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courage well nigh spent, I thought of the famous ghost of Twll Dafydd y Garreg Tradition has it that the apparition of Dafydd y Mŵg, who broke his neck over the quarry, wanders about the cave at early dawn, about three o'clock, the hour when his body was found. As I listened to the half chime of the church clock, I thought of the ghost. At that age my nerves were very slack, for it never took much to frighten me. Forthwith mystic, dread shadows seemed to grow out of the darkness. I felt the folly of my childish fears; but as each minute tottered by my grim fancies grew. The most hideous illusions held my mind, and my misery was not mellowed by the melancholy music of the moaning blasts under which the clustered branches of the Coed groaned and sighed. As I lay on the ground, within three feet of an invisible yawning gulf, I caught a glimpse of the first streaks of dawn. At the same moment, just as the three quarter chime sounded across the valley, an awful fright seized me, for I became conscious of the presence of an unseen companion. All over me crept a chilling, deadly feeling; my nerves were strung to their highest tension, as I heard a stealthy tread behind me. I kept my eyes on the horizon whence the darkness was rising, afraid to turn round. The footsteps crept nearer and nearer, and I heard a panting breath. Great God, was I

going mad? Closer and closer came the stealthy tread, and I felt the hot breath of some mystic madman upon my neck. A pair of gleaming eyes were the first object I saw, as I turned round with a gasp. In doing so my hand brushed against the ground where the matchbox lay. I opened it with trembling fingers, and struck a match against its side. It was damp. I took out another lucife", and struck it against my teeth. My panting breath almost extinguished the light. For a moment the small yellow flame flickered. Then it burst into a bright light, and I saw the ghost of Twll Dafydd y Garreg,-it was your mangy, dirty, ugly lurcher.'

"Ha," laughed the Poacher, it was a nasty laugh, for punishment had killed his sense of humour,-"you should have kept the secret. the secret. Whisk would never have split on you, for none can keep his counsel as my dog can."

"What do you think?" jeered Phil. "How could the poor devil keep his own counsel with the fear that he had on him when we saw him come down the rock in the morning?"

"I suppose he did look bad," admitted the Poacher.

Bad d'ye call it? He looked just as he did on Saturday, when his missus caught him playing at pitch and toss."

ARTEMUS JONES.

I

PORTHKERRY BAY.

WALKED on the shingly beach,
When the tide came rolling in,

And the cannonade of the bay's wide reach
Was a mighty muffled din ;

Earth covered her panting breast

With a wavy shimmering sheen;

And my soul was filled with a strange unrest As I gazed on the noon-day scene.

The sun shone fiercely down

On the ocean's feathery spray,

And I trudged on the shingly beach alone, For what company were they!

And vague chaotic thought
Flitted across my mind,
It came unbid, went unbesought,
But left its shadow behind.
Each stone beneath me a grave,

Where once teemed life untold;

And ocean singeth a requiem stave
For the wreck of systems old.

And where is that life now?

Tell me, ye mighty wise!
Or before the mystery reverently bow,
And close your too-curious eyes.

I plucked a floweret sweet,

Of tender and modest hue,

That peeped o'er the pebbles' head, to greet The stranger who nothing knew ;

And it bade my spirit rest,

For it spoke of the Lord of all.

On the verge of the charnel-house in the west, Where the pebbles rise and fall,

Where the battle rages long,

With the rattle of ceaseless strife, The sweet little flower took up the song Of worship, of love, and of life.

OWEN GEORGE.

GABRIEL YORETH.

A STORY ILLUSTRATIVE OF WELSH

THOUGHT FIFTY YEARS AGO.

BY THE REV. E. CYNFFIG DAVIES, M.A., MENAI BRIDGE.

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THERE was no home in Baileyhill

where Gabriel was more welcome, and where his good qualities were better understood, than at the Congregational manse. One evening, in accordance with the usual tenor of their varied discussions, their conversation turned upon the advantage of early religious convictions. Mr. Riley observed,

Many, these days, object to the attention paid to the religious profession of children. I esteem it a very high privilege that I was received into church fellowship when I was about thirteen years old. Of course I had been brought up in the church from infancy. I believe my prayers and devotions were as earnest at thirteen as at any subsequent period of my life. Our playing at prayer and preaching in childhood may have been as acceptable in the sight of our Heavenly Father as our grandest religious efforts of worship before the public."

"If so, father," said Mrs. Riley, "we should encourage children's prayer meetings."

"I do not go so far as that, but what I suggest is that there was in our child worship an element of spontaneous expression of love to God that must have been pleasing in His sight."

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"I quite agree with you," said Gabriel, that children's minds are capable of guileless religious earnestness."

