55:3, we read these words, " Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live." How can anyone be saved unless he hears about Jesus, for we are told that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God? Blind Bartimæus must have often heard of Jesus and the wonderful miracles He was doing, and so when he heard one day that Jesus was passing by, he called out to Him, and asked Him to give him his sight. He had faith to believe that Jesus could and would do so. And what reply did he hear from the lips of Jesus? These gladdening words: “Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee." We read that Solomon, the wise man, said, "Hear, for I will speak of excellent things "; and while he did say many excellent things, the Lord Jesus when on earth said many things more excellent still, of which we read in the gospels. You have often heard one very excellent saying of His. It is this: “He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life." (John 5:24.) You hear many things every day which you believe, but have you believed on Jesus about whom you have so often heard?

“Oh, ask the Lord to make you quick

To hear and to receive."

Now as to the sense of TOUCH. We read in the eighth chapter of Luke of a poor woman who had heard about Jesus. One day seeing Him with many people around Him, she thought that if she could but touch the border of His garment she should be cured of her disease. She did so, and when she had touched Him she was healed, although she had been suffering twelve years. But Jesus knew she had touched Him, and He turned round and spoke comforting words to her who had such faith in Him. He said, “Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." How glad she would be that she had come to Jesus and touched Him.

Boys and girls, and grown up people too, like to touch things. When you go into museums and picture galleries you see tickets all about, "Please not to touch." Now Jesus does not tell us not to come near Him, but calls upon all, as the poor woman did, to come to Him for salvation,

"For all who touch He

straightway heals;

The touch of faith His

love reveals."

But boys and girls like to do something with certain things besides touching them, you like to TASTE them, do not you?

Well, now, what does the Word of God say about taste? If you look in your Bible at Psalm 34:8, you will read, "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." Have you, dear reader, tasted of the love of GOD? No one knows what His love is but those who have really in heart tasted it. You know about the manna with which the children of Israel were fed in the wilderness. That manna was a type of Christ, and we are told in Exodus 16:31 that “the taste of it was like wafers made with honey"; and in Psalm 119:103 we read," How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" A boy was once trying to explain to Dr. Bonar how sweet some honey was that he had in a jar; at last he said, "Taste it!" You do not know how sweet that apple is, nor how good that cake is, until you eat some of it; and to “taste and see” is the right way to get to know how sweet the words of the Lord are and how good He is.

“Not half His grace has

e'er been told,

So, sinner, taste and

see."

Then in regard to the sense of SMELL, we read in the Song of Solomon 1:3, "Because of the savor (or fragrance) of thy good ointments Thy name is as ointment poured forth "; and again in chap. 5. "His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh." But unless you have trusted in Jesus for your soul's salvation, His Name will not be to you as a “sweet-smelling savor "; but if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, then it will be true of you that " Looking and listening, you will find The fragrance of His name."

Do then, dear boys and girls, come to Jesus while you are young. He loves children, do not wait till you are grown up, but come to Him now.

“Then look and see His beauty fair,

And listen to His voice,

And let His fragrance sweet and rare

Your ravished soul rejoice.

Then touch, that healed you may be,

And taste and see how good is He."

H. W. P.

Following

A SHORT time ago, a gentleman, followed by a rough-looking dog, got upon a tram-car in one of the streets of Edinburgh.

The dog, looking up at his master, still followed the car in the midst of many difficulties and obstacles.

Soon another dog came up, evidently bent on a quarrel. Afterwards another, yet more determined— then a third and a fourth but of them all he took no notice, and just continued quietly to follow his master—only following and looking up.

At our last glimpse of our friend he was simply following.

What a lesson he taught us! His one object was to follow his master, and this he did, undeterred by busy streets or vexatious pursuers! J. H. J—g.

Forgiveness

“BLESSED is he whose transgression is forgiven." (Psa. 32:1) No one who has faced the reality of eternity and of judgment to come, and who believes that God is just, will do other than add his "Amen " to these words. Yes, indeed, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

There is no merit in being forgiven: there is great evil in being a sinner needing forgiveness. The blessedness of being forgiven is not to the praise and glory of the transgressor, but to Him who forgives.

God forgives. There is forgiveness with Him that He may be feared, and He shows us in His word that none but He forgives sins against Himself. Forgiveness is the divine prerogative. In the absolute dominions of the world kings have reserved to themselves the right to forgive. God, the Infinite, forgives. He does so on the basis or foundation of righteousness. He is just and the Justifier. He does not forego His Light in the exercise of His Love. He ever abides faithful, and in all His ways displays what He is. On the moral basis of the atonement for sin wrought by the Lord Jesus, God can be just while justifying the sinner, and thus when God proclaims forgiveness to man, it is thus announced: "Be it known unto you... that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things." (Acts 13:38, 39.)

We place two texts together—

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven."

"Preached unto you [is] the forgiveness of sins."

The blessedness of forgiveness may, therefore, be yours, and indeed the message of forgiveness is brought to the very door of your heart. To you personally the announcement is made; the one condition necessary for its acquirement is your faith: “By Him all that believe are justified."

"All that believe." This is both exclusive and inclusive. All who do not believe are excluded; all who do believe are included. Many do not and will not believe: their loss falls upon themselves. Amongst the many who do believe are those who tremble, and at times question the validity of their faith. But the object of the belief is Jesus, the once crucified but now exalted Son of Man, and not the greatness or smallness of our faith in Him: He, and not our faith, is the Savior. God has set Him forth the object for our faith, and whosoever believes on Him has the blessedness of forgiveness. It is a personal and an individual question: let us each humbly answer as before God whether we do indeed believe on Jesus, not indeed historically, but lovingly. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:9.)

The Fund for the Lepers

WE began this fund this year. It is for the help of the lepers of India, who are cared for by the mission to lepers. The mission gives a home to as many lepers as possible, and by the loving labor of local missionaries, brings the afflicted people under the teaching of Christianity. Lepers, in the East, are utterly outcast—they are regarded as suffering for their sins, or for the sins of their former existence, and are left to perish. A leper is driven out from his or her house, by wife or husband, father or mother, and if not cast over a rock or into a river, as is done outside the limits of England's dominions, is reckoned as dead. The victims of the disease may be seen starving and wasting to death by the wayside, unsheltered from the burning sun or the dense rain.

The mission to lepers has had a great effect upon the heathen, for, say they, none but Christians would care for such people. And who shall tell the blessing that the leper mission is to afflicted people. Many, many have found in Him, whose loving and almighty hand Touched the leper, a Savior and a Friend. Hope for the future, love in the present, has filled sore hearts. The work is a most gracious one, and is much blessed by God.

The readers of FAITHFUL WORDS are permitted to share in this work. Some pounds have been sent to India, and, after considerable correspondence, it has been agreed that we shall have a little ward, or group of beds, of our own in Purulia.

The editor promised a nice letter from the lepers to his young readers, and he fears that some Sunday-schools and families will be disappointed in not having the promise made good. When he did so, he did not count on the difficulties of getting into touch with the friends in India. A special locality had to be selected, for there are many stations where the lepers are taken in, and one where children could be more particularly cared for was an important consideration. So it has taken more time than the editor anticipated in bringing his young readers into loving touch with individual lepers in India, Also, he could not say all at once what help his readers would render, but now, having received such welcome letters from the United States and Canada, as well as from England, he has engaged, God willing, for 1894, that at least four children in Purulia, two boys and two girls, shall be maintained by the readers of FAITHFUL WORDS.

We shall have their names in time for our issue in January, 1894, and, it is hoped, a little word or two from them. It will be explained to these four children that boys and girls in the United States, Canada, and England, maintain them because Jesus, our Lord and God, loves children, and bids us love one another. Indeed, the missionary, Mr. Uffmann, in Purulia, has already the matter in hand. His heart is full of longing for the sufferers, and there are more applicants for admission to the home than there is room. Hence we shall have our little share in the good work.

God Would Not Have Me Now!

SOME years since I heard a servant of God relate the following instance of God's grace.

My friend was asked to visit a gentleman who was ill, and not likely to recover—he had lived a "festive” life, and was now advancing in years. Mr. W. went. The men were not strangers to each other, but as one in early life had received Christ as his Savior, and found his highest joy in following and serving Him, and the other had chosen the world and “the pleasures of sin," they had seldom met. The sick man, worn out in the world's service, and wearied with his fruitless chase after happiness, saluted his old friend with a hopeless look, and answered his enquiries about his health in a cold, despairing sort of tone. He knew he was near his end, and shuddered at the prospect before him.

Mr. W. spoke of his lost condition as a sinner. This the sick man acknowledged without hesitation, but when he spoke of the mercy of God, and of the " Lamb of God," who atoned for sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and when he entreated the sick man to turn to God, he replied, " I cannot! God would not have me now. I have spent a long life in pleasing myself and the world—I cannot go to God now; it would be the height of meanness, and an insult to God, now I am worn out and can do nothing. No! it is my own fault, and I must reap what I have sown! "

Mr. W. again pressed the despairing man to cast himself upon the mercy of God through Christ.

“It’s no use, W., I tell you I cannot!" he answered in a hopeless tone, not unmingled with indignation. "Why, it would be like sucking out the orange and offering God the rind!”

“Give Him the rind," said Mr. W.; " He will accept it!”

I do not know what more was said, but the worn-out sinner was overcome. He cast himself upon the free, boundless grace of God, and found pardon, justification, and eternal life, through the precious blood of Christ.

He lived long enough to prove to those around him that he had been saved by divine grace, worn out and worthless as he was. How fully he could endorse that blessed truth, “Not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy He saved us!" (Titus 3:5.)

Dear reader, do you know anything of the feeling of this sick man?

Are you in despair of finding anything in yourself worthy of God's acceptance—ashamed of the past, yet unable to do better? Oh, come to Christ, just as you are! He calls you “weary and heavy laden," and offers you rest! (Matt. 11:28.) He Himself declares, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

The atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ has fully met all the claims of God, so "that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom. 3:26.)

Do then take the gift held out to you, and thank God for His mercy. P.

A Great Sinner's Lament

He had been from his youth a fisherman. Perhaps it was the result of his spending so much time all alone in his fishing boat that he had acquired the habit of thinking much and of saying very little. In fact, I believe he felt very much more in his element when, out in the shallow sea water, he was attending to his crab and lobster pots, than he did when he found himself on shore, and in conversation with landsmen. No doubt this had something to do with his reticence before strangers.

Had he felt so disposed, he could have told an interesting story of his own sometimes perilous and daring adventures. I remember his telling me just one such story; how he contrived one very dark night to steer his little boat in the right course for many miles, his only guide being three stars, none others being then visible, but by keeping his earnest gaze fixed upon them, he contrived to keep his bearings, and finally reached the desired haven in safety.

There came a time in his experience, however, when all his acquired skill as a mariner proved altogether unavailing, for he was being sorely tempest-tossed, not now on the sea, but in his inmost soul.

He had gone to visit some relatives, and had gone to church with one of them. Suddenly during the service the dear old fisherman burst out crying; and after the service was over, and he had reached again the house of his relatives, he continued to be strangely downcast and melancholy. I happened to call at the house very early in the afternoon of the same day, and was told of his strange behavior, but had not long to wait for a full explanation from his own lips.

He said-that during service that morning he happened to look round, when he saw some children, who appeared to him to be praying devoutly. “When I saw them," he said, “I thought to myself, There! those little children can all of them pray better than me, for I am a great big sinner that cannot pray at all." Another flood of tears prevented any further explanation just then.

My heart went out in fullest sympathy with the poor old man: how could his distress of soul be relieved?

He was loving and affectionate, and domestic joys and mutual relationships have their due place, yet instead of being cheered by any of these, he sat as one alone amongst his loved relatives, because the sweetness of natural affection failed to relieve his burdened spirit.

It is said that music hath charms. Had I proposed that we should have instrumental music and singing, we should have but sung songs to a heavy heart. Indeed what are the most enchanting of earth's melodies, or the grandest combination of orchestral harmonies, to the ear that is listening with earnest desire to hear the loving voice of Jesus, saying, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee "?

I asked him if he would come for a walk with me, and he very readily accepted my invitation.

Directly we were outside the house, we stood in a locality famed as the scene of actual warfare in years gone by. But I referred not to this, for a thrilling story of daring exploits, if told, would not have brought peace to his troubled heart.

A short walk in one direction would have brought us into fair scenes of natural and artificial beauty, or if taken in another would have ushered us into the center of the business part of the town. But what are lovely sights, or those scenes abounding with indications of the skill and restless activities of man, to the soul that is anxiously desirous of catching sight of the sinner's Savior?

God be praised for His mercy! There was one theme upon which I could and did dwell. We had no sooner started from the house than I began to tell that old, old story that never wearies in the telling, of Jesus, and His love for us poor sinners. I explained to this "great big sinner that couldn't pray at all," that Another had died upon the cross as his and my substitute, That if it were a question of individual merit, not one of the very best of us could ever dare to stand in the presence of God: for we, one and all, had sinned, and come short of the glory of God, Who was of too pure eyes to behold iniquity; but that Jesus had made atonement for sins with His own blood, which alone avails to cleanse from all sins. I referred to Israel in Egypt, eating the Passover in perfect security, because the blood of the paschal lamb had been sprinkled on their lintels and door posts. The Israelites were sinners indeed, but the Lord saw the blood, and passed over them, and suffered not the destroyer to enter their houses. And we are all alike sinners, but the sinner who trusts in Jesus, being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, is safe for ever, completely sheltered by the Blood of Jesus.

I showed him that it was not our tears of repentance, nor our prayers, but the Blood that has atoned for the soul, and bade him cast himself unreservedly into the outstretched arms of the Savior.

As I bore witness before him of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," I led the way across the bridge over the river, towards my own dear father's grave, which he had expressed a wish to see. I proceeded to tell the glad tidings of good things in his hearing, and he appeared to drink all in as one long athirst. Receiving the word with joy his tears were dried, and his sorrow of heart gone. The testimony of "Jesus only," satisfied this poor old fisherman's longing soul.

As we neared the cemetery, he said, "It is just what your father used to tell me." But when we had reached the grave, each silently communed with his own heart, as we together stood before it.

Years have passed since then, but even now my heart thrills with joy at having been permitted to water the seed which my honored father (without my knowing anything of this until I heard it from the fisherman's own lips) had already through grace sown in that desolate heart. Faith looks on ward to the moment when I shall meet my father once again in the Lord's own presence, and there I look to meet the old fisherman also; when both father and son will experience a common joy in that day wherein he that sowed and he that reaped shall rejoice together.

Are you as ready as he to receive the same glad tidings of salvation through Christ alone, dear sorrowing one? How long will you hesitate to cast yourself down as a lost and undone sinner at the feet of Jesus?

Be warned by the experience of a young man, who could boast of a good education and many worldly advantages. Cut down suddenly and brought face to face with death and the dread realities of eternity, his landlady bade him pray. "I cannot pray," was his sorrowful response. Thus a careless life ended with a melancholy death. “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

A. J.

Half-an-Inch Short

A LITTLE while ago a young man came to ask me to write him a testimonial that he might send to the managers of the railway company. He wanted to apply for the post of engine-driver, and as I had known him for years I could certify that he was thoroughly trustworthy, sober, steady, honest, and industrious. These seemed very necessary qualifications for such work, and when I tell you that he was a strong, well-built youth, intelligent and active, you will think there could be little fear of his being refused the situation. And yet he failed to obtain it.

Upon enquiring it came out that his height was just half-an-inch beneath the company's standard. This was a great disappointment to Tom, and in tones of much annoyance he said to me, “I didn't know before that I was such a wretched little beggar!” In vain the clergyman of our parish kindly wrote to the managers, representing that as the company was likely to procure a really valuable servant, they might waive that half-inch in the young man's favor; the law was inexorable, and poor Tom was refused. That unhappy half-inch settled the matter—he came short, and there was nothing more to be said about it.

The other day I was begged to go without delay to a young man in the last stage of consumption. I had known him from his childhood, and he had been at one time in my Bible class. I knew his life was exemplary, so gentle, kind, and good at home; so steady and conscientious in his work; and also so religious. In fact, everyone spoke well of dear Harry, and all were sadly grieved to see him thus fading away. His sister, with tears in her eyes, told me how very ill he was, and added, "And you know, miss, he has always been so good, and yet, as one of my neighbors was saying, “nothing but Jesus will do for dying hours."

This showed me that I was not alone in doubting as to whether Harry was indeed upon the Rock. I drove the next day to the village where he was lodging. He had rallied so far as to be able to leave his bed, and I found him comfortably settled in an armchair by a blazing fire. He smiled a pleased welcome as I came in, and, in reply to my enquiries, said he felt much better today. I could see, however, that he was in a very feeble state, and, fearing to weary him with too long a visit, I soon brought our talk round to the subject I had most at heart.

“I am sure, dear Harry, you have not been so long ill without having serious thoughts about eternity." And, as he assented gravely, I added, " I know you have always been so good and steady, that I should like you to tell me how your life looks to you now that you may, perhaps very soon, have to stand before God."

Harry gazed at me earnestly with his dark, wistful eyes, and then said, "I'll tell you how it is, miss: I have tried to be good, I have tried my very best, and I have kept very steady; but, when I think of going, it does seem to me I cannot just put the finishing touch; there is always something still lacking, and I am not satisfied— it won't do!”

Poor Harry had found out, as Tom had done, that he was beneath the standard, and was, after all, a wretched sinner.

He listened intently while I told him that nothing less than the blood of Jesus could wash his soul white enough for the eye of the holy God—that nothing but that finished work on Calvary's cross could meet the righteous claims of God, or satisfy his own guilty conscience.

“You thought you would make a ladder up to heaven by your own good works and your moral life, but the ladder will not reach, and God has, as it were, now knocked you down to the very foot of it. Harry, He would have you know that if you are to be saved at all, it must be simply as one of the lost sinners for whom Jesus died. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." You have tried to get to heaven as one of the righteous, whom He did not come to call (Luke v. 32), and you have found out that it will not do; will you come to Him now, taking the very low place of the sinner for whom He bled and died? "

“Yes, miss, indeed I will," he answered earnestly; "it is what I want to do."

So I knelt by his side, and simply told the Lord Jesus all about it, and prayed Him to receive Harry at once as a poor, undone, lost sinner, who could only cry to Him for mercy, having nothing of his own to plead.

Reader, have you found out that you are half-an-inch short of God's standard? Truly, I greatly doubt whether you come anything like so near to it as that—yet if you will allow only that you fail by the half-inch, remember it involves utter rejection. There is no lowering of God's standard to suit your size, and you had better face this fact without delay, as you value your soul.

“The scripture hath concluded all under sin." (Gal. 3:22.) "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23.) But while this knocks from under you all false props, it leaves you in a position to claim that Savior who "came to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10) Will you do so? A. P. C.

Hints to Young Workers for the Master

WHETHER the worker for Christ be engaged in the Sunday School, in visiting the sick, or in giving gospel addresses, there are certain great principles which should be carefully observed, if he would succeed.

Foremost among these we would place sympathy. It is not enough to love the members of the class; each child requires the teacher's sympathy; unless there be sympathy with the invalid our visit will be in vain; while missing this in addressing an audience, we miss the hearts of our hearers.

Strike a chord on the piano and you will hear a faint response within the instrument, the chord you struck has called out a corresponding chord. Seek so to speak and teach that your words may reach into the hearts of your hearers, and call forth a response to your heart.

Now, in order to accomplish this great end, it is necessary that you acquaint yourself with the heart and mind of your audience. You must get to the level of those you address. If you would lead them up, it must be by yourself first getting down to where they are. To attain ill's, painstaking love is necessary.

Dry and difficult speaking, that wanders over the heads of the class, is occasioned by the teacher's lack of true interest in his young charge. Generally, a dry address is the result of the speaker having worked up a subject in his study, without having studied the minds of his hearers.

A very good man of our acquaintance spent much of his life in visiting the sick, but he was lacking in sympathy, We remember on one occasion calling upon a dying man whom the worthy visitor had just left. He was unusually faint and weary, but, with a plaintive smile, he described how Mr.— had been over half an hour with him, giving him the substance of the lecture he had last heard! The lecture covered a very difficult subject, and, as the sick man seemed dull in grasping the resume of it, the visitor had enforced it into his ear with a loud, strong voice! Here were pain and distress caused by a truly good man, because he did not consider the invalid. It had been far better to sit by the side of that dear sufferer, and to let him pour his trials into one's heart, and then to mingle a few words of heavenly comfort, gently spoken, with his affliction.

It may be pleasing to oneself to tell to others difficult things from the word of God, but we shall not seek to please ourselves if we sympathize with our hearers—no, we shall try to tell them the things that will do them the most good. We shall in this follow the example of the apostle Paul. Study his manner of serving souls, whether the unconverted, or whether those of the flock of God, and you will obtain much help in your way of work.

The worker for the Master is a servant, and must serve. It is a very wholesome exercise for the soul to really serve in spiritual things, and by cultivating sympathy with those whom we wish to serve we learn to forget ourselves. Sympathy is more to be esteemed than eloquence, and one reason why God has entrusted His gospel to men is that men can speak to men, heart to heart.

Hints to Young Workers for the Master: PERSISTENCY

SCRIPTURE exhorts us to run the, race set before us with patience. Now running signifies the putting out of energy. The runner is distinguished from the ordinary crowd, which is usually composed of lookers-on and criticizers, and this may be applied to Christian things. But he who runs in the spiritual race is not only to have energy, he is required to have persistency—he is exhorted to run with patience. Walking at a slow pace with patience is not so difficult to accomplish, but running with patience is a constant tax upon energy and zeal.

Ah, how few thus run! Really it is melancholy to look back over the course of some twenty years, and to note where one and another fell out, and ceased running. "Ye did run well, who did hinder you?" we are almost tempted to say to the once earnest tract distributor, who has obtained a seat; to the formerly zealous Sunday school teacher, who has found his leisure; and to the wayside preacher who has given up his old occupation; and to very many others, who began their work well, but who failed in persistency.

The busy bee in its search for honey, sticks to one kind of flower during the day, and is a lesson to us. We would not say one word against a young worker putting his hand to various kinds of service in order to learn what work he is suited fur. It is a great mistake for everyone to suppose he can teach in the Sunday school, or preach by the wayside; and sometimes the earnest Christian does well to try one thing after another to prove what he can do effectively. Our remarks are addressed to those whose love of change or ease denies them the merit of persistency.

The most effective workers are those who are most persistent. It is far better to be less gifted and yet to have a heart good enough to be always at it, than to be ever so gifted and yet to run for once a year only. Quiet and laborious painstaking ever tells in the end. Plodding after souls is a sign of love that few mistake, and is a service which is ever rewarded. “In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not," is an important word to us, both of encouragement and of exhortation, for in the if is the suggestion, that there may be a fainting in the work which shall hinder the reaping. Indeed, without sowing there cannot be reaping, and sowing often implies much weeding and preparatory labor.

We would say to our young friends who are workers for the Master, acquaint yourself with your powers, and then stick to your work; do not dash from one thing to another. Beware of fickleness. Serve the Lord with purpose of heart.

Hints to Young Workers for the Master2-KNOWING WHAT WE TEACH

FOR the t is effective teaching of the things of God it is necessary that the heart of the teacher be filled with the things he teaches; indeed, we might say, Spirit-filled with the things. No one could truly teach the love of God to sinners, in whose heart the love of God was not shed abroad by the Holy Spirit. The letter might, indeed, be taught, but not the spirit of the truth. We must first know what we teach.

Some teach, map in hand, as it were. We ask them the way, they look over their map and reply, “This road evidently goes to So-and-so." ‘But, see! Here comes a little child, who lives in the neighborhood. “My boy," say we, “where will this road lead us?" “I’ll show you," he replies; “it goes straight to my father's house." The map was right, but the instructor who knows the way because he has trodden it, is the better teacher.

After hearing an eloquent sermon, a poor old woman made the comment upon it: “It’s all book learning." She felt in her heart the difference between map directing and personal guiding.

We would say to the young worker for Christ, know what you teach, teach what you know.

Every true Christian is taught of God by the Spirit, and therefore knows something in his own soul of divine things. God probably taught the young Christian by the means of someone older in Christ than himself, or by a book, but God did write upon the fleshy tables of the heart things that are true for ever. Now the things God has taught us in our hearts are those which we can best teach to the hearts of others.

It is important to teach the Sunday-school class, Bible history and similar subjects, and such information we obtain from books, and may wisely keep our map in our hands while conveying that information. But heart truths—the love of God, the cleansing of the blood of Jesus, heaven our home; such gracious matters need to come up out of our hearts like living water from the well-spring.

It is most important that the young and the simple should be taught the great truths of the Christian faith; and, strangely enough, many are mourning how small a place such teaching now obtains in the pulpit. It may be objected that such teaching is dry. The most interesting subjects may be made very dry by a dry-minded instructor, and on the other hand what are termed dry subjects are made highly interesting by an interesting speaker.

If we would teach a class of children, for example, such a fundamental doctrine as the forgiveness of sins, seek first of all not to go beyond our own measure of practical understanding of the subject. No one can aptly teach the forgiveness of sins, how God forgives, on what ground He forgives, who does not know the forgiveness of his own sins. The object of such instruction should be to engrave upon the hearts of the young that which shall remain there for a life-time. The earnest, believing enforcement of Divine forgiveness, and our need of it, will be as good seed which shall spring up after many days.

The best way of making a subject interesting is making it intelligible. Therefore seek after simplicity. It is one thing to be simple, another to be silly. The noblest subjects may be simply told. The first three verses of the gospel by St. John are an example of the deepest truths expressed in the simplest words. And here we may say, Never let a teacher use words he does not understand, and, if possible, let him not use words his hearers do not understand.

It is well to write out, not once or twice, but many times, the instruction about to be conveyed to the hearer. Note we say the instruction, for a great deal that is said is exhortation, but instruction may well be written out for the teacher's own sake.

One benefit comes to such as seek to be simple, they learn not to cover their own ignorance by the use of fine phrases, while their hearers find real pleasure in having information, such as they can partake of, brought to them. Old and young like to receive instruction, and, as a general principle, he who best knows his subject is best able to make his subject understood by those to whom he speaks.

Hints to Young Workers: NATURALNESS

AFFECTATION is ever to be deplored, and most offensive it is in the things of God. There is a seemliness which belongs to the order of nature: the presence of a king demands respect; that of age, veneration; that of weakness, tenderness; and not to show these things is unnatural. The apostle, when speaking of a matter of non-spiritual character, says, “Doth not even nature itself teach you?" (1 Cor. 11: 14), and the spiritually-minded will hardly transgress nature's teaching.

Let the young worker for the Master not forget that his class or audience will take nearly as much notice of his manner as of his matter. If his matter fully possess him, his manner will be natural, and it will be said, He did not so much as think of himself, and a very high commendation that will be. John the Baptist, the great herald of our Lord, could say truly of himself when asked who he was, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." He cared to be nobody in his care that the Coming One should be all.

It is not natural (certainly it is not spiritual) to affect anything when speaking for or of God. If we are truly in God's presence we shall be reverential, and most important is the testimony of reverence. We do not mean assumed reverence of manner, or an affected voice of piety, but real reverence begotten of thoughts of God's holiness. There is a free and easy way, we might almost say, a flippancy, affected by some when speaking of God, which is most lamentable, and which only tends towards infidelity. It should be shunned. We think it a sad want of Christian propriety, as well as unnatural, when a speaker, whose subject is the Bible, places his hands in his pockets. No one would dare assume such a position in the presence of a king, or, if he did so presume, would be tolerated in the king's presence. He would soon learn, by being ejected, this text, "both not even nature itself teach you?"

In speaking of the love of God do not adopt a repelling tone of voice. Be neither harsh nor patronizing. Young speakers should neither scold nor be familiar. Never let the dignity of the message suffer by the messenger's want of thought. Never call attention to yourself by odd ways, or by grand words. Alas, how many have become confirmed in such ways, and are too old to be cured.

The work for Christ is worth all our care and earnestness. We would offer our younger friends these suggestions in order to assist the object in view. First, ask some wise and candid Christian friend to tell you of what you can easily correct; second, and above all, seek so to be before God when speaking for Him that you may forget yourself.

His Name

THOU shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." It is not my purpose even to try to explain those grandly simple words; for do we not frequently darken the counsel of the Lord by our expressions? I only wish to quote them—to say them over again, as it were, to some heart in search of the Savior, who might not else have thought of them, and to beg such an one to hear them, to read them, as the Word of God ought to be heard and read—with the hearing of faith.

How inexpressibly sweet to such an one are these words! You feel your need of a Savior; you feel your sins to be an intolerable burden to you, and, lo! here you are told of One whose very name is Savior—" Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins "—just what you desire, above all things, to be saved from.

It is sweet to observe that it is written “Thou shalt call His name JESUS From St. Luke we know that the same had been said also to Mary. Both Joseph and Mary were commanded to call Him JESUS, and “He was called JESUS." You are invited to call Him JESUS. Will you not do so—at His feet, in the solitude of your heart? Will you not say to Him, "Jesus, my Savior, who died for me "? Ah! those only who have experienced it know the sweetness of this actual contact with the Lord—this speaking of heart to heart with Him. It is eternal life to know Him thus, and the beginning of eternal days of joy. And sweet to His ear will be that breathing of His name by your lips, by your heart, for the first time. How does a mother feel when she hears her name of “Mother " attempted for the first time by her darling child? Only a mother knows. And who may tell the Lord's joy when He hears His name of Jesus-Savior breathed by one for whom He died?

“Breathed by thee 'twill seem unto Him

Sweeter far than any other,

As when by her babe first spoken

Seems her own name to a mother."

E. B.

Honored Servants

OUR Lord and Master teaches us who among His servants shall receive His special approval at His coming. He does not single out for this high honor the more choicely gifted, or the most notable; no, He marks for His praise those who are truest to Himself, and most faithful to the work to which they are appointed.

“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching." (Luke 12:37.) Such are most true to Himself. They sink not to sleep as do so many. Whether it be the second or the third watch, they are waiting for Him. No temptation calls them from their honorable post of looking for His return, but with “loins girded about," and with "lamps burning," they "wait for their Lord," "that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately."

It may seem but a poor post to be a porter. Usually the greater part of the house retires to slumber, and leaves for one or two the service of opening the door at midnight. But the highest honor granted to the servant is meted to him whose love to his Master chases away sleep from his soul. Such servants are blessed, and shall be highly honored: the Master's words are, “Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." “Let us watch," therefore.

Again, the word is, "Blessed is that servant whom the Lord when He cometh shall find so doing." The " doing " is giving to the household " their portion of meat in due season." This activity does not, perhaps, commend itself as remarkable, but such as have watched the career of Christian men know full well that it is remarkable when a servant of the Master plods on with the work his Master has appointed to him. Such servants are not common. Possibly they are not much heard of, and are but little seen by the great world. Good servants in a household are not generally conspicuous, but the prosperity of the household is greatly established by the diligence of the servants in their appointed duties.

Toil on; labor on; do the work committed to you, servants of Christ, and in the day that is coming great shall be your reward —the Master shall make you a ruler.

Let us carefully consider these words twice uttered, "whom the Lord when He cometh shall find." On that day it will not be asked, What shall So-and-so say, and what will So-and-so think? Then it will be, What shall be found by "the Lord when He cometh "? The servant and the master are brought close together in our Lord's words, even as shall be the case on “that day."

Shall “the Lord when He cometh" find us "watching " for Him, and "doing " that to which He has appointed us?

How a Policeman Was Converted

IT was the 22nd February, 1884, and our little family had just sat down to tea, when my wife gave the baby, about twelve months old, a bite of the bread and butter that she was eating. The poor little child began to cough and choke badly. I took her from the terrified mother, and turning her face downwards, gave her several slaps on the back, hoping thus to bring up the bit of bread. But all without effect! My wife nearly frantic with fright, again took the baby imploring me to run quickly for the doctor. I rushed off, and in about ten minutes returned with him,' but only to hear him pronounce life to be extinct.

I shall never forget how we felt, at the loss of our precious child. I was not only heartbroken, but brought face to face with death, and it was a terror to me. The question arose in my mind, "If God took me, like that dear child, without a moment's warning, where should I be?” My heart condemned me—I could see what a vile sinner I was in the sight of a holy God, and knew that I was going down to hell as fast as time could take me, in spite of all my respectability and my church-going. I became very anxious as to how I could get right before God, for if ever there was a poor, miserable sinner, I knew I was one. I thought I would go to church more frequently, and say my prayers regularly; but the more I tried to turn good the further away I seemed to get. I was months in this miserable state, and no one but God knows what anguish of soul I passed through.

In His mercy He led a lady in the village to open a mission for the preaching of the gospel to haymakers and others. After a few weeks I heard what a number of people of the village were attending, and I determined I would go out of mere curiosity. So I said to my wife, “Let us go up to Mrs. B.'s room this evening. I hear a lot of talk about it." And she willingly agreed to go with me.

It was God in His great mercy that led me there, though I did not know it at the time. An earnest man of God from the Evangelization Society preached that night. I never before heard the salvation of God put so plainly and so simply. He seemed to pull away every prop of self-righteousness from under me, saying it was not our church nor chapel-going that could give a poor sinner rest, but Jesus, and Jesus only, that could do that. As he preached I trembled at the word of God. The preacher seemed to know all my career. After he had finished the address he came down from the platform, and walking up to me he held out his hand, and asked me how I was.

“I am all right, sir," I answered.

“Are you on the Lord's side?” he then asked.

“No, I am not," I slowly answered.

“What a solemn thing to own!" he said seriously, “for if you are not on the Lord's side, you are eternally lost; just think of that, after God has provided a perfect salvation to every poor sinner. If you have hitherto rejected Christ, I do urge on you to take Him at Once as your Savior, for delays are dangerous, and you know not how much longer you may have salvation offered to you."

He then asked me to stop to the prayer meeting, which I refused to do.

“If you will not stop and let me pray with you, will you at least give me your address," he asked kindly, "so that I may be able to write to you? "

“I doubt, sir, that you would do me any good if you did," I answered.

"But," he urged, God might give me a word that might be the means of bringing you on the Lord's side."

And so, after a lot of persuasion, I told him my address, but I never heard from him. However, I believe he wrote to the lady, Mrs. B., asking her to visit me, for a day or so after I met her in the street coming to my house. She asked me if I would come back to my cottage, for she wished to have a little talk with me, in which she might help in pointing me to the Savior. I refused to go back with her, much as I felt to need the proffered help. Then she kindly asked me to come up to her house and have a talk, but that I also refused to do, feeling that I could not open my heart to anyone. She then shook hands with me, and turned away, evidently very much disappointed.

The whole of that time God's Holy Spirit was striving with me, and I was as wretched as I could be. I had been told that if I believed in Jesus it would be all right, but where I made the mistake was, in wanting to feel saved before I had believed.

I was on night-duty at that time, and eight days after I had heard the evangelist I came off duty at 6. a.m. and went to bed in a very miserable state about my soul. I woke up at 10 p.m., and never shall I forget it! The whole of my sins came up before me, and I saw them in all their blackness as I had never done before, and something seemed to say to me, "Hell is your doom; you are too big a sinner, God cannot pardon such sins as yours." I could see what an awful eternity I was hastening to, and I lay in bed and cried like a child. At last I could stand it no longer, so I jumped out of bed and fell on my knees, and with many tears humbled myself before God, owning myself a poor helpless, hell-deserving sinner. Then, all of a sudden, Jesus was revealed to me by faith, hanging on that cruel cross, and it was as though I could see the blood trickling down His holy face. I cried out, “Lord, I do believe that Thou didst die for me." The moment I believed that Jesus died and rose again for me, I passed from death into life-eternal, and joy and peace shone into my dark, benighted soul. Praise God, I knew that I was eternally saved, through simple faith in the finished work of Christ on Calvary's cross. I could have skipped about the room in my new-found joy! I felt like a bird that had been snared, and got its liberty again. You can imagine how glad that poor bird would be! I was in the powerful snare of Satan, and was unable to deliver myself from his fetters, but the moment I looked to the divine Savior, the blessed Lord Jesus, my bands were broken asunder.

I got back into bed again, and thought to myself; “Oh! if I could only die now, and go straight to heaven!" For I feared that when I got out with my old companions they would draw me back again into the world, but I thought I heard a voice saying to me, " As thy day so shall thy strength be." Praise God, I have found Him as good as His promise. Jesus not only saves but He keeps.

Now, as I lay in bed, it soon came into my mind that I must tell my wife of the blessed change that had come to me; so I knocked on the floor, and she came up and asked me what I wanted. I can tell you that it was hard for me to muster up courage to tell my wife what had happened, for Satan does not like us to confess Christ, and does his utmost to shut our mouths. But at last I managed to stammer out, “Mary, come over here to me; I want to tell you that God has saved my soul, and pardoned my sins." And as soon as I had confessed my Lord another flood of joy burst into my soul. My dear wife did not know what to say when she heard such words, and saw me so full of joy. I think that she thought I had gone mad, as somebody told her that I should have the religious mania, and she was evidently frightened that so it had come to pass. But I was not mad, only I could realize what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." (Col. 1:13.)

That same evening there was to be a meeting at the mission room. So I called upon a comrade, and told him what Jesus had done for me, and entreated him to come with me to the meeting, and, thank God, he got saved that night whilst listening to the address.

I can testify that Jesus is very precious to me, and He has often given me the privilege of speaking of Him. Policemen have good opportunities to say a word for Jesus, and I do believe that I shall meet many a poor tramp in heaven to whom I have spoken of the Savior’s love.

I cannot close my simple story without a word of warning to any parents who will read this, and who have got some dear little ones gone to be with Jesus. If, my readers, you are unsaved, what a solemn thought it is that, if you do not come to Christ, you are parted from those dear children for ever. I do plead with you in the name of Jesus to be reconciled to God through the death of His Son. And there may be some readers who have little ones that God has given them, and who are still travelling down the broad road that leadeth to destruction, and their children are following in their steps. My prayer to God for you is that you may stop and think what you are doing, lest, when you get to hell, your children will turn round and curse you for taking them there. Dear parents, be wise, and flee to Christ, who is waiting to save you now. You see what He has done for me, and He is able and willing to do the same for you. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." G. M.

- - -

To Your Children

“THE promise is unto you and to your children." “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 2:39; 16:31.) Thus does God encourage His people to expect the blessing of his family and household.

How a Young Girl Was Brought to Christ

I WOULD like my young readers to know a little about my conversion. I had just left school, and was about sixteen years of age, when I went for some months with my parents, brothers, and sisters, to a small, but beautiful, seaside resort. I did not want to go, for the place was very quiet, and having left school I wished to live a new life full of enjoyment. Indeed it was with great bitterness of heart and rebellion that I went, much to the grief of my parents. I had known for some time that if the Lord came I was not ready to meet Him; but I wanted enjoyment in this world, and felt that if I became a Christian that would all be at an end. Day by day I was weary of cliffs, sea, and sands; and often hid in some secluded spot to weep in my utter misery.

Now it fell out that one Sunday, when passing through a field, with a young friend, we came near a preacher addressing a number of people, who were standing or sitting upon the grass at his feet. My companion wished to go near, but I was too proud to do so, and promised to wait for her at the end of the field. However, while hurrying on to get out of hearing as fast as possible, I was arrested by these words, which rang out clearly and distinctly through the still air: "How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" (Jer. 12:5.)

I felt that those words were for me, and indeed I heard no others. They made me feel still more wretched than before; I thought, Jordan means death, and God is asking me what I shall do when called to die. I felt that I was face to face with Him, and that I must answer the question. I tried to hide myself from the loving eyes of my parents, but they understood more than I thought, and were praying for me. I went to my room and tried to think, but I could only hear the solemn words, " How wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?”

Thus it continued until about the middle of the night, when falling on my knees, I cried “Lord, Thou canst, and wilt save us"! and immediately I felt my load gone, and I knew that I had passed from death unto life.

In the morning, what a change! everything seemed new, and the joy of my parents I shall not forget. My first wish was to win one soul for the Lord, and most graciously was my prayer answered. I had thought to whom I should speak or write, when a distant cousin of about my own age was brought before me, so I at once wrote to her, asking if she could say with me that God had pardoned all her sins. She answered immediately, "No one ever asked me that question before: all of you pray for me." Barely a week had passed when another letter came, containing the following joyful news: “Dear Cousin, I can now say with you that Jesus has pardoned all my sins. I have now 'peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ '" (Rom. 5:1); and she told me how that she had long been burdened with a sense of guilt when the first letter reached her.

Years have passed since that time. The young girl is now a matron. Yes, I can say that through all the years that have elapsed since the time of which I write, “there hath not failed one word of all His good promise." (1 Kings 8:56.) S. M. C.

How the Good Shepherd Found Me

WHEN I was fourteen years old my sister and I spent our summer holidays, with our mother and a Christian cousin, at Whitby. We girls had never been there before, and we greatly enjoyed rambling among the rocks, wandering over the country, and climbing the many steps up to the picturesque old church perched upon the cliff. Then we used to attend the Scripture Union services for children held on the beach every day. They were a great enjoyment to us. It was at one of these services that I first realized my need of a Savior, and of the forgiveness of my sins. After this, at times, I was very unhappy about my soul, but I was too shy to tell anyone of my trouble.

The end of the holidays came, and we went to say good-bye to the gentleman who had conducted the meetings. He asked me, “Are you saved?"

Now, I had been feeling particularly good that morning, and had not once spoken crossly to my sister, so that I was more self-satisfied than usual. However, it was not without some hesitation that I answered "Yes."

“Would you be afraid if you saw the Lord coming in the clouds?” he asked, so solemnly that I started, and cast a frightened glance out of the window as I stammered, "Yes—no—I don't know." He prayed with me, and then we said goodbye. A few days later, I went back to school. Now I tried in earnest to turn over a new leaf, gave up all I most liked doing, and tried to deny myself, going to church as often as I could, whether in sunshine or in rain. I read my Bible, too, daily, and never failed to say my prayers, but, in spite of all, there was unrest at my heart's core.

Several of my school companions were then going to be confirmed, and I thought this must be what I wanted, and I made up my mind that I, too, would be confirmed.

The confirmation service was very impressive, several hundreds of young people kneeling before the bishop for the imposition of his hands, and I felt much elated by my share in the ceremony.

However, building my hopes in salvation on this was only another wile of the devil to keep me from the Savior, and, to my dismay, I soon found out that I was no better, but rather worse, than before.

The year following I went abroad with my mother, and then I fell in with a merry, flighty set of girls, bent on amusing themselves, with not a serious thought among them. I tried to make myself as one of them, and to this end sought to banish from my mind everything that served to trouble me. For a time I succeeded admirably, but soon the ache at my heart returned, and I was more miserable than ever. I now thought God had forsaken me, and that perhaps I was never meant to be saved, and in despair I left off reading my Bible, and tried to feel utter indifference. Still the thought of the future judgment gave me a perfect terror of death, and every grave I passed or funeral that I saw made me tremble and turn sick, while I questioned with myself, where should I be after death, and I knew the inevitable answer was “hell."

After four years, we returned to England, and again I was to meet my Christian cousin who was with us at Whitby. We were to spend some time with her, and I longed for, yet dreaded, this visit. I knew she would be sure to enquire if it were well with my soul. For hours at night I worried as to how I could frame my answer when the question came.

It was some days after our arrival that, being alone with my cousin, the question I had feared was suddenly put to me. It came so unexpectedly that I could remember none of the answers I had prepared, and in spite of myself could not appear indifferent.

I longed to say, “I do not know the way or how to come to Jesus," but the words stuck in my throat, and I tried to laugh as I answered I did not know whether I was saved or not.

My cousin would not be put off. She saw I was thoroughly uneasy, and went on simply and earnestly to tell me that it was quite plain that I never had come to Jesus; He would have been true to His word, and would have given me rest and peace. She begged me to tell Him at once I was a poor, feeble, sinful girl, and to take my place among the sinners for whom He died, and claim that precious blood that cleanses from all sin.

As she spoke, it gradually sank into my dull mind that the Lord Jesus did all the work upon the cross long ago, and there was now nothing left for me to do, That night as I sat alone in my room I read again and again the little card my cousin had given me. There were two verses on it—" Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, "and" Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." Then I took up my Bible, and, opening it, my eyes fell on these words, “It is impossible for God to lie." I closed the book, for surely this was enough; I cast myself upon my knees, and there and then took Jesus the Savior to be my Savior, and found joy and peace in believing, for He did not cast me out.

Since then I have never doubted that I am His. He says none shall pluck His sheep out of His hand. (John 10:28.) He has made my heart glad, and my great desire now is to live to His glory, to be found meet for His service, and by and by, when I see Him in glory, to get His “Well done! " E. M. W.

I Want Light

WHAT is it you want, my friend? asked a Christian gentleman of a man who had stayed after service and appeared to be in great distress. "I want light; give me light," was the reply. "Is it then so dark?" asked his friend. "Oh, yes, all dark! I can see nothing," and the tears streamed down his cheeks.

“‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'; will you not believe on Him?"

"I can see nothing, I can believe nothing. All is thick darkness," he replied.

Promise after promise from God's word was quoted to him, but all in vain. His cry still was, "O God, give me light."

It was touching to see the strong man weeping and struggling—yet he would not yield.

Ten o'clock came. Some of the friends urged him to go home, and come again next night, but he said, “No; this gentleman says I may find the light to-night, and I will not go home without it."

Time passed on, and a few of us still stayed with the poor fellow, who had grown quieter now.

“You think God will give me light?” he asked.

“I am sure He will, for He never turns away those who seek for Him with their whole heart."

“Then I will have it to-night," he replied. Every effort was used to point him to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, but all received the same reply—

“It is all dark. I want light. Give me light!" At eleven o'clock his friend said to him—

“I have told you everything I can think of, but one."

“What is that?” he asked eagerly.

"If God does not see fit to give you light, are you willing to walk with Him in the dark?"

“No," he sorrowfully replied, " I am not."

“You have been walking by yourself in the dark. I do not ask you to do that. Will you walk with God?"

“I don't know," he said, thoughtfully.

“Will you say, 'Lord, I will walk alone no longer. I cast myself and my sins on Jesus, and take Him as my Savior, and I will walk with Thee in the dark until Thou dost give me light?’ Will you do this? "

“I will. Yes, I will trust Him even in the dark, but I do not feel any different."

As he spoke the cloud was lifted from his brow, and his countenance was lit with joy.

"It has come," he shouted, "all in a moment. Now it is light. The Lord is my light."

For a few moments he was lost in praise, then he shook hands with all present saying, “It is all right now."

He has walked in the light ever since, adorning the gospel of his God and Savior in all things, and often does he thank God for the memorable night when he stepped into the light by consenting to walk in the dark. The light was there, but he was blind; now his eyes are opened, and he rejoices in the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness. R. B. Y.

I Will Know Jesus

A WELSHMAN and his only son were lying very ill in the same room. Two ladies, who knew the father and had heard of his illness, called to see him, and had a little talk with him about the Lord Jesus. It was the first time they had seen Arthur, a lad of eighteen, who, though not what would be called a great sinner, was yet utterly careless as to the things of God. The visitors tried to speak to him about his soul, but could get no response; his utter indifference quite closed their mouths, and while they longed to speak, they could not think of anything further to say to him. At last they sang a hymn, which spoke of “knowing Jesus," and then left the cottage, feeling quite disheartened at the apparent fruitlessness of their visit. Little they thought that God had that day used them to sow precious seed which should spring up and bear fruit unto life eternal.

As the ladies sang about "knowing Jesus" the words sank into Arthur's soul, and after they were gone he repeated them to himself again and again, until his heart was filled with an intense yearning to know the One of whom the hymn spoke. Then his conscience awakened, and for the first time he saw that he was a sinner, and unfit for the presence of a holy God.

He said not a word of what was passing through his mind, till his father noticed how miserable and silent he was, and asked him what was the matter. Then Arthur, opened his heart, and told of the trouble he was in; but his father, much as he loved him, could give him no comfort. So Arthur called out, “Mother! bring me up every book in the house. I must find the hymn the young ladies sang, for I will know the Jesus they sang about."

Did anyone ever own his sinfulness, and long to know the Lord Jesus in vain? Ah, no! if a soul is truly seeking the Savior, it is a sure sign that the Savior is seeking that soul, and the seeking Savior and the seeking sinner will undoubtedly meet. "They shall praise the Lord that seek Him" (Psa. 22:26). The Good Shepherd, who was yearning over this lost sheep, sent the same ladies to Arthur's home again. To their great joy they found the sick lad, whose indifference had so grieved them, now earnestly seeking salvation, and it was their happy privilege to show him from the Word of God how he, a poor lost sinner, could he Made fit for God's presence; how the Lord Jesus had taken his place, and borne the judgment due to him when He died on the cross, so that His precious blood might cleanse away the sins of those who came to Him and claimed Him as their Savior.

Arthur, who had been hungering for these glad tidings, simply trusted God's Word, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and was saved. Now his great yearning was satisfied: he knew Jesus.

