own meat and money to preserve them their day's provision, ate it, and went to from dying. But it is not only what he is bed till next day. The young man was doing to save their bodies from a yawning then at work, earning 8d. a-day; but the grave, but by his unwearied, persevering greater number of the family were passing zeal, attending to their spiritual wants, he their days in the same torpid state. Havhath so secured their attention that he ing referred to death as the only relief he can have free access to them, both pub- supposed was for them, I asked him about licly and privately. By my few days' tra- his hope. His words in reply were just velling with him, I see seven or eight con- these: We are as ignorant as the pigs gregations opened up for Christ's labourers that we used to pitch the praties to; but I to step in to their work, besides other sta- would rather die than steal, and I think that tions which I have heard of at a distance. will do something for me, as we think that Whatever may be the experience of others we'll get mercy if we desarve it.' I was led in other places, I fearlessly proclaim to to speak to him of a free forgiveness of all Christ's church, respecting Connaught, in our sins, as he had other sins though he the words of Joshua to Israel, The Lord did not steal, alluding to the case, the your God hath given you this land.'" landlord forgiving his arrears of rent-the son having paid all for him-and got a free discharge, and presented it to him. I then told him of the Son of God taking our nature, and paying all our debt, and earning an inheritance by his obedience unto death, and of our applying to him in faith of his own word, inviting us and promising a full pardon and a sure title; and bid him, when looking for the forgiveness of his sins, and a place in heaven, to ask them, not because he did not steal or do other bad things, but because the Son of God had bought all with his precious blood, and freely offered them all, and declared that he would give them for nothing. II. The Father and his Children. "One poor man presented himself at the door (of the house where bread was distributed). He lived several miles from the centre of the town, in one of the rural districts, where he found himself on the eve of perishing, with his family of seven small children. The father, who was a miserable skeleton, had fastened his youngest child to his back, and, with four more by his side, staggered up to the door. How these poor things could stand upon their feet and walk five miles, it was hard to conceive." III. A plan to sleep away hunger. "A man travelled with me on foot a few miles, who was one of a family of ten. His father is one of a large number of tenants whose ground is lying waste in that neighbourhood, and the family have been living for some months past on one meal of porridge in the day; and the way they did was this The food was cooked about two o'clock in the day, and about an hour after, the door was shut, and they lay down, three or four together, on beds of straw in the corner, near the fire, until about twelve o'clock next day, when they got up, cooked In this way you will get all the salvation you need,' said I, as surely as God is true.' He turned about and looked earnestly in my face, saying, with apparent interest, 'Is that so, your reverence--is that the way of it?' and most warmly thanked me for having talked to him in such a manner. He returned home with a new view of truth-a new light breaking upon his ignorant mind." IV. The Orphan Boy. "Whole villages are empty, for famine and fever have swept away the people; the mothers, after sharing their last morsel with their children, have laid them down | far advanced-all, with a rare exception, tidy and clean. It is only a fortnight since this school has been opened, and, in my opinion, they do their mistress ample credit. You would be amused, or rather sorry, if you saw young women not less than twenty years of age, with their primers in their hands. Some calico has and died. When fathers, mothers, and sisters are dead, they wander away, some to lie down and die too; others, when they are able to find, either in the fields, or from the compassion of strangers, as much as still preserves them in life, they wander on through the country, homeless, and hungry, and weary. At Belderig school, near the mountains, a little boy was picked up by the scholars, wandering he did not know where. Although they themselves are very poor, and were very hungry, they brought him to the school to share their meal, and the little girls take him home by turns to their own poor homes at night, and bring him back with them to the school in the morning. Many of the little girls that get one meal in the school, will not eat any thing at home, because it would be taking it from their parents and brothers." Dear children, these things are very, very dreadful-and they must go on; thousands and tens of thousands more must die the famine is not ended yet, and when it is, sickness and pestilence will follow it. O how earnestly should we be crying to God to look with pity on this