of his memory: he was then in his third year. One time, soon after, he came out of the parlour, and said "Ellen, I have been thinking about that sermon of Doctor Barrow's, 'Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; we all do fade as a leaf.'" His remarks on this were very beautiful. Another time he said, "Ellen, I have been thinking about that hymn they sung at Bank-street chapel, in Warrington, 'And when like wandering sheep we stray'd,

He brought us to his fold again.'

We are those wandering sheep. The Lord sought us: didn't he?" He mentioned, likewise, a sermon he had heard about the wedding garment, and observed, 66 We should have on this wedding garment; for we know not how soon our Lord may come for us." On a Good-Friday, he heard a sermon which much affected him. When he returned home he said, "I have heard something to-day! I never before heard so much of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ." In the afternoon of the same day a friend inquired how he liked the Missionary Meeting; to whom, after a pause, he answered, "I am glad to hear that the Heathen are becoming very much enlightened." All these little sayings were uttered when he was under seven years. Samuel Okell died the 2d of July, 1828, in the parish of Stretton, near Warrington, aged nine years. M. B.

"I can't

"I CAN'T BEAR TO BE LAME," SAID a little girl who was thus afflicted : bear to be lame, and go hobbling about like nobody else. I wish I could walk like you, Julia."

"I wish you could, Ellen," replied her little companion; "but it is not good to say you can't bear to be lame, because God made you so."

"O, no, Julia! it was not God, but the nurse, when I was a baby."

"Well, that is different, to be sure," said the child; "but" (looking thoughtfully) "I don't think it is right to say so,—is it, cousin?"

"I think not, love," replied her cousin, who had overheard the conversation of the little girls. "Ellen means, I suppose, that she was not born lame, by saying that God did not make her lame : but you know that nothing can possibly happen to us without the permission of God; for he tells us, in his word, that 'the very hairs of our heads are all numbered,' and that even a little sparrow cannot fall to the ground' without his notice. Come hither, Ellen, and tell me if you ever read in the Bible of a little boy, who, like yourself, was made lame by his nurse? His father was the son of a King."

"O! I know," said Julia; "but I cannot recollect his name, it is such a curious one. His father was called Jonathan, Saul's son; and when the news came that they were both killed in battle, the nurse took up the little boy, to run away, and let him fall, and that made him lame."

"Yes; his name was Mephibosheth, and he was lame in both his feet all the rest of his life. But we hear nothing of his murmuring or complaining: he seems to have had a remarkably happy and contented disposition, and was very grateful to

good King David, who was so kind to him. Think of that little boy, my dear Ellen; and it will help you to be contented, and thankful that you are not, like him, lame on both feet.

"It is scarcely possible for us ever to be placed in circumstances so distressing, or to have any affliction so heavy, as not to be able to think of some persons who are worse off than ourselves. Remember, my dear child, that discontented people can never be happy; and pray to God to make you contented, that you may be a happy little lame girl." A. D. S.

TRANSLATIONS OF HINDOO TALES. *

No. I.

[OUR readers will perceive that many of the fables current amongst ourselves, are also popular in the East; and they will be interested to observe the variations occasioned by the differences of climate, of customs, and of the objects and animals most familiar in different countries: for instance, in the tale subjoined they will perceive the eastern version of the "Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf."]

THE BOY WHO GAVE A FALSE ALARM. IN a Brahman village, there was a BrahHe had a son. Taking his son with him, t

man.

* From the Yeppata Kathegurlu, published at Bangalore, 1815. ↑ The word we have translated "taking with him," means "taking behind him;" for in the East a father will not walk hard in hand with his little boy as in England, where people are Christians. There, the son must walk behind; and so must the wife also.

he went to a certain town. In the way the boy cried out, saying, "O Sir, a tiger!" Then the father having turned saw that there was no tiger, and quietly went on his way. As he was going along, a little farther on, a tiger really came, and seized the boy. Then he shouted out, A tiger has come." "As he did before, so now he is only making an idle noise," said the father in his mind, and walked forward without turning. Thus no one will trust the word of a liar.

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ON THE SWEET USES OF ADVERSITY. "Do you consider Mrs. W. to be a Christian?" said a pensive little inquirer. "Yes," replied the lady thus addressed; "I am confident that she is a truly devoted child of God: of this she shows indisputable evidence in her blameless and sincere conversation." "Why has she so many afflictions then? I can understand the reason that I suffer, that I am ill so frequently, because I know myself to be exceedingly sinful." "Do you remember," said her friend, "the miracle of the restoration of sight recorded in the ninth chapter of St. John's Gospel, wherein it is stated that the deprivation was not permitted because either the man or his parents had so particularly sinned; but that the works of God might be made manifest in him?"

How much ought we to sympathize with the mourners when we read that they are set for an example of enduring affliction with patience! "for us they suffer, and for us they die."

My young friend again asked, "But as Satan

and sin are the authors of all misery, how is it that God should permit them to be the instrument of good to his people?"

We do not know the mysterious origin of evil; but of this we are quite assured, that we should never have known Jehovah as the God of mercy, had not that attribute been manifested in the means by which he devised that his banished should not finally be expelled from him.

The manifestation of God in the flesh, Christ being made a curse for us, suffering unto death, is the mystery into which the angels desire to look, opening as the subject does to their apprehension more profoundly the manifold wisdom, the awful holiness, of Deity: a God of truth and without iniquity, a faithful Creator, a just God, and yet a Saviour.

It is by contrast that we learn to appreciate our blessings; it is from sickness that we value health; it is by acknowledging the justice of our condemnation that we receive the grace of our deliverance; it is frequently by means of toil and destitution that the comforts and conveniences of this life are realized and enjoyed; and it is our light affliction, which is but for a moment, which worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. We could not learn patience but by tribulation, or attain the full assurance of our hope without some test of our principles: in the loss of friends, those blessings brighten as they take their flight, as it is expedient for us that they go away; and although both trial and temptation afford facilities to sin, there is graciously promised to him who faithfully endures, a crown of life."

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H. F. E. A.