A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING.
I SAW an Indian die, and I said
that the righteous hath hope in his
death, whether he be educated or un-
lettered. I said, It shall be well
January 1861.

with the righteous, whether he take
his departure to Abraham's bosom
from a palace, or from a rough cabin
in the woods. I had known him

2

A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING.

while he was yet in health. He was a genuine child of the forest, with hair as black as a raven, and limbs as lithe as those of the deer which he had once delighted to pursue. When a youth, it was said few could excel him in the wild sports of the Indians, in wrestling, the ball play, the race, or the dance; and none were more wedded to these sports than he. But now he was a Christian; and sinful pleasures, or mere sports and games, delighted him no more. He was a growing Christian. Seldom was he absent from any meetings of the church to which he belonged. There was a particular seat which he occupied, and in which we might almost always be sure to find him. In our social meetings he was often requested to lead in prayer, and we loved to hear him pray; though I did not well understand him (for he prayed in his own language), yet he seemed to plead with fervour, and importunity, and humility; and appeared like one much accustomed to commune with God—like one who had found a place very near to the mercy-seat.

But suddenly he was seized with a violent fever; and despite all the attention of physician and friends, the disease worked on, and worked rapidly; and it seemed that the stronger the constitution of the pa

tient, the more violent did the fever rage, the more harshly did it assail him; and that man, recently so active and powerful, lay almost helpless, torn with pains, his temples throbbing, breathing with difficulty, his tongue swollen, his mouth dry and parched, and with a thirst which nothing could allay: but still he was peaceful. There was no complaining, no impatience; but a quiet resignation to the will of God. He knew, and confessed with shame that he had been a sinner, a great sinner; but he hoped that all his sins had been forgiven, that God had cast them all behind His back. He trusted that he was one of God's dear children, and to us he appeared like one who had received the spirit of adoption; for, with a warm, full gush of filial feeling he called God his Father; and he seemed to have the Spirit witnessing with his spirit that he was a child of God. He was willing to die, and that not because this world had been to him all cold and dreary: no, for he had seemed to be always happy; seldom would you meet him but his brown face was lit up with smiles, and he was at peace with all men. His wife was a Christian wife and mother She had been educated at a mission school; she made his home pleasant; and their children were a comfort to

SUFFERINGS AND DELIVERANCES OF BASUTO CHILDREN.

them. Their little farm, through | he appeared to be ready, yes, and their industry, and with the blessing glad to go. of God, yielded them all needed supplies. But he was willing to die and leave all these comforts, because he believed there was a better country, and that there his God had provided some better thing for him. He knew of the promise which Jesus had made to his disciples, that He would go and prepare mansions for them, and then He would come and receive them to Himself, that where He is, they may be also. Judging from what we saw of his every-day life, we might suppose that he was endeavouring so to live that when the Son of Man should come he might be found watching. And now as the event, for which it had been the main study of his life, since his conversion, to be prepared, seemed rapidly approaching; as it seemed that Jesus would soon come to receive him to Himself,

He hoped to leave all his imperfections behind, when he should leave the world; he hoped to be made perfect in holiness, and to 、 be clothed upon with the righteousness of Christ. Having these expectations, and enjoying the comforting influences of the Holy Spirit, he had no dread of death. Calmly he arranged his worldly affairs; commending his wife and children to the care of his own God, whom, by experience, he had found a covenantkeeping God, a faithful friend, and an ever-present help in times of trouble. Then, his body still suffering, but his soul at peace, and animated more and more with the hope of eternal life and glory, he waited a few hours, till He who had plucked him as a brand from the burning, placed him, as we trust, as a jewel in His crown.

SUFFERINGS AND DELIVERANCES OF BASUTO CHILDREN. MR CASALIS, one of the French mis- sionaries went out to South Africa, sionaries in South Africa, on his they resolved to teach a tribe called return to Europe, at a juvenile meet- the Basutos. Many things seemed ing in France, gave the following strange to them when they came account of some things which he had among that people. But there was met with among the heathen :- one thing which struck them very "When he and some other mis- much indeed. Though they saw

4

SUFFERINGS AND DELIVERANCES OF BASUTO CHILDREN.