wretched, dying people! Especially, we should ask the Saviour, who had compassion on the fainting multitude, and fed many thousands with a few loaves, to multiply the means of life to the famishing Irish. But we must do something more. In the county Mayo there is a missionary labouring among the dying Roman Catholics. They are listening to the glad tidings of the kingdom with great joy. He has opened two schools, at which a great number of Roman Catholic little girls are now learning God's holy word. A gentle man, who visited these schools lately, gave the following nice account of them: "We came to Belderig, where we saw a fine house full of girls, some sewing, some reading, some spelling, and some not so been sent for the purpose of teaching the children to work; and, in consequence of the fearful famine, it has been necessary to feed the scholars if possible. It is proposed to make soup and bread in turn, as well for the purpose of feeding, as to teach the girls something of cooking and economy. The Ballinglow school, opened since the 28th December, is crowded. The girls in the first class repeated twenty-six verses of the 3d chapter of John, and answered questions much to the satisfaction of the Rev. Mr. Brannigan. They all attend the Sunday school, and his preaching in Irish whenever he visits that station. It has been necessary to give food to this school also; and it is hoped, through the kindness of friends, Mr. B. may be able to continue the supply of Indian meal, which, mixed with whole flour, makes good bread. This is done by the girls, and teaches them how to bake-a thing they were before ignorant of." On the 20th March Mr. Brannigan the missionary wrote :-" I never was more delighted than to witness seventy Roman Catholic little girls receiving instructions from a pious Protestant mistress; about twenty of them were reading in the New Testament, and had each committed two chapters to memory. I examined the whole of them, and I believe that among them there was not a single dunce. Some of them live 7 miles off. Except a good piece of bread that each of them gets daily at the school, they have nothing to get at home. Some of them bring their pieces home, and divide them with their poor brothers and sisters." THE HINDOO SCHOLAR. THE ENGLISH SAILOR. 68 the miseries of some of these poor children, and save some of them alive? Let this be A few weeks ago Mr. Brannigan resolved to open a third school, and wrote to the Ladies' Committee in Edinburgh, ask-a year of saving and self-denial. Do not ing them to support it. But when they waste your own or your parents' money. found that the other two were supported Be careful; and do not ask your parents by a Juvenile Society in Dublin, they to buy you new things if the old will do. thought it would be much better to cast Say, "I would not like to be gaily dressed the care of this school upon you. The in this mournful, miserable, dying year." expense, including books and calico, is In this way you will be able to give both only about £10. This is what we ask you for the poor Highlanders and the poor to raise each year. Irish. I daresay some of you will say, "Ten Pounds! that is very little-far too littlewe will raise a great deal more." My dear children, I do think it is far too little. I think that the children of Scotland ought, at this time, to make a large special collection. In short, I think you should not only raise ten pounds to teach these children, but ten times ten (it will need that) to feed them. I am not desired to ask this, but I cannot help proposing it to you; for when I look on the happy children of this land-so well-fed and clothed -and turn to the Irish hovels, with their little shivering skeletons, I say, surely the hearts of Scotland's children must be harder than stone, if they will not send a few crumbs of bread to these dying little ones. But I am sure you will. I know that you are now contributing to many different schemes. These of course you must continue; and in order to give largely to this new object, you may have to deny yourselves a little. But would you not like to do this, in order to lighten -A school in the wilds of Roman Catholic Mayo-a Bible school, where a hundred children shall be taught to know God and Jesus Christ, and that school maintained by the children of Scotland-this is our proposal. And what a delightful thing it will be, some years hereafter, when the famine is gone, and the people are resting under the shadow of the Almighty-to hear the mothers telling their children, how, in the dreadful 1847, when their kindred were all swept to the grave, they were preserved alive by the kindness of Scottish children, who sent them, day by day, their daily bread-and the blessed Bible, which rescued them from Popery, and brought them to Jesus! Dear children, would not this be very delightful? Then, come all, and help us. And may the Lord bless you with an humble and prayerful heart, that you may grow up in the likeness of His Son Jesus, counting it your meat and drink to do your heavenly Father's business!-In name of the Committee, A. J. CAMPBELL. THE HINDOO SCHOLAR.