So Lottie ironed the pogget-handerchises," and Ashton put one into each pocket. Pockets were new to the little boy, and I cannot tell you how many things found their way into them.

Ashton marched off, as grand as could be, with a handkerchief and a hand in each pocket. He went into the sitting-room, and sat down before the fire on his own little stool, looking wise things out of his bright eyes.

Presently there arose a loud cry in the street. Ashton jumped up and went to the window. There was little Paul flat on his face in the middle of the street, and Carlo beside him. "He's tumbled and hurt hisself, Paul has," said Ashton, and immediately rushed to the front door, scrambled down the steps, and ran over to his little friend.

"Is you hurt very bad, Paul?" said Ashton.

"He has only cracked his nose a bit," said another boy, laughing, "that's all."

Paul had picked himself up, with the blood dropping from his nose. "Here is a poggethandercher for you, Paul. Wipe your eyes, Paul; wipe your nose; and you may keep the pogget-handercher for your own self," said Ashton in a very pitiful tone; 'I have got one more in this pocket."

Paul put it to his nose, and wiping his eyes with his fat fist. toddled off towards home.

"I don't like you," said Ashton to the other boy.

"And who cares?" responded the other boy.

Ashton did not stop, for Lottie just then showed herself at the front door, and at sight of her Ashton knew it was best to report himself.

"I give my pogget-handercher to Paul; he hurt hisself very much," said Ashton. "He cry and he bleed; and I said it might be his to keep, Lottie."

"Have you any right to give away what does not belong to you?" asked Lottie.

"A'n't they my own self's?" he asked. "Yours to use, not to lose or give away," said Lottie.

"Who says so?" asked Ashton.

"I say so," said Lottie.

"What makes you say so?" asked the little boy.

"Oh, because-," answered his sister. "I don't like because," cried Ashton; "I don't know because.

"Well," said Lottie, "because mother buys your clothes, makes your clothes, mends and takes care of them; she, you see, owns them, only she lets you wear them. Of course you are bound to be careful of them, for her sake."

"I see," said the little boy. He put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out the other handkerchief. "It's all alone by itself," he said, holding it up to Lottie. "And, Lottie," said he, "if I see another poor boy hurt hisself so, I shall let this be gone too."

"Oh," cried Lottie, snatching him up and kissing him, "my dear boy, you will get things straight by-and-by, will you not, darling?"-British Juvenile.

Let

"Yes, my dear," said the mother, "that is the rainbow. It has seven colours. us count them: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. They are violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red."

"I will reach a chair," said the little boy, "that I may get up at the window, and try if I can count the colours too."

He reached the chair, but, when he had mounted it, how was he astonished to find that the bow was nearly vanished, and all its colours were gone!

There are many things in this world like the colours of the rainbow. They please us for a little while only, and they are soon gone. So will the world itself lose all its charms when we come to die. It is in heaven alone that we shall be able to find pleasure that shall never fade away.

A CURE FOR COMPLAINING. "I NEVER complained of my condition but once," said an old man, "when my feet were bare, and I had no money to buy shoes; but I met with a man without feet, and I became contented."

"READY TO TAKE WING." STAND upon the edge of the world, ready to take wing, having your feet on earth, your eyes and heart in heaven.-Wesley.

MISSIONARY NOTES.
"Thy Kingdom Come."

Dangers among the Lions. WHEN the Rev. Samuel Broadbent was travelling near to the Diamond Fields of South Africa, close to the Vaal River, he and his family and servants were obliged to sleep in the waggon in which they travelled. One pitch-dark night they several times heard a stir among their cattle, and the next morning they found a young cow had been killed, and lay in front of the waggon.

"As I sat on the chest," says the missionary, "one of my little boys came and sat on my knee. I was condoling him on the loss of the new milk for his breakfast, as the lions had torn the poor cow, when there appeared a noble lioness, walking through the grass, bringing a whelp with her. At the same time my favourite dog, Malbrook, was feasting on the carcass of the cow; on seeing the lioness approach, he barked at her angrily. She paused a moment, raised her head, and lashed her tail about, then sprang furiously at him. By a nimble leap and rush towards us, he barely escaped her claws and teeth. Just at the pole of the waggon, close to which I sat, with my eldest boy on my knee, and my wife, the next boy, and a servant girl inside, she turned away, and we were saved.

