at the picture placed at the head of this notice, and to observe the method of fishing represented there. The women are generally occupied in mending the nets, in making osier fishing rods, in cleaning and curing the fish that have been caught, and in preserving and carrying in vessels those fish that it is intended to keep. The little children usually have round their waists a girdle made of bladder, which would save them from drowning if they fall into the water. The men look after the nets. These are large square nets attached to and hanging over the hinder part of the ship. They let them down perpendicularly into the water; then they watch the approach of the fish; and, when they want to lift the net, they easily raise it by a piece of ingenious mechanism, consisting of a wooden platform along which they run, or on which they hang the whole weight of their body. Sometimes, for large nets, they employ both methods, as shown in our picture. The fish are at once divided into two portions, the one to be kept alive, and the other to be at once killed and salted by the women. They put the live fish into ponds or lakes, where they are regularly and carefully fed, and in due time they are killed for the market. They select suitable kinds for this artificial rearing, and every morning and evening the keepers bring herbs and grain to feed them. Such ponds, when properly managed, are a greater source of revenue to their owners than the most fruitful fields.

BE READY.

Every young Christian should always be Ready to give an answer to every man, that asketh, a reason of the hope that is in him.-1 PETER iii. 15.

Ready to every good work.-TITUS iii. 1. Ready to distribute.-1 TIMOTHY vi. 18. Ready to preach the gospel.-ROM. i. 15. Ready for the coming of the Son of Man.-MATTHEW Xxiv. 44.

Ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.-ACTS xxi. 13.

NEWS FROM AFAR.

DR. JOHN WILSON.

FROM Bombay we learn that this honoured servant has been called to the Master's

presence after a service of nearly half a century in the missiou field. He was

the founder of the Free Church Mission on the western side of India. Through him some of the brightest of India's sons were led to their Saviour. His influence in the Bombay Presidency was very great. His powerful mind, and extensive scholarship were acknowledged in Britain as well as in India.

A. L. O. E.

Her

MISS TUCKER, the well-known authoress who, under the familiar letters A. L. O. E., has been long known as an earnest and loving writer for Christian youth, has gone to work among the heathen of India. special attention will be given to the zenanas of North India. She goes to Amritsar, the town of the Golden Temple, to teach and tell of Him who alone can cleanse from sin and give eternal life.-The Coral Missionary Magazine.

A NEW GUINEA HOME.

THE houses are very funny-looking things, stuck up on poles, like pigeon-houses, and standing half in the sea and half out. They are clean, but very comfortless-no mats, no chairs, table, beds, pillow, or furniture of any sort. A lot of nets hang all around the inside, and on the outside bones of fish, kangaroo, and turtle. A roll of mat is on one side: this is the canoe sail, and is never used to sit or sleep on. When a little baby

is born they have no nice cot to put him in, but he is laid on a banana-leaf on the hard boards. When he gets a little bigger he is put in a net bag, hung up, then swung gently to and fro, and so rocked to sleep. No prayer ever goes up from these houses to our Father in heaven: they are prayerless homes. The women do most of the work; the men go hunting and fishing. I often see a man and his wife coming from inland, the woman carrying firewood, bananas, &c., in a bag hung from the top of her head, a child sitting on the top of all,

and sometimes a smaller one in front or on her side. And what does the good husband carry? He trots behind and carries a spear!-Juvenile Missionary Magazine.

THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICANS OF THE NIGER.

THEY believe in Tsuku, the maker of all things; they think he sees and hears everything that happens on earth, and they have vague notions about a future life, in which good people will be rewarded, and wicked people punished. Beyond this their religion is made up of charms and superstitions. Their idols are beyond number, and many are made of mud and clay. One was made of grass and broken calabashes, held together with clay, to which feathers were fastened by means of blood. A missionary writes, "In one village they showed me their gods. Under small sheds, erected before almost every house, were broken pots, pieces of yams, feathers of fowls, horns of animals, broken bows and arrows, knives, and spears. These were their gods." They think they need human sacrifices, and men and women are put to death, on special occasions in most cruel ways, in order the better to please them.-Church Missionary Instructor.

LIGHT IN DARKNESS.

A MISSIONARY in Fiji gives the following account of a visit made to one of the victims of the late dreadful plague of measles which was so fatal in these islands :"Went to a wretched-looking hovel on Bau, where a Tongan, called Agrippa, was lying. A man led the way into the hut, but came out again at once, saying the air was so offensive that I would not be able to stand it. I stooped down and looked through the little doorway to where the young man was lying. "Your body is very weak," I said to him, "but what about your soul? "- "My soul I entrust to the Lord," he answered, "I am left alone here, and as I lie I pray to Jesus, and keep on praying." It was a sad, sad sight in that miserable den, and amidst the loathsome smell, but the sweetness of Jesus' name lighted up the gloom, and softened the bitter lot.-Wesleyan Juvenile Offering.

CENTRAL AFRICA.

THE Mission established by the churches of Scotland in Central Africa was by error said in our last number to be at Lake Victoria Nyansa instead of Nyassa. Our readers will be glad to know that news has just arrived from the mission party, and that they are all well, and making good progress. They took with them a little steamer called the "Ilala," which they had to carry for 60 miles over the district of the Murchison Falls. They carried it in pieces, and it had been put together on the river above the Falls, and has now for some time, we doubt not, been steaming on Lake Nyassa, to the surprise of the natives.

How sweet to work all day for Christ, and then lie down at night beneath His smile.

