Ichild would lie for hours, contentedly gazing upon her mother's portrait. "But pale and wan she grew, and weakly, Bearing all her pains so meekly, That to them she s'ill grew dearer, As the trial hour drew nearer." you know me, darling? That hour came at last, and Glimpses of India. BY THE REV. MR. SHERIFF OF CALCUTTA. (Continued from page 35.) GODS AND GODDESSES. LMOST every loca lity has some presiding god or goddess. Nor does it matter much to the Hindoo whom he may thus deify. In the south of India an English officer has been made a village deity, cheroots being among the offerings made at his tomb. Nay, a missionary's young wife, who fell a victim to cholera, has had the strange fate to have flowers offered in worship at her low and lonely grave. HINDOO MOTHERS. There is another class in India, whose claims on our Christian sympathies cannot be entirely neglected, — I mean the women of India. From the commencement of their existence these are unfortunate. There is no joy over the birth of a girl Female infanticide was once extremely prevalent. From the annual reports of the deaths in Bombay, it appears that more girls than boys die of small-pox, the parents being unwilling to have them vaccinated. Hindooism condemns women to a state of total ignorance, and the reason assigned adds insult to injustice: It is maintained that woman is so essentially evil, that education would only afford her more ability to work mischief. Married when children, they are debarred from all choice in regard to the person to whom they are consigned for life. They must not eat with their lords-dare not pronounce even their names. They possess no means of employing time pleasantly and profitably, no books, no ornamental work, no benevolent labours. What a dull, weary, aimless life must they lead! And what preparation for eternity! As a natural consequence of their ignorance, the Hindoo women are more superstitious than the men. They are strongly attached to the worst rites and ceremonies of heathenism, feasts, processions, pilgrimages, &c. They are also fearfully passionate in temper. Demoniacal possession is held to be common among them. Suicide is also deplorably frequent. In Madras, in 1856, there were 624 women who thus rushed into the presence of God, and only 387 men. Lately I saw mention of a case wherein a mother was condemned for the number of her children, her motive being to spite her husband, with whom she had quarreled. NEED OF CRPHANAGES. Orphanages are greatly needed. The people are generally poor; often in a state of entire destitution. There is no poor-law in India, no provision for the support of by the dust of our martyred in connexion with the Scot dead which rests there. To the memory of those dearly beloved and deeply lamented servants of Jesus the most fitting monument is about to be erected-a church. Two missionaries of our Church-the Rev. Messrs. Patterson and Taylor-are now on their way to resume the evangelistic labours so hopefully commenced there May they be abundantly blessed in their work, and be the honoured instruments of turning many from darkness to light! tish Mission, is eminently fitted to arrest the attention of the natives, and to proclaim the contrast between Christianity and Hindooism Mohammedanism. In or that place Moslemn and heathen lust of blood was shewn by the ruthless murder of the Christian infant; and there Christian love is made manifest by the erection of a home for the friendless children of heathens and Mussulmans. Surely this is in accordance with the Divine injunction to overcome evil An orphanage in Sealcote, with good. An Apostle's Hymn. W HEN I survey the wondrous Cross, Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God; See from His head, His hands, His feet, Were the whole realm of nature mine, Demands my soul, my life, my all! Tales of the South Sea Islands. THE OCEAN GEMS. HESE islands may well be called such. They stud the ast of the South Pacific cers, each like a fairy den. A belt of coral f generally runs round are such as no scene in our own land can in the least degree equal. You would think you were moving through enchanted ground. THOSE WHO DWELL THERE. There are two great races in the western half, distinguished by black skin and crisp hair; the other race in the eastern half of the is lands, distinguished by copper skin and black glossy hair. Both are tall and powerful. Before missionaries reached them, tatooing was universal-the strangest aud wildest figures being cut upon the skin with a minute finish not excelled in rare works of art. Their disposition is generally frank and open; and with their rich soil and their abundant breadfruits, they lived wild free life, with neither toil nor care. h island at the distance in these islands-one race about a mile from shore, 1 against this belt the ves of the Pacific come ling in, often to the height many feet. Within the ming reef there are ooth and lovely basins. 1 this is under a sky very ach hotter than ours, but E the world of waters the eezes blow with refreshing olness. Up into the clear rrise great mountains, as many island crests, seen -sailors miles at sea. hen down their slopes the erdure spreads its green arpet, till you dip into the ch valleys thick with rowth and bloom. The impses that come upon e eye everywhere of noble rests-of silvery streams ouring through the deep ade-and of the blue sea tretching far out in its million-dimpled laughter VOL. I.-No. 5. BEFORE THE GOSPEL. a In these lovely islands, before the Gospel, there were the darkest spots of crime. Child-murder was the commonest horror. Idolatry had many shrines in the thick groves. There was but a poor dim notion of a Supreme Being. The spirits of ancestors, birds, insects, and wooden gods of the islanders' own making, were worshipped. They had long | and vain cries in the form freighted with its good cargo; and here, for the first time to those savage islanders, were the feet coming beautiful upon their mountains. A large house was given by the king for the missionary band to dwell in; presents were showered upon them; of prayers; and besides offer-round their palm-covered ing animals, and fruits, and home the strange dark manufactures on their altars throng yelled and danced in at ordinary times,-in times joy; and, leaving them thus of war, or the illness of their to their awful toil, the ship kings, or the building of a spread its sails and glided temple, human sacrifices away to touch at other were made, attended with shores. black and devilish rites. What a fair, Eden-like cluster of island homes! in their bosoms what dark places of horrid cruelty! THE FIRST MISSIONARY SHIP. It was called the Duff; and now it is nearly seventy years since it landed its missionary company of some twenty persons on the island of Otaheite, as Captain Cook had called it-famous in connexion with the tale of the mutiny of the Bounty. As the ship sailed within the coral bar, a whole fleet of canoes covered the water, giving it eager welcome. It had been sent out by the London Missionary Society, THE WONDER OF THE FORGE. Amongst other things, by and by, the missionaries set up a blacksmith's forge, and began to work at the anvil. The natives, who knew nothing of the uses of iron and the methods of working it, crowded to the smithy gazing in fear and wonder. The bellows roared, the sparks flew at the hammer stroke, the hot iron hissed when plunged into water, and the onlookers at last turned in their terror and fled. By and by they came to understand better, and then the marvels done at that forge so caught their fancy that they brought pre |