streets, became a promising boy. On it was for a good object,” she added, re: leaving school he was apprenticed; he sub lenting a little. “The time was when I : sequently entered into business, and the would gladly have walked three miles to tu minister then lost sight of him.

a missionary meeting, but those days are EX Twenty years afterwards, that minister was past now for me, and I ought to be thank

walking in a street in one of the large cities ful that Jem isn't after anything worse.'' of America, when a tall gentleman tapped | And with this reflection Mrs. Rogers gat

him on the shoulder, and, looking into his down more quietly than before, and took B: face, said, “You don't remember me?” | up her work. But it is no very easy

"No," said the minister, “I don't." Said thing to sit still and sew, when the mind the gentleman, “Do you remember, twenty | is full of anxiety; and this Mrs. Rogers years ago, finding a little boy playing at found out. marbles round a pump? Do you remember “Suppose he' falls into the stone-pit!" that boy being too dirty to go to school, exclaimed she, after she had put in a few and your pumping for him, and speaking stitches with forced diligence; and with kindly to him, and taking him to school ?" this new fear, she got up, and went to the "Ob," said the minister, “I do remember.”' door for the twentieth time, calling loudly “Sir," said the gentleman, “I was that on “ Jem, Jem, my Jen;" but the echo boy. I rose in business, and became a from the neighbouring rocks, faintly releading man. I have attained a good peating the word, was her only answer. position in society; and, on seeing you to “Suppose I put the lamp in the window, day in the street, I felt bound to come instead of on the table,” thought she to to you, and tell you that it is to your kind herself ; “the night is so dark, he might ness, and wisdom, and Christian discretion very well miss the house." So the lamp

-to your having dealt with me lovingly, was placed in the window, and the poor gently, and kindly, at the same time that woman felt somewhat happier. you dealt with me aggressively—that I owe, Some time elapsed after this, when at under God, all that I have attained, and all length the mother's ear, sharpened by that I am at the present day.”- Rev. J. anxiety, detected a distant footstep. In

a few moments the door was pushed open, and a dirty, dripping form made its ap

pearance. What mattered rain or dirt ? THE LAMP IN THE DARK. Mrs. Rogers had got “her Jem " again,

and that was quite enough for her. FOR THE YOUNG.

Half an hour later, when Jem was dry It was a bleak, cold, winter's evening ; | and clean, and he and his mother were the clouds were dark and stormy, the wind seated at the supper-table, there was a blew loudly, and the rain pattered against / great deal to be talked over on both sides. the casement. On the hearth, inside a It appeared that Jem, owing to the darkpretty little cottage, a bright fire was blaz- | ness, had lost his way, and actually flouning; the kettle was steaming and hissing ; dered into the stone-pit that his mother so the cat was stretching herself on the warm

much dreaded. “And there I do believe I rug; curtains were drawn; the supper should have stayed, mother," said the boy, table was arranged ; all looked as though “if it hadn't been for your lamp. As soon some one was expected, whilst Mrs. Rogers, as ever I saw the glimmer, I guessed what the owner of the tidy little cottage, wan it was, and made straight for it; once out dered about from the door to the fire, and of the stone-pit, I had only to follow the from the fire back to the door, which she light. And, mother," added Jem, after a opened, regardless of the blast of rain and minute, “ may the lamp stay where it is Wind that came in, vainly peering out into | for to-night, in case there are any other the darkness to see if some one was not com

folks about the stone-pit?" "Surely, ing down the lonely lane that led to her child," said Mrs. Rogers; and she house. Whoever it might be that she was trimmed the lamp, that it might send looking for, certain it is that they did not out a still brighter light. come when they were expected, and Mrs. Jem sat thoughtfully in his chair after

ogers grew more and more uneasy. “Fool. supper. Mrs. Rogers saw something was ish boy that he was to go off such a night as passing through his mind; but she waited, this,” she muttered to herself; “lads are as her custom was, for the boy to begin. always so thoughtless. But then, to be sure, 1 “Mother,” said he at length, “ I heard to.

