My Saviour's redemption,

How precious the theme, &c.

Her mother, surprised at what she heard, wondered at the earnestness of her dear Sophia. She said to her neighbour, a pious woman, who had come to watch by the bedside of the little sufferer, “I think that the Lord is going to take my child back to Do you not see that she is preparing to go to God?" The neighbour answered, "Be calm, poor mother! God has still power to preserve her to you alive." The evening of her death, Sophia sang this other hymn

Himself.

:

We'll enter in the house of God, With reverence and holy fear, &c. Such were the last words of this little one, who was leaving this world of sorrow and weeping, to enter that of joy and peace. All who stood by wondered at the knowledge of the child, so much beyond her years, and they felt that the Lord was there.

21

The mother wished to go with her child to her last home-the grave. She walked with a mournful look, and seemed almost in despair. At the moment at which they were letting down the corpse of her darling daughter into the tomb, she gave a loud cry and fell down almost faint

ing. She was led back to her house, where she wept bitterly. Before long, the missionaries and the Christians of the place came to tell her of the comfort that Jesus offers to mourners. her head before the Lord, and conShe listened to them eagerly, bowed fessed that He is right even when He sends suffering. The father of Sophia was away from home when she died. This trial has been blessed to his soul also. He wishes, as well as his wife, to turn to the Lord and to become a real Christian; both ask for baptism. It seems that the hope of 'one day meeting their beloved child in heaven is one reason which leads them to seek the Saviour.

in a part of the country where coal is dug, and one day he thought he should like to see a mine, and he was lowered down into one many hundred feet deep. When he got

looked very dark and dirty, and he did not know who they were. But there was one of them who knew him, and who ran up to the place where he was standing, with great

22

glee, and said, "Oh, sir, I never expected to see you here!" It was one of the boys of his class in the Sabbath-school.

Having got permission to show the gentleman over the mine, the little fellow set out and took his teacher to every part worth seeing. But he was so overjoyed at the job, and skipped along so fast, that now and then he left the visitor in darkness, till he came back to him again with the little safety-lamp which was hanging from his hand. He showed the gentleman where the miners were at work, and pointed out the thick pillars of coal which were left for a time to keep the roof from falling in. It is very likely that he took him to the stables where the horses were kept, and told him how many of them there were, and how long they had been down in that deep, dark place, and how blind they had become from not having had any use for their eyes.

At last the teacher and his little guide came to the bottom of the shaft that is, the deep pit up and down which the coal and the workpeople are drawn-and the gentleman was glad enough to see the light of day glimmering once more from the top, and had no wish to go back again through the dark diggings

The god Rama, he said, was very fond of a girl named Sita; but Rawen, king of the island of Ceylon, stole her away from him, and hid her in his prisons and castles. The god Rama tried all sorts of ways to get her back again, but could not. At last he asked the great king of the monkeys, the god Hunuman, to help him. This god was quite ready, and jumped with a tremendous leap right over the sea that separates Ceylon from the mainland of India. When he had found out the place where Sita was imprisoned, he began to eat up all the fruit of the island, so as to vex the king. But as soon as Rawan was told what Hunuman was doing, he gave orders to make a large net to catch him in. But every time the great god of the

no

monkeys was caught in the net, all at once he became as small as a little gnat, and got out through the meshes. To prevent his escape, Rawan made a small net with very little spaces between the cords; but sooner was Hunuman caught than he changed himself to a tremendous ox and tore the fine net to pieces. At last, however, he was taken, and condemned to die. And the way in which they meant to put him to death was this:-All the cloth that could be found in Ceylon was collected together and soaked in oil and pitch. It was then tied to his long tail and set on fire. But as soon as it began to blaze up terribly, Hunuman sprang from house to house and set the whole town in flames. When he reached the very last house, he tripped his foot and fell into the burning building, and singed his face, hands, and feet. But immediately he jumped up again and sprang into the sea. Still his face, hands, and feet were blackened by the fire, although his beard and tail remained unhurt. This, the native assured the child, was the reason why the monkeys, who are the descendants of Hunuman, have the mark in remembrance of his adventure in the