The next day, when travelling was pleasant, they shot at a buck, which they hoped to have for dinner. The report of the gun roused five lions! The waggons were turned another way, and the lions slowly moved to a greater distance, occasionally rising on their hind legs, playing with each other like dogs.

Praying by MacДinery.

MANY of the Chinese and Japanese pray by machinery, and by casting lots. One style is to throw up blocks, flat on one side and round on the other. If the flat side comes up, they consider their wishes granted; if the round side is up they are denied. The more earnest ones persist in flinging up the blocks until they fall to suit them.

BOOKS.

THE TEXT UPON THE WALL. London: Religious Tract Society. 12mo. 16 pages. Price One Penny.

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The "Text upon the Wall," rather a motto than a text, was, What would Jesus do ?" The tract gives many instances in which the words had been useful. When perplexed as to duty,-when tempted to indolence, impatience, unfaithfulness in work, resentment, dishonesty, it were well for us ever to ask ourselves, What would Jesus do?" The "text," printed on card-board, for those who desire to hang it "upon the wall," is to be had of the Tract and Book Society, Edinburgh. THE BROAD-SHEET SHORTER CATECHISM. Edin

burgh: James Taylor. Price Twopence. We believe in type, titles, and paragraphs, as being often great helps to the reading and understanding of truth. Here they are skil

fully applied. The answers to the ever precious"form of sound words" are set forth, with great distinctness of arrangement, in one large page. The sheet makes manifest, what is sometimes overlooked, the wonderful structure of the Catechism, the bearing of its various parts upon each other, in the great plan of redemption.

"THAT WILL DO."

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A SOUTH SEA chief, who had been a consistent Christian for three years, was dying. When near his end he was visited by the native minister. "Well, how are you?" was the first inquiry. Oh, I am afraid," was his reply. Why are you afraid?" again asked the minister. "Oh, I have been such a sinner," he immediately responded. "But," said his friend, "don't you know it is written, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool?" "That will do, that will do," said the dying man. His friend prayed with him and left him, but was soon overtaken by a messenger to say that he was gone.

After the Rev. J. Powell, missionary, had mentioned this incident when preaching at Sydney, a young man sent him the following lines:

When all below is sad and dark,

When tempests gather round my bark,
Then may I wait the eternal day,
And, trusting in the Saviour, say,—

That will do.

When all the evils I have done,
Since first my sinful life begun,
Come in upon me as a flood,
Oh, may I say of Jesus' blood,-

That will do.

When drawing near the close of life, And faint and weary of the strife; Trusting in the Redeemer's name, May I be able to exclaim

That will do.

When entering the vale of death,
Oh, may I with my parting breath,
Casting all worldly care aside,
Say that for me the Saviour died,-

That will do.

And when the shadowy stream's passed o'er,
And I have gained the crystal shore!
Oh, may I find a resting-place,
And gaze on the Redeemer's face!-

That will do. J. C. NEILL, jun.

CHINA. BAKSA.

It is only seven years last June since Dr. Maxwell, accompanied by Dr. Carstairs Douglas, commenced mission work in For

mosa.

They established themselves in the capital, Tai-wan-foo, and were well received by the people; but the literati stirred up a mob, and drove them out of the city only a few weeks after their arrival. They retired to Takao, a seaport nearly thirty miles to the south of the capital, working there, and waiting till they could return to Tai-wan-foo. Three years and a half ago, in the beginning of 1869, Dr. Maxwell and his venerable and loved native helper Bun were permitted to return to the capital and to re-establish the mission there. When they secured a house, Mrs. Maxwell engaged two Hoans as servants. They were natives of a village twenty-seven miles distant, called Baksa, the name and even the existence of which became known to our missionaries then for the first time. We cannot now tell the wonderful story of the introduction of the gospel to Baksa, or of its still more wonderful progress there. We printed two years ago a long letter from Dr. Maxwell about this village, and short notes have since often appeared in our pages regarding it. One of the last services which the late Rev. Thomas Alexander performed for the mission of our Church, which he always delighted to serve, was to put into an interesting narrative the history of the work at Baksa. This was published in The Sunday at Home for May 1871, and afterwards reprinted as a separate tract. We recommend Mr. Alexander's loving record to our young friends.