C. Ryle.

night, at the meeting, something about home to-night, and saw the lamp you had holding up a lamp to the people in the put in the window to light me home, I dark, but it wasn't such a lamp as we have could not help thinking of the gentleman's that the gentleman meant. He said that words. I thought of what the lamp was this world was a dark place, that God's to me for guiding me safe home, and what book was a lamp to show us the way we I owed to you for putting it there.” must go, and that no one can find the way “My dear Jem, I am glad that you to heaven without it.” “Yes, Jem,” said | think of such things. The heathen are Mrs. Rogers ; "the gentleman said quite | worse off, groping in the darkness of right; but did he tell you that just having ignorance, and misery, and sin, than you a Bible to look at would show any one the were when you lost yourself in the stoneright way?” “No, mother; he said that pit. Your body only was in danger, but the light must shine upon our path, and they are jeopardizing their souls.” that we must ask God to send his Spirit « Oh! mother,” said Jem, “let's do into our hearts, to apply what is written more than ever we did before to give in the Bible to them."

them the light. You know it says in “Yes, my boy ; don't forget that. The that little school hymnlight of God's blessed word is shining in

• The heathen perish; day by day this land of ours, but if it does not, by the

Thousands on thousands pass away.' blessing of God's Spirit, reach our own And dying without the light, how fearful hearts, we might as well have lived in a it must be! Let's try very hard, mother, dark country. You know the Apostle says of ' to find some new ways of helping them.” those who are true Christians, that God “Yes, dear boy, if it please God to spare who commanded the light to shine out of our lives, we will try and do more than darkness, hath shined in their hearts, to ever for his cause ; remembering that our give the light of the knowledge of the very utmost will be little enough-only glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' like dust on the balance, compared with And now, what else did the gentleman tell what our blessed Master did for us. You you about 'the lamp'?"

know what that was, Jem. You remember “He said, mother, that when we had the first text you ever learned out of the really got the light ourselves, the first Bible?” thing we should do should be to try and “Yes, mother,” said Jem. And he rehold it out to others. He reminded us of peated solemnly, “For ye know the grace the millions of heathen in the world, and l of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he asked us if we wouldn't do all that we was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, could to hold up the Gospel lamp to that ye, through his poverty, might be them. And then, mother, when I came rich.""

Gems from Golden Mines.

- NEVER CROSS A BRIDGE TILL I hoidos

bridge until you come to it. Perhaps YOU COME TO IT."

you never will have occasion to cross it ; “ NEVER cross a bridge until you come and if you do, you will find that a timid to it!” was the counsel usually given by a imagination has greatly overrated the toil patriarch in the ministry to troubled and to be undergone, or has underrated the over-careful Christians. Are you troubled power of that grace which can lighten the about the future? Do you see difficulties | Christian's every labour. In approaching rising in Alpine ranges along your path ? | the Notch of the White Mountains from Are you alarmed at the state of your busi one direction, the traveller finds himself in ness, and uncertainties banging over your the midst of conical hills, which seem to life-at the gloomy contingencies which surround him as he advances, and forbid fancy sketches and invests with a sort of further progress. He can see but a short life-like reality-at the woes which hang | distance along his winding road; it seems as over the cause of the Redeemer, or at any | if his journey must stop abruptly at the base other earthly evil? Do not cross the of the barriers. He begins to think of turning back his horse, to escape from hopeless en 1 is not in agreement with Webster, shall I closure among impassable barriers. But let | deny him a voice in the sanctuary? Be. him advance, and he finds that the road cause a man's speech is like a ship rolling curves around the frowning bill before him, and tossing in the wind, shall I say to him, and leads him into other and still other “Take in sails, draw into port, and cast straits, from which he finds escape simply anchor”? Shall I reject a man's efforts to by advancing. Every new discovery of a worship God because his manner is rude, passage around the obstructions of his and so not according to the prescribed path, teaches him to hope in the practi- | ideas of movements and methods ? And cability of his road. He cannot see far if a man is rhetorical when he speaks, ahead at any time; but a passage discovers shall I criticise him because, as is natural itself as he advances. He is neither re- ! to him, he uses well-balanced sentences, quired to turn back nor to scale the steep and rounds up his periods in the most sides of towering hills. His road winds polished style and when he prays, shall I along, preserving for miles almost an exact say, “Great praying! That prayer is an level. He finds that nothing is gained by oration to God. It is an oratorical dis. crossing the bridge before he comes to it. I course on subjects of sacred import”? If Such is often the journey of life. How his manner of speaking and praying be much of its toilsome ruggedness would be natural, either with education or without relieved by attention to the above admoni- it, it is his überty, not only, but your tion. Never cross a bridge until you come | riches; for the conception of the Church is to it. Or, to express the same counsel in a | that one man supplies another man's lack. form that does not involve the charge of a If one brother has a large heart and a Libernicism, “ Be careful for nothing ; but small head, and you have a large head and in everything, by prayer and supplication, a small heart, you and he are twins, and the with thanksgiving, let your requests bel church is rich by you two, as it is not hy made known unto God, and the peace of either of you alone. If one man has the God, which passeth all understanding,' | most profound veneration and almost no shall keep (garrison) your hearts and love, and another man has almost no veneminds through Jesus Christ.”

ration and the most audacious liberties of love, they are twins, and one carries the

lights while the other carries the shadows. RICH IN THE SUM OF ALL.

