Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law." "Arise, O Lord, and plead thine own cause!"

Brethren, beloved, we affectionately and earnestly ask you to unite with us in repeating and perpetuating the observance of the Week of Prayer. Nor shall we ask in vain. The hallowed influence of our former new-year's services, still lingering in the hearts of thousands, will obtain to this request a quick and devout response. Let not our earnestness cease until, in answer to believing, wrestling, importunate supplication, the windows of heaven are opened, and far richer and more copious blessings descend upon the Church and the world.

and on the rising ministry at large; the conversion of the young, and a large blessing upon Sunday and other schools.

FRIDAY, JAN. 10.-The Word of God: that it may be received with increased faith, reverence, and love; that its assailants may be enlightened and brought into the way of truth; that the power of the Divine Spirit may attend its private study and its circulation throughout the world.

SATURDAY, JAN. 11.-The Lord's Day: that its divine institution may be recog nised, and its desecration at home and abroad may cease.

SUNDAY, JAN. 12.-Sermons on the Signs, Dangers, and Duties of the Present Times: motives to personal holiness and Christian activity.

The following are suggested as topics suited for a prominent place in our exhortations and prayers on the successive days. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it," If adopted, they will serve to give unity to is both the Divine warrant and encourageour services. "If two of you shall agreement with which we are emboldened to on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."

SUNDAY, JAN. 5.—Sermons on the Holy Spirit: his divinity and personality; his offices and operations. Prayer for the Lord's blessing upon the services of the week.

MONDAY, JAN. 6.-Humiliation and Confession of Sin: as individuals; as families; as churches, and as a nation. Thanksgiving and praise for recent religious awakenings.

make known these requests unto God. Let us, in unity of spirit and prayer, obey the precept, and God, even our own God, will fulfil his gracious promise. "God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him."

Persons into whose hands this paper may come, are earnestly requested to promote the holding of prayer-meetings during the week in their own neighbourhood.

THE REV. BEHARI LAL SINGH.

TUESDAY, JAN. 7.-Home Objects for Prayer: the conversion of the ungodly; the cessation of intemperance and all immorality; and the spread of vital religion in our families and households, was delivered by our brother, to the among our rulers, the rich and the poor,

our soldiers and sailors, the authors of our literature, secular and religious.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 8.-Foreign Objects for Prayer: the Revival of pure Christianity, and the extension of religious liberty in Europe and the lands of the! East; the overthrow of every form of antiChristian error; the conversion of the house of Israel; the prevalence of peace among all nations, especially in America; and a yet more abundant blessing upon our brethren and sisters engaged in the work of missions, Christian education, and literature in foreign lands.

THE following interesting address

congregation of New John-street, Birmingham, prior to his departure for India. The statement of his own per sonal history will interest many readers. The touching narrative of his wife was published by us some months ago in the Juvenile Messenger; but for the sake of those who do not see that publication, we give it also here.

It is expected that I should say a word or two about my own personal THURSDAY, JAN. 9.- The Church of they shall be very general. history. They shall be very brief and God and the Christian Ministry: the I do not assume it as a matter of increased spirituality of the Church, and

its more decided separation from the course that I am a converted man; world: brotherly love, sympathy, and the Lord alone knows my many imper union of labour among the Lord's people; fections and deficiencies. I feel rather a higher standard of piety and power among Christian ministers and all their fellow-labourers; the outpouring of the universities and colleges,

diffident in speaking of the inward working of my soul-its growth in grace, its many grievous falls-but I shall let you know a few leading inci

of the Bible was too sublime for man to follow.

We all made up our minds to embrace Christianity, and I am glad to say that we did not suffer as much persecution as many of my brethren in India have suffered. My father and brother fell into the company of two devoted Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, by whom they were admitted into the Christian Church by the sacred ordinance of baptism.

I am a native of the north-west provinces in India, the seat of the late fearful outbreak, and the present famine. In the year 1830 my father came down to Calcutta, in order to give myself and brother the advantages of an English education-for there were no missions, no schools in the northwest provinces. In that the Rev. year Dr. Duff, the first Missionary of the Church of Scotland, opened his school in Calcutta, and there I and my brother As I had received the first impreswent to study the English language. sions of the truth from Dr. Duff's InFor several years we struggled on with stitution, I felt it my duty to associate the elements of education, but at last myself with him. In all my trials and a copy of the Word of God was put difficulties, which are inseparable from into our hands. It was the reading of the ministerial work, I have been the Bible, as well as the private ministrations of that good and great man, Dr. Duff, and his excellent colleagues, Drs. Mackay and Ewart, that made us almost persuaded to be Christians.