"Youthful piety," continued Mr. Riley, "in my estimation is much like early rising of a day when you have a long journey to make before its close; and it gives me a species of pure satisfaction to have reason to think that the other members of my family, that is, my wife and daughter, were led to consecrate themselves to the love and the service of our Lord Jesus at the same early hour of life."

"We cannot go wrong," said Gabriel,

"when we follow in the footsteps of our Saviour, as to the claims of childhood and early life upon our attention and sympathy; for he was fond of the early rising we all approve.'

At that point Miss Riley, with a fine perception of the fitness of things, gave a turn to the serious bent of their discussion by a remark touched with a tinge of mirth,

"Then, father, we may designate ourselves in this house as a trio of early risers, which is not always or unexceptionally true of us;" and, turning to Gabriel, she added, "early rising, also, we know to be the order of the day with you, when our schoolroom was being reared up."

But May Riley's playful observation, being intended to elicit Gabriel's religious experience on the subject, had its effect; and his reply came with a quiet, and yet spontaneous intensity that caused a thrill of feeling in the minds of the other three,—

"I live under a continual obligation to thank Jesus that the God of Samuel called me early to his service."

To create a further diversion in the solemn groove to which their conversation had run, Miss Riley pointed out that their trio of early risers was framing into a quartet, and that they had better take a Psalm tune to her accompaniment on the piano. They sang a favourite hymn with much taste and pathos; and ere Gabriel left, Mr. Riley read a portion of the Psalms and prayed.

The word quartet conveyed to Gabriel a significant meaning which May had not intended when causing a change of current in the strain of solemnity attending their discussion on that particular evening. His liking for May had been growing imperceptibly into a strong attachment and refined admiration, so that, during the following days, the remembrance of their quartet and the evening prayer of the good pastor only served to chrystalize and give form to the profound respect and pure pleasure he had felt centring in the

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manse. When he became conscious what it all meant, a sense of painful recoil seized his mind, a recoil from the possibility of asking Miss Riley to take for herself the changed name of an ex-convict. Still more was the attachment intensified when, calling one day at the manse, he discovered that John Venn, the missionary in South Africa, who went to his field of labour by the ship in which Gabriel was taken to exile, was cousin to May. A letter had. arrived from the missionary detailing an encouraging account of the mission work in Africa, and referring to the young convict he met on board in going out to the Cape. The concluding part of the letter was penned as follows,

"You may have read of a Welsh Welsh preacher of much promise who was sent to penal servitude to Van Dieman's Land for a period of twelve years for causing the death of a policeman in a riot in one of the coal districts of Glamorganshire. I took down his name in a pocket book, which I lost on my way from the Cape to the interior; but his surname remains indelible in my memory. You will be able to find out upon enquiry his full name, which, I think, is Michael Yoreth. There can be no manner of doubt that he is the victim of a most wrongful miscarriage of justice. I had frequent opportunities of holding converse with him on deck; and I do not remember meeting a young man of such individuality in his vivid conviction of Christian truth, in quiet unassuming fortitude under wrong, and in the gift of mingling puritan severity of thought with kindly tolerance toward all who love the Lord Jesus. His originality in the conception and the expression of his ideas undoubtedly arose in part from his environment, training, and nationality, but, after making all due deductions, there remains too much of the real thing for him ever to be lost in the crowd. If you should at any time make a trip to Van Dieman's Land, I should feel that you conferred a favour upon me by enquiring for him, and doing something to help him to continue to raise himself above his circumstances. Some of the things he told me, and the way in which they were told, took a hold upon me which will never loosen its grasp

as long as the visible remains undissolved. Dear uncle, remember our work in your prayers at the family altar and in the church.

It is not difficult to imagine the amount of self-control required of Gabriel to listen imperturbably to the reading of this letter. But after setting the missive back in her father's letter-box, according to a species of unconscious tact she assumed a lively bantering tone and said,—

"Really, Mr. John, your nation ought to be excommunicated for its devotion to angels, one of you being a Michael and another a Gabriel. To say the least, this is more than Puritan, it is angelic."

Gabriel then knew only too well who was his angel, but dared not say; and he feared he could never give his thought expression of that fact. How fortunate it seemed that Mr. Venn had forgotten the full name, for if it were otherwise his position would be rendered more difficult than it really was.

At that moment Mr. Riley entered the house, having been making pastoral visits, which greatly interested and pleased him; the return from a fruitful visit being, no doubt, one of the bright and cheering experiences of a pastor's life.

"Have you shown Mr. John your cousin's letter, May?"

"Yes, father, and I told him that the dwellers of the mountains of Wales, climbing nearer the sky than we do, are becoming angelic with their Michaels and Gabriels."

"It requires more than the mere name of a blissful being," said Mr. Riley, “to be able to endure such wrong with fortitude and resignation, and without sometimes losing faith in the moral rectitude of the universe."

The thoughts of Gabriel then ran to the reading of "Butler's Analogy in the settlement, and how he had fortified his faith by its contents.

