three successive weeks. Oh! she to afford so much. I fear you are hurting yourself, by your liberality, which you must indeed not do." "Well, sir," she said, "if you must know all about it, you must. The fact is, I am, you see, all day long up to my arms in this wash-tub. It is hardish work, and I have been accustomed to take a little drop of porter at the end of the day. I think I can do without my porter; and your good missionaries will make better use of the money than I can." I did not dissuade any more. I prayed God that he might bless such a simple and grateful spirit; I thanked him that he had given me such fruit in my labours; and took courage for the future. And now, my dear reader, whoever you are, this is what I have to tell you about Widow Lamber. "Go, and do thou likewise." THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. THERE is a striking beauty and freshness in the conceptions which recent converts from heathenism or superstition form of Christ, and of the leading truths of the Gospel. To an oriental mind, especially, the metaphors of Scripture seem to convey a vital meaning, which our less imaginative temperament often fails to apprehend. A most beautiful instance of this is furnished in a Hindu youth lately converted to Christianity at the mission school in Ceylon, and who has openly professed Christ against the violent and persistent opposition of his parents and other relatives. His parents had told him that they did not send him to the mission school to get a new religion, but only to get useful knowledge, and they upbraided him for his defection. To this he replied by letter, as follows: "Six years ago you sent me down to the sea-shore to gather oysters. Other parents also sent their sons. After gathering them for a long time, and thinking them only oysters, one named Jesus opened my eyes, and made me see that those oysters contained pearls. I said to myself, My parents did not send me here to seek for pearls; and perhaps they will be displeased if I take them; but what shall I do? I see that they are of priceless value; and shall I cast them away because they did not send me for them? or because they will be angry if I take them?' A missionary to the Nestorians once observed that it was a pecu liarity of the converts, in the seminary at Oroomiah, that they seemed in prayer "to come right to Christ." Yes, that is it. We may learn a lesson from these missionary converts. We are all too set and stereotyped in our piety. We need to receive the Bible more as little children, and to come right to Christ! A WORD IN SEASON. A CARRIER, in a large town in Yorkshire; heard his carter one day in the yard swearing dreadfully at his horses. The carrier was a man who feared God, spent his sabbaths as a teacher in a Sunday-school, and endeavoured to promote the spiritual good of his fellow-creatures. He was shocked to hear the terrible oaths that resounded through the vard. He went up to the lad, who was just setting off with his cart for Manchester, and kindly expostulated with him on the enormity of his sin; and then added, "But if thou wilt swear, stop till thou get through the turnpike on SMoor, where none but God and thyself can hear." He then put "THE SWEARER'S PRAYER" into his hand, and left him. The poor fellow cracked his whip, and pursued his journey; but he could not get over his master's words. Some time after, his master observed him in the yard, and was very much surprised to see him so altered. There was a seriousness and quietness about him which he had never seen before; and he often seemed as if he had something to say which he could not get out. At length, his master was so much struck with his manner, that he asked him if he wanted anything. "Ah! master," said he, "do you remember what you said to me about swearing, and the tract you gave me? I was thunderstruck. I went on the road, and I got through the turnpike, and reached S―― Moor; and there I thought, that though I was alone, yet God was with me; and I trembled to think how he had been with me, and had known all my sins and follies all my life long. My sins came to my remembrance: I was afraid that He would strike me dead; and I thank God, that I have been roused to seek after the salvation of my poor soul." master, as may be supposed, was overjoyed to hear the young man's confession; and it is gratifying to know that his subsequent conduct gave proof of his having ceased to be a slave to sin. "A word spoken in due season, how good it is! The SIX WEEKS IN SWITZERLAND. CHAPTER V. AND now we were off, as soon as the gray morning dawned, with our knapsacks on our backs, and our alpenstocks in our hands, and our guide preceding us to show us the way; for in these lofty solitudes there is no trace of a path, but those faint traces formed by the wild animals of the mountains in their nocturnal rambles. At first our way led us through the beautiful green pastures (mentioned in our last), and amongst the peaceful herds of cows and goats, ringing a merry morning chime with their bells; for each animal has a kind of bell suspended to its neck, to enable its being discovered with greater facility when it rambles off in its wanderings. Soon the bright morning sun began to tint up the lofty peaks of snow behind us, one by one, with a roseate hue, as it rose higher and higher above them; and now it had over-topped them all, and was shining on the wild country all before us. On we went, slowly and steadily, till we had left all the pastures and the châlets far behind us. Now we were ascending a steep grassy slope, which was so slippery that we could hardly keep our footing. Now a space of the mountain projected straight in our way, and we had to pass by it on a narrow ledge, barely one foot in breadth, over a depth of some hundred feet below. Now we were making our way along the steep side of a deep gorge, which sloped down below our path, overlaid with a slippery green-sward, till دو it approached the edge of a rock, and then ended in a perpendicular precipice of some thousands of feet, at the bottom of which we could indistinctly hear the roar of a foaming torrent. One slip on our narrow path, and we should hardly have stopped till we reached this! Now we entered upon an elevated open plain. "Stop!" exclaimed our guide;-"Hush!" and ere we could see what was the matter, "crack went his rifle. His experienced eye was sharper than ours we had not seen the little marmots playing about at the mouths of their holes, some hundreds of yards off. But he missed his shot; the animals were too small to be hit at such a great distance. The