they were somewhat related. In fact, in that little country a hundred years ago almost everybody was related to everybody else, either within or without the forty-third degree. My father used to tell me many characteristic anecdotes of Mr. Evans. One, quoted by Paxton Hood in his exquisite "Life of Christmas Evans," is taken from a sermon and is in the allegorical guise of John Bunyan:

"I seemed to be passing through a Welsh village and saw before me a beautiful house. The farmer had just come home with a load. His horses were fat and everything about him looked comfortable. He went in and sat down to dinner. Just as I came up a man stood knocking at the door. He looked friendly, so I said: "The master is at home and will not keep you waiting.'

"Some time afterward I was again on the road and passed the same house. There stood the same man knocking. Said I: "The man is probably busy, sir; better leave him tonight and come again tomorrow.' 'He is in danger and I must warn him,' was the reply, and again he knocked.

"In a short time I went that way again, and still the patient man knocked. 'Your perseverance is remarkable, sir. How long will you stop?'

"He wants for no good thing,' said I. 'He has flocks and herds, stock yards and barns.'

"Yes, for the Lord is kind to the unthankful and evil.' "And again he knocked, while I passed on my way wondering.

"Once more I was there. Cold weather, and sleet falling. A candle was shining and the light of a good fire, but there stood the man knocking, knocking.

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"Sir," said I, 'wait no longer at this hard man's door. Go over to that widow's house. She is poor and works for a living, but she will welcome you.'

"I know her well,' said he. "The Lord is a husband to the widow and father to the fatherless.'

""Then go to the blacksmith's. He works early and late and he and his wife will make you welcome.'

"I am not come to call the righeous, but sinners to repentance,' came the reply.

"Sir,' said I, ‘your patience is past comprehension.'

""The Lord is long suffering, full of compassion, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,' and again he knocked.

"Then the door opened and the man came out swearing, and with a cudgel smote the stranger and banged the door in his face. At which my Welsh blood boiled to think that the man should be so inhospitable. But the stranger put his hand upon my arm, saying, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'

"It was dark, the smithy closed, they were shutting the inn and I made haste to shelter. I learned at the inn of the farmer's churlish character and late as it was I went back to the patient stranger.

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'Sir, come away; he is not worth your trouble. He is a hard cruel man and has built his home upon iniquity.'

"With that he spread his bleeding hands and I saw the side that had been pierced, and behold, it was the Lord Jesus.

"Smite him, Lord,' said I, in indignation, 'and perhaps he will then hear thee.'

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""Of a truth he shall hear me when I say, 'Depart from me, thou worker of iniquity, into everlasting darkness.'

"I saw him no more. The rain fell and the wind blew and I went back to the inn.

"In the night came a knocking at my door. 'O Christmas, *bach,' said my landlord, 'get up, get up. You are wanted by a neighbor who is at the point of death.'

*Note-Bach is Welsh, corresponding to our word "dear."

"Away I hastened to the very house where I had seen the stranger knocking, but before I reached it I heard the cry, 'O Lord Jesus! Save me. Have mercy upon me. Yet a day,

an hour, for repentance!'

"His wife was wringing her hands and his children frightened out of their senses. 'O Christmas, bach, cry to God for me, he will hear you; he will not hear me.'

"I knelt to pray, but he was gone; it was too late."

THOMAS KELLY was born in 1769; son of chief Baron Kelly, of Dublin. He published some 700 hymns, of which the following is perhaps chief:

On the mountain's top appearing,
Lo! the sacred herald stands;
Welcome news to Zion bringing,
Zion long in hostile lands.

Mourning captive,

God himself shall lose thy bands.

The hymn is founded upon the seventh verse of the fiftysecond chapter of Isaiah:

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God Reigneth!"

In 1834 Justus H. Vinton and Calista Holman, of Connecticut, were married, and sailed for Burmah as missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary union.

The Karens are a people of Burmah, living in secluded villages in the mountainous districts. They early embraced Christianity and profess to have had ancestry in China who be

lieved the great general truths taught by the missionaries. They were persecuted and murdered by the brutal Burmese. The war between Great Britain and Burmah in 1852 was good news to the Karens, as they looked for relief through it. Mr. Vinton had spent some time with the Karens and was much endeared to them. He was now stationed at Maulmein. Karens came to Vinton for help, and it was the consensus of Dr. Kincaid and the other missionaries that Vinton should go, without waiting long months to hear from the Boston board. But his going over to the Karens caused an unfortunate breach between Mr. Vinton and the American board, and he cast himself wholly upon the hospitality of the people.

Imagine a group of those poor persecuted outcasts gathering in a bamboo hut while Mr. Vinton was actually crossing the mountains to them, praying and singing:

On the mountain's top appearing,

Lo! the sacred herald stands.

And then think of the terrible realization of its truth they would have as the second verse was sung:

Has thy night been long and mournful?
Have thy friends unfaithful proved?
Have thy foes been proud and scornful
By thy sighs and tears unmoved?

Cease thy mourning;

Zion still is well beloved.

And then the springing joy as, upon Mr. Vinton's appear

ance, they sang:

God, thy God, will now restore thee,

He himself appears thy friend,
All thy foes shall flee before thee,
Here their boast and triumph end.
Great deliverance,

Zion's king will surely send.

Famine came with the war, but Mr. Vinton's high character with the people, the American residents and the British government enabled him to get what he needed for his Karens; and his very word would put at his disposal a cargo of rice.

During the brief estrangement between Mr. Vinton and the board touching his going to Rangoon without instructions, Mrs. Vinton had a remarkable dream. She thought that she was standing by a great tree when men came to cut it down. They cut nearly through the trunk and then stepped back to see it fall, but it fell not, and one went up and cut it entirely through, when she seemed to hear a voice from above saying, "It cannot fall, for it is rooted in Heaven"-and looking up, she saw the branches going through the clouds. The work of Mr. and Mrs. Vinton among the Karens is one of the most remarkable records of missionary labor and success.

The triumph of the British arms relieved the Karens from their dreadful burdens and made the Christian religion respected by the Burmans; and Christians there today think of the Vintons as they sing

"On the mountain's top appearing!"

The great hymns written by Bishop Ken are universally known as the "Morning" and "Evening" hymns:

Awake, my soul, and with the sun,

Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.

And the Evening one:

Glory to thee, my God, this night
For all the blessings of the light.
Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings,
Beneath Thine own Almighty wings.