If one man has no use of words by which

to express his feelings, and another man If I could, I would never have a man has such power of language that when he pray who should not use good grammar, feels the words fly from his lips like flocks and who should not use words so that their of birds from a tree when one claps his sequences should be musical. If I could, I hands near by, those two men ought to would have no man pray who had not in stand together. A church is made rich by telligence that pierced the understanding the sum of the gifts of all its members. of every one that listened, who had not H. W. Beecher. just that flow of feeling which makes his thoughts move easily, like keels on unfrozen water, and who had not just enough

TRUST IN GOD. imagination to give high lights to all his | To trust God when our warehonses utteranees. I would do this if I could ; | and bags are full, and our tables spread, but since I cannot, shall I prescribe a form is no hard thing; but to trust him of prayer never to be broken through, and when our purses are empty, but a hand

all I bury out of sight that great truth of ful of meal and a cruse of oil left, and the New Testament, the severality of sepa all the ways of relief stopped, herein lies rate and distinctive gifts united in the | the wisdom of a Christian's grace. Yet charity of the whole body?

none are exempted from this duty; all are And because a man with a great frame bound to acknowledge their trust in him heart and mighty experience pours out the by the daily prayer for daily bread; eren

of his devotion before God in sentences those that have in their cupboards as well trol and tumble like porpoises in the as those that want it; the greatest prince Cleep, shall I exclude him from the prayer as well as the meanest beggar. Whatever meeting and the church ? Because a man your wants are, want not faith, and you

not studied Lindley Murray, because he cannot want supplies.-Charnock.

NOT MINE, BUT THINE.
Toy way, not mine, O Lord,

However dark it be,
O lead me by thine own right handi,

Choose out the path for me.
Smooth let it be, or rough,

It will be still the best ;
Winding or straight, it matters not,

It leads me to thy rest.
I dare not choose my lot,

I would not if I might;
But choose thou for me, O my God,

So I shall walk aright.

The kingdom that I seek

Is thine ; so let the way
That leads to it, O Lord, be thine,

Else I must surely stray.
Choose thou for me my friends,

My sickness or my health ;
Choose thou my joys and cares for me,

My poverty or wealth.
Not mine, not mine, the choice,

In things or great or small;
Be thou my Guide, my Guard, my

Strength,
My Wisdom, and my Ali.

Our Missions.

THE BENGALI SCRIPTURES.

receive into it the sacred thoughts which "I WOULD give a million pounds sterling, the gods had written in Sanscrit. if I had it, to see a Bengali Bible. O most Mr. Thomas, however, knew that the merciful God, what an inestimable blessing word of the Lord is pure—that it converts will it be to these millions! The angels of the soul-that it makes wise the simple ; heaven will look down upon it to fill their and so in the quietness of his cabin, as mouths with new praises and adorations. | he returned to India, he began to frame in Methinks all heaven and hell will be moved | Bengali the sentences of the record of at a Bible entering such a country as this." man's creation. Dr. Carey was not slow In this ardent language did the first mis- to improve on this first attempt, and sionary in Bengal, the Rev. J. Thomas, in while in the day he was busy attending January, 1796, pour out his desires to give the indigo vat, his evenings and nights God's own word to the heathen around were spent over the sayings of Moses, the him. If Dr. Carey's language is inore i prophets, and evangelists, giving them form calm it is not less decisive. “The transla- | in the tongue of the people around him. tion of the Scriptures I look upon as one It is very interesting now to recall the of the greatest desiderata in the world.” first steps of that career which has resulted

Feeble indeed would be the labour of in placing God's word in the hands of the modern missionaries, if not accompanied people of India. Thus, on the 21st by the Word of God. At his first entrance January, 1794, referring to the Munshi or on the work of a missionary, Dr. Carey | teacher that he had engaged, Carey saya, seized this idea, and his life was spent “We are determined to begin correcting in realising the effort to give to the many the translation of Genesis to-morrow." millions of Hindostan the oracles of Accordingly next day he simply says :heaven in their own manifold tongues. “Began the correction of Genesis. I find