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strengthened and encouraged by the example of another Christian officer and his lady-Brigadier Colin Mackenzie-whose testimony for the Lord Jesus has been so remarkable, so simI had bright prospects before me. ple-minded, and so consistent, as to The late General Sir Duncan Macleod lead my blinded countrymen to confess took a deep interest in my welfare. I that he is, after all, their best and most went from Dr. Duff's celebrated Insti- disinterested friend. Them that tution to the Government Medical honour me I will honour." College, and learned the higher branches I laboured in connection with Dr. of natural philosophy and botany; Duff's Mission for seventeen years, then I passed an examination before first as a teacher in his Institution, the Government Council of Education, then as a teacher among the Jews, and got an appointment, and got in contact last of all, as a teacher among the with a civil officer-Sir Duncan Mac- Hindus and Mahomedans. leod-who had defrayed the expense of At last my health gave way, and I my education in Dr. Duff's Institution was recommended by medical friends as well as in the Government Medical to take a sea voyage to England, which College. It was the Christian example I was enabled to do through the muof this gentleman, his integrity, his nificence of Brigadier Mackenzie, who honesty, his disinterestedness, his active also supports my dear wife benevolence, that made me think that children during my absence from CalChristianity was something living, cutta. I have sojourned in England. moving, and loving. Most men go out for eighteen months, and attended the to India to make their fortunes, but lectures of the great and good men this gentleman sacrificed all his fortune who preside over the Free Church Colfor the benefit of my countrymen. lege in Glasgow, and the English Here I saw a practical embodiment of Presbyterian College in London. I Christian truth. It made an impres- beg your earnest and united prayer sion on my mind. that when I return to my fatherland I may become a more humble, useful, and better man than I have ever been before.

About this time my brother, who was also in the government service, had prepared his mind to embrace Christianity. He came to me and said, "I want to become a Christian teacher; I must give up all, and you must support me." My father got a copy of the Persian Bible from Dr. Mackay; he read and pondered over it, and the only objection he had to embrace Christianity was, that the morality

and

I have also been requested to say a few words about one who is very dear to me, on account of the lessons which her history is considered to teach.

Supposing any one of those whom I am now addressing was to take a voyage to Calcutta, and suppose they reached the Bay of Bengal, the first

What was then to become of the

prominent object which would attract and that, in that sad eleventh hour, she their attention is what the British sea-looked to the Lamb of God to take men call the black pagoda. What away her sins. Jerusalem was to the ancient Jews, Mecca to the Mahomedans, the Temple little one? It was a girl, too; and girls of Juggernaut is to the Hindus. Thousands and tens of thousands of pilgrims annually resort to this Sebastopol of idolatry.

are always unwelcome additions to a heathen household. Could a heathen mother be found to tend it? Ah, no! The "dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty," not of love. A native doctor, who had been called to prescribe for the poor woman, was standing by, and the missionary asked what could be done for the infant. He shrugged his shoulders—“ Let it die too. What else?" was his reply.

But this was not to be. The ser vant of Christ remembered how his Master took the young children in his arms, and resolved to remove the forlorn little one to his own home, while the native doctor took possession of the gold and silver ornaments the woman had worn, and the money that was found upon her. Dr. and Mrs. Sutton had no children, and they soon adopted the Hindu baby as their daughter. The starving condition of the child was shown soon after its reception under that kind sheltering roof. Some food was put on a plate on the floor, and while a spoon was being sent for, with all the energy of hunger, the little thing crawled to it, and began feeding herself with both her hands.

