AN APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN GIRLS OF ENGLAND, ON BEHALF OF THE HEATHEN GIRLS OF INDIA. EAR girls, who live in happy England, you like to hear about the girls of poor benighted India, I am sure, SO now I am going to try and interest you in them. Do you know that for many, many years the women and girls in India were not allowed to learn the many good and useful things you learn when at school, or are being taught by some kind mother or governess; but they have been allowed to grow up in ignorance, not only of the true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, but also of reading, writing, working, and the many things that are so useful not only to grown-up people but also to little girls. Some years ago, the good missionary ladies who went out opened schools for girls, but they could get only the very poor, the children of Christian natives and orphans, whom, having no one to care for them, these ladies took and fed, clothed, and taught. But now in India many of the Native gentlemen are not only willing, but anxious, that their little girls should be taught to read, write, and work, and even to speak English, so that they may be like the little girls in England. So the missionaries in Madras thought they would open a school for these girls, and many came; so that they had to open another school, until now there are three schools for these little girls. About two years ago, a missionary and his wife went out to help in this good work, but soon after getting out there God called the missionary home to heaven. His wife felt very sad at losing him, but instead of giving up and returning to her friends, who would have comforted her, she resolved to stay in Madras and carry on the work for which she left her home and country, and there she is now. She teaches some of them English, and those who learn it call her "sister" when they wish her good bye after school. I have seen a letter from this lady to some young people, and I will copy some part of it for you. The first school Mrs. Whyte (for that is the lady's name) saw had 50 girls in it, who learn English and Tamil; also to cook curry, do housework, sew, and sing Christian hymns, and the first she heard them sing "But what will it be to be there!" In the three schools I told you of there are 280 girls, many of whose fathers are wealthy gentlemen. The rooms in which Mrs. W. teaches are very small and warm. This is what she says about her first "On our entrance the children rose, and, putting their right hands to their foreheads, graceful Eastern style, made alaam to their newly-arrived friends; there were 91 little girls from five to eleven years old some very dark, others very fair. All were dressed in snowy hanging down like a garland, the centre being filled with a large golden plate. They wore ornaments on their heads, ears, noses, necks, wrists, ankles, toes, and waists,—-all gold except those for the feet, which were silver. After these little girls had made salaam, two of them came forward and decorated our necks with beautiful flowers, and then presented us with a tray of fine native fruits; then they read, were examined about the childhood of Jesus, the story of Joseph, geography, &c., and sang one of their native Christian songs. I came away, thinking that to labour among such intelligent, well-behaved, magnificent children would be anything but a hardship." Mrs. W was not able to go months, and then again to the schools for some a she went to teach, not visit; but she found such a change: all the grandeur, gaiety and order were gone, and she saw them in their daily dress-dirty, ragged and un white or gaudy cloths, skirts tidy, noisy and unruly. But and jackets, the favoured colours being crimson, yellow, and green. On their heads most of then wore masses of flowers, though all this made her sad she resolved to do her best (God helping her) so to teach them that they may have a happy life here and a glorious immortality beyond. And so, dear children, she is now teaching these little ones, and they love her very much. They learn to work, read, &c., and sing "Happy Land" in Tamil. And now, I hope, you know a little more of Indian children, you will feel a great interest in them, read all you can, and do all you can for them, and, above all, daily pray that the Good Shepherd may make them lambs in His fold. M. S. D. A Golden Gift from a Lobing Heart. SOME OME time ago a Missionary meeting was held at a small town in England. At the close of the meeting a poor widow, one of the very poorest in the parish, went up to the minister and offered him a sovereign. The minister knew the deep poverty of her condition, and declined to receive it. He told her she should not think of giving so much; for he knew she could not afford it. The poor woman looked sad, and seemed greatly disappointed. "Oh, sir," she said, "I have often given copper to my Saviour, and two or three times I had the pleasure of giving silver; but it has been my earnest desire to have the great happiness of giving some gold to Jesus once before I die. I have long been engaged in saving every little mite that I could spare, that I might give this sovereign to Jesus to night. O, sir, you must take it for Jesus' sake! " Of course the minister could not resist such an appeal. He took the widow's gold, and that poor woman went to her humble home that night, feeling that she was one of the happiest persons in the town. "She had done what she could." She had given the best she had-a golden sovereign, the only one she had-to her Saviour. She had done it unto Jesus, and she felt perfectly happy in doing it. We ought to do all we can for Jesus, because of the pleasure it affords. SAD, indeed, it is to remember that while the flag of Britain is the symbol of freedom and Christianity, it also floats over terrible vice and immorality. The Anglo-Saxon seamen and the AngloSaxon merchants do not scruple, for the sake of their gratification. and gain, to practise upon the islanders villainies and criminalities which may not be written in these pages. Intoxicating drinks are imported in large quantities, not only for sale, but also as a means of paying for any little service which may be rendered by the natives. Thus, while the missionary is labouring and toiling to convert the people from heathenism, his own countrymen are practically seeking to counteract all his efforts, and are introducing forms of iniquity which will be even more destructive and almost as revolting as those practices from which the islanders are just emerging. And the effect of all this is, that the very men who are the means of producing these frightful evils are among the first and loudest to exclaim that "missions are failures." I HAPPY DEATHS IN SAMOA. BY DR. GEORGE TURNER. HAVE just been writing to the children of Hobart Town (who send us every year upwards of £50 worth of things for our institution) about two little boys, and I think you might like to hear about them too. They belonged to our institution at Malua here, and only a month ago were attending the classes quite well. Now they are dead. They died very suddenly. They were about fourteen years of age. The one called Moey (or Moe as we write it here) which means sleep, and the other was called George. We have twenty stone cottages in the institution, and in each of these we have four young men living who are students, and preparing to be Native ministers. In each of these cottages a little boy lives. He has a little sofa-bed in the corner of the front room, and he is taken care of and lives there. Moey and George were two of these twenty boys who lived under the care of the institution students, away from their parents and under our instruction. About three weeks ago we gave all the students holidays for twenty-five days, to go and see their friends and enjoy themselves-and away they all went. A few days after they left I saw a boat pulling in one morning, and was surprised to see some of the students in it. "" Why have you come back so |