"But are they not rich?" asked the chief. 66 Yes, rich rich." 66 you promised to give me sixpence a ; some of them very week for learning the Catechism, and I want it now! I have been pulling "Do they know about these good you, and pushing, and shaking you, things you tell us of?" "Sad as the evil is, there is no avoiding it. You must return at once. The burden is too great for the Church to sustain. One of the richest men in the neighbourhood gives only SIXPENCE A-WEEK!" Mr S- heard a confused, indistinct noise, apparently at a distance. By degrees it grew louder, and louder, and louder. There was thundering, there was shrieking, there was cursing, there was the sound of the tramp of innumerable feet-louder, nearer, and more dreadful. But Mr S- saw nothing. All was dark as Egypt. A flash of lightning, followed by a clap of thunder, showed for an instant a vast crowd, and then the cry was heard, "We are lost! lost! lost! to wake you up, this good while!" Mr S started up, rubbed his eyes, and looking round him in surprise, he saw his rosy-cheeked boy standing before him repeating his demand. 66 "Not now, my dear," said Mr S―; "go back to your mother, and I will be with you in a few moments. Leave me now, my boy." The child obeyed, and Mr S was once more alone. Was it all a dream? He paced the room in silence. A new light opened upon him. His income was large. He was about to give to God sixpence-a week, the same paltry sum he paid his little child for learning the Catechism. Mr S thought of his dream. He knelt down and prayed. He rose from his knees and changed his resolution. What he actually did give, I do not know; but from the large amount which afterwards poured into the missionary treasury from that place, he must have given more than SIXPENCE A-WEEK.-American. Price 6d. per doz. or 3s. 6d. per 100; 20 copies sent free by post for 10d., paid in advance. Published by GALL & INGLIS, 6 George Street, Edinburgh. HOULSTON & WRIGHT, London. gigantic trees. You might envy the dwellers in such a place, where nature puts on her richest colours, and all is bright and gorgeous. But your admiration would soon be checked as you went on, and came to the body of some dear little child, left by its unnatural mother on the river's brink to be devoured by the birds or beasts of prey. Many such scenes are to be witnessed on the Ganges. The old, the infirm, and the sick, too, as well as infants, are often brought there and left to die. No tender relative is beside them to wipe the death-damp from their brow, to moisten the parched lips, or to whisper words of love to the departing one; none to speak of a better land, and of Jesus who will conduct their spirit across the river of death; no, they must die alone, without friends, without hope, and without a Saviour! In some parts of the Ganges, corpses are to be seen lying half-devoured by the vultures and jackals. Thus it is ever in heathen lands; however fair may be the scene, lovely as Paradise, yet the deep, dark shadow of sin that lies there prevents you from enjoying its beauty. There is always something to make you shudder, even in the loveliest scenes, where "all save the spirit of man is divine." Listen to the account which a missionary in India gives of a voyage he made up the Ganges : "As we slowly struggled up the sacred stream, we passed hundreds of native villages, many Hindoo temples, with their peculiar style of architecture, and ghats, with noble flights of stairs leading down to the water's edge, and thronged with men and women going to and returning from their pious ablutions and worship of the Ganges. "At one of these ghats we landed, and saw some of the dying beds of those who had been brought from the villages around to breathe out their life in the waters of the holy river. All along the banks also were vestiges of recent fires, where the dead had been burned before their ashes and bones were thrown into the stream. "Pariah dogs were constantly roaming along the muddy margin, and vultures hovering overhead, in search of the unconsumed carcases of those wretches whose relatives were too poor to purchase firewood for the pyre, and contented themselves with launching them with a bit of burning charcoal in their mouth. It made me shudder when I first saw the body of a native woman that had been cast ashore, lying in the mud, whilst a man was washing his fishing At nets close beside it quite unconcernedly, if gazing through its eyeless sockets though a dog was tugging and tearing on the silent splendour of the heavens. away the flesh from her neck. Culna we had to step over the dead body of a man before we could get on shore. "Can you conceive anything more startling in such circumstances? And yet such are the experiences of India." "All night the silence of the sur- Are not the dark places of the rounding country was broken, not earth full of the habitations of cruelmerely by the songs of our boatmen ty? Happy Britain! where the Gosand the splash of their oars, but also pel of light and love is so fully known. by the wild howlings of the jackals Dear children, walk in that light, befighting over these carcases. Some-lieve the Gospel, and pity and pray times, when sitting alone enjoying for, and labour to save the perishing the cool evening, with its soft, pale heathen. moonlight, and musing on home scenes and associations, a horrid corpse has floated down close past our boat, with its ghastly face looking up to the sky, as Wealth, labour, talents, freely give, WESTERN POLYNESIA. CHAP. VIII-ANEITUM. (Continued from page 69.) landed in Aneitum in 1842, and, though opposed by the priests and their party, met with great success. FROM the stories of the Island of The first teachers from Samoa Fate which you have read in the last four numbers of the Missionary Newspaper, you will have some idea of its present state. It is, indeed, painful to think of Fate, how, by its fierce hatred to the Gospel, it has driven away those who would have brought it joy and peace. But in the neighbouring Island of Aneitum a very different scene meets our eye. It is now a Christian land; and the people, are living in peace and happiness. One day, as one of the teachers was walking, he heard the voice of some one weeping and speaking in a low earnest tone. He turned aside, and saw a heathen place of worship, with an offering of food lying. young man was there praying. The teacher says A "My compassion was great, and I spoke to him. I said, 'What is the name of your god?' He replied, | A party of men set off to a wood, and Natmase; he lives above the sky.' 'And can he hear your prayer, and answer it?' I asked. 'I do not know,' he answered." The teacher took this opportunity of telling him of the true God who does answer prayer. As the young man listened, he felt the truth of what he heard; he became a convert-the first in Aneitum. In the year 1848, the Rev. J. Geddie came to live at Aneitum. This seemed to stir up the anger of the heathen party, and a fierce persecution broke out. The missionary had a very narrow escape of being murdered. Some men pretended they wished him to visit them; he set out to go, but fortunately he was prevented. One of the Christians went, and was murdered and eaten ! The savages would rather have had the missionary, but they were glad to get the young man, who was a devoted Christian. Mr Geddie's house was set on fire; but in this case, too, God protected His servant; the fire was discovered, and put out before it had done much mischief. Many of the natives became Christians, and were full of zeal to put down idolatry. Perhaps some of them were a little imprudent. On one occasion, when the mission-house was being altered, some wood was wanted. cut down the trees most vigorously. This was a sacred wood, which none of them would have dared to enter when in their heathen state. When this daring act got noised abroad, the heathen party would have killed them, if Mr Geddie had not interfered and offered to pay for the damage done. A young convert went one night to a public altar in a grove; he broke the altar, and burned it in his fire to cook his supper. Of course, this gave great offence. Even the children at school delighted to show their contempt for the old superstition. Some of them would take the sacred food which had been offered to the idols, though this was a crime which was punished by death. Perhaps the danger of the feat made it only the more tempting to the boys. There was a struggle between light and darkness in almost every family. Our Saviour's words were fulfilled"A man's foes shall be them of his own household." For instance, a young man and his two sisters became Christians, and came to live with the missionary; their relations did all they could to make them give up their new religion, but they stood firm. At last, their mother came to the mission-house, armed with a club, and declared, in the name of all her gods, |