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A CHILD’S FAITH.
(jjrNTO her chamber went
«IB A little child one day,
> | And by a chair she knelt,
' And thus began to pray:
“Jesus, my eyes I close—
Thy form I cannot see;
If thou art near me, Lord,
I pray thee speak to me.”
A still, small voice she heard within her soul,
“ What is it, child? I heard thee ; tell me all.”
*• I pray thee, Lord,” she said,
" That thou wilt condescend
To tarry in my heart,
And ever be my Iriend;
The path of life is dark—
I would not go astray;
O let me have thy hand
To lead me in the way.”
“Fear not—l will not leave thee, child, alone.”
She thought she felt a soft hand press her own.
“ They tell me, Lord, that all
The living pass away;
The aged soon must die,
And even children may.
O let my parents live
Till I a woman grow;
For if they die
What can a little orphan do?”
“ Fear not, my child—whatever ills may come,
I’ll not forsake thee till I bring thee home.”
Her little prayer was said,
And from her chamber now
She passed forth with the light
Os heaven upon her brow.
“Mother, I’ve seen the Lord—
His hand in mine J felt;
And oh, I heard him say,
As by my chair I knelt,
‘Fear not, my child—whatever ills may come,
I’ll not forsake thee till I bring thee home.’ ”
A RUSSIAN PARJBLE.
®HERE once lived in Russia man named Marko,
so rich that he did not Aimself know how much
(V)’ i) money he possessed. an( l so he got the name of
£ “ Marko the Rio?*” 4 n d he had a fine house
o and fine furni Mre —f° r l° ve d state and show—
and when any g^ at P er son came to see him, there was
the best of and wine on the table, and troops of
richly dre" servants to wait. But if a poor niujik
(peasant! or a pilgrim on his road to Kiev or Jerusalem,
came to the door to beg alms for the way, all he got was
a tick, and “Get away, you dirty vagabond 1” So those
who spoke of “ Marko the Rich,” soon began to call
him “ Marko the Proud ” as well.
Now, in course of time, Marko’s heart was so lifted
up with pride in his grand possessions that he thought
himself the greatest man upon earth, and hardly felt the
ground under his feet. Though, indeed, there were
• those who said that he had not much to be proud of;
for if Tie had wanted to give alms, he had no need to go
any farther than his own sister, a poor cripple who lived
in a miserable hut on the other side of the road, and was
often in sore want when the cold days of winter came.
But let her be as ill-off as she might, her hard-hearted
brother never gave her any help; and, indeed, he had
more than once threatened to pull down her poor little
hut altogether, saying that its standing there, just at his
own door, was a disgrace to him.
And so Marko the Rich waxed prouder and prouder,
till he said within himself, “ What grandeur is equal to
mine ? There is no man worthy to eat at my table. I
will invite our Lord himself to be my guest.”
So he made great preparation, and mustered all his
servants, and brought out all his golden dishes, and
spread a rich carpet on the steps of his house, and waited
for our Lord to come and be his guest.
All day he sat waiting impatiently; and as often as he
saw a fine carriage coming up in the distance, throwing
a cloud of dust from the hoofs of its fiery horses, he said
to himself, “This must be he!” But no; the carriages
went by; and hour passed after hour, and evening drew
nigh, and still our Lord came not.
The sun was just going down, when a poor, pale,
ragged, half-starved man, sorely wearied, and covered
with dust from head to foot, came slowly along the road;
KIND WORDS.
and he limped painfully up to the door where Marko
was sitting (for his feet were all cut and bleeding) and
craved shelter for God’s sake.
But Marko was angry at having made such prepara
tions in vain; and he thrust him away savagely, bidding
him seek shelter elsewhere. And the beggar turned
silently away, and went across the road to the hovel of
Marko’s sister; and Marko laughed scornfully, and
said, “ They will be well matched !”
But when he awoke next morning, lo! there stood at
his door a woman, at sight of whom he started back in
amazement. She had the face of his sister; but instead
of being in rags, she had good warm clothes on, worth
fifty rubles at least; and instead of being crippled, she
looked nimble enough to walk all around the church in
the Easter procession. •
“ Brother,” said she, “ a strange thing has befallen
me. Last night a beggar came to my door craving shel
ter in God’s name; so I took him in and shared with
him what food I had. And as we were eating, sud
denly his face was all bright and beautiful, and like the
great picture above the altar in our church, and he laid
his hand upon my head, and said to me, “Whoso re
ceiveth my poor, receiveth me; and he shall in no wise
lose his reward!” And immediately I became as you
see me now; but when I turned to thank him he was
gone.”
Then Marko tore his hair, and cried bitterly, “ That
was he, then! and he might perhaps have given me
some good gift, too ! If I had but known him!”
Uut. Just then a voice—exceeding soft and gentle, but
very terrible withal—stole down through the air: “Only
those can know him who are lowly and humble like
himself.”— Good Things.
THE YOUNG MAN OF PRINCIPLE.