We have recalled these dates about Formosa because of some news that Mr. Campbell has sent us regarding the erection of a new chapel at Baksa. Their old chapel was

built in February and March 1870. It was able to hold three hundred worshippers; but it had become too small, and so it was resolved to build a larger one. The old chapel was built, like their houses, of very light materials. The walls were made of upright poles of bamboo, wattled together with cane-rush and plastered with clay; and the roof was thatched with straw. All the materials were supplied by the members of the church, and nearly the whole of the work was done by them. Their new church is a much more substantial building, being made of brick; and this, Mr. Campbell tells us, they are erecting chiefly, if not entirely, at their own expense. The men, women, and even the boys of the place, are divided into companies, and each company takes its turn in helping on the work. The women have made nearly the whole of the four thousand bricks that were needed. For whole days, he says, I saw the little brown-faced fellows running with large bricks from the place where they had been made by their mothers or sisters, to supply the men who were building up the walls. I frequently heard the sound of praise, as the busy workers joined in some well-known hymn while thus engaged. Every one was cheerful and willing to oblige, counting it a privilege to have the opportunity of helping in so good a work.

What an example is this to many of us at home! Within three years from the time that the name of Jesus was first heard at Baksa, the members of this infant church have, at their own expense and with their own hands, built two churches. What reason for thankfulness to God for permitting our missionaries to do this great work, and what encouragement for us to pray more earnestly, and to give more self-deny. ingly for its carrying on!

A pulpit Bible and a new lamp were re

quired for the new chapel, and both of them have been supplied to the infant church at Baksa by the children of Islington Presbyterian Schools, London, at the suggestion of Mr. Campbell. May the bright light of the lamp, shining through the doors and windows which are always open, guide some poor wanderers to the chapel, where from the pages of God's own Word they may hear the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

TOAKUNGENG.

WE can scarcely hope that our readers will be able to remember all the places in Formosa where churches are being planted by our missionaries there. From the rapid progress of the work, the number of places is large, and the names themselves are so odd and outlandish that it is not easy to remember them. We must, however, add another long one to the number. Toakungeng is nearly thirty miles to the east of Takao, which is the head-quarters of Mr. Ritchie's labours. It is so far inland that it is at the base of the great mountain range which runs through Formosa, and which here rises into two peaks from 12,000 to 14,000 feet high. In the region immediately around them are several large Hoan villages. The new church that has been erected here can hold between four hundred and five hundred people. This is the seventh church among the Hoans to the east of Takao in the province of Hong-soakoan; so that the spread of the gospel in the southern province of Formosa is as rapid as in the metropolitan one of Tai-wankoan.

CHINESE NAMES FOR THEIR OWN

COUNTRY..

THE name most commonly given to China by the Chinese is, "The Central Country," because they think it is in the centre of the world, and all other countries are only islands or patches of land around its borders. They know nothing of geography, except that of their own country. Other names are still more absurd, and show more clearly their ignorance; as, for instance, "Allunder-heaven," and "All-within-the-four

seas," both meaning that other places are nothing compared with China. The Chinese Flowery Land," or "The Flowery Central are very fond of using the name "The Land," because they think they are more highly educated and civilized than any other nation. For the same reason Europeans and Americans are called by them "barbarians." In proclamations and other official documents the country is called after the reigning dynasty thus, The Country of the Great Pure Dynasty." The name China is not known by the inhabitants themselves. It is the name of a province in the north-west of China with which foreign nations became first acquainted, and they extended the name to the whole empire.

THE GOD OF THE KITCHEN. THIS god is almost universally worshipped in China. No family would feel safe without a shrine over the cooking range for this idol. He is feared rather than respected, and is looked upon more as a spy than as a protector. Near the close of the year he takes his departure from earth for a short time, in order to make to the powers above his report of the family transactions during the year. On the day this is said to take place special honours are paid to him, in order to secure a favourable report. paper image of the god is burnt in a pile of mock money, and thus he ascends to heaven. On the last day of the year he returns from his errand, and care is then taken to have his shrine newly painted and decorated, and to provide a new image to receive him, so that he may begin the year in good humour. He is greeted by the family with appropriate ceremonies. Besides their annual celebrations, he is commonly worshipped at new and full moon; that is, on the 1st and 15th of each month.

A

THERE are many young persons connected with the Church in Formosa who are unable to read, and whose occupation in the fields all day prevents their taking advantage of the day-schools established for their benefit. Mr. Ritchie and his colleagues have been thinking of trying what eveningschools might do, and by-and-by he hopes to be able to give a cheering account of their success in that direction.