In the year 1829, a Brahmin family in North India set out on a pilgrimage to the temple of Juggernaut. No tidings of the Prince of Peace had ever reached their ears; and to atone by a wearisome and perilous journey for the sins which even they, as heathens, knew and felt they had committed, they left their home. The family consisted of the Pundit, his wife, and their infant of a few months old, and two or three servants. They had proceeded as far as Balasore, 150 miles distant from the temple to which they were going, when cholera, the scourge of India, attacked the mother. From that time the father disappeared; whether the strong man also was at tacked and fell, or whether he was selfimmolated under the wheels of the ponderous car of his god, we know not. With great difficulty the suffering mother dragged herself and her babe to the door of a house where she expected to find the succour she needed; but her hope was in vain; and some little time after this, a missionary-Dr. Sut- Years rolled on, and the babe beton of the General Baptist Mission-came a young woman. She accompassing by, on his way to preach to the panied Dr. and Mrs. Sutton on a visit pilgrims, found her lying on the ground, to America, where she was placed in a under the shade of a large tree, un-boarding-school, and afer her return aided, uncared for, with her starving with them to her native country, she infant clinging to her. He administered some medicine, but the distance from a Christian station rendered it difficult to obtain help, and he had to walk some miles before he could procure a cup of milk for her. That fearful scene long dwelt upon the missionary's mind. Above him the sky was obscured by thick clouds that threatened every moment to burst upon their heads in a fearful storm; and at his feet lay that expiring mother and the helpless babe soon to be left an orphan in a heathen land.

After three days the woman died. Who can tell whether the "story of grace" which, for the first time in her life, she had heard from the friend who had so tenderly cared for her perishing body, found an entrance into her heart;

became assistant teacher in the schools of the mission, which had been her happy home. Her kind friends preserved her from the evils and mischief of early marriage, such as prevails in that land of darkness; and, unlike that which her own father and mother could have done, they arranged for her no marriage of convenience or of indiffer ence, but left her free to give her heart with her hand, "only in the Lord."

The narrative is continued in the Female Missionary Intelligencer as follows:-"In the course of time a young Rajput visited the station at which she resided. He, too, was a Christian; and, being himself a highlyeducated man, he could appreciate the well-cultivated mind of this young woman. Above all he recognised in

her the image of the Master, to whose even supposing the tremendous penalty had work he had consecrated himself. been incurred when no other native was Upon further acquaintance esteem ripened into affection; the gentle orphan girl was wooed and won, and, with glad consent of her foster-parents, the marriage took place. The union of this Christian pair was consecrated by a Christian service; no heathen rights or Hindu revellings were practised on that joyful occasion, but the blessing of the Lord Jesus was sought upon the marriage feast.

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near, the alarm of the wretched man soon betrayed itself, and discovered his secret to those around him. Fully convinced now that his doom was sealed, he would lie down to die, refusing nourishment of every in the agonies of starvation, the cruel fable kind, and eventually confirming by a death which he so thoroughly believed. This superstition was prevalent among the native tribes when I came to New Zealand. I heard a missionary give an account of an instance that occurred about twelve months The orphan of Juggernaut still after my arrival. A fine young man had lives to praise God for her creation, accidentally, and in complete ignorance of preservation, and all the blessings of the fact, trodden on the grave of a chief. this life' which have been her portion, A native had witnessed the alarming sacriand she resides close to the spot where lege, and at once made the matter known. she was so mercifully preserved. Her To the general surprise, the offender first husband, the Rev. Behari Lal Singh, retained possession of his usual health. of Calcutta, is now on a visit to this As soon, however, as he learned what he country, and from his lips, when speak-lieve the spell was already at work. He had done, he became so alarmed as to being recently at a public meeting in London, on behalf of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, the writer heard this narrative. He concluded by asking his hearers to pray for his beloved partner, that she may be a burning and a shining light among her benighted sisters, and may have wisdom and grace to train up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.""

wrapped himself up in blankets and lay down to die. The circumstance was concealed from the missionary for some time, and the poor fellow's friends grew very uneasy at the prolongation of his life. At last the missionary heard of it, and was greatly surprised to find that the victim was one belonging to his own district. He immediately went to the wharra, and found him absolutely sinking through sheer exhaustion, as was plainly shown by his sunken cheek and ghastly countenance. At first the young man refused to listen to him, and, in concert with his friends, laboured hard to persuade him that his