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You are acquainted I presume, Mr. John, with many of the circumstances of the event to which my nephew refers."

"I am, Mr. Riley, for I was in the neighbourhood at the time, and took the keenest cognizance of the issues of the affair, and I most decidedly form the same conclusion as Mr. Venn, that it is an instance of extreme miscarriage of justice."

"The event,” said May, in the spirit of sunny hopefulness, " will right itself sooner or later. A kindly Providence will surely intervene, and even now in the sight of clear minded persons no stigma can be really fastened upon the poor man's true character. I am so glad my cousin, in real missionary spirit, showed his sympathy with that Michael. What a pleasure it must give one to help any human being so situated!"

"You are performing the office," thought Gabriel within himself, "but you do not now receive your full reward of pleasure, for you do it unawares."

"What you say, my child, is undoubtedly correct. I visited a case just now, which forms an object lesson in the principle you enunciate concerning the beneficent overruling providence of our Father. A young clerk in the old country was accused of theft, and a shameful breach of trust. He had no means of rebutting the circumstantial evidence likely to be adduced against him, and being ashamed of facing a tribunal, he consequently fled from his home and country and came to the gold diggings. Then as the result of a more arduous mode of life here, he is now, I fear, at the door of death. But the threatening cloud overhanging him is dispersed; a letter came to him this morning from a friend who knew his whereabouts, informing him that the question of the theft was cleared; the lost bond and the money were found where they had been thoughtlessly placed by the head of the firm. The poor man may rally as he realizes the meaning of the message; yet in losing his home he came here to find his Saviour,-better that than much gold!"

"Is it Bob Jackson, father? Mother Mother and I called to see him yesterday."

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'Yes, May, it is he; but his true surname is Jones. I intend to write to his friends at Cardiff after calling to see him later on this evening."

"You have given utterance to kindly sentiments as to the sad lot of those who fall under the ban of society, through false evidence or hasty conclusions; but suppose an ex-convict expressed a desire to become my partner in the building trade or in some great contract, would I be justified,

all else being satisfactory, in acceding to his wishes?" asked Gabriel.

That puts our principles to the test pretty sharply; nevertheless I say yes, on the condition already specified, viz., that you are convinced that the said ex-convict is innocent of the crime for which he was exiled, other considerations being agreeable to the supposed partnership."

"Nevertheless, Mr. Riley, it places a man at a fearful disadvantage in the race of life to be stigmatised with the name convict."

"Possibly you are not aware," replied the pastor," that there are some ex-convicts in our generous climate who have risen to positions of wide influence and usefulness; and there are some who were transported on clearly false issues. The undeniable instances I have seen of the perversion of penal justice, form, in my estimation, an insurmountable argument against capital punishment."

"The magnanimity of mind which your argument evinces must be much harder to practise than to expound and profess. Are you not sometimes tempted to lose faith in men, when you witness the seamy side of society such as is found in proximity to a penal settlement?"

"No, no; it would ill become my calling to fail to repose trust in man, especially when he is tried, tempted, and repentant. We came to Baileyhill ten years ago, having quitted the mother country for the sake of my health, which is now as good as ever. After our arrival, the first year was spent in founding a new cause here; and being the first minister to enter the field in what was then a small village, I had many advantages to make a good start. By the second year I had gathered around me some of the best men in the district,-men of sterling good character, most of whom you know yourself; and since then I have often thanked the invisible hand that took mine into its gentle grasp to lead me to this important post. During that time I have been guided by superhuman light to read hearts and to select the best Christian workers, hardly ever reposing trust in the wrong place."

Printed and Published by Hughes and Son, at 56, Hope Street, Wrexham.

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(A Constituent College of the University of Wales. ) -)o(

PRINCIPAL: H. R. REICHEL, M.A., With Eight Professors, Four Lecturers, and Eleven other teachers. Next Session be

gins OCTOBER 2nd, 1894. The College courses include the subjects for the degrees of London University. Students intending to graduate in Medicine at the Universities of Edinburgh or Glasgow may take their first year's course at the College. There are special departments for Agriculture and Electrical Engineering.

At the Entrance Scholarship Examination (beginning SEPTEMBER 18th) more than 20 Scholarships and Exhibitions, ranging in value from £40 to £10, will be open for competition. One half the total amount offered is reserved for Welsh candidates.

For further information and copies of the Prospectus, apply to

JOHN EDWARD LLOYD, M.A.,
Secretary and Registrar.

TO LEARN WELSH.

Ab Owen's Publications.

Welsh Classics.

HANES Y FFYDD YNG NGHYMRU (History of the Faith in Wales.)

By Charles Edwards. Three Pence. DINISTR JERUSALEM (Destruction of Jerusalem.)-Illustrated.

By Eben Fardd. Three Pence.

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