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2 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.”