Extracts from New Publications. death was inevitable. The missionary en

quired for the spot on which the young Iman had intruded. The place was shown SUPERSTITIONS OF THE him, and he immediately walked over the MAORIES OF NEW ZEALAND. grave. The spectators, of course, expected to see his countenance change; but, after ON my arrival here I was greatly disap- gazing for some time (like those islanders pointed at finding those with whom I came of old who saw the viper fasten upon the in contact, of the native race of New Zea- hand of St. Paul) without observing any land, so completely sunk in ignorance and evil consequences result from the daring superstition. It was only too evident that act, they arrived at the satisfactory conif they had been instructed in the princi- clusion that from the penalty which would ples of Christianity, they had by this time unquestionably have overtaken the Maori, either forgotten them or set them utterly the Pakahaka was mysteriously exempt. at defiance. As examples, I need only The missionary again endeavoured to perrefer to their recent wars, and to an outra-suade the young man to take something, geous delusion, which I shall proceed to but his friends emphatically protested. At describe. It has always been believed last he felt the pangs of hunger so sharply among the Maories, that to tread on the that he was induced to eat, and in a few grave of a chief is certain death. Should days he entirely recovered. Now, as all anyone have been so unfortunate as to com- this occurred among natives who had emmit the offence, it was announced as a braced Christianity, the question arises, positive certainty, that his crime would how can it be accounted for? Alas! in a cost him his life. The statement, which lamentable way. was implicitly credited, worked so power- ought to have set them an upright example The very people who fully upon the fears of the people, that, have been a stumbling-block in their path.

The white man has daily degraded himself | as a drunkard in their presence; they have been constantly cheated in the most outrageous and barefaced manner. Any earnest longings they might once have cherished to exchange a heathen for a Christian life, have been utterly put to flight by the disgraceful spectacle presented in the lives of those who professed the faith they were invited to adopt. If we are to credit the statements of missionaries, it is certain that the candle of the Lord shone brightly at one time among this benighted people, and many have been pointed out to me as able once to give a good reason for the hope that was in them, but now living in open rebellion against God. Once the Lord'sday was by them esteemed as sacred, and nothing could induce them to desecrate it. Now the calm of Sabbath rest appears to have for ever forsaken this lovely island, while the Christian pen can only write a sorrowing "Ichabod " over the records of It must not her deserted faith.

be inferred, however, from all that has been said, that religious services are entirely abandoned by the natives; on the contrary, they are generally well attended. Nor are louder responses to the prayer ever heard from the two silent congregations of Christian England. A remnant there is that shall be saved-their knees unbent to Baal. A few, we may rest assured, are quietly waiting with all the Church militant on earth for the promised consolation of Israel. -From Memorials of Serjeant William Marjouram, just published by Nisbet and Co.

SUNSET AND DEATH.

Few can have beheld a gorgeous sunset without the same suggestive association. Incomparably the grandest scene the writer ever witnessed in nature was a sunset on Mont Blanc, as seen from the Flegere. The "monarch mountain" had appeared during the day under varied, shifting, capricious shades of light and shadow-at one time fleecy vapours, at another darker masses obscuring his giant form. As evening, however, approached, all these were dispelled; not a cloud floated in the still air, when the glowing orb hastened to his setting. The vast irregular pyramid of snow became a mass of deAnon, the licately flushed crimson. shadows of night crept up the valley, until nothing but the summit of the mountain retained the hectic glow of expiring life-a coronal of evanescent glory. This, too, in its turn, slowly and impressively passed away. The flaming sun of that long afternoon sank behind the opposite range of Alps; and the colossal mass in front. which, in a few minutes before, had been gleaming with ruby splendour, now lapsed into a hue of cold grey, as if it had assumed robes of sackcloth and ashes, in exchange for the glow, and warmth, and brightness of life. The fellow-spectators at the moment gave expression to the same irresistible suggestion-What a sublime symbol! what an awful and impressive photograph of DEATH?

Nor was this all. When that last lurid glow was lingering on the summits, lighting up the jewels in this icy If we regard the world of nature as diadem, the sun itself had in reality a typical volume, full of suggestive already set-he had sunk behind the analogies, an exponent and interpreter line of the horizon. The valley beof the world of spirit, no symbol neath had long been sleeping in surely is more striking and appropriate shadow, and lights were twinkling in than "Sunset" is of Death. Every the chalets. evening, as the sun goes down, we have a permanent type and enduring parable of the close of life, as well as a pledge and prophecy of the rising again in the eternal morning. The God of nature, in his own hieroglyphic, countersigns the beautiful utterance of his word "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace" (Psa. xxxvii.).

This, too, had its irrepressible meaning and lesson-that the radiance of the moral sunset lingers after our earthly course has run. A man's influence survives death! These glorious orbs of the olden time have set for thousands of years, but their mellowed lustre still irradiates the world's mountain-tops. Though dead. they yet "speak."-Macduff's Sunsets on the Hebrew Mountains.