Sometimes we long very much to know a person, and when we come to know him we are sadly disappointed. But when we have been brought to know Jesus, the Christ of God, we find that the more we know of Him the more we long to know, and the more we love Him. So it was with Arthur.

By and by, through God's mercy, the lad recovered, and was soon able to go about his usual occupation of attending to his cows, and selling milk, giving everywhere he went a bright testimony to the Savior he had found and whom he now loved to serve.

A year after his conversion, however, he took a severe cold, which settled on his lungs. For two years he lingered, often suffering greatly, but always bright and happy, because he had learned to “know Jesus." It is not many weeks since the Lord took him to be with Himself.

A few days before he was “put to sleep by Jesus," he laid his poor weary head upon his father's breast, saying " Father, I do love you; you've been very good to me; not a thing I've wanted but you've given it me; but I love Jesus a great deal better than I do you." The only visitors he cared to see were those who would speak to him of the Savior he loved. He had learned to know Jesus; he loved to hear about Jesus; and now he rests in the presence of Jesus. The cottage home is desolate indeed to the poor bereaved parents; but what would they have felt if their dear son had died in his sins?

Oh, my reader, I entreat you to follow Arthur's example, and not rest till you too know Jesus.

C. H. P.

I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid

A MAN was one day giving his testimony at an open-air meeting as to what God had done for his soul. His life, prior to conversion, had been anything but exemplary. He had fallen into the habit of drinking to excess, until he had gained the unenviable reputation of being a drunkard. But he stood that day, through the grace of God, a new man, having been made a partaker of the washing of regeneration and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and at the street corner he testified that God had saved his soul. At that moment, among the stream of passers-by, was a woman on whose ears his word of testimony fell. “Saved," she said to herself, for there could be no mistaking what he had said. “Saved," that was a great thing to say, and then for her own satisfaction she gave the word a limited interpretation.

Now it must be noted that this woman on her own confession was a religious person; she was a church-member, had been so for fifteen years, and she was regular in her attendance at her place of worship; indeed, during one part of that period, for the space of five years, she had not been absent from the church on one single Sunday. During all the time of her church-membership career no one had ever spoken to her about her soul, and as for being saved, why, that was a thing she never dreamed of! Nobody could ever know that he was saved in this life, she had been taught, yet here was a man whom she knew, a man who had lived in the same block of buildings as herself, yes, in the very same close as she did—a man whom she knew to have been a drunkard—here was he standing up in a public thoroughfare and telling the people that he was saved. “Oh! I know what he means," she said to herself; "he means that he has stopped drinking, and that now he's saved from the drink." This was the limited interpretation she put on his words.

She thought a good deal that night of what she had heard him say, and as proving that his words had stirred her up—a fact she was afterwards ready enough to confess—on the following day she took occasion to say to his wife, " I was very glad to hear that your husband had stopped the drink, I am sure you will be glad."

“Oh, yes! praise the Lord," the wife replied, " he has stopped the drink, but better than that he is saved."

This answer tore to shreds the religious woman's idea that he only meant having stopped the drink in saying he was saved, and it completely outdid her.

If she had never been aroused before, she was certainly aroused now. To think that this man, who had been a drunkard, could now say that he was saved, and that she, a respectable, religious woman, could not say it, was unbearable. What could it mean?

Not long after this a child of hers was taken seriously ill. She sat up all the night with it, and as she had not found the rest that Jesus gives, what between the illness of her child and the trouble of her own soul, her mind was acutely distressed. Another child, older than the one that was ill, was lying fast asleep in another bed close by, and in its sleep it gave utterance to a line of a hymn it had learned somewhere, the line being" Open, open, let the Master in." The distressed mother felt as if it was a message from God to her soul through her sleeping child, but still as yet she did not enter into the kingdom.

Death carried away her sick child, and her husband went to the minister of the church they attended, to ask him to come and pray with them. When her husband returned, she asked him what the minister had said.

He replied, that the minister had said in reference to the little one, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven."

"Of such is the kingdom of heaven," she said to herself, repeating the words she had heard ' " of such is the kingdom of heaven," and thought the words were " just beautiful," but felt none the less, that if she had died, they could not be applied to her. She knew that she was not of such as belong to the kingdom of heaven.

Being determined to find out the way by which she could belong to it, she commenced to read her Bible with diligence and earnestness, but the more she read it, the further she seemed to get away from every hope of salvation. She felt as if every page she turned over only spoke to her of condemnation. No hope could she see. Condemned, CONDEMNED, CONDEMNED, that was all that the Word of God seemed to have to say to her. Surely she had the sentence of death in herself, written there by the finger of God, that she might learn not to trust in herself, but in God who raiseth the dead, and who raised up from the dead our Lord Jesus and gave Him glory that our faith and hope might be in God.

In due season her dark, deep night of conviction ended, and the morning of grace broke in upon her soul. The words that brought peace to her heart were these: "Be not afraid, only believe."

Coming to her heart as those words did in the power of the Holy Ghost, she said, “Well, I will not be afraid any longer, I will trust and not be afraid."

She did trust, and from henceforth her soul was at rest. To bear testimony to what Jesus has done for her soul is now the joy of her heart. J. C.

The Lepers in India

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,—Since the little announcement, in our January number, of our desire to help the poor lepers, we have I received various sums of money from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, and we have sent ₤12 to Mr. Bailey for the mission to the lepers.

The various sums received have been acknowledged by letter, wherever a name and address accompanied the gift, and now we give a list of the donors, or, where we cannot state who the donor is, of the donations. Most earnestly do we beg the givers to let us have their names and addresses, which shall be held in confidence, but really we do not like to be entrusted with money which we are unable to acknowledge. And we have had as much as ten dollars (₤2 os. 5d.) sent to us from Canada, for Bibles for Cuba, from friends who give neither name nor address.

When we took up the little collection for the lepers, our thought was not only to give them a cup of cold water in the Lord's name, but also to so interest our young readers that they might be privileged to put their drop into the cup. We were assured several would help, and now that this is made evident, we have arranged to send the contributions rendered through the instrumentality of FAITHFUL WORDS, to one special home for lepers—to Purulia, which lies in Bengal.

Mrs. Bailey writes you a letter respecting this home, which you will read with interest. She has labored amongst the poor sufferers, and spends her life for them.

Some of our friends have denied themselves to render assistance to these lepers, and a very happy thing is self-denial. The happiest people on earth are those who care most for others. Some have joined together and sent the contributions through their Sunday-school, which is an admirable plan. I hope we shall be able to have a little interchange of letters with the leper home of Purulia. When the children there begin to understand that young people in England, and the States, and Canada, who read FAITHFUL WORDS, find joy in putting small sums of their money together in order to help them, they will ask a blessing upon you, as you will, I trust, upon them. Will you not try to remember the poor lepers in prayer once a week? When you kneel and pray, think of them! And perhaps your father may at times call them to remembrance at family prayer.

The following sad but sweet letter has just come to me. I must let you all read it" At the request of my young brother in Christ, Lawson Laidlaw, I enclose this eleven shillings by postal order, towards helping the lepers in India.

"Lawson went home to be with Jesus on the 31st of March last, aged fourteen years and six months. He knew the Lord Jesus for about eighteen months before he died, as his own dear Savior. He was confined to his bed for a few months before the Lord took him, and he bore a very bright testimony till life left his body.

"During his illness he noticed in FAITHFUL WORDS the need spoken of for help amongst the lepers. He had no money, but the Lord laid the desire upon his heart to help in some way. So he called his mother, who, like himself, is a believer in the same precious Jesus, and asked her to sell his reward books, and then to give the money over for the lepers.

“One thing he said, which I shall not forget. When his mother was helping him to fix a price on one of the books, he said, ' That's too cheap, mother; I am a steward of the Lord. I must be faithful, and get the full price.' "

So dear Lawson's eleven shillings have gone to help the poor lepers. It was his cup of cold water, given to them in the Name of Jesus, and it will not lose its reward. The dear lad was a good steward for his Master, and may we all, like him, remember that we are stewards of what we have.

Your affectionate Friend,

EDITOR OF FAITHFUL WORDS.

List of Donors

“Beatrice” (Hackney), is.; Lucy Williams, is.; “M. A." (Hazel Grove, Park Road, Bolton), 6d.; "Inasmuch," 25.; E. A." (Hackney), is.; “Emma Carnell” (Plumstead), Id.; No name (Sheffield post mark), IS.; M. Trutt, 6s.; Ethel Woolley, is.; From a poor woman, through Mrs. Rymer, 4d.; A little child. is.; E. Mazillier, is.; From Penrith, Ios.; R. Thomson" (Hull, Sunday Schools), I6s. 6d.; No name (post mark— Gateshead), 6d.; W. A. Herbert Reider. 2S.; A. W. I fould (Hampton), Ios.; "A brother in the west" (of the United States), ₤i 8s.; The Oakfield (Nova Scotia) Readers of' FAITHFUL WORDS, 25.; No name (Parkstone post mark), IS.; " Pray for all' 2s.; Miss Mortimer, 4s.; H. F. Eggers (Davenport, Iowa, U. S.). 12 dollars) (₤2 8s. IId.); W. Banford (Quebec), ₤1; Lawson Laid low, IIs.; " W. M." (Landport), is.. Beatie Bruce, is.

- - -

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,—It is a great joy to know that you have taken upon your hearts the care of some of our poor lepers, and I desire to thank you very warmly, and at the same time to ask you above all things to pray for them that Jesus may be everything to them. You will naturally wish to hear something about Purulia (pronounced Poorooleea), the place your kind contributions are to help, though I hope your prayer will embrace all the work. Purulia is a station of the Gossner Mission, and for many years a devoted missionary and his wife from Germany have labored there. They were prepared for this special work amongst the lepers in a touching and sad way. Their own eldest child took the terrible disease. It was not known until, with her brothers and sisters, she had gone home to Germany for education. Everything was done for her that could be done, but she grew worse. She suffered much, but the Lord Jesus was her Shepherd and her Friend, and so she suffered most patiently until He called her home to rest with Himself.

Perhaps you and I would have felt that we should never again be able to bear to look at anyone suffering from this awful discos, much less could we devote our lives to them. But such is the constraining love of Christ, that our honored brother and sister take it as their special work for Him to care for these sad and suffering ones. And He has blessed them most gloriously, giving them many, many spiritual children for the beloved one He asked from them years ago.

The first we knew of Mr. Uffmann was when he wrote in broken English a touching letter to us some years ago, in which he begged that the mission to lepers would help him to put up a shelter for the lepers of his district. They had had, he said, some huts put up for them by a government official, who was very kindly disposed towards them, but after a while he was removed, and another official was sent in his place, who did not like the lepers being so near the town. He sent them away to their villages, and burnt down the little huts which the former officer had had put up. The poor sufferers did not like this at all, and some of them crawled back again to where their little village had been, and a few who were very ill died under the shade of the trees which used to overshadow their little huts. The story as told by Mr. Uffmann was pathetic in the extreme, and we decided to help him in his good work. Just at that time Mr. Bailey paid a visit to India, and went to Purulia to meet Mr. Uffmann, when together they went over the site for the asylum.

Afterwards we received an interesting account of the laying the foundation stone of the asylum, a ceremony which was brought to a close by all who were present repeating, each in his own tongue, the Lord's prayer. When Mr. Bailey again visited the place at Christmas, 1890, out of one hundred and sixteen inmates there were only five who had not openly declared themselves on the Lord's side. At that time the asylum was not two years old. Since that time many more precious souls have, we thankfully believe, been born again in that place, and some have gone joyfully to be with their Lord.

Last year the Lord graciously sent His Spirit into their midst in a wonderful way. Quite a number had been received, on professing their faith in the Lord Jesus, into the visible church, and shortly after among the Christians quite an awakening commenced. The search-light of God's Spirit brought many things to their remembrance, done in former days of heathen darkness, which overwhelmed them with sorrow to think of. They longed to make reparation, so far as that was possible, to any whom they had injured; they hungered and thirsted after the word of God in such a measure that in writing of it Mr. Uffmann exclaimed, “Oh, it is a privilege to preach the gospel to these people!” And then they were not satisfied with having found Jesus for themselves, they felt they could not rest till their dear ones were also brought to His feet. And so they arranged frequent prayer-meetings, when they could united plea for their unsaved relatives.

Just at this time the caretaker one night went to the boys' home to see that all was right for the night. These boys are the children of lepers, but quite healthy themselves, and we trust that by keeping them apart from their poor parents we may be able to save them from falling victims to the disease. As well as a boys home, there is also one for girls, and just now in both homes there are thirty-four children. On approaching the home the caretaker heard boys' voices in earnest conversation, and remaining quiet he heard them telling one another how God had showed them what sinful hearts they had, and how displeasing to Him were many things they used to do in their village homes before they had heard of the Lord Jesus. Next day they begged to be allowed a private interview with the missionary, when they unburdened their hearts to him, and begged that they might sometime be allowed to return to their villages, to seek forgiveness from those whom they had formerly behaved badly to. The girls, too, were stirred just in the same way, and at that time we believe many of these young hearts were given to Jesus, and a new glad life in Him began for them. Do pray much for these young brothers and sisters in dark, heathen India, that they may be indeed lights in the midst of its darkness—lights shining so brightly that by their means many and many a poor wanderer may find the way home.

Yours in the service of the best of Masters, ALICE BAILEY

- - -

The following extracts from a letter written by Mr. Uffmann will show you how he loves and longs for the lepers:" The whole number in the asylum, including school children, is two hundred and thirty-two. At this news I can well imagine your skin will creep as you say, 'Where do they get their bread?’ It is impossible for me to refuse anyone who comes. Praise the Lord, many come to know their Savior here. All have the opportunity of hearing the word of God, and a soul is worth more than a whole world. With a heavy, yet joyful heart I see the number of the inmates increasing... We expect from God an open door when we knock, and are the lepers to find it otherwise at our door? I consider it a shame done to the Lord to refuse His sick."

Mr. Uffmann adds how the work of building is carried on, and how the poor lepers help to their power in making bricks and in such labor. Of course their feeble strength does not permit them to do much labor, but they give what they can to assist the work. Good Mr. Uffmann himself takes the trowel, and lays as many bricks as he is able. But since he has the care of the home upon him, and the care of its many inmates, and more, the care of the numbers of lepers in the neighborhood, who would gladly enter the home if there were room and food for them, we must not expect him to lay very many bricks.

What a good thing it would be, if, in all Christian work, all hands and hearts labored together for the one great end! Let us learn our lesson from the spirit shown at Purulia.

Lessons Learned in the School of God

AN apt learner in the school of God, one who had advanced to its highest standard, thus writes —

"I have learned.

"I know.

"I am instructed.

"I can do all things.

"I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with to be content.

"I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound.

"I am instructed, everywhere and in all things, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

"I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST WHICH STRENGTHENETH ME."

These wonderful words were penned while he was in a dungeon, chained to a heathen soldier, and in momentary peril of the executioner's sword. They are no words of sentimentalism, far from it, they express an absolute reality. They are not mere poetry, but a deep personal experience.

I have learned! So he speaks. He had learned the lesson for himself. No one could learn it for him. Our experiences are our own. It was a lesson for the heart, for his heart, and so it was learned. How long it took to learn this lesson, he does not tell us; how it was taught him, he does not say, but the story of his suffering and his holy life of devotion to Christ gives us light upon the matter.

I know! He was speaking in the presence of God, his heart close to Christ, so close that he could say truly, "To me to live is Christ." In that light and that love, he could say "I know how to be abased." Yes, he knew how to follow the footsteps of his Master, who had humbled Himself; and whose humility men took advantage of, so that they despised Him and spat upon Him. Meekly, patiently, holily, this scholar had followed Jesus, and thus he knew how to be abased. And more, he knew “how to abound." Prosperity did not exalt him; he could bear what so few can bear—prosperity!

This was all learned, all a matter of instruction in the school of God. The experience, the knowledge, resulted from the training and the teaching of God. Everywhere and in all things, whether amongst the heathen or within the church, in the dungeon or in the Christian family circle, whether fleeing from one city to another or dispensing abroad the gifts of God, he was instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

We wonder at such Christianity, such a resemblance to Christ. Contemplating it we feel how small we are. Here is, indeed, the “higher Christian life," here, indeed, is "holiness." And very wisely may such as speak of that which is "higher "study this advanced scholar's meekness, gentleness, and patience in daily life.

Yes, this learner in the school of God had learned his lessons, and his knowledge was power. His knowledge was heart-knowledge, wrought within him by God, and hence he could say also, “I can do all things."

Christians sigh for power. But what is the power sighed for? Very often of a sort as unlike that which we are considering as it is possible to conceive.

The source of the power for true holiness is Christ, and Christ continually drawn upon. This is not a sudden conversion to power, no, but power obtained through constant dependence. A power that in no sense abides in the believer independent of its source. But one that may rather be compared to flowing water which is derived from the reservoir, or the force which passes through the wire attached to the electric storage. "Christ strengtheneth me," said Paul. Christ, the apostle's power, empowered His servant to live the life which glorifies God.

Lessons Learned in the School of God: HOPE

WE are expressly told that hope learned experimentally is one of the great lessons God teaches His people in the school of life. (Rom. 5:4.) The experience of the passage, “Experience (worketh) hope," is that of God. We often place our experiences of ourselves too much in the front. Our desire should be to experience who God is. The ways of God with His people are most varied, but they tend to a similar end. It is the sense of this fact that lends such delight to the reading of much of the Psalms, and often occasions the response in the heart to the words of a fellow-Christian. Chord replies to chord. Many realizations of God's goodness to him in varied circumstances led David to say to his downcast soul, “Hope thou in God." God never fails His people; He is true to His promises, and hope built upon Him is built upon an immovable foundation. As men grow older they are less disposed to hope in men, and the best of men may die before fulfilling the expectations built upon them. There is no absolute certainty in such trust. But in God there can be no failure. Thus the believer's hope in God makes not ashamed. No one who truly hopes on Him shall ever be confounded, or know disappointment.

As years go by, as the incidents of life teach us, by their very bitterness, the vanity and the vexation of spirit that surround us, we lift up our hearts the more gladly to our unchangeable God, and hope in His word.

There is great power, as well as comfort, for the soul in hope, and as the believer nears home the promises of God, like the lamps in the lighthouse, shine brighter and brighter before his eyes.

The lighthouse lamps show their brilliancy not only over the sea, they kindle their reflection not only in the eyes of the mariner, they brighten his heart, strengthen his hands, ' and nerve his spirit. In like manner, hope makes not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given us. The love of God in our hearts is our experience of that love placed there by the Holy Ghost. A very much to be coveted appreciation is this! “The love of God...in our hearts" makes the most trying, circumstance but a servant of good. Even as said the apostle, "Death is ours," for death without its sting is but a door opened into, everlasting blessedness.

Lessons Learned in the School of God: MEEKNESS AND PATIENCE

HE who is an apt scholar in the school of his God has acquired some degree in meekness and in patience. These acquirements are of inestimable value and are also of the utmost importance.

So important is meekness that the Master Himself has patterned it to the scholars, and indeed, so precious is it that it is not to be gained by mere book learning. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me," He says; "for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

When He laid aside His garments, and girded Himself and washed the feet of His disciples, He was an excellent example of perfect meekness. He was among them as He that served, and He left in the act a sample of service, so that His own should do one to another even as He had done to them.

Nor has He in this only become our example, but since meekness after His pattern is not natural to us, He, like a careful gardener, gently bends the wayward shoots to incline in the direction which best pleases His wisdom. This means constant care on His part over each one of His people. Suffering is sent, checks and disappointments, to lead the scholar into meekness. What the world might at first sight be inclined to regard as weakness and as loss of strength, is spiritual growth, and worth much in the eyes of the Master.

Patience is also acquired in the school. "Ye have heard of the patience of Job," says St. James, and he leads us to the consideration of that patriarch and the prophets of old for examples. Job was sore buffeted of Satan, but his trials so graciously endured earned him “a good degree," and made him a pattern for multitudes. However long the trial may be, there is always "the end of the Lord” (Jas. 5:11), for faith's view, and since "the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy" His end must be good. Oftentimes "we know not what we should pray for as we ought," but in our most constrained moments, "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." (Rom. 8:26, 28.) And in this knowledge patience increases.

Perhaps, of all others, the suffering and the afflicted, who bear with meekness and in patience the things appointed to them, do most glorify God on the earth.

The Light of Life

THE current of my life flowed on, as it were, amidst sunshine and flowers until I was about seventeen; then came my first sorrow.

My eldest brother, Charles, who was the pride and the joy of the family, was smitten with a grievous illness, the result of an over-worked brain, which, after days and nights of anxious watching, ended in his death. Oh! a sister's love for a favorite brother is very, very deep, having its spring in those earliest associations and affections from which the character takes its future tone, and I felt that all my life was darkened when Charles was taken from us.

My grandfather's death in the early part of that year, led to our removal to St. Leonard's. Here the ocean, in all its varied moods, became my teacher. Well do I remember the soothing, hopeful influence which would steal over my sorrowing heart as I looked, evening after evening, upon the flood of glory shed by the setting sun upon the waves. Brilliant in beauty was the surface, but cold, dark death lurked beneath. Such, I had lately learned, in bitterness and anguish, was the character of the life upon which I was entering. Yet there lay that pathway of golden light, leading on, across and beyond those cold waters, into the very center and fullness of the sun's effulgence! My thoughts turned to the Sun of Righteousness. Was there then a path to Him? And with deep heart-yearning came the next question, Could I ever hope to tread that path of light?

God, in tender mercy, strengthened these my first desires after Himself by four sermons on the Second Advent, which I heard the same autumn. I do not remember any special truth that I gathered, but my soul was exceedingly attracted. I had never heard a Christian preacher before, and I felt inexpressible delight in listening. The hymn we sang at the close"—

Lo! He comes, in clouds descending,

Once for favor’d sinners slain,"

made a deep impression on me, and a lasting one, as I afterwards proved, and became indeed the first feeble gleam of the dawning of that light which was in due time to rise upon my soul.

It was about this time that a friend of ours, with whom we used to practice archery, gave my sister and myself, as a little memento of our intercourse, two books, which were the first evangelical volumes that had ever gained admission into our house. I read and re-read them with intense interest, and with a heart increasingly attracted by the truth, which from the first had appeared to me unutterably lovely.

The next few years I spent principally with a beloved and indulgent uncle and aunt, who took me much into society, and made my life festive with a constant round of pleasure and amusements. The journal which I kept shows how little all this satisfied my soul's longings, and how through it all, I pined for something higher. In the midst of the whirl of balls, I write: "It is not enthusiasm which leads me to form the determination to lead a life dissimilar to that of the majority; it is the calm, sober sense that such a life is the only one consonant with truth and happiness. I look within, and there I find a deep yearning after happiness, which has never yet met with anything approaching to satisfaction. This conviction has long led me to look forward to some future state of being as the object of my wishes."

Thus were all the powerful worldly influences by which I was surrounded unable to stay the gradual but steady progress of the true light in this poor heart.

Three years later I again write in my diary: " Sunday.—The text this morning was, ' O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.' (Hosea 6:4.) The Sun of Righteousness has at times almost risen on my heart, but the brightness of His beams has hitherto only gilded the distant clouds. Lord, grant me grace through my Redeemer ever to grow and increase in the knowledge of Thy will, and in the strength to practice it. Ah! the consideration is awful that we are ever vacillating between good and evil, making little real progress."

Notwithstanding these graver thoughts, I went on in my worldly course, bound to it by the powerful link of the love I bore to my relations, for I foresaw that separation from the world involved separation from them.

Returning one night from a ball, where I had been dancing with the gavest, and conversing with the most brilliant, I remember falling on my knees by my bed-side, dressed as I was in white satin and pearls, and there shedding floods of tears for I was utterly wretched and dissatisfied. "O my God!” I exclaimed,” I never, no, never, shall know what happiness is until I am given wholly to Thee!”

My agonized cry was heard above, but how was it to be answered? How was the most idolatrous heart ever possessed by a daughter of Eve to be taught to say, “What have I any more to do with idols?”

The answer came in a way I little anticipated. In the autumn of that year, as I was busily and merrily engaged in preparations for a fancy ball, I was suddenly seized with severe indisposition. I had lain in my darkened room two or three days, when the fearful conviction came suddenly upon me that I had irretrievably sinned away the day of grace. I was in the most absolute blackness of darkness of despair. Every other feeling of my soul was absorbed in the overwhelming sense that I was lost, that for me there was no hope, either in time or in eternity. I opened my lips to no one as to the torturing conviction that had laid hold on me, ford felt all would utterly fail to convince me to the contrary.

The weather was brilliant, but the sunshine seemed to mock my sadness, and the blue sky was to me as sack-cloth and blackness. If I turned over the leaves of my Bible, it was but to seek those passages which speak of everlasting condemnation. The words sounded continually in my ears, “Thou hast destroyed thyself." (Hosea 13:9.) The blessed conclusion of the sentence, “but in Me is thine help “I, heard not, saw not! I thoroughly justified God in my condemnation; He had offered me light, and I had preferred darkness. My outward conduct might have been fair, but what of my heart? Ah! I had thought that very fair too, until now, but the thrice holy God was showing me myself in all my sinfulness and distance from Him.

Yet I preserved a perfectly calm exterior, and while on all other subjects my innermost thoughts were known to my uncle, of the one great question pending between my soul and God I never spoke, for I felt that I should not be understood, and that I should receive no help. I never therefore made the most distant allusion to my agony of mind. Once only -my uncle, bending lovingly over me as I lay on the sofa, made a touching remark on my unusual gravity, but I gave him no, explanation.

In this fearful state I continued for a fortnight; I can only say of this period, "the pains of hell gat hold upon me." Now my soul bows in adoration before the Savior, who, being about to draw me to Himself, and to give me peace, and joy, and rest of soul, enhanced the value of the wondrous gift by first showing to me the depths of the ruin from which His grace and love rescued me. His purpose of infinite mercy was to unfold to my soul the tenderness, the sweetness of that grace and love; hence He led me through those weeks of misery in which I learned my deep need and His great holiness.

At the close of the fortnight, as I was plaiting my hair one morning, the words of the hymn I had heard years before at St. Leonard's suddenly came to my mind:

“Lo! He comes, in clouds descending,

Once for favor'd sinners slain."

“If for sinners, why not for me?” I exclaimed. The scene described in 1 Thess. 4 rose vividly before me, and I felt the assurance that, as one of the sinners for whom Christ had died, I should be amongst those who would rise to meet Him in the air. All the darkness of my despair was instantly dispelled, and forever! And with a full heart I praised Him for His saving mercy. Not that 1 had settled peace yet; and I had everything to learn.

The Lord, in His tender pity, did not put my trembling, new-born faith to too hard a test. He did not ask me to give up my beloved uncle and aunt, but so ordered events in His gracious providence as to take me away from them. My aunt was called away to the bedside of an invalid friend, and I returned to my own people in Devonshire. Here, in the depths of the country, I devoted myself to earnest study of the word of God and to prayer.

In previous years my love of study had been great, and my kind, wise uncle used to smile, half reproachfully, at the heterogeneous character of the books I read. “Keep to one book, my dear," he would say. He little thought how literally and happily his injunction was soon to be followed; for I now found that all my desire to drink of the mingled and often bitter waters of human wisdom, gave way to the thirst which my God gave me after the living Fountain of His truth, and I discontinued all secular studies. I felt sadly my ignorance of the word of God, and I had no gospel ministry to help me-indeed, I knew not even one converted person. So the Lord became my Teacher by His Holy Spirit through the Scriptures.

That winter I wrote in my diary—

"After an eventful period, I resume my pen. Our prayers should uninterruptedly ascend to the throne of our Heavenly Father, for that love of Christ. Jesus, without which we are dead. But once having gained it, oh! how changed are our prospects for time and for eternity I All things are possible with God, and He will by no means cast out those that come to Him in sincerity. Oh! that Divine love may grow up in my heart! I am sufficiently ready to pour out the boundless ocean of affection upon earthly objects, when I see, or fancy that I see any perfection in them; shall I then receive coldly the marvelous blessings of redemption and sanctification? Shall the prospect of spending an eternity with my Savior affect me so little?"

“December 25.—To make all our requests known to God by prayer is an inexpressibly dear privilege. My supplication at the throne of mercy is, that in every sorrow and in every doubt I may have grace given me to see in what way it is God's will that I should walk. And I have faith that ' My God will be very gracious at the voice of my cry.' When He shall hear it, He will answer it, and my ears shall hear a voice saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it.' "

And the answer was not long in coming. As I was praying in my room one afternoon with my Bible before me, earnestly desiring to know if I in very deed were saved, my eyes fell on the text, " I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." The words entered into my soul with the deep, calm, living joy and power which the Holy Ghost alone can give. I knew that it was the voice of God, speaking to me through Christ Jesus my Lord by the Holy Ghost, and my whole being was filled with that " peace which passeth all understanding."

Here, then, was the answer to my cries—here the unutterably blessed filling up of the vacancy in my heart, which had made my life one long sigh! Now, indeed, I could come up from the wilderness leaning upon my Beloved! With the sweet assurance of the fullness of His delight in me, there was no room in my heart for any other claim, and, in His infinite grace, He did enable me now to say, "What have I any more to do with idols?”

One of the sweetest unfoldings of the grace of God towards us is surely that which makes us share of His own joy as the Giver. To be able to minister to others even the lower order of blessings is happiness. What shall we say, then, of the love which allows us to bring the light of life to those most dear to us?

During the following years, to my great joy, my three sisters and my youngest brother received Christ through conversations I continually had with them. Then my dear father's health began to decline, and our medical man at length requested my mother to allow me to tell my father that he was rapidly sinking. Up to this period he never would permit me to speak to him about the Lord, though I had found frequent opportunities of writing to him. The morning after the doctor's request I was alone in the bedroom with the beloved invalid. The room was darkened, so that I could not see his countenance. He suffered much from want of circulation, which I was trying to restore by rubbing his feet. As I knelt by his couch the Lord gave me courage to speak of Himself; who is “the Resurrection and the Life," and at the same time I told him the doctor's opinion as to his health. My father received all that I said with calmness and kindness, and from that day forward, for nearly three months, I had the joy daily of bringing to him the glad tidings of good things.

That my beloved parent gave up that righteousness of his own to which he had clung, and that he received Christ as his Savior, I have not the least doubt. On the last morning of his life he told me that he should die in the evening, and at the same time expressed his confidence in Christ alone. He passed away without a sigh, sitting in his easy-chair, at the moment that the sun sank in the crimson west.

- - -

Thus did the Lord, in His saving pity, bring my feet into the way of peace-into that pathway of living light that, as a young girl, I had longed to tread. Truly I may say—

“I came to Jesus, and I found

In Him my Star, my Sun,

And in that light of life I'll walk

Till travelling days are done."

Lina and Her Bible

IN these days, when many in England are giving up the Bible, as an old fashioned book, which they neither value nor respect, it is of deep interest to hear of some, in less favored lands, who are struggling forward to the light, and are suffering rather than relinquish that holy volume.

Lina was born in a little village on the frontier of Switzerland,—a country that has fought, bravely for liberty for both body and soul. Her father was a German Protestant, her mother a French Roman Catholic, and as the Roman Church insists, in the case of these mixed marriages, that all the children shall be brought up in its faith, Lina and her brothers and sisters benefited nothing by the father's Protestantism. They were early taught the worship of the Virgin Mary, and trained in the idolatry and superstitions of Popery.

When the little girl was thirteen years of age, she was sent, according to the rules of her church, to confess to the priest, preparatory to making her first communion. Poor Lina was unutterably shocked at the questions put to her by the priest, and when released from the torture of the confessional fled back to her mother in an agony of tears, imploring never again to be sent to face such an ordeal. The mother gently soothed the weeping girl, and yielding to her entreaties, finally promised that she should never again go to confession.

Now there was in that humble home a book which spoke of life, and light, and future glory, and that volume was treasured by the often-weary mother above all other books. It was the Roman Catholic version of the Bible. Now this version is professedly allowed to be read by Romanists, but when it came to the ear of the village priest that it was opened in that household, sternly forbidding its perusal, he demanded that it should be given up to This Lina's mother firmly refused to do, and ashen he threatened her with the wrath of the Church, she courageously replied that she would leave the Church rather than give up her precious book. And at length, to protect her liberty, she declared that from henceforth she was a Protestant. The angry priest had no ether resource than to leave the house, which he did, invoking upon the family the judgment and wrath of God. Lina and her youngest brother declared themselves also to be Protestants, and joined with the mother in reading the proscribed volume.

The following year a terrible sorrow came to the little household. The patient, gentle and Bible-loving mother was taken from them, and the poor father, perplexed as to how to care for his little flock without her, consented to the grandparents lessening his anxieties by adopting one of the children. Lina, the eldest girl, was chosen by them as the one most likely to be useful, and with many tears the young girl left her brothers and sisters and went away with the Roman Catholic grandparents. A hard time was in store for the pool child! The old people were firmly resolved to bring the young heretic back into the true fold, and to spare no pains to the body for the welfare of the soul.

Lina was reasoned with, exhorted and threatened by her relatives, their friends, and the parish priest; but remembering her dying mother's injunctions, never to give up the Bible, she positively refused to do so, neither would she attend mass, nor go to the confession. A married aunt, who lived not far from the grandparents, then tried her best with the stubborn maiden, telling her of the flames of purgatory specially heated for the heretics, and warning her that she would bring upon herself the eternal wrath of God. But though Lina wept she held firm, and the aunt after awhile gave up all hope of the girl's soul, and from henceforth made the sign of the cross when she passed her, as a silent invocation to God for preservation from contamination with the heretic.

Lina was now systematically treated with the utmost harshness; often she was severely beaten, many times she was kept so short of food as to be sorely hungry, and in various ways she was made to feel that she had forfeited all right to the affection or kindness of her family, and was nothing to them but a slave, whom they might ill-treat and work to the utmost. Still the girl held firmly to her precious book-a book that was yet a sealed one to her, for she understood nothing of God's way of salvation. The Scriptures brought no comfort or peace to her soul, and many times as she read, she wept and prayed, that God would grant her light and understanding, and guide her stumbling feet into the way of peace.

The grandfather, furious at the failure of all efforts to shake her constancy, as a last resource declared his intention of cutting her out of his will unless she yielded. But though being disinherited was a serious matter to a delicate girl, who had to make her own way in the world, Lina was given courage and faith to choose first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and to trust Him that all else l would be added unto her. When, some years later, the poor old man died, and his property came to the Roman Catholic grandchildren,) Lina's one comfort in his death was that, after he hail appealed to the Virgin and the saints, he fit that such prayers were vain, and he died calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus.

The poor girl's health was so broken down by the cruelty to which she was constantly subjected, that at the end of the year, the father, alarmed at her thin, pale face, brought her home again among the loved band of brothers and sisters. Time passed on, and although Lina's health continued very broken, she was able to follow various household employments, and after a few years was put out to service. She creditably filled different positions in private Swiss families and in hotels; but being generally thrown among Roman Catholics or merely nominal Christians, she had no help in spiritual things, and the questionings of her soul as to how she might obtain the forgiveness of her sins and draw near to the holy God, were yet unanswered.

However, God had heard poor Lina's prayers for light and peace, and last winter He graciously led her to enter the service of an English Christian family in France. Here the Word of God, which she had so long revered, was daily read to the assembled household, and God's blessing was sought upon each one in prayer. Lina was also invited to accompany the family to some simple French services which were held in the town, and many little words of loving encouragement were from time to time spoken to her, as to the Savior’s love and willingness to receive her.

She had at last found the surroundings she had often desired in her anxious and changeful life, and she was very happy. Yet, for awhile, her eyes seemed holden so that she -could not see the blessed Savior, whose love made those about her full of joy. To all they said, she answered, that she was trying to be as good as they were. So the old error of the Roman Church, of salvation by works, still held sway in her soul, although she professed the great doctrine of Protestantism—justification by faith.

But the Bible, to which she had so tenaciously clung through years of persecution, was at length to bring to her simple soul the long-desired light and liberty.

One Sunday, a young lady of the family, who herself had but recently found the Lord Jesus as her Savior, had a long talk with Lina, with the open Bible before them. She pointed out to her God's way of saving sinners, through the once-offered sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, and showed Lina the grand truth of substitution. The lamb being offered for the firstling of the ass (Exod. 13:13) was a type used to help the young believer. She explained to Lina that it was faith and not feelings which made the sinner accepted before God, and which brought peace to the anxious soul. Lina saw, as she had never done before, that Christ had taken her place, and had borne the punishment due to her, and that now she was free, forgiven, justified! Her joy was great, as the weary burdens of many years passed off, and she came into the marvelous light of the love of God, and the full, free, present and eternal salvation which is for every believing soul in Christ.

The Bible has now become Lina's delight and her daily study, and great is her desire to know the Lord's mind in all things, and to live to the glory of her Savior, and to do all she can to bring others to Him. She writes constantly, pleading with her dear brothers and sisters, still in darkness and superstition, and many are her earnest prayers that they too may be brought into “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." A. P. C.

Little Hilda's Faith in Prayer

I WANT to say a few words to my very little friends about telling Jesus what they want when they pray, for He does so like us just to come to Him as little children do to their father or mother, when they want to ask for something. Because, although God is in heaven, and we are down on the earth, He always hears us when we pray, if we really mean what we say.

Shall I tell you about a little girl only six years old I know? Her name is Hilda, and the other morning she came to see me with her mother, and as it was a very dull and gloomy morning, I made the remark that it looked very much like rain.

“Yes, it does," said the lady,” but Hilda says it is not going to rain very much today."

I wondered very much how such a little girl should understand about the weather, so stooped to ask her why she thought it was not going to rain. And then she told me that her mamma bad promised to take her somewhere in the afternoon if it was fine, and so she had asked Jesus to let it rain “only a little bit."

"But why do you want it to rain a little bit?" I asked.

“Just to water the flowers," answered my little friend.

“And so you don't think it is going to rain because you asked Jesus, Hilda? "

“No," she answered again,” because Jesus always hears us when we pray to Him, doesn't He? "

All this time Hilda's mamma had been listening with such a happy look on her face, to think how her dear little girl could trust Jesus simply, and she told me that whenever Hilda wanted anything she always told Jesus about it.

One morning at breakfast the servant came in and brought in a letter for their father, and when he opened it, he found it was from his eldest little son, who was away from home at boarding-school. He read the letter, and as he put it down, said, "Poor Willie!”

"What is the matter?" said Willie's mother. "He has failed in his examination."

For a minute or two no one spoke, and then a little voice said:

"Do you think, mamma, Willie asked Jesus to help him in his lessons?”

This was Hilda's brother Raymond.

"I don't think he could have done, mamma, because Jesus would sure to have helped him, if he had."

“Yes, I am sure He would, too," answered the mother; “what do you say if we ask Willie next time we write if he did forget?”

“Oh yes, mamma! do, please; because, Jesus will help him with all his lessons, and then next time he will be sure to pass his examination."

These two dear children, little Hilda and her brother Raymond, both knew what prayer was, and they believed in it, and I want any of my little friends who read this, just to remember, when they kneel down to pray to God, He just wants them to ask Him for what they want, and ask Him to help them in their lessons and play, or whatever they are doing all through the day. R. H.

The Lone Star Mission of Telugu

TELUGU country lies in the Madras Presidency, Southern India, which is bounded by the Bay of Bengal on the east. The coast line is known as the Coromandel coast.

Fifty-seven years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Day sailed from America for this field. A little more than a year after, an extended tour in the country was made; forty villages were visited, in many of which no missionary or other Christian had ever been seen. The center of their operations was Nellore, in the midst of a dense Telugu population.

In 1848, Dr. and Mrs. Jewett joined the missionaries, and all labored on under many discouragements. Up to 1853, only three persons had been baptized on their profession of faith; and this was all the apparent result of eighteen years of labor.

The propriety of abandoning the mission was discussed at home, but the earnest appeals of Mr. Day, who had been compelled to return for a season to his native country to recruit his health, prevailed. However, the question came up again, "Shall the Telugu work be abandoned?" The difficulties and discouragements were so great, and the results so very small. One of the speakers, during this discussion, pointing to Nellore on the map, gave it the name of “The Lone Star," an appellation which has clung to it ever since.

Towards the close of 1853 a turning point was reached in the history of the mission. The Jewetts, with the three native Christians, Nersu, Julia, and Ruth, made a tour northward. Before sunrise on the New Year's morning of 1854 they climbed the hill which overlooks Ongole and the surrounding country. The dawn revealed to them the populous town, with its mosques and temples, and they, counted fifty villages dotting the plains all wholly given to idolatry." Kneeling down, each in turn made supplication to the Lord to send to Ongole a true and faithful witness for God—a true missionary-and they had the assurance that their prayer was heard.

Nine years later, the missionary who had been asked was given. Mr. Clough, a civil engineer, felt called to this particular field of Christian work. He took up for his sphere Ongole, seventy miles north of Nellore. He took charge of the new station in 1866, and after a time he began tours among the surrounding villages. He made known his coming visits, and announced he was coming to tell the people of Jesus.

On reaching a village, Conda Padu, he found between thirty and forty persons, who had come to his tent in the tamarind grove. They were prepared for a stay of some days, and had brought with them provisions; they had come to learn of Christ. They also brought with them a change of clothes, for they were prepared for making a public profession of His name in baptism. Twenty-eight of these people were baptized. Showers of blessing presently followed. Some of the converts visited no less than eight hundred villages in the district, and in less than two years from the founding of the mission at Ongole the little church had increased to seventy-five members.

Mr. Clough was confident that God had great things in store for the Telugus. Many a time, in 1869, when he was far away among the jungle villages, the word came to him, " Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." And so it was, for soon, instead of being one of the most unpromising, the Telugu mission became most hopeful and attractive.

The growth of the churches was most remarkable, both in Ongole and Ramapatam— indeed, at the latter place, the communicants could be numbered by the hundred, and there was a band of native teachers and students.

The field of work of which Ongole was the center, covering art area of seven thousand square miles, and comprising a million of people, scattered in thirteen hundred villages, was divided into eight districts, and in these a native preacher and his assistant went from village to village telling " the old, old story of Jesus and His love."

In 1877 a terrible famine occurred in the district, and it brought hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. Then it became manifest why God had chosen a civil engineer to be a missionary, and had sent him to that field. Mr. Clough undertook work under the government for completing the Buckingham Canal. On this work he employed thousands of the Telugus, to whom the gospel was preached after the day's work was done. The men labored in successive gangs— thus thousands heard the words of life. The truth sank into their hearts in such a way that the following year thousands came to ask for baptism. Mr. Clough states, "Perhaps not one hundred had ever received from me, directly or indirectly, the value of a piece (less than half a farthing) from the famine fund, or ever expected to receive from me any financial aid."

Mr. Clough, like his fellow-worker, Mr. Jewett, was a man of prayer as well as ceaseless activity. On going to Ongole, he was waited on by citizens of the high caste, who gave him support, and placed sixty-two of their sons in his school, furnishing the funds for carrying it on, and all this without any restriction as to his religious teaching. But one day three low caste men presented themselves as converts, and were made welcome. This naturally raised the indignation of the high caste Telugus; they waited on the missionary, telling him that if he had anything more to do with Sudras and Pariahs the high caste scholars would be at once withdrawn.

Two other low caste converts applied shortly after for admission. This was the crisis. The school was likely to be wrecked on this rock of caste. It was a battle between caste and Christ. There was a great stir in the town, and the missionary had to decide what he should do.

He and his wife went at the same time into different apartments to pray for the Lord's guidance. They cried for direction in their great extremity, and each took up a New Testament to seek help. On opening his Testament Mr. Clough's eye: fell on the passage: "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence."

“I see it," said Mr. Clough. “I have not been building on God's plan: it must tumble down, and I must begin anew."

He left the room to go and tell his wife, whom he met coming into the study, and, lo, her hand was on the very same scripture! They at once announced their purpose, and the result was every scholar left them.

But what is the fact today? Among the thirty thousand Ongole communicants, a number of converts from the upper castes have been gathered in. Christ's name has prevailed over the pride of caste. The work has proved to be deep, true, and lasting. Quite a number of the converts have become valuable workers, in preaching, writing tracts, and composing hymns, and in other departments of Christian service.

We will add here a few words of encouragement concerning the same field from the records of the Church Missionary Society. During a great festival, when thousands of the natives had congregated by the waters of the river Kistna to worship their gods, and to wash away their sins, the solitary missionary was full of grief, mourning over the excitement and wild joy of the idolaters. In the great crowd there was one man who had travelled on foot for many miles; he had heard that occasionally a Christian teacher would come to these Hindu festivals and tell the people of the true God. Three years before he had heard that there is a living and a true God, and he had given up his idols, and his constant cry was, "O great God! Who art Thou? Where art Thou? Show Thyself to me."

After this, he learned from his heathen friends, who had heard the missionaries, the truth, that the great God is Himself the Savior, and Venkayya altered his prayer thus, "O great God, the Savior, show Thyself to me."

Again, after some time, certain of his heathen friends attended, out of curiosity, a funeral conducted by some native Christians, and these friends carried to Venkayya the strange story, that the Christians at the grave bade one another dry up their tears, for the soul of their departed friend had gone to God, and the body only rested in the dust till it should rise again.

" Ah," cried Venkayya, "this teaching belongs not to man—it comes from God, who alone gives life; who ever heard before that the dead would come to life again? "

And now this seeker after God, whom God had enlightened to know that there is one God, and that He is the Savior-God, and that the dead rise again, was mournfully wandering in the midst of the throngs attending the festival, praying that he might be led to the Christian teacher. Strangely, a heathen priest directed him where the Christian teacher was proclaiming Christ in the midst of the people. In the end, Venkayya, together with some of his friends, came to the teacher's house, and thus introduced themselves: "We are heathen men, without wisdom; we have come to see you, wishing to know about God. Tell us about the true God, the Savior, of whom you know."

They sat down in the verandah out of the burning sunshine, and heard, from the very heart of the Christian teacher, the words of life. He told them of Jesus, and how precious He was to himself, how he had peace and joy in trusting in Him, and then declared that He had died upon the cross for sinners, and was ready to receive every sinner who came to Him. Then Venkayya arose, and looking up said, with deep emotion: “This is my God, this is my Savior. I have been long seeking for Him; now I have found Him, I will serve Him."

Venkayya invited Mr. Darling to his village, and there a great work for God began. Venkayya removed the lock of hair from his forehead, which is a badge of heathenism, and was baptized, together with his wife and family. He suffered various persecutions from the heathen, but though wounded for Christ, yet his life was spared for some time, and he devoted himself to the glory of his God and his Savior.

Looking Back Twenty-One Years

THE following was copied out by a Christian friend, who knows the old Christian, and testifies how she rejoices in God's goodness and mercy to her:" I feel today, as I look back over my life for the last twenty-one years, that I should like others to know how good and merciful God has been to me. My dear husband was taken to be with his Lord and Master in 1872, and my business and my home had to be given up. Added to this, my health began to fail, which was a serious trial to me. At this time I found the fourth Psalm very precious indeed. I remembered that God knew all my sorrow and weakness. For months I was not able to do anything, but in due time He raised me up, and I am able to work. Thank God for alt His mercy and goodness to me. I thought this might strengthen the faith of some poor, downcast soul, and out of gratitude to God am writing this. “A WIDOW."

The Measurer

HERE we have a professional measurer at his work. He shakes the corn well down into the vessel, and then by the adroit use of his bony fingers builds it up above the sides of the vessel into a kind of pyramid. We can almost see his fingers deftly piling up the corn to a point as we look at the picture. It is his business to fill the vessel to overflowing, and not too easy is it to give the good measure required, but by long practice he has acquired the perfection he displays. A bare bushel filled up close would not be called “good measure “in the Eastern market where our friend is carrying on his profession, so that his success in life depends upon his cleverness in piling up the corn.

The Lord took up His parables from the things of everyday life around Him, and when illustrating His teaching He one day thus referred to the measurer: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom." (Luke 6:38.) Now this is very different from being a giver of good measure by way of business! We are exhorted to give according to the way God gives to us, and in order to do so we need very much grace. Such measuring as we have described may befit the Eastern market, since it is the trade custom there prevailing, but no custom of generosity is current in the world.

Let us observe that what we sow we reap. “Give, and it shall be given unto you." God will take the side of him who acts out the divinely given precept. And even in this life we frequently see the fulfillment of these words: “For with the same measure tha t ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." Both the self-seeking and the self-sacrificing have their reward. He who lives for others has a happier life by far than he who lives for himself. It is lighter to bear the burdens of others than to be crushed down under the burden of self. He who lives for himself, has for his portion the Wretchedness of self-occupation; while he who lives for others (though it be but in degree) has that strange ease in bearing his own burdens, which follows the bearing of the burden of others.

Our Lord is our gracious example. He was amongst us as He that served. He went about doing good. He was ever the Giver. Out of His fullness have we received, and hence the Christian has gifts to bestow, which while enriching such as receive, cannot impoverish the giver.