6

many
old men,
men of middle age, there were
scarcely any children. When the
missionaries asked the reason of this,
the parents answered, Alas! we
have had children, but in the
bloody wars which have destroyed
our country we were forced to leave
them to perish.' As they confessed
this, many of them shed bitter tears
of distress. Poor fathers! poor
mothers! If they had been Chris-
tians they would never have for-
saken their little ones, and have
brought upon themselves so much
sin and sorrow.
But no missionary
had been there, and thousands of
unhappy children in the south of
Africa were treated in this cruel way
by their hard-hearted parents. But
all parents were not so unkind.
'There is now,' said Mr Casalis, 'at
one of the stations, an amiable and
fine young man, who was saved from
such a fate by the love of his father.
When he was a babe, the tribe to
which he belonged fled before another
tribe which had conquered them.
His father, anxious to save his son,
carried him upon his shoulders across
the desert for three days; but his
companions, many of whom, there was
reason to fear, had left their children
behind, often laughed at him for
taking so much trouble, and tried to
persuade him to fling down his load

and young men, and that he might quicken his flight.
'No,' answered the father, 'I will
not abandon my child: I would
rather die.' He kept his word, and
saved his son; and now we see-
what he then did not see the great
reward he received for this conduct,
and can scarcely help exclaiming,
'This is the finger of God;' for, in
consequence, there are now two Chris-
tians instead of one. Both father
and son have been converted, and
you may fancy what the feelings of
the aged and pious father are, when
he looks upon the son whom he
saved from a miserable death, whom
God has changed by His grace, and
with whom he hopes to live for ever
in heaven.

Never does a day pass

in which the parent omits to lift his heart in thanks to God for having given him strength and resolution to expose himself to death rather than forsake his child.

"Now, our readers will easily suppose that this people, who cared so little for their own children, would not be very kind to the children of their enemies; and this supposition would be but too true. Very often they left them to die from hunger, and their conduct towards them was something so shocking, that they themselves seemed quite ashamed to describe it. One of their cruel practices was, to fasten

SUFFERINGS AND DELIVERANCES OF BASUTO CHILDREN.

a poor little infant down in a pit,
or a trap, which they had prepared
for catching hyænas, or other fierce
creatures, whom the cry of the little
sufferer would draw to the spot.
What a horrid thing, to make a dear
little living babe a bait for wild
beasts! Surely, if there was no
other reason for doing so, all British
children should help the missionary
cause, that they might save children
in heathen lands from such dreadful
deaths. If you had lived in South
Africa, and, when walking in one of
the large plains or thick forests of
that country, had come to where you
saw one of those children fixed in a
trap, would you not have pitied the
poor little creature? and would you
not have run to the place where he
was and cut the cords which bound
him, and then have done what you
could to save his life? I know you
would. But when you help to send
and support good missionaries, you
are really doing the same thing,
'saving much people alive.'

"Even among these cruel heathen themselves there was sometimes found a man, or a woman, who had a heart to feel for, and a hand to help, those who were thus 'drawn unto death, and were ready to be slain.' At the present time there is living, at a missionary station, called Thaba Bossiou, a shepherd, who, when he

5

was a child, had been put into one of these traps, and left there to perish; but, happily for him, God put it into the heart of a poor woman to pity him, and when the men tried to keep him, she snatched him out of their hands, and struggled against them with all her might, saying, 'No, you shall not put this child into the trap again, unless you first kill me.' Now, I have said God put it into the heart of this kind heathen woman to care for the poor child; and will you think so too, when I add that he is now a young man, and is, with his bold deliverer, a Christian, and a consistent member of the church of Christ.

"One day a person came to Mr Casalis to tell him that he had heard a very strange sound in a wood, not far from the missionary station. In consequence of this, some natives went into the wood, and having gone to the spot from which the noise came, they found there a dear little babe tied very tightly to a tree. And why was it fastened there? There was some reason to fear that it was done in order to entice the wild beasts away from the village, and from the cattle; for, at that time, some of the parents would rather have lost a child than a cow: but whether it was so or not, as this babe was somewhat deformed, the parents certainly wished to get rid of it; and nothing