A young man was in a position where his employers
required him to make a false statement, by which seve
ral hundred dollars would come in their hands that did
not belong to them. All depended on this clerk serv
ing their purpose. To on, he utterly refused
to do so. He could not be induced to sell his consci
ence for any one’s favor. As a result he was discharged
from the place.
Not long after, he applied for a vacant situation, and
the gentleman, being pleased with his address, asked
him for any good reference he might have. The young
man felt that his character was unsullied, and so fear
lessly referred him to his last employer.
“ I have just been dismissed from his employ, and you
may inquire of him about me.”
It was a new fashion of getting a young man’s recom
mendations, but the gentleman called on the firm, and
found that the only objection was that he was “too con
scientious about trifles.” The gentleman had not been
greatly troubled by too conscientious employees, and
preferred that those entrusted with his money should
have a fine sense of truth and honesty; so he engaged
the young man, who rose fast in favor and became at
length a partner in one of the largest firms in Boston.
“ A good name is rather to be chosen than great
riches.” Even unscrupulous men know the worth of
good principles that cannot be moved.
A gentleman turned off a man in his employ at the
bank, because he refused to write for him on Sunday.
When asked afterward to name some reliable person he
might know as suitable for a cashier in another bank, he
mentioned this same man.
“You can depend upon him,” he said, “for he re
fused to do work for me on the Sabbath.”
A gentleman who employed many persons in his large
establishment, said, “When I see one of my young men
riding for pleasure on Sunday, I dismiss him on Mon
day. I know such a one cannot be trusted. Nor will
I employ one who occasionally drinks liquor of any
kind.”
Honor the Sabbath and all the teachings of the Bible,
and you cannot fail to find favor with God, and with
man also.
Keep away from temptation and sin.
FAMINE.
Dear Children: You have heard of famine, but no
famine in America can be like the one we have here,
because when the crops there entirely fail in one part of
the country, food can be rapidly brought from other
places. The spring crop of wheat, and the autumn crop
of millet, beans, etc., the staff of life, failed entirely last
year in many parts of this province. In a large section
two hundred miles west of Tung Chow, the people
would all have starved if they had not moved away, for
their crops have failed three years in succession. They
generally move in large companies, and depend entirely
upon begging. Their sufferings are very great, for they
have no money, the most of them, to buy food, much
less to buy or rent houses to live in. The wealthy and
the Mandarins help these poor refugees, but they can
only prevent the actual starvation of the majority. The
poor sufferers sell their children, or even give them away
to save their lives. Many of them have come to Tung
Chow, and their condition is most pitiable. But there
is great scarcity here, and provisions are so high that I
suppose at least a fourth of the people suffer from hunger.
Some want to give us their children, but we say, “ No,
hold on to your children—we can help you a little, and
times may soon get better.” Besides the scarcity of
food, it has been the coldest winter known for twenty or
thirty years, and some have frozen to death. Four froze
in one day last week. Snow which fell the first day of
January, three or four feet deep, still lies in heaps about
the streets, though it is now thawing rapidly. Contribu
tions for the starving have been sent up from Shanghai
and other places; but that is only a drop in the bucket,
and the poor, shivering, famine-stricken creatures meet
us at every corner and daily besiege our doors.
Chinese New Year was on the 13th inst., and we are
now having vacation. M. F. C.
Tung Chow, China, February sist, 1877.
TO AMUSE BOYS AND GIRLS.
Tommy is fond of sugar, and asks his mother for some
to eat with his strawberries. “She refuses. He appears
resigned, but adds, gravely: “You know, mamma,
what happened round the corner ? There was a little
boy, and his mother would not give him any sugar on
his strawberries, and—” “And—?” “ And next day
he fell into a well!”
Little Johnny has peculiar views as to original sin.
One day he was about to be punished for misdemeanor,
when he pleaded : “ It wasn’t me, mamma dear; it was
the bad man.” “ Well, Johnny, I’m going to whip the
bad man out of you.” “ Ah, yes; but that’ll hurt me a
precious lot more than it will the bad man.”
A little boy’s father gave him two nickels—one to
spend for candy, the other to give to the heathen. He
presently lost one of the nickels, but consoled himself
with the thought that the one which was lost was the
one which was to be given to the heathen.
That was a good story told by the Bishop of Ripon,
as illustrative of the light in which some scholars look
at Sunday School teaching. A tea'cher asked the class
■why the eunuch went on his way rejoicing after his talk
with Philip. The prompt answer of the bright boy was:
“ Please, sir, because Philip had done a teaching him.”
A three-year-old little girl was taught to close her
evening prayer, during the temporary absence of her
father, with, “and please watch over my papa.” It
sounded very sweet, but the mother’s amusement may
be imagined when she added, “ And you’d better keep
an eye on mamma too!”
“ Will the boy who threw that pepper on the stove
please come up here and get a present of a nice new
book?” said a school teacher in Iowa; but the boy
never moved. He was a far-seeing boy.
A child being asked what were the three great feasts
of the Jews, promptly replied: “ Breakfast, dinner, and
supper.”