commercial depression consequent on three years of war, which again drove thousands to seek a home elsewhere. 66 The material prospect of this mining district is promising in the highest degree. No one is now sceptical as to the permanence of these gold fields. They will, in all probability, become one of the richest quartz gold mining districts in the world. "In a few months at latest, an adjoining tract of country, known to be auriferous, will, by arrangement with the native owners, be thrown open, causing an increase of popu lation. "The value of gold exported during the month of December was not less han £50,000, and the production is teadily increasing. "In this colony there is no favour or affection to any sect or denomination, to each the way is open on equal terms, and the voluntary principle is the only one recognised for the support of religion; in fact, circumstances compel colonists to follow, if not Congregational principles, its methods of selfgovernment and reliance." The Committee of the Auckland Home Missionary Society says: “It is a source of pain and regret to us that Congregationalism has done so little to evangelise this land. It is late in the field, its operations are on a very limited scale, and there is no present prospect of any great change. During the last three years the colony has been passing through a period of unexampled depression, and Christian Churches of all denominations have suffered greatly both in number and means." The Committee can testify that the the liberality of the New Zealand Churches was not stinted in the day of their prosperity, and they are persuaded that the Congregationalists of England, when they know the difficulties with which they have to con "Since my last letter I have been privileged, through the good hand of God upon me, to continue my usual labours in the enjoyment of excellent health, and, by the continuance of Divine grace, with growing interest in the work. "I found the excessive heat of last summer very trying, especially when out on my preaching journeys, but I have passed through it without any ill effects. In December I visited Perth for Mr. Meadowcroft's recognition, and found the change of scene and the services profitable to mind and body. 66 Concerning the work of God and the cause of Independency here, I am thankful to say we can report favourably. The preaching stations have been constantly supplied. As these have been described in former letters, I need not here detail them. In addition to these, I have preached almost monthly since I wrote you last at Busselton and Quindalup, places respectively 31 and 44 miles distant from Bunbury. There has been a great scarcity of Gospel preaching in these places hitherto. At the lastnamed place (Ouindalup) there have been only two sermons preached during several years. Since I began visiting that district I have conducted services in the school-room, and have congregations of 40 or 50 persons. At Busselton (a little sea-port town) there is a 'Colonial Chaplain,' but it seems he does very little for the religious instruction of the people. The people are for the most part Episcopalians, but we find a hearty welcome; and at Ouindalup, where there is the greatest interest manifested, the people talk of erecting a small chapel. "To return to Bunbury and vicinity, you will be glad to hear that the interest formerly spoken of as characterising the people has not declined. From time to time I meet with persons under concern about their souls. One man, a native of Scotland, was deeply impressed a few Sabbaths ago while I was preaching on the subject of • Parental Influence.' The words were the means of bringing back forcibly to his mind the instructions of his pious mother, and the following Monday evening saw him in my study an anxious inquirer. I am hopeful concerning him. Hardly a week passes without a visitor, desirous of having conversation, asking for books or Bibles, or wishing to 'sign the pledge.' "The great hindrance to the Gospel I find here, as elsewhere, is drink. We have been compelled to suspend a useful brother because of his intem perance. I know several working men who would be regular in their attendance at the chapel but for drink. 66 Our Church membership increases. Three applicants were approved at our last Church meeting; these bring up our numbers to 50. "A deeper interest in the prayermeetings of the Church marks the brethren lately; and several have been revived and stirred up to pray in public. 66 In order to reach the working-men who reside in, or visit the town, but never enter a place of worship, I have begun a special service, which we hold on Friday night, in the two boarding houses alternately. I have received earnest assistance from several of my people in conducting these services. On the very first night of these meetings a person was brought into a deeper sense of his need of Jesus, and was shortly thereafter brought to happy decision for Christ; he has set up the family altar, and gives hopeful evidence, in many ways, that he is the subject of a gracious change." The Committee trust that their present need of men and money will be promptly met by the Churches. Their expenditure has not been for several years so large as it is at present, and the immediate prospect indicates an enlarged rather than a diminished expenditure-unless, indeed, the work of Christ, to which many voices are calling them, is to be left undone. They cannot imagine that the friends of the Society will brook this thought, and they confidently cast themselves on their Christian