they managed to catch a young one, and brought it to the "rainmaker" with lively hope and shouts of triumph, when the impostor put on a look of deep sorrow, and cried out, as he gazed on the baboon, "My heart is rent in pieces: I am dumb with grief!" Then he pointed to the ear of the baboon, which had got a scratch, and to the tail, which had lost some hairs, and said, "Did I not tell you I could not make rain if | there was one hair wanting?" and thus he put them off with excuses from time to time, until probably at last the clouds gathered and rain came, for the bringing of which the knave managed to obtain all the credit. Of course these men were bitter foes to the missionaries, because when the people read their Bibles, received the truth, and believed in Jesus, they had no more faith in any of these pretended "rainmakers." A SOFT ANSWER. I HAVE a sweet, merry-hearted little friend of five summers, with a smile like the sunshine, and we call her by the pet name of "BIRDIE." Her little heart loves all things bright and pure, and many are the questions she asks about God and heaven. One day Birdie got vexed about something that didn't happen quite to suit her, and a young aunt of hers won her back to pleasantness by telling her how much better soft words sounded; and, to make her remember this, she taught her the text-"A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger." Little Birdie thought this a beautiful text, and so now, whenever she happens to get peevish, the words "A soft answer" are sure to win back smiles. So, you see, Birdie learned from the Bible, and it helped her to be good. She was governed by Bible rules. But my little friend wanted to help others, too. She was visiting a family who loved her very much, and who would rather hear her prattling tones than the sweetest song-bird they ever listened to. When one with whom she is an especial favourite spoke rather hastily, Birdie remembered her text. Clinging close to his side in her simple earnest way, she whispered, "A soft answer-a soft answer." The sweet little pleader's words could not be disregarded. Though a little one, her influence for good was powerful. A DARK PLACE FULL OF CRUELTY. AMONG the many islands in the Western Pacific there is a group called "Feejec," or "Figi," and there wo find just such a state of things as that set forth in this verse of the Bible-"The dark places of the carth are full of the habitations of cruelty." Among the people our Wesleyan friends have laboured, and God has greatly blessed their endeavours; but there is still a large amount of dreadful darkness and savagery showing itself in such war and bloodshed as that set forth in the picture. A short time since, we had a sad account of the dreadful doings of some of these benighted and savage heathen, showing how eager we ought to be to scatter the light of God's truth among all such people, and thus let all of them hear of Jesus Christ, the "Light of the World." The good missionary says in his letter, "The people around us here are all engaged in fighting, or preparing for it. One of the two chiefs who are making this war attacked a town where many Christians lived, and, being unsuccessful, they seemed to go away, but only hid themselves until some of the people came outside the little fortifications, and then they rushed upon them, and at once killed five of them. One of them was a catechist, another a Sunday school teacher, and the other three were Christians. All five of them were cooked and eaten, the body of the catechist being kept specially for the chief, as he had said he very much wished to taste a teacher's body!" Thus we see that war, murder, cannibalism, and many other crimes, still prevail in Figi. A short time ago, when a chief was shot in a quarrel, they strangled his mother and two of his wives, and buried them with him! In another town a woman was taken ill, and as her friends soon became tired of attending to her, they proposed to bury her alive! They prepared to do it; but one of their number said it would be better to give her some poison. To this they all agreed; so they prepared the poison, made her drink it, and then buried her! Oh, how much they need the Gospel of Christ! Only think what a blessed change would take place if they were able to hear, and were brought to obey, this blessed counsel given by the Apostle Paul, "Be ye kind one to another, and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." All that they need is THE GOSPEL; that is "the power of God unto salvation," and when it is taken even to such degraded savages as these, it works so mightily by the power of the Spirit of God that we can soon say— "Lions and beasts of savage name Put on the nature of the lamb." E have some very intelligent men on board. One of these especially, though still comparatively young, has gained an experience that rarely falls to the lot of much older men. Having sufficient means, he has travelled much in various parts of the world. An irresistible mania for travelling has caused him for a great many years of his life to travel into the most unexplored regions of the world, more especially into the interior of South America, glowing descriptions of which country he gives with the greatest possible enthusiasm. Being a very intelligent and educated man, he has looked upon the scenes through which he has passed, not in the light in which the ordinary tourist rushes through his six weeks' tour, but rather with the feeling with which any thoughtful mind would be affected on coming in contact with the grand and the sublime in nature, wherever exhibited. It was lamentable to think that, notwithstanding all his admiration for the magnificent scenes through which he had travelled, his thoughts had never risen higher, or desired to understand Him at whose word all these things were called into existence ! We have a larger proportion of young men than one would have expected to find. The great majority of these are going out for the first time, to be engaged in various pursuits in the mercantile or military departments; but all with the special object of gaining a competency, and then returning to spend the remainder of their days in their native land. How bright the future appears now, and how confident of success are they, as each one pictures to himself the scenes which his imagination assists him to conjure up! What a blessing it is for man that God has refused to reveal to us all the minute details of our life! If these young people could but foresee what, possibly, they may yet have to experience-the long, weary, hot months of an Eastern summer; or, perhaps, enfeebled by the diseases incident to the countries whither they are journeying, compelled to return to their native land, with their hopes, for the present at least, frustrated, the picture would be too dark to look upon, and the prospect, instead of being tinged with golden hues, would be so black that hardly a ray of light would brighten the scene. As we steam down the Channel the weather becomes almost every hour more beautiful and settled. The great thick clouds, which seemed like immense banks away on the distant horizon, begin gradually to disperse, and, with a bright and almost unclouded sky overhead, we proceed swiftly on our course, with every indication of fine weather before us. A WELCOME SIGHT. The first object of interest that attracts our attention is the Island of Ushant, lying off the French coast, and upon the very outskirts of the famous Bay of Biscay. Occupying a kind of middle position between that and the English Channel, it seems like some great sentinel pointing to the inhospitable region beyond, presenting the last sunny spot upon which the eye can rest before entering upon |