Mighty Fine Words

MRS. F. was a little old Irish woman, aged seventy-nine. She lived alone in a miserable tenement in a low quarter of the city of Peterborough, and depended for sustenance on parish relief; the greater part of which was swallowed up in rent, and also in attendance, for, as she was a great sufferer from asthma, she could not do what was necessary in even so small a dwelling. Her husband had been dead some years, and her only son had forsaken her.

She was by profession a strict adherent to the Roman Church, and had never in her life set her foot inside any church but her own. But the light of the glorious gospel of Christ had shone into her dark mind, and brought her to the knowledge of Him as her Savior, and to rest solely in His finished work for acceptance. When I first visited her I was surprised to find her so bright and happy. For several years she had known the Lord, and was able to converse very intelligently on His ways of grace and mercy in saving us from wrath, and keeping us from day to day while passing on to the glory.

She had a Bible presented to her by some Christian lady, and from thence she received the comfort and help so much needed by one so forsaken and desolate; and most fully did our gracious Father prove Himself to be "the God of the widow "—" the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort," to this lonely one.

One day, when conversing together on the unchangeable love of the Lord Jesus, Mrs. F. made a remark which showed how she appreciated the compassion He had shown her.

“Ah, mister," said she, "them's mighty fine words of the blessed Savior in the Book where He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' We may go to people for them to help us, but they get tired of us if we go too often. But He niver be tired of us. Doesn't He say He'll not cast us out? That's a mighty fine speech of His, is that!"

Oh, the blessedness of simple faith in the Lord Jesus! How vast a change would it bring about in the lives of many, had they the faith of this poor woman!

She is now absent from the body, present with the Lord! After a few days' illness, her spirit departed to God who gave it. And now the body for awhile reposes in the cemetery, awaiting the grand moment when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, to raise the dead and change the living who are His, thus making good to all His own that promise of His: "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

I was with her a short time before she died. She was peaceful and happy, greatly desiring to be gone.

The priest, who had not been near for a long time, came constantly after he heard of her illness. With much ado he fulfilled what he looked upon as his priestly office, and considered so essential to the well-being of the soul of her who was soon to pass from this world into that which, to him, appeared to be a dreadful place, but to her enlightened mind was a country to be desired—a Fatherland more dear by far than even Erin's Isle.

And then the funeral! Candles and crucifix; vestments and incense; prayers to the Virgin; prayers for the dead. Well-nigh enough to make one cry out, “Why make ye this ado? She is not dead, but sleepeth."

As we view that dear soul in the light of God's word, we can say, “She is at rest!”

Dear reader, are you basking in the sunshine of God's love, so fully manifested in the gift of His only-begotten Son to a world of sinners? Or are you groping in the darkness caused by the intervention of some object of human or Satanic origin between yourself and God as revealed in the Scriptures, where we see Him as One who justifies the ungodly-justifies freely by His grace -through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Listen no longer to those who would tell you to labor, but listen to the tender pleading and loving entreaty of the kind and loving Savior, who now calls you to enjoy His love, His rest, His home. “Come unto Me ... and I will give you rest." G. G.

The Missing Pin

OUR eight-day kitchen timepiece was out of order, so I gave it in charge of the carrier, to take to a man in our nearest town who understood its mechanism. On its return, I noticed the minute hand was not secure; however, I fitted it as tightly as I could with my fingers. The clock hung again in its place, and told out the minutes and hours as before. Some time elapsed, when one day in passing I noticed that there was only one hand; I opened the case, and discovered the missing one below, lying useless and idle. I replaced it as best I could, but after this, was occasionally deceived in the time by the loosely fitting hand; still I bore with its uncertainty, without seeking the cause.

One day a young friend called. The hand of the clock this time was stationary, and I remarked to him that it occasionally disappeared.

He exclaimed immediately, “The pin which should hold it is missing."

“Of course the pin should hold it," I said, wondering at my own want of thought. “I remember now the pin was missing when the carrier brought it home. Oh! it is the pin that is needful to make it work complete and dependable." In this is there not a little parable to ourselves? Is it not so, that when Jesus holds us, we can work for Him; but apart from Him, all is untrue, unreal, unsafe, unsatisfactory.

Dear reader, this is a simple parable. How often we forget that it is the Lord who must hold us. “Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe," pleads David in Psalm 119:117; adding, “And I will have respect unto Thy statutes continually." Nothing else will keep us safely; nothing will so much make us "have respect unto His statutes continually," save His holding us safely. M. A. W,

- - -

In the Light of Eternity

A GERMAN scholar lay dying. He had worked hard, and was leaving as a legacy to coming generations, a book in which he supposed that he had proved, beyond doubt or question, that there is no life beyond the grave. Suddenly a "horror of great darkness" came upon him, and springing up in bed, he shouted—" There is another world," and falling back upon his pillow he expired. F. H. F.

Missions in Jamaica

ONE Christian body has been specially conspicuous for its evangelical labors in Jamaica, and to that body George Liele and Moses Baker belonged. Other bodies of Christians have toiled nobly and with success, but those who were first in the field have held, and still hold, a foremost place, both as to numbers and as to the wide popularity and usefulness of many of their missionaries. Two things operated at the beginning of the century to make very desirable the presence of English brethren to take the oversight of the congregations raised by Liele and Baker and their helpers; one was, that these brethren were aged and toil-worn and had been reduced by persecutions and sufferings to an infirm condition; and the other was, that while for six years they had been silenced from preaching, the congregations had been scattered and disorganized. They felt, too, that abler men, with a better education than they had received, were needful for the consolidation and extension of the work. They appealed to England for help, and they did not appeal in vain.

The reports which reached England of the wonderful work of God by means of the poor, untrained African brethren, awakened in the minds of many Christians a deep interest in Jamaica. Prominent among such was Dr. Rippon.

Saint Lucia

A correspondence was kept up for some years between the African preachers and the doctors, and, at length, after years of praying and waiting, God graciously opened the, way; and from that time (1814) a noble train of earnest workers and successful laborers have gone forth, until in Jamaica of today the number of professed Christians, in proportion to population, is far larger than in Great Britain.

But the difficulties were immense. Speaking generally, the authorities were against them, and many of these failed not to make full use of the arbitrary laws then in force. Many of the proprietors of estates and their agents were grossly wicked, hated the light the missionaries sought to shed, and stuck at nothing in order to silence, crush, or expel them. The climate put an end to the labors and the sufferings of not a few of these zealous servants of God, at the very commencement of their course, while others labored only a few years, and were then called home. Similar difficulties have ever marked the early stages of missionary enterprise. It seems that it must be so, for the present, at least, and it may be permitted so that “the excellency of the power" of the gospel may be seen to be not of men but of God. Notwithstanding all difficulties, oppositions, and sufferings, the gospel proved “mighty through God “to the conversion and salvation of vast numbers.

Some of the proprietors, too, and others of the white population, were conspicuous for their kindness to the missionaries, if for no higher reason than that the gospel changed their slaves for the better whenever it was truly received.

The normal condition of the slaves was very low-indeed, they were ignorant, besotted, and many of them grossly immoral; indeed, they were almost or quite as bad as some of the whites, which is saying a great deal. But among the Jamaica slaves the gospel had in a gracious sense, a free course. They had no religious and self-righteous prejudices to give up, but were ready simply to receive the message of salvation and the gift of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly in their case, in a marked degree, Watts's lines proved true:

“The gospel bids the dead revive;

Sinners obey the voice and live;

Dry bones are raised and clothed afresh,

And hearts of stone are turned to flesh."

The brethren who preached, did not preach, as too many do now, something about the gospel, but the gospel itself. They knew its power in their own hearts; they knew its adaptation to the case of all sinners, even the worst; and they preached in reliance on the promise of God to make His own word effectual "by the power of the Holy Spirit."

The simplicity and the reality of the African faith may be seen in the testimony of an English minister:" I was preaching at Plymouth, and a request was sent to the pulpit to this effect: ' The thanksgivings of this congregation to Almighty God are desired by the captain, passengers, and crew of the West India man, for their merciful deliverance from shipwreck during the late awful tempest.' The following day I went on board, and entered into conversation with the passengers, when a lady thus addressed me: Oh, sir! what an invaluable blessing must personal religion be! Never did I see it more exemplified than in my poor servant Ellen, during the storm. When we expected every wave to entomb us all, my mind was in a horrible state. I was afraid to die, but Ellen would come to me with all possible composure, “Never mind, missee, look to Jesus Christ. He made, He rule de sea." And when, sir, we neared the shore, and were at a loss to know where we were, fearing every minute to strike upon the rocks, poor Ellen said, with the same composure as before-" Don't be fear, missie; look to Jesus Christ, He de Rock. No shipwreck on dat Rock; He save to the utmost. Don't be fear, missie; look up to Jesus Christ."'

"Of course I wished to see this poor, though rich, African. She was called, and in the presence of the sailors the following conversation took place: “Well, Ellen, I am glad to find you know something of Jesus Christ.”

“Jesus Christ, massa! Oh, He be very good to my soul! Jesus Christ! Oh, He be very dear to me!

“How long is it since you first knew the Savior?'

“Why, massa, some time ago me hear Massa Kitching preach about the blessed Jesus. He say to we black people, “The blessed Jesus come down from the good world. He pity we poor sinners. We die or He die! He die, but we no die! He suffer on the cross. He spill precious blood for we poor sinners." Me feel me sinner; me cry; me pray to Jesus, and He save me by precious blood. He very good; He save me!'

"'And when did you see Mr. Kitching last?'

“Sir, the fever take him; he lie bed; he call we black peoples his children. He say, “Come round the bed, my children "; he den say, “My children, I go to God; meet me before God," and den he fall asleep.'

“Oh, then, Ellen, Mr. Kitchen is dead (he departed to his rest after about twelve months only of faithful service), is he?’

“Dead, sir? Oh, no! Massa Kitching no die; he fall asleep, and he sleep till the trumpet of the archangel wake him. Massa Kitching no die; he fall asleep! ' "

Would that all white people who profess to believe in Christ could give so good an account of their faith as this simple-hearted African girl.

The missionaries preached freedom from the law, from condemnation, and from the reigning power of sin, Satan, and the world, and a holy liberty of access to and converse with God as the privilege of all believers, of whatever color or speech. We can imagine in part what sweet notes these were to those who were in bondage to their fellow-man, and cruelly oppressed by their masters.

This yoke the greater part bore with meekness, but it was only natural that those, with greater force of character, should see the connection between spiritual liberty and social freedom, and sigh and long for the loosening of their chains. The oppressive laws gave the proprietors a wide latitude of power, and many of them were all too ready to use it to make the lives of their slaves "bitter with hard bondage." Slavery to their fellow-men, and some of whom were more like fiends than men, became more and more irksome to the blacks.

Wilberforce, Sharpe, and others in the senate, William Knibb and Thomas Burchell, Jamaica missionaries, in their letters home, and in their platform addresses in all parts of England, proclaimed the abomination of slavery, and claimed for their black brethren of Jamaica, that birthright of personal liberty which is the God-given heritage of all. Their trumpet notes sounded through the land, and their echo reverberated amid the hills and valleys of Jamaica; it became the voice of the Christian Church in the British Isles, the voice of the nation, the voice of the British Parliament, and the voice of God. The death knell of slavery was rung, and the slaves of the British West Indies were free!

Wisely it was planned that an edition of the New Testament should be prepared to place in the hands of the liberated Africans. Joyfully they received it; and among them for long that particular edition of the Scriptures was called “The 'Mancipation Book." Many are the incidents related in connection with it, but there is room for none here. Suffice it to say that it was the "'Mancipation Book" to very many. The Africans gave proof that they could be trusted with the liberty granted them; and if any had thoughts of running liberty into license, the powerful influence of the missionaries generally sufficed to restrain all those who were under it. The children of former slaves have shown themselves capable of the highest culture, not a few of them having become efficient pastors or missionaries to their African brethren.

The churches are nearly all self-supporting, and are mainly prosperous and happy. Besides this, a very considerable sum is raised every year for foreign missions, These blessings has the Holy Spirit poured upon the sons of Africa, in Jamaica, and from them have emanated earnest and prayerful efforts for their mother country, which shall yet know a gospel day, and rise from her degradation. R. S.

A Mother's Prayer

A WIDOWED mother, who lived in a little cottage, and was supported by an industrious son, was about to retire for the night. The son had been the subject of many prayers, but as yet no apparent answer had come. However, the believing mother still prayed on, for she had faith in the words of Holy Writ, "The promise is unto you and to your children." Everything was prepared for the night in the little cottage, and as the mother was taking her candle, and was about to wish her son good night, he suddenly said, “I have something to say to you, mother."

“What do you want to talk to me about, my son?" said the old lady, setting down the candle.

“It is about the work which God has done in my soul," he replied.

The heart of the Christian mother bounded for joy, and as they sat the son told her how God had made him to know and to feel that he was a great sinner, and how he had been for a long time in deep sorrow of heart.

He went on to say he had thought he never could be saved, but one day he saw by faith that there was a Great Savior for great sinners, and " so," said he, " I just believed Him when He said, ' Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.'"

Fifty years, with their changes, have passed away since the conversation just narrated took place. The aged mother is gone, but the "boy," whose head is now plentifully besprinkled with grey hairs, is, and has been for forty years, engaged in the delightful occupation of winning others to the same Savior. RHODA.

A Mother's Prayer

THE subject of this narrative is a young man of twenty-eight years of age, Who resided in the village of W. I had known him for a long time; in fact, I had worked with him. Often had he been spoken to about his soul, but, like many more, he seemed to turn a deaf ear to all entreaties, and to be insensible to the strivings of the Holy Spirit. But God had His own way of bringing John B. to Himself, and of making him know the blessed reality of having his sins forgiven, and of being justified from all things.

I had left the place where we used to work together, but sometimes I saw John's mother, who conveyed the sad news that John was sinking in consumption.

Who can tell the love of a fond mother, who knows Christ, and knows her own sins to be forgiven, and who is living in the hope of being forever with the Lord—ah! who can tell the heart yearnings of such a heart, while sitting and watching over her son, who is not saved, and is not ready for eternity. Such was the sorrow of John's faithful parent.

One night she went down to her son's house, and, whilst speaking to him about his soul, a power such as she could not describe came upon her. She knelt down to supplicate before the throne of grace. She felt she could not leave her son unsaved. She spoke of hell with its terrors, and the awful consequence of rejecting the infinite grace of God for even another night, and then she told him of heaven and its glories. After appealing to him for some time, he knelt down, and she poured out her whole soul before God for her John's salvation. The convicting power of the Spirit of God told upon him, and God in His infinite grace spoke to his sin-stricken soul.

A few days after this, in company with a fellow Christian, I went to see John. Our conversation was of the Father's love and care. Tears filled his eyes, and he confessed how God had followed him for many years, and how, though he had tried to have his own way, he was at last turned to God. "Glory be to God, He has caught me at last!” he said. He presently added, "I have not long to stay down here." All fear of death seemed to have left him.

As we made mention of the precious blood of Christ, and of the value of His eternal sacrifice, John said, "Yes, that precious blood has made me, a poor, guilty sinner, 'whiter than snow.' "

The twenty-first chapter of Revelation was very precious to him, and, with tears in his eyes, he said, as we read it, " Bless the Lord, I shall soon join that redeemed company; then no more pain, no more sorrow, no more crying, for ' God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.'“ Oh, how our hearts were refreshed to hear John speak thus.

A few days after, we learned that John was much worse, and could not last long. On my entering the room, he turned his eyes to me, and, in a whisper, said, "it’s all joy and peace; I am whiter than snow.'

His sister was weeping by his side; her arms were around him, and he held in his trembling hand a little Testament. He opened it at the twenty-first chapter of St. John's gospel, and whispered for me to read it. After a little while he laid his head upon me, and, with a sweet smile, said, " Yes, I am feeding on Christ, my Savior; oh, how precious." Then looking to his mother, he asked us to sing “Sweeping through the gates of the New Jerusalem." His mother, his wife, and his sister, together with ourselves, sang, the tears streaming from our eyes for joy. When we got to the chorus John's voice astonished us. He joined in until from exhaustion he could sing no longer.

As we sat by his side he turned his eyes upwards and pointed, and whispered, “Jesus is there, and I see my sister Lucy."—She had gone to be with the Lord several years previously.—" Jesus is holding a robe out for me. Oh, do let me put it on!" and then, waving his hand, he shouted, "I'm coming, Jesus, I'm coming." Then, listening for a moment, he said, “Hark! don't you hear the singing? oh, how sweet." And he broke out singing—

“Jesus, lover of my soul,

Let me to Thy bosom fly."

We knelt down and thanked God for His wondrous grace, and for granting such a testimony to be borne by one so young in the faith. I took my leave of him once more. What thoughts filled my breast! What joy, what a reality to have Christ in the heart the hope of glory, and to be in possession of eternal life!

I had not the privilege of seeing John again, but his mother, who stayed with him until his death, said he continued in the same happy condition until he departed. Not a cloud dimmed his horizon.

A few hours before his departure, his wife and mother were in the room with him, in which there was no light beyond that given out by a few red ashes in the grate, for the sufferer's head had ached so much that any light was a trial to him. Presently his mother whispered to his wife to look, as a strange light was about his head and face. The mother gently moved to the window to see if there was any reflection from outside, but could see nothing whatever, and strange as this may appear, they could see his face when everything else in the room was wrapped in darkness, and this light remained each night until he passed away.

Just before he departed he asked to see several of his fellow-workmen, and to read to them out of his little Testament, and he exhorted them to accept the free salvation which his Savior had granted him. In a manner that was truly astonishing, he bore testimony to the finished work of Christ, and to the efficiency of His precious blood in washing guilty sinners whiter than snow. His end was triumphant. Kissing his dear wife, his mother, and his sister, he turned his eyes to heaven, clasping his hands, saying in a whisper, " Whiter than snow; whiter than snow"; and, with his last dying breath, said, "Jesus, my Savior, I come to Thee."

And now, dear reader, what are your prospects for eternity? If you are still unsaved, the same precious blood that made John B. whiter than snow can cleanse away ALL your sins. Christ will make you to rejoice in His free and full salvation if you repent and come to Him. But if you are a rejecter of Christ-oh, who can bear to think of the terrible doom that awaits these? For the rejecters will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great SALVATION?" (Heb. 2:3.) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be SAVED." (Acts 16:31) A. B.

Mount Gerizim

Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal which faces it, should always be held in Israel's memory, for upon these mountains all Israel assembled— men, women, and children—when the first conquests in Canaan were completed. Hither they came in obedience to Jehovah's word, given to the nation by Moses when they were yet in the wilderness; to give their solemn assent to the law of their God. The words of the law and the commands of God were written upon stones, covered with plaster—these were set up on Mount Ebal—and the special bidding of the Lord was, “Thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly." (Deut. 27:8.) Thus, directly Israel was established in the land of promise, their first duty was to write out the words of the divine law, so that everyone could read them. Their tenure in that land was governed by their obedience to God's word, their every blessing depended upon their allegiance to it, and it was necessary that every one of the people should know for himself the exact words of his God.

To these mountains the people gathered in solemn assembly, and the words of the law were spoken by the Levites, so that all could hear them, and to these words the people by their Amens set their seal. God ordained that the words should be spoken with a loud voice by the Levites.

“Very plainly" were the words written; "with a loud voice" were they spoken-an important lesson to us in our day on the intense value God attaches to the knowledge of His word by the people of His choice. If the ministry of His word was specially committed into the hands of the Levites, they were responsible that everyone in Israel should know for himself what that word was. Further, the word spoken by the Levites was that which was written on the stones—the spoken word was the same as the written word.

From the earliest, God has given all honor to His word, and such as honor Him honor His word. It is impossible to be a faithful servant of God if His word is made little of, or treated slightingly in any way.

The cursing and the blessing to which Israel gave their solemn acquiescence on Ebal and Gerizim have been remarkably fulfilled in their history. The nation is scattered and peeled, it is cast out over all countries of the world, and is a witness in our day of disbelief in the truth of God's word that what He has said shall surely come to pass.

Not Only so

Echoes from the Mission field. NOT only justification by God, and its result, peace with God, nor even the privilege of access by faith into this grace, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory:

Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. We glory in the trials of life, since, by them, we learn God's goodness. If it be asked, how can this be? the answer is " the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts." No one can see into another's heart, but in the broken heart of the believer the love of God is shed abroad, it is so, "by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us."

Not only so, again says the apostle. Not only this rejoicing in the things by the way, but "we also joy in God." Not only do we joy in God's ways with us and for us, but in God Himself, who is blessed forever.

On Catching Fish

HAVE a friend who is a great fisherman. When he angles, his rivals will often leave their rods on the bank to watch him hooking the fish. "How do you do it? Tell us your secret," said some professional anglers to him on one occasion, as he drew the prizes out of the river as quickly as his rod would lift them—they having had poor sport indeed.

Being a silent man, he went on with his fishing without uttering a word.

“Have you really any secret?" I said to him one day, for not being a fisherman in brooks and streams, I knew he would not object to be open with me.

Having told me the simplest of means which he used, he said—

"I catch them as they come."

This was to my mind eminently satisfactory, for it demonstrated, that the secret lay solely in the skill of the fisherman; in a quick eye, and a ready hand sensitive to the movements under water. Say what you will about fishing, catching fish is after all the test of good angling.

Now, if any one would catch fish, it is obviously of no use for him to fish in a pond in which no fish are. Simple statement as this seems, there are not wanting fishers of men, who catch no fish because they fish where none are to be caught. They do not even take pains to find out in what kind of water they are fishing They are like some of whom we heard the other day, quite a company, who came from a large city to spend their holiday angling in two great ponds. Most patiently these men watched their lines for hours, but not one of them caught a single fish the livelong day. They did not know it, but a few weeks before the ponds had been emptied, and all the fish in them had been removed. Like them are these fishers of men, who preach the gospel where there are no sinners to hear it.

No doubt, if the fishers of men were really in earnest, it would be impossible for them to continue in profitless waste of time. They would be on their knees to find out where to go; and direction where to go to serve Christ is a deep need. But routine is a tremendous dead weight round the feet. None of the children of this world, who fishes for his living, would continue on the same ground, year after year, where he caught nothing. He would be simply ruined. But the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the’ children of light. However, let us be sure of this, fishing but catching nothing ruins the fisherman. And the fisher of men, who continues preaching the gospel from year end to year end without catching men, is bankrupt as a fisherman! We will, therefore, leave such preachers this word of the Master, uttered to a servant He had fitted for His work, and who was the means of bringing thousands to Jesus, "Thou shalt catch men." (Luke 5:10)

There are some who fish without hooks. We remember a simple lad who indulged in this pastime on a river's bank; very simple he was—he caught nothing. Still he had the enjoyment of fishing. The occupation pleased this child. He spent hours in the work, which is in itself, people say, so soothing. What were the results to him? He was soothed!

There are many preachers—and in that term we will include men and women—who seek to serve the Lord, whether in the Sunday-school, or in visiting, or in any evangelic work, but who fish without hooks! They follow their occupation without that intense longing for souls, which, when we are filled with the Spirit of God, gives point and energy to our words. Alas, alas, for the routine workers! Without results in bringing souls to God. However, we do not deny them the comfort of feeling soothed.

Why is it So-and-So has so many conversions? Go and watch him. What is the secret? He is sensitive to the needs of men's souls, for he believes in eternity. He is in sympathy with the longings of the human heart, set in motion by the Holy Spirit, for he is filled with the Spirit. He really loves souls, for the dying love of Christ is a reality in his heart. Hence his words have point. This makes his hearers cry, “I am the lost sinner "; “What must I do?"

Oh, fishers of men, love for souls is the gift of God. Let preachers covet earnestly the best gifts, and amongst those, in the preaching of the gospel, we should say that the love of Christ in the heart constraining us to love souls is the best. From how much routine, from how many ills would this deliver God's servants!

Outside

I WILL tell you of a boy who had to learn what it is to be really "outside of a good treat just because he would choose his own way. Some of you no doubt go to a Sunday school, and know the pleasure of an hour spent with a dear teacher who delights to speak of the love of the Lord Jesus. Our first acquaintance with the boy of whom I write was in a Sunday school carried on in a poor neighborhood, where many rough children had been gathered in from the surrounding houses, and there I made his acquaintance.

Latty B. attended our school during many Sunday afternoons, but I am sorry to say he was not a good boy, but gave his teacher much trouble, and often upset the other boys by his bad behavior. As the summer went on, many of the children began to look forward to the pleasant outing which they generally had with their teachers, who used to take them for a whole day to the sea-side.

Now Latty was not a good boy, and there came a day when the superintendent had to expel him from the school. He put Latty “outside" of the door, and forbid him to come back until he should be truly sorry for his conduct, and really repentant.

Latty had had good opportunity to repent of his naughtiness, but he would not, and so at last he was expelled; he was shut outside from all he might have enjoyed, cut off from belonging to the school: he had no part with those he once was with.

The time for the long-looked for treat came, and on a Sunday afternoon the names of all going to it were called over. Now, though Latty knew that he had been expelled, he stole into the school unabashed, and afterwards actually presented himself at the desk and asked for a ticket! Of course he was refused, so. away he went to try some other resources by which to get to the long-looked for treat. But all was in vain. There was but one way by which he could go, and that was through having his name written on the ticket. No ticket could he get, but for all that Latty was determined to go. I am sure he never thought of the parable he had heard at school of the man who came to the wedding feast without putting on the garment provided for the guests. You remember that when the king came in, he had that presumptuous man put “outside.” If only Latty would have remembered what he had been taught, how different it would have been for him.

The morning came, and the happy children met and got into the conveyances to drive to the seashore, and Latty stood by in his best clothes trying to go too! He hid himself amongst those already seated for the long drive, but was discovered and sent back.

Then the foolish boy made a scheme of his own; he would not be defeated. A wagon passed on the road, and up he jumped behind, and was driven on till he came to the shore. There the children were running about with bright and happy hearts, some on the sands, some in the sea, and others exploring the rocks and caves.

Poor Latty, however, did not find it quite so pleasant as he had expected. He was out on his own account, he was "outside" still, an outsider to all the pleasure that was going on. But he kept up the appearance that he belonged to the school. Alas! for false pretenses.

The large bell rang on the shore for dinner, and the children gathered together on the grass to partake of refreshments. Hungry Latty heard the names called out as the cups were given to each child, but his name was not mentioned, so he crept a little distance off and laid himself down amongst the tall reeds and rushes that grew upon the bank of the small river which flowed through the meadow. How he wished he had been good! He was really unhappy, but still he kept up an empty show all the day long.

One of the teachers had spoken very faithfully to him, but Latty would not be broken down. Then tea-time came.

Again the large bell rang and the children collected together as before to enjoy plenty of tea, plum-cake, and bread and butter, but there was nothing for Latty. At last he was feeling that he was only an "outsider."

No dinner, no tea! There was not much fun for Latty in the way things were going on, and how was he to get back? for the friendly wagon would not be returning to give him a lift. Nine long miles were before him, but still, thought he, I may manage to get off with the rest of the school. Anyway, he would try.

The time for starting came, the children got into the conveyances, and one unhappy boy was hiding, hoping to get home undiscovered.

The drivers cracked their whips, the horses galloped along the plain by the shore, and then mounted the steep hill, while to ease them, the teachers and bigger boys got down to walk.

There Latty was found, as with shamefacedness he stood on the roadside, determined to brave it out and keep up with the boys. But at the top of the hill all jumped in and left him “outside" the wagon. The horses trotted off, Latty ran after them, and seeing no hope of a drive he ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

Alas! it was all to no purpose, the horses outdid him. Then all the poor boy's pretension fled to the winds. Night was gradually creeping on, the darkening sky and deep falling shadows on either side of the road were anything but cheerful to his breaking spirit. Tears at last began to roll down his cheeks, and he took out his red pocket-handkerchief and mopped his face, which steamed with perspiration from the exertion he made to keep up with the conveyances.

But Latty's repentance came "too late!” Beloved children, think of these five words which we may read in God's Book, "Now is the accepted time" —now. Will you listen to God's “now” when He offers you salvation? which is His feast for the poor sinner.

Latty repented, and tried to get in when the favored moment was past, and there, poor boy, on that lonely roadside the night found him, sobbing and crying, footsore and hungry, having to tramp along every weary mile, and not reaching his home until nearly ten o'clock at night. If he had been good how different all would have been, Dear children, we must pray for Latty, for this is a true tale, and he is still unrepentant, still careless, and determined. May the day never come which should find any of you “outside" and not inside heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives forever, with all whom He has saved and brought home to God to be always happy.

Peace, Perfect Peace

NO doubt the readers of FAITHFUL WORDS have much enjoyed hearing about the conversion of many precious souls, as I have done from month to month, and I do praise God for the many true accounts of His wondrous grace and mercy, found within these pages. I should like to add a short true narrative of how the Lord sought and found Sarah P., a young girl of twenty years, living in the town of H—, where I reside.

One Lord's Day afternoon, when returning from our Sunday school, my fellow teacher asked me if I had been to see Sarah, who, she had heard, was very ill. I had never heard of her till then, and felt glad of the opportunity of visiting one of the Lord's dear ones, for such I was told she was.

We soon found ourselves in the sick room where the young girl was lying, propped up with pillows. At the first glance, I saw She could not be long for this world, the bright luster in her eyes, and hectic flush on her cheek, told all too plainly that that terrible disease consumption was doing its worst; but the radiant smile that accompanied her answer to my first question, as I bent over her, " How long have you known the Lord? " was most cheering.

“Only since last Monday, and I am so happy, oh! so happy, for I have seen Jesus on the cross, and all is light! I have been seeking Him all my life, but now He has found me.”

I took her hand in mine and said, “Where are your sins?” She said, with deep emphasis, "All gone, all gone; Jesus has washed them all away in His blood." We did not stay very long with her that afternoon, but the deep soul-happiness which possessed dear Sarah followed me. I rejoiced to find one so young so willing to depart, and intensely longing to be “with Christ, which is far better."

The following day I asked the mother to give me an account of her daughter's conversion, which she did. She said that Sarah, from a child, was always thoughtful, and loved to read her Bible, and to pray. She enjoyed singing hymns as she played the tunes on the harmonium her mother had given her.

At twelve years of age she had scarlet fever, and had been delicate ever since. No doubt the Spirit of God had begun His work in her soul when she was a child, for she had longed to become a Christian, and to know the joy of being God's dear child and fit for His presence. She felt she was not ready to meet death as she was. For does not God's Word declare "Ye must be born again "? (John 3:7.) “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." When the Spirit begins to show the soul its lost condition by nature, He implants the desire for salvation, and points to the Savior as the only living way to God, to happiness, and to heaven.

So in the case of Sarah the light did shine from the One who hung upon the cross, and her eyes were opened to see what God's dear Son had done for her; she sought the Savior, and He found her and saved her.

On Lord's day evening, the 23rd of last October, five weeks before she was called home, Sarah and her mother were alone together, the rest of the family all being out. She then opened her heart to her mother, and told her how unhappy she was, because she knew she was not a Christian, adding, "I cannot die, dear mother, or go to heaven till I am a Christian." She was in much distress about her immortal soul, which was, she knew,

“Passing onward, quickly passing,

Yes! but whither, whither bound?"

She had once heard that hymn sung, and it had deeply impressed her.

Reader, have you ever felt the importance of eternity? Have you ever paused and asked yourself “Whither am I bound? Where shall I spend eternity?” as Sarah did.

Her mother read to her out of God's Word, still her soul was in darkness. She then said, “Mother, let us pray," and together they knelt in the presence of the One who said “Come unto Me... and I will give you rest."

Surely there must have been joy in heaven over the return of one for whom the Good Shepherd had shed His blood, and for whom He had gone out upon the dark mountains to seek and to save.

That night she sought Him, and the following day He found her. With beaming face she came into the room where her mother was working, and exclaimed: “Oh, mother, I have seen Jesus on the cross, and I am now a Christian; my burden is all gone, and I want to go to be with Him." She then knelt down and thanked God for revealing Jesus to her as her own personal Savior, and prayed for her father and mother and sisters. Feeling much exhausted and weak in body she went to her bed, adding to her dear mother, “I shall never get up again."

For five weeks she was left down here to witness to all around her of the power of the cross, and the deep soul joy she had in Jesus was sufficient for all to see what He can be, and is, in life and in death to those who have fled to Him for salvation, and have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Many happy visits I was permitted to make to dear Sarah. Ah, how often did that sick room seem like the gate of heaven, as we used to talk together about the One so precious to us; and as her voice was quite strong we loved to sing together some of her favorite hymns, which were: " I am so glad that Jesus loves me," and "What a Friend we have in Jesus," and many more. On one occasion she said, “Oh, Miss S., it is all peace-perfect peace. I am so happy. I have seen the light, and it is grand! Jesus on the cross has given me peace."

I said, " Yes, dear Sarah, and He is not on the cross now, but seated at God's right hand, ever living to make intercession for us, and you will soon see Him in the glory."

"Yes," she replied, pointing her finger to the text on the wall, at the foot of the bed, “I am rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God."

Some of her young friends coming in to see her, would shed tears, but she would ask, " Why do you weep around my bed when I am so happy, going to see Jesus?” And surely the light of heaven was shining in her countenance.

As time went on she grew weaker, but though her earthly tabernacle was being dissolved, her soul was growing in the knowledge and love of God, Who had prepared for her "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. 5:1.) The last visit I paid her, she put her hand in mine and said, "Now good-bye, Miss S., you and I have no more to do with each other, for I am going home,

‘No more to roam,

No more to sin or sorrow,'

to Jesus, blessed Jesus!” And then she spoke of her father, and told me how she longed to see him at the feet of Jesus.

The summons came at the solemn hour of midnight, and dear Sarah's happy spirit was called up higher, and entered the presence of the Lord, through whose blood alone she had found peace with God.

Many weeping friends, with her devoted mother and family, followed her remains to the garden where God sows His precious seed, which shall spring up and rise again at the shout of Christ and at the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God, that shall wake the holy dead out of their sleep, and bid them rise to meet their Lord in the air, and so to be forever with Him.

- - -

Reader! if that shout should be heard tonight, and the Lord Jesus were to descend into the air to catch up His own, would you be ready to meet Him? Have you come to Him as a poor, lost sinner, and sought for pardon and peace in God's dear Son,

“Who took the guilty culprits' place,

And suffered in their stead "?

If not, do not delay, for, like Sarah P., your days on earth may be short. Now is the accepted time. Rest on Christ's finished work, and you shall have “Peace, perfect peace." L. S.

- - -

CHRIST died for us. He is risen again, and now lives in heaven, where He is interceding for us. We meditate upon His love thus expressed, and by the Spirit's teaching, exclaim, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”

Perfected for Ever

THE "forevers" of the Epistle to the Hebrews are full of cheer to the people of God. In a peculiar way the Holy Spirit stamps "for ever" upon what Christ has done in His redeeming work, and does so in contrast with that which was effected by the sacrifices under the law, which " could never " take away sins; no, and never give rest of conscience to the worshipper, and never satisfy God about sin. One of our privileges as Christians is to set to our seals that God is true in all that He says respecting these words "for ever."

“He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10:14.) Who the sanctified are we read in verse 10, "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once," and, as the apostle is writing to believers, such as believe are included in the “we " who are “perfected for ever."

Our state of feeling, our experience, our apprehension, are not in consideration by God the Holy Spirit when He says of us, "perfected for ever "—no, but Christ's work; " By one offering HE hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." So many regard the things which circle round the words " perfect" or "perfection " as in connection with the attainment or spirituality of the believer, that we really need to remind ourselves that when God the Spirit indicts these words, " perfected for ever," He is speaking solely of Christ's work upon the cross. The glory contained in the words belongs exclusively to Christ.

The humblest of God's people is perfected for ever, and in so far as he is set apart for God, there is nothing further to be done of any kind. When Israel was redeemed they were set apart from Egypt by the blood of the pass-over, and this being set apart was absolute. It could not be improved, it could not be weakened. It did not depend upon themselves, it was solely of God, through the blood of the paschal lamb. This perfection was to Israel a present and a continuous blessing, and so with the believer now—"perfected for ever" is a present, an unbroken, an everlasting blessing.

The word rendered “for ever” might be given as “in continuity." The believer is perfected now and right onwards to the end without any break.

Whatever may happen on his way home to God does not disturb the gracious perfection of Christ's work on his behalf, which must not be confounded with the Holy Spirit's work in him. He will have many a humbling occasion to recount, as well as many a deliverance to recall, but be the day ever so bright, or the night never so dark, what Christ has done for him by the one offering of Himself once upon the cross can never be moved.

Pleasing the Lord in Little Things

CLARRIE was very fond of nice things; indeed she was at times tempted to be greedy; and, as she was the only daughter in a family of six children, her five brothers would often yield to their petted sister, and let her have her own way. Yet, to do Clarrie justice, we must add that the child had a keen sense of right and wrong, and did really wish to do right. She was well aware of her own self-love, and hated it, so that the child often had to fight a battle between right and wrong, as real as is fought by an older Christian.

Clarrie had a cousin Mary. They did not often meet, and, to tell the truth, they did not get on very well together. A greater contrast than the two children could not well be conceived. In one thing, however, they were both alike, each being an only daughter, and each having five brothers.

Both children were in the habit of visiting their grandmother, and there, where all was made so happy for them, a good deal that was not pleasant occurred—sharp words, jealousy, and other unlovely behavior.

Now Clarrie was a Christian child, and did desire to please the Lord, though she found it very hard to do so when Mary was with her. One day a friend gave Clarrie a large and beautiful orange, and, as our story relates to a time, some years ago, when oranges were not the common fruit in England they now are, the child prized it much, and the more so, as very seldom did a whole orange fall to her share. It so happened that Clarrie had been reading a little book called “A Kiss for a Blow," in which the forgiveness of injuries was strongly insisted upon, and also the blessedness of the Christian who imitates the example of our divine Master. As the child gazed upon the beautiful fruit, of which she was so fond, the thought came to her, “How nice it would be if I could give Mary this orange, that she may know I want her to love me!" Immediately the temptation arose, "She never gives you any of her nice things, and is always jealous of you." When once more her thoughts, instructed by divine teaching, responded, "You often say you wish to do as Jesus did, then deny yourself and give it for His sake."

So Clarrie rushed out to her cousin, and, placing the orange in her hand, said, “This is for you." Mary did not believe she was in earnest, but that little action became a turning point in the regard of the two little girls for each other. The little act also became a great step towards a course of self-denial and self-control in Clarrie, for a few days after the incident, her mother bade her do something she did not at all like. "But it will please Jesus," she thought, and remembering the word, "Children, obey your parents," she instantly said, "Yes, mother," and did cheerfully as she was bidden.

Some may think such a trifle as the gift of an orange is not worth writing about, but I can assure my readers it was no small thing on Clarrie's part, and the act was one that resulted in much blessing for her, for it was done "for Jesus' sake." Very often a little action becomes the first step on the happy pathway of Christian living. RHODA.

Quite Satisfied

THE aged saint, to whom our title refers, had been for many years serving, with quiet faithfulness, the Lord whom she loved so well. Though gaining her own livelihood, she had always sought out others to whom she could minister, thus drawing down upon herself from many around the reward of happy, willing service when her own need came. She had been only for a few weeks thus dependent on the help of others when the Lord saw fit to take her to be forever with Himself. When she became aware that her malady was an incurable one, she begged to know what it might be, as no one had liked to tell her it was cancer. The doctor reluctantly, after a few days, mentioned the fact, as she still assured him that nothing could agitate her mind as regards what God had arranged for her.

“Oh," she said, " I am not surprised, but quite satisfied."

On visiting this dear saint of God the following week I found her full of the brightness of Christ's presence. In answer to a remark of mine as to the comfort of knowing the Lord to be sitting by her, she looked round at her other side as, with a beaming smile, she responded, “Yes; what should I do without Him there?”

To another friend, at about the same time, she said, when he was talking to her of the joy of being 'ere long with the Lord, " Blessed Jesus, soon I shall see you face to face precious, precious Jesus."

She had a great knowledge of and love for Scripture, and on one occasion when sitting with her she said, “We have had such a feast on the five barley loaves during our reading this morning. Oh, now they have been increased tenfold to me, and I who deserve nothing." Then after a little she continued, “And, oh, how He suffered for us! I have only just realized the fact that it was Satan in the garden of Gethsemane who came to prove and tempt that perfect Man, as at the beginning of His ministry; but, no, nothing could turn Him from that work which He came to do. Oh, my precious Redeemer!"

A few hours before her death she seemed to fall asleep, but was restless and muttering, as if in a dream. After a time her sister asked what had been troubling her. “Why," she sweetly replied, " I have been singing-singing hallelujahs with the saints that have gone before."

Just after this I called, and found her greatly altered, and looking hardly conscious, but with a bright smile she looked up when I greeted her. In answer to an enquiry as to whether she was not in pain, she said, " Oh no, only extreme weakness," and after a few minutes, when I told her we should not meet again here, but above, she slowly and almost inaudibly added, " Yes—in—the—full—joy—of—His— presence," and these were her last words. What a halo of glory seemed to be around that bed, from which in a few minutes afterwards the Lord came and took to Himself that happy and satisfied spirit.

May the perusal of these few lines lead some of the Lord's sorrowing ones to rest in the assurance that all is so planned for them that, no matter what the trial, they may experience I what it is to be "quite satisfied." E. W.

A Railway Servant's Story

ONE cold October evening, I was returning from a trip in the highlands, and having made myself comfortable in the train, quickly fell asleep. Being roused, however, at a junction, I deemed it wise to spend the twenty minutes which we had to wait in pacing up and down the platform to warm my feet, before resuming the long, cold night-journey. While doing so I was accosted by a fellow-passenger, and I recognized a familiar face. We walked up and down together till the train came up, and then I asked him to come into my compartment. Finding that he was not so well provided with rugs as I was, and that he had felt chilled during the first part of the journey, I threw my rug over him, and in a little while we had settled down to a friendly chat.

My companion turned out to be an old railway servant on leave, using his pass to visit distant lines, and to see old friends. As he was in plain clothes I had not at first recognized a man whom for twenty years I had been accustomed to see frequently—the gatekeeper at our railway station.

It was not many minutes before he spoke of the Lord, and finding a ready response, went on to tell of God's dealings with him. I drew him on to give me some account as to the way in which he had been brought to the Savior, and how, in the position he occupied, he could now witness for his Master.

“Well," he said, “it might be twenty-three years ago that I heard a sermon in the village where I live that had a strange effect on me. I did not understand much of it, but God used what I heard to awaken me by His Holy Spirit, and from that moment I felt there was a need in my heart unmet, a something which I did not possess, and which some had. Eight years passed away, and I more or less went on in sin, living in the world, and amongst the children of disobedience. The devil had dominion over me, and if sometimes, when alone, I felt a desire after better things, my surroundings and ungodly associates seemed a chain that nothing could break.

"About fifteen years ago, God in His mercy again aroused me, sending His word home with great power to my soul, so that I realized as never before my lost and condemned condition. I could see nothing for me but God's just wrath, and all hope of mercy was gone; I was in a state of the deepest anxiety. I scarcely dared open my Bible, for all I read seemed against me. A little book, which spoke of the blood of Jesus, fell into my hands about this time; but although, on reading it, I could see there was a way of salvation for others, I yet did not dare to hope it was for so great a sinner as myself. My distress increasing, I went to my minister, who tried to comfort me by assuring me that it must be partly physical, and that there was no cause for any undue alarm, reminding me of my consistent life and good character; but this did not help me. My companions saw that I was under great mental depression, and some tried after their fashion to cheer me up, while others upbraided me for taking up foolish notions, telling me I should end by becoming a revivalist, or salvationist, or something worse. My agony of mind, however, only increased night and day: I tried to read little bits of my Bible, or of tracts or good books, and I repeated all the prayers I knew hundreds of times.

“One night my misery came to a climax. I could not sleep, and rising from my bed, I dressed and set out walking round by the docks and the sea-beach; and the devil, making a last pull to get me, suggested I should cast myself in my despair into the sea. At length, tired out, I reached the railway station. You know the seat outside of it, where the porters sit? Well, I dropped down on it, absolutely worn out, body and mind. ‘What must I do to be saved?’ was constantly my question. Undone, lost, condemned, hopeless! I could do nothing, and my heart was breaking. I began to weep hot, bitter tears. Then there came a change, and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, gave me to see all God's ways of salvation: to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' (Rom. 4:5.) I saw that He had had mercy upon me; that He was not as I had feared, an enemy, but a friend; He had loved me, and had provided for me a full and free salvation in Christ Jesus. And I looked up, and blessed and praised Him for His love to me; my terrible burden was gone, and my heart was full with new-born gratitude.

"It was not long before I told my friends of the joy and peace I had in believing, but they did not seem to think much of it. Some said they did not believe in these sudden changes, others that they would wait and see how it turned out.

“My comrades met me that night, and wanted me to go with them, but I said, 'I have a Father, and I want to hear what my new-found Father has to say to His son,' so I left them and went to a meeting, and they let me go. I had already found a new friend in one man in the service, who was a child of God.

“They tried to make a fool of me sometimes. Once when we were waiting for a train, they crowded up to the gate—all the porters and hotel men, and one of them sang

'Come, all ye jolly shepherds';

and then they called on me for a song, and in a moment God gave me the right one, and I sang—

‘Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched.'

They never asked for another, and some of them came to me afterwards and said, ' We did not know that you were of that kind.'

“I often get a word with those who pass the gate. Sometimes they take it kindly, and sometimes they are angry; a thrust of the two-edged sword soon tells whether they are for Christ or not.

"A gentleman came up one day, and begged me to let him pass, ‘Although,' he said, 'I have nothing to show, nothing to give you, no ticket.' I said, ‘I will let you pass, for these are the very terms on which my Lord Jesus received me.' He said nothing, but has never looked at me since.

“I get a chance word often to sad hearts, full of grief at parting with loved ones, and I show them a little sympathy and kindness for my Master's sake. I cannot preach, but I can just give the word when He gives it to me. I often think, as I stand there, of One who said, 'I am the Door,' and I try to point some to Him.

" One day the old station-master put his hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘Well, they speak about their reformations, and their good templarism, and all that kind of thing, but I like best to see what the grace of God can accomplish in a man.' I could not speak, for I felt my heart full, as I remembered what I was when he knew me first, and what God had done for me. I knew he meant it was God's grace in me, and I thanked God for it."

Thus talking, the time passed away, and when our journey ended, I felt that I had received more than I had given, for if I had added to the comfort of my fellow-passenger, he had cheered my heart, and given me fresh cause to praise the God of Salvation. J. S.

Reformers

SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM.

IN travelling by railway from the picturesquely situated little town of Kington, in Herefordshire, to Eardisley, on the Hereford, Brecon and Merthyr Railroad, one passes the little station of Almeley. As the train is slowing up to the station, one sees on his left hand—that is, on the east side—several rough- looking grass-grown heaps, with trees growing here and there. This is the site of an ancient fortress occupying the place of a Roman encampment, and known as Oldcastle, where the family of the Old-castles resided, and where, according to the best accredited accounts, Sir John Oldcastle was born about 1360.

Of his early years we know nothing, save that, as a young man, he went to excesses in pleasure and sin, being a boon companion of the Prince of Wales, who succeeded his father as Henry V.

At what time he became the subject of converting grace is not easy to discover; we know, however that he became a friend and disciple of Wycliffe, and a zealous promoter of the doctrines his master taught, and a devoted and courageous leader of the Lollards after Wycliffe’s death. It was by Wycliffe’s writings that he was led to Christ; and as he had been well-known and honored for his courage and valiant deeds as a soldier, so now he became conspicuous for his zeal for the gospel and the salvation of souls, and his courage and daring in the propagation of the true faith. Having married Lady Cobham, of Cowling Castle, near Rochester, he took his seat in Parliament as Lord Cobham. In the house he made no secret of his attachment to the true faith; he even went the length of saying, "That it would be very commodious for England if the pope's jurisdiction stopped at the town of Calais, and did not cross the sea." A daring thing to be said in such a place, at such a time.

In Herefordshire, in Kent, and elsewhere, he laid out himself to promote the gospel. In Herefordshire there were many of Wycliffe’s followers—Lollards they were called-and they were sometimes fain to secrete themselves in the forest of Burghill, and other safe places, to escape their pursuers. Cowling Castle was thrown open to the itinerant preachers, who made it the center of their operations in that county. In fact, Cobham both encouraged and protected the "Gospelers," as they were sometimes called," Evangelists," as we should now name them. He would even stand by their side in complete armor and sword in hand, ready to do and dare in the good cause. The excellencies of his character won for him the title of “The good Lord Cobham," and by this term he is frequently mentioned in history.

The bishops, especially Arundel of Canterbury and his brother of London, were greatly incensed that Lollardism had such a free course and prevailed almost universally. They would gladly have imprisoned or burnt all the preachers, but they had many to sympathize with them and help them, and it would have been a clever cast of the net that would take them all. They resolved, therefore, to secure and silence, if not destroy, their courageous leader; but they must go to work warily.

