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adults as well as children. Mrs. Williams, at the same time, instructed the young girls in sewing and other branches of domestic industry; and she speaks in the highest terms of their cheerful docility and steady attention.

Mr. Williams continued the arduous labors of his mission, with very encouraging prospects of success, till August, 1818, when he was seized with a fever, brought on, apparently, by a course of exertions beyond his bodily strength; and, after a few days' illness, joined the company of saints and martyrs in heaven.

His bereaved partner was thus left. a desolate widow, with two helpless infants, in the heart of a heathen land, and at the mercy of a barbarous people. The account, given by herself, of her situation and feelings, at this trying period, is extremely interesting and affecting.

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Aug. 21st. This was the Lord's day, and, to me, the most trying sabbath I ever experienced. Before this, I did not apprehend that my husband's illness was unto death; but now I looked for nothing else, and that speedily. My little Joseph was standing near the foot of the bed; he beckoned for him, and I brought him to his father. He looked at us with much concern, but could not speak.

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22d.-I asked one of the Caffers if he had no wish to see his teacher before the Lord took him to himself. He answered, 'Yes; but I did not like to ask you, lest it should make your heart sore.' He then came and sat down by the bed-side. I asked him if he prayed. Answer.—'Yes.' 'What do you pray for?' Answer.—'I pray the Lord that, as he has brought us a teacher over the great sea-water to tell us his word, that he would be pleased to raise him up again, to tell us more of that great word.'

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"23d.-This morning, just as day began to break, his happy spirit took its flight, to be forever with the Lord. was obliged to instruct the people to make the coffin, and dig the grave. I could not get the coffin finished to-day. I made my bed on the ground for the night, in the same room where the body of my deceased husband lay; but, in the night, I was obliged to get up and take my poor children out.

"24th.-As soon as it was light, the people returned to work upon the coffin, and about eleven o'clock it was finished. I appointed four men to put the body into the coffin. I then took my two fatherless infants by the hand, and fol

lowed it to the grave, accompanied by the whole of the people, and the children. When they had put the body into the grave, I requested them to sing a hymn, and we prayed."

It was not without extreme difficulty that Mrs. Williams was prevailed on to abandon the missionary station.

In June, 1820, Mr. Brownlee, a man every way worthy of being successor to Mr. Williams, was appointed to be the government-agent, and missionary in Cafferland. His residence being fixed at the Chumi river, he collected the scattered residue of Mr. Williams's congregation, and commenced a missionary station at that place.

In the following year, Messrs. Thomson and Bennie, missionaries of the Glasgow society, joined Mr. Brownlee, and, since that period, various other stations have been established in different parts of the Caffer country; the Wesleyans and Moravians having also entered on this interesting field, in brotherly competition with the London and Glasgow societies.

LESSON XXVI.

British Empire.-JOSIAH CONDER.

IN territorial extent, the British empire, inferior only to that of Russia, is almost three times as vast as that of imperial Rome. The area of the Roman empire is estimated, by Gibbon, at one million six hundred thousand square miles. That of the British is supposed to be four millions four hundred and fifty-seven thousand miles. Russia covers a thinly-peopled surface of nearly six millions. The population of ancient Rome is probably underrated at one hundred and twenty millions; it may have amounted to one hundred and fifty, or one hundred and seventy millions. Among the existing empires, China, with its (supposed) one hundred and seventy-five millions, takes the lead. And which is second? Great Britain.

In less than a hundred years, the population included in the British islands and its dependencies has, by the expansion of her Indian empire, risen from thirteen millions to

upwards of one hundred and fifty millions, or more than a sixth portion of the human race.

If to this we add the empire of the American republic, which has grown up, within the last half century, from the British colonies, and by which the English language, laws and religion are diffusing over the western world, there will be an area of six millions and a half of square miles under the dominant influence of one nation, a nation originally confined to a small island in the German ocean, with an aggregate population of not less than one hundred and sixty-five million souls. So mighty and rapid a change has no parallel in history.

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LESSON XXVII.

The Great Refiner.-H. F. GOULD.

"And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

'Tis sweet to feel that he, who tries
The silver, takes his seat
Beside the fire that purifies;

Lest too intense a heat,

Raised to consume the base alloy,

The precious metal, too, destroy.

'Tis good to think how well he knows
The silver's power to bear

The ordeal to which it goes;

And that, with skill and care,

He'll take it from the fire, when fit

For his own hand to polish it.

'Tis blessedness to know that he,
The piece he has begun,
Will not forsake, till he can see,
To prove the work well done,
An image, by its brightness shown,
The perfect likeness of its own.

Silver, undergoing the process of refining, suddenly assumes an appearance of great brilliancy, when purified, and reflects objects like a mirror.

But, ah! how much of earthly mould,
Dark relics of the mine,

Lost from the ore, must he behold,
How long must he refine,
Ere, in the silver, he can trace

The first faint semblance to his face!

Thou great Refiner! sit thou by,
Thy promise to fulfil:

Moved by thy hand, beneath thine eye,
And melted at thy will,
Oh, may thy work forever shine,
Reflecting beauty pure as thine!

LESSON XXVIII.

The Cherokee at Washington.-H. F. GOULD.

I COME from an ancient race

From the wilds where my father trod; And, though I present the red man's face, I believe in the Christian's God.

I come where your chief is laid

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At rest, in his own dear land;

And I now would ask if his mighty shade
Presides o'er your council band.

If so, he will know the type

Of peace and of purity;

The chain of gold, and the silver pipe,
Bestowed on the Cherokee.

And here must he turn aside,

To weep and to blush for shame ; Thus to hear our nation's rights denied, And his debase her name.

O, no!—by the faith of man,
Our claims ye must yet allow !

By the book ye read, ye never can
Thus your pledges disavow!

Ye say that He went about,

Whom ye follow, doing good;

Does he bid you hunt the red man out,
Like a wolf, from his native wood?

Ye teach us, too, that He

Is to judge the quick and the dead: Before his throne will the difference be, That the face was white or red?

And ye tell us what He said,

When He pointed to the coin

Impressed with the sovereign's name and head, And what His words enjoin.

Our image on our land,

As Cæsar's on the gold,

Has been impressed by our Maker's hand,

And it never must be sold!

For, dear as the spot of earth

Where first your breath ye drew, Your fathers' sepulchres, your hearth, And altar are to you ;—

The ties are far more strong,

Which we feel to our native soil, Than yours-ye have not been so long As the nation ye would spoil!

By power ye may overcome;

But, should ye thus succeed,

And drive the poor Indian from his home-
Great Spirit, forgive the deed!

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