THE JUVENILE MISSIONARY RECORD. D A HAPPY NEW YEAR! EAR YOUNG READERS,-As soon as the dawn breaks on the first day of the New Year, and all the world rises from its sleep, and begins the hum and stir of its daily life, you will hear a short hearty little phrase greeting you from every tongue. Everybody seems to utter it-every face to smile it on you-every hand to convey it to you in its clasp-every prayer to breathe it out for you at your family and closet altars. Some of you, who are so happy as to have a mother near you, will hear it in the tenderest of whispers, and see it in the warm light of a kind mother's tearful eye; and some of you, who are so blessed as to be growing up under a father's care, will listen to it with deepest reverence, as a kind father's hand is laid upon your head. If you meet your minister, it is the very first thing that starts to his lips; and if you assemble in your Sabbath school classes, it is the readiest phrase of welcome on this New Year's day your teacher can find. And should it be a clear bracing sunny day, the fields and the woods, sparkling in their crisp and hoary dress, will seem to have the same thing written for you on their face; the cheery echo everywhere, the lightsome voice, the merry laugh, the golden sun, and the blue heaven, will seem to be full of it; and so all the world God has arrayed in so much unsearchable grace and beauty around you, will seem to be breathing and murmuring out the one gladdening wish. In short, not to keep your curiosity too long on the stretch, we begin by putting all this in the few simple words you have heard so often-we wish you a happy New Year! Now, some believe it would be a happy New Year if it brought them not one hour's sorrow; if, in all its course, they were to meet with no hardship or difficulty; if every day were to bring with it something new and pleasantsomething to excite wonder and curiosity-something to gratify them greatly, in hearing praise, in enjoying holiday VOL. VI. No. I. JANUARY 1857. pleasures, in being free from all serious studies and serious duties, in gaining rewards without much trouble, in being called to make no sacrifices, and, perhaps, in winning such success and receiving such gifts as may make others look at them with very envious eyes. Now, little readers, as you are reading these lines, look into your own hearts, and, while you hear everybody wish you a happy New Year, ask yourselves what you really understand by the words, and what kind of a year it would be, if, according to the notions you have formed, it were to prove a happy one, and then try to see if we are right in giving you, as follows, a brief picture of what, in the best sense, a happy New Year is. It will be a happy New Year, if, before it comes to a close, you will have learned to take a very deep and tender interest in the Gospel and the kingdom of Jesus,-to love His name as the most precious thing to you in all the world, to fold your arms around His cross, and to get closely acquainted with Him as your Saviour, Friend, Elder Brother, and true loving Teacher. Do not say you are too young to understand these things;-turn to the Gospel and read the beautiful incident of Christ being found in the temple among the wise and learned doctors. He was then only twelve years of age; yet he was so in love with divine things that, when His mother gently reproached Him with his having lingered behind, He said : "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business." The incident is told that young readers may learn they cannot too soon give up their hearts to love the same blessed work. It will be a happy New Year, if, in its course, you can every day feel you are making another and another step in Divine knowledge-seeing a new and clearer light shed on the texts and stories of the Bible-treasuring up another and another holy line between every sunrise and sunset; and if, at the end, you can look back and shew your parents and teachers that you can account for every lesson, in the large gain you have made of many wise and blessed truths. It will be a happy New Year, if, in its course, whether at school or by the fireside, whether in the Sabbath class or in the company of your home friends and playfellows, you learn each day to be more simple, truthful, and sincereif a meek temper, a gentle bearing, and a sacred love of truth, day by day, shine out in every word you utter, every line of your features, and every turn of your manner. No one is too poor that he may not aspire to be gentle, loving, and true; and no one is too rich, or highly educated, but he must sink out of the respect of good men if he forgets to be all three. It will be a happy New Year, not if, in its course, you escape peril, sorrow, sickness, temptation, a sore heart, and bitter tears; but if, passing through any or all of these, you be taught how good and happy a thing it is to lean for your strength upon the cross of Jesus-how steady, calm, and noble it makes the youngest mind feel, when the knee is often bowed at His throne of grace, and brief childlike prayers to Him are familiar to the lips, and how constant it will keep you in brave honest purposes, in generous thoughts, and in bright sunny smiles, if you but believe in His presence wherever you go,-that His countenance, so watchful and loving, is turned on you, that His shining arms are like a mighty shield around you, and that, whether you wake or sleep, He is keeping your souls from death, and your eyes from tears, and your feet from falling. So that you are seeking not for idle days, times of heedless pleasure, what may tempt the ear, the palate, and the eyeswhat may over-excite and raise your selfish feelings one day, and the next make you ill-tempered and sullen-but you are seeking to become true, and humble, and holy, the disciples of Him who walked as a child among the green heights of Nazareth, who laid His head down to sleep every night under