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for an hour. Passages of Scripture were read at intervals, accompanied with remarks and singing.

"This morning the congregation came together again, and the Lord was present with power. The scene of yesterday was repeated with increasing interest. Many of those who gave yesterday doubled their gifts. One young man arose, and with much emotion offered a string of gold beads, a memento of his wife, who was present at the last annual meeting, but who died soon after. A great part of the congregation were in tears, and some could hardly restrain themselves from crying aloud."

More Horrors at Dahomey.

THE case of Dahomey appears to be desperate, so far as human aid is concerned. Another bloody sacrifice impending, in which fifteen hundred or two thousand victims are to be immolated. The surrounding territory is hunted by the soldiers of Hadahung for the wretched beings who are to be put to death.- Wesleyan Notices.

Madagascar.

THE reports respecting the death of the Queen of Madagascar, and the accession of her son to the throne, have been fully confirmed, and the new sovereign has not lost an hour in proclaming his earnest desire to maintain friendly intercourse with all nations; and these wise and just views were specially communicated to the Governor of Mauritius for transmission to the Government of England.-London Missionary Magazine.

"Jesus has Promised."

THE youngest of three Chinese children, on asking his father to allow him to be baptized, was told that he was too young; that he might fall back, if he made a profession when he was only a little boy. To this he made the touching reply-"Jesus has promised to carry the lambs in his arms. As I am only a little boy, it will be easier for Jesus to carry me. This logic of the heart was too much for the father. He took him with him, and the dear child was, ere long, baptized. The whole family, of which this child is the youngest member-the father, mother, and three sons-are all members of the mission church at Amoy.

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BURYING THE BIBLE.

IN a prayer-meeting held in America, an affecting incident was related of a little girl, a poor, forlorn, forsaken child, who, being a Sabbath-school scholar, and afterwards a Christian, became possessed of a Bible; and oh, how unspeakably precious did that Bible become to this little girl! Such was her love for the sacred volume, that she buried it in the garden, for fear her parents, who were Roman Catholics, would take it away from her, and destroy it. But, by means of that same Bible, both of those parents afterwards became changed, and gave abundant evidence of being converted. She had no longer to bury her Bible.

BOOKS.

THE KING'S HIGHWAY; or, Stories of the Commandments. By the Rev. Richard Newton, D.D. T. Nelson and Sons, London and Edinburgh. 32mo, 48 pages. Price Threehalfpence; or, in Dozens, One Penny each.

One of the best, cheapest, and most attractive books for children we have ever met with. The idea is a happy one, and it is well carried out. The simplest and most interesting way of explaining the Commandments is by stories, showing how they are kept, or how they are broken. This little book is glittering all over with well-chosen stories. It deserves to be a favourite, it is so fitted to do good to all who read it.

PRECIOUS THINGS. By I. A. Edinburgh: John Maclaren. 32mo, 32 pages. Price Twopence.

This tract is published as a New Year's Address; but it is an address as well fitted for every day as for New Year's Day. There is much precious truth in it, taught in a simple and lively way, and evidently by one accustomed to break down the bread for the young. We reprint an extract from it in our present number.

EDINBURGH: T. NELSON AND SONS.

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N Thursday, 16th January last, a terrible calamity occured at New Hartley Colliery, near Newcastle-on-Tyne. The pit, which had only one shaft or entrance, is 600 feet deep. At the mouth, there was a large steam-engine, with an enormous iron beam 8 feet broad, about half a foot thick, and above forty tons weight, for drawing up the coal, and pumping out the water.

Above two hundred men and boys were in the pit, when suddenly the iron beam broke through the middle, one half of the enormous beam falling down the shaft. It was jammed across about half way down, killing five poor fellows who were coming up the pit at the time. A mass of timber and rubbish fell upon it, stopping up the whole passage downwards, and the mouth of the pit

was thus shut, closing in the poor miners, and leaving no other way of escape.

From the Thursday till Wednesday, 22d January, engineers and workmen were working with all their might to open an entrance, and get down to the buried men. Up to the Saturday, they heard the prisoners knocking and shouting from below. On the Wednesday afternoon three men got down ; but, alas! it was too late. They found their poor companions lying dead in heaps, partly killed by hunger, and partly suffocated by the stifling foul gas of the pit.

Many of those who have perished, left clear evidence behind them that they were children of God, and that they fell asleep in Jesus. In the pocket of Amour, ån overseer, who was among the dead, the following was found written in his memorandum book :

Edward Arm

"Friday afternoon, half-past two. strong, Thomas Gledson, John Hardie, Thomas Bell, and others, took extremely ill. We had also a prayerneeting at a quarter to two, when Tibbs, H. Sharp, J. Campbell, H. Gibson, and William Paterson, (the sentence is unfinished). Tibbs exhorted to us again, and Sharp also."

Two hundred and nineteen lives have been lost. These have left behind them one hundred and three widows, and two hundred and fifty-seven fatherless children. While the men were buried, our beloved Queen, who has been learning so sadly to weep with those that weep, was deeply interested. She sent telegraph messages, hoping they still might be saved. When the worst was known, a letter from her was sent, in which this message was given :

"Her Majesty commands me to say that her tenderest sympathy is with the poor widows and mothers, and that her own misery only makes her feel the more for them.

"Her Majesty hopes that everything will be done as far as possible, to alleviate their distress, and her Majesty will have a sad satisfaction in assisting in such a measure.

The men almost all lived in a colliery village close to the pit, where this sad calamity has turned every home into a house of mourning.

Dear young readers, what a lesson to us all. Many of the men who died in that pit are now in heaven. But there is a more terrible pit-the pit of sin. It was that pit of which David said (Psalm lxix. 15), "Let not the pit shut her mouth upon me," and of which he sang,— "He took me from a fearful pit,

And from the miry clay,

And on a rock he set my feet,

Establishing my way."-(Ps. xl. 2.)

By nature, we are all at the bottom of that pit; and none have been got out of it, but those who have come to Jesus. If we have not Jesus, we are sunk in guilt, sunk in corruption. Jesus is able, Jesus is willing, Jesus is waiting to deliver. He holds out his hand, calling, “I will help you." He lets his cords of love, as it were, his sweet promises, down into the pit, for the poor prisoners to lay hold of, and be drawn up and have their feet set upon a rock.

Are you in your sins,-still in the pit? Or are you in Christ,-delivered, your feet set upon the rock?

Are you happy? What! happy in the pit! It is only now that you can be delivered. And, remember, you do not need to be changed, or to take any trouble in order to perish. You need only remain where you are, in the pit of sin, till death come, and then, the pit will shut its mouth upon you. Oh, dreadful thought! to be shut up for ever in "the pit that hath no bottom!" weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth!

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