of them, although he had left their ranks some forty years ago; for he was youthful in spirit. The meeting was begun by one little fellow; and then another, in a neat little speech, proposed that I should take the chair; this was seconded by another, and so I was duly installed. Then a number of short speeches were delivered, all by Juveniles, and bearing on the subject of Missions or Sunday Schools, all very good, and very much to the point. I should like to tell you something about some of the speakers, as well as the speeches, in which I know you would be interested, but it would make my paper too long. The school-house was filled with people, and amongst them the parents and friends of those juvenile speakers, who were not a little gratified to see their children, and those in whom they took an interest, beginning so good a work whilst yet so young. And I have no doubt the heart of the minister will be cheered by seeing some of them becoming missionaries themselves. We remained together over two hours, and then all departed much pleased. school-house was very tastefully adorned with flags and flowers, and the children had collected over £20; and all this through your example. Go on, dear young friends; you cannot tell how much good you are doing. The a heathen teacher was once walking in the bush with chief named Iata, and, after proceeding a short distance, they came to three stones, a large one standing between two smaller ones. "What are these stones for?" inquired the teacher. The chief's reply was this: "That large one in the middle is my god, to whom I come to pray every morning, and the others are what I BEAT him with when he will not hear me !" What thoughts and feelings agitate the mind as we listen to the explanation of this heathen chief! See how much this statement includes! He left his home at early dawn; he came to this secluded spot; he came with a definite object in view; came every morning; came expecting his prayers to be heard; came determined to take no denial! Here we see the inborn longing of the soul after God, amidst the densest darkness of the mind. Man everywhere feels that he wants God. He needs God for his soul's life as much as a beast needs air, or a fish water. And what an example have we in this heathen chief of the distinguishing marks of an earnest worshipper! Only let each one who reads this paper take the same pains, guided by the Bible, in seeking the true God, which this heathen chief took in worshipping his stone, and he will assuredly be blessed. Did But, alas how dark was this man's mind! He came thus to a stone! Did he think that stone could hear? he think it could feel? It would almost seem as though he did think so, for he kept two other stones to beat it, to make it hear. Had my young reader seen that man thus worshipping and chastising his god, would he not have felt an irrepressible impulse to exclaim, "Man, that stone cannot hear you-cannot help you?" O, then, let this narration of the fact have the same effect, and induce you to exert your best energies to lead such dark minds into the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ! What will you do to save the heathen from their darkness, degradation, and ruin? Will you go and teach them? Will you get money to help to send them the Gospel? Will you pray for them? you can do all three. Perhaps Perhaps already the Holy Spirit has put the cry into your heart, "Lord, here am I; send me." If so, cherish the desire. Pray on! God will answer in due time. This best desire of your heart shall be realized. In the meanwhile, do all you can in other ways to help the Mission cause, and by no means let the continued ruin of the heathen be in any measure chargeable upon you. But I have another godbeating case to tell you of. Look at the picture at the head of this article. What is that man doing? He has a small stone before him, and he is beating it with a stick, That stone is his god. Its name is "the heart-softener." It is a little bit of common stone, somewhat of the shape and about the size of a large duck's egg. The man to whom it belonged, and who is represented as beating it, was a chief of Lifu (Léefoo), one of the Loyalty Islands. He was so cruel a man that he went by the name of " The Fierce Shark." He regarded this god as the saviour of himself and his family and people. In his estimation no other god, among all the gods of the South Sea Islanders, or of civilized nations, was equal in power and in goodness to this heart-softener-this little bit of stone; for by it he was delivered from every threatened evil! He never travelled without his god, and he sought its protection in every danger. If he went a journey by sea, and, when about to land, found the people whom he intended to visit in a hostile state of mind, he would wrap up his god in some scrapings of a plant of the pepper tribe, called Kava; he would place it in the path along which he expected the hostile people to come; there he would beat it and then pray to it! Immediately, the enemies' hearts would be softened, and the threatened evil averted! If he was desirous to obtain the favour of any people, to avert threatened war, to appease the wrath of those whom he offended, or to obtain any good, he had only to wrap up his god, beat it and pray to it, and the desire of his heart was obtained! No wonder, then, that the Christian teacher found it difficult to destroy this chief's confidence in this bit of stone, and to induce him to give it up. But he succeeded, through God's blessing; and now we have this god in England, this very bit of stone that had been beaten and prayed to so often; it is lying before me as I write, a proof how foolish man may become, and how the "Gospel is the power of God," to deliver men thus foolish and degraded. For there is reason to hope that the man who used first to beat and then to pray to that bit of stone is in heaven! There is reason to hope that he transferred his confidence from that stone to Jesus, and, two months after making the blessed exchange, took his flight from earth to heaven! What a motive and encouragement have we here for the exertion of our best energies to rescue the heathen! one who is not affected by sea-sickness it remains GY a perfect mystery how people, in the delightful weather we are now having, can be prostrated and rendered so utterly miserable as the specimens around us are. No previous experience of a similar character can for a moment help you to place yourself in the precise position of those who are now suffering. I remember in my first start for China what agonies I endured for a whole fortnight; how my whole existence seemed in some wonderful manner to have become tinged by the tortures I was suffering. Even the memories of bygone scenes, no matter |