a lowly cottage roof, and who was subject to His parents in every step and every duty of their simple common life. It will be a happy New Year, if, at its close, you will be able to say, you have done something to help in bringing others to the cross of Christ-if you can remember an earnest prayer that was answered-a little mite that was sent to the far-off missionary in his toils-a kind word that made the poor suffering heart warm towards you, and the tear of blessing roll down the wasted cheek. Remember the cup of cold water given to the least of Christ's disciples is given unto Him. It will be a happy New Year, if, as it goes on, you learn you are brothers and sisters in a great family, covering the whole earth, including the white man and the black-the free man and the slave-the rich man and the poor-that God in Christ is your Father, and that heaven is your home. Lift up your eyes upon its glorious arch-let your gaze travel away up into its deep, serene, and silent depthswatch the splendour of its day, the silvery lustre of its night and stars-and then think, that the earth, that is so green and beautiful, that is the abode of all those you love, and that holds so many spots where you have been happy, think that this earth is just a resting-place, where, for a few years at most, you are to dwell, on your way up to yonder home! Nay, perhaps, though you have seen the first day of the New Year, some of you may not see its last. How many young fair heads may, a twelvemonth hence, be covered in the dust of darkness-how many warm young hearts cold and still-how many lips voiceless as the deep grave-how many gushing thoughts and loves will have passed away, as if they had never been. But, dear young friends, even should you in this New Year die, yet, if you are carried up from earth to heaven-carried up in the arms of Jesus to your high temple-home in the Father's presence, then this will be the happiest New Year to you of all. It will be a year that will never grow old-a year whose seasons will blend for ever the budding freshness of spring, the bursting foliage of summer, and the ripe golden fruitage of autumn, but never knowing autumn's decay, or the sere leaves, and the dark desolation, and the bleak winds of winter. It will be the New Year that will part you from the sin, and suffering, and death here, and lay you safe on the breast of your Elder Brother in His eternal home. Which of you can smile gladly as you read, and can think, that such would be for you a happy New Year indeed ? Now, we trust, you understand us better when we say, that to all we wish a happy New Year! STORIES OF OLD MISSIONARY ADVENTURE. PWARDS of a hundred years ago, a little ship, containing a bold and adventurous crew, put off from the coast of Norway, and ventured away into the dark and stormy seas of the North. Every mile, as they sailed north, brought them nearer the region of perpetual ice and snow. Still the brave little company kept steadily on; and as the wild sea-birds flew and dashed in the foam around them, and the dull leaden sky hung a dreary drapery of fog down upon the waters, and great frozen masses went driving and plunging through the strong tide, you can imagine how lonely was the track of this devoted band, and how noble must have been the hope that sustained them. By and by, the white cliffs of Greenland came in sight: a coast where there was no tree or even shrub; where, among the ice-clad rocks, there was no nook of grassy light and beauty; and where it seemed as if no human foot had ever trod, and no human being could ever find a home. Yet the solitary ship pursued its way deep among the icebergs that lay floating for miles and miles upon the sea; and after a night of black and roaring tempest, during which, at every instant, the vessel might have been caught among the ice-masses and snapped like a reed, it was found next morning safe in an inner basin of smooth water, and the company were able at last to step ashore, and, kneeling down on the barren rocks, to give God thanks for their deliverance. Besides the crew of the ship, there were a humble minister of the cross, Hans Egede by name, his wife, and four children; and this family had left a happy home in their native land, that they might be set ashore, far away on this Greenland coast, and preach to the rude outcast natives the cross of Christ. No enterprise surely ever looked so desperate-no hope and courage ever so sublime! When the good ship departed, and they were left in their small and wretched hut, every wind, as it passed howling over them, seemed to sigh out their desolation; on one side stretched miles and miles of rock, and hill, and coast, robed in snowy waste, and where they were the only little group who knew and loved the name of Jesus, while, on the other, the vast and solemn sea spread out its dark garment of wreck and tempest, as if, between them and their old far away home, it had made a gulf, over which they should never cross. But Hans Egede and his wife loved the Master who had called them hither. We cannot tell one-half the toils they gladly underwent; how they reared their own poor dwellings, and laboured for their daily bread; how they strove to learn the rugged language of the Greenlanders, and how, after long effort, they succeeded; how they sent their children to live in the foul huts of the natives, to see if in this way they might touch their dull hearts; how they hoped, for many a long day and month, against hope; how they suffered from famine, storm, and sickness; how their preaching and their kind deeds were met by stubborn unbelief and scorn; and how, worst of all, friends at home seemed to forget them, and, after years of devoted toil, their mission seemed on the eve of perishing. But you will recollect what is said in the Gospel about the little grain of mustard seed. God had appointed that it should spring up and flourish even on the sterile shores of Green |