marmots are a kind of rat, which inhabit the very out-of-the-way parts of the Alps: they are much larger than the species with which we are acquainted in England, and of a more amiable character; for they are often taken down into the valleys, and tamed. They were now just making preparations for their long winter. They were lining their holes in the ground with moss and other soft substances; every day eating an immense quantity of food, until they should become enormously fat, and in the course of a week or two they would be creeping into their holes, close up the mouths after them, retire into the recesses, and sleep away the whole of the winter. In the spring they would awake again, and come out quite thin, and ready to enjoy another summer's | steep descent, brought us to a gamble. magnificent glacier, called KienAfter we left the marmots, we thal, about ten o'clock, after had a long steep climb up what more than five hours' continual is called a "" furca," which is a walking. Here we sat down by depressed ridge which joins two the side of a little mountainhigher ranges of mountains on stream, to make our dinner. either side. The side was so What a magnificent scene was all deeply covered with loose stuff, around us!-Here we were in into which we sunk half-way up the midst of the snowy Alps, with to our knees at every step, that their frowning peaks towering we could hardly force our way up all around; some, where the up. At the top we were repaid view opened out into the rich by a beautiful view of all the valley at a vast distance below: snow-mountains around us. Then into this was the huge glacier we had to let ourselves down a slowly pouring down its compact jagged perpendicular rock, about masses of ice, with scarcely a thirty or forty feet, which landed breath disturbing the intense us on a snow slope. There are silence of the solitude; now and often deep ravines, which run up then a very distant murmur, as from the valleys below, right of thunder, the noise of the disamongst the topmost peaks, which tant avalanche, just reaching the are ever amidst eternal snow: ear. Here, high up on the snowy these fill up with the winter- bosom of that mighty mass besnow, until they attain an im- fore you, you can just discern a mense depth, for the summer few dark spots, which appear to sun cannot reach it to melt it. be moving. They are the mounThe surface hardens, until it is tain chamois, which are so keen, almost as impenetrable as ice; that they can scent the presence and often down their course of danger three miles off. But comes rushing and thundering men are found daring enough to the ponderous avalanche, carry-hunt them amongst their daning all before it, and filling the air with its noise and its dust. We had to cross this snow slope, on a level, for about a quarter of a mile. It was very dangerous; we had to rest entirely on our poles; a slip would send us rushing down with immense velocity to the bottom,which was about a mile or two below. One of our party let go of his alpenstock, and it shot down like lightning, and in an instant was out of sight; our guide had then to assist him, and he clambered about like a goat. Then another climb, and another gerous haunts. We have just passed over a spot where a fearful catastrophe occurred only a few weeks before. A Mr. D-, an Englishman, was out for pleasure, shooting these chamois, in company with our guide and some other professed chamoishunters. They were descending this dangerous and rapid pass, when the rifle which the guide was carrying slung round his neck, suddenly fell to the ground, and discharged both barrels, towards Mr. D-; sending one ball grazing his side, and the other completely through him. He was carried down some miles into the valley, before they could meet with a house, and after some hours of great suffering, he died. After an hour and a half's rest, we proceeded on our way, crossing the glacier, which was one mass of hard blue ice. Here and there a torrent of water, running along its surface, suddenly disappeared down a chasm, roaring as it fell into the depths below, and telling of the immense thickness of the ice. A rough walk on a disorderly bed of loose stones of all sizes, from a pebble to boulders of tons in weight, which had all been precipitated from the heights above; and this succeeded by another series of pastures such as we had left early in the morning-brought us to the foot of another furca, called "Dündergrat." I shall never wish to climb up Dündergrat again if I can possibly help it, for it was like crawling up the steep roof of a house for two hours. The first hour was up a steep bank, which was just not too steep to be impracticable. Then we reached the snow; and up this we had to labour back wards and forwards; our guide preceding us, and first making every step with his pole in the hard snow, on which we might place our feet. I thought we never should have reached the top; every five minutes we had to pause, to get our breath. I dare say the immense altitude we had attained affected us. But when on the summit, we had the most magnificent and extensive view of a great part of Switzerland at our feet, lying extended like a map; and afterwards it was down-hill, on the other side, all the way to our journey's end. A very steep descent brought us to another glacier; and this led down into Eschimen Thal, one of the most romantic valleys in Switzerland. Here, by the side of a deep lake, surrounded on three sides by snow-capped mountains rising directly out of the water, and on the lower side by a thick wood, at the door of a châlet, we reposed on the grass, refreshing ourselves with new milk, and viewing the exquisite scenery before us. O how wonderful are these vast works of the Creator! How they should make us to adore Him for His greatness, and love Him for His goodness in giving to man such pleasure in His works. Here we see His majesty and omnipotence displayed in the raising of vast mountain masses, which have thrust themselves out of the bowels of the earth, until they join the clouds of heaven. But not less power is there shown in the changing one human heart from a state of nature to a state of grace;-raising a soul, which once was grovelling amongst the low things of the world, to the pure and elevated pleasures of holiness and heaven. Ah! may that grace be shown in you and me, dear reader! Then, wherever we are, we shall have cause for daily wonder and daily thankfulness in our own selves. A pleasant and gradual descent of an hour and a half brought us to Kandersteg, where we put up for the night. |