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through him, an entrance into heaven before I die; but there is time enough yet." My dear young friend, who told you there was time enough yet? Do you know how long the door will stand open? It is open now. But you cannot tell if it will stand open one single day longer. "When once the Master of the house has risen up, and shut to the door, and you begin to stand without and knock, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us," oh, how fearful the answer you will then receive!" It is now too late; the door is shut. Verily I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

A minister was once preaching to children from that text, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock;" and he was telling them that Christ was at that moment standing at their door and wanting to get in. A little girl who heard that sermon was observed by her mother, who sat beside her, to become first very red and then very pale. On reaching home, the mother asked her little girl what was the matter with her. "O mother," said she, "I never knew before that Jesus was standing at my door and wishing to get in; and when the minister told me that Christ was standing at my door and knocking, I said, Come in, Lord Jesus, come in." And Christ came in that night to that dear girl's heart, and she became a child of God, and is now in her heavenly Father's house in glory. Will you, my dear young readers, this hour, on your knees before God, give the same welcome to this loving Saviour, and say from your heart, "COME IN, LORD JESUS, COME IN." If you will do this, I know Jesus will not refuse you, for here are his own blessed words, "If any man-any boy, any girl-will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Lord, open the door thyself, and come in, and make me one of the lambs of thý flock!

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OLD CALABAR.

ONE of the most interesting missions at present carried on in the world is that of the United Presbyterian Church at Old Calabar, on the west coast of Africa.

The people are a strange people, and when the missionaries first went there, were living in all the darkness and cruelties of savage heathenism. These have been very much broken down through the teaching and influence of the missionaries, and specially of the Rev. Mr. Waddell, who, five years ago, had to return to this country. Mr. Waddell has published a most interesting history of the mission, which we advise all our young friends to read who have it in their power. Considering the great difficulties, wonderful progress has been made, and not a few have appeared to become new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Who is that half-naked figure in the picture, sitting like a fat footman with a round hat and gold band? That is his majesty Exo, the King of Old Calabar, with two of his native "gentlemen " beside him.

"THE MORE NEED HE HATH OF PRAYERS." MR. HERRING, one of the Puritan ministers, was distinguished for Christian meekness, and love to his greatest enemies. Dr. Lamb, a violent persecutor of the Puritans, and especially of this good man, being on a journey, unhappily broke his leg, and was carried to the inn where Mr. Herring happened to be staying for a night. Mr. H. was called on to pray in the evening in the family; and he prayed with so much fervour and affection for the doctor, that all who heard him were astonished. Being afterwards asked why he manifested such respect for a man who was so utterly unworthy of it, he replied, "The greater enemy he is, the more need he hath of our prayers, We must prove ourselves to be the disciples of Christ by loving our enemies, and praying for our persecutors,'

INDIA.

BOMBAY.

"God is Working in India.”

THE writer of the following narrative, the Rev. Dhanjibhai Nowroji, is known to many of us in this country by face, and to all the Church by name, as one of the ablest and most devoted of our native ministers. What he tells is indeed encouraging, and may well refresh our hope that the time of India's visitation is hastening:—

"At the beginning of this year," he says, "I was up in Guzerat, and attended a meeting at a native Christian settlement near Baroda. At this meeting there were up. wards of two hundred unbaptized persons present, as representatives of twenty-seven villages. Some of these people travelled twenty and thirty miles to come to the place of meeting, which is not an everyday thing in India. The fact that they took such long journeys, and that at a season of the year when they are most busy, shows what interest and importance they attached to the undertaking.

But who were these people, and what did they want! These people belong to the Dhed caste, who are the Mahars (low castes) of Guzerat. Between four and five hundred families of this caste are earnestly seeking to make a profession of Christianity, and they sent these representatives to Khasiwady-the Christian village founded by our friends Messrs. Clarkson and Taylor-to ask advice from the missionaries as to what they should do. I shall never forget the scene presented by this gathering.

"On the morning of the 5th January, about fifty of the native Christians, male and female, first went into the little church of Khasi wady, and took their seats on the floor, the males on one side and the females on the other. Then came in the Dheds from the distant villages and filled the body of the church. The missionaries of the Irish Presbyterian Church, five in number, next entered the place. The sight now presented was as morally

sublime, I am sure, as any you ever witnessed. One of the brethren gave out a psalm in Guzerathi, which was sung with a heartiness I have seldom seen surpassed, even in a Highland congregation. The presiding missionary then offered up a prayer, which was repeated by the whole congregation after him. It was one of the most solemn prayers I ever heard; every one felt as if in deed and in truth God was in our midst. A portion of the Word was then read and expounded. This being done, the business of the day was commenced.

"The representatives of the village were asked what advice they wanted. They replied, that they wished to know what course they should follow with the world. This suggested to the missionaries the importance of obtaining a public declaration of their willingness to embrace Christianity. Accordingly, they were asked if they were ready to give up their own heathen religion and follow the only one given by God? To this they all gave assent by lifting up their right hand. In order to be more definite, they were again asked if they were willing to give up their idols and idolatrous observances? To this also they gave a satisfactory answer.

"After all their questions were settled to the satisfaction of both sides, the venerable Gungaram, Desai, and Girdhur, who are elders in every sense of the term in the church of Khasiwady, and to whose labours this singular movement owes not a little, came forward, and each addressed the meeting on a Christian subject. O dear friend, I wish you and all the dear Christians of Britain had been present to hear these addresses. They greatly moved our hearts.

"After a few words from the missionaries, the meeting closed. Is it not proved that, as Dr. Mitchell said in his speech at the meeting of the Tract Society, 'God is working in India?' Here are four or five hundred families all waiting to profess Christianity!

"I need not ask you to remember this movement in your prayers. Will you ask all Christians to do so too. The country is in a most interesting state. We need labourers, we need money, we need, above all, the influences of God's Holy Spirit. Will the Christian men, women, children of Scotland, help us to get these?"

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