feeling. Golden Words for Busy People. MEROPS. "I have a question to put to you," said a young eagle to a deep-thinking owl of great erudition. "They say that there is a bird called Merops, which, when it rises to the clouds, flies with its head turned downwards to the earth. Is that true ? " "Ah, no!" said the owl; "it is one of the silly fabrications of man. But well might man himself be called a Merops, since he would be only too glad to fly to heaven, without losing sight of earth for a moment." THE HIGHEST HONOUR. It has been accounted a high object of ambition to win a name and place among the great and titled of this world. A coronet, a patent of nobility, an admission to the aristocracy of a nation, has kindled the zeal and enterprise of thousands. The great naval hero of England, Lord Nelson, is said to have exclaimed on the eve of a memorable battle, "A peerage, or a grave in Westminster Abbey!" and this might be taken as the motto of his life; and not of his only, but of thousands more. But what is the aristocracy of wealth or rank to the aristocracy of faith? What is the record of a name in the peerage of England to the record of a name in the Book of Life? What is the favour of a king or president to the covenant love of the King of kings? What is the boast of noble descent to the assurance of the humblest believer who is warranted to say, "My Father, God ?"-American National Preacher. PRAYER IN DEATH. A Christian should die praying. Other men die in different ways, according to their character and temper. Julius Cæsar died adjusting his robes, that he might fall gracefully; Augustus died in a compliment to Livia, his wife; Tiberius, in dissimulation; Vespasian, in a jest; the infidel Hume died with pitiful jokes about Charon and his boat; Rousseau, with language of presumptuous boasting; Voltaire, with mingled imprecations and supplications; Paine, with shrieks of agonising remorse. Multitudes die with sullenness, some with blasphemies faltering on their tongue. But, brethren, the humble Christian would die praying. Well says the poet : "Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, His watchword at the gates of death, HOW MANY POUNDS IN A TON? A youthful correspondent (twelve years old) calls our attention to the fact that there are 2,240 pounds in a "Christian ton," not 2,000 as was said in our last. We are much obliged to him. We should be sorry to teach "Christian" dealers to abstract 240 pounds from every ton they sell. Whether the mistake was ours or the printer's we cannot say. Pages for our Young Friends. A TALK WITH CHILDREN ABOUT BEING CHRIST'S EPISTLES. By the Reb. George Stewart, Newcastle. DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,-I shall suppose that you are sitting down to read these pages, or to hear some one read them to you on Sunday, and that you want to find here what will not only interest you, but what may help you to be as good as God, who has given you the Sunday, wants you to be. Do you ever think how wonderful it is that, by writing on a piece of paper, you can tell persons who are far away from you, what your thoughts and wishes are? If you had never known of such a thing till now, how surprised at it you would be! When our martyred missionary, John Williams, was building a chapel for some of the South Sea Islanders to worship in, he went to his work one morning without his square; so he took up a chip, and wrote upon it with a piece of charcoal a request that Mrs. Williams would send him that article, and he said to a chief standing by, “Friend, take this; go to our house and give it to Mrs. Williams." "Take that!" the chief answered, "she will call me a fool and scold me, if I carry a chip to her." The missionary was, however, in real earnest, and seeing this, the chief said, as he took the chip, "What must I say?" He was told that he had nothing to say, that the chip would say all that was necessary. He thought that it was a very foolish thing to do; but as he did not like to displease his good friend, he went off with the little piece of wood to Mrs. Williams, who, as soon as she had read what was on it, threw it away. Having brought him the square, and told him that she knew that this was what her husband wanted-for the chip had told her so-the man picked up the wonderful piece of wood, and ran off with it as fast as he could, holding up the chip in one hand and the square in the other, as high as his arms could reach, and shouting as he went, "See the wisdom of these English people; they can make chips talk! they can make chips talk!" Many of the South Sea Islanders can now read and write letters, and a little while ago I read a beautiful one from some of them, begging Mr. Powell, their missionary, to go back to them. Now you all know that Paul was a missionary to the Corinthians, and that when he had left them for some time, he wrote and sent to them two long letters, called "The Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians." So you quite understand that epistle is another word for a letter. But Paul in one of his letters talks about the epistles or letters of Christ. What does this mean? You never hear your minister say, "Let us read now in the epistle of Christ;" though you often hear him say, "Let us read in the epistle of Peter, or of John." Christ's letters! Where are they? Are they in the Bible? Where did He write them from-from Nazareth or Jerusalem? To whom did He write them? Are there any copies of them to be found? Would you like to see some ? I know many people who are curious to see some of the letters the Duke