corn to him as he wanted them. Old Longtooth knew what he was about in the proposal, for he had heard of a brisk Scotch terrier that was about to be brought to keep the rats from the grain; but you may be sure he kept his knowledge to himself, so that Featherhead was none the wiser for it. "The nonsense of fellows like Tip Chipmunk!" said Featherhead to his admiring brothers and sisters. "The perfectly stupid nonsense! There he goes, delving and poking, picking up a nut here and a grain there, when I step into property at once."

But I hope, my son, you are careful to to be honest in your dealings," said old Nutcracker, who was a very moral squirrel.

With that, young Featherhead threw his tail saucily over one shoulder, winked knowingly at his brothers, and said, "Certainly, sir. If honesty consists in getting what you can while it is going, I mean to be honest."

Very soon Featherhead appeared to his admiring companions in the height of prosperity. He had a splendid hole in the midst of a heap of chestnuts, and he literally seemed to be rolling in wealth; he never came home without showering lavish gifts on his mother and sisters; he wore his tail over his back with a buckish air, and patronized Tip Chipmunk with a gracious nod whenever he met him, and thought that the world was going well with him.

But one luckless day, as Featherhead was lolling in his hole, up came two boys with the friskest, wiriest terrier you ever saw. His eyes blazed like torches, and poor Featherhead's heart died within him as he heard the boys say, "Now we'll see if we can't catch the rascal that eats our grain."

Featherhead tried to slink out at the hole he had gnawed to come in by, but found it stopped.

"Oh! you are there, are you, Mister?" said the boy. "Well, you don't get out; and now for a chase! And, sure enough, poor Featherhead ran distracted with terror up and down,

through the bundles of hay, betw barrels, and over casks; but with barking terrier ever at his heels, s the boys running, shouting, and che ing his pursuer on. He was glad last to escape through a crack, thou he left half of his fine bush behi him for Master Wasp (the tem made a snap at it just as he was gu and cleaned all the hair off of it. that it was bare as a rat's tail.

Poor Featherhead limped off, brui beaten, and bedraggled, with the h and dog still after him; and they wo have caught him after all, if Tip C munk's hole had not stood hospita open to receive him. Tip took him like a good-natured fellow as he w and took the best care of him, but t glory of Featherhead's tail had depar for ever. He had sprained his left p and got a chronic rheumatism, and fright and fatigue which he had go through had broken up his constitutio so that he never again could be wh he had been; but Tip gave him a s uation as under clerk in his establi ment, and from that time he was sadder and a wiser squirrel than had ever been before.

THE WIDOW AND HER TW
DAUGHTERS.

To a quaint old-fashioned homeste
With its ivied towers,
Came a lady in the spring-time,

Came when April's sudden show Ran down rainbows into flowers; And she said, "I will not murmur

God's will must be done!

So I've brought my two twin daughte And come here to feel the sun!" Living in that quiet hamlet

Through three chequer'd years, She was known in every cottage,

And the poor tell in their tears How her presence made them happ And her words dispell'd their tea When she said, "I will not murmu God's will must be done! Take my alms, and ask His blessin And go out and feel the sun."

e a widow met her walking Near the church-yard stile, th a brow as free from sadness As her heart was free from guile; d she whisper'd, as she join'd her, Lady, teach me how to smile: ' she answer'd, "Honest neighbour, God's will must be done! whene'er thy heart is drooping, Then come out and feel the sun. For I tell thee I have troubles: More than once," she saith, Have I seen the face of anguish, Heard the quick and catching breath; Tes, three pictures in my parlour Are now sanctified by death. [et" she said, I will not murmur, God's will must be done! But I take my two twin daughters, And go out and feel the sun." In the rain two graves are greening, Greening day by day;

And young children, when they near them.

Playing, cease to play;

ase their smiles and sunny glances, And in silence steal away. fet she says, “I will not murmur; God's will must be done! But I love the dreaming starlight, Better than the alter'd sun." Never weeps she now they've left her, Weeps not in her grief; And she talks of shining angels, With a mild uncheck'd belief. When all earthly hopes have fail'd us, Hopes of heaven still bring relief; And she says, "I will not murmur; God's will must be done! And though I am left in darkness, They are somewhere in the sun.'

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DRESS.

FOR THE YOUNG.

· MAMMA, can't I leave Miss Graves's Rol

Why, Ellen, you surprise me! Miss aves was, in your opinion, the very Lodest and best teacher in the world, st three days ago. Has she, indeed,

changed so soon? or does the fault lie with my variable little daughter ?"

"Mamma, it isn't I this time; it is she that has certainly changed; for I asked her to please let me take another seat this morning, and she wouldn't do it; and then, about a half an hour afterwards, she told me to take another, but not the one I wanted; it is the lowest one in the room, and I sit quite alone-and, please mamma, don't make me go to-morrow."

