TRANSPLANTED CHILDREN. TO MOURNING PARENTS. IN sending so many children to the place of happiness before you, you are, as it were, glorified by piecemeal; instead of planting families for yourself on earth, you have contributed towards the planting of colonies in heaven; and instead of recruiting the forces of the Church militant, have furnished the trophies of the Church triumphant.Ford. THE GREAT TEACHER. TO SABBATH SCHOOL TEACHERS. REMEMBER you are dealing with souls that are to live eternally-that they are now like the melted silver, capable of receiving impressions which will last for ever. Then stamp upon them the image of Christ, and, though it may shew but faintly now, God will bless your faithful, prayerful efforts, and bring out that image to shine as a star in glory. Remember that Christ, the Great Teacher, is your pattern, and that, in order to be a faithful teacher, pleasing God, you must be like Him Like Him in prayer-The stillness of night and early morn witnessed His earnest supplications for His disciples. Like Him in knowledge-Possessing the knowledge of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Like Him in teaching-The hearts of His hearers burned within them, and their souls were quickened by His words. Like Him in spirit-Peaceful, meek, humble, and pure in heart. Like Him by the way-Ever uttering words of comfort and kindness to all who came to Him troubled. Like Him at all times-Doing the will of your Father in heaven. THE POOR MAN RICH. I REMEMBER a great man coming to my house at Waltham, and, seeing all my children standing in the order of their age and stature, he said, "These are they that make rich men poor." But he straight received his answer: "Nay, my lord, these are they that make a poor man rich; for there is not one of these whom we would part with for all your wealth."Bishop Hall. WANDERINGS OF A MISSIONARY. LONG journey beyond Algoa Bay, at a station called Lattakoo, Livingstone began his first missionary start. He travelled far north of this, and for six months cut himself off from sight of all European faces, that he might live wholly among a tribe of natives called Bakwains, of whom we shall hear more by and by. He learned their language, laws, and customs in this way. He even began to think of a settlement among them, for good and all; and, from a river flowing in a full bed, he cut a canal, that he might lead water to fertilise the garden he proposed making round his habitation. When thus far advanced, he took a journey yet farther to the north, where only one trace of a trading white man having ever passed was found, and he had perished of fever, in a range of savage mountains Livingstone saw upon the northern sky. This long journey among new tribes he made out very much on foot. As he limped along, footsore and jaded, he says: "Some of my companions who had recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a little of their speech, were overheard by me discussing my appearance and powers: 'He is not strong, he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts himself into these bags (trousers) he will soon knock up.' This caused my Highland blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at the top of their speed for days together, and until I heard them expressing proper opinions of my pedestrian powers." When he returned from this exploring tour, he was greatly chagrined to find that the place he had destined for his settlement had been plundered by a neighbouring tribe, and his friends, the Bakwains, driven away. He had nothing, therefore, for it but to go back to Lattakoo, or, as it is oftener called, Kuruman, and make a fresh start in quest of some other region. After some delay he did, in 1843, succeed in reaching, a good way north, the precincts of a beautiful valley called Mabotsa; and here, among a tribe called the Bakatla, a branch of the same Bechuana stock as the Bakwains, he once more pitched his missionary camp. He tells a wild story which befell shortly after he had fixed his abode here. It seems the village was infested with lions, lodged in great numbers in the neighbouring hills and thickets. They were bold and fierce, so much so, that in the night season it was common for them to leap into the cattle-pens and destroy the villagers' cows, besides attacking the herds even in open day. The tribe being rather cowardly, had made but one timid effort to drive these enemies away, but in vain. Next time Livingstone boldly headed the attack. The great object was, if possible, to kill one lion. If that be done the rest generally take to flight. In this case the beasts of prey were found sheltered in a thick wood, on a small hill at no great distance; and the plan of assault was, to make a ring of armed men entirely round the hill, then to drive one or more animals from their lair, and, as they attempted to break through the circle, to shoot or spear them. A companion of Livingstone's (a schoolmaster) named Mebalwe, who with Livingstone was guiding the attack from without the circle, fired at one of the lions as he shewed himself upon a rock, but the beast, after biting fiercely at the stone on which the ball had struck, broke through and escaped. Two others did the same thing. The Bakatla men, it was plain, had not courage enough to face their entrapped foes. At this moment, Livingstone retiring, I suppose, in a kind of disgust towards the village, says :— "In going round the end of the hill, however, I saw one of the beasts sitting on a piece of rock as before, but this time he had a little bush in front. Being about thirty yards off, I took a good aim at his body through the bush, and fired both barrels into it. The men then called out, 'He is shot! he is shot!' Others cried, 'He has been shot by another man too; let us go to him!' I did not see any one else shoot at him, but I saw the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush, and, turning to the people, said, 'Stop a little till I load again!' When in the act of ramming down the bullets, I heard a shout. Starting and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was upon a little height-he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor, similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in which there was no sense of pain, nor feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients partly under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by the carnivora; and if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death. Turning round to relieve myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him at a distance of ten or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, in both barrels missed fire; the lion immediately left me, and cking Mebalwe, bit his thigh. Another man, whose life I had saved before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, but at that moment the bullets he had received took effect, and he fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying rage. In order to take out the charm from him (for they believed there was a power of dread witchery given to these beasts of prey), the Bakatla, on the following day, made a huge bonfire over the carcase, which was declared to be that of the largest lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth-wounds on the upper part of my arm." After this adventure, a curious history is given of a chief of the Bakwains named Sechele, who, being our missionary's first convert, and doing good service afterwards in the cause of Jesus, deserves to have special mention of him made. His great-grandfather had been the first to travel down to the settlements of the white men, and to bring back to his tribe strange news of the race and marvels he had seen. At that period the Bakwains were a powerful people, and their herds of cattle fed in thousands over plains green and well watered, where, when Livingstone saw them, there were only the dried river-beds, and all far and wide was an arid desert. Sechele's father, chief also of the tribe, had been murdered by his under-chiefs, but Sebituane, chief of a neighbouring race called the Makololo, came to the rescue of his children, stormed the Bakwain village in the night, and put Sechele in his father's seat of power. The manner of ruling in these primitive tribes is like that of the patriarchs of old. Each man is chief in his own family. His hut becomes the centre round which cluster the huts of his children and kin, and of any poor stranger who seeks a place as a child among them. These clusters again form one great circle round the main dwelling of all, which is the cabin of the sovereign chief, to whom all the other family-heads are as under-chiefs. Kinship is in this way endlessly counted through the tribes, and held very sacred. Then in the middle of each cluster of huts is a |