The king, who had been very much of a rake in his earlier days, when he put on the crown, put on also a garb of piety. He became zealous for the church, and was no friend to the Lollards. He retained, however, some remnants of his old friendship for Cobham. The bishops sought to make use of this for their own purposes. They appealed to the king against Cobham. The king said he would try his powers of persuasion on the old knight. Accordingly he sent for Cobham, and exhorted him to abandon his new opinions, and submit himself to his mother, the church.

Cobham's reply was worthy of him— "You, most worthy prince, I am always prompt and willing to obey, forasmuch as I know you are a Christian king, and minister of God; unto you, next to God, I owe my whole obedience, and submit me thereunto. But as touching the pope and his spirituality, truly I owe them neither suit nor service, forasmuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great antichrist, the open adversary of God, and the abomination standing in the holy place."

This bold speech displeased the king; he would interpose no further in behalf of his former friend; and the bishops had their way. Arundel summoned Cobham to appear before him on 2nd September, and answer to the articles accusing him of heresy. Acting on his declaration that he owed neither suit nor service to the pope and his vassals, he paid no attention to the summons of the haughty prelate. Arundel then prepared citations, and had them posted on the gates of Cowling Castle, and on the doors of Rochester Cathedral. Cobham's friends and retainers as speedily tore them down. Arundel had still another weapon; he forthwith excommunicated the gallant and courageous nobleman. Those who know the terrible clauses which the greater excommunication contains may well hold their breath at the impious daring of the proud satellite of Rome.

Nothing dismayed, Cobham sat down and drew up a confession of his faith, after the manner of what is called the Apostles' Creed, but couched mainly in the words of Holy Scripture. This he carried to the king, craving to have it examined. Henry would not even look at it, but referred him to the archbishop as his judge. He was soon made a prisoner in the Tower of London. Thence, on 23rd September, 1413, he was brought before the archbishop, and the bishops of London and Winchester.

The archbishop offered him absolution, if he would submit and confess himself. He replied by reading a written statement of his faith, a copy of which he handed to Arundel. The court then adjourned until the following Monday, when it met in the house of the Dominican Friars on Ludgate Hill, with a numerous array of bishops, doctors, and friars. Again he was offered absolution if he would submit and confess.

“Nay, forsooth, will I not," said Cobham, "for I never yet trespassed against you, and therefore I will not do it."

Then followed a scene worthy of the painter's pencil; nay, worthy of the recording angel. Falling on his knees on the pavement, and stretching out his hands towards heaven, he said, "I shrive [confess] me here unto Thee, my eternal, living God, that in my frail youth I offended thee, O Lord, most grievously, in pride, wrath, and gluttony, in covetousness, and in lechery. Many men have I hurt in mine anger, and done many horrible sins; good Lord, I ask Thy mercy." Then rising up, the tears streaming down his face, he turned to the people and cried, " So, good people, for the breaking of God's law these men never cursed me; but now, for their own laws and traditions, they most cruelly handle me and other men."

When the court had recovered from the effects of this scene, it proceeded to examine the noble witness for the faith of Christ, on the four articles which were the ground of his accusation. The first of these was concerning the real presence of Christ in the sacrament. Cobham held to the Scripture, and his adversaries appealed to the decisions of “the church."

“What do you think of holy church?” asked Arundel.

Cobham replied, “Holy church is the number of them that shall be saved, of which Christ is the Head."

“What do you say of the pope?” asked one of the doctors.

“He and you together," said Cobham, “maketh the whole great antichrist. The pope is the head; your bishops, priests, and prelates, and monks, are the body; and the begging friars are the tail, for they hide the wickedness of you both with their sophistry."

The Bishop of London said, " Sir, ye wot [know] well that Christ died on a material cross."

"Yes," was Cobham's reply, "and I wot also that our salvation came not by that material cross, but by Him alone that died thereon; and well I wot that holy St. Paul rejoiced in no other cross than Christ's passion and death."

After other questioning and similar spirited and faithful replies, Cobham was condemned to be burned as a heretic, and was had back to the Tower. Fifty days' interlude was granted before the date of execution. Meanwhile his enemies bestirred themselves. The unrighteous law of the church and the state had their victims in their grasp, what more could they desire? What? to bring him to abjure his so-called errors? But since he would not and could not, they would do it for him; and by a forgery, equally clumsy and detestable, they declared that he had renounced his heresies, and had professed the most unbounded homage to John XXIII., one of the three rival popes, and a man whose character was simply execrable. But they overshot their mark, as their cunning master often does. Few believed the slander and lies of the priests.

Meanwhile, by the aid of friends or the connivance of the governor, Lord Cobham escaped from the Tower, and fled to Wales. Nothing intimidated by the loss of their leader, the Lollards—as the preachers and professors of the gospel were called-put forth strenuous efforts to diffuse their faith. To arrest their progress and put a stop to the “contagion “of their teaching, a charge, worthy of its authors, was brought against them. There was to be a great field-preaching gathering of London citizens outside the gates. This was magnified into a plot, with Cobham as its head, to dethrone the king, murder the royal family, overthrow the government, pull down Westminster Abbey and all the cathedrals, and confiscate all the possessions of “the church."

The king in person led an army against them-against a throng of unarmed citizens, with their wives and daughters. There was no resistance, but many were cut down on the field, and many were taken prisoners, of whom Sir Roger Acton and twenty-eight others were put to death as traitors. Meantime, a thousand marks were offered for Lord Cobham, dead or alive; but so highly was he esteemed, that no one laid hands on him until, after four years' wandering, the cupidity of Lord Powis, of Powis Castle, Welshpool, Montgomery, sought and obtained the price of the noble martyr's blood. At a place called Broniarth, in the parish of Guilsfield—near the spot where the reservoir of the Liverpool Waterworks has recently been made—he was taken, after a resistance in which one of his legs was broken. He was carried to the Tower, taken before the lords, charged with and condemned for treason and heresy.

Long before this, however, the archbishop who condemned him in the first case had gone to his account to answer for the blood of God's saints. Cobham had prayed that his enemies might be forgiven, but how far this was answered we know not.

At length the day came for his execution. He was brought out with his hands pinioned behind him, but with a holy joy lighting up his countenance. With all possible marks of ignominy the sentence was carried out. He was placed on a hurdle, and drawn through the streets to a place in St. Giles' Fields, outside Temple Bar. Arriving at the place of execution, he fell on his knees and again prayed for his persecutors; then, standing up and turning to the people, he exhorted them earnestly to follow the teaching of God's holy word, and to beware of those teachers whose lives showed that they neither possessed the spirit of Christ nor loved His doctrine.

With an excess of cruelty, he was hung by chains around his waist and suspended over the fire, making the torture more horrible. He maintained his constancy and joy through all, praising the Lord so long as breath remained, in his latest moments commending his soul into the hands of his God and Savior.

"Thus," says Bale the chronicler, "rested this valiant knight, Sir John Oldcastle, under the Altar of God, which is Jesus Christ, among that goodly company which, in the kingdom of patience, suffered great tribulation, with the death of their bodies, for His faithful word and testimony; abiding there with them—the fulfilling of their whole number, and the full restoration of His elect." R. S.

Reformers: JOHN HUSS .1.

IN 1382, two years before the death of Wycliffe, the Princess Anne of Bohemia became the Queen of Richard II of England. Huss was then a lad of thirteen, or perhaps only nine or ten.

A sort of nominal Christianity had been introduced into Bohemia and its sister state of Moravia, in connection with the wars of Charlemagne, King of France, but the Sclavonic tongue had little in common with either French or Latin, and so the people remained in ignorance. About 863 A.D. the King of Moravia sent messengers to the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, saying: “Our land is baptized, but we have no teachers to instruct us, and translate for us the Holy Scriptures. Send us teachers who may explain to us the Bible." Methodius and Cyrillus were sent; the Bible was translated, and Divine worship established in the Sclavonic language, the common speech of both states.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain distinctly what was the teaching of these missionaries; but whatever it was, it was successful in making many converts, so that churches and schools arose on every hand.

The schism between the eastern and the western divisions of Christendom—we use the word in its wide and historical sense—had not yet been consummated, and the eastern ritual was used in both Bohemia and Moravia. Gradually the Latin ritual was introduced, and both countries came more and more under the domination of the Roman Pontiff; and in 1079, Gregory VII forbade the use of the Greek, and also of worship in the language of the people. Still more, from this time onward, Romanism prevailed, and anything like vital and Scriptural religion was very rare; though, doubtless, God had still a remnant who, amid much darkness and error and superstition, received the truth in the love of it, and held to the faith of the gospel. This must have been the case, for in some places the vernacular was still used in public worship, and the Communion practiced in both kinds. Some of the powerful nobles, too, were favorable to the gospel, and were the protectors of their poorer brethren, as also of the Waldenses, who, exiled from their native valleys, sowed the seed of the Kingdom in Bohemia.

The Princess Anne, referred to above, is described as a devout and godly lady, and a favorer of the doctrines of Wycliffe. Through her influence, Jerome of Prague and other learned men came to the University of Oxford, and, on their return to their native country, carried with them many of Wycliffe’s books, and, better still, the evangelical doctrines taught by the reformer, in their hearts. There must have been, largely by means of Richard's Bohemian queen, a frequent communication between the two countries, and so a considerable importation of Wycliffe’s writings; and even after her death in 1384, we find " the good Lord Cobham '' sending copies of Wycliffe’s Bible and his other works into Bohemia.

Huss was born on the 6th of July, 1373 (some accounts say 1369), in the little town of Husinetz, on the edge of the Bohemian forest, and near the source of the river Moldau and the Bavarian boundary. His parents were humble folk, but yet able to send him to the University of Prague. It is related that when his mother (for his father was then dead) took him to the university, she carried a present for the rector, which she lost on the journey. Grieved at her loss, she knelt down beside her son and invoked on him the blessing of the Almighty. Her prayer was heard, but she did not live to witness how abundantly God answered it.

His university career was a brilliant one; his mind expanding and his talents increasing from time to time. He is described as a young man, pale and thin in the face, blameless in life, sweet and affable in address, winning all who came in contact with him; and burning, as with a self-consuming passion, with a desire for knowledge. He was at this time a firm believer in the Papacy, a devoted son of the Church of Rome, and a strong believer in her sacraments. At the time of the Prague jubilee in 1393, he gave his last coins to the confessor of the Church of St. Peter. He had studied carefully the philosophical writings of Wycliffe, but of his theological works he was as yet ignorant.

In 1398 Huss entered the Church. He rapidly rose to distinct ion, and his fame having reached the court of Wencelaus, his queen, Sophia of Bavaria, selected him as her confessor.

Huss's career as a Reformer dates from about 1402, when he was appointed preacher to the Chapel of Bethlehem, in Prague. This chapel had been founded in 1392, by one Midhamis, a citizen of Prague, who laid great stress upon the preaching of the Word of God in the mother tongue of the people.

According to a contemporary historian, the moral condition of Prague was at this time very low indeed. “The king, the nobles, the prelates, the clergy, the citizens, indulged without restraint in avarice, pride, drunkenness, lewdness and every profligacy. In the midst of this sunken community stood up Huss-an awakener of the conscience. Now it was against the prelates, now against the nobles, and now against the ordinary clergy that he launched his bolts."

It would appear that until now Huss himself was not converted, but that while preparing these sermons he was inwardly awakened to an apprehension of the truth. His sermons, which had made such a stir within, made a stir also without. Some fell under the truth, but more rose up against it and the preacher. Huss, however, found protectors in the archbishop and in the queen; and so he continued preaching with unquenchable zeal and earnestness, proclaiming the truths of Holy Scripture, and appealing to the written Word in support of all his statements. He was bound to preach frequently, at what are called “Church Seasons," sometimes even twice a day, and always in the language of the people. In this way, while studying more and more closely the Word of God, and digging deeper and deeper in the mine of truth there treasured, he grew rapidly in the knowledge, and imbibed increasingly the spirit of the infallible Word. There grew up around him, too, a community of devout and awakened souls who thirsted for the living waters and hungered for the living Bread.

Huss knew not the true character of the movement he had commenced, nor whither it would lead him and others; he had entered the road to Protestantism without so much as dreaming of it.

It was now that he became acquainted with the theological writings of Wycliffe, studying them earnestly, admiring the piety of the author, and somewhat in sympathy with the reforms he demanded. Thus, though the voice was no longer heard crying in the fine old church at Lutterworth, its echoes were making themselves heard in distant Bohemia. Queen Anne of Bohemia was dead, but the ladies of her court, on their return to their native land, carried with them the writings of the great English Reformer, whose disciple their mistress had been, and in whose spotless life and joyful death they had witnessed the power of the everlasting gospel.

Another event, too, helped forward the work of Reformation which Huss had unconsciously begun. There came to Prague two graduates of Oxford, disciples of Wycliffe, James and Conrad of Canterbury. What they had learned on the banks of the Thames they proclaimed by the waters of the Moldau.

They held public disputations on the doctrine of the primacy of the Pope.

Things were hardly ripe for so bold a measure, and the authorities at once silenced them. But they could paint as well as preach, and their brushes were made eloquent. With the consent of their host, they drew in the corridor of his house, first, a picture of our Lord's entrance to Jerusalem, “meek, and riding upon an ass"; and on the other side they displayed the more than royal magnificence of a Pontifical cavalcade. There was the Pope, adorned with Triple Crown, attired in robes bespangled with gold, and glittering with precious stones; riding on a richly caparisoned horse, with trumpeters proclaiming his approach, and a brilliant crowd of cardinals and bishops following in the rear.

Their pictures were as eloquent and telling as their speech, and the graphic contrast struck every beholder. The city was moved; there was great excitement, and the English visitors found it prudent to withdraw; but they had awakened thoughts which no authority could suppress.

Amongst those who came to gaze at the pictures was John Huss. He returned quietly, to study more closely the writings of Wycliffe. At first he was startled at the bold things stated; then he was staggered; then convinced. The lying miracle in the church of Wilsnack, to investigate which Huss was one of three commissioners sent by the Archbishop of Prague, helped further to open his eyes to the impostures of Rome. The miracle was a so-called relic of the blood of Christ, which was proved to be simply an imposture. To this relic thousands flocked, some coming from great distances, from Poland, Hungary, and even Scandinavia. Miracles were said to be wrought by the holy blood, and many cures were reported to be made by it.

Huss's work in reforming one of the customs of the university gave him great favor and influence with the Bohemian people, and helped to open the way for his great work.

Tidings of Huss's work at Prague reached the ears of the Pope, who sent a bull for the suppression of all preaching in private chapels, and for the burning of Wycliffe’s books. They were, of course, written copies, and some beautifully illuminated by the copyists, and were therefore very costly, above the means of the poor to buy. Many, no doubt, were secreted, but more than two hundred volumes were publicly burned amid the tolling of bells.

This inflamed the zeal of Huss, and he began to attack the Pope's indulgences. For this he was summoned to Rome, to answer in person for his daring. Acting on the advice of some of his powerful friends, he declined to go, requesting to be heard by counsel. This was refused, and the Pope proceeded with the case in his absence. He was condemned, and the city of Prague was laid under an interdict. Every church was closed, the altar lights put out, and corpses lay by the wayside unburied. There was a tumult and bloodshed. What was Huss to do? Stay he could not with safety, so he retired to his native town, the territorial lord of which was his friend.

His first thoughts were with his flock of the Chapel of Bethlehem. "I have retired," he sent them word in a letter, "not to deny the truth, for which I am willing to die, but because impious priests forbid the preaching of it." But he could not be idle. Following his Divine Master, he travelled all through the region round about, preaching in the towns and villages. Crowds hung upon his words, delighted equally with his meekness, his courage, and his eloquence." "The Church," said they, "has pronounced this man a heretic and a demon, yet his life is holy, and his doctrine pure and elevating."

After a time things quieted down in Prague, and Huss returned to his old pulpit at Bethlehem. His flock gathered round him, and he thundered away again, and louder than ever, against the tyranny of the priesthood in forbidding the free preaching of the gospel.

Mighty changes were imminent in Bohemia, and gathering clouds already foretokened the near approach of the storm that would usher them in. Huss had many powerful friends, and the queen still faithfully clung to his side, but he had no man in all things like-minded, as Luther had in the following century in Melancthon and others. As a theologian and a Reformer he stood alone, while day by day new difficulties arose, and the course he had been led to take led him still further and further towards the goal, without his knowing in some cases what the next step would be. Happily, at this juncture, God sent him just the friend and helper he needed in Jerome of Faulfish, a Bohemian knight, who had returned some time before from Oxford, where he had become a convert to the doctrines of the gospel as set forth by Wycliffe. Passing through Paris and Vienna, he challenged the learned men of the universities to dispute with him on matters of faith. His arguments were too strong, and his logic too keen for his opponents, so they accused him of heresy, and he was cast into prison. Escaping, he came home to Bohemia just in the time of Huss's deepest need. Henceforth they were fast friends and co-workers in the great cause of the Reformation. R. S.

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We shall be glad to receive Papers from our Christian readers and friends suitable either for young or old. Perhaps we need more kelp of this kind for the young. There are many Sunday School teachers among our readers who could send bright stories and incidents, if they would sit down occasionally, pen in hand, and write what they have seen and heard. We would also encourage our Christian friends to write the story of the way God led them out of darkness into light, as such testimony is so very helpful in assisting others to enter the large place of Christian liberty and joy.

Reformers: JOHN HUSS. 2.

WE cannot describe the relative characters of Huss and Jerome better than in the words of the late Dr. Wylie. He says that the two men “were alike in their great qualities and aims, and were yet in minor points sufficiently diverse to be the complement the one of the other. Huss was the more powerful character, Jerome the more eloquent orator. Greater in genius, and more popular in gifts, Jerome maintained, nevertheless, towards Huss the relation of a disciple. It was a beautiful instance of Christian humility. The calm reason of the master was a salutary restraint upon the impetuosity of the disciple. The union of these two men gave a sensible impulse to the cause. While Jerome debated in the schools and thundered in the popular assemblies, Huss expounded the Scriptures in his chapel, or toiled with his pen at the refutation of some manifesto of the doctors of the university, or some bull of the Vatican. Their affection for each other ripened day by day, and continued unbroken till death came to set its seal upon it, and unite them in an eternal friendship."

With no such intention as part of their program, and indeed, without any program at all, but simply being led on step by step, they were about to appear on a platform and act a part in the eyes of all Christendom, whether they would or no.

At this time the western part of Christendom presented a frightful picture. Not only had corruptions and abuses reached an infamous height, but the morals of the priesthood, with some exceptions, and including dignitaries of all degrees, were gross and execrable. In addition to these things, there were three rival popes. The Italians had chosen Balthazar Casso (John XXIII.); the French had elected Agelo Corario (Gregory XII.); and the Spaniards had chosen Peter de Luxe (Benedict XIII.). Each claimed to be the successor of St. Peter, and the vicegerent of God; and each hurled the fiercest denunciation against his rivals. Huss read the Bible, studied the early Fathers, and compared these with the spectacles passing before his eyes. He saw more and more clearly that Rome was more like the Antichrist of John and Paul, than the fair bride of Christ. He would have reformed, washed and transformed her if he could, but he could do little but “cry aloud and spare not," and oppose the teaching of Holy Scripture to all the errors and evils of Rome.

There was a severe struggle going on in the mind of Huss, and there were commotion and tumult all around him. Once more Prague was placed under an interdict; this time by the archbishop, who, so far, had befriended Huss, but now requested him to leave the city, as the interdict would abide in force so long as he continued there. In his absence he believed all would subside into peace. But how could that be? Truth and error, the Word of God and the commandments of men, the spirit of the Reformation and the spirit of Antichrist were in conflict, and it was not in the power of Huss or any man to stay the struggle, and Huss would not, if he could. Fearing his presence in Prague might embarrass his friends, Huss again withdrew to Husinetz.

Thence he wrote letters to his friends, letters which display a mind full of calm courage and steadfast faith, from which true courage springs. In one of them, Huss is said to have first used the prophetic words, which he afterwards repeated on more than one occasion: " If the goose " (such is the signification of his name in the Bohemian language), "which is but a timid bird, and cannot fly very high, has been able to burst its bonds, there will come afterwards an eagle, which will soar high into the air and draw to it all the other birds." The reference to Luther will not escape the reader. Equally worthy of remembrance, too, are the words that follow the above prediction. “It is in the nature of truth," wrote Huss to his friends, "that the more we obscure it the brighter it will become."

Huss had now completed one period of his remarkable career, though he was not many years above forty, and another, a shorter, but more grand and far-reaching in its results, lay before him. In the calm of his native village or town he dug deep into the mine of Holy Scripture, and, by communion with his God and Savior, fortified his mind for the coming conflict. For himself he seems to have had no fears, and to have been inwardly emancipated from the thralldom of Rome, and the darkness of its slavish teaching. What God had thus far done for him he sought to be the means of doing for his native land of Bohemia, which he loved so well. But events were not yet ready for the development of the glorious Reformation which was to follow. He had prepared the ground, he had sowed the good seed, and some fruit already appeared, but the harvest was not yet. His testimony from the pulpit of his beloved Bethlehem, and by his various writings, had produced happy results, but now, soon, he was to mount another rostrum, and bear witness to the truth in another form: in other words, to light up a fire which should illuminate far-stretching regions, and shed its light on nations yet unborn and ages yet to come. If by his teaching he had in part emancipated Bohemia, by his death he should help to emancipate Christendom.

The state of the western empire at this period was one of fearful convulsions, and there were tokens of a coming storm which made men's hearts fail them. The gathering forces of the rival popes within, and the threatened invasion of the Turkish hordes without, all portended "lamentations, mourning and woe." Huss was in temporary quiet at Husinetz; but for him also the storm was gathering.

The Emperor Sigismund, in the midst of his perplexities and fears, resolved to call a general council. To heal the schism that was rending his empire and to extirpate heresy was its object. The council, in the calling of which Pope John concurred, assembled at Constance, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, on the 1st of November, 1414. There were present thirty cardinals, twenty archbishops, one hundred and fifty bishops, as many prelates, a multitude of abbots and doctors, eighteen hundred priests, princes and nobles of all degrees, and a host of pilgrims from all parts. The three principal figures were the Emperor Sigismund, Pope John XXIII., and, chief and greatest of all, John Huss.

The pope entered Constance with the greatest magnificence, but he left it a conscience-stricken coward, a fugitive, and a criminal, convicted of murder and other flagrant sins, for the which crimes he was formally deposed —too vile a wretch was he for even the Papists to endure.

The first work of the council was to patch up the dubious claims of one Bridget, a lady of Swedish nationality, to saint ship. Then came the trial of John Wycliffe. He had been in his grave thirty years, but that mattered not; forty-five propositions culled from his writings were condemned, and their author sentenced to the flames.

If Satan ever laughs, he must have laughed at the doings of this learned ecclesiastical body, venting their spite upon the bones of a man whose spirit had been praising God in paradise for more than a quarter of a century. The next step was to take away the cup from the “laity "; that is, un-ecclesiastical persons. Then came the depositions of the infamous John, and his less infamous rivals.

The condemnation of the pope was virtually the vindication of Huss; howbeit, his judges read it not so. As to Huss himself, we are not left to surmise his opinions. Writing to a friend, he says, in a letter still extant: " They will know when winter cometh what they did in summer. Consider, I pray you, that they have judged their head—the pope—worthy of death by reason of his horrible crimes. Answer to this, you teachers who preach that the pope is a god upon earth; that he may sell and waste in what manner he pleaseth the holy things, as the lawyers say; that he is the head of the entire holy Church, and governeth it well; that he is the heart of the Church, and governeth it spiritually; that he is the well-spring from whence floweth all virtue and goodness; that he is the sun of the Church, and a very safe refuge to which every Christian ought to fly. Yet, behold now that head, as it were, severed by the sword; his sins laid bare; this never-failing source dried up; this divine sun dimmed; this heart plucked out and branded with reprobation, that no one should seek an asylum in it."

When Huss reached Constance he had with him several important documents, the most important of all being the emperor's safe-conduct. It was addressed: "To all ecclesiastical and secular princes, etc., etc, and to all our subjects." It ran thus: “We recommend to you with a full affection, to all in general and to each in particular, the honorable Master John Huss, Bachelor in Divinity, and Master of Arts, the bearer of these presents. Journeying from Bohemia to the Council of Constance, whom we have taken under our protection and safeguard," etc., etc. How solemn and sacred was the pledge of security! and yet how falsely the man that signed it acted, upon the flimsy and unjust pretext that "no faith is to be kept with heretics." But Huss's trust and confidence was reposed elsewhere. “I confide altogether," said he, writing to a friend, “in the all-powerful God—in my Savior. He will accord me His Holy Spirit to fortify me in His truth, so that I may face with courage temptations, prison, and, if necessary, a cruel death."

On the twenty-sixth day after his arrival Huss was arrested and carried before the council. After a conversation of some hours he was placed in confinement under the charge of the clerk of the cathedral, and after a week he was removed to the prison of the monastery of the Dominicans, on the banks of the Rhine. The sewer of the monastery flowed close by, and the stench and the pestilential air of the dungeon brought on a raging fever. It seemed as if his enemies would lose their grip of him, and they sent physicians to attend him. As soon as he had somewhat recovered, they lost no time in hastening on his trial. The Bohemian barons had indeed appealed to the emperor for his immediate release, and probably he would have set him free but for the sophistry of the ecclesiastics, who pleaded that the interests of the Church stood above even an emperor's pledge of safe-conduct, and that he must regard the voice of the Church as the voice of God. Instead of being released he was removed to the Castle of Golaleven, on the other side of the Rhine, where he was shut up, and loaded with chains.

While these things were proceeding, the deposed Pope John made his escape, but was captured, brought back to Constance, and, strange to say, thrown into the same prison where Huss was confined.

Huss was brought to trial on the 5th of June, 1415. There he stood, in the face of the vast throng of ecclesiastics, weak through his recent illness, but strong in the Lord; heavily chained, but free in spirit. He acknowledged the authorship of his books which were produced. The articles of crimination were read; some of them were fair statements of his opinions, others were perversions, and some were wholly false. He began to reply, but the assembly made such a clamor that he could not be heard. When quiet was restored he resumed, but when he appealed to Holy Scripture the storm was renewed, and the sitting broke up in confusion. On the 7th the trial was continued. An almost total eclipse of the sun threw the assembly into terror and the inhabitants of the city into dismay. There was almost complete darkness, which hung over the city, the lake, and the surrounding plains, as if the day of doom had come. When the light returned Huss was led in by a body of armed men. The council prepared a form of abjuration for him to sign. He declared that what had been faithfully deduced from his writings he had been taught by the grace of God, and he would never abjure what he believed to be the truth of God.

On the 6th of July, 1415, the anniversary of his birth (if born in 1369, he was forty-six, and if in 1373, forty-two years of age), Huss was brought forth for the last time. He was preached at by the bishop of Lodi, who pointed to him as "that obstinate heretic," then degraded from the priesthood, and otherwise ignominiously treated, and finally condemned. When they took the cup from his hand they used these words: “O accursed Judas, who, having abandoned the councils of peace, have taken part in that of the Jews, we take from you this cup filled with the blood of Jesus Christ."

“I hope, by the mercy of God," said Huss,” that this very day I shall drink of His cup in His own kingdom; and in one hundred years you shall answer before God and before me." He was led forth to a meadow outside the city. The stake was driven deep into the ground; his feet were placed upon the faggots, and fastened to the stake with ropes, wood being piled around up to his chin. Before the torch was applied Louis of Bavaria and the marshal of the empire implored him to have a care for his soul, and renounce his errors. “What errors," said Huss, “shall I renounce? I know myself guilty of none. I call God to witness that all that I have written and preached has been with the view of rescuing souls from sin and perdition; and, therefore, most joyfully will I confirm with my blood that which I have written and preached."

The fire was kindled, and as it blazed upward Huss began to sing with a loud voice, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me." "When he began to say this the third time," says Foxe, "the wind so blew the flame in his face that it choked him." A second and a third time was the fire kindled that his limbs, his body, his heart, and every thread of his raiment might be consumed, The ashes were collected, the soil dug up, and the whole carted away and thrown into the Rhine. They could do no more.

For a further description of his character we have no space; nor can we do more than refer to the growth of Protestantism in Bohemia, and how when, a century afterwards, Luther began his great work in Germany, Michael Weis, the author of the hymn "Christ the Lord is risen again, Hallelujah," and other "Bohemian Brethren," sent messengers with their brotherly greetings. An unbroken succession of faithful witnesses can be traced from Huss to the present Moravians, sometimes indeed few and feeble, but true to the fundamentals of the Gospel of Salvation. To God be all the glory! May the present and the future not be unworthy of the past. R. S.

The Rejected Life Boat

LIFE is sweet to all, and it is rare indeed to see any man, when in imminent danger, willfully fling away the chance of life. Would to God it were as rare a circumstance to see a man willfully reject eternal life! But alas, Scripture and our own observation confirm the awful fact of man's willful rejection of salvation so freely and graciously offered in the gospel.

The following true account of a most heartrending scene lately came under my notice, and strikingly resembles the hardness and perverseness of those to whom the Lord Jesus said, "Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life."

It was winter. For many successive days the weather had been most threatening; there had been constant and violent storms of wind and rain, and boats and ships of all sizes crowded into the harbor.

Those who from long experience had learnt, in some degree, to “discern the face of the sky," feared a furious gale would spring up. Their expectations were realized, for a terrific hurricane burst over them with unusual violence. Deeply thankful for their security must those have felt who were safely riding at anchor in the harbor; but alas, for those who were still on the open sea, and exposed to the cruel violence of the elements! It was an awful night. The waves dashed upon the coast, and leapt in fury over the seawall in foaming showers of spray; the wind roared tumultuously, and the sound of its boisterous strength was doubtless the cause of many an earnest prayer ascending from tender, sympathizing Christian hearts in the little seaport town, for " those in peril on the sea."

The life-boat was in readiness, in case its services might be required. The coast-guard officers were on the alert, keeping an anxious look-out to see if any unfortunate vessel were in danger, when suddenly, just as the neighboring church-clock was striking the hour of midnight, came booming along, the waters, and mingling in its roar, the sound of a gun—the signal of a vessel in distress.

Now was the time for action. “Man the life-boat!" was the cry; and instantly twelve brave and devoted men (well knowing the danger of their mission, and gladly risking their own lives to save those of their fellow-creatures) sprang into the boat. Followed by the prayers of Christians, and the good wishes and cheers of the crowd assembled on the shore, they pushed off to sea.

It is impossible to describe the breathless anxiety and deep emotion which all those experienced who were watching that night on the sandy beach. Again the report of a heavy gun was heard, and a third soon followed in quick succession; but the life-boat was seen bravely struggling on through the raging surf, while the gallant ones who manned her plied their oars with might and main, intent on accomplishing their mission of mercy, at all risks to themselves.

After prolonged exertion they reached the ill-fated ship, which seemed on the point of going to pieces. A group of pale, terrified faces crowded the deck, but foremost amongst them all stood the captain, mad with drink, holding a loaded revolver in his hand, and swearing, with frightful oaths, to shoot down the first man or woman who should attempt to leave the ship.

Horror seized on all those who heard and saw the besotted man; and the question arose as to what was to be done at this unexpected obstacle to their deliverance, for the passengers dared not run the risk of having a bullet lodged in their bodies by the infuriated madman.

In this emergency a man stepped forward, holding a large clasp knife, with open blade, in his hand, and, advancing resolutely to the officer, he addressed him thus—

"If you discharge your revolver, you do so at your peril, for that same moment I shall stab you with this knife."

Mercifully, this unexpected firmness, and the sight of the naked blade, had the desired effect. The wretched captain was scared at the demeanor of his opponent, and, taking advantage of his intimidation, no time was lost in getting the trembling women and children out of the doomed vessel.

The boat had to make three or four journeys from the ship to the shore before the final rescue was effected of all those who had been in such fearful danger.

The captain only remained behind. In vain he was urged to take refuge in the lifeboat. In vain they warned him that his life was not worth an hour's purchase if he remained where he was (for his ship was rapidly breaking up). He would take no heed, but continued madly to swear at the crew and to point his revolver at any who might try to approach him.

Four times these devoted men returned with their boat to endeavor to save him. He would not be saved! and at last they were so much exhausted by such incessant and laborious rowing, that their commanding officer forbad their risking their own lives in any further attempt to save him.

Rockets, however, were sent off to carry a rope to the ship, in the faint hope that when he should see death more closely staring him in the face he might be induced to make use of it; but in vain. Twice they saw him with his own hand cut the line which was the sole link between himself and the shore; and while they were yet gazing with mingled pity, curiosity, and awe, the ship was dashed in pieces by the waves, and a piercing cry of horror which burst from the lips of the wretched man, showed that too late he saw the fearful consequences of his mad refusal of life. Too late! He was quickly swallowed up in the dark tumultuous waters. He had flung away his life. He had made shipwreck of body and Two days afterwards his body was washed on shore. We learnt subsequently from the passengers that he had been sober till the ship was in danger, when he drank deep till his head was turned.

Bear with me, dear reader, whine I ask you in all love and earnestness, Are you safe? Are you securely riding at anchor in the harbor, having taken Jesus for the Captain of your salvation? or are you still out on the open sea without a rudder, without an anchor, tossed about on the verge of destruction? Think over this question, I beseech you, and be in no uncertainty as to your state; either you are safe, or you are in awful and imminent peril, there is no middle course.

Jesus is the only “anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast." Have you laid hold on Him? If so, all is well; if not, whither are you drifting? Whilst we are in this life, we must all be more or less tossed about “on the waves of this troublesome world," but there is smoother water in the harbor than on the open sea!

The soul that has found Jesus is secure in the harbor, and fears no wild storm, nor shipwreck; but knows that not one breath of wind will blow more strongly than it can bear, and rejoices in the sure confidence that it will at last be safely landed on the heavenly shore. The open sea is like the world; there the soul has nothing on which to rest; while the furious blasts of the world, the flesh, and the devil, are ever seeking to engulf it in their stormy waves.

As long as the weather is fair and calm, you may try to shut your eyes to your danger. But remember, storms will arise, and your ship must one day be broken up. Lose no time, then, in flying to a place of shelter; grasp the hand that is stretched out to save you.

Eternal life is as freely offered to you as temporal life was to the poor, infatuated captain. Will you reject it? There is an invitation full and free offered to all: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." It is the Savior who speaks. Will you listen to His pleading voice? Will you go to Him? “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?"

Leave, I pray you, your own crazy, leaky vessel and come to the life-boat? You may say, "There is yet plenty of time before me!" Be not deceived, for your frail bark may even now be on the point of breaking up, and one moment may be enough to plunge you into the dark waters.

It will then be too late to be saved; and with a bitter cry, before the waves finally close over you, you will repent of your willful madness in refusing to be saved when so much was done for your salvation.

Oh then, "today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." Choose you now-do not delay: shall it be the world and destruction, or shall it be Jesus and safety?

Listen to the gracious words of the Lord Jesus Himself—" For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." So now, "as though God did beseech by us, we pray in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

Your heart will then rejoice in your Redeemer; and resting securely on Him you will " fear no evil," The waves and billows of this life may be rough and boisterous, but sooner or later you will reach the heavenly shore, and fully realize that " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love Him."

MRS. G. E. M.

REMEMBER, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this," AFTER THIS, “the, judgment."

A Retrospect

THE retrospect of my life so wonderfully corroborates the text, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord," that for the comfort of those who may have relatives in distant lands for whom they can only pray, I am induced to write a brief sketch of how the Lord found me.

I was born in India, and, like other Anglo-Indian children, was sent home for my education, and my father being Scotch, Edinburgh was my destination.

I can see now this was the first link in the chain. Edinburgh was indeed a new life for the little spoilt Indian child, whose every whim had been gratified by the ayah (nurse), and whose whole time had been spent in playing with pets of all kinds, and reading the silliest of story books.

Though eleven years old, I literally knew nothing of God or His word. Going to church, and learning the Scriptures, were new things to me. There was a freshness and novelty in them no child can understand who has been made to sit still through a service from babyhood, and commit verses to memory without understanding them. When I was about twelve years old, the great Scotch preacher, Dr. Guthrie, came to Edinburgh, and gave a special address for children, to which I was taken.

Though the text was soon forgotten, one of his illustrations, graphically given, of a ship going out to sea, without chart or pilot, being like a soul without Christ, doomed to perish, had such an effect on my soul, that I went home, and in an empty room, on bare boards, I knelt down, and for the first time really prayed. This surely was the second link.

In another year I was written for to return to India. Though still but a child, and not half educated, the voyage was such an expensive and long one (lasting for three or four months), that the opportunity of my sharing the cabin with an old friend, and of my being taken care of, could not be lost. When our good old minister heard I was leaving for India, he came to see me, and warned me of the temptations and worldliness into which I should be thrown, and kneeling down, committed the "little lassie" to the Lord's care. Take heart, believers, and pray with and for the little lads and lasses.

After a voyage of nearly four months I reached India in safety, and was thrown into such a godless house in Calcutta that I shudder to think of it—all my early impressions seemed blotted out, but to pacify conscience, I would, at times, hurry through a chapter in the Bible when I came home from a dance.

A whole year was spent in every sort of thoughtless gaiety, and before I was fifteen I was engaged to be married—need I add, to a godless young man, for none other visited at the house.

Not long after this we left Calcutta, and had to travel far into the interior—our journey occupying more than a week. There were no railways then in India, and so we travelled in a beautifully fitted-up river barge, called a "pinnace," passing through a portion of the Ganges delta, called the “Sunderbunds," which teemed with all the animals of a tropical climate, and was thickly clothed with jungle to the water's edge. On reaching our home we all looked out anxiously for letters, and my brother came to me with one in his hand, and with his face unusually solemn, to announce that in that short week of my absence from Calcutta the young man to whom I was engaged had suddenly died.

It was so sudden that my soul was made to tremble, and I could not rest. The question would recur, "What would become of you if you were to die?" This was the third link, and up in a lonely indigo plantation, five hundred miles from all means of grace, God by His Spirit opened my eyes to see I was a lost sinner.

Then came the question, "How can I make myself acceptable to God?” There are very few of God's children who have not in some measure gone through the experience of the seventh chapter of Romans—beating their rings against the bars of the legal cage, though the door of grace is wide open, only they turn their backs—poor, silly birds!—trying to make a way of escape, when He, "the Way," is waiting to set them free.

I began by imposing all sorts of mortifications on myself, which told on my health, and would have done any penance to gain peace.

I used to sit as far from the punkah (a fan slung from the roof) as possible, and almost faint with the heat—the punkah being as essential in India to a European for health (if not life) as fire is in winter in England.

I did not see it then, but I was really doing exactly what I was shocked at in the heathen devotees around me, who held one hand aloft till the sinews shrank, or clenched a fist till the nails grew through the hand. These mortifications, instead of bringing peace to my soul, or glory to Him who died for me, only gave cause to those about me to call me a Roman Catholic spoilt, and my efforts to be free left me just where I was, still beating my poor wings against the bars.

Many a weary month I passed without peace. However, I felt bound to speak to those around me, and to a dear brother, years older than myself, who was brought to the Lord some time after; and yet I would not have dared to say I was saved. The good Lord gave me deliverance by an illustration, just as He at first had used one to awaken my conscience. It was this: One in deep distress of soul dreamed that he was trying to climb to heaven, and suddenly found himself unable to go up or down, with merely a foothold to cling to. In the midst of his horror there came a voice, saying, "Trust me, and let go." “No, I could not do that," said the climber. "Then you must perish," was the answer. The voice came again, “Trust me, and let go." And now, panting and exhausted, with all hope in himself gone, in terror the hands relaxed, and instead of whirling into the abyss, lo! the everlasting arms were underneath, and from the trembling lips came the word, "Saved."

Then I saw that salvation was outside my poor self, that the Lord Jesus had satisfied the righteousness of God, that He had been “made sin for me who knew no sin, that I might be made the righteousness of God in Him." In Him I was accepted—in Him complete—and saved with an everlasting salvation.

Surely God's ways are not our ways; and after years and years of ups and downs-weariness often, sickness and deep sorrows—I can trace link after link which has brought me to Himself, and given me to be among those who are waiting for His coming. S.

Robert Pursglove

“Christ is to me as life on earth, and death to me is gain,

Because I trust through Him alone salvation to obtain;

So brittle is the state of man, so soon it doth decay,

So all the glory of this world must pass and fade away.

THE above lines are inscribed in old English lettering on a border of brass round the tombstone of Robert Pursglove, in the parish church of the picturesque and noted village of Tideswell, in the Peak of Derbyshire. Pursglove died over three hundred years ago, in the year 1579. A man of much learning, he became the head of Gisburn Priory, being the prior there at the time of its suppression in 1540, and of whom it is recorded that “the prior lived in the most sumptuous style, being served at table by gentlemen only." After the suppression of Gisburn he was appointed provost—and, as it proved, the last one—of the "College of Jesus," at Rotherham, founded in the previous century by Thomas Scot de Rotherham, Archbishop of York. Pursglove witnessed the dissolution also of that seat of learning in 1550, and was then made a bishop in Yorkshire. Yet a third time, after another ten years, was he deprived of high ecclesiastical position and authority by reason of political changes; for we are told that with many others he lost his preferment rather than take the Oath of Supremacy to Queen Elizabeth in 1560.

And now he retires from his busy public life, with all its varied calls to a man of such position and influence—with all its privileges and responsibilities its vanities and vexations—and betakes himself to the quietude of his native village in the Derbyshire Peak. Here, unhindered by the ceremonious ritual of his previous positions, he was able to cultivate the personal religion of a soul in communion with its Redeemer, and to realize what it was to trust in the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus; for the same Scriptures which teach us the way of salvation today, enabled Robert Pursglove by grace to learn " through Him alone salvation to obtain," over three hundred years ago. All the knowledge he had obtained—which enabled him to hold the position of provost of such a seat of piety and learning as Archbishop Scot's College at Rotherham then was—could not show him any other way of salvation; for had he not found out that Christ Jesus Himself had said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6.) Having filled such high and dignified positions in the ecclesiastical world, and found out how very unstable and unreliable they all were, the words on his tomb-stone—

“So brittle is the state of man, so soon it doth decay,

So all the glory of this world must pass and fade away,"

show us that he had not only proved, but also admitted the truth of the apostle Peter's statement in the twenty-fourth verse of the first chapter of his first epistle: " For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." He was evidently also prepared to believe what Peter further says: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you "; for there and there only, in the enduring word of the Lord, could Pursglove learn, as his epitaph has it, to” trust through Him alone salvation to obtain."

And the desire of the writer in drawing the reader's attention to this little bit of history is to emphasize the grand fact implied in the quaint lettering on that old tombstone that the soul's salvation is alone obtainable by faith in Christ Jesus. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:16, 7.) And the apostle Peter pressed home upon his hearers this truth of salvation " through Him alone " when accounting to the authorities for the miracle wrought upon the poor lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple-the man who, lame from his birth, Peter took by the hand, saying, " In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk," which he at once was enabled to do, going with the apostles into the temple, " walking, and leaping, and praising God." (See Acts 3.) And when Peter was questioned by those in authority about the matter, he told them it was by the power of the name of Jesus, and added, " Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) And by "none other name" have any of the ransomed saints in glory found entrance there; "through Him alone," on whom Robert Pursglove placed his reliance, have they obtained eternal salvation.

And how is it with the reader of these lines? Do you realize what it is to trust in Jesus, to know redemption, and to be in the enjoyment of the possession of eternal life. For the one you need to do as one of Adam's fallen race, and the other you may know and have now. Then why delay? Why reap the wages of sin—death—when you may have the free gift of God—eternal life? “Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation "; and salvation is of the Lord.” Neither is there salvation in any other." May you learn from reading this, by the Holy Spirit, how "salvation to obtain "; then you will have good cause to remember the lines on the old monumental brass on the tombstone of Robert Pursglove, the last provost of Rotherham College. And, when you visit the Peak of Derbyshire, one of the chief points of interest to you will be this inscription in the village church of Tideswell:—

"Christ is to me as life on earth, and death to me is gain,

Because I trust through Him alone salvation to obtain;

So brittle is the state of man, so soon it doth decay,

So all the glory of this world must pass and fade away."

H. W. P.

Robert the Miller

SOME years ago, in a village in Yorkshire, the Lord was working in a remarkable way, convincing men of sin, and leading them into the knowledge of forgiveness through Christ.

Amongst these was Robert Robinson. He was truly awakened, and in the distress of his soul, cried to God, like the publican of old, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." One thing pressed very heavily on poor Robert. He was by occupation a miller, and managed a mill driven by water power. In hot, summer weather the supply of water would sometimes run short, and he had to stop the mill until the dam filled, and then go on again. On such occasions Robert's master required him, when the dam was full, to turn on the water, whatever day it might be, and this involved John, at times, in working on the Lord's day.

This Sunday-grinding seemed to Robert a very great sin; and he felt that he must confess and forsake it, or he would never find mercy.

So, in the presence of others at the prayer-meeting, he cried to God, in his broad Yorkshire dialect, "O Lord, hea maysey on me, and ah will nivver grund nea mair o' Sunday." Of course poor penitent Robert meant that he would not grind any more corn for his worldly master on the Lord's Day, if the Lord would only forgive him for the past, and save his soul. This petition he repeated many times, until He, who does not despise a broken and contrite heart, heard and answered his earnest prayer, by giving him to see that Christ Jesus had died for him; and filling his heart with peace and joy through believing in Him.

Now came the trial of his faith. Robert frankly told his master, that, being, saved, he meant to lead a different life; and that now he could no more set the mill going on the Lord's day. He was sorry if this should displease his master, but he must now obey the Lord at all cost, and, besides, he had promised the Lord not to do it again. His master, who had more thought for his own business than for Robert's spiritual benefit, saw no harm in having the mill going a little on the Lord's Day. Should the water be running over the mill-dam to waste, what sin could there be in turning it over the wheel in order to grind the corn, to make bread?

Robert stood firm, however, as to Sunday grinding, but he was quite willing to meet his master's wish, so far as he was able to do it with a good conscience. He would keep the mill going up to midnight on the Saturday, and start it again directly after midnight on the Monday morning.

This proposal his master accepted, as he valued Robert as a faithful servant. Thus Robert's path was made clear, and he was as happy as the day is long.

He had occasionally to go to the houses of the farmers to fetch their corn for grinding, and to take it back when ground. His heart was full of joy; when he heard the birds singing in the hedges by the wayside, or in the trees, he thought they sang of Jesus, indeed, everything spoke to him of Jesus. Even in the old mill he heard the name of Jesus, for when the bell rang for more corn in the hopper, Robert thought that it sounded the name of Jesus.

The “hopper" is a wooden receptacle in the shape of a round tub, rather narrower at its lower end, where the corn issues to pass between the millstones. A small bell is fixed near the bottom of this, and when the hopper is full the bell is silent, but as soon as the corn passes below it, the shaking motion given to the hopper to keep the corn passing through it, rings the bell, and gives the signal for more “grist to the mill."

Christ filled the heart of Robert, in the mill, or out of it, a constant unfailing spring—"A well of water springing up into everlasting life."

Robert stayed with his master as long as he lived, which was not many years, for his constitution was not robust. The dust of the mill injured his lungs, yet he continued his duty as long as he could, and his master kindly kept on his faithful servant to the last. Robert passed away in triumph, to see the One who had loved him, and who had given him such heavenly joy even on earth. G. R.

The Sabbath Fast

SITUATED as we are in Christendom, is not easy to realize nation holding a feast to the Lord. A national feast to the Lord, we may say, is an impossibility amongst Gentile kingdoms, it has never been ordered by Jehovah, and, therefore, could not be obediently held. The Jewish people seem to have been slow in keeping the feasts of Jehovah's ordering, for even that of the Passover was neglected, and the keeping of it in Hezekiah's days is marked by especial mention—" for since the time of Solomon, the Son of David, King of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem." (2 Chron. 30:26.) A feast to the Lord can only be kept in obedience to the Lord, and in order to keep such a feast, the nation of Israel had to cleanse itself of its idols.

Religious feasts, or festivals, are held by Gentile nations. The heathen have theirs. Christendom, in some countries, has its festivals; but a national feast to Jehovah is quite another thing altogether from such vain and often profane entertainments—holiness becomes His house for ever.

Amongst the feasts of the Lord, the Sabbath took the front place. “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." (Lev. 23:3.) The Lord, in a special way, preserved His Sabbath amongst Israel in their wanderings in the wilderness, for on the sixth day a double portion of the manna fell, and none fell on the Sabbath. (Exod. 16:22-25.) True, as a people, they neglected, or at least they did not commemorate, the feast of the Passover year by year in their wanderings in the desert, for they neglected the rite of circumcision (Joshua 5:5), but the evidence of the Sabbath as the manna fell from heaven was present to them week by week for their forty years of wandering.

“The rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord” (Exod. 16:23) is mentioned, at the beginning of Israel's wanderings, and in such a way as to lead to the belief, that that holy day had been recognized by the people, in Egypt, at least, by such of them as retained in their hearts the fear of Jehovah in that land of idols and profane feasts to many gods.

