CHINA. THE following two extracts are from the volume just published as a memorial of the lamented A. R. Margary. This young man travelled across China to Yunan, the province in the extreme south-west of the empire, bordering, as you will see in your atlas, on Burma. The object of his journey was to open up the old trade route between India and China through Burma. During his solitary journey, alone and suffering in his boat, he writes: "I was drawn nearer to God, and, at last, like Christian, the load of sin rolled off, and I was another man.”

He accomplished the object of his journey, having joined the exploring party from India in the north of Burma; but, returning to China, he went in advance of the party, to prepare for their progress through the empire, when he was treacherously murdered, and the explorers had to return through Burma as they came.

A special commission has been sent to Yunan to find out how this brave Christian youth met his death. The account of their inquiry will soon be made public.

THE FINEST SIGHT IN EUROPE. The mandarin was a fine soldier-like man, and treated me very civilly. We talked for twenty minutes, and then I left. I found him much occupied with a book written by one of his countrymen, who was sent over to record his impressions of foreign countries, and, referring to it several times, he said to me, Ah, your country must be a fine place!' I asked him to lend it to me when he came to return my visit, and he was good enough to send it the moment he got home. What do you think was the sight of all others in England which most struck our celestial author and critic? Well, it was the appearance of Piccadilly at night, with its double row of gas-lamps rising and falling with the inequalities of that noble thoroughfare. It reminded him of a gigantic golden

dragon! And this was the finest sight in all Europe! You can imagine how difficult it is to negotiate with people who look at things in a totally different plan to ourselves.

CHINESE DINNER.

About four p.m. a square table was placed in the centre of the hall, and dinner was served. It was a very nice little dinner, and being hungry, I set to work with my chopsticks with all diligence. Everything is served in bowls. Four small and four large bowls of different kinds of food is the correct thing for a guest, and that is just what we had. First came mushrooms, very nicely cooked in a sort of gravy. Then mutton in two forms, then fowl in two forms, then a strange dish of some part of a fish, which was like eating so much lace. This and the last, pork, left alone. The wind-up is always a large bowl of dry boiled rice, which is shovelled down the throat with marvellous rapidity, with a pause in the middle to add titbits from your favourite dish. I took my rice, and, being accustomed to that method, enjoyed it.

They study my dislike of pork, and compose very savoury dishes of mutton, duck, fowl, fish, &c. Imagine my astonishment at finding one day that under the latter name I was actually eating the octopus. Indeed, the devil-fish is a common article of food among the richer classes, and it possesses a rank flavour which I can well understand the Chinese palate enjoying.

66 THE OPIUM EATS THE MAN."

A Chinese mandarin well summed up the case about opium-eating when he said, "It is not the man that eats the opium; it is the opium that eats the man."

"STRANGERS HERE."

IF you were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you.

WORTH REMEMBERING. "LITTLE deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,

Like the heaven above."

A JABBOK NIGHT AND A PENUEL MORNING.

BY THE REV. THEODORE J. MEYER, LONDON.

DOES that title seem strange, and is it unintelligible to you, my young reader? If so, turn to Gen. xxxii. 22-32, read the passage carefully, and compare also what Hosea, in chap. xii. 3, 4, says in explanation of it, and you will see more or less of its meaning.

Every Christian has such Jabbok nights when, like Jacob, he is left alone; like David, he must complain, "My father and my mother have forsaken me ;" and, like Job, must lament, "He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintances are verily estranged from me; my kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me" (Job xix. 13, 14); when everything goes against him, and even his God seems to be far from him, with the gladdening light of His countenance. When such darkness, such Jabbok night comes, there is no other help but to do as Jacob did, to weep and to pray to God, to wrestle with Him until the breaking of the day, saying, like him, "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." And, like Jacob, we shall prevail. And though we may have to bear in our bodies or outward circumstances the consequences of such wrestling, just as Jacob did in his thigh, which got out of joint, so that he halted ever afterwards, like Jacob, we shall become Israeli.e., soldiers or princes of God; we shall, like him, have a Peniel-i.e., a face or manifestation of God; and the Sun of Righteousness will again shine upon us gloriously, with healing in His wings, just as we read of Jacob: "And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him."

It is especially converts from heathenism or Judaism that have such Jabbok nights, and, if they be faithful, Penuel mornings; and every new experience of such a victory should strengthen us in our faith, confirm us in our hope, and stir up our zeal for the lost sheep of the house of Israel and for

the poor benighted heathen. With this view I shall now tell you what I lately read in a German periodical of a converted Jew with whom I once had the privilege of spending an hour.

Henry William David Heman (at the time I saw him he was commonly called Father Heman) was the son of a Jewish minister, got a good education, and was Director of the Jewish School at Grünstadt in 1819. By his intercourse with some eminent Christian men his thoughts were directed towards Christ, and in 1833 he and his wife publicly confessed Christ, and were baptised, with their three children. Immediately after his baptism the time of external and internal trouble began. He, of course, lost his situation, and daily bread began to be wanting. mother wrote him that he was dead to her, and that he had broken her heart. At the same time the relatives of his wife, who was in delicate health, tried everything in their power to shake her faith, and to induce her to forsake her husband, who had, they said, led her astray. At the same time his eldest daughter was attacked by a dangerous illness, and his son began to pine away from an incurable disease.