of Wellington wrote; and many persons in my town tell me as a thing they are very proud of, that they have seen the beautiful letter that the Queen sent to the poor widows, who lost their husbands in the Hartley colliery pit, some years ago. But some of the letters I am talking to you about are sent by Then, too, there were a few words of love to Jesus, written as a very little child would write them, and these words in very small writing, "I will lock this up in my little desk and keep it for a very very long while." Perhaps I am keeping you too long from my secret, and so I must tell you that what Paul meant when he was speaking about Christ's letters was, that good and Christ-like people are like letters from Jesus Christ. The Apostle, when he first went as a missionary to the Corinthians, found them idolaters, wicked people; but he lived with them, and taught them about Christ, and many of them came to change their lives so utterly that instead of being very unlike Christ, they became very much like Him; so that when Paul went away from them and wrote to them, he could say, "It is plain enough for any one to see that you are epistles of Christ." So now you understand what I mean when I say that, because Jesus often sends Christian people to you, he sends you some of his letters. I hope many of you may be called letters from Christ. What does a letter show if it be good for anything? It shows the mind and heart of the person that sends it. You can tell the temper, love, and feeling of the writer. Well, Jesus Christ does not write his letters on paper, but on the heart; and by the way in which a christian child acts, you may see Christ's temper and spirit. A good letter, whatever else it may be, will be truthful-full of truth. People often write in their letters a great deal more than they really mean; but a good letter shows the true mind and heart of the person who sends it. When a dear father sends a letter to his child, the child says, "That is just like my kind father to say these things to me." So when I see a good child, who always speaks the truth because he wants to be like Christ and to please Him, I can say, "Jesus Christ is speaking in that child-he is an epistle of Christ, and, through him, Jesus Christ is sending a little message to other children, saying 'Learn of me, and speak the truth.' Or, when I see a child teazed by other children, and perhaps greatly wronged by them, yet taking it all patiently-not because if he has been struck, he is not strong enough to give blow for blow, but because he wants to be like Christ, who, when he was treated unkindly and could have taken vengeance, yet did not and would not return evil for evil,—I say, "See, that child is one of Christ's letters, and this meek conduct of the child, is like a page of the letter to me, where He says, 'Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart!"" Or, again, when I see a child ready to forgive another who has been unkind to him, and ready to do this because he wants to be like Jesus, I say, that child is a little letter from Christ to brothers and sisters; and his being so ready to throw his arms round his naughty playmate and to kiss himthis is the page of the letter where Jesus says to me, "Learn of me and forgive those who are unkind to you." You know that envelopes are generally fastened, not only to keep the letters from falling out, but also to keep people from reading them; for whom they were not meant. When the postman brings you a note, part of your pleasure is in opening it for yourself, because it may contain secrets that you do not want any one else to know. At the time of the mutiny in India, when it was very im. portant that the orders sent by the Government from Jellalabad should be kept secret from the enemy, our officers could not be sure that, if they sent a letter, it might not fall into the hands of their foes, and let them into the secret plans of our generals; and, therefore, some of the most important orders were written with rice-water, and then rolled up and placed in a quill. Why were the letters written with rice-water? Because when this writing is dry it cannot be seen. So that if a rebel had picked up the quill with the piece of paper in it, he would have said, "O, it is only a piece of paper!" and would have thrown it away. But the persons the secret orders were sent to, knew that, if they washed the paper over with a solution of iodine, all the rice-water writing would appear and turn to a violet colour. Christ Jesus does not want his little epistles to be like these secret letters, but rather like those Corinthian Christians of whom Paul says, that they were like letters from Jesus, "Known and read of all men." Our conduct is to be seen to be Christ-like. Just as we say of the Epistles of John that the Spirit of Christ is in them, and that by His Holy Spirit He taught the apostle to write those letters; so people are to be able to say of you that the temper-the Spirit of Jesus breathes in your lives, and that He teaches you to live as you do. Now, I will suppose that there are three or four letters lying before us, and will tell you what they remind me of. First of all-these four letters are only things; they are not alive; they cannot think; they don't know that they are letters, don't know what messages they carry-if they did, perhaps the white paper on which they are written would turn very red at the things it is made to say, but they don't know what messages they carry, or whether they carry any messages at all. Christ's little letters are alive, and know what |