The Sabbath is the rest day of the great Creator, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Gen. 2:3.) He created, and He made; He called forth into being, and He fashioned the existent into its present form; and having viewed all His work, and having declared “it was very good," He rested. In that rest He placed the first man to rejoice before Him, and to enjoy with Him of the work of His divine hand.

The Sabbath is a hallowed day, the last day of the week of divine creative labor, and is full of the deepest significance, both as regards the purpose of the Creator, and also the purpose of the Redeemer. Ever must man, who knows God, look back to the first Sabbath with feelings of the most profound piety, and, as he considers the sin, and sorrow, and evil around him, with feelings of the deepest humiliation. The first Sabbath is past, and such a rest will never return. Its rest was broken by sin, and ever since that Sabbath was broken, sorrow and death have caused man labor and tears. However, we expect a Sabbath, the rest of which shall never be assailed—a rest which shall be eternal, in which the gracious purpose of our Redeemer God shall be abundantly realized. “There remaineth therefore a rest "—a Sabbath—" to the people of God." (Heb. 4:9.)

The feast of the Sabbath was commemorative. It was a holy day, and thereon those who loved His name commemorated the work of the divine Creator. The feast was unto the Lord. He Himself had designated it as “My " feast. No servile work was to be done on that day; but joy in the Lord, and rejoicing before the Lord, were necessary qualifications for its proper keeping. It was just at this point the Pharisees and others erred, when they found fault with Jesus for His acts of mercy wrought on the Sabbath day. Love to God and delight in Him and His love they heeded not. The Sabbath was in their eyes rather a feast of the Jews than a feast to the Lord. The most holy season and occasion may soon degenerate into a formal affair. Then the kernel lies dead in the husk, and the husk alone is valued by the religious. Had the religious people of the times of the Messiah rightly read the meaning of the suffering and the misery, the leprosy, the paralysis, and other griefs in their midst, they would have discovered that such ills are inconsistent with a Sabbath of divine rest. But Pharisees and rulers of synagogues were too proud to read the plain lesson, and their pride blinded their eyes so that they were too dull to see the love of God in His Son healing the people. They would not own that suffering is the result of sin, and that if Israel had not sinned, the sufferings in its midst would not have existed. Even though so early as Israel's departure from Egypt, God had declared that this should be the case. (Exod. 15:26).

It was patent that a paralyzed man, such as had been taken to the pool of Bethesda for nearly forty years, could not enter the temple and worship Jehovah; the man had no power to go in thither, and the lame were forbidden entrance. Now when Jesus had given power to the limbs of the man, he went into the temple, but no true worshipper was he, his heart was unmoved towards the Lord, and by his alliance with priests and Pharisees, he brought down persecution on Jesus for healing his paralysis on the Sabbath day. (John 5:16.)

Now what was the Lord's answer to the Jews who accused Him for breaking the Sabbath?— "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." What a Sabbath-day truth! Divine love ceases not in its activity because it is the day of rest! Human sin and suffering have disturbed the creation rest of God, but because He is love, the Father and the Son work in love for the good of men.

Our Lord, who worked even unto death for our salvation on the cross, was laid in the tomb on the Sabbath. The work was finished, and that Sabbath was in a sense the last Sabbath of rest. Henceforth, at least till His coming again, the Lord's Day, the first day, took the place for the time of the Sabbath, the seventh day. Now He is risen from the dead, and He is changeless in His holy and loving activity on our account. He is working not only in, but also with, His servants for the good of man (Mark 16:20). He is engaged on the throne of God on behalf of His people, " He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). Thus the Sabbath teaches of a rest yet to come.

As a rest remains to the people of God, the Sabbath feast was anticipative, as well as commemorative. Established upon His own work of redemption, Jesus shall bring in a rest which shall know no interruption, and no ending. That shall be indeed a feast unto the Lord; holiness and joy shall reign in human hearts, and God shall rest in His love towards His people. He will have perfected in redemption the purpose He had in view in creation. And in that rest the spirit of these most lovely words will be realized—" The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." (Zeph. 3:17.)

Satisfied

HE who is satisfied is rich indeed. There are yearnings in the human heart which all the wealth of the world cannot satisfy, and it is natural to man to seek and to desire that which the world cannot give him. We hear constantly from the lips of those who have seen most of the world that they are tired and weary of it—they are still unsatisfied.

Christ not only saves, He satisfies. “He that cometh to Me," He says,” shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." (John 6:35.) Thus the soul craves not, but reposes. We are invited to come to Jesus for satisfaction, and promised it on coming. Some obtain but little from Christ, for they expect little.

The water of life which the Lord offered when He sat by the side of Jacob's well to her who came thither to draw, was living water. It was ever fresh, ever bubbling up. Not stored water, but springing up water" springing up into everlasting life” (ch. 4:14). Now this is in the very person who has come to Jesus, and what a figure it is of absolute satisfaction! The believer is not ever going to the well to draw, but he carries about wherever he goes in him the living water which Christ has filled into his heart.

“He that eateth Me... shall live by Me” (ch. 6:57), says the Lord, and explains to us, that as He lived by the Father, communing with Him and feeding upon His words, so we who eat Him shall live by Him. Jesus was ever satisfied, ever at rest, and He shows to His people in His grace, the way of rest and satisfaction.

Saved at Ninety-Two

FEW are converted when advanced in life, and it is dangerous indeed to delay in the matter of the soul's, salvation, for who can tell when the summons may come? However, this little narrative may be a word of encouragement to some of the aged, showing that none are too old to come to Christ.

Charlotte Dear had been a widow for twenty years; her husband, a Christian man, fell asleep in Jesus in 1862, passing away suddenly.

After I received the knowledge that God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven me my sins, I had much anxiety for the dear old widow, whom I frequently visited, and often found reading the Bible. I spoke to her of the love and mercy of God in giving His Son to die on the cross for such poor sinners as we, but she only remarked, " Where did you learn all this? " and heard, with seeming indifference, the reply that God, by His word and Spirit, had taught me all I knew.

Twenty years and three months passed away after the departure of her husband, and then, one day, the widow confided to me that she was distressed about the condition of her soul. She was too sure she was not ready to meet God, and added the time had come for her to make open confession that she was not saved. And this she did to all who came in contact with her, and her anxiety was great indeed.

Many people called on her. The squire's wife, the doctor, and others. They asked how she was, and so on; but her answer in each case was, "I am lost. Are you saved? I never shall be saved. I am too great a sinner for God to save me; I am going to hell."

Such intense anxiety of soul, I never witnessed before or since. Various were the opinions of those who saw her; some said she was becoming insane, and the doctor thought that her remarks were caused by weakness of brain due to old age. But some saw in the aged woman's distress a sign that God the Holy Spirit was working in her, and hoped in due time light from God would dawn upon her soul. Neither was the hope disappointed, for, after three months of very deep sorrow of heart, and exercise of conscience, she broke forth by saying to her daughter, "I have faith. I believe that all my sins are forgiven, through the precious blood of Jesus. I am saved! Now I am going to heaven."

I was away from the village for a few days at the time Mrs. Dear first confessed Christ. It was one Wednesday afternoon, but I saw her on the following Sunday. I talked to her of the love of God in Christ, and said, "You believe in Jesus, and you are saved?”

She gave me a bright, piercing look, which expressed something very real, and said, “Give me your hand." There were several people in her room at the time. She held my hand in hers for an hour or more, adding, “Don’t disturb me."

No one spoke, and for the whole time she tittered such words as these,"Lord! lovest Thou me? Thou knowest that I love Thee. What! poor old Charlotte Dear! Thou knowest that I love Thee. Believest thou on Jesus Christ? Lord! Thou knowest that I believe."

“Repent and believe! Believe it is true;

A crown of bright glory is waiting for you."

It was a scene never to be forgotten.

After this her bodily strength in some degree returned to her. During the remaining two years of her life she often said, “I was on the brink of hell, just ready to drop in, but the Lord stretched forth His hand and saved me. I now have salvation through the precious blood of Christ, I now trust in Him by faith, I am going to heaven, to be with Him, and I shall see those gone before." She referred to a son and daughter of her own; also to her husband, mother, and brother. One day, in reference to her husband, she said: “He was a Christian, and many times he desired me to come to Jesus, but I refused—and then he was taken away so suddenly, and there was no parting word! I was left to mourn and grieve his loss all those years. Twenty years with a troubled conscience! But, oh! I now praise God, because He has saved me, and I was so unworthy."

One strange little incident may be added.

Mrs. Dear was the mother of thirteen children, but she had never been known to sing, no, not even to her babies. Now, however, in her old age, when the Spirit of God had turned her heart to praise, she actually sang, and sang loudly too.

Her last words were, “I am going. Come, Lord Jesus! Receive me." G. D.

Seeing Jesus

THERE was a time when Christ had no attraction to the heart of the believer. “When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him" (Isa. 53:2), was his thought of Jesus. But the Lord has wrought in the heart of each of His people a miracle more notable than those He wrought in the bodies of the lame and the blind He healed when here in the days of His flesh, for He has planted His own love within the heart, and made it to spring up, and to grow in affection towards Himself. Thus it is, that by the Spirit, through whom the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5), the true Christian responds to the love of the blessed God and of His 'Son.

The Lord places before His Father as one of the joys of His heart, and as the high joy of His people, the prospect of seeing His glory, '" Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory" (John 17:24). What a contrast with our first thoughts of the Son of God's love, when we saw in Him no beauty that we should desire Him! The sight of all sights for the redeemed in the Father's house will be Jesus in His glory. This is their great hope.

His own essential glories will shine before His people. He is the eternal Son of the eternal God, the great I AM, and these glories are all His own. But He is the Son of man as well as the Son of God. The Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, from whom we hid our faces, is the Man of Glory and of joy, to whom, as turn the flowers to the sun, every eye and every heart of the redeemed in heaven shall ever be directed. “They shall see His face, and His Name shall be in their foreheads “(Rev. 22:4). Each shall catch His reflection-each shall answer in some degree to His beauty-His Name as the choicest jewel, and the mark of high majesty shall be in their foreheads, and all shall derive their glory and perfection from Himself.

The Shepherd and His Flock

THIS picture is a parable. Let us look well into it. The first thing that strikes us is, this shepherd has his flock for his all, and this flock has the shepherd for its all. There is nothing attractive in the surroundings, no invitations to stray from the guiding shepherd. Night is coming on, the way grows dark. The flock is in the hands of the shepherd, for sheep are helpless in themselves. But the shepherd is armed. He is their protector. He goes before them. He is able, he is determined to preserve them all. And the growing shades of evening tell us home is near, and this the shepherd knows, for he makes music to cheer his own heart on the way and to soothe the flock in the sense of security.

Now with reverence we can say, Our Shepherd has His sheep for His all. He "sold all that He had" for the flock. His sheep are His treasure "of great price." “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). So deep, so great was His love for His sheep, that Jesus Himself says for us to hear, “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again (ver. 17). The care of the flock is His great burden of love, never to be laid aside, for "having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." (John 13:1.)

The picture presents to us the flock having in the shepherd its all. No other guide, or protector, no other hope. Take away from the scene the figure of the shepherd, and a few wandering sheep upon a lonely waste, with night deepening around them, is all you have! Let us seek to make Jesus our All. He is our Guide. He will never leave us, nor forsake us; He is our Preserver; He is our Hope.

In the East the shepherd goes before his flock armed.

Our picture presents to us a modern Eastern shepherd, with a firearm in addition to ancient weapons. But whether the weapon be the sling and the stone, or the mace, we can say with David, “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." Our Shepherd goes before His sheep, and if the foe would snatch us from His hand, he must first overcome our Shepherd, who bears not only the name of love—" the good Shepherd,"—but the name of power—" the great Shepherd " (Heb. 13:20). He has earned this name, for He has overcome death and him that had the power of it. He is risen from the dead, and all power in heaven and on earth is given to Him.

The day is nearly ended. The shades of night already fill the valleys and the thick places in the woods. Some fear the coming darkness. What will soon take place, say they, on this earth? But let the sheep of Jesus keep their eye upon their Shepherd, and keep their feet close to His steps. "My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me." Whither He leads let us follow. And whither does He lead? Homewards, ever homewards. The darkness we may dread declares that home is near. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Let the anxious and the tried hush their fears for a moment, and they shall hear sweet words of life and peace, for the Shepherd lifts His voice, He rejoices over His sheep.

The picture presents to us the shepherd leading his flock, and making music as he goes. The sheep no doubt catch the spirit that pervades the mind of their guide. A horse or a dog readily understands whether the sense of fear or rest fills its master's heart, and sheep trained, as in the East, to constant attendance on the shepherd's steps, would, we can well believe, do the same. The shepherd's pipes would, therefore, be to them a soothing sound, an intimation that all is well.

The idea of pleasant music, of sweet sounds, or of song, when nearing home, on a darksome way, is cheery and bright. Let us take it for ourselves. The end is near, the way is dark, but our Mighty Shepherd rejoices, for in a little while and all for whom He died will be with Him where He is. No more a wilderness way, no alarms, no murmurings, no backslidings, but all at home for ever with Jesus the Lord.

Shiloh

WHEN the wanderings of Israel in the, wilderness had ceased, and when their battles in Canaan were over, they could rest. And when they could rest, the blessed God, who had journeyed with them through the wilderness, and who had led their victorious battles in Canaan, would rest, too. He found a place in Canaan where His tent should be erected; "the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there." (Josh. 18:1) Shiloh was the religious center for Israel. To Shiloh the men chosen to inspect the yet un-possessed land of promise were bidden return after their journey; and, having written a book, in seven parts, describing the good things not yet realized, they came again to Joshua to the host in Shiloh, and there Joshua divided the remaining land as an inheritance for the people.

In this act occurring in Shiloh, lies a suggestion for ourselves, for it is when we are before the Lord in our Shiloh, we learn what is yet to be possessed spiritually, and also the order of the possessions, and the way in which we are to enter upon and into their realization. All the land of promise was Israel's by promise, but only so much as was won, was their practical possession.

As time went on, Shiloh was no longer the honorable center in Israel's eyes that the tabernacle had made it. The early spirit of determination to maintain Jehovah's honor, as it expressed itself at Shiloh when the two and a half tribes set up their altar (Josh. 22:11, 12), had died away. Indeed, when the people fell to the gods of the heathen around them, what could Shiloh be to them, and what the house of God which was there? (Judges 18:31). And when Israel fell from Jehovah, it lost its practical unity, for the center forsaken, the circle could not exist. However, at the close of the strange story recorded in the book of Judges, the whole extent of which covers many years, Shiloh is once more spoken of as the place where yearly there was a feast to the Lord.

We may infer, that when Jehovah recovered backsliding Israel by the judges and deliverers He raised up on their account, the glory of Shiloh, and the presence' of the Lord there, began again to be precious in the eyes of His people. Thus we read in the beginning of the book of Samuel how Elkanah “went up out of his city " (which was in Mount Ephraim) " yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh."

It was to Shiloh that Hannah, Elkanah's praying wife, brought the infant Samuel as a gift, given her by the Lord, to be presented to the Lord. Her prayer, and her dedication of her Samuel to the Lord, are, and ever will be, precious to all mothers whose God is the Lord: " For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord."

A pious mother's prayers are like the spring which rises by the wayside, and as it flows, grows and pours out its waters for the blessing of many. Shiloh, for some time in the Bible story, shines with glory. Hannah's prayer and Hannah's gift were a fountain of blessing to Israel. Let the Christian mother trace the grand story of Samuel's life with Hannah before her mind; and particularly the third chapter of the book called by Samuel's name, which describes the manifestation by Jehovah of Himself to the child, and the revelation of Jehovah's word to the young prophet, who was recognized and known as such by Israel. It will cheer and invigorate the mother's spirit.

After Eli's death the tabernacle was but a memory of what it had been. The people of Israel, regarding the holy ark as a sort of charm, took it with them to battle, that "it may save us out of the hand of our enemies” (chap. 4:3). They lost the fight, and lost the ark. They lost it, but God took care of His own ark, even when it was captive in the hands of the Philistines. In the ark were the tables of the law; it was the depository of divine revelation, and the uncircumcised were not permitted to injure it. Eventually the ark was restored to Israel, but we hear little of Shiloh after this profane act of Israel. “He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men; and delivered His strength into captivity." (Psa. 78:60, 61). True, the priest wearing the ephod, and the prophet, who announced the mind of God, were still found in Shiloh (1 Sam. 14:3; 1 Kings 14:2); these holy men seemed to linger in love about the place which had once been so glorious. After a time, favored Shiloh became a word in the prophet's mouth of warning and of judgment. “Go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel." (Jer. 7:12.)

Shiloh lay under a curse in Jeremiah's days, it was a standing memorial of God's anger against a rebellious people; yet to be recalled to the sight of Shiloh as it was, only made Israel more angry against the prophet than before, when he told them what should be done with them (chap. 26:6, 9). Shiloh is connected with the tent, as is Jerusalem with the temple, and what befell Shiloh, Jehovah declared should befall Jerusalem (chap. 7:14).

And now we have a picture, rendered from a photograph, before our eyes which speaks of the desolation of Shiloh. It is but stones and ruins! Once God's Name was there, once it was the life and the glory-center of Israel; what is it now? What a lesson lies herein to ourselves! God cares more for His Name than the place wherein He recorded that Name. Men-cling to the place, even when the glory has departed; God establishes His glory, and sometimes by the overthrow of the once-favored place.

Simple Truths About Salvation

When a celebrated visitor journeys in Palestine it is customary up the roads for his equipage. The rough places, the holes and rents in the road, are made smooth, and the great stones, which the rains have brought down from the hillsides over the paths, are taken away, and they are thus rendered plain. In like manner our effort is to remove obstructions and to make a way in the hearts of our readers for the Savior. We have spoken of the necessity of feeling our lost condition, and of our helpless state by nature, and have done so with the hope that thereby some might be led to prepare in their souls a way for the Lord.

Jesus is the only Savior. None share with Him this glory—none are united with Him in saving sinners. The Scriptures are most express in rendering Him all the honor of salvation, and he who would be saved must first and foremost recognize who it is that saves.

A young man who had been brought up by his father most carefully in ignorance of the Scriptures, so that he had never so much as seen them till he was some twenty-three years of age, was led to desire to know what the Bible is like. He bought an expensive copy of the sacred book, and, on opening it, found that it was comprised of two parts. Not knowing one word of its contents, he thought he would read the shorter part first, and accordingly began the New Testament. He was alone in his bed room, where none could see him poring over the unknown book. Presently he came to these words, " Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." As the margin explains, Jesus means SAVIOUR. "There is something wonderful in this book," said the young man, and God by this verse opened his heart to feel his sins, and in due time to find the Savior.

Before Jesus was born into this world Savior was a heaven-given Name that He should bear, and when He was here amongst men He said He was "come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), for such was His gracious mission. “I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9), is His own description of Himself in His saving mercy, so simple and so free has He made salvation for sinners. He is the Door; He is the Way; by Him we enter in and receive the salvation of God-by Him we step into the perfect blessing of salvation.

Ponder over these two texts, which we place side by side:—

None other name—no," JESUS ONLY."

When the sinner begins to believe that Jesus only is the Savior, and that in none other but He is salvation, good progress has been made. The rough places are so far made plain.

We will ascribe in spirit with the redeemed in heaven "Salvation to God...and unto the Lamb." It has pleased God that all should look to Jesus only for salvation, and as Pharaoh said to the famished people of old, “Go unto Joseph," so does God address every needy sinner to Jesus. “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." (Acts 5: 31.)

God has very mercifully encouraged us by telling us that the-Lord Jesus "Is able to save." (Heb. 7: 25.) Such an announcement is evidently for the assurance of our hearts. His ability is not questioned in heaven, where He now is, but on this earth where we are. He has died for us, and He lives for us to die no more; He has accomplished the work of salvation, and He is able to save to the uttermost. The helpless and the hopeless find that He is “Mighty to save." And we need a mighty Savior, for we are helpless, and are surrounded with strong foes.

Need we speak of His loving willingness to save.

His coming to this world, His life upon it, His death for sinners, are three unquenchable proofs that He is willing to save. His words of love unfold the willingness of His heart." “I will in no wise cast out “is His assuring comfort to the seeker. While in view of Himself in His death, as the love-gift of God to the world, He says, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:17.)

Jesus is the only Savior.

Jesus is able to save.

Jesus is willing to save.

All that is needed by the sinner is to go to Him.

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee—

O Lamb of God, I come."

Simple Truths About Salvation .1.-Awakening

THE very terns “salvation" implies the needs be for a Savior.

Every professing Christian recognizes Christ as "the” Savior—most call Him “our” Savior—but, if we are saved, He is to us a personal Savior, and we love Him as our very own Savior. “That is the fire-escape station, and the man yonder sees to the escape in the event of fire," is a general description of a familiar sight in London. But how differently does the person speak who has been saved from fire through the escape and by the fire-escape man! “That man saved me," he says, and his heart beats with thankfulness as he recalls the danger in which he was, and the devotion of the brave fireman in saving him.

The need of salvation really felt.

A man at ease in his arm-chair does not feel the need of salvation from the flames, but let him know that his house is on fire, and at once he is full of concern. Many a sinner sits in the arm-chair of self-satisfaction, though he be in danger of hell fire, but when he knows this truth he longs to be safe. The man whose house is burning may be able to save himself; the sinner in danger of hell fire must be saved by a Savior, or be lost forever.

A tradesman in London went weary, to his rest one Saturday night. In his bedroom he had a little trap-door, which he could open, and so look into his shop below. About two o'clock in the morning he was awakened by a knocking at his front door. Ile opened the trap. Beneath him his shop was all ablaze! He was in terror; he wanted to be saved there and then; he did not lie in bed hoping to be saved some day! Five minutes before he was fast asleep; yet he was in greater danger then than when he saw the flames.

Up, sinner, from your ease—awake, awake; you are in danger of eternal fire; seek for salvation now, for if you delay and delay you will be lost forever.

Awake, awake, awake.

Oh! unsaved man, woman, or child, live no longer in a spiritual dreamland—hear no longer by habit—eternity is at hand. Hear by habit, did we say? Yes, for thus do men hear of salvation—they hear without listening to what they hear.

Upon a country road stood a turnpike, which the gatekeeper duly shut at night, and then took his sleep. One dark, wet midnight a friend of ours rode up to the door of the gate-house, and tapped with his whip-handle, crying,

“Gate! gate!"

“Coming!” replied the old gate-keeper's voice.

The horseman knocked again, and once more the voice cried “Coming!” Again and again the knocks were repeated, and the answer duly came—" Coming!"

All patience left the rider-he leapt off his horse, thrust open the door, demanding why the gate-man had kept him waiting so long saying, “Coming!"

The old man gaped, rubbed his eyes, and said, " What d'ye want?" then, arousing, "Bless ye, sir, and yer pardon, I was asleep; I gets so used to hearing 'em knock, that I answers in my sleep, and takes no more notice about it."

Oh, sinner, awake, answer no more in your sleep, for eternity is near. Hear no more by habit. Hear the preacher in the pulpit no more by habit. Say no more by habit, “We are miserable sinners." Answer no more with your voice only to God's calls of love and mercy, “Coming, coming," while really you are spiritually fast asleep.

Hoping to be saved some day.

"The way to hell is paved with good resolutions." Satan gently lowers lost sinners down into eternal doom by getting them into hoping to be saved some day. “Someday " never comes.” Now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:2.)

What would you think of your neighbor who had started for his train telling you, in reply to the warning, " You will be late if you don't hurry up,:—" Oh! I hope I shall catch the train someday "? Fellow traveler to eternity, are you in less concern about your soul's salvation than about catching your train? Shall your zeal and haste not to be too late for your train, or for some of life's daily duties, rise up against you in the Day of Judgment and condemn you?

I want to be saved now.

A little boy was much concerned lest he should not reach heaven, and he came to a minister, and asked of him the way of salvation. The minister told the child that God was ready to receive the old and the young, and that His Son Jesus Christ had died for sinners to save them, and then he bade the boy run home, and kneel down and pray earnestly to be saved for Christ's sake.

The little fellow looked up into his face and mournfully replied, “Oh! sir, but suppose I should die before I reach home?"

The minister immediately knelt down with the child, as he told him how that God says to anxious sinners, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved "—and the child was brought to know that He was saved.

Simple Truths About Salvation .10. — KEPT

THE Savior has given such strong assurances of His keeping His own to the end, that all who rely on His faithfulness may adopt the words of the apostle, and say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." (2 Tim. 1:12.) The apostle thus spoke, having the experience of who the Savior is; he spoke out of his heart. To rely on Him whom he had believed was enough; his Savior could not do other than He had promised.

The believer is kept unto salvation.

There is salvation yet to be revealed, even as there is salvation which is now made known. Glory is at hand, and it shall be revealed presently, but now is the time of trial, temptation, and difficulty. Through this time the believer is "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed" (1 Pet. 1:5)—that is, he is kept from this present moment until the revelation of the glory, the full salvation from sin, sorrow, and death.

The power of God is here spoken of. The limit of the keeping is the illimitable power of God. In like manner St. Paul spoke of Jesus, “I am persuaded that He is able to keep." A very strong comfort is here. In view of the many temptations and difficulties to which all are exposed, it is no light thing to be assured that divine power is exercised in keeping all who put their trust in Christ.

Let us rest upon such gracious words as the following: "My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." (John 10:29.)

“The only wise God our Saviour ".... "that is able to keep you." (Jude 25, 24)

“Him that is of power to stablish you.", (Rom. 16:25.)

Resting in faith on such gracious realities makes the believer strong in faith, and sets him giving glory to God. We have not power, ourselves to keep ourselves, but we have in our God and Father, and the Lord our Savior, almighty power for us.

“Kept from falling".

St. Jude writes of “the common salvation," and describes various characters of falling from it. Such evils were growing in his day; they are developing rapidly in our own day. We speak of the spiritual difficulties of the times in which we live; let us never forget that the only wise God our Savior is able to keep us from falling. But let us not forget that, if a true believer departs from the truth of the common salvation, he will fall into some evil. The truth makes us free, and by it our loins should be girded, if we would stand for God and for Christ. Our prayer should be that we may be kept in the truth.

It is a great cheer for the heart to look back upon the centuries that are passed, and to observe how the Lord in His wisdom and power has kept His people. What He has done He will do. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has raised up again and again men who have recalled His church to the truth, without which the church would become darkness.

The keeping of His people is very near to the heart of the Lord. This we know without doubt from His own words to the Father. When He was about to leave the world, He said He had kept in the Father's name those who had been given Him, and He asked for His people who were in the world that the Father would keep them from the evil. (John 17:15.) Hence we know that the people of God are under the keeping of both the Father and the Son. It is through this love and power we are Kept from the evil. Each believer has his own special world to be in, and yet not to be of, and none can live a holy life save by divine power. True, many a backsliding step do God's people too often make, but the feet led again into the path of peace, and the heart humbled and chastened, attest to the unfailing and unchanging keeping of the Savior of His own.

Kept from the evil of the world is absolutely comprehensive. Everything that is not of the Father is of the world; such is the standard the word of God presents to us.

Simple Truths About Salvation .11. — the Hope of Salvation.

THE Scripture says, “We are saved by hope," or "in hope" (Rom. 8:24), for while we are saved from our sins, and from the wrath which is to come, we are not yet saved from sorrow, or suffering, or death. Further, we are saved for a bright and glorious end. The glory is yet to come, and for this glory the believer waits, and he hopes for the day when it will be revealed. He does not hope for what he has, for example, the forgiveness of his sins, or his justification, since these are his present possession, according to grace, and “for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” He hopes for the fulfillment of the promises of God respecting the future.

We may justly say, that he who most fully realizes the favors which are now his, through God's salvation, most fully values those blessings of salvation which are laid up for him; and which will be made good and enjoyed when the salvation is revealed.

Let us set side by side some of the present and the future blessings of salvation which are the portion of the believer, remembering that the future is as certain as the present with God, and that whether present or future Favors all go to form the salvation of God For man.

Past, present, and future, however different in our eyes, are all as one in the mind of the eternal God. His salvation is one great whole, and all who are saved, are saved according to the fullness of the salvation of God. This salvation is made secure to us for time and eternity in Christ. It is unchangeable in all its parts in Him;

“We shall be saved from wrath through Him."

"We shall be saved by His life’’ (Rom. 5:9, 10) even as we are saved now by Him.

When we speak of the hope of salvation, it no sense is an uncertainty suggested. Hope built upon man, or earthly things, has o necessity in it an element of uncertainty, but hope that is built upon God's word is absolutely certain. A hope that can never 134 put to shame is highly encouraging an strengthening. There is no such thing as hoping against hope in the hope of salvation no, but an anticipation which will be abundantly realized.

This hope enables the believer to hold u] his head before every foe. And to this he is exhorted as a good soldier of his Lord," putting a...for an helmet the hope of salvation"(1 Thess. 5:8). If we had hope only in this life we should be of all men most miserable, but we have a grand prospect of glory before us, which shall never fail. All that we have received is but an installment of what is laid up for us. There will be deeper peace, richer joy by and by, than we ever knew here. Our circumstances will he perfect according to the standard of divine dove, and in this salvation all shall equally participate, even the poorest and the simplest together with the greatest, whether the thief, who found the Savior at his the eleventh hour, or martyrs, prophets, and apostles.

Simple Truths About Salvation .2.-Truly Awakened

ARE you awakened? This may seem too common-place a question—at least, to be put to a religious person. Of course, it is said, Everyone who attends a place of Christian worship is awakened to the realities of a judgment to come and a future state, and to the plain truth that he or she must live forever, either in bliss or misery! Why, such things are the common belief of all professing Christians!

Oh, that it were so—that this common belief was in every mind a living reality, a personal belief!

There is a common belief on this side of the world in the awful character of cholera. We know that this disease is habitually carrying off its victims on the other side of the earth, but for all that, this common belief does not affect anyone to do or feel anything uncommon. But when the newspapers tell us that cholera is only a few miles from our homes, and may visit us any day, the common belief in the awful character of the disease becomes an influence upon our daily lives; we prepare to meet it.

When we ask our reader, Are you awakened to the realities of salvation, we mean are you personally prepared to meet God? Are you in deep, downright earnest upon the great concern of a judgment to come in relation to yourself?

If you are taking the realities of eternity in the usual easy way of professing Christendom, you are certainly far from being awakened.

The men who heard the apostle Peter preach at Pentecost, and who cried “What shall we do?"

(Acts 2:37), were awakened. That sermon awakened them. They believed they were guilty before God of the death of His Son; they believed that Jesus, whom they had taken with wicked hands and crucified and slain, was in the grave no more, but was risen and at the right hand of God, waiting there till God should make His foes His footstool.

Most persons in Christendom hear the truth of God as a matter of course; the few believe that God will make His enemies His footstool, and hence but the few cry out to God, “What must we do?"

All professing Christians believe in the history of the gospel. Some teach that the gospel is history, and hence that the faith which accepts the incidents of Christ's life and death, supplemented by religious observances in relation to these incidents, is salvation!

Be not deceived. Belief about God or Christ, belief in a creed, may not be saving faith, and may be entirely different from belief in Christian verities brought home to heart and conscience by God the Holy Ghost. Numbers of persons knew about Jesus when He was on earth, but those who wanted Him came to Him.

We may take it that the professing Christian whose belief in salvation has never led him to seek it, whose belief in the Savior has never led him to love Him, is not awakened to the reality of salvation, or to the love of Jesus. The truth has not got into him lower down than his head—it has not reached into his conscience and heart.

A good, honest man of our acquaintance, who had lived more than forty years in self-reliance, was brought to believe that a man's sins are either forgiven him or are upon him! He could not get this truth from him. It had penetrated right into him hence he applied it to himself, and, as he was sure his sins were not forgiven him, he was sure that his sins were upon him. He was miserable. At length, one midnight, he could restrain himself no longer; he leapt out of his bed, and, kneeling down, prayed God to save him.

O God, save me!

That man was awakened.

Have you ever spent ten minutes of your life upon your knees, in the presence of God, crying for mercy?

If you have, you know what is meant by being awakened.

The secret of being awakened is this—a man believes that the Christian Verities he believes have to do with himself. Of necessity his religion is in the singular person; it concerns himself. “Jesus, have mercy on me" is its expression.

Thus it was with blind Bartimæus, the beggar of Jericho, who, when he knew Jesus was passing by, cried out, and would keep crying out as loud as he could, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." Poor man, he wanted his eyesight; he believed Jesus could and would give it him, if he could only make Jesus hear, and though the crowd bade him hold his peace, Bartimaeus was not to be stopped. Bartimæus got what he sought.

This is the kind of religion that pertains to the man, woman, or child, who is awakened by the truth of God, and through God the Holy Ghost to the realities of the Christian faith. Such awakened people like Bartimæus receive that which they seek.

Only half awakened.

Some years ago a stranger appeared in a little Swiss village that stood in a valley over which the Rossberg mountain towers. The village was as it had been for years in that smiling valley, and the people dwelt as had done their forefathers, in peace and safety, This stranger climbed the mountain, and in the evening, as he returned from its heights, he warned the people that one day it would fall upon their village and destroy them. For a short time terror filled the hearts of those Swiss, but as day by day passed by, and the old mountain stood as strong as ever, their fears subsided, and they ridiculed the brave and learned man whose words at the first had filled their hearts with terror. They slept off their fear.

For twenty years the stranger's warning was scorned and made light of; but one August day, the side of the mountain began to move, and presently crags and precipices trembled and shook, till in accumulating masses they crushed down into the valley.

Now where that village stood there is to be seen a huge mass of earth and rocks, deep down beneath which lie the poor unbelieving villagers. So will it be with those who hear the warnings of God, but who will not flee from the wrath to come, and sleep off their fears.

The only way for rest.

"Oh, tell me what to do," said a woman to one who was calling upon her; "I know I shall soon have to change worlds, and I am not ready."

She was truly awakened. Her earnestness was evident by the various efforts which she made for her salvation. At last she was led to the only way of rest, to trust in the sure word of God. When this was the case she said, “This disease may go on now for I shall soon be with Christ in heaven."

Two officers were speaking together on the night before a battle, and thus one of them writes: “When a man knows he has to face death there can be no sham then, no trifling then! My friend and I read a chapter by moonlight, standing with our swords in our hands. He had not been decided before, but as we parted later on, each going to his tent, I asked him how he felt about facing the morrow.

“He replied, 'Well, whatever comes, I believe I am safe for tomorrow, as I am trusting in Christ.' "

He had been truly awakened; he sought and he found the way of salvation and of rest.

Simple Truths About Salvation .3. — LOST, IF NOT SAVED

EVERY person if not saved is lost. It is not essential to be unnecessarily wicked in order to be lost. A veteran preacher of the gospel had taken as his text, “What must I do to be saved?” and after the sermon, a young man tried his skeptic hand on him with this witty question, “What must I do to be lost?" “Go on as you are," was the sharp, stern response.

Yes, thousands have only to go on as they are to be lost forever.

It is not necessary to feel lost in order to be lost.

Many a playful child feels very happy as it wanders whither it knows not, but by and by the little wanderer finds out that it is lost, and then begins to weep. No one will dispute that when the child is aroused to know its lost state it stands a better chance of being brought home, than when it laughs and dances; for its tears appeal to the kindliness of the passer by. But the child was lost before it felt it was lost. The way to know whether you are lost is to believe God's word. We feel lost when we believe that what God says about our being lost is true.

"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10.)

The gracious Savior, when describing God's love to sinners and the sinner's state, speaks of a lost sheep, a lost piece of silver, and a lost son. (Luke 15.)

The sheep strays because to wander is its nature, herein is seen the senselessness of the sinner; “All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isa. 53:6), and like sheep do not know the way to return, for "the way of peace have they not known" (Rom. 3:17).

The lost piece of silver illustrates the insensibility of the sinner, who feels neither his state towards God, nor his preciousness in the eye of God,—" dead in sins" (Eph. 2:1), shows us our awful state, and our deadness to our state of death.

The lost son evidences the deep, determined will of the sinner, who gets as far away from God as he can do; and when lost we are enemies to God by wicked works (Col. 1:21).

The sinner is altogether lost.

The Savior did not come to seek and to save those who were half lost. It is just the way to remain lost forever to refuse to believe you are altogether lost now. If you hold to it that there is something in you by which you may yet recover yourself, you do not trust in Christ as your Savior. When a sinner believes God's word that he is wholly lost, then he really wants to be saved; he cries " Lord, save me, or I perish."

What must I do to be saved?

This is the most important question an unsaved man can ask. It was the earnest cry of the heathen jailor of Philippi, who had thrust Paul and Silas into the inner prison, and had made their feet fast in the stocks. (Acts 16.) These noble servants of God were in a horrible Roman dungeon at midnight. Their backs were bleeding with unlawfully given stripes, but their hearts were full of joy in God, and they began to pray and to sing praises. God answered their prayers; an earthquake shook their prison and opened all its doors, and all the prisoners' chains were loosed!

Yes! God gives salvation and liberty, no dungeons, no bonds, no darkness for His people! Oh! no, but joy and peace and glory.

This work of God terrified the jailor, and calling for a light he sprang into the dungeon where Paul and Silas were, and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved”? And they answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." And he believed with all his house and rejoiced in God.

God says to each one who longs for salvation, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and what God says is true, and all who believe are saved.

Almost.

Poor young wife! we can see her still, though fully twenty years have elapsed since she uttered these words upon her dying bed—" Almost forgiven."

Her young husband stood beside her bed weeping, and various sorrowing friends were in the room. Neither he nor she had shown any care about their souls, until this sad dying hour, when we were called in to see her.

After speaking very gently, for she was nearly gone, and whispering such sweet texts as these, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood." (Rev. 1:5), "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), we asked how it was with her in the light of a speedy entrance into God's presence.

“Almost forgiven," were her words.

A few hours later she had passed away out of time into eternity.

God knows whether she was forgiven, for almost means not quite, and not quite means not at all.

Almost saved, is not saved. We are either saved or lost.

A man was in great anxiety to board a steamer; he rushed down the steps to the landing stage, and just as he was about to cross the movable bridge was dragged back, and with one foot upon the steamer, he fell into the water and was lost. That man is a picture of many who delay seeking salvation till it is too late—yes, of many who flatter themselves they are partly saved, and therefore more safe than when they were lost out and out.

Reformation is not salvation.

Reformation is a very good thing no doubt for us all. For whether men or women, we all might be better than we are—less proud, less mean, more honest, truthful, kind, and the like. But reformation is not salvation, though true salvation ever produces true reformation. If a man say he is saved and continues living a life away from God, we know that man by his fruits. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.

Allowing the desired reformation to have taken place, and the former drunkard to be sober, the former thief to be honest, still that is not salvation.

Let us suppose a man on board an Atlantic liner, and a third-class passenger. As the voyage proceeds the third-class becomes a first-class passenger, but the liner, like the London, founders in a storm. The passenger is none the less lost whether he is first or third class. So the reformed sinner must perish unless he be saved out of the world and be brought to God in Christ.

Religion is not salvation!

Religion, if it be of God, is all-important, but to be religious is not of necessity to be saved. The Scribes and Pharisees were the most strict of religious people, yet they hated Christ, who said to them, the publicans and the harlots would enter the kingdom before them. Papists or Protestants, we all alike need salvation. The salvation we alike need is “God’s salvation ' (Acts 28:28), and that is “the common salvation “(Jude 3). If the pope is to be saved, or if the African in Central Africa is to be saved, he must be saved by Christ, and through Christ, or he will never be saved. And this is true of both the writer and reader of these lines.

The Christian religion cannot save a man. The Christian's Savior alone saves. Religious feelings do not save us, though such as are saved have true religious feeling; prayer does not save us, though the truly saved man prays; good works do not save us, though the saved man does good works; Christ saves, and Christ alone!

Simple Truths About Salvation .4. — WITHOUT STRENGTH

IN these words, “without strength" (Rom. 5:6) lies a truth, which is indeed to learn. To some the words come as a bitter disappointment— to others, as a sincere comfort, at least when read with the concluding part of the verse in which they occur: “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Such as are trying to merit God's approval, and so to gain salvation by their works, find the words a sore disappointment. Such as know they are ungodly and lost, rejoice that Christ died for us just us we are.

Without strength! These words are sadly overlooked, or perhaps are not believed in very much that is, accepted as Christian religion. Yet when the Savior was here His ministry of healing reached not only the leper, the type of the sinner in his sin, but also the palsied man, the type of the sinner in his helpless state.

To the helpless, to him without strength, came His divine words, “Wilt thou be made whole?"

Made whole! made whole! Who should make him whole? The man did not so much as grasp the Lord's words. His mind was buried in his thirty and eight years' experience of one and another stepping down before him into the pool, the waters of which the angel had stirred. Poor man, what a picture he is of a soul centered in and fixed upon ordinances! Always doing, yet never at rest, oblivious to the fact that he is without strength.

Jesus did not come to aid us to save ourselves, He came to save us. He saves, and saves outright.

“Rise," said He to the man without strength, and immediately he was made whole. (John 5:1-9.)

What a difference there is in the religion of looking to ordinances, and to ourselves for power to avail ourselves of their benefit, from hearing the words of Jesus!

Without strength! There is much positive unbelief in this fact. It is humiliating; it cuts against the grain of our pride. Many prefer to perish rather than believe that they are without strength.

How many there are at this moment who are struggling on, striving on, ever seeking to save themselves, and never knowing what God's salvation is, failing to say from the bottom of their hearts, "In me, that is my flesh, dwelleth no good thing," and to give up every hope in self, so that Christ may be all.

“Let go the twig!"

Once a young girl was in deep anxiety of soul. The thought of her state before God followed her even in her dreams, and she could gain no rest. While in this condition a dream came to her. She was hanging, clutching to a hush that grew upon the brink of a pit, and beneath her all was dark. As she clung she felt her only hope lay in clinging, but she grew weary and exhausted. Then a voice said to her, "Let go the twig," but beneath was the darkness, and she held on the tighter. Again the voice said, "Let go the twig," but she grasped it the more as to her only hope. Yet again the words came to her, and then, weary and faint, she let it go, and fell ... where? Into strong arms—into safety! She awoke, and lo! she knew she was safe in the keeping of Christ, her Savior.

To what are you holding on? Is it to your prayers, your good works, your resolutions? Let go the twig. Let all go; be nothing but what you are, a lost, guilty sinner, falling into darkness, and you shall find in Christ a perfect and an almighty Savior.

Simple Truths About Salvation .6.-Perfect Salvation

GOD'S standard of His salvation is perfect, and perfect not according to human thoughts, but according to God's thoughts. Man proposes a salvation which depends in part or wholly upon himself, God brings to man a salvation absolutely of His own plan and work.

"I am saved today"

was the reply of a man, whom we believe is a Christian, to the enquiry about his trust in Christ. “But why do you say today?" he was asked, and his answer was, “Because I do not know what may happen tomorrow." Such a salvation as secures the soul for today, and leaves out the future is imperfect. Our Savior "is the same yesterday, today, and for ever," and if our friend had had better thoughts of Jesus the Savior he would not have replied as he did. He told us he did not know what might be the case on the morrow, as he might fall or do something which should forfeit his salvation. But " by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8, 9.)

We are taught by God that Salvation is eternal.

If we had to hold it or maintain it, after we received it, it would not be everlasting, for we should assuredly forfeit it. But it is eternal, because it is linked with its divine Author. The Lord Jesus having died for our sins, and being risen again, is perfect as Savior. He has finished the work God gave Him to do, and God has raised Him from the dead. Hence Jesus is perfect as the Savior whose work is done, and He is the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him (Heb. 5:9).

Mark this. It is necessary that you obey Him. Those Jews in ancient days, who brought their daily sacrifices to the temple, and sought in their priests mediators between God and man, were not obeying Jesus. They were obeying the voice of their church, as we should express it. True " they had a zeal of God," but "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they had not submitted to the righteousness of God " (see Rom. 10:1-4). They left out, indeed they rejected Jesus the Savior. They did not obey Him.

The salvation God brings to man is His own, and it is worthy of Himself. It is of God, but for man. It is termed the "salvation of God." (Acts 18:28.) Never surrender this truth Salvation is divine.

Jesus the Son of God and man is the Savior, and none less than He can save. To attach salvation to saints and angels is profanity. The redeemed from “all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” ascribe “salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9, 10).

The blessed Mary, the mother of Jesus, says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in GOD MY SAVIOUR."

(Luke 1:46, 47.) The holy apostle Peter declares of the Name of Jesus, " Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is NONE OTHER NAME under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved " (Acts 4:12), and the apostle Paul speaks in like manner, "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Tim. 1:15.)

The divine Savior came into the world to save sinners; there is none other Savior but He; the holy and the true exalt Him as Savior; and in glory the saints ascribe salvation to God, and to the Lamb. In no sense ' is salvation of man; in every sense it is for man.

God Himself describes in His word His salvation as great salvation.

It would seem that some men conceived of it as a small salvation, and one requiring the addition of their efforts to render it finally available. We have lived to see the revival of pilgrimages from our own land, and of a system, of penances and pains, which sufferings are supposed to assist in salvation. When a lifeboat breasts the storm, the people on shore do not attempt to contribute to the salvation it goes forth to accomplish, while the people on the wreck are only too grateful to be saved.

In the salvation effected by the Lord Jesus, God came forth and witnessed by signs and wonders, and miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost (Heb. 2:4), to its glory and its greatness. The sick were healed, the lepers cleansed, the dead raised, and these attendant miracles were divine witnesses to the salvation the Lord first spoke of. God would have men recognize the glory of the salvation His Son brought in. There is a huge religious machinery set up on, earth to supplement or to destroy the reality of God's great salvation, the simplicity of which lies in the fact that it is ours through Jesus only. And this is the word of faith, “that if-thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Rom. 10:9, 10.)

- - -

Hearing and Doing

“BLESSED are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." (Luke 11:28.)

“My mother and My brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it “(8:21).

"YE are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." (John 15:14.)

Simple Truths About Salvation .7. — the Simplicity of Salvation

GREAT works are simple. Even in the works of man simplicity is written upon the highest attainments. In the things of God His own mighty handiwork is marked by simplicity of principle. In the work of grace, God has chosen so to bring His salvation to man, that a child may lay hold of it and possess it. Indeed, the great difficulty in the way of receiving the salvation of God is its simplicity. " Unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:23); let the Jews represent the religious world, and the Gentiles the scientific, and none can well deny that this is as true in our day as in that of the apostle.

What must I do to be saved? (Acts 16:30.)

In this question of questions the enquirer is face to face with the realities of eternity, and in such a case every shade of mere religious sentiment has vanished from the mind. A human being with divine judgment, and with death before his very eye, deeply, anxiously seeks for salvation for himself.

The answer comes in a moment, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved “(ver. 31). The man believed, and immediately he was saved, and proved by works that he was a Christian indeed. A man may have labored for years to attain an object, but the instant the prize is placed in his hands it is his. What must I do? Believe—possess.

In our day, the simplicity of this way of receiving salvation is much obscured by the fact, that most persons in professing Christian countries do believe, as a matter of history, that Jesus Christ was on the earth, and that He died and rose again. The apostle had not to explain to the jailor of Philippi the difference between historic and heart faith—between dead faith and live faith. Neither need anyone today attempt this task in the presence of a sinner really seeking after salvation, and for this reason, the seeking sinner has a heart awakened and alive to divine realities.

It is to such this page is addressed, and in answer to your question, “What must I do to be saved?" here is God's answer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." God sent His Son, the Savior of the world, and He will save you. God laid the sins of all who come to Jesus on Him when He was the sin-bearer on the cross, and, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, He will save you from your sins. And not partly save you, for part salvation is no salvation, even as almost saved is altogether lost. You shall be saved. Salvation does not lie in what we do or feel, but in what Christ did for us.

Believe on the Savior.

Put all your weight upon Him. The more helpless, the more hopeless you are, the more needy you are for Jesus. The sense of sin, with the Savior of sinners close at hand, is a blessed complaint from which to suffer. A man was dying in a military hospital; he had tried hard, but in vain, to save himself, and was as hopeless as an honest sinner in such a position could be. Presently the chaplain came to him and said these two words—" Try Christ." Poor soldier! He had tried prayers, repentance, tears. But all his efforts had been in vain. Try Christ! Would he—could he?

The chaplain left him, and, when he next sat by the sick man's bed, he found the burden gone, and the doubts fled from the soldier's heart. He had tried Christ, he had believed in the Savior, and he was saved-and he knew that he was saved.

The little daughter of a well-known preacher of Christ was very anxious to be saved. She was but seven years of age, and some might therefore say, her burden of sin could not be very heavy. It was heavy to her, and more than she could bear, and she wept bitterly in her dear father's arms. After trying, but in vain, to soothe her with texts of Scripture, the father perceived that his child was leaning a little on him for hope. Ah! how many do this! They lean on their pastor, or on some holy person, and they do not find rest. Most wisely he led his child to the only Savior, and thus he did it. He untwined her arms that clasped his neck and left her alone. "My child," said he, “I must leave you alone with Jesus. You must go to Him yourself, and speak to Him yourself."