His first attention was devoted to the a necessity of explaining many expressions.” Bengali, a language at the time of his How great must have been his pleasure as arrival in India scarcely used as a vehicle on the 27th he wrote :-"This day finished for the conveyance of knowledge. The the correction of the first chapter of proud Brahmin kept his sacred books to Genesis, which Munshi says is rendered himself, and only doled out their contents into very good Bengali. Just as we had in small portions, in a language that none finished it, a pundit and another man from could understand. The Sudra who dared Nuddea came to see me. I showed it to

en to the holy words was doomed to them, and the pundit (a learned man) cruel tortures, while the language of the seemed much pleased with the account common people was deemed too impure to ' of the Creation. And so he had the joy of finding that his first attempt was suc- ¡ in Bengali led to the appointment of Dr. cessful, that these learned Hindus could | Carey to the Professorship of the Bengali, understand the way in which God made i Sanscrit, and Mahratta languages in the the heavens and the earth, and all the College of Fort William, and thus to the hosts of them, so different from the acquisition of funds and the means of false and absurd tales of their own Shastras. translating the Scriptures into the above No wonder that he should at the end of languages, and into many other dialects 1795 say, “I find the translation of the of the land. From this time Dr. Carey Bible a delightful employ, and am occupied pressed forward in the gigantic task that in it every day," and apologise to his he believed Divine Providence had called friends for his scanty correspondence, so him to undertake; but it was not until absorbed was be in his noble work. And the last Monday in June, 1809, that he thus he went to Exodus, then to the finished the translation of the entire Bible Gospels, and so on, till in November, 1796, 1 in Bengali, and the last week in September he writes, “I have, through the good hand that the final sheet left the press. Thus of God upon me, now translated all the the wish of the missionary Thomas, thir. New Testament; the natives who can read teen years before, was accomplished, and and write understand it perfectly.”

the precious volume of divine revelation And now came the important matter of for the first time spread out before the printing it. Ten thousand copies, he said, eves of the idol-worshippers of Bengal. would cost the enormous sum of £4,400. Highly, however, as was this first version Could not the Society send him a press and spoken of by the scholars of Bengal, and types, and so let him pript it himself? intelligible as was its phraseology to the And thus began the press which, a fewears of the people, it was far from perfect. years after at Serampore, came to be the Dr. Carey did not think it was. He knew fountain of Indian literature, and the that no primary version in any language source whence has flowed that vast appa can be made which will not need revision, ratus for communicating knowledge to the especially in 90 uncultivated a tongue as Hindus which exists at the present time. was the vernacular of Bengal. He knew

And now the press and types and paper | that our own highly prized English version being obtained, let us hear of the compie was the fruit of eighty years' diligent study, tion of this important work. May 16th, the laborious product of many minds, and 1800, Mr. Ward writes :-"This week we continuous improvement. Every new have begun to print the first sheet of the edition, therefore, was carefully compared New Testament. We print three half with the original Greek or Hebrew, in sheets of 2,000 each in a week.” Nine which Dr. Carey was assisted by his months were thus busily occupied, and at eminent colleagues. Improvements, too, length the New Testament, perfected and followed in the idiomatic expression of the complete, was ready for circulation.

meaning, as increased familiarity with the What joy and grateful feelings must have language enabled them. filled the hearts of the missionaries ! Year after year the press poured forth “We have lately had,” writes Mr. Marsh | new editions. Dr. Yates followed Dr. man, “a meeting for returning thanks to Carey in amending the version, adding God for his goodness, in enabling us to | both to its elegance and its accuracy. finish the New Testament. Our Hindu Since, Dr. Yates's decease, the Rev. J. brother and sisters were present, and Wenger has continued the good work, until Krishna engaged in prayer. After prayer the Bengali version stands unrivalled for and praise at proper intervals, Brother its simplicity of expression, its intelligiCarey delivered an exhortation in Bengali bility among the people, and its usefulness and English, from Col. iii. 16: 'Let the among all the Christian churches. word of Christ dwell in you richly.'”. For several years the British and Foreign Thus appropriately was that great event Bible Society liberally assisted the transcelebrated. It was fitting that some lators in the printing their versions, till at Hindus should take part in the delightful length objections were raised by Pædoservice, and be united with their brethren | baptist missionaries to the translation of of another race, in offering thanksgiving to the Greek word for Baptism. This word God that to the Gentiles the light har | our missionary translators have invariably come.

translated by words signifying to immerse. The publication of the New Testament | They hold it to be their duty to give all