gers in the path of duty. God often permits his people to be tried and tempted, to prove the reality of their faith. The insincere will turn back, like Mistrust and Timorous; but the true pilgrim will go on, trusting for protection to the sure promise of his Saviour; and often, when the peril seems most fearful, he finds that "the lions are chained." Many striking incidents of this kind have been recorded: but your own history, dear reader, if you are a pilgrim, may have already furnished you with an illustration. The fear of punishment may have sometimes been as a lion in the way, prompting you to falsehood in order to conceal a fault; or the dread of ridicule may have almost tempted you to give up a good resolution; or some painful and trying circumstance may have caused you at first to shrink from duty. But when you have been enabled to go on, fearing nothing but sin, have you not often found that the evil which you dreaded has either vanished entirely, or become comparatively light; or else that strength has been given you to bear it with fortitude and patience? Oh! yes; and so you will find it in the greater trials which you must expect to meet with in your future life. Events may seem threatening and terrible beforehand: but only put your trust in God; resolve to serve him, to fear him alone; and if you "keep in the midst of the path," no hurt shall come unto you. You may tremble for fear of the lions; like Christian, you may even hear them "roar;" but if you go on with faith, as he did, you will find that they are "chained."

E. W.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS.

WHAT WILL BECOME OF THAT BABY? A MISSIONARY in the east, in a letter to some young friends at home, says :

I was in a steamer on the Black Sea. Perhaps most or all who will read this story can tell where the Black Sea is. If you will look on the map, you will see, near the southeast corner of this sea, the name Trebizond. That is a fine town, in which are two missionaries with their families residing and doing much good. It was at Trebizond that I took the steamer on my way to Constantinople.

The Black Sea steamers are generally very full of passengers, of many different nations of the east; and as each nation has its own peculiar dress, there is a very great variety in the colour and shape of their clothes. In your land, the passengers generally are walking about from one part of the boat to the other. Sometimes they sit awhile in the cabin, then they go on deck. They look at the motion of the engine, or they walk in the cabin. But here, as each passenger comes on board, he brings with him a piece of carpet, or a rug, and spreads it on the deck, in the best place he can find, and takes his seat upon it cross-legged, and seldom leaves his place until the end of his voyage. The females and children have a scparate quarter of the deck allotted to them, which is fenced off from the rest by a wooden railing; and a low awning is stretched over them, to protect them from the sun and rain.

Soon after I came on board, I noticed a baby

sleeping in a strange sort of cradle, which I am going to describe to you, and then I am going to tell you some thoughts I had about that baby. Suppose you were to take a small quilt, such as is used to cover a very small baby in your land when it is sleeping in its cradle or crib, and fasten the two upper corners to the ends of a stick about one foot long, and the two lower corners to another stick of the same length; and then suppose you were to fasten a strong cord, several feet in length, to each of the corners, and by these cords, stretched in opposite directions, you were to hang the quilt up somewhere. That would be a Turkish cradle, such as I speak of. If your mamma has a little baby, she could put it into such a quilt, and swing it backward and forward to keep it asleep. It would be very much like a hammock, such as sailors sleep in at sea.

It was in just such a cradle as this that I saw the baby I speak of sleeping, and his mother was sitting by his side, swinging the cradle in order to keep the baby asleep.

I want to tell you now what I thought about that baby. I thought, What will become of it? It was a little boy, and his mother was a poor ignorant Greek woman. What will this little boy become, in this dark land, under the training of such a mother?

If he is sick and fretful, that mother will stuff him with cucumbers and melons, and hard uncooked quinces, in order to keep him quiet. As soon as he is old enough, she will teach him to make the sign of the cross with his little fingers, and say a prayer before a picture of the virgin Mary, which is found in every

Greek house. She will teach him to carry a candle to church, and burn it before the images of the saints. She will teach him to go to the priest, and get a brass, or silver, or gold crucifix put upon his head. As he grows older, he will be made to confess his sins to a priest, and be told that the priest must forgive him, or he will never be forgiven. Both his parents, and his older brothers and sisters, and all persons around, will by their example, if in no other way, teach him to deceive and lie whenever he pleases. He probably will never see the Bible in all his life, nor any other good book, to show him the way of salvation. He will grow up in utter ignorance of God-a liar, a wine-bibber, a thief, and it may be a murderer. Oh how I tremble when I think what that little baby is likely to become!

What if you had never been taught anything better than this? How blank would have been your mind now! how sad your condition! How thankful you ought to be to God, if he has given you Christian parents to tell you all about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the true way of salvation through him!

How cheerfully should we all give to aid in sending missionaries and Bibles to the poor forsaken children of the east! If you knew certainly that by so doing you would, through the wonderful workings of God's providence, be the means of carrying light to the mind of this very child about whom I have been writing to you, and that he would thus be truly converted to God, would you not cheerfully make every sacrifice? Well, I cannot assure you that you certainly will be the means of this particu

PLEASANT VISITS TO KEW GARDENS. 217

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lar good, but I can easily conceive how it be so; and be assured, whatever you do with right motives, from love to Christ and for the salvation of your fellow men, wil not be lost.

Let every little girl and boy that reads this think-May it not in some sense, and to some degree, depend upon me to determine "what will become of the baby ?" Constantinople.

D

PLEASANT VISITS TO KEW GARDENS. No. 7.

A VISIT to the gardens at Kew, in the bright month of July, will be sure to please and profit