Upon his return he found his child at rest. Her fears were gone. She had been to the Lord Jesus Himself for salvation, and He had granted her, by His Spirit, to know that He was indeed her Savior.

Thou shalt be saved.

These are the words of God. In our religious country it is necessary to emphasize the faith of Christ, for Christ is sorely wanted in our nineteenth-century Christian religion, even as amongst the heathen Christ is needed instead of their religion. The Savior lives to die no more, and He waits to save every needy soul. True faith is faith in God, and the word of faith “is nigh thee "—it lies in the Scriptures—it is the word which the apostles preached—" That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:8, 9.)

The Lord has died, and is risen from the dead, and nothing remains to be done for salvation by man—we have but to believe. These are God's conditions, and they redound to the glory of His grace, while they enrich everyone who submits to them. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (ver. 10), and heart-faith is live faith.

There are objections made to the way of faith, though that way is God's way. But will the objector remember that faith in something or someone is common to all religion? Why do persons take pilgrimages to tombs; why do persons receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper fasting; why do persons go to a priest to confess, unless it be on the ground of faith? They believe the tomb is holy, and can confer a benefit on them; they believe that Christ is in the bread, and is received through the lips into the human body; they believe that the priest can absolve them. Such faith is extolled, and the belief that salvation may be had by such means is popular. But it is not popular to believe that the Son of God is our own personal Savior, and that He saves all who come to God by Him, and that His way of salvation is belief in Himself. Jesus Himself is the living and personal Savior of his people. Tombs cannot save us; priests cannot save us; bread cannot save us! Jesus, and Jesus only, saves. And He is received into the heart—" with the heart man believeth"— and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and makes "confession unto salvation."

Simple Truths About Salvation .8. — THE CERTAINTY OF SALVATION

THE certainty of our salvation depends entirely upon Him who is the Author, and Finisher of the salvation of God —Jehovah-Jesus. It is strange that the seeker after salvation should so frequently forget this elementary truth, for, without question, salvation depends upon the Savior. It is so in natural things. The salvation of the shipwrecked crew depends upon the lifeboat. Can it, will it reach them? And the men having got the crew off, can the boat reach the shore in safety? The salvation of the people in the burning house depends upon the fire-escape and its server. Can he get the people out of the house and down the fire-escape before the flames reach them? No one, in the case of either the lifeboat or the fire-escape, professes to himself to do more than yield to his savior. But in spiritual things very often the saved one considers that the stability of the lifeboat is, at least, in part due to his own state of feeling, and that the security offered by the fire-escape is affected by his own measure of faith in it.

The sense of being completely saved may depend upon the trust of the person who is saved, and some may have firmer trust than others, but in no way is the salvation itself qualified by the sense or feelings of those who are saved. The rescued seaman fully assured in the lifeboat, and the rescued passenger full of fears in the storm, are equally safe, because the lifeboat is their salvation.

The certainty of the salvation of God rests upon the Author and Finisher of faith, Jehovah-Jesus. And for the greater assurance of our hearts we will set out from the Holy Scriptures some few passages relating to the work and containing the words of our Savior.

The work is finished.

"It is finished," are the words of the Savior on the cross. A finished work cannot be added to. Alas, men, who would consider it effrontery to add finishing touches to the works of their great musicians and artists, are not ashamed to propose to do something to add to (we would say to profane) the great salvation work of God's Son, our Savior. But the loyal believer loves to make his boast in the Lord, his Lord of whom is salvation, and who has triumphed gloriously.

A pious man was in trouble about the certainty of his salvation. He trusted in Christ, but at the same time he tried to do something to save himself. He was by trade a saddler, and one Saturday evening a Christian friend, who knew his state of mind, paid him a visit.

John had just completed a saddle, and having done his work well and honestly, sat down and regarded it with pleasure. Evidently his week's work was done, and his easy attitude of contentment proved John meant that the work was done and finished to the last stitch.

After hearing the usual story of John's doubts, the visitor suddenly turned upon him-for sitting down and taking things so easy while the saddle remained as it was. John's honest British workman's spirit was aroused. It was finished. He did not care who saw it, or what anybody said about it. And just because he had a pride in his work, sit down before it he would. Indeed, John's eloquence quite-ran away with him. How should anyone dare-question his work or word?

All this was just what our friend wanted, for when John was at his height of indignation, he quietly put his finger upon John's shoulder, and, looking him kindly in the face, said, " Ah, John, you cannot bear one word in question of your work being finished, but, oh! how you question if the Savior’s work to save your soul is finished! "

John sank down, the arrow had pierced through the joints of his armor; there and then he saw how often he had questioned his blessed Savior’s salvation, and from that day he rejoiced in the reality, "It is finished."

"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do " (John 17:4), said our Lord; and, having finished the work, He entered heaven, and “sat down." (Heb. 10:12.) Our Savior is seated by virtue of His work being finished.

“Every priest standeth daily...offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down." (Heb. 10:11, 12) There is no truth more emphatically taught in Scripture than that of Christ's work of salvation being finished, and accordingly of Him the Worker being seated in heaven. He finished the work on the altar of the cross on earth, He sits down upon the throne of glory in heaven.

Let us now glance at a few texts of Holy Scripture which assure us of the completeness of the salvation of our Savior in relation to ourselves.

This salvation, of which Christ is the Author, is described as Eternal salvation. (Heb. 5:9.)

Over and over again does the Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Hebrews append the word eternal to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The law made nothing perfect"(Heb. 7:19), and such a word as “eternal “could not be attached to its work. Whatever was done under the law was done by man, and not until the Son of God came to do God's will, could “eternal " be associated with the work of salvation. The salvation wrought by Jesus, being eternal, is abiding and final. It cannot be intermittent, so that the saved of today may be the lost of tomorrow; it cannot be transitory, so that the saved is saved only for a season. Eternal salvation is the portion of all whom Jesus saves.

In the salvation of God is comprised the forgiveness of sins. In Christ

“We have... the forgiveness of sins." (Eph. 1:7.)

This is part of the possessions of the believer, and comes to him out of the exhaustless "riches of His grace." We have—it is our actual portion, our present blessing, and this is ours in Christ risen from the dead, in Christ who has by His blood effected our redemption. “Little children," says the apostle, "I write unto you because your sins are forgiven you for His Name's sake." (1 John 2:12.) Salvation which has not the forgiveness of our sins in it is not the salvation of God.

Again, in this gracious salvation is comprised the gift of eternal life. In Christ We have eternal life. (John 6:47; 1 John 5:11.) It is ours now today, and it is eternal " These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God.; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." (1 John 5:13.) The we haves of Scripture should be carefully prized. We have redemption-we have access to God. There is a great religious effort made to lay hands on, and to rob the believer of the haves of God's word, and to force on him in exchange, hope to have, and, indeed, in some quarters impossible to have. And a miserable exchange it is.! Yet many cling to the false, and do not prize the true. But why is this miserable exchange offered? For this reason, where the believer rejoices in the certainties of the salvation of God, the whole system of religion which is formed on working to have, hoping to have, or impossible to have, is forsaken as " weak and beggarly."

By the salvation of God, our Savior Jesus Has “delivered us from the wrath to come." (1 Thess. 1: 10.) Yes, “we shall be saved from wrath through Him." (Rom. 5:9.) Our sins are forgiven, we have eternal life, our salvation is eternal, and as we look on to the judgment day we contemplate its terrors in peace. Thus do the certainties of the salvation of God assure and comfort our hearts.

Simple Truths About Salvation .9. — THE CARE OF THE SAVIOUR FOR THOSE HE HAS SAVED

WE picture to ourselves a shipwrecked crew, brought to shore in safety by the life-boat, and, as we view them rescued from the sea, and placed securely on land, we have before us one idea of salvation. They are saved from the sinking ship, saved from the stormy sea, saved for-the security of the land, and saved by their deliverers. But as we look upon the rescued people, we do not need to be told that they cannot be left as they are on the shore. Such would be for them an imperfect salvation; they require care and nourishment, and so we picture to ourselves the kind villagers leading or carrying the poor people to their own homes.

The salvation of God cannot be separated from Him who is the Savior. His strength, His tenderness, His care must be before us, it we would rightly consider His salvation.

The Good Samaritan who found the stranger by the wayside, stripped of his raiment,, wounded, and half dead, "went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and Took care of him." (Luke 10:34.)

Here are five distinct actions of the savior:

He went to him—the man was too far gone to move towards his savior; the movement of love—" he saw him, and had compassion— "was from the heart of love, and to the perishing stranger the Samaritan went.

And he bound up his wounds, pouring in and wine. The savior saved him from imminent death—he stanched his wounds, and lavished upon him healing and refreshing grace.

Thus far the savior saved the dying man from death. To use the idea of the illustration of the shipwreck, the perishing man is saved from the peril of his journey. But in the parable, the person of the Savior is so graciously presented to the heart, that we feel it would be impossible for such a Friend of the needy to do other than complete the work He had begun. And if we could keep this impossibility before our minds, when contemplating the salvation of our Savior, we should do well. The Good Samaritan had no such thought within his heart, as that his mercy to the wounded man was to cease with the man's salvation from bleeding to death by the wayside!

He set him on his own beast. In love he became the formerly dying man's servant, placing him upon his own burden-bearer, and walking by his side. Thus does Jesus give the sinner He has saved a strength to bear him up and on—a strength which is not his own, but is bestowed upon him, which belongs to the Savior. “If I become a Christian, how shall I continue one? " is a question frequently asked by such as desire to be freed from the thieves and robbers that frequent life's pathway. The answer lies in the strength and love of the Savior, who not only saves, but keeps.

The good Samaritan, further, in his love to the man who had fallen among thieves, brought him to an inn. He carefully upheld and tended him, until a temporary home could be found for him. Reverting to the illustration of the villagers. They bring the shipwrecked crew to the cottages; they do not leave them, saved from the sea, to perish on the shore, or to shift for themselves as best they may. Certainly our Savior’s salvation excels that of all others. David knew His Savior, and said, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock "—but more, "awl established my going,." (Psa. 40:2.) Salvation merely from destruction is by no means complete salvation. Ours is complete, for it is of God. When Israel sang their song of salvation, they said not only to God their Savior, "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed," but, " Thou hast guided them in Try strength unto Thy holy habitation." (Exod. 15:13.) The Good Samaritan brought the wounded man away from his place of danger, and unto a place of rest.

And when there, he "took care of him." The wounded man learned what a neighbor, what a friend had found him. It is precisely this very thing that Jesus the Savior does for all His people, and He does this for them personally and individually, according to the need of each, and according to His own heart of perfect love and wisdom.

The evangelists are wealthy in incidents expressive of the tenderness and care of Jesus for those upon whom He showed mercy. The man out of whom He cast the legion, was not merely delivered from the power of Satan, great as such deliverance is, he was also “Clothed." He had been a torture to himself, and a torment to others—which is by no means too terrible a description of many a slave of Satan this very day—but Jesus, who saved him from the enemy by one word, brought him to rest in Himself, and then the man sat at the feet of Jesus. (Luke 8:35.) In like manner, when Jesus had raised up from the dead the little girl of twelve years of age, “He commanded that something should be given her to eat." (Mark 5:43.) His miracle had filled all “with a great astonishment," but He thought of the child's needs, even at a moment when a mother might be so overjoyed in embracing her child as to overlook them.

Jesus keeps those He saves.

Our Savior is a Person, and His work for us is wrought out of the fullness of His love toward us. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." (John 13:1) There is no break in His love. It embraces the object in view, and pursues its course till the end.

Stories Told by Japanese Colporteurs

OTEGI said, "One day, in the middle of summer, I was selling Scriptures and explaining Christianity in the streets of Tokyo, and was feeling very hot and thirsty, when a man suddenly came out of an ice-shop and handed me a glassful of chopped ice. This greatly refreshed me. I went on speaking, but very soon some of the people who were standing listening to me began throwing stones at me. I picked up two of them, and said, I am much obliged to you for these, but I am an old man, and these are rather hard for my teeth. I do not know who threw these, or who brought me the ice a little while since, but my heavenly Father knows.' This seemed to quiet them, and they listened attentively till I had finished."

Kono said, "I wish to tell you today how God has answered my prayers. One day I had no money, so I asked God to help me. The next day was wet, and the guests in the hotel, having nothing else to do, asked me to speak to them. I did so, and was able to sell two New Testaments to them. Another day I came to a ferry, but not having any money to pay the ferryman for taking me over, I tried to find some way round, but could not; so I knelt down and asked God to help me. On rising from my knees I found several people standing looking at me. They asked me what I was doing. I told them, and this opened the way for a talk about Christianity, and they were so much interested that they bought two Gospels. I thereupon went on my way across the ferry, feeling more than ever convinced that God does hear and answer prayer."

Nagasawa, is the oldest of the colporteurs, and is still at work at the age of seventy-five.

With a smiling face, and with his New Testament open before him, he told of a service of sixteen years, all but two of which had been spent travelling about in various provinces, eleven in number. He did not wish to speak of the trials, but of the joy he had in the service, and how thankful he was for the meeting, and how full of joy in the prospect of again meeting in the heavenly country. He also said, “One day a school teacher at Miura asked me about Christianity. I read 1 Cor. 13. to him, and spoke to him a little about it. After I had done so he bought a New Testament, saying, 'Why, Christianity seems superior even to Buddhism’

Muraki said, “I have now been selling Scriptures for nearly fourteen years. At first I was very much persecuted, but now nearly all my relations are Christians."

Ikeda said, “I began selling Scriptures about four years since, but have only been travelling about the last few months. More than half of the provinces where I work is covered with mountains. Christianity entered the district about seven years since. Some of the people I meet say they do not want any knowledge of God; others, that they would like to become Christians, but are afraid of persecution."

Shirakawa said, “I began selling Scriptures the year before last, and so have had very little experience yet. At first I tried to sell to the passengers on the steamers on the lake, but met with very little success. One day I came across an old man, over eighty years old, who told me he had been a Christian for over fifteen years, and was the only one in the district where he lived. I have met with much opposition, and have often been called a reptile, when trying to tell people about Christianity. One day the people seemed even worse than usual, being helped by one of the members of the local assembly, who was a very bad man. Afterwards, however, he came and bought a New Testament from me."

Bonjo said, “One day, while crossing a ferry, I sold three New Testaments to the people in the boat. Some time since, I was counting up, and found I had sold about two hundred portions to jinrikisha-men. Of these men I know seven, who have since become Christians. I had great difficulty in selling these, but my joy now is also very great. "-Bible Society Gleanings.

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In Ainu Villages

The Ainu are the old and original inhabitants of Japan. They inhabit the most northerly of the islands of Japan, and live amid the cold and snow. They are a rough and primitive people, very unlike the Japanese, from whom they differ in habits, language and religion.

The picture opposite shows that this people is in a somewhat savage condition, the entrance to the village being adorned with skulls.

Mr. Batchelor, who labors among them, thus writes: "On going to the Ainu part of the village Oshamambe, which is on the opposite side of the river to the Japanese part, in which we were obliged to lodge, I invited the Ainus to come to a preaching service I intended to hold for them in the evening, but, it being wet, none came. The next day was still very wet, and I again went to the Ainus, to inquire why they did not come on the previous evening, and also preached to a few people who gathered in the hut of one of the chiefs. I was informed by one man that the reason he and his friends did not come to me on the previous evening was the fact that they had no money wherewith to purchase wine; and, said he, We cannot come to worship God without wine, for that would displease Him; give us some money to buy wine, and then we will come.'

“Wine, more wine; give us wine,” is their cry. Truly wine is their god.

“We left Oshamambe on the morning of the 5th, and reached an Ainu village called Repunge at noon. The chief kindly lent us his hut in which to preach. In the evening the hut was quite crowded, and we had a very enjoyable service, the audience being most attentive. I had to stop, however, during my discourse to answer questions, but this happens at nearly all the preaching services we have! I am often obliged to stop in the midst of an address whilst the chief or master of the hut in which I am preaching himself comments upon what is being said, especially if he agrees with it. At the end of the service the chief thanked me in the name of his people for the address, and called upon the audience to store up the Word in their hearts.

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Toku Shima

A lady missionary thus writes of the work in which she is engaged among the children: “When our young visitors reach our front entrance, they drop their little wooden shoes, and leave them there. This is one of the Japanese customs, maintained by children and grown-up people alike. We always leave our shoes at the entrance of a Japanese house, you will perhaps wonder why, but wait until you have been inside.

"As the children come in, they all kneel down on the floor, which is covered with soft white matting on purpose for shoeless feet, and here they first of all give their aisatsu (or salutations), which consist in making very low bows, almost touching the floor with their foreheads, whilst they say, " Konnichi we" (good-day) to us; we, of course do the same to them, and then, still on their knees, they sit down on the soles of their feet ready for the meeting to begin. Now, if you will just try this position for a few minutes, you will see how ye/ y uncomfortable it would be to have shoes on.

"All our little Japanese friends being seated, you would perhaps like to know what we are going to do with them. Well, first of all, they say their verses. Every week we give them each a new little text-card, and then the following week, if they have learnt it perfectly, we give them a picture-card. We generally give them a card with the Lord Jesus Christ's own words on it, unless sometimes it is just a few words about the sin and folly of idolatry, such as Psalm 135:15. After they have said their verses, we sing a hymn, which we have printed on large sheets, all in Japanese writing. Sometimes it is There is a happy land,' and sometimes Jesus loves me,' or There's a Friend for little children.' Then after the hymn they have a Bible lesson. Some of their little faces are a perfect picture to behold, as they listen; it makes us feel what a great joy it is for us that we have been allowed the privilege of coming out to tell people in this heathen land the glorious news of the gospel. Others are not so interested, and some even come in to create a disturbance, but these are not many.

“Two little boys from this meeting have lately come to us and asked to be baptized; one has received the name of Yohaneor (John), and the other of Yakobuor (James). I want you to pray for them. Will you pray, not only that they themselves may be kept true and faithful soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but that each of them may be the means of winning many others to know and love the Savior too, especially that their parents may be turned from idols to serve the living and true God?"—The Children's World.

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“When at Kobukuro," says the Rev. J. Hind, in the Church Missionary Intelligencer, "I heard of two very interesting cases which were the result of Sunday-schoolwork. Two boys of about twelve years of age, named Kumada and Hyota, when asked to assist in drawing a heathen festival car, showed on whose side they were. One refused absolutely, and the other hid himself so as to have nothing to do with it. They both pray to God daily at home, and one, being told that the temples were the proper places, took no notice of it, and I hear the mother and sister of one have in consequence come to hear about Christ themselves from Yamashita San and his wife.

“We left the next morning for Yoshii, and found the door still shut. No preaching-place could be had, the townspeople preventing the innkeeper from allowing his house to be used for preaching Christ. Just the day before this some Buddhist priests from the most powerful sect had been collecting money from this town. The people not only paid to get a good view of the priests, but sprinkled themselves with, and even drank, the water the priests had for their bath." So do they honor them!

A Story From the South of France

ONE Sunday, or saint's day, some years ago, the priest in the village of M., in the South of France, preached a sermon which made a lively impression upon his hearers. He had been hearing alarming reports of the evil work done by certain Protestants in the towns and villages of Southern France. They had sent about colporteurs, who sold Bibles and Testaments; they had hired halls in some of the large towns, in which they preached, not only to their Protestant neighbors, but also to misguided Roman Catholics, who strayed from their churches to hear these heretic preachers. Therefore, the priest thought it was time to sound a note of warning, though his own parishioners, in their mountain village, had never yet been invaded by any species of heretic.

“The Protestants," said the priest, in an awe-stricken voice, “are people raised up by the devil to mislead the faithful; and to drag them into eternal destruction. They are people who, even to look at, fill one with horror. Instead of having two eyes, like all good Christians, they have but one glaring eye, and that in the middle of their foreheads."

It was this last sentence which made a profound impression upon the village people. How terrible would it be to meet on some lonely road a monster such as the priest described! But yet it was unwise in the priest thus to describe the Protestants, for there were some, especially amongst the boys and young men of his congregation, who were thenceforward eagerly anxious to see such remarkable people. They had paid their halfpence sometimes at fairs to see two-headed lambs, or people who were fatter, or taller, or shorter than their neighbors, but to see a Protestant would be a sight far more wonderful and interesting.

Not long after, one of these lads went to live in the large town of Nice, and he immediately enquired if any Protestants were to be found there. Yes, there were a good many, and they had a church of their own, a “temple," they called it, to which they went in large numbers every Sunday. The young man was delighted to hear this.

The next Sunday he enquired the way to the Protestant church, and stationed himself outside the door. Alas, only good Catholics appeared to be going in, all—all had two eyes, and very common-place faces. He ventured at last to stop one of these harmless people, and enquired where he could see any Protestants, and whether this was really the Protestant church?

“Yes, certainly," said the man to whom he spoke; "and if you want to see Protestants you have only to go in, there are plenty of them inside."

Our friend went in, sat down, and began to scrutinize the many faces around. Meanwhile a man with two eyes went up into the pulpit, and read out of a book a few words, but they were wonderful words. For a moment the young man forgot the Protestants and began to listen. The preacher explained the words, and out of the fullness of his heart, and in the power of the Spirit of God, he preached Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. The young man went again and again to hear, and at last remained, when the sermon was over, to ask if there was salvation for him? for he saw and believed that Jesus had died for sinners. By this time he had learnt that the priest had been teaching him fables, and all the more did he wish to learn from those, who spoke to him of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He became a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, and could rejoice in knowing that He had saved him with an everlasting salvation. About this time he married, and during some years he faithfully served the Lord in the town of Nice. The climate being hot in summer, he sent his baby to be nursed in a mountain village, some twenty or thirty miles from Turin. The little girl was suddenly taken ill, and before any tidings could reach her parents, she died. According to the laws, the funeral could not be delayed till the parents arrived. The foster parents of the baby were Roman Catholics, as were all the people in the village, but they thought it would not be right to have the child buried by the priest, as her parents were Protestants. They sent, therefore, to Turin, to enquire for a Protestant pastor, who came at once. When the little coffin was lowered into the grave, the pastor prayed in a loud voice, giving thanks to the Lord Jesus that He had died for the lambs of His flock. And then, standing up, he preached the good tidings of salvation to the village people, who had crowded into the, cemetery. Such blessed words of love and grace were new to them, and when the pastor took his leave they implored him to come again and tell them more. The pastor did so, and now the village is counted amongst the Protestant villages of Italy, the church is a Protestant church, the priest is gone away, for none remained to listen to his masses.

But more than this, it is a village where not only Protestants are found, but living, rejoicing children of God. The father of the little girl whom the Lord had taken could and did rejoice, that, by means of her death, life had come to so many souls. He has lived since then in the service of his Lord, and now, in his old age, he is living in this town, where he helps forward the Lord's work by his prayers and sympathy, thanking and praising his God for leading him, in a way so strange and unlikely, to the streams of living water.

F. B.

A Story of the Sea

A PLEASANT and invigorating trip it is for the wearied brain-worker to round the Mull of Cantyre, and then to proceed northwards through the smooth waters of the Sounds of Jura, of Mull, and of Sleat, amidst a moving panorama of the loveliest scenery, until Lochinver, the northernmost point of call on the Scottish coast, is reached.

Lochinver seems a fitting climax to the voyage, for in loveliness and grandeur it perhaps surpasses all, when viewed from a little distance out at sea.

It was our lot to make such a trip a few years ago, but our destination was further afield than even far Lochinver, it was Stornoway.

And now the steamer turns from Lochinver's glorious amphitheatre of hills with the strange Sugar-loaf Mountain in their midst, and heads due west across the Minch, and ere long the low, dark, treeless island of Lewis comes in sight, a great contrast truly to the mainland just left behind; we pass the lighthouse at the harbor-heads, and in a few moments the good ship Claymore is safely moored at Stornoway jetty, where the smell of fish prevails.

Fish everywhere, fish makes itself evident to the eye and nose, and, we might add, to the ear, for hundreds of gulls wheel and scream, and pounce on the herrings, which fall from the over-laden baskets, as they are being hoisted from the holds of the luggers to the quay. Stepping ashore from the gangway it is everywhere fish still. Yonder, on a herring-barrel, stands an auctioneer; at his feet is a sample-basket, hoisted from a boat, on each side of which stands a yellow-bearded, sea-booted east coast fisherman. They have just carried the basket to the auctioneer, while the ring which surrounds them is composed of fishermen from Peterhead and Fraserburgh, Stonehaven and Aberdeen.

On the quay are huge wooden oblong tubs: what are they? Into them is poured basketful after basketful of herrings, and now the fisherman's connection with the fish is over, and the deft-fingered Scottish lasses ply their gruesome trade of gutting them. But there are mysteries even in this uncanny trade: just one cut in the herring's neck, one turn of the wrist, and the deed is done, and the herring is ready for the curing-houses smoking away yonder on our right.

And now we come to long tiers of barrels, and we take more interest in them, for, empty as they are, they strike us as forming a grand cathedral, having for a roof God's own sky, and for an audience the hardy toilers of these northern seas. We have heard how each year in the months of May and June the east coast Scottish fleet, consisting of some six hundred luggers with six or seven men each, assemble at far-off Stornoway, following the fish as they swim round the Scottish coast; and we, as soul-fishers, have followed the fishermen. So here on the quay, amidst these piles of barrels, long after the summer night has fallen in the south, we shall tell forth for some weeks to these bronzed fellows the story of the Savior’s love.

Under those blue jerseys beats many a heart that is full of love for Christ, and some of them will stand up directly, and invite their fellows to the gospel feast.

But the end of the fishing comes at length: smaller grows the herring, and smaller the catches, and the fleet prepares to leave. So, with many a hand shake which makes our fingers tingle, and accompanied by a knot of anxious enquirers who, Scotchman-like, only come forward just at the last moment, at twelve o'clock one night we go aboard the steamer in the twilight, and start for Strome Ferry and the south.

A few weeks pass away, and we are holding Children's Services at a Welsh watering-place, when we receive from one of the Christian fishermen we met at Stornoway a letter, a copy of which we now give. Certainly the writer never thought that anything he wrote would appear in print:—

"We entered Pentland Firth with a very thick fog, and were steering our course with light wind and very strong current, and the tide was taking us faster than we calculated, and run us on St. John's Point. The boat struck, and momentarily her keel was alongside, and she sank instantly in twenty fathoms of water, and we had no time to do anything but every man to jump from the boat as far as he could, for fear of being taken down with her; then every man clung to what he could get hold of Myself and P.'s two sons clung to a small beam; it managed to keep our heads above water, and we were in that condition from eight o'clock till after eleven. Good courage was kept up for the first two hours; after that all hope died away. I was then much pressed about some of our crew not being saved, and going into eternity in that state, and the Lord afforded me strength to preach the gospel to them for upwards of twenty minutes, and they listened with death attention.

“What calmness filled my own soul I shall never be able by language to make known. I have often thought about Paul and Silas when they sang in the prison; what strength must have been theirs, singing in that trying circumstance! And, believe me, I could have sung, too, with the calm, deep joy that filled my soul. What a consciousness of the Lord succoring me in that hour of peril and trial and our salvation at this time is really of God; there is none but owns that. A small boat picked us up, and the Lord opened the hearts of the people we were cast among. We were taken ashore naked and destitute, and they nursed us, and by great painstaking we soon recovered from our exhausted state. They showed us no small kindness; they fed us and clad us. P.'s son was next me when he went down, but was privileged to hear about Jesus, the sinner's Savior, before the last moment. After I felt exhausted speaking, his brother came near me, and asked me very earnestly if it was only to trust Jesus. I answered, ' He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."

"On Lord's Day evening I had the privilege of preaching to a large multitude of people on the side of Pentland Firth, gathered from seven miles round about. The Lord bless that people! It has pleased the Lord to take everything from me; if He has left me to hunger, He has not left me to perish, for He has fed me, and I trust Him for His love.

‘All things work together for good to them that love God,' and I date this down among the ‘all things,' and trust where I cannot trace. I took all my clothes, all my nets but a few I had at home, and the money we got for the season is all gone with the boat."

My reader, if your position at this moment could become that of the one who penned the letter I have quoted-if death were staring you in the face, could you sing with the " calm, deep joy " that would fill your soul, or would it be filled with the terrors of a guilty conscience and a justly offended God? If you have not fled to Jesus for refuge as a sinner, God grant that this “message from the sea " may lead you to know that true Christianity is a blessed thing in life and in death, in time and eternity. Take Jesus as your Savior now; come to Him just as you are, with all your sins, and then, if death should come, “with joy shall you lift up your head," and shout, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." J. F.

A Strange Scholar

RUTH, who taught the Bible-class of the Sunday school in the little village of C., was the child of many prayers. She had early received Christ into her heart, and was so filled with. His love that all her energies were in her work. She was rather young to be the teacher of a class of young women, having begun to do so at the age of thirteen, but then the Lord had specially prepared her for the work, having brought her through much mental conflict and agony of spirit, before she found peace through the Savior.

As people looked upon that healthy and happy countenance none would suspect the fierce temptations, and the sharp spiritual conflicts with which this young teacher was still often exercised, which served to deepen the work of God in her soul, and bring her out; the earnest and faithful follower of Christ they owned her to be.

The best preparation for a teacher is to be first taught of God. Often the women in the class would ask her privately, “How did you know what you told us this afternoon, miss?" and Ruth would reply simply, “God taught me." Several of the married women of the class were double the age of their teacher, but such was their love for her that they listened with the greatest respect to what she had to say. One Sunday afternoon a stout, bold-looking woman made her way into the class, and sitting down in front of Ruth, and staring her in the face, said, "This is the class I'm a-goin' to be in!”

The teacher quietly asked, “Do you mean to come to school regularly, and would you like to be in my class?"

“Yes, if you ben't too proud to have me," replied the woman, rather impudently.

A deep color dyed the cheeks of Ruth as she noticed several of the young women draw away from the new corner, who, to put it mildly, presented rather a startling appearance. Her blue velvet bonnet was decorated with some brilliant geraniums, and her shawl was at variance with both dress and bonnet.

Ruth gave the new corner a Bible, and found the chapter for her, and the stranger appeared to be quite at her ease, despite the sidelong glances of many in the class. She read her verse in her turn, spelling out every word, and waiting to be told the pronunciation. The verse she was reading finished with the word” hypocrite," and she startled the class by her abrupt question—

“I say, miss, what is a hy-po-crite?"

Ruth explained as well as she could, and the lesson proceeded. At its close Ruth detained the new comer, and asked her her name.

The woman said her name was “Zebra." “Do you mean Deborah?” inquired her teacher.

“No, I don't! It's Zebra; that's wot I've allis bin called, and I don't want no other! That's good enough for me, miss, if it'll do for you! "

Ruth then asked, “Why do you come here?”

" Well, I went to chapel last week," answered Zebra; " the minister called and asked me to, so I went, and now I think it's time I know'd summut about the Bible, and about God, so I've come to you."

There were tears in the woman's eyes as she continued" I've bin a wicked un, I have, and I'm wicked now but I wants to be better, for I'm miserable," and the falling tears bore witness to the truth of the statement.

Ruth put her arms around the neck of the penitent, and kissed her cheek, and while her own tears flowed in sympathy, she pointed her to the sinner's Friend. Zebra, however, could not believe the Lord would save so great a sinner, although assured that He Himself had said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."

In the course of the next week Ruth was called aside by Mary F., a young woman of irreproachable character, one of her class.

“Can I have a few minutes' conversation with you?" she inquired.

“Oh, yes, Mary; certainly!" answered Ruth. “What is it?"

Mary looked very serious, and appeared at a loss how to begin.

“You must excuse me, miss, but I do not think you know who that woman is that came into our class on Sunday."

“Well, who is she?” inquired the teacher.

“Oh! a regular bad woman," replied Mari. “She lives in that narrow lane, coming out of M. Street, and people say the man she lives with is not her real husband, because they are not married. Everybody knows she is a dreadful woman."

The young teacher certainly felt upset by Mary's statement, but she had a small portion of the spirit of Him who came to "seek and to save the lost." So she looked at Mary, with tears in her eyes, as she replied" You forget, dear Mary, that it was for just such sinners the Savior died. He came, ' Not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And if all be true you tell me, that is the more reason we should seek to bring her to the One who can save her. You know we both profess to be followers of Him of whom it was said, 'He was gone to be guest with a man that was a sinner."

“Yes, I know all about that," replied the scandalized Mary;” but for all that, to tell you the truth, I did not like the other girls to see me last Sunday sitting by the side of such a woman. Besides, see what a guy she looked! I saw one in the next class laughing." “I am sorry to see you have so much of the spirit of the Scribes and Pharisees, Mary," replied Ruth, in a grieved tone; " as for myself, I feel it is only the grace of God, and the circumstances in which He has placed us, that have made us to differ. You have been in my class two years, and you know you are dear to me, yet I would sooner tell you to stay away than poor Zebra, for she needs me more."

Mary's eyes were wet as she answered “Oh, miss, if you are not ashamed to be seen with Zebra, I'm sure I needn't be, so I'll say no more about it."

“Pray for her, Mary; speak kindly to her, and do not laugh at the poor woman," said Ruth, as they parted.

Next Sunday Zebra was early in the class, and a very attentive scholar she proved to be.

Very soon after this she invited Ruth to go home with her and drink tea, adding, “There will be nobody there but our John."

“Who is ‘our John’?" asked the young teacher.

"My husband," answered Zebra.

"If I refuse," thought Ruth, "will not Zebra be likely to think I am proud? I do not think she would understand my motives. If I assure her, as I did today, that the Master will enter and sup with her, how can she believe it if I, who profess to follow Him, will not enter her house? If I go, I will at least find out if she is married." So she agreed to go home with Zebra.

John proved to be a slim, tall, consumptive-looking man, who listened readily while Ruth spoke about the Savior.

“It is very kind of a young lady like you to visit our poor place," he said.

"But then her loves the Lord, John," explained Zebra; "and you'dn't believe how good He was to the poor folks. Tell him about how one woman washed His feet," she added, turning to Ruth.

So the teacher read, and John was interested, and hoped she would come again.

Then he left the room, and, in answer to a question, Zebra assured Ruth that she was married, but added, “I’ll tell you the truth, miss, I've only been married about a month, and the vicar married us for nothin'. Here are the marriage lines," and she produced the marriage certificate.

Ruth, after that, often called to see John, who always expressed himself pleased. He saw himself a sinner, and eagerly welcomed the news of salvation. After weeks of suffering he passed away, a sinner saved by grace. But Zebra, to the grief of her teacher, appeared contented with having turned over a new leaf. She gave up drink, left off all bad language, attended the class, and also came several afternoons in the week to Ruth for instruction in reading, and in other respects her life had outwardly become so changed that it was remarked upon by the neighbors. The poor woman attended the gospel preaching and the Sunday school for some months, but alas! for all reformation which does not proceed from life in Christ, for there came a time when weeks passed, and she failed to appear.

Ruth called at her house, but could never find her in. At last they met in a lane.

“You wonder why I have stayed away?" said Zebra. " It is because they have told lies about me," and she burst into tears, adding passionately, " They've bin and gone and said as how you pays me for cumin to school, or else I shouldn't come. They say they be God's children who hate me so, and who pass me by, and toss their 'eds; but if they be, then I don't want to be."

It was a solemn meeting of the teacher and her poor scholar. Ruth said all she could to Zebra as to her immense responsibility to seek the salvation of her soul, and pressed upon her her solemn duty to accept Christ for herself. Both parted in tears.

Twenty-five years passed away, yet Zebra never again attended the Sunday school.

Ruth had in this time married, and was living about two miles from the scene of her former labors. She had one day been conducting a meeting for women in a cottage, and at the close of an earnest appeal to sinners, was startled by a voice saying, “You’d better take notice what her says, for I know'd her when her was a girl, and her was always the same, and means what her says! I wish I'd a took more notice years ago."

Ruth found it was her former scholar, Zebra. She had married again, and said she was now a believer in Jesus, but that having an unconverted husband she could not live as she wished to do.

If any of my readers feel themselves as great sinners in the sight of God, as poor John and Zebra, let them not despair, for it is still true that the blessed Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, and that " His blood cleanseth from all sin," and I would bid them come without delay to Him. To the weary worker I would say, " Take courage, cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days."

RHODA.

Summer Songs

THE long June day had been one of perfect beauty, and, as soon as school was over, I hastened to enjoy all that remained of it, where only such days can be enjoyed in perfection—out of doors. For this purpose I went for a long to love, and all things richly to enjoy. All things praise the Lord. The very trees clap their hands to Him. You have seen them clapping their large hands many a time; and one of the psalms begins: O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph'; and another says All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee.' And surely if birds and trees and all the works of the Lord praise Him, how much more should His saints! But see, the lark is coming down! He has sung his evening song, and now He will cuddle down among the daisies with his little ones and mate, and sleep till dawn. And you know we can hear him, or one of his neighbor larks, sing almost any time we pass up the road during the day. But don't you think all this should teach us something? "

“Yes, governess."

“What—do you think?”

“That we should praise the Lord."

“Yes, I think so, and, as King David said, ‘at all times.' He was like the lark. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning,' he says to God in one of his Psalms. ‘Seven times a day do I praise Thee; evening and morning, and at noon.' Indeed, he would have God's people to be like the nightingales, which sing, you know, by night as well, as day, for he says in the last Psalm but one, ‘Let them sing aloud upon their beds.' But there are few who say, ‘Where is God my Maker who giveth songs in the night... who maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?' But these night-songs are chiefly, though not altogether, for the sad and sick, and the grown-up, who are forced to lie awake while others sleep.

I should be well content if I felt sure that you rosy little maidens were but like the lark, and praised the Lord at ‘evening, and morning, and at noon.' The sweetest songs we can sing to Him are those which speak of Jesus, His beloved Son. Even in heaven the songs are chiefly about Him. You remember the new song, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain '? But see! it is quite moonlight now, and time you were all in bed."

We soon ran down the hill, each to her little home, and as we said good-night I fondly hoped that God would receive from each dear child that night an evening sacrifice of praise. E. B—r.

Three Great Things

THERE are three grand pillars of Christian revelation presented in the twentieth chapter-of St. John's Gospel, by our risen Lord.

First: The Father's Name. He has made known that Name unto His brethren, and all His people are sharers in the favor contained in the words, “My Father and your Father, My God and your God."

Second: The gift of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The Blessed Comforter is come, and all the children of God are indwelt by Him, and they cry Abba, Father.

Third: Peace. Peace flowing from Christ's redemption, the effect of His work for sinners on the cross, made known in Him, and as to which we should not be faithless, but believing, is the portion of all true believers.

Relationship in Christ to God the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, peace through the work of God the Son on the cross, are three great things of the Christian faith; perhaps none are greater. Certainly these should be regarded with the utmost reverence and love by the true Christian. And our Lord, having accomplished the mighty work of redemption, Himself brought the tidings of these things to His own. “God is my Father; the Holy Spirit indwells me; Christ is my peace," each believer may say, and, as he thus speaks, his heart will overflow in praise to God the Father, by the Spirit, through the Son.

Three Sunday Afternoons

IT was an awful storm. The waves were dashing and foaming against the stony beach, the wind was blowing furiously, the lightning flashed, the thunder pealed, and I was alone. Yes, well do I remember it, tiny child of five though I then was; but, though many years have come and gone since then, that Sunday afternoon stands out, and will never fade while memory lasts. Out on the stormy waves a ship was struggling to reach the harbor, but those on shore knew well she never could do so; so "willing hands and powerful arms" were working the rocket apparatus to save the drowning men, while almost all the people of the village stood on the beach, ready to help in any way they could. Among those thus braving the storm were my own dear father and mother. I had been left in safety at home, under the charge of my, faithful nurse.

But, young though I was—younger, perhaps, than any of my little readers—I knew that it was God who had sent the storm—the God against whom I had sinned so often—and I was frightened. If that bright lightning, which lit up the inky sky so clearly, were to strike me I should perish—perish for ever—for my sins were uncovered, and must sink me down to hell.

But ah! how we try to hide our sins! I did not want nurse to know how frightened I was, so I left her, and went upstairs to the large store cupboard, where I thought the lightning could never find me, and there I knelt, or, rather, crouched in the corner, trembling for fear—a little guilty, un-forgiven sinner, trying to hide from the eye of God. Perhaps you think I must have been very naughty. Yes, I was. Many acts of disobedience came before my mind then—many times when I had crept alone to the store to steal the fruit and other nice things, and then had said that I had not done so. All this I well remembered, and that day, in the storm, God spoke to me about them. He showed me my danger then, and how I needed a refuge, not only from the tempest raging around, but from the lake of fire, and the dreadful storm of His judgment that will come by and by on every sinner, big or little, that has never been forgiven. Dear children, have you ever found out what you are in God's sight? You may never have done the wicked things that I did, but your heart and mine are just alike—"deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,' and your thoughts, like mine, are “only evil."

- - -

Nearly two years passed by, and it was Sunday afternoon again. I was sitting with my teacher and the children of our class in the Sunday-school. We had an address that day. A dear old gentleman, with snowy-white hair and such a kind face, was speaking to us about these three little texts: "Come unto Me” (Matt. 11:28); “Follow thou Me" (John 21:21); "Depart from Me" (Matt. 24:41).

In loving, tender words he told us of the One who said so sweetly “Come unto Me," and then asked what the Lord Jesus would give if we came to Him. Oh, how many things! Life, joy, peace, rest, a home, a crown, a throne—everything! Everything we can want to make us happy down here—everything we shall want for all eternity. Ah! I knew it all in my head. I had often and often heard of Jesus and His love, and, though I was sure He could and would forgive me if only I came to Him, yet up to that afternoon I had never done so; but then and there, sitting in the Sunday-school—

"I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary, and worn, and sad;

I found in Him a resting-place,

And He has made me glad.”

Yes, I accepted Him then as my Savior; I trusted Him, and I was saved. And so may you be, dear children, if you simply take Him at His word.

“I want all those who have come to Jesus to come and shake hands with me," were the words of the speaker as he closed the meeting. Satan was close by me then, trying to hinder me from confessing the Lord Jesus. What should I do? Should I leave the room as it nothing had occurred, or should I go up to the table, and own by that little act that I now belonged to Jesus? Thank God, He gave me strength to confess Him then, and oh, dear children, if you have never come to Jesus, you cannot imagine the joy I had that afternoon as I went home saved. I had decided for Christ; I had come to Him, and all my sins, so black, so vile, were gone. I was forgiven—forgiven because He had borne my sins on the cross of Calvary, and now I knew it, because He had said so.

- - -

It is Sunday afternoon now; many years have passed since that happy day when I came to Jesus, but, dear children, I have never been sorry for my decision then. No! through all the changes of these eventful years the Lord Jesus has always been so true, so kind, so good. He has been all that He promised to be—such a tender, loving Friend, always ready to help me in every difficulty, constantly caring for me under every circumstance—and I want you to know Him too.

You will never regret it. There is no happiness like having Jesus; there is no joy like that which He gives; and now, I ask you, in His name, to come to Him. He wants you, He loves you, He died to make a way to bring you to God—won't you come? He has said, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6.)

You can never be saved by anyone or anything else. Come, while you read this, that this afternoon may not be a wasted time, but that you and I may rejoice together in the glory for these three Sunday afternoons. H. C. R.

The Tiger Tamed

THE character that is generally given to us of a tiger is not an attractive one. He is described as treacherous, cruel, and bloodthirsty; an animal held in dread by all—a creature not to be trusted by any. It is not, however, of the beautiful wild animal of the forests and jungles that my story treats, but of a creature who was far more treacherous, fax more cruel. He was cruel—aye, actually dangerous—to his own kith and kin, especially to his trembling wife and terrified children; for it is worthy of remark that the debased and hardened sinner is generally brutal as well as cowardly, his cruel hand ever coming down hardest on the weak and the defenseless. But let me tell my story, and describe how Jem Rowden was tamed.

Jem Rowden was strikingly handsome as a young man—that is, judging merely from the outward appearance. His manner in those early days could be very sweet and gentle when he had anything to gain by it; and as he was anxious to win pretty Ruth Gillot for his wife, he took care never to Jet her see the rough side of his nature, nor to hear the rough side of his tongue.

But Ruth was a Christian—a title no one for a moment thought of applying to her lover. Would she—could she marry him? There were not wanting faithful friends to warn her, foremost among whom were her mother and her pastor. To her mother she pleaded: “He is so gentle and kind, mother; you don't know. He says he will always obey my slightest wish, once we are married; and I am sure that I shall, with God's blessing, be able to influence him for good."

She would not see, poor little Ruth, that “God’s blessing” cannot follow an act of disobedience; and it is very plainly written in His word: “Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers." (2 Cor. 6:14.) One who follows Christ, and would have His blessing, must marry "only in the Lord." (1 Cor. 7:39.)

Deaf to all remonstrance, because she loved her Jem with all her heart, and trusted him with all her soul, Ruth declared that “marry him she would." And marry him she did.

The young bride had no misgivings, as she left her parents' home. But in a terribly short time her eyes were opened to see the fatal result of her willfulness. The lover, whom she had supposed to be so gentle, soon showed himself in his true colors; the mask was thrown aside when there was no longer any object in wearing it, and Jem Rowden proved himself to be a brutal, headstrong husband.

One of his first acts was to forbid his wife entering any place of worship; and when Ruth indignantly replied that "nothing and nobody" should prevent her going to God's house, he struck her with his clenched fist. She reeled under the unexpected blow; and on looking up at him with terrified wonder, remarked, for the first time, the cruel expression of that otherwise handsome face. The lines of evil passion were indeed but too plainly written there; and henceforth she marveled how she could ever have trusted herself to him.

Poor Ruth very soon lost heart. She found it hopeless to struggle against the strong will of a bad, unscrupulous man. And yet, so far as worldly circumstances went, they might have been most comfortable. For Jem Rowden was a stone cutter, and clever at his trade, and his earnings in the week were considerable. But self was dearer to him than wife or children, and most of his wages were spent on self—a very small proportion finding its way into the hands of the unhappy wife, even though, as time passed on, the wants of a young family had to be supplied. He grudged every farthing spent in food or clothing—except for himself; and for days together Ruth would live on nothing but dry bread and weak tea without milk (and not even enough of that) that she might give as much nourishment as she could to her hungry children. No more caresses, no more kind words, no lover like actions were bestowed to gladden her sore heart. Blows and curses there were in plenty; and these were the only things of which there was not any stint.

This is no fancy sketch, dear reader. It is a true story I am telling; and (alas that it should be so!) this description may easily be paralleled in many another home in our dear old England.

One evening a friendly neighbor came in hurriedly, and looking cautiously round the room before she spoke, asked in a low excited whisper, “Mrs. Rowden, is your man out?”

"Yes. Do you want him? If so, you may have to wait for long, for there's never no saying when he'll be back."

"That's famous, for it's you I want, not him! Do you know there's a mission going on in the town, and I want you to come with me there. I was at the service last evening, and it was just beautiful. The good news was put so plain that it was real comforting; and I thought how much I should like you to hear the minister yourself. It would put a bit of gladness into your heart for sure. Come! "

But Ruth shook her head in listless, hopeless fashion. “It’s no use, Lucy, I have been to no service since the first month after I was wed. Jem knocked me down then; and he said he would half murder me if he ever caught me going nigh church or chapel again, and he's just the man to do it. So don't ask me, for I can't come."

“You need not stay long," urged her friend. "You might be back before he returns. And it would give you fresh heart to pray for husband and children, when you hear how wonderfully God does answer prayer, and how He cares. You see, poor dear soul, you are never in the way of hearing such things now. And you have told me you are a Christian."

“I was once." The answer came with a half sob, half sigh.

"Well, come and get the light kindled afresh—why shouldn't you? Your little ones are all asleep in bed, except your Jack, and he will see that no harm comes to them."

"Yes, Lucy, I'll go with you," Ruth said with sudden resolution.

She went with her friend to the large hall in which the mission was held, and there God met with her. She heard the “word in season," and found it good. God's message came straight to her heart, and she returned home rejoicing in the assurance of His pardoning love. Her spiritual perceptions became quickened. She saw how unfaithfulness to God had caused all the misery of her life. As His child she had no right to marry Jem. But, having married him, had she let her light shine? Had she prayed “without ceasing" that God would give her her husband's soul? No! she had failed utterly. But now, thank God, she saw her faults and shortcomings, and would amend them. Henceforth, with His blessed help she would "pray without ceasing "; and she had faith to believe that thus praying for him and for herself, she would be enabled to do better.

When Jem came in that evening, though he had taken a great deal more to drink than was good for him, as indeed was generally the case, he yet had his wits sufficiently about him to detect a change in his wife. There was a sparkle in her eye, and a brightness in her manner, that he had not seen in her for years.

But it displeased him. Innately cruel and a bully, he preferred to see her looking downtrodden and cowed. More slave than wife, was the position he wished her to occupy; scarcely daring to lift her eyes to his face. Where had she been? Whom had she seen? What had happened to cause this change? He determined to find out; but he would ask her no questions. He liked better the thought of tracking and entrapping her of taking her unawares. Crafty and cunning, and treacherous as a tiger, he pretended to notice nothing; he was even less ferocious to her than usual, lest she might be more on her guard.