His

When all these sufferings gathered on his head, his former co-religionists, the Jews, aggravated them by telling him that they were the righteous judgments of God for his apostasy from the God of his fathers; and their words found, alas! an echo in his heart. He began to doubt, and his faith became weak and faint.

His eldest daughter was suffering from epileptic fits. A celebrated physician, Dr. Chelius, of Heidelberg, whom he consulted, told him that the case was hopeless, and a new and dreadful fit confirmed the declaration of the doctor. In the following night he was wrestling with despair; but he did not give in to it; the bruised reed was not broken. Although within, around, and even above him all was dark, yet he lifted up his heart in prayer. In spite of all the assaults of the powers of darkness, he held his Redeemer fast, saying, "Nevertheless, O Lord Jesus, Thou art my Lord and

Saviour!" He wrestled, he made supplication, and waited for an answer. At length the answer came, and heavenly peace again entered his soul.

People were astonished on seeing him next morning;-his black hair had turned white; but, like Jacob, he had not only wrestled, but prevailed. His daughter began to revive from that very hour, gained strength daily, and her fits never again returned. The disease which the celebrated Heidelberg physician declared to be incurable was healed by Him who calls Himself the Physician of Israel. The father, too, was healed from all his doubts. Henceforth his confidence in his Saviour was immovable, and the peace and tranquility of mind which throughout his whole after life he enjoyed, he always, even in old age, traced back to that memorable night in which he found the power of believing prayer. In the spirit he had, like Jacob, seen the Lord face to face, and the Jabbok night was succeeded by a Penuel morning, the rising sun of which shone upon his path to the very hour of his death. My dear young reader, such blessed experience may be yours, too, if you only will wrestle in believing prayer as Jacob did. And if it has become yours, I am sure you will all the more sympathise with the poor benighted heathen and the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and wrestle with the Lord on their behalf, too, that the time may speedily come when the Sun of Righteousness shall rise over the whole earth with healing in His wings-the time when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved.

HIS REAL HEIGHT.

A VERY little but able man was once made fun of on account of his small size. He replied in the well-known words:

Were I so tall as reach the pole,

And grasp the heavens in my span,
I must be measured by my soul ;-
The mind's the stature of the man!

THE FEAR OF MAN.

THE more we fear God, the less we shall fear men.

Dick looked much embarrassed as he said: "I bring 'em, and gie you 'em myself, sir, for de mission cause." "But how did you get so much?" again asked the missionary.

Dick burst into tears at being thus questioned, and said: "Sir, I been work for 'em myself. I say de Lord gie me free, and de fust money I 'arn I gie to He. I put all my money-bit, bit (five-penny piece), tampee, tampee (penny), until he all come to five dollar. Den me been ask somebody to gie me big paper for me bring gie you, sir,"

Noble, unselfish Dick! The Lord accepted Dick's offering of the first-fruits won by the labour of his hands as he cast it all into His treasury. May my young readers imitate Dick's example, and give their hearts and their money to the Lord as Dick did. The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering.

THINK!

EVIL is wrought from want of thought, As well as from want of heart.

"Well, father," said the little fellow," "I have been reading about Louis the Seventh of France and Richard the Lion-hearted of England and many other brave men who went to the Holy Land to fight against the Turks, and get possession of Jerusalem."

"But why did you wish to resemble them, Freddy? Are you so fond of fighting?

Why, no, father," said Freddy. "It certainly was not THAT. But does it not seem noble in them to leave their homes, and, with the red cross upon their shoulders, showing that they were the servants of Jesus, go to a distant land to take away from the unbelievers the place where He lived and died?"

"It does SEEM noble, my dear child, and I dare say in many cases was really so, though I doubt if it was RIGHT. If they had known more of the Saviour themselves, I think they would have gone to teach the poor Turks about His redeeming love, instead of collecting armies to kill them and take away their land."

"I did not think of that," said Freddy; "and I am almost sorry you have shown me that they did wrong, for I liked them so much."

"It was better than letting you think what was not true; was it not, Freddy? But if you wish it, you can still be a crusader."

"O, father, how can I?"

"Do you remember the band that was placed upon the high priest's forehead, and what was written upon it ? "

"I think I do, father; was it not 'Holiness to the Lord ?""

"Yes, it was; and if you love the Saviour, and serve Him, and try to be like Him, those who know you will find out that you are His little soldier as quickly as if you wore His sign upon your shoulder."

CHINESE SUPERSTITION. COMMANDER BAX has just published an interesting volume: "The Cruise of the Dwarf" He had the command of this vessel in the Chinese seas, and had opportunities of seeing much of interest to our readers. He visited several of our mission stations, and was delighted with the work carried on by our missionaries. We hope to give extracts from this book, and we begin with two short notes showing the blind superstitions of the Chinese.

FUNG-SHUI.

There are hot sulphur springs in the mountains about eight miles from the town of Tamsui (Formosa), which are in a state of great activity; but the mandarins do not allow the sulphur to be worked, as they fear to disturb the "Fung-shui," or the Dragon that sleeps under the Celestial Empire, by scratching his skin in obtaining it.

THE CHINESE NOTION OF AN ECLIPSE.

We were at Amoy during an eclipse of the sun on June 6th, 1872. The Chinese commenced beating gongs and drums, blowing horns, firing guns, and making as much noise as possible, to frighten away the monster that was eating up the sun!

RIGHT AND WRONG.

THE next best thing to being right is to own being wrong. The boy or girl that is good at excuses is seldom good at anything else.