And Ellen gave vent to a passionate burst of tears. Mrs. Maylin felt grieved to see her little daughter so excited, and was quite sure that Ellen had not told all.

"My child, why did you want another seat ?"

"A new scholar came to-day, mamma, and Miss Graves put her by me, because Fannie Minton was away; but I didn't know her, and I didn't think that she looked like a very agreeable girl, and I didn't want to sit by her, so I asked for another seat."

'Why did she not look like an agreeable girl? did she act unkindly towards you?"

"No, she didn't do anything unkind to me, and I didn't do anything to her; but after a little while she began to cry. I don't know how Miss Graves knew it, for she didn't make a sound; but I saw a tear drop on her book when I turned round to get my pencil, and I asked what was the matter, but her tears fell faster, and then Miss Graves told me to take the other seat." "What do you think made her cry, Ellen ?"

"I don't know, mamma; but perhaps it was because I sat with my back to her; but I don't know her, and I don't think that she ought to have felt hurt at that."

Yet there was something in Ellen's tone that belied her words, something that told of a consciousness that the utter absence of kind feeling towards the new scholar had manifested itself quite sufficiently to wound the heart of a stranger. Mrs. Maylin asked another question

Ellen looked up quickly to see her mother's meaning, and as quickly dropped her eyes.

She had a dark calico on, mamma, and it is such a warm day! I think her mother must be a very poor woman."

"Did the dress make her look disagreeable, Ellen ?"

Ellen burst into tears again. "Indeed, indeed, mamma, I didn't think that it did; but I do believe now that it was that."

"Did you hear the new scholar's name, Ellen?

"Jeannie Bailey," sobbed Ellen; and Mrs. Maylin's eyes now filled with tears.

Mrs. Bailey was a dear friend of mine ten years ago, when you and Jeannie were very little children. We moved away from the city at that time, and very soon after Mr. Bailey died, leaving only a good name for his widow's portion and his child's inheritance. Mrs. Bailey opened a small school, and struggled along until a few weeks ago; when having an offer of a more lucrative situation, though of a different kind, she felt it a duty to accept it, much as she grieved giving up Jeannie's education to another. But at intervals, for three or four years past, I have been to the city, have visited Mrs. Bailey, and have seen her daughter, and Jeannie has always had on a far more beautiful and costly dress than any in my Ellen's wardrobe. Are you sure that it was only a dark calico which she had on? I saw a dress on her several times, which, had it been woven of every colour in the rainbow, would not have been so beautiful; and her mother assured me that Jeannie had been in the daily habit of wearing one of that material ever since she was eight years old."

Ellen looked up in surprise and little puzzled, yet her mother's mear ing soon dawned upon her.

66

Mamma, you mean that Jeannie a Christian; that she has put on th Lord Jesus Christ' as a garment, a you explained to me last week, whe the day came to read the 13th chapte of Romans. O, mamma "--and Elle wept bitterly now "I have grieve one of Christ's little ones! Will Go ever forgive me?"

"Yes, my child, your sin is grea but Jesus is a great Saviour, and f his sake God will pardon you this an all your sins, if you only believe. H is able and willing; he will give you true repentance, and full, free pardos O, my Ellen, that you may put on th robe of Christ's love and righteousnes -so costly that only His preciou blood could purchase it -is you mother's earnest prayer!"

The next morning Ellen went cheer fully, nay, eagerly, to school, and begge permission to resume her seat by Jean nie, which, Miss Graves, observing th change in her manner, gladly granted And ere the morning hours passed Ellen won the confidence and love the gentle girl; and sweet and pre cious lessons they were that Jeann taught to Ellen in their daily inter

course.

Dear children, learn from this litt story never to despise or treat_ur kindly the poor. The blessed Lo Jesus himself, when on earth, was p -so poor that he said of himsel "Foxes have holes, and the birds the air have nests, but the Son of Ma hath not where to lay his head." This not that we can despise the poor with out thrusting an insult at the blesse Jesus, to whom all are equally preciou --so precious that he died to say them.

THE CHURCH A WONDER.

THE existence of the Church in this fitted world is one of the wonders of Prudence. It is a vessel living in a tempestuous sea-a bush on fire, but not ensumed. If we reflect on the emity of the wicked against the right their great superiority over then the attempts that have been

de to exterminate them-the fregut diminution of their numbers by detection and death-their existence, and especially their increase, must be wonderful, and can no otherwise be accounted for but that Christ liveth.