Next evening Ruth and her friend were again in the mission hall. “Oh, it is good to be here!" the former whispered, with happy tears running down her cheeks. “It is good to feel once more that have a Friend, a heavenly Friend, unfailing, kind, and true." In truth she needed such a Friend sorely, for a fiery trial awaited her.

Ruth Rowden did not stay quite to the end of the service. She left the mission hall early, hoping that she might be safely back before there was any chance of her husband's return. But her heart sank within her as, on nearing her cottage home, she saw him standing in the doorway, evidently on the watch for her. There was that in his face that caused a cold shiver to pass through her—a look of malignant triumph at having entrapped her. Without a word, but with a cruel smile upon his lips, he moved aside to let her pass into the house. Then he quietly followed her, shutting and locking the door behind them.

"Where have you been?” he demanded. His voice was calm, but there was an ominous, ring in it, that boded no good to his victim. He knew well where she had been, for he had questioned little Jack.

“I will tell the truth, even if he kills me for it," she said to herself. Then Ruth's answer came, distinct, yet falteringly, “To the mission hall."

"Very well; you have had your little game, and now you have got to pay for it. I told you that if I ever caught you going to any preaching place again I would half murder you, and I mean to do it."

"Listen, Jem, first for one moment," she pleaded. “What I heard there will help to make me a better wife to you, and—"

“I don't want any preaching fellow to tell you how to be a better wife," he shouted, violent passion succeeding the deadly calm. "My way is the best, and I advise you to take your punishment quietly, for," with a brutal oath, " if you make a row, and the neighbors hear, it will be ten times the worse for you."

I do not mean to describe the sickening scene that followed. Vindictive blows rained hard and fast upon the poor, defenseless, unresisting wife, followed by cowardly kicks as she sank moaning and half fainting on the ground. Alas! only half fainting; complete unconsciousness did not come to ease for a brief while the intolerable agony she endured. Weary of his horrid work at last, with a final kick, the tyrant departed, saying" There, now, I have given you something Co remember. But if I catch you going to any of those places again, as I'm a living man, I will murder you quite."

On the evening of the following day, when her friend came as before to accompany her to the mission services, she started back aghast at the too palpable marks of ill-treatment which the victim bore.

“Oh, Mrs. Rowden, poor dear, what has your husband been doing to you to make you look like this? “the kind-hearted woman exclaimed.

"Only what he threatened to do," Ruth replied, with a rueful smile. “He says he will do for me altogether next time I go."

“God help you, poor soul! You must never go again, and I am dreadfully sorry I ever persuaded you to go at all."

“But I am going again! I am going this very evening," was Ruth's wholly unexpected answer. “Don’t you see that I am all ready dressed? I feel as if I must go—I can't help it. I have told my little Jack to tell the truth to his father if he comes back while I'm away."

“But, Mrs. Rowden, your man will kill you!"

“If he does, I can't help it, for go I must. I long to hear the words of life once more, and, if Jem does kill me, I shall go to my dear Savior who died for me. Oh, I am so thankful, dear Lucy, that you took me there; it has brought such bright sunshine into my heart."

Lucy shook her head, and tried hard to persuade her friend to stay at home. But Ruth was firm. “I must have my Jem prayed for in that room," she explained; "and I must be there to join my prayers with theirs. Perhaps I shall never have the chance again."

So together the two friends walked with rapid step to the mission hall. Stopping for a moment as she saw one of the helpers at the door, inviting people to enter, Ruth thus addressed him—

“Please sir, I want my Jem prayed for, very special, to-night."

“Is he your husband?” the gentleman asked.

“Yes, sir."

"And is it he who has marked you in this terrible manner?”

“Yes, sir! But he doesn't know any better," she added quickly;” and you will let him be prayed for, won't you, sir? "

" Surely we will, my friend." he rejoined, touched by the forgiving spirit she displayed; while he said to himself as he watched her enter the building: "You are in truth obeying our dear Lord's command to pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.' "

Very restless, sullen, and irritable was Jem Rowden throughout that day. In the evening he felt no desire to sit in the taproom of the “Three Bears." He was burning with curiosity to see if such a thing could be possible as that Ruth would dare to go again to the mission hall. He stationed himself at the corner of a street where, himself unobserved, he could see all who came from the direction of his cottage. And when in a little while he saw his wife limping along, and leaning heavily on the arm of her friend, his face became livid with concentrated hate and fury. He never moved till he had seen her disappear within the door of the hall; then he quickly took his large clasp knife out of his pocket, and felt the edge.

Half an hour later he stole cautiously down to the mission hall. Keeping in the shadow of the porch, he stood close to the inner door and waited. He was now trembling from head to foot with ungovernable rage; while now and again he would open his knife and pass his finger along the smooth keen edge. Hymns were being sung, prayer was being offered, earnest words were being spoken, but Jem heard none of them; for the wild tumult in his breast left room but for one thought—revenge.

On a sudden a single sentence caught his ear—"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The strange words arrested his attention: he had never heard so wonderful a saying before What could it mean? Rest?—why?—the very thought was sweet, and he would like, above all things, to possess it. Hitherto the wild tumult in heart and brain had only been maddening—making a very hell upon earth. Was such a thing as rest possible? He had never wished for it before—had never thought of it; but now his soul was athirst for this unknown good.

Of the address that followed the giving out of the text, Jem Rowden heard not one syllable, though he might have heard every word of it if he had listened. He heard only the text itself, " Come unto Me... and I will give you rest."

Presently the hymn was given out—

Art thou weary, art thou languid,

Art thou sore distrest?

Come to Me,' saith One, and coming,

Be at rest.'"

Jem could stand it no longer. He gently pushed open the inner door, and crept inside.

One of the helpers, standing near, came forward, intending to lead him to a seat, but a glance at the man's face showed him that he had not come as an ordinary listener. His countenance expressed intense misery, and yet there seemed something of expectancy too. In a hoarse whisper he said—

Please sir, are you the gentleman that has promised to give rest, and will you give it to me?"

“What do you mean, my friend?” the other answered, thinking it was impossible he could have heard aright; “come outside a minute and explain. Now tell me what it is you want."

Jem began again: "I heard someone say,' Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.' Was it you as said it, sir, and will you give it to me? "

“My poor fellow," replied the gentleman, "do you really not know who it was that gave that gracious invitation?”

“No, sir; was it the other gentleman?” Jem asked; “and will he do as he said if I go to him? Look here, sir," he went on, excitedly, “you must see how much I want this rest when I tell you that I have hell here." And he pressed his two hands against his throbbing heart.

"Ah, I see—I understand now. You have come here to-night to try and find the way of peace."

"No, I have not," Jem answered, "I came here to murder my wife. Look here!" —and he took the knife again from his pocket, and showed the sharpened blade—" I had only one thought when I came to this here place, and that was to stab her as soon as ever she came through these doors. But now I want to know if it is true what I heard, and if anyone is going to give me the rest they have promised."

“Yes, it is quite true," the other answered. "Come inside and wait till the service is over, and then we will tell you Who it is that promises rest to the weary and heavy laden, and how that rest may be obtained."

He led Jem gently in, found him a seat in the crowded room, and sat beside him. The hymn was ended now. The various requests for prayer were read, while the people were on their knees. Jem was not listening; he was sitting forward, with his head bent down on his chest, and his mind engrossed with the thought of the promised rest.

“A wife earnestly desires prayer for her husband." He vaguely heard the words; but when the speaker continued: " She says, “Please Sir, I want my Jem prayed for very special to-night,"— then indeed he started, and, looking suddenly up, encountered the gaze of his Ruth, who at that moment happened to turn her head in his direction. Till then neither of them was aware that they were actually sitting in the same seat, though at opposite corners. It was only for an instant she allowed her eyes to rest on his; then, bowing her head upon her hands, she prayed, as if she felt it was her last chance on earth, that God would save her husband's soul, and bless her children., The service was ended, but those were invited to remain behind who desired to be taught "the way of God more perfectly." (Acts 18:26.) As this did not appear to Jem to be what he needed, he made an attempt to slip out with others who were leaving the building. But his friend was prepared for such a movement.

“Wait a bit," he whispered encouragingly;” your turn is coming now, and, please God, we shall be able to show you how you may get that rest you want so badly." So Jem remained, in the same attitude as before, with his chin resting on his chest, whilst the words of that strange text were vibrating continuously in his ears.

There was stillness in the hall once more. The doors had closed behind the retiring crowd, and only those were left within, who desired to be dealt with by the missioners, and one or two who, like Ruth, remained behind to pray for those dear to them.

She, poor woman, did not doubt when she saw her husband so near her, that he had only come there to prevent the possibility of her escaping him, and that he would take her life as soon as he had got her outside. Nevertheless, there was a peace and calm in her heart that astonished herself when she thought of it afterwards. She experienced the truth of that blessed assurance: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." (Isa. 16:3.)

She felt it to be a deeply solemn time—so near eternity—only a step between her and death. She never moved from her knees, nor did she raise her head from the time she had so unexpectedly caught her husband's eye.

So intent had she been on making known her requests unto God, that she had not been aware of what had been going on at the other end of that long seat, till a man's sob broke into her prayer, and she heard the heart-broken lamentation: " It cannot be for me—no—no—you don't know what I am—there's no rest for me."

And then Ruth knew that God's Holy Spirit was striving with her Jem, and that she was not to die by his hand.

His agony of mind was terrible. The Holy Spirit had indeed convinced him of sin, and for the first time he saw something of the evil of his own heart. The missioners pointed him to Jesus as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.) They told him that Christ had borne the punishment for sin. “Not such sin as mine," Jem groaned. “Do you know that I wanted to murder my wife?" He shuddered in horror at his own murderous thoughts, and muttered in a tone of despair, “There is only the curse of God for such a wretch as I."

They answered him always with Bible words; pointing out that “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), and that it must be true, because it was the Lord Himself who said it.

"It's too late for me—I'm too bad," he repeated again and again. "Since I was a lad I have never entered church or chapel except to be married. I have never spoken the Lord's name except in oaths and blasphemy. And there's no sort of wickedness that I have not done. Don't tell me He'll forgive me, for I know He can't."

"Cannot you believe God's own word?" they asked him. "There it is written, ' He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Prov. 18:13.)

"My sins are too many—too many," he moaned.

“If you are a great sinner, remember Christ is a great Savior! He it is who said the gracious, tender words, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'” (Matt. 11:28.)

" Oh, if I could only think it meant me," Jem said, broken down with emotion as he heard again the words which had so much struck him at the first.

Hour after hour passed. Nine, ten, eleven o'clock struck; and the last of those who had remained behind for the inquiry meeting had long ago left the building. But Jem Rowden, his wife, and the missioners were still there. They engaged in earnest prayer with him and for him. They bid him pray for himself; pointing out that if he wished for pardon and rest, it was meet that he should humbly ask for it. Then they taught him the publican's prayer, “God, be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:13.)

It was now past midnight; but they could not bear to leave the man in his present state of overwhelming misery. "God, be merciful to me an awful sinner," burst from his quivering lips again and again. It seemed—and no doubt it was so—as if Satan himself were struggling to retain his hold on his victim.

But if Satan was there, it is certain the Savior was there also. His word can never fail, His promise cannot be broken; and He has said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:20.)

The anxious watchers saw at length that, by little and little, light seemed breaking in upon the darkened mind. As they repeated from God's Word the numberless promises and gracious invitations given to all who turn from their evil ways, his exclamations were no longer, " Too late! " nor, " Those promises are not for me! " but, with a look in which wonder and hope were blended, " Can it indeed be for me? Can God care for such a wretch as I? "

But the half doubt at last gave place to joyful trust; he fell upon his knees, and, with clasped hands, said, in a tone of deep conviction, “I do believe God loves me! I do believe that the Lord Jesus died for me.”

A lump in the throat prevented the missioners from immediately letting their voices be heard in thanksgiving to God for His mercy; but, while Ruth sobbed aloud from overpowering emotion, the glorious Doxology, " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," was sung with heart and voice by these devoted servants of God.

As they left the hall in the small hours of the morning, and a warm hand-grasp had been exchanged between the Rowdens and the missioners, who, with prayerful earnestness, commended them to God, and to the word of His grace, they each took their homeward way.

"Ruth, my poor little wife, can you ever forgive me?" Jem asked, his face working with deep feeling, though it was too dark for her to see it.

Ruth could scarcely believe the evidence of her senses. Jem to ask for pardon!— Jem, who had never been known in all his life to confess himself in the wrong to either God or man! And now—could she have heard aright?—did he ask her to forgive him? She could not speak—words seemed to fail her—but the answer she gave, throwing her arms round his neck, and kissing him again and again, was sufficiently eloquent.

From that hour all was changed. Old things had, indeed, passed away, and all things had become new. The savage nature of the man had been vanquished—the tiger had been tamed. From henceforth neither wife nor children had to fear an angry or harsh word from him; while to Ruth his manner was touchingly tender, and her will was his law. It was she who proposed the daily reading of the Bible, and family prayer before he went out to his work, and he at once consented; it was she who begged him to give up his visits to the "Three Bears, and again he gave a hearty assent. But for this he needed no urging.

"Never again, so help me God, will I enter those doors, unless it be to do some good there, which ain't likely." And to this he kept faithfully.

His wages were brought home every Saturday, and every penny was given into his wife's keeping; their children were properly fed and suitably clothed, and Ruth was now as happy as the day was long.

Was Jem happy? His face was wonderfully altered—it shone with that peculiar radiance which shows a mind at peace with God. The cruel expression was gone forever, and anyone who knows about such things from personal experience could see at a glance that handsome Jem had now got that "rest” for which he craved when first hearing of it on that eventful night during the mission. When going to his work in the mornings he might generally be seen leading his little Jack by the hand (to leave him at the school as he passed), singing brightly some favorite hymn, and joined in by his boy's clear treble.

It is a strange thing (but it is a fact) that from the time Jem Rowden began to walk in the better way, the neighbors began to say he was a little touched in the head. The change was so sudden that they could not understand it. When he was headstrong, and godless, selfish, cruel and vindictive, they never thought of calling him mad; but now they did. They would watch him walking down the street with his little son, joyfully singing a hymn of praise; and then they would look at each other and smile, and touch their foreheads in a significant way, as if to say that he was not “all there."

After all, this was nothing new. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the same thing being common in his day; “He that departeth from evil is accounted mad." (Isa. 59:15.) But if to turn from sin, to become God-fearing, industrious, faithful, helpful, and true, is madness, would God that all in the world were mad.

Seven years have already passed since Jem Rowden began to walk in the light; and all that time he has walked circumspectly and consistently, and has given “none occasion to the enemy to blaspheme." MRS. G. E. M.

A Tour Through Bible Lands (Continued) .10.

WALK about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following." So sung the Psalmist, and this morning we follow his advice; so far, at least, as we are able, for the palaces have long since crumbled into dust, and though towers and bulwarks remain, they are not the towers and bulwarks which so delighted David's eye when he sang of them to the sons of Korah.

Jerusalem has been besieged and sacked more often than any other city on earth. Twenty-seven sieges 'has it stood, and, as another has remarked, “In Jerusalem we have to do not with one city, but with many. The Jerusalem of our day may be considered the eighth, for even before the time of David there was a city there. The second was the city of Solomon, from B.C. 1000 to B.C. 597, a space of four hundred years. The third that of Nehemiah, which lasted for some three hundred years. Then came the magnificent city of Herod; then the Roman city, which grew up on the ruins Titus had made; it again was followed by the Mohammedan city; and that again by a Christian city; and now, for six hundred years, the modern city has stood on the ruins of those that preceded it." Solomon, Nehemiah, Herod, Hadrian, Constantine, Omar, Godfrey, Saladin, Suleiman, each in turn had built, and the glories of each city in turn have passed away, but the time shall come when there shall arise over these ruins a city such as this world has never seen—a city of imperishable glory, and over it shall reign the true Solomon,. David's Lord and David's Son.

But let us leave the consideration of the city's past glories, and glories yet to come, for an examination of it as it exists today. We start from the Jaffa Gate, and, turning to the right, make the circuit of the city from thence. At first our way lies past the villas and modern buildings, which tended so to mar our first impressions as we entered it. But we soon leave these behind, and trending to the right, reach the Damascus Gate—the most striking of all the gates of Jerusalem. Through it passes the great northern road—if, by courtesy, road it can be termed. And, as we pointed out in a previous paper, there can be little doubt that it was through the ancient representative of this gate that the Lord passed to crucifixion. Today a number of Bedaween have pitched their black goats-hair tents beside it, and their swarthy progeny rush forth upon us clamoring, "Howadgi, backsheesh"—(" Pilgrim, alms ").

Continuing our walk, we pass, on the left, the hill which most moderns take to be Calvary, while on the right lies the hole in the rock which marks the entrance to "the quarries"—immense subterraneous excavations, whence the stones for building these same walls of Jerusalem were hewn. Rounding the northeastern corner of the wall, our way is almost due south. Here the ground slopes steeply down to the dry, rocky bed of Kedron, and the valley of Jehoshaphat opens out to our view, and beyond it the mosque-crowned summit of Olivet.

From this point we can look right into the small enclosure, which the priests who tend it say is Gethsemane. The enclosure is a highly cultivated flower-garden, in which are some half-dozen very ancient olive trees, surrounded by a stone wall. And now we have reached St. Stephen's Gate, through which passes the road which leads to Bethany—the road so often trodden by the Lord in the last week before the cross, when He would not sleep within the doomed and guilty city. Through the former counterpart of this gate for whatever else may change, the roads or tracks remain the same—He must daily have passed on His direct route to the temple. From Olivet yonder He will yet make His entry as King of kings, and Lord of lords, to exercise a power and authority that none may gainsay, and reign till He has "put down all rule, and authority and power. For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet."

A little farther, and we come to a double gate, now built up. This is the Golden Gate; it has been blocked up because the Moslems believe that when the Christians recapture Jerusalem their armies will enter through it.

Miming the south-eastern angle of the wall, we are struck by the enormous size of the stones with which it is constructed. These stones are called "the Great Course," and are some two yards high. Close by is a pit which still marks the site of the excavations carried out by Captain Warren in 1867. Here he sunk a shaft eighty-five feet in depth, which brought him to the foundation of the wall, which consists of huge blocks of stone. Some of these bore chiseled marks, and some had signs painted in vermilion. These have since been deciphered as Phoenician builders' marks.

The enormous difference between the levels of the ancient and modern cities, shows that they can have little or nothing in common. Some thirty-five feet of debris lies over the streets which our Savior trod.

We are now opposite that portion of the walls which bounded the Haram-esh-Shereef —the undoubted site of the Temple. Below our feet the valleys of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom unite. Across the former lies the village of Silwan, the ancient Siloam, the waters of whose stream in former days went softly, but which now have practically disappeared, except when a torrent is caused by some winter storm. Near the junction of the valleys, lies the pool of Siloam, a small pond, to which you descend by some ruinous steps, supplied with water by a narrow culvert from a spring some distance further up the valley, known as the Fountain of the Virgin. This latter fountain is intermittent, the flow and the stoppage being probably accounted for, by some syphon-like fissure in the limestone rock.

The gates on the southern side of Jerusalem are the Single, Double, and Triple Gates, and the Zion and Dung Gates; only the two latter are, however, now open. The Zion Gate leads out to a detached portion of the city called Neby Daid (David's Tomb). Close by the latter is shown the chamber of the Last Supper, which probably formed the crypt of some early Christian church.

Passing onwards we soon find ourselves once more at our point of departure, and, on consulting our watch, discover that we have made the circuit of the walls in three-quarters of an hour! And here we cannot refrain from remarking on the smallness of everything in Palestine. Coming from Egypt, with its limitless views, its huge water-buffaloes and great asses, and mighty city of Cairo, we find instead a narrow strip of country, nearly the whole of which may, Moses-like, be taken in at a glance, oxen no larger than a six-months' English calf, asses of a proportionately diminutive size, and Jerusalem itself a bare two-and-a-half miles in circumference. And yet this little land is the one alone of which we read that the eyes of Jehovah ever rest upon, and this dilapidated, evil-smelling town is destined yet to fulfill its King's words, and be " the joy of the whole earth," while its despise d inhabitants, the only factor in the eastern question which the keen-eyed politicians of the day overlook, shall yet give the true solution of that question, when all shall be ordered under the hand of Him who is called the Prince of Peace. J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands .11. — the Temple

NE of the most interesting spots in Jerusalem is, necessarily, the Temple Area, or Haram-esh-Sherif, as it is now called. Not only is it the site of the successive temples of Zerubbabel, and Solomon, and Herod, but here was also the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite; and here, too, since the Haram-esh-Sherif contains the summit of Mount Moriah, was enacted the offering up of Isaac by his father Abraham.

Here Melchisedec worshipped in days closely succeeding the flood; and hither came the shekinah of glory, for it was here that God dwelt between the cherubim (2 Chron. 7:1, 2), and hence Ezekiel saw it, in vision, lingeringly depart (Ezekiel 10:18 22), and also return to reoccupy the temple which shall yet be built at Jerusalem, from which it shall depart no more (43:1-9). Hither was brought by His mother the little Babe who was the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His Person; here as a youth He was found hearing the doctors, and asking them questions; and here, in later years, were delivered many of those marvelous discourses perpetuated for us in the Evangelists by the Holy Ghost.

The Haram-esh-Sherif is an enclosure of some thirty-five acres in extent, and has been leveled by scarping away the rock in some places, and filling up others with stones, or using such supports for the platform overhead, as the immense vaults known as "Solomon's Stables" afford. Limited as it is in extent, we think we may well say that no spot on the face of the whole earth is so rich as it in holy associations.

We enter the enclosure the Bab-es-Silsileh, or Gate of the Chain. On our right hand, i.e., to the south, we have the Mosqueel-Aksa, approached by some magnificent cypress trees, which tower up into the blue sky to an immense height; while on our left, approached by a flight of steps, is the Kubbet-es-Sukrah, or Dome of the Rock, by some thought to be the most beautiful building in the world. It is octagonal in shape, and entirely covered with encaustic tiles, and a ribband of tiles, on which verses of the Koran, are inscribed in blue letters on a white ground, runs round the building. But it is that which the Dome contains which has such absorbing interest for us. We enter and behold, enclosed by a wooden screen, the rugged, un-hewn summit of Mount Moriah. While so much has been leveled around, the tool of the workman has not been lifted upon this. And, since threshing-floors were located on wind-swept hill tops, in order that the chaff-might be carried away, we are doubtless looking at the spot where Araunah winnowed his corn, and over which the angel brooded with his drawn sword, about to strike the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and where David sacrificed to God, and where the temple itself was erected in a later day.

The Sakhra, or Rock, is some fifty feet by forty across, and its pinnacle rises about five feet above the surrounding floor. The rock itself is hollow, and the cave under it is entered from without the dome. Here we were shown the hole that was made by Mahomet's head striking the roof. We put our head into the hole, somewhat to the consternation of our guide, and struck our head against the top, from which we concluded that Mahomet was not very tall. Our guide smote the floor and sides of the cave, which gave out a hollow sound, proving the correctness of the Mahommedan tradition that the cave is suspended in the air, or that there are other caves adjacent. We were also shown a piece of marble, let into the floor: Mahomet drove nineteen nails into it, and, when these have all dropped through into the regions below, the prophet will reappear to judge the faithful. Three of the nails still remain, and Moslems step very lightly in their vicinity, for fear of shaking them out. A footprint of the prophet is also shown, and the same building contains a hair of the prophet's beard.

An inscription in letters of gold, high up on the dome of the rock, declares that it was built by El Mamun in the year 72 of the Hegira (A D. 691). The inscription continues—"May God accept it at his hands, and be content with him. Amen. There is no God but God, alone; He hath no partner. Say He is the one God, the Eternal; He neither begetteth nor is begotten, and there is no one like Him. Mohammed is the apostle of God; pray God for him. There is no God but God alone; to Him be praise, who taketh not unto Himself a Son, and to whom none can be a partner in His kingdom, and whose patron no lower creatures can be. Magnify for Him."

Leaving the dome of the rock, we next visit the Mosque-el-Aksa. It contains a very finely carved and inlaid pulpit, brought thither from Damascus by Saladin. At the back of the pulpit is a stone, said to bear the imprint of the foot of our Lord. We were also shown the “praying place “of Moses. From Pisgah, which is in full view of the Haram-esh-Sherif, some thirty miles away, Moses doubtless looked down upon the spot where the temple was to stand, but how he, who was forbidden to enter the land, worshipped here, we leave to traditionalists to explain.

After visiting the mosque, we descend by some steps into Solomon's Stables the immense vaults to which we have previously referred. We read in 1 Kings 4:26 that "Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots," so that it is possible that this legend is correct; at any rate, the vaults have been soused, as the rings to which the Crusaders fastened their horses remain to this day.

Entrance to the Temple Area can only be obtained by application to the consul, who sends with you a cavass, as guard, and a fee has to be paid for admission. Hence the Jews are excluded from its precincts, and accordingly gather outside the wall, which they believe to be nearest to the site of the Holy of Holies, to kiss the stones and bewail the afflictions of their nation. Here you will generally find a few swaying their bodies to and fro, as they read aloud the lamentations of Jeremiah, and occasionally passionately kissing the stones, while tears run down their cheeks. On Friday afternoons they come in numbers, and visitors generally, if possible, attend at the Jews' wailing place on that day. It is a solemn and impressive scene. May God, in His mercy, soon open their eyes, and give them to mourn for the cause of their desolations, instead of for the desolations themselves. The Lord has indeed come to His Temple, and His people have rejected and crucified Him; but when they repent shall be fulfilled the words of Peter, and "the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3:19-21.)

The portion of the containing wall, selected by the Jews for their wailing place, contains some of the finest stones in the walls of Jerusalem. It is possible that they are not in the same positions as in the Lord's time, but they are doubtless the same stones upon which the disciples gazed with pride when they said, " Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings!" (Mark 13:1). Close by the Jews' wailing place may be noticed in the wall the spring of Wilson's Arch, so-called from its discoverer; on this the arch rested which connected the Temple Area with the south-western portion of the city, spanning the depression of the valley of Tyropœon, somewhat after the plan, to give a modern illustration, of Holborn Viaduct. The spring of the arch is now just above the surface of the ground, but modern excavations have shown that there are fifty feet of debris before the ancient pavement beneath it is reached, while, high as the wall yet is above the surface of the Jews' wailing place, seventy feet of rubbish had to be removed before the explorers stood on the ancient level! Close by Wilson's Arch we measured one stone, which was thirty-two feet in length, and of proportionate height. J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands .2.

STANDING at the base of the Great Pyramid, the stupendous character of the building began to dawn upon us. Its base covers some thirteen acres, and the building rises in tiers of some four feet high to an elevation of four hundred and sixty feet. It is formed of huge limestone blocks, beautifully squared and fitted together; indeed, its manner of construction remains an enigma to the engineers of even our own day.

The ascent has been frequently described, so we need not dwell upon it.

From the summit, lying some miles away across the desert to the south, one of the objects which attract attention is the Step Pyramid of Sakkarah. Thither we directed our way.

Starting in a steamer from just above the new bridge, we soon passed Rode Island, where, according to tradition, Moses was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter. We passed the Nilometer also, which measures the rising waters of the Nile. How much depends upon the record of this instrument may be gathered from the fact that, were the waters of the Nile to fail, Egypt, since it is practically rainless, would revert to a wilderness of sand. When at Cairo we were told that it had not rained there for eighteen months.

After a pleasant two hours, the steamer stopped at Beni-hassan.

Passing through fields, every square yard of which is cultivated with infinite pains, and watered by a labyrinth of runnels, and which produce, as they did well-nigh four thousand years ago, leeks and garlic and cucumbers, we ere long dive into the shadowy groves of palm which wave over the site where stood Memphis, once one of the mightiest cities of the world. Yes, here rose royal palaces and magnificent shrines; here from morning to night sounded the busy din of a city which attracted to its bazaars the merchantmen of the then known world, and which even as late as Richard Cœur de Lion's day, took a man half-a-day to traverse, as Abdel-Latif, the chronicler of that day testifies. But now, the deathlike silence is unbroken, save by the sighing of the wind in the palm-trees overhead, or the clatter of the hoofs of the donkey of some tourist, as he gallops by! And as we gaze upon the silent, deserted scene, we recall the words of the prophet addressed to disobedient Israel of old, " Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tabernacles." (Hosea 9:6.)

And now mighty Memphis is buried in its turn beneath these heaps, its ruin is complete, and its glories have departed, leaving scarcely a b ace behind. And here one naturally enquires, “How is it that those four swellings on the earth appear to be the only relics of this mighty city of the past?” The answer is twofold: first, when newer cities, such as Cairo, sprang into being, it was far easier for the builders to secure and carry away the beautifully beveled stones with which the palaces and shrines of these ancient cities were constructed, than to be at the labor of quarrying them for themselves. Secondly, the greater portion of these ancient cities, like their modern counterparts, doubtless consisted of buildings formed of sun-dried brick, which in process of time dissolved into its elements, and was carted away and used by the fellaheen to enrich their fields. The Egyptians, owing to their religion, which taught that life was but a halting-place on the way to eternity, took little pains to build substantial houses for themselves in life, but elaborated their tombs, so that their ka or soul might cheerfully occupy itself in reading over its deeds done here below.

But is there nothing left to testily to the former grandeur of the place? There is, for here, prone in the dust, at no great distance apart, lie two colossal statues of Rameses II.; and as we mount upon one of them, and, taking our stand on its broad breast, look down upon the sculptured features, the original of which we gazed on yesterday in the museum, there comes into the mind, with a significance they never had before, Ezekiel's words, " Thus saith the Lord God; I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt" (30:13).

We had seen how the images have ceased; we were shortly to see how the idols have been destroyed. Emerging from the palm-groves, we galloped over a rich plain towards our objective, the Step Pyramid of Sakkarah. Unlike the pyramids of Gizeh, this latter, as its name implies, is built in six successive layers, and is supposed to be the oldest monument in the world. However, it is not the pyramid itself, but its immediate surroundings which prove of such surpassing interest to the sight-seer. For here, close at hand, is the Tomb of Tih, with its galleries cut out of the rock, whose endless bas-reliefs display, in colors as fresh as if they had been laid on yesterday, the every-day life of Egypt well-nigh four thousand years ago.

Here is a man driving an ass with the exaggerated ears of the Egyptian breed of today; and he thus exhorts it: “People love those that go on quickly, but strike the lazy." Verily, asses and men have not much changed with time! Here is another plowing, who thus addresses his team: “A strong pull; trot on, O beasts "; and here another who is reaping the bearded grain. Here, again, is a fisherman, who has enclosed in his net the strange-looking fishes peculiar to the Nile, while, close by, a hunter hunts the antelope, and a band of men, armed with javelins, attack a hippopotamus. Here is another man going to market with a goose, holding it by its two wings crossed behind its back. The life-like way in which the goose thrusts out its neck, and beats the air wildly with its outspread webbed feet is very noticeable. Of a truth artists were true to nature in those days! And here, is a funeral procession going to the grave. But, strangely enough, though there is hardly an ordinary and trivial event of daily life which is not duly chronicled here in stone, we look in vain for a presentment of the means by which the neighboring pyramid was reared.

Leaving the tomb of Tih, we next visit the tomb of Apis, i.e., of the sacred bull. For thousands of years this tomb, and that of Tih, was covered by the desert sand, till Marriette Bey began the excavations which resulted in the discovery of these most interesting relics of a bygone age. When he entered the tomb he found the polished granite sarcophagi of twenty-four of the sacred bulls. These sarcophagi are monoliths, and weigh some sixty tons each, and have been transported hither from the quarries some hundreds of miles up the Nile. Originally they contained the mummies of the sacred boils, but all save one had been rifled at the time of their discovery. In the mortar of this one, which had apparently been overlooked, Marriette Bey noticed the impress of the fingers of the mason who had been employed to set the stone when Rameses II was king, and in the dust he saw the print marks of feet which had been left there three thousand five hundred years before. What wonder that the explorer, as he noted these things, “was overwhelmed, and burst into tears."

And now the last mummied bull has been removed, and the prophecy has been literally fulfilled, and Egypt's idols have been destroyed.

But the very worship of the bulls, quite irrespective of this striking fulfillment of prophecy, is interesting to the Bible student, shedding as it does a light upon Israel's failures, whether in the wilderness at the toot of Sinai, or at Dan and Bethel in the land. “Put away," said Joshua,” the gods which your fathers served in Egypt" (24:14). What manner of gods they were we learn from Exod. 32 “Up," says Israel, "make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him; " and accordingly a calf was made, and they said, " These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

Again, it was to Egypt that Jeroboam fled from Solomon's wrath (a Kings 11:40), where he doubtless became indoctrinated with this same bull-worship, and instituted it in Israel on his coming to the throne. “Behold thy gods, O Israel," he says, " which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one (i.e., a calf) in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan." (1 Kings 12:28, 29.)

Betaking ourselves once more to our steeds, we crossed through Memphis by a different route, and accompanied by a yelling crowd of Arab children, reached our steamer, and so proceeded hack to Cairo.

J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands .3.

OUR brief stay in Egypt was now drawing rapidly to a close, but there still remained one Scriptural spot which we had not visited, namely, Heliopolis, the ancient On, which lies some six miles to the north of Cairo. Our route, at the commencement, lay through a maze of bazaars and small streets. We in England can have no idea, unless we have visited the East, how rigidly the sun is excluded there; hence the tall and overlapping houses, and the narrow bazaars, which only just give room to pass down them, and which render the inevitable encounter with a loaded camel so perilous. Time and tide are said to wait for no man, and camels may be safely added to the list. Onward they come, their great elastic feet making no sound upon the stony street, and if your attention is otherwise attracted the first notification of their presence is the blow which you receive from a block of stone weighing a couple of hundredweight, or some such similar trifle, which is ordinarily seen upon camels' backs.

Vociferating loudly, his presence no doubt originally necessitated by the narrowness of the thoroughfares and the abounding obstructions, runs a brilliantly uniformed cavass, clearing the way before his Turkish master. And even he has a Biblical interest for us, for was not John the Baptist endowed with the same office as forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ?

But perhaps we ought to explain what an Eastern bazaar is like. Imagine, then, a narrow alley, covered in wholly or in part, and lined on either side with a series of booths about two yards square, crossed-legged in which, with their chibouques in their mouths, and the slippers and coffee by their sides, the respective proprietors squat. And notice there is no mixture of wares in the East, as with us. Here we are in the shoemakers' bazaar, and, as far as the eye can see, it rests on shoes-shoes red, shoes green, shoes with pointed toes and shoes with broad, rough shoes for the fellaheen, and dainty gold-embroidered slippers for the ladies of the harem. And now again we are in the coppersmiths' bazaar, where they are manufacturing elaborate swinging lamps, or hammering out embossed platters and bowls. From the deafening din of this bazaar we gladly escape, perhaps, into the carpet bazaar, or we turn aside to the jewel bazaar, or where phials of attar of roses, scarce an inch high, at a sovereign a bottle, are to be purchased. Through such scenes as these, with many a shout of " Ouar-r-r Inglik " (" Take care -an Englishman ") from our donkey-boy, we pursue our way, until we emerge into broader streets, lined with large houses, where, our donkey-boy explains, the "Jew-man" lives, and so debouch into the open country at last.

Having passed the barracks, we halt at a gateway to a garden, and dismount to inspect the Virgin's tree, a gnarled old sycamore, where by tradition the Virgin rested on the flight into Egypt. The garden is intersected by runnels of delicious water, said to have been miraculously made so at the same time. Needless to say, we pay no heed to such traditions; but it is interesting to watch the way by which the water is raised from the well by a contrivance, called a “sakiyeh." This consists of a number of pitchers fastened round a wheel, which is made to revolve vertically by cogs and a beam worked by oxen above. As the wheel revolves the pitchers first fill themselves in the well below, and then rise, and, in turning to descend, empty their contents into a shoot, so contrived as to catch the water without interfering with the pitchers themselves.

Remounting our donkey, a few minutes suffice to bring us to the foot of the obelisk of Heliopolis—all that now remains to mark the site of On, the first university in the world. Here it was that the cult of Ra, the sun-god, flourished, hence its Greek name Heliopolis, i.e., city of the sun. This was the spot which witnessed the nuptials of Joseph with the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On; here, doubtless, it was that Moses; as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, for the priests of Egypt, like the Roman priesthood in medieval times, were the depositaries of learning in their day. And many a time, doubtless, has the great Law-giver stood at the foot of the obelisk, meditating perhaps the deliverance of his people. Hither in a later day, attracted by the world-wide name of the city, came, as learners, those learned Greeks, Herodotus, and Plato, and Eudoxus. But now its glories have departed, and the obelisk alone remains to testify to the fulfillment of God's word, “He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh” (i.e., the "house of the sun"), that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire." (Jer. 43:13.)

Returning to Cairo, it was the writer's great privilege to be invited to the Palais Matatia, the residence of Dr. Grant Bey, the well-known Egyptologist, to hear him deliver a lecture on his favorite subject, and it is to him that he owes the following particulars of the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians.

Manetho, an Egyptian priest, writing in Greek a history of his country and people, at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus, for the Grand Library of Alexandria, tells us that the history of Egypt, as gathered from the hieroglyphic archives in the temple libraries, was divided into two periods, viz., the mythical and historical. These periods were again sub-divided into dynasties, of which the mythical period had four, and the historical thirty, the latter ending with Nectanebo II., the last Pharaoh of Egyptian blood.

As the ancient Egyptian religious beliefs were derived from the mythical period, we will confine ourselves to the consideration of it, and its four dynasties.

The first dynasty consisted of the rule of gods (corresponding with the Hebrew Elohim) over nature and the lower creation, and comprised the creation of the world.

The second dynasty was marked by the rule or gods over the higher creation, man! It was distinguished from the first dynasty by the existence of man, and by the fact that the gods not only ruled over man, but had intercourse with him.

The third dynasty displayed the rule of demi-gods over man. From some cause, which Manetho does not explain, the gods were obliged to withdraw themselves from man. The latter, who was naturally religious, was ill at ease, owing to their withdrawal, so the gods had pity on him, and since man could not raise himself to the level of the gods, the latter lowered themselves to man's level by partaking of his nature, and thus, as demi-gods, they came again to earth to rule over and have friendly intercourse with the human race.

This was taught the people allegorically, thus: the sky was deified, and called Nut (pronounced Noot), a goddess, and the earth was deified, and called Seb, a god. These married, and there was born to them a family, partly celestial, partly terrestrial, the more prominent among whom were Osiris, who married his sister Isis, and Set, who married his sister Nephthis.

Osiris, who was the personification of everything good, had his seat of government at Abydos, but frequently went on journeys for the sake of benefiting his subjects. All was happiness and contentment till undue ambition on the part of Set led him to conspire against his brother and to slay him.

Henceforth Set became the personification of what was evil, and usurped the place of Osiris.

But even as Isis, in great distress, wept over her dead husband, she miraculously conceived, and in due time gave birth to 'Torus, who was destined to wage war against Set, and to overcome him.

Now we may well pause, and ask ourselves whether under the teaching of the priests of On there did not lie the germs of the great doctrine of Atonement; of the Seed of the woman whose heel the serpent should bruise in death, but who, rising from the dead, should bruise the serpent's head?

But quite apart from any analogy which may exist between the Egyptian system and Christian revelation, the student of Church history will note, with interest, the fact that the Church of Rome adopted its idolatrous worship from the Egyptians. For the latter worshipped Osiris, Isis, and Horus, as a triad; and Isis, who is so frequently represented with the child Horus on her knee, give rise to the combination of the Madonna and Child; and we may he sure that pagans the more readily embraced a Christianity which did not rob them of their idolatry, but merely bade them exchange the worship of Isis or Ashtoreth for that of the Madonna.

Dr. Grant Bey's concluding words are so weighty that we give them verbatim. "It is my opinion that the primitive Egyptians had a true revelation from God of man's loss of God's favor, and of God's plan of redemption by a God-man Savior. It is not difficult to trace up this revelation to Paradise itself, where primitive man had God as his schoolmaster. That this pure and spiritual religion ultimately became debased and even filthy, goes without saying."

Let us beware that our pure and spiritual Christianity does not become simply materialistic and ceremonial, having a name without power. Do you suppose there is no idol worshipped among us? Is bowing to an altar any less idolatrous than bowing to an image that represents God, or some attribute of God? If we do not address the sun in words, we perhaps unwittingly adore that luminary in our church service by turning to the east. Let us take warning from the Egyptians, and eschew material and ritualistic forms substituted for spiritual truths.

In our English church at Cairo we have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, for on one of our stained windows there is a kingly personage, seated on a throne that might do for a David or a Solomon, but he is labeled, not to say libeled, the "Lord of Hosts." Christ in His teaching used mind pictures, not eye pictures, when He would have men understand spiritual truth. May Christ preserve the Church from idolatry.' To which we would add our unfeigned "Amen." J. F.

[Figures of the goddess Isis seated, of bronze or porcelain, have been found in great numbers. They are generally of the period of the 26th dynasty, about B.C. 630, and continue till the period of the Roman conquest B.C. 30.]

A Tour Through Bible Lands .5.

WE left Port Said without regret at five o'clock in the evening of the day after our arrival. The deck of our steamer forward was occupied by a motley herd of deck-passengers, men, women, and children, the majority of whom were proceeding to Jerusalem for " holy week," which was now approaching.

Another traveler has so aptly described the scene that we borrow his description:" Our steamer for the time was an epitome of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Muscovite from his frozen steppes; the Albanian from his rugged mountains; the Greek from his olive-clad vales; the Pole, the Italian, the Frank; the son of the desert who drinks at the sources of the Nile, and the Edomite who roams by the eastern shore of the Red Sea; Ishmaelites from Mecca; Turks from the Bosphorus, and Armenians from the slopes of Ararat, obedient to an invisible but mighty influence, were all converging on a common center-that center an old town in the heart of the Palestine mountains. What a spell of undying potency is the name-Jerusalem! It touches the heart of all peoples, and draws them across sea and land. From her throne, which is but a heap of rubbish, she wields a sovereignty which is not possessed by any living capital.

“But there was another principle at work here, and one still more universal, and of still mightier force than any attraction or fascination with which past ages have invested Jerusalem. We shall do well to take note of that principle, for it is one of transcendent and awful import. What was it? It was, in a word, the burden of sin on the conscience. All these men were engaged on a pilgrimage of penance and expiation. They were seeking rest from a sense of guilt. We had before us a grand proof of the divinity of the Bible—such a proof; too, as sophistry could not possibly invent, or a cunning priesthood manufacture. It was humanity itself speaking with its own voice, and bearing witness to the truthfulness of its own condition as depicted on the page of inspiration. This burden pressing on all hearts, this cry for pardon rising from all lands, what is it but the world's confession of its fall, and its need of expiation? "

Fortunately the night was gloriously fine, and the stars looked down upon the waters with a brilliancy unknown in our northern latitudes, otherwise the lot of our fellow-passengers would have been miserable in the extreme.

Leaving them to their slumbers on the hard deck, we went below early, as we wished to be up betimes to catch the first glimpse of the Promised Land. At six o'clock next morning it broke upon our view, a low, long, yellow strip of land rising above the blue rim of the Mediterranean, broken by a slight eminence, towards which we were apparently steering. Ere long this resolves itself into a house-crowned hill, which the sailors tell us is Jaffa (pronounced Yafa), the ancient Joppa, and at half-past eight we cast anchor in the open roadstead, and await the arrival of the swarm of boats, which we can see emerging from behind a ridge of rocks, and racing madly towards us, impelled by their rival Arab crews.

Disembarking into these boats from the steamer is no easy matter, as one must be quick to choose the right moment as the boat rises on the swell. Having seen my luggage safely lowered, I was watching my opportunity, standing on the gangway, when I was suddenly picked up in one arm by a brawny Arab, and ere I could turn round found myself deposited safely in the boat, and looked up to find my Arab friend just seizing in like manner a clergyman of our party weighing some sixteen stone!

This Arab, David Sabungi by name, is a noted character; he has saved numerous lives by swimming off to wrecks, when no one else would face the waves, and no boat could live in the swell, and has received rewards from the English, French, and American Governments, besides numerous medals and orders. Only three days after our landing he received a gold watch and chain, which was publicly presented to him by the American Consul, as a recognition of one of his recent heroic exploits. Physically, he is as magnificent a specimen of a man as can be seen.

Even when safely in the boats, the troubles of some of our fellow-passengers were not over, as we found ourselves bobbing up and down on a nasty swell; but their miseries were short-lived, as our sinewy Arab boatmen rowed with a will, and we soon rounded the ridge of rocks we had descried from the ship, and found ourselves in smooth water, and ere long stepped ashore.

One's first impressions of any land are very apt to color one's impressions for the whole of one's stay therein, and it would be preferable on this account to land at Beyrout and work one's way south, instead of starting one's journey from Jaffa; for under Christian influence the former has progressed amazingly, while the latter forces upon our attention the miserable blight of Mohammedanism at every step.

The road from the quay (if by courtesy we could so term it) had not apparently been mended since Jonah fled this way three thousand years ago; it was littered with festering filth, and the stenches were awful. Picking our steps along dismal, unsavory lanes, we presently arrived at the reputed house of Simon the Tanner, with whom Simon Peter lodged when he, who held the keys of the kingdom of heaven by divine gift (Matt. 16:19), received the vision of the sheet, which instructed him that the kingdom was to be opened to the Gentiles also, who were no longer in God's sight accounted unclean, and that the time had come to apply the key to the door, and admit the first purely Gentile convert in the person of Cornelius.

The house is approached by a court, in which grows a fig-tree; it is probably ancient, and is certainly near the seashore. To us the actual site was of small importance, and this would do as well as any other. What was of importance was that here, or hereabouts, the mandate went forth to open the door of the kingdom to ourselves, and it is not too little to say that, but for Peter's vision, and the lesson it inculcated, we, as Gentiles, should still have been " without God, and without hope, in the world," and would certainly never have sought these shores.

We suppose no Christian passes through Jaffa without paying a visit to Miss Arnott's school, and thither accordingly we next wended our way. She and her coadjutor received us very kindly, and the children, who looked very cleanly and happy, sang for us several well-known hymns. Comparatively few Moslems, she told us, entrust their children to her care; those so entrusted inevitably have to marry Moslems, so that it is difficult to trace results; but doubtless " in that day " Miss Arnott will be enabled to rejoice over some who, even when shut up in harems, have cherished in their breasts the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Still, apart from the Moslems, there must be a great work to be done among the children of adherents of the Catholic and Greek churches. It seems strange that they should allow their little ones to be brought up under gospel-teaching, but self-interest, no doubt, over comes their scruples, as their children are naturally in a position to earn higher wages when they are able to speak English; we heard too that they were eagerly sought as wives, as the habits of cleanliness and neatness inculcated in the school made them far more desirable partners than girls would be who had been brought up in the filth and squalor of a Syrian home.

After viewing the schools we paid a visit to the orange gardens, of which there are many round Jaffa. The oranges, which, generally seemed to grow in pairs, are of great size, and very luscious, but they did not appear to be any cheaper than they are in England. Each garden is furnished with a well and tank, into which the water is pumped for irrigation purposes, and it is surprising to see the orange trees flourishing in what appears to be pure sand. The gardens are protected from marauders by immense hedges of prickly cactus, and he would be a bold man indeed who-attempted to force an entrance into them.

We had now seen all the sights of Jaffa, and it only remained to choose our steeds for our journey towards Jerusalem on the morrow. This is an important matter, for much of one's comfort in the long ride to Damascus and Beyrout, depends upon the choice one makes. A number of 'shaggy-looking little Syrian horses were accordingly brought for us to select from, and I tried several before I at last decided on one; but I might well have saved myself the trouble, as the sequel proved. But I must leave the narrative of the circumstances to the next number. J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands .6.

OUR first night's rest in Palestine was not destined to be an unbroken one, as we were aroused by the frequent blasts from a steamer's whistle in the bay, and on enquiring next morning, learnt that we had been the unwitting cause of the uproar. The different Arab boatmen, in their rivalry to reach our ship first, had not waited for pratique to be given, and the first man to board the steamer having been my Arab friend of the day before, the Kaimakan, or district governor, had promptly seized him and locked him up, whereupon all the other boatmen struck work, and declined to go off to any steamer until their comrade was released, hence the constant hooting from the steamer, whose captain could not understand why no boats were in attendance to take his passengers off. We heard afterwards that in reality our Arab friend had been locked up by the Kaimakan because the American government had just presented him with a splendid watch for one of his recent exploits, and he hoped to keep him under lock and key until he himself became possessor of the watch, but the prompt action of the other boatmen in striking, forced his hand, as he found himself compelled by their action either to let his prisoner go, or retain him and paralyse the trade of the port. This little episode is interesting, as giving one an insight into Turkish morals and Turkish administration.