NEW BOOKS.

APT TO TEACH: THOUGHTS AND HINTS ON ADAPTATION IN BIBLE TEACHING. By W. Dickson. Edinburgh: W. Oliphant & Co. 15 pages.

We cordially commend these "Thoughts" to the study of Sabbath School teachers, and to all our senior scholars who are preparing to help in spreading the knowledge of the love of Christ. The essentials of successful teaching, under the three heads, Language, or Phraseology, The truths to be taught, and Illustration, are clearly and ably stated by Mr. Dickson. It is distressing to realise the amount of wasted earnestness and energy in our Sabbath Schools-and in our pulpits too - from the utter want of harmony between the speaker and the hearers, and the want of fitness in the style and manner of teaching. The plain advice of this short paper, if followed, would work a happy revolution in many schools.

THE ARGONAUT: A MONTHLY MAGAZINE, LITERARY, RELIGIOUS, AND SCIENTIFIC. Edited by George Gladstone, F.C.S. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Price 6d. Monthly. Just the magazine for thinking boys, who desire to know what progress is making in letters, religion, and science, and what opinions are entertained by the earnest and thoughtful men of our day. The papers are well written, contain sound and wholesome information, and will entertain as well as instruct their readers.

may the more easily remember it, so that, if you do not afterwards remember one word of what I am going to write regarding it, you may at all events remember it. And indeed it is far more important to remember God's own Word than anything I or any other can tell you about it. But I wish to explain these words to you, for they are very, very wonderful. Every one knows what a gift is. Every one, I suppose, has received a gift. Sometimes you got one on your birthday, or on New Year's Day: sometimes when you were not expecting one at all. How glad it made you! You looked at it all round, delighted to think that it was your own. It is so nice to have something all one's own. But I'll tell you what has sometimes made you like a gift the better. You were in want of it; your heart was set on it. Perhaps you saw it in the shop window, but you knew you had not half enough money to buy it with. If some one who had money enough to buy it bought it for you, and gave it to you, then you would value that gift much more than one you had no wish for. Surely none of you would

insult so kind a friend by offering to pay him for his gift-by offering the few pennies in your pocket to him who had with gold and silver purchased that beautiful gift.

You see, then, that a gift cannot be a gift if you have anything to pay for it. A gift is always something you get for nothing. However much it may have cost the giver, it does not cost him that receives it anything. A prize you gain at school, for instance, is not a gift; it is a reward for something you have done.

Now, notice our text, "The gift of righteousness," and these three things in it: (1) The Gift. (2) The Giver. (3) The Getter.

(1). The Gift," righteousness." A strange gift! You can't see it; you can't touch it. Nobody has ever

seen or touched it. "Oh! I don't care for a gift like that," says a boy, "I like a gift that I can see, or touch, or taste." Wait a minute. Don't despise it, for it's better than anything you can see, touch, or taste. Though it is invisible, it is very real. If you will only think of it, you will find that many of our best gifts are invisible. How disagreeable it is to be ill! You don't care for your sweets, and toys, and games. Health, then, is

a great blessing-a gift from God; but it is

But I must try to tell you what it is. You know what sin is. It, too, is invisible, but how real and terrible it is! Well, righteousness is the opposite of sin. Sin God hates; righteousness God loves. Sin de

forms a soul; righteousness makes a soul beautiful in God's sight. Sin prepares for hell; righteousness fits you for heaven.

But where did God get this gift? Did He create it as He created the world? Did He just say, "Let there be righteousness," as He said, "Let there be light? No. If He had

I do not think I should have valued it half so much as I do now. I value this gift the more that I know how much it cost our loving God. What do you think it cost Him? Money? No. Worlds? No. It cost Him what was dearer to Him than that-His only begotten Son. Righteousness was what Jesus came to make, and He made it. He spent His life and shed His blood, to make it. And oh, what a perfect righteousness He made !-so beautiful that God could see no fault in it. When this gift of Christ's righteousness is given to you, it means that all that Christ did and suffered is counted yours, as if you had done it all yourself.

(2). The Giver. Very few people

to us.

know that God gives righteousness Most people think that they have to give this gift to God; and so they spend their lives in making it instead of taking it. Perhaps you think, "I'll be good, and then God will accept me.'

That is as much

as to say, 66 I'll make righteousness, and give it to God." That is a great mistake. Remember God is the giver of it, not you. Go and tell that to your friends. Ask them the question, "Do you give righteousness to God, or does God give it to you?" Many, I am sure, will answer wrong, and then you can point them to this text. Yes, God is the Giver, and He is holding out this precious, beautiful gift for you to take it now. Ah, since it has cost Him so much, and since in love He is offering it so freely, do not, my dear children, refuse it-do not delay accepting it.

66

(3). The Getter. You used to think God was the getter or receiver of this righteousness. Now I hope you have learned that you are the getter. Look at the text, 66 they which receive. . . the gift:" theyi.e., men. Look at the 3rd chapter of Romans, verse 22, and you will find the same things in the words, UNTO all." Yes; the righteousness comes from Him to us, not from us to Him. And it does not take long to get it. How long were you getting the last gift you had? year? a week? a day? Only a minute. Just so long does it take to get this gift. As you put out your hand to get a gift, so put forth your faith in Jesus now, and the gift is yours. Many young and old, on earth and in heaven, are even now praising and thanking God for His precious, loving, free "gift of righteousness. Will you, my dear child, become one of their number to-day?

A