When they were few in number, and wandered as strangers from one tation to another, he suffered no man burt them. He reproved kings for ir sakes, saying, 66 Touch not mine nointed, and do my prophets no arm." In Egypt he saw their afflicton, and came down to deliver them. Jerusalem the enemy said, “Raze, it to the foundation;" but the Ld remembered it, and destroyed its

Under the Persian doim the captives were restored to rown land; yet even then the my intrigued against them, so that for one-and-twenty years the ding of the Temple was hindered, the prayers of the Prophet Daniel unanswered. Thus it was, I cone, that "the Prince of the kingof Persia withstood the angel for -and-twenty days; but lo, Michael, the chief prince, stood with him, and Aped him."

Under the Gospel dispensation, as The Church became more spiritual, the red increased; and as religion was hence more of a personal than a enal concern, such was the opposidirected against it. But still the Great Head of the Church lived. The persecution which raged at the time of which we speak was the second of the ruel persecutions from the heathen

Emperors; and though after this the Government became professedly Christian, yet such were the corruptions which entered in at this door, that in a little time that which was called the Christian Church became an antiChristian harlot, persecuting the servants of Jesus with a cruelty equal if not superior to that of heathens. These floods filled the breadth of Emmanuel's land, reaching even to the neck; but the Church being above water, she has survived them all.Andrew Fuller.

"LET HIM THAT HEARETH SAY, COME."

THOUGH to ministers of the Gospel belongs the high pre-eminence of being "fellow-labourers with God," yet such honours are not reserved exclusively for the pulpit. The youth, who, finding Sabbath rest in Christian labours, holds his Sabbath class; the mother, with her children grouped around her, and the Bible resting on her knee; the friend who deals faithfully with another's soul; any man who kindly takes a poor sinner by the hand, and, seeking to conduct him to the Saviour, says, "Come with us, and we will do thee good," these, not less than ministers of the Gospel, are "fellowlabourers with God." Where sinners are perishing, where opportunity offers, where a door is open, where the rule, 'Let all things be done decently and in order," is not violated-call it preaching, if you choose, but in God's name let hearers preach. Has God gifted any with power to speak for Christ? Then, with such high interests at stake, from forms which churches, not their Head -man, not God-has established, we "Loose him, and let him go. Let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come; and whe

say,

soever will, let him take the water of life freely.'

During a heavy storm off the coast of Spain, a dismasted merchantman was observed by a British frigate drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass were on her, and a canvas shelter on deck suggested the idea that there might yet be life on board. The order instantly sounds to put the ship about, and presently a boat puts off to the wreck. They reach it, they shout, and now a strange object rolls out of that canvas screen against the lee shroud of a broken mast. Handed into the boat, it proves to be the body of a man, bent head and knees together, and so light that a mere boy lifted it on board. It is laid on deck; in horror and pity the

crew gather about it-it shows signso life-they draw nearer-it moves, an then mutters in a deep, sepulchra voice, "There is another man!" Saver himself, the first use the saved one made of speech was to save another Oh, learn that blessed lesson. Be daily practising it. And so long as our homes, among our friends, in thi wreck of a world that is drifting dow to ruin, there lives an unconverted one there is "another man." Let us go t that man and plead for Christ; and to Christ, and plead for that man; cry, "Lord, save me, I perish," being changed into one as welcome to the Saviour's ear, "Lord, save them, they perish."-Dr. Guthrie.

THE MISSIONARY YEAR.

The Annual Report of the Baptist Missionary Society, just presented at its annual meetings, contains some very interestings facts as to the latest results of the Society's operations. It appears that it contains not fewer than sixty-two missionaries and two hundred and thirteen native pastors and preachers. These servants of Christ labour in India, China, Ceylon, various islands of the West Indies, on the West Coast of Africa, and in Brittany and Norway. As might be supposed, the larger portion of them are in India, where the work absorbs not less than orty of the missionaries, and one hundred and forty-eight of the native preachers. This numerous staff occupies about two hundred and ninety stations, at which one hundred and sixty-two chapels have been built. Some of these structures are large and commodious edifices; others are small, being built of more humble materials,

uited to the small infant congrega

tion that gather in them from among the heathen. The actual number of persons in church fellowship exceeds six thousand three hundred. But this by no means conveys an idea of the number under Christian instruc tion. In every country, in addition to the actual communicants at the Lord's table, there is always a body of peopl that regularly seeks the ministry of the word, a portion consisting of the families and friends of members; others are inquirers, candidates for baptism, or persons who from various causes do not connect themselves more closely with the Church. The missionaries, it would appear, have more than seventeen thousand such adherents, who, as in India, have broken caste, and have placed themselves under the missionary's care; or as in parts of the West Indies, have become regular attendants at the House of God. Over six thousand of these individuals are connected with the stations in India alone, so that the actual Christian community there, gathered