-THE ENGLISH SAILOR. ABOUT two years ago, dear reader, I was and whom nothing would satisfy but a seaholding a children's missionary meeting in faring life. He had accordingly left his a town in Scotland, and the next morning home, gone on board a vessel, and sailed breakfasted with a good old minister of Christ. He and his partner were at the time full of joy and gratitude; they had had a careless and ungodly son, who would not settle down to any right occupation at home, to a distant land; his pious parents could do nothing but pray for him, and when they wrote give him proper counsel. It was, however, a matter of hope to them to know that God was a prayer-hearing God, and that 64 THE HINDO0 SCHOLAR.-THE ENGLISH SAILOR. their son had had many deep impressions in | come by the boy's earnestness, and at once his childhood; and they thus waited patiently rowed him ashore. always hoping to hear of his conversion. Months, many months, rolled away, but no such good news arrived. Still they hoped, and still they prayed; at last a letter came which filled them with delight. It told them that their prayers were answered; that he had been stopped in his sinful course by the Spirit of God; brought a penitent to the cross of Christ and made a new creature in him. It was this letter that so filled them with joy the morning I was there. Dear reader, are your parents godly? Oh! if they are, they are looking with deepest interest for your conversion: shall they see it before they die ? or shall they go down to death, praying for, but not rejoicing over it ? Of the circumstances of that boy's conversion, I never was informed till the other day; but then I heard them, and the story is so interesting I have thought it well to write it you. The vessel in which he sailed had reached a port in India, and was there waiting to take in a fresh cargo, when the sailors went on shore and brought back with them to the vessel a little Hindoo boy, to play some musical instrument for them, while they danced around him. The little boy played as they directed him for a long time. At last he threw down the instrument and jumping up, said, "You must now take me on shore." The sailors refused, and said he must stay and play for them. "Oh no!" he said, "I cannot now. I am a poor Hindoo boy, and was a heathen, but a kind Christian Missionary has come to the place where I live. From him I have learned all I know about Jesus Christ, in whom I now wish to believe. This is the hour when he meets us to tell us more; I must go on shore to hear him." The hard sailors were quite over The young man who had left his home was standing amongst those careless sailors, and the Spirit of God was pleased to bless this circumstance to his soul's conversion. He was at once struck with the thought of his own wickedness. "Here am I," he thought, "the son of a good minister in Scotland, knowing far more about Jesus Christ than that poor little Hindoo boy, and yet caring far less about Him." He retired to his hammock that night in great distress of mind, but his father's instructions came back to his thoughts, and they told him how to seek salvation. In a few days he had come to Christ, and is now a devoted and useful member, though a sailor still, of a Christian church. Dear reader, how does this little story condemn many of the careless readers of this paper! They know far more of Jesus than thousands of Hindoo children, yet, I fear, too many of them care far less. How does it show the usefulness of missions! we send our missionaries to teach the heathen, and here the converted heathen are teaching our own seamen! This, we hope, will go on more and more to be the case, till all nations shall act upon each other for the good and salvation of their souls. How does it show the wonderful leadings of God! The young man flies from the preaching of a Christian father here, but God prepares a preacher in a little Hindoo there. He was not willing he should perish, so he brought his salvation round. "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, He treasures up his bright designs, Price d., or 4d. per dozen. Published by J. GALL & SON, 38 North Bridge, Edinburgh. HOULSTON & STONEMAN, London. THE BOSJEMANS, OR BUSHMEN OF SOUTH AFRICA. SOME of my young readers will have heard, and some perhaps seen, some very curious people now exhibiting in London, and called Bosjemans or Bushmen. They come from South Africa, and are probably the lowest class of human beings in the world. It amongst such people as these that Mr. Moffat labours, and I have thought some account of them would not be out of place in your little Paper. The country of these people lies to the north of the Cape Colony in South Africa, between the Orange River and a range of mountains running from Roggeveld eastward, to the Snowy mountains. It is a peculiarly barren and inhospitable tract; and sometimes whole years pass over without a single drop of rain falling. Amongst the animals that inhabit the district, and on which the people sometimes feed, are the Ostrich, the Eland-antelope, the Rhinoceros, and a sort of sheep introduced by |