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EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL IN WEST AFRICA.

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missionaries compared to the many your heart-that is, He wants your love. thousands of the heathen. Will you give it? If you love Him He will help you to obey all His commands, and to subdue all your bad tempers. He will make you pure, and holy, and gentle, and meek, like Jesus Christ. And, perhaps, when

"Many of those who have heard the missionaries have thrown away their idols, and are loving Jesus. This makes us very glad. But we must do more. We want more money. "And now, dear children, I have a message from God to you. Will you hear it? He says to every one of you, 'My son, my daughter, give me thy heart.' He is glad to see you bringing your money, but He wants

you grow up, some of you will be missionaries, and will give yourselves to the work as willingly as you now give the money in your missionary boxes. O that it may be so!". Juvenile Missionary Herald.

EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL IN WEST AFRICA.
"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound."-Ps. lxxxix. 15.

ONE of the first converts received
into the Christian Church in Abbeo-
kuta was brought to the knowledge
of Christ through witnessing the sick-
ness and death of her Christian sister.
Immediately on the death of her
sister, she came forward and said, "I
have seen what Christianity does, and
I must be a Christian myself."

Dear young readers, may you let your light so shine before others, both in life and death, that they, too, may be led to "glorify your Father which is in heaven!"

One convert died in consequence of the ill-treatment of her husband. Mr Townsend, the missionary, saw her on the night before she died. She was very weak, but still able to

Her

speak. He said to her, "Death to the heathen is the beginning of eternal torment; but death to those who die in Christ is the beginning of an endless day of happiness: the one dies in sin, the other in Christ." answer was, "I trust in Him entirely. He that was unknown to me, is sweet to my soul: He has supported me in all my troubles, and He will ever support me." There are many instances of this kind.

But our heathen converts in Abbeokuta are now trying to spread the Gospel amongst their own people. In one of their war undertakings, a convert came to Mr Townsend, and said, "Sir, is it lawful to go to war?" The missionary answered, "It is lawful, if

88

POETRY-PRAY FOR THE HEATHEN.

the king of your country calls upon you to it, and if you do not go for the sake of doing wrong to others." He went to that war, and all the time he continued to have public worship. He called those together around him who felt as he did, and he ever observed the day of rest, by prayer and praise to God. He fell

alone in the battle-field, and his lifeless body was afterwards found. We cannot doubt that his spirit had taken its flight to the God who had given it. In one time of war some of the converts, who had left their homes and gone forth against the enemy, actually built a church, where they publicly performed the Church ser

vices; and many of the war chiefs were gathered round them, to listen to the Gospel of Christ from the mouths of their own people. Wherever they go, they carry their books with them, and they are called, not Christians, but "the Book people,” because of their love for books, and especially the one great book, the Book of God. Should we not be ready to deny ourselves, then, that we may send to these willing, waiting people, that blessed word which some amongst them so highly value, that, by the blessing of God, many more may be thereby "made wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus?"

Poetry,

PRAY FOR THE HEATHEN.

PRAY for the heathen !—prayer! The God of grace will hear; Where'er the praying are,

He bends a listening ear. If in our souls His love

With quenchless ardour burn, The gracious Heavenly Dove Our pleadings will not spurn. Send, Lord, Thy labourers forth, Let none as idlers wait; East, west, and south, and north, Is not the harvest great?

Thrice blest is he who reaps;
The wages he receives
Exceed the tears he weeps,
While gathering home his sheaves.

O give, what will not we
This ruined world to save?
Since on th' accursed tree,
And in the voiceless grave,
The Lord hath deigned to show,
By being made a curse,
How much to Him we owe,
Who gave His life for us.

E. R. DYER.

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.

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90

وو

WESTERN POLYNESIA.

Saviour's command, in his sermon on the mount, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.' The base treachery and savage cruelty which they have practised towards us, only shews their need of the Gospel. If in times past we had sent them hundreds of Missionaries where we have sent only twos and threes, who can doubt that things would have been very different there at the present time. We must pray more for the millions of India, we must labour more earnestly that they may be brought under the rule of the Prince of Peace.

The engraving for this month represents the gate of Achbar's Tomb, near the city of Agra. The names of Agra, and Delhi, and Lucknow, and Cawnpore, are now sadly familiar to British ears. Our readers will re

collect that Agra is in the midst of the disturbed districts.

The tomb of Achbar is a very wonderful building. It was erected by the Mahometans to the memory of Achbar one of their kings, who lived at Agra, about three hundred years ago. It stands in a garden, where there are many beautiful old trees.

After passing through the gateway, which is formed of many coloured stones, with very beautiful patterns cut upon them, you see a noble building, with four terraces, raised above each other, one of which consists of white marble. You would wonder very much, were you to enter that building, to see the size, the beauty, and the carving of the blocks of stone, and then to think of the enormous sum of money that must have been spent upon it. The Mahometans are very proud of this farfamed building.

WESTERN POLYNESIA.
CHAPTER X.-LIFU AND FOTUNA.

(Continued from page 85.)

THE island of Lifu is one of the Loyalty Group. It is both large and beautiful; but until lately its inhabitants were the most savage and cannibal of any in the South Seas.

aries to this dark land? Native teachers have carried there the light of the glorious Gospel. The first of these was a young man named Paoo; he belonged to Aitutaki, an island And who have been the mission- three thousand miles from Lifu.

WESTERN POLYNESIA.

When he reached the scene of his labours, he found that, though no white missionary had been there, white men had visited the island, and, sad to say, had made the poor heathen still more wicked than before. Paoo met with a young English gentleman there who had actually become a heathen! Yes; though in his youth he had a Christian education, in an English city, yet he had sunk so low in wickedness that he not only roamed about naked, and joined the savages in all their heathen sports and wars, but even in their horrid cannibal feasts, the natives said he would join them in eating human flesh !

What a contrast between these two young men ! The one had cast away his birthright, his religion, his civilisation—to become a heathen, a cannibal! The other, though born in savage ignorance, was now an enlightened Christian man with a noble soul, thirsting to do good to his fellow-men. Paoo had much to endure from the opposition of this young English savage, but he knew that God was with him, and he ever looked up to Him. At length he enjoyed a glorious reward; schools and prayer meetings abounded all over the island, and he and the other teachers who followed him reaped abundant fruit of their labour.

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The people were very anxious to have an English missionary. One of the natives, when he was told they should have a missionary some day, replied, "Say not some day; I do not like that word some day; why not say to-day?"

Paoo also writes: "Have you no compassion towards this people? Many of the districts observe the Sabbath; they rest from labours; but there is no missionary to teach them. We have now eleven villages where the people wait to be taught the Word of God. My heart is grieved continually at our want of means to supply them all. Oh, ye brethren who are instructed for the work of the ministry, come to our help! Cease not to pray for us; but COME ALSO ! Oh, come to our help!" We will now turn to the island of Fotuna.

This is a small island; but, like Aneitum, it is one that is dear to our hearts; for among its people, so lately heathen and cannibals, we can now count many a one who "shall shine like a star in the kingdom of their Father." The first teachers in Fotuna watered the soil with their blood. Their names were Samuela and Abela. They were at work in a plantation when they were murdered by the heathen. Samuela's little girl was at his side; she was first killed, and

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