After the usual delays, and consequent excitement and vociferation, we started next day upon our journey to Jerusalem, distant from Jaffa some thirty-seven miles. Passing through orange groves we 'ere long debouched upon the Plain of Sharon, across which in the distance, rose the blue mountains which surround Jerusalem. We are bound to say that we felt far more interest in them than in the traditionary tomb of Dorcas, which the dragoman had just pointed out. In them deceit and priestly knavery was impossible; they, at least, countenanced no imposture, and made no demands of backsheesh.

And what was the impression that Sharon left upon our minds? "Sharon is like a wilderness," says Isaiah, prophetically (33:9), and though, when we saw it, it was hardly that, yet it no doubt was very far removed from its luxuriant fertility in Israel's palmy days. In general the crops, which consisted of wheat and barley and lentils, seemed fairly good, when one took into consideration the exceedingly primitive mode of cultivation. The plough, if we may by courtesy so term it, practically consisted of two bent sticks, shod with an iron point, which scratched the earth to a depth of three inches. It was drawn by a couple of most diminutive oxen, not much larger than donkeys, and was steadied and guided by the driver with his right hand, while in his left he grasped his iron-pointed goad. As this system of tillage has been pursued from time immemorial, and manure is never used, and the four-course system unknown, it is little to be wondered at if the crops are thin; in fact, where out of Palestine would those be crops at all?

Did we see the "Rose of Sharon"? Possibly, but we did not identify it, if we did; some find it in the blue lily, some in the narcissus, some in the anemone, and more in the mallow. Certain it is that we saw many flowers; indeed in places the red anemones grew so thickly as to resemble, in the distance, great patches of blood; but the rose is, we believe, unknown in the Plain of Sharon, and we were quite content with the wealth of flowers that we saw, and left to wise and more argumentative heads than our own the settlement of the vexed question, as to which of the many flowers of the Plain could properly claim the name of "Rose of Sharon" as its own.

After a ride of three hours and a half, we arrived at Ramleh, a modern village, which, like most Palestine villages, is picturesque in the distance, but disappointing on closer acquaintance. For some time the tower of Ramleh had formed a conspicuous feature in the landscape, and thither we directed our steps. Who built this tower is, like almost everything else in Palestine, involved in doubt, but there can be no two opinions as to the view one obtains from its summit. Beneath one's feet lies the Plain of Sharon, spread out like a map. Yonder, some three miles to the north-east, is Lud, the ancient Lydda, the scene of Eneas' cure; that streak of darker blue in the blue mountains beyond, is the valley of Ajalon, over which the moon stood still in Joshua's days, while the followers of the five kings rushed headlong down from Beth-horon through the defile, and " the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died;" from the foot of Carmel in the north, to the confines of Philistine in the south—such is the view that meets our gaze.

And here one may notice a fact which will be more and more impressed upon one as we proceed, namely, the extreme smallness of the country. No doubt the wonderful clearness of the air greatly contributes to the sense of this; but it is a fact that from certain points one can, Moses-like, take in at a glance almost the whole land.

Thus, from a spot a little beyond Mar-Saba, we saw Hermon distinctly to the north, distant, as the crow flies, one hundred miles; while our view to the south was bounded by the mountains at the southern end of the Dead Sea, distant fifty miles in a straight line— i.e., in one sweep of the eye one took in the land of Israel, from its extreme northern to its extreme southern confines.

Descending from the tower we find our lunch awaiting us. Drawn up in the distance, watching us at our repast, was a line of natives, in whom we subsequently made our first acquaintance with leprosy. The poor creatures had come out of the neighboring village in the hope of obtaining alms, and they might well excite commiseration in the hardest hearts. Some had faces which more resembled bunches of fleshy grapes than human countenances; others thrust out for us to view the stumps of arms or legs, and all uttered the “leper-cry," with which we were soon to grow familiar.

The disease seems generally to attack the throat first, hence the peculiar shrill falsetto cry in which, no doubt of old, they had to utter the words—"Unclean, unclean." At present they content themselves with crying, “Howadji backsheesh" (Alms, O pilgrim), in piteous tones. In reply, we get out the camera, which they seem thoroughly to understand, and we leave them eagerly discussing the proportion of the douceur we gave them in return for the sitting.

As we left Ramleh we came across a man who had fallen among thieves; they had literally stripped him and wounded him, and left him half dead; for they had left him but his shirt, and he was covered with blood from a blow from a club on the head, and one of his arms hung powerless by his side. This was the man that had been dispatched from Jaffa with the food for our camp, which, together with the donkey carrying it, had been stolen. Fortunately for us, Mr. Cook, of tourist fame, had driven up to Jerusalem that day, and coming across the wounded man by the wayside had heard his tale, and sent supplies back from Jerusalem for our camp.

The Plain of Sharon possesses few distinctive features; the villages we saw were small, and devoid of scriptural interest. Presently we crossed the railroad, which was then being constructed from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and which has since been opened, and, continuing our course, gradually neared the barrier of the blue hills of Judea which hem in the plain, until the camp tame into view, and with a shout of "To your tents, O Israel," shook up our steeds and galloped in.

Our tents were pitched close by a stream at the foot of a bluff; on which stands the village of Latrun (the Robber), so called because it is the traditional birth-place of Dimas, the penitent thief. The sequel of events that night proved that there was, at the time of our visit, at any rate, one impenitent thief in the neighborhood, as, in the midst of a sudden storm of wind and rain which fell upon our tents, the picket rope was cut, and the horse which I had taken so much trouble to select for the long ride before us was stolen, and I had, in consequence, to borrow one of the baggage horses on which to pursue our journey next day. J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands .7.

DESPITE the fatigue of the preceding day, our first slumbers under canvas were not unbroken. First there was the novelty of the whole position, which, together with the experiences of the past day and the anticipations of the morrow, induced a certain amount of nervous tension, not provocative of sleep. Then there was the neighing and stamping and snorting of our Syrian horses, the hoarse croaking of innumerable frogs, and the guttural, ceaseless, chatter of our Arab guards, varied by occasional rain-squalls which shook our tents, and presaged ill for the morrow's weather; these all combined to make our rest disturbed and fitful. And just as one was at last dropping off into a sound sleep a great beating of pots and pans announced the fact that another day's work was before us.

On rising we found that the temperature had fallen almost to freezing point, and that the water was icy-cold. After a hurried breakfast in the saloon-tent in the center of the camp, we emerged to find our tents struck, and the camp and its equipage being rapidly transferred to the backs of our baggage animals. This was done with many shouts of " y' Allah," without which your Arab seems unable to effect anything expeditiously.

Mounting our horses, or, in my case, for reasons I have already explained, one of the baggage horses, we commenced our ascent of the Judean hills. Our road lay beside a water-course, now dry, called the Torrent of the Terebinths. The neighboring mountain sides were sparsely sprinkled with gnarled and dwarf olive trees, while the crevices of the rocks were full of pink and white cyclamens.

But we were not allowed for long to take pleasure in noting our surroundings, for the clouds, which had been gathering ominously overhead, now began to discharge their ice-cold contents upon us. Thus, after having climbed some two thousand feet and reached the summit of the hills, we were unable to see the view over the plain of Sharon.

Beginning to descend, we ere long reached Kuryet-el-Enab, identified by Dr. Robinson with Kirjath-jearim of the Scriptures. Hither, from Beth-shemesh, “the men of Kirjathjearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord," and placed it in “the house of Abinadab in the hill." “And it came to pass while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." (1 Sam. 7:1, 2) Subsequently we read that “David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God to Kirjath-jearim."(1 Chron. 13:5.)

Fortunately for us, a gleam of sunshine pierced the gloom just as we got abreast of Kuryet-el-Enab, disclosing by far the most picturesque village which we had yet seen. Perhaps it was quite as well that we did not enter the village itself, but wound down the direct road which lies to the left, so that we carried away the recollection of a truly pretty spot, undiscounted by the squalor and filth which would no doubt have spoilt a closer acquaintance.

Continuing our descent, we passed the village of Soba and the ruins of Kustal (probably a corruption of Castellum, as there is an old castle there), and in an hour and a half from Kuryet reached the Valley of Kolonieh. To our right, high up, lies Ain Karim, which is the traditional birthplace of John the Baptist, while a little farther on to our left lay Kolonieh (a corruption of Colon is), which is thought to be the ancient Emmaus, though, in common with almost all sites in Palestine, this is a moot point.

By this time, most of our party were wet to the skin, and we were not sorry, therefore, to halt at a roadside cafe for lunch, where, having emptied the water out of our boots, we were glad to warm ourselves at a brazier, and get a little vitality into our chilled bones.

After lunch most of our party sallied forth, and descended into the bed of the stream on the banks of which the cafe stands, in order to carry away at least four "smooth stones out of the brook "; for is not this the traditional valley of Elah, where David slew Goliath? and, as the dragoman remarked, "David having only used one stone, the other four must be somewhere!" As far as we personally were concerned, being of an unimaginative turn of mind, we were content to leave the stones there; and our contentment thereat was not lessened by subsequently discovering that the real valley of Elah lies far to the south, as the Bible narrative shows.

Remounting our horses, we began the ascent of five miles, which brought us to Jerusalem; but the weather was no more propitious than it had been before. Nearing the summit, we passed the large village of Lifta on the left. Reaching the plateau, where we expected to catch our first sight of Olivet, rain squalls obscured the view, and all that we could see were some ugly square modern buildings to our right and left—a convent and a German orphanage. At that moment our dragoman overtook us, for we, in our anxiety to see the city, had ridden ahead, and with a shout of "Jerusalem," put spurs to his horse, and the whole cavalcade following suit, we galloped up to a gate in an ancient wall—the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem.

For years we had dwelt upon that moment, and the moment had come. Many a time had we experienced in advance the feelings almost of awe with which we should approach those walls, and the solemn sense with which we should enter those gates. Such was the forecast of our entry. What was the reality? A mad gallop, and a wet, cold, mud-splashed, disconsolate party, consumed with an unromantic desire to get rid as quickly as possible of their wet clothes! We wish that we could have written otherwise; but as a faithful historian we have to do not with past fancies, but with present facts. J. F.

- - -

OUR readers will be interested in hearing how the Name of Jesus is received in Palestine today! The following records are taken from letters addressed to the Church Missionary Society, and “The Bible Society Gleanings." What a tale they unfold of the darkness that abides over that land in which the Lord went about doing good, and to which He is coming again! "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

A Tour Through Bible Lands .8.

IF the traveler’s route can possibly be so arranged, he should by all means abstain from entering Jerusalem, as we did, from the west. Lying as the city does with an eastward slope, it is quite invisible if approached in this direction, till the travelers are at its very gates, besides which the road from Jaffa, in proximity to the city, is disfigured by the barrack-like hospices for Russian pilgrims, and other modern buildings. Accordingly, if the tourist can restrain his curiosity, it is far better to branch off towards the south, and visit Hebron first, returning thence by way of Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, Jordan and Jericho, and making the first entry into Jerusalem by the road by which our Lord made His last, by way of Bethany and the Mount of Olives.

But, since we were unfortunate enough to reverse the order of this route, we will leave the description of it for the present, and treat of it in the order of our visit, only premising that if the earth can afford, which is doubtful, any more striking scene than that which bursts upon one, as, following in the footsteps of the Son of Man, we round the shoulder of Olivet, and in an instant the whole city, gently sloping towards us, bursts upon our view, it can certainly afford none which will so impress the devout mind, and leave the beholder with a memory which it will be impossible to efface.

But before we enter the city, it might be helpful to our readers if we describe its situation; " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion," is the description given of it by the inspired penman; and we would not dissent therefrom. It lies on a sloping plateau, the highest portion of which towards the north-west is two thousand five hundred and forty feet above the sea level, and the lowest, at the temple area on the south-east, two thousand four hundred and twenty feet. Surrounded as it is by hills, it naturally recalls the Psalmist's words: "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people." These mountains, with their intervening valleys, were, so the passage shows, a great source of strength and protection to the city in ancient days, but since they dominate the city from so many points, would render it indefensible to modern arms. Roughly speaking the city forms a square, and as, owing to the configuration of the ground caused by the two ravines of Kedron and Hinnom, the ancient Jerusalem must in shape have closely resembled the modern, it seems probable that to this fact we owe the similitude of the "holy Jerusalem," of which we read that, "the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth." (Rev. 21:10, 16.)

Of the two water-courses of Kedron and Hinnom, the first, after encircling the city from the north-west, makes a sudden turn and runs due south, thus forming the Valley of Jehoshaphat, while the latter flows to the west of the city, and, after swelling out into the upper and lower pools of Gihon, and forming the Valley of Hinnom (the Gehenna of the New Testament), trends to the south-east, where the two ravines of Jehoshaphat and Hinnom unite at En-Rogel. When we consider that the ground slopes away almost precipitously from the walls of the city, which was thus protected from the west and south and east, leaving the north the only vulnerable point, we cease to wonder at the prolonged sieges which Jerusalem has sustained.

But let us enter the city. We pass under the archway of the Jaffa gate, or Bab-el-Khalil (Gate of Hebron), as it is locally called, guarded by its couple of tatterdemalion Turkish soldiers, and find ourselves in an irregular courtyard, thronged by a motley herd. To our right, across a moat, lies the modern citadel, which embraces within its precincts perhaps the only remnant of Jerusalem as it existed in the time of our Lord, viz., the Tower of David, the Hippicus of Josephus. This, the sole remnant of ancient Jerusalem, was allowed to remain at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, in order to-be a standing witness to posterity of the greatness of his achievement, and its huge blocks of stone present as unshaken a front as they did in the Roman general's day, over eighteen hundred years ago.

Crossing the courtyard directly from the Jaffa gate we enter David Street, a narrow, half-vaulted thoroughfare, perhaps some three yards broad, bordered on each side by a row of partitioned recesses, cross-legged in which the respective owners sit, their wares displayed in front of them. As one gazes down this tunnel, the opening in the roof gives a curious effect as the light strikes on the ever-moving crowds that throng the thoroughfare below, who emerge for a moment from the gloom, to be lost again. And what a crowd it is! Here is a burly Turkish officer, with fez, and fat phlegmatic face; then a Bedouin Sheikh from the East of Jordan, tall, black-bearded, sinewy and spare, handsome in feature, but withal with a shifty look, which does not inspire confidence, his head-gear consisting of a brown covering bound round the brows with a thick coil of camels-hair, his huge brassbound match-lock strapped upon his back. Here in loose pantaloons and brightly striped jacket, is a muleteer from Aleppo or Damascus, a handsome bronzed fellow with lithe and active tread; and here, slinking along in his shabby, snuff-colored dressing-gown and broad-brimmed hat, pale and unwholesome in countenance, and rendered the more effeminate-looking by the two long curls depending by his cheeks, is the Jew, the true proprietor of the land. Russians, too, are here, for Easter is close at hand, sweltering beneath the Syrian sun in their fur caps and sheep-skin garments, which, however suitable they are for the steppes, are scarcely comfortable with the thermometer at seventy degrees in the shade. And there are Armenians, Copts, and Nubians, and many more, men apparently out of every nation under heaven, but, alas, for the most part, without the gospel, as in Peter's day.

And now, under our dragoman's guidance, we turn aside to the left out of David Street, and find ourselves in the courtyard by which the church of the Holy Sepulcher is approached, where vendors of colored armlets of glass from Hebron, and of rosaries of pearl from Bethlehem, are plying their trade. Entering the door of the church we are confronted by the stone of Unction, on which it is pretended the Lord's body was anointed on being, taken down from the cross. It is a flat slab, much worn by the kisses of pilgrims, and while we stand by a continuous stream of them enter, prostrate themselves, and reverently kiss the stone. God has provided for them bread—yea, the bread of life—but, alas, their priestly deceivers have substituted a stone!

From the transept, in which is the "horn of unction," we enter the Rotunda, the round roof of which is a conspicuous object in most views of Jerusalem. Beneath the center of the dome is the so-called holy sepulcher. Several enormous candles, many feet high and several inches in diameter, stand in their candlesticks at the entrance. Just within the entrance, in an antechamber, where is shown the stone which was rolled away from the door of the sepulcher, is a circular hole in the wall. In this antechamber, in a few days, will be enacted that hideous blasphemy, the bringing down the holy fire from heaven. Through that hole, in answer to the priest's prayers within-or to his machinations, which you please-will burst forth the flame, at which thousands of poor pilgrims from Russia and elsewhere, will light their candles, and, having paid their roubles for the privilege, will return home deluded into the idea that their participation in this priestly fraud will be fraught with blessing to their souls.

Continuing our way we pass through a low doorway into the tomb itself. From the roof are suspended many lamps, which are equally distributed between the rival sects, the Greeks, the Latins, the Armenians, and the Copts. The tomb consists of a slab of stone. Here is a priest, who offers to pour scent upon our hands, with which favor we dispense, but the poor pilgrims seem to regard it as a much-coveted honor.

Surrounding the sepulcher are the chapels belonging to the four sects already enumerated. Here they ply their devotions under the guard of Moslem soldiers a grim irony on the saying, “See how these Christians love one another." Much blood has been shed within these walls through brawls between the rival sects; hence the Moslem Government wisely keeps the peace at the bayonet's point.

In the neighboring chapels many sights are shown; thus we are pointed out the spot where the Virgin stood at the anointing of the Lord; where, after His resurrection, He met Mary Magdalene; the holes in the rock in which the crosses were erected; the rent rocks (showing unmistakable chiseling), and the rightly-termed " Chapel of the Invention of the Cross," where the Empress Helena found the true cross; also the " stone of scourging," and the " column of derision "; and, finally, Adam's grave! Of course the seeing of these impostures all require fees, and a banker at Jerusalem, to whom I was introduced, and through whose hands the money acquired by the different sects passed, informed me, in answer to my questions, that on an average thirty thousand pounds passed through his hands on behalf of the Greek Church alone.

That the site of the so-called sepulcher offends against everything that Scripture teaches, as to its position, we shall have occasion to show when we come to consider and describe the site of Calvary without the city walls.

Personally, I retire from the church with a feeling of intense disgust, and with the words of one of old running through my mind, “They have taken away my Lord." Thank God, we have not to do with priestly cunning, or an empty sepulcher, but an occupied throne, on which sits the man Christ Jesus as the eternal evidence of the efficacy of His work below. J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands .9.

WE left Jerusalem shortly before Easter so that we did not personally witness that consummation of impostures, the procuring of the "holy fire." As there has been considerable agitation of late for an amalgamation between the Church of England and the Greek Church—an agitation in which the Bishop of Jerusalem has taken a prominent part—it might be well that people at home should have a little insight into the practices of the Church with which they wish to be allied. Accordingly, we cannot do better than quote from the graphic description which Dean Stanley gives of the scene.

After describing “the gambols which take place, which an Englishman can only compare to a mixture of prisoner's base, football, and leap-frog, round and round the Holy Sepulcher," he proceeds, " From this moment the excitement, which has before been confined to the runners and dancers, becomes universal. Hedged in by soldiers, the two huge masses of pilgrims still remain in their places, all joining, however, in a wild succession of yells, through which are caught from time to time strangely—almost affectingly— mingled, the chants of the procession, the solemn chants of the Church of Basil and Chrysostom, mingled with the yells of savages. Twice the procession passes round; at the third lime the two lines of Turkish soldiers join and fall in behind. One great movement sways the multitude from side to side. The crisis of the day is approaching. The presence of the Turks is believed to prevent the descent of the fire, and at this point it is that they are driven, or consent to be driven, out of the church. In a moment the confusion as of a battle and a victory pervades the church. In every direction the raging mob bursts in upon the troops, who pass out of the church at the south-east corner. The procession is broken through; the banners stagger and waver. They stagger and waver and fall, midst the flight of priests, bishops, and standard-bearers, hither and thither before the tremendous rush. In one small but compact band the Bishop of Petra—who is on this occasion the bishop of the fire, the representative of the Patriarch—is hurried to the chapel of the sepulcher, and the door is closed behind him. The whole church is now one heaving sea of heads. One vacant spot alone is left a narrow lane from the aperture on the north-east side of the chapel to the wall of the church. By the aperture itself stands a priest to catch the fire; on each side of the lane hundreds of bare arms are stretched out, like the branches of a leafless forest.

“At last the moment comes. A bright flame, as of burning wood, appears inside the hole—the light, as every educated Greek knows and acknowledges, kindled by the bishop within; the light, as every pilgrim believes, of the descent of God Himself upon the Holy Tomb. Any distinct feature or incident is lost in the universal whirl of excitement which envelops the church, as slowly, gradually, the fire spreads from hand to hand, from taper to taper, through the vast multitude, till at last the whole edifice, from gallery to gallery, and through the area below, is one wide blaze of thousands of burning candles."

Well may Dean Stanley add that this scene "is the greatest moral argument against the identity of the spot which it proposes to honor; stripped, indeed, of some of its most revolting features, yet still, considering the place, the time, and the intention of the professed miracle, probably the most offensive imposture to be found in the world."

But it will be asked, “Is it possible to identify the true Calvary?” I have little hesitation in answering the question in the affirmative. The two valleys of Hinnom and Kedron, to which we have previously referred, make it impossible that the cross could have been erected on the sides of the city embraced by them. To the north or north-east, therefore, we must turn. Our Lord” suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13: 2)—" And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name" (Matt. 27:32), and "In the place where He was crucified there was a garden" (John 19:40, and it was known as Golgotha, a place of a skull.

Just outside the Damascus Gate, and separated from the city walls by a rock-hewn trench, in which runs the road to Olivet, Bethany, and Jericho, is a rounded knoll, with a precipitous face towards the city. At the back of this, the ground slopes away, and within a stone's throw is a rock-hewn tomb of Herodian date, showing that the neighborhood was in the Lord's Day used for burial. From anywhere on this slope the women could have beheld “afar off," while the spot lies in full view of the city wall, where doubtless the high priests stood.

It was on a Sunday morning when I first lighted on this spot. I had gone out alone, hoping to find a place outside the city walls, the features of which agreed with the particulars supplied incidentally in the sacred narrative. Bending to the right from the great northern road, in a few moments I stood on the eminence just described. The scene and its associations were such as to make an indelible impression on the mind. Overhead stretched the cloudless Syrian sky; beneath the feet were the slabs that marked the resting places of Mohammedan dead, for the spot has been used from time immemorial for burial. Before the spectator lay the city, sloping downwards from the right, its many cupolas gleaming like marble in the blaze of light. A deep silence brooded over the spot; not a soul was in sight, save a solitary goat-herd accompanying his long-eared flock. Such was the scene, but what shall be said of its associations? In this very locality was enacted that most awful of crimes, the crucifixion of God's Son.

In this place many another had followed in his Master's steps. Here, according to tradition, Stephen was stoned and died the martyr's death, never surely so conscious as in death of his Master's presence. But it was no mere martyr's death that the Master died. As a martyr, truly, He suffered at the hands of sinners for righteousness sake; but there are sufferings which we cannot fathom, and into which the darkened heavens forbid us to intrude; He suffered at God's hands, as the sin-bearer for sin's sake. His sufferings forced from His righteous soul that awful cry of desolation and distress, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Why, indeed? Had not the One who uttered that cry been daily God's delight? (Prov. 8:30.) Was not this the One whom the Father from the opened heavens acclaimed as His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased? In truth it was! And never, surely, was He more pleasing to the Father than when He submitted Himself to His will, took the cup from His hand, and bowed His soul in death. Yet, "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him." He who was His Father's delight had taken for sinners the sin-bearer's place, and as such suffered in righteousness at the hands of God.

Can my reader answer, “Lord Jesus, it was for me; Lord Jesus, it was for me"?

It may be asked, what is the spiritual gain of standing on the site of the crucifixion? We answer in the words of the Rev. J. A. Wylie, " There is no spiritual gain whatever; you are no nearer the Divine Sufferer on the literal Calvary than you would be in the most distant and solitary isle of the ocean. Your imagination is awakened, no doubt, but the soul is not more edified. The four Evangelists are the true Calvary, for it is only by faith in what the Spirit has inspired them to write that you can come to Him, and feed upon Him. There is now no cross on this hill, and no tenant in yonder tomb. He who suffered on the one, and lay in the other, has passed into the heavens, and sitteth on the right hand of power. It is there that we must seek Him, and the way thither is as open to us from our own closets as it is from the summit of Calvary." J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands

WE steam out of the station in Alexandria, and soon find ourselves running between large earth- works on our left, and the huge lagoon of Lake Mareotis on the right. Ere long these, in turn, give way to a vast plain, which presents to our western gaze a panorama of surpassing interest. There are villages of red, sun-burnt brick, sheltered by waving date palms, and embowered in orange groves; canals, is which Arabs are performing their ablution preparatory to their mid-day prayer, and huge water buffaloes are wallowing, with only their black muzzles showing above the sluggish stream. There are dusty paths, along which strings of slow-moving camels march with shambling gait; donkeys bestridden now by white-turbaned men, and now by women close-veiled and pantalooned; men irrigating the fields, by raising water from the neighboring canal by means of a suspended pole, with a bucket and an equipoise at either end, just as they did in Pharaoh's days, or goading their oxen yoked to ploughs such as the Israelites might have used, and turning up the rich, red loam, to produce the second or third crop of the year; white ibises, the subject of idolatrous worship in other days, flitting across the fields, while big brown kites wheel and croak overhead—these and a thousand other sights which in a few days we shall pass unnoticed, now prove an irresistible attraction to our unaccustomed eyes, and make our journey to Cairo three hours of unremitting interest; and as we descend upon the platform we agree that it is worth all our journey to have seen these sights alone.

But if these sights interested us, what shall we say of Cairo itself, with its hundreds of minarets, its endless bazaars, its cosmopolitan inhabitants? Or how shall we describe the view from the citadel over the great city beneath our feet, away past the Nile and the pyramids, until the desert and the evening sky seem blended into one?

The day of our arrival at Cairo was one of the two great Moslem anniversaries when the dancing and howling dervishes perform in the great mosque of Mehemet Ali. Thither accordingly in the evening we repaired. At the door we secured, for a small fee, a pair of loose overshoes (for the place whereon we were about to tread was to the Moslem holy ground) and entered the mosque. The floor of the building was covered with rich Persian carpets, and in common with all mosques is entirely unseated.

The mosque was thronged with some thousands of swarthy men, clad in robes of every hue. For the most part the crowd seemed to be wandering aimlessly about, but it surged most densely round the rings where the respective dervishes performed. First came the dancing dervishes, clad in high conical caps, and long robes gathered at the waist, and descending to the ankles with many pleats. The dancers began with arms extended horizontally, the palm of one hand being held upwards and the other downwards, and as each began slowly to gyrate upon his axis, his dress gradually opened out, until, in the case of good dancers, the rapid pace caused the robes to assume an almost rigid appearance.

What can we say of the howlers, towards whom we next direct our steps? Truly, a weird, unwashed and unkempt crew they are, with wild, fanatical eyes, and pasty-looking cheeks, and long disheveled locks. But their part of the performance is about to commence. First the thrumming of a kind of native banjo is heard, and, keeping time with it, each dervish throws himself slowly forward, bowing to his knees, and as he does so utters a sound, half sigh, half groan, and then springs back again past the perpendicular, sending his long hair, which had fallen forward, flying wildly out behind.

Faster and faster grows the banjo's thrum, and faster and faster do the dervishes bow and groan, till at last poor suffering humanity can bear no more, and, steaming with sweat at every pore, several fall senseless into the ring.

The object of the ceremony seems now to be attained, for the exhausted howlers stop, and, half-supported by their friends, are led away.

These swarthy hosts have souls—souls that must live when this great dome above our heads has collapsed and disappeared, and yonder pyramids have crumbled into dust! How long shall Satan's power prevail? May He, who, when all was dark, didst say, “Let there be light," speak again to these dark souls, and light shall be.

The first thoughts of one who has just arrived at Cairo naturally turn to the Museum of Gezireh and the Pyramids. Our route at first lay through that portion of the town where many of the richer pashas and others seem to have taken up their abode, whose gardens made the air heavy with the scent of orange blossom. Ere long we reach the Nile, muddy and broad-flowing, and cross it on a modern bridge. At a certain hour each day a section of this bridge is raised, and it is a pretty sight, it you do not happen to be wanting to cross, to see the dahabeahs, which have congregated during the past twenty-four hours, coming swiftly upwards impelled by their enormous wing-like sails. Fortunately for us the bridge at the time of our visit was closed, so we crossed and soon found ourselves at the gate of the gardens in which the Gezireh Museum stands, and in which the treasures formerly at Boulak, are now stored. And treasures indeed they are, such as the world itself cannot elsewhere show. But being consumed by an overwhelming desire to get into the presence of the mighty dead, we go all too quickly past the statues of Rapert and Nefert, his wife, with their marvelous onyx eyes, which seem to follow you round the room; past the far-famed Wooden Man, which despite its many thousand years of age, stands instinct with life and movement, as if it were a being of yesterday; past monument after monument of those long dead dynasties, till at last we stand in the presence of the mighty dead themselves.

A strange feeling p assesses us as we advance and gaze into the nearest case. For this is Rameses— Rameses with whom Moses must often have spoken, the brother of her who drew the Deliverer from the Nile; Rameses together with whom Moses was doubtless indoctrinated in the mysteries of the priestly class at the University of On, for there was but a difference of five years in their respective ages; Rameses from whose face Moses was destined at a later day to fly, when he found that the fact that he had slain the Egyptian was known! And what manner of man was it from whom Moses so precipitately fled? A man with a high-arched aquiline nose, with a firm set mouth, and an imperious face framed with locks of scanty auburn hair; a man of no ordinary force of will. Yes, princes of provinces have quailed before that face, and myriads of subjects have bowed submissive to the scepter which those hands have swayed; and now, by the strange irony of fate, the tourist gazes unabashed upon his countenance, and the museum attendant takes the monarch out occasionally to dust!

But what of him who fled? While not one word that those lips of Rameses uttered in life has been preserved to us, Moses, though dead, yet speaks; his words are translated into a hundred tongues, and have penetrated to the inmost recesses of the earth! They differed in life, and not less diverse were they in death. Here, in this flat Egyptian land, they buried Pharaoh with mighty pomp, and his sculptured tomb remains almost intact today. Yonder, away in Moab, on Pisgah's lonely summit, Moses' spirit passed away, and the Lord Himself “buried him in a valley over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day." But his tomb, like Pharaoh's, is empty too, for Michael strove victoriously with Satan for his body (Jude 9), and he appeared glorified upon the holy mount with Elias, who did not die.

Close by the mummy-case of Rameses is that of Seti, his father—a man of somewhat noble countenance. The benignity of his face contrasts favorably with the austerity of his son. But he and others lack the interest attaching to the latter, for they can scarcely be called Bible characters, nor are their names, like that of Rameses, recorded in the Book. “They built," we read, "for Pharaoh Treasure cities" (i.e., cities for storing corn), " Pithom and Raamses." (Exod. 1:11)

Soon after passing Gezireh, the road to Gizeh trends to the right, and then runs straight to the Pyramids, a distance of several miles. It is skirted on either side by carob trees, which cast a pleasant shade, and which render the ride delightful Ai the extreme. The long straight road is preserved from monotony by much that interests the eye of anyone unaccustomed to the East. Vendors of sugar-cane and tangerines sit sleepily by their wares; camels, like moving haystacks, pass towards the city loaded with fresh-cut grass; a man with bent back, and a great black goatskin slung across his shoulders, by jerking' the skin with a semi-circular movement, and at the same time relaxing his hold upon the orifice at the neck, most effectively waters the road; white-clad Arabs ply their endless task of raising and emptying their buckets into the neighbouring sluices; a camel-corps of the Egyptian army passes with that peculiar bowing motion that camel riding engenders.

Occupied with these various sights, the long vista of carob trees grows less and less, and ends at last, and we dismount among a band of vociferating Arabs at the foot of the great Pyramid itself. J. F.

A Tour Through Bible Lands

STARTING from the railway station at Cairo, and leaving On on our right, we ere long reached Tagaziz. This modern town is of considerable importance, possessing a population of some fifty thousand polyglot inhabitants, who appear to be doing a thriving trade. Hard by are the remains of Bubastis, the Pi-beseth of the Hebrews once a magnificent city, and the seat of the worship of Hast, the cat-headed goddess of lust. But as in the case of Memphis, so of Bubastis, only a few mounds and scattered ruins remain to attest its former greatness; God has blown alike upon its magnificence and sensuality, for, as the prophet declared, “The young men of wen and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword; and these cities shall go into captivity." (Ezekiel 30:17.)

Soon after leaving Tagaziz, the country, which had been hitherto well-watered and prolific, lapsed into a waste of desert sand. Not that this was always so, for in Joseph's days this same land of Goshen was called by Pharaoh the "best of the land" (Gen. 47:6), but oppression and misrule have done their work, and the network of irrigation which must then have overspread the country has been allowed to silt up. Thus it has come to pass, as God had said, “I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers; I the Lord have spoken." (Ezekiel 30:12.)

The whirling sand, which penetrates everywhere, and lies as a thick deposit, even upon the railway carriage cushions, and fills eyes, and throat, and nostrils with its irritating particles, bears but too eloquent a testimony to the fact that the canals are dry, and the land waste.

The next place of Scriptural interest is Tel-el-Maskhutah, the scene—in 1883—of M. Naville's excavations, which conclusively established the identity of Pithom, or, as it is elsewhere called, Succoth (Ex. 1:2; 12:37). Here were brought to light the square stone chambers which the Israelites built for Pharaoh, and the bricks for which they were so troubled in gathering straw are still to be seen, with the straw remaining in them; nay, the accomplished lecturer on Egypt, the late Miss Amelia B. Edwards, declared that while the lower layers of brick contained straw, the middle layers contained sedge, and the highest were made without any binding material at all, thus strikingly witnessing to the Bible narrative.

Some thirty miles north of Pithom, on the borders of Lake Menzeleh, is situated 'Loan, now an insignificant fishing village called San, once the magnificent capital of the Hyksos kings, of whom Joseph's Pharaoh, Apapus, was probably the last. After the expulsion of the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, Zoan continued to be the seat of government, but Rameses IL, the king who "knew not Joseph," rebuilt the city by Israelitish labor, and called it Rameses. Here probably it was that Moses challenged Meneptah (the Pharaoh of the Exodus) to let God's people go, and on his refusal wrought "wonders on the field of Zoan "; and thence, finally, he started with Israel towards Succoth, on their wilderness journey to the Promised Land.

Pursuing our way from Pithom we soon reach the banks of Lake Timsah, and the modern village of Ismailia (pronounced Ismi-lee-a), the greenery of which is a pleasant contrast to the desert sands through which we have just passed. It has been called into existence by the canal, and is an illustration of what these same arid sands are capable of producing the moment that the fertilizing water reaches them.

When Israel dwelt in Goshen, these same sands were doubtless covered with one mass of verdure, and the main artery—the canal—was known as the Sweetwater Canal, along whose banks the line over which we have just passed for some distance lay, existed in their day, but it was reserved to M. de Lesseps to clear out and reopen this ancient source of fertility, and perhaps, under a settled English Government, the day is not far distant when the wilderness shall become a garden again.

Starting down Lake Timsah in a small steamer, we soon found ourselves in the Suez Canal itself, than which nothing can be more wearisome and monotonous. The sandy banks are sufficiently high to exclude all view, if view there be, from the deck of our little vessel, while a cold and biting wind whirled the sand in clouds, and sent us chilled and disconsolate into the crowded cabin below. We were not, therefore, sorry when lights twinkling in the distance—for the night had now set in—announced that we were nearing Port Said (pronounced Si-yid). The town is situated on a long and narrow spit of land, which is washed by the waters of Lake Menzeleh on the south, and by those of the Mediterranean on the north. The foundations of the town consist largely of the refuse dredged from the canal, and its inhabitants seem to be well suited to their environment, for they would appear to have been largely recruited from the refuse of mankind. However, we find on disembarking that we shall have to spend a night and day here, as the Austrian Lloyd steamer does not sail for Jaffa till five o'clock next afternoon. J. F.

The Two Bridges

TWO bridges spanned a dark gulley, at the bottom of which ran a deep black stream, which, from its extreme ugliness, had rightly gained the name of the "Devil's Trap." Two young mechanics were returning from their work one summer evening, and were obliged to cross this chasm by means of one of the two bridges. The younger of the two men was about to step on to the plank nearest him, when his older companion caught hold of his arm to retain him.

“Don’t go that way, Jem," he said. "My missus told me ‘twas to be knocked down soon, as it is rotting, and is not safe; that is the reason Squire Harris built this iron one."

Jem laughed, and shook his arm free of his companion's grasp.

“Nonsense! Smith and Bright crossed it a minute ago; besides I am tired, and it will cost me five or six more steps to go round to the other."

With this he stepped across and gained the middle of the wooden bridge, which, however, gave way under him with an awful crash, and in a moment, before his companion could speak, the dark water had sucked Jem under. Next day his body was found floating on the still water near the bank, some miles down the stream.

What did I tell such a gloomy story as that for? Well, dear reader, but that is just what many thousands of human souls are doing now, and I want to warn them.

"I am not a bit worse than my neighbors," you will probably say. “Very likely not; but God will not compare you with others," I reply.

When you try to cross the stream of death by not being "worse than your neighbor," you will find that rotten plank give way, and where will you be then? It is a terrible thing' to think of. Dear friend, I pray of you to step with faith on to the iron bridge, which is Christ, it will bear you over every grief and trial, and, at last, death itself will be spanned by it. I speak from experience, not as a mere idle talker; I know no one on earth could have helped me through what my Savior, Jesus, has. Moreover, I feel sure all sorrow that is to come in my life, will be sweetened by Christ. Do not delay, go to Jesus now, and He will receive you, as He did me, not long ago. M.

- - -

"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

“Blessed are they whose sins are forgiven."

"Justified freely by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."

Water From the Wells of Salvation

THE Old Testament promise is that with joy should the water from these wells be drawn. There are many gracious wells of salvation in the New Testament, the water of which requires to be drawn, for God's way is to enrich and to bless the diligent. If we do not read the Bible, we need not expect the joy of its living waters. There is a pleasure in labor, and laboring over the scripture is a joyful occupation.

Our hearts are gardens, which need the waters of these divine wells, if we would have them fruitful. The barren and unfruitful Christian is he who has omitted to add valor to his faith. We are exhorted to give all diligence to add to our faith, lest otherwise we find ourselves going back to a wilderness state.

Where Would Your Soul Be?

THE toil of the summer day was over at last, and Mr. T’s shop was closed for the night; at least, so he thought. But there was a ring at the bell; it was the mail-cart driver, who had come in for a little friendly chat. He had recently met with an accident while driving the cart; it had been overturned, and he had been thrown out over the hedge.

“If your neck had been broken, John, instead of your arm, where would your soul have gone?”

The arrow struck home. All that John could stammer out in reply was, “To hell, I am afraid."

Several months passed, and Mr. T. was away from home on one of his business tours, when, at a house at which he called, he was accosted by an elderly man, whom he recognized as John's father, who asked him to see his son, who was seriously ill.

Mr. T. looked at his watch, and said, “It is only ten minutes before my train starts." But the anxious father was importunate. “If you mean to see him at all, you must see him now, for I fear he has not long to live."

“Train or no train," thought Mr. T., “this is God's call." So he turned back.

“Mr. T., do you remember having spoken to John about his soul, when he was thrown out of the cart? That word has stuck to him."

Yes, the question, “Where would your soul have been?” had searched the inmost heart of the poor sufferer, who lay exhausted with pain upon his bed.

“You are nearing eternity, John," said Mr. T. " Are you ready to go-ready to enter into the presence of God?”

“I don't know. I can't make out at all," was the disconsolate reply. He knew not whether he was lost or saved, but said, “I should like to be sure, one way or the other." Confronted with the solemn realities of eternity, all was uncertainty and gloom.

“Have you never read 'God is love'?" “Yes," John answered, “I have."

"Have you not read too that 'God is light'?" “I think I have read that somewhere."

“But have you not faced the fact ' that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all '?" enquired Mr. T.

"No, I have not thought much about it," answered John wearily, “only I don't feel ready to die."

“Ah, John! I know too well where you are, for I am sure there have been sins in your case, as there were also in mine; sins, deeds of wickedness, which I had myself committed, and which made me feel that I dared not meet God. Has it not been so, John? "

“Yes, it has," was the sorrowful reply.

“And now you are entering into the presence of Him who dwelleth in the light, which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see. How can you bear to stand before the great white throne, when the books shall be opened, and the dead shall be judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works? Are you ready to die—are you saved, or are you lost? "

“Oh, I know! I know now! I am a lost soul. I am not saved. I never was." The poor sufferer trembled as he spoke. The Word of God, applied by the Spirit, had searched John through and through, and had laid bare his soul's most secret springs.

“You may think I am dealing hardly with you, John, at this your time of extreme weakness, in bringing before you such truths," said Mr. T. gently. “But this is God's way, His own blessed way of making you feel and know your need of a Savior. Now, concerning your lost condition, God would have you know the provision He has made. He has said, ' I have found a ransom,' and for whom—for the righteous or the sinner, for the saved or the: lost? "

“Oh, I know it is for the lost," he answered, “but I don't understand how." Taking the Bible, Mr. T. read from Lev. 1:4 these words, “And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." " Who said It shall be accepted for him,' John?" and then, handing him the book, Mr. T. showed him that it is the Lord who speaks, and enquired, if such being the case, the Israelite could rest satisfied.

John was sure he could, and for this reason, “Because God had said atonement was made for him."

Mr. T. then turned to the words, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"; also,” He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed," and asked, “Do you believe this?”

John believed, but he did not feel, and he hesitated. His friend pressed him earnestly to rest on the word of God—"With His stripes we are healed" and not to refuse the gracious word.

"No, I must not—I will not do that! I don't feel it, but I now take God at His word," exclaimed the young man earnestly.

“Well, John, ' let God be true, but every man a liar.' "

The end of this conversation was that John was enabled to say, “Yes I trust and I thank Him. I feel it too now. He has saved my soul! I know it now! Oh, I can praise Him! I can praise Him, for He has saved my soul!"

His testimony was bright, and his confession of his Savior clear and outspoken. He delighted to tell all who came near him what great things God had done for his soul.

And the same loving Savior, who was so gracious to poor John, waits to be gracious also to thee, poor anxious soul. Take courage, come to Him as John did, simply taking Him at His word. A. J.

Willie's Faith

I WAS staying with some relations 'in Lancashire, where were two little boys, Willie and Frank. One day I took out a coin from my pocket, and offered it to Frank, who is the elder of the two. He looked at it wistfully, and, though he wished to have it, said “No " to my offer.

So I offered the little gift to Willie, who took it at once, and was very happy, I assure you, to have the treasure.

Frank was very disappointed, but it was his own fault, for he had refused the offer. Perhaps he was shy. However, he had not sufficient confidence in me to take that which I held out to him.

There seemed quite a little parable in this incident, so I have written it down for the young readers of FAITHFUL WORDS. God is holding out to you a gift. Oh! such a gift! The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. How will you treat God? Do not say, as did a little girl to whom I was speaking one day, “No, not now," but close now with the gracious offer of God.

Tomorrow may be too late. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Now, this day, salvation is presented to you by God in His wonderful love. Receive the grace offered, and you shall be happy indeed.

H—e.

Word of Exhortation

WE trust that our Christian readers will be more days go on, in circulating the ever blessed truths of the gospel of God to man. The good news of God to man! Think over it. “Good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Yes, the Son of God has come to this earth, and a Savior He is for sinful men. Nothing man could do against Him could possibly stop the flowing river of His love. On, on it sped. Neither the shame nor the rejection, neither the cross nor His sufferings, could stay His love to sinners.

We, fellow Christians, are privileged to speak, to write, to distribute the words of love about Him. The angels who uttered the glorious words, " Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people," having delivered their message, went back to heaven with the accompanying heavenly host. God has not permitted even His holy angels to be the servants of His gospel, He has entrusted this work to His redeemed people. When our hearts are full of the good tidings of great joy we are hearty indeed in its service.

We feel the need of stirring one another up to renewed joyful effort. On very many hands we hear that gospel energy is not so vigorous as was once the case. Certainly, in a variety of quarters, there is not the heart for circulating gospel truth there formerly was. Also, there is a growing taste for papers and sermons, mottoes and cards, which, by neatly leaving out the very kernel of the truth, "do not wound susceptibilities"? Let us not go to war with empty scabbards, or weapons made expressly not to hurt anyone. Since our Lord bled and died, His pains and blood declare the depths of our sins, the need of atonement, and perfect salvation. Which shall it be with us, the fear of displeasing God, or of displeasing man? If we shrink from speaking the truth of the gospel, we shall displease God. To make light of Christ's atonement is to trifle with God and His Son, and with the Holy Spirit. Yet men will frequently refuse to announce the truths of the divine word, lest by so doing they should cause offence to their neighbors! And very frequently a result of this fear, or this pandering to the cheering, is that the offender joins the ranks of the foes to the truth.

The great fundamental realities of the gospel require to be announced on every side, and in the most forcible, as well as in the most loving way. Let us be up and doing the little while that remains for labor, for the night cometh when no man can work.

A Youth's Letter

TO THE YOUNG READERS OF "FAITHFUL WORDS."

DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS,— I was afraid once, as are many, that my companions would laugh at me, were I on the Lord's side, and they would say, " Johnny has got converted." Satan, too, tried hard to keep me back, by suggesting that I should have to go about with a solemn face, and say " good-bye " to happiness, if I became a Christian when a boy. But no one is truly happy until he knows Jesus as his Savior. Satan does not care what he says, so long as he can keep boys and girls away from Jesus.

Do not let him deceive you. I put off coming to Jesus many times, until I became afraid of putting off any longer. I heard Christians saying, “Jesus is coming again to take all who trust in Him away from the earth to heaven," and I trembled to think what would happen to me if I should be unsaved when He came. I dreaded lest I should perish, and be cast into hell.

One night I did come to Jesus. I was very anxious, afraid to go to sleep, dreading lest I should never have another chance. It was to me the moment of decision. My soul was at stake. Whom should I serve— the Lord or Satan? What should I choose—the world's enjoyments, the broad road which leadeth to destruction, or the narrow way that leadeth to life? Thank God, by His grace, I chose the latter. On my knees before Him, unable to say or do anything, utterly lost, I decided there and then for Christ. And He saved me. It was not my good works, feelings, or prayers—no, but Jesus only.

“Only trust Him, only trust Him,

And He will save you now."

The Lord says, "He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24.) He that believeth—not feeleth or doeth. How simple it is!

That night I heard and believed, and I had everlasting life. I passed from death unto life. Jesus is my Savior, “who loved me, and gave Himself for me.''

He not only saves, He keeps. Some, both young and old, think they are not able to keep their soul's salvation. No, certainly not; but Jesus can and does. He says, " I give unto them eternal life, neither shall anyone pluck them out of My hand." How safe we are!

I hope you will not be wearied by my long letter. May we all be gathered together, one day, around the throne of God in glory.

Your loving friend,

JOHNNIE.

Whiter Than Snow; Or, True Stories Of Love And Grace

Table of Contents

The Afghan Saint and His Son the Priest

Answered Prayers

Arise, for It Is Day!

The Arm of Moses

Athens

Beattie's New Boots

The Best Present I Have Had

The Bible in Many Lands

The Bible in Many Lands

The Bible in Many Lands

The Bible in Many Lands

The Bible in Many Lands

The Bread of Life

The Burning Mount, and the Broken Tables

Caring for the Lepers in India

A Chat With the Little Ones

Christian Experience

The Congo Mission

A Converted Infidel

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Echoes From the Mission Field

Everlasting Love

An Experience

A Few Personal Words

The Five Senses

Following

Forgiveness

The Fund for the Lepers

God Would Not Have Me Now!

A Great Sinner's Lament

Half-an-Inch Short

Hints to Young Workers for the Master

Hints to Young Workers for the Master: PERSISTENCY

Hints to Young Workers for the Master2-KNOWING WHAT WE TEACH

Hints to Young Workers: NATURALNESS

His Name

Honored Servants

How a Policeman Was Converted

How a Young Girl Was Brought to Christ

How the Good Shepherd Found Me

I Want Light

I Will Know Jesus

I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid

The Lepers in India

Lessons Learned in the School of God

Lessons Learned in the School of God: HOPE

Lessons Learned in the School of God: MEEKNESS AND PATIENCE

The Light of Life

Lina and Her Bible

Little Hilda's Faith in Prayer

The Lone Star Mission of Telugu

Looking Back Twenty-One Years

The Measurer

Mighty Fine Words

The Missing Pin

Missions in Jamaica

A Mother's Prayer

A Mother's Prayer

Mount Gerizim

Not Only so

On Catching Fish

Outside

Peace, Perfect Peace

Perfected for Ever

Pleasing the Lord in Little Things

Quite Satisfied

A Railway Servant's Story

Reformers

Reformers: JOHN HUSS .1.

Reformers: JOHN HUSS. 2.

The Rejected Life Boat

A Retrospect