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Thou couldst travel on undaunted, though thy fairest hopes were

flown,

If one loving heart beside thee, beat responsive to thine own; But to feel bereft and orphan'd-cloistered from the world around

Solitary in life's desert-where can sadder lot be found?

Yet be comforted, lone pilgrim, and thy cross with meekness bare,

For thou now art like thy Saviour-grief like thine He had to share

To his sorrowing disciples He exclaimed, in mournful tone, "Ye shall to your homes be scattered, and shall leave Me here

alone!"

In his dire and bitter conflict, when his soul was filled with

dread,

None were near to soothe his anguish; all forsook Him then, and fled!

But upon that eve of suffering-darkest eve this world has

known

Christ could say with holy gladness, "Yet, I am not left alone! For the Father still is with Me." Weary pilgrim, canst not

thou

Weeping over friends departed-echo this confession now?
Hast thou not a loving Father, ever present, ever near,
Sympathising with thy sorrow, ready to dispel thy fear?

Oh, the thought that He is with thee, well may calm thy throbbing heart;

Cheeringly the sun ariseth, when the little stars depart ;

Friends may die, or may deceive thee; but thy Father will remain True and tender through life's changes; strong to succour and sustain.

All looks dreary in the distance; thorns spring up where flowers have grown;

But take courage, trembling pilgrim, for thou art not left alone.

H. M. W.

HOW A YOUNG LADY WENT TO CHINA.

[The heroic course of Miss Aldersey may not be familiar to all our readers; we are therefore induced to lay before them the following particulars gleaned from an interesting Magazine of an interesting Society-"The Society for Promoting Female Education in the East."-ED]

FROM an early age Miss Aldersey's attention was fixed upon China. Surrounded with all the comforts and luxuries which abundant means can furnish, her heart was set upon endeavouring to benefit the women of that hitherto almost inaccessible country. When nineteen years of age, she began the study of the Chinese language, in which she made great progress, endeavouring at the same time to fit herself in every way that she could to endure the privations and roughnesses of a missionary life. Having obtained her father's consent, she made preparations to accompany a missionary party to the Straits of Malacca about the year 1832, that she might labour among the colonies of Chinese emigrants which were scattered over the Malayan peninsula.

But just as she was on the point of embarking, her plans received an unexpected check in the sudden death of a sister, which left six children without a mother's

care.

This circumstance at once changed her course; and although it was a bitter trial to her naturally ardent mind, she immediately relinquished her intentions, and bent her energies to supply as much as possible the loss the bereaved family had sustained; and with what affection and tenderness this was done for five years, those who remain can testify.

With this, no doubt, valuable preparation for her work, Miss Aldersey, as soon as another caretaker was provided for the family, at length left England, August 10th, 1837, in company with Dr. and Mrs. Medhurst; and by their advice settled at Sourabaya, in Java, where

she commenced teaching an Indo-Chinese school. She also took charge of a young English girl, Mary Leisk; whom she trained, and who afterwards became a very valuable assistant.

For five years Miss Aldersey worked hard at Sourabaya, amidst great personal discomforts; but what to others would have been insuperable obstacles, were as nothing to her, so that she might attain her end. There she established a school, and was active and successful in dispensing medicines, and attending to the sick, by which the opportunity was afforded her of communicating religious instruction to them. Two of her pupils, Ati and Kit, renounced their heathenism, and in 1843, after being baptized, followed her to Singapore. Thence she proceeded to Hong Kong, and the very day she arrived there peace was proclaimed, and five ports of China thrown open to commerce, and therefore to missionary enterprise.

From Hong Kong Miss Aldersey sailed for Chusan, and thence removed, in 1844, to Ningpo, where in spite of the greatest difficulties, she opened a boarding school for girls, first outside, and since within the walls of Ningpo. The number of boarders, at first small and fluctuating, has gradually iucreased, and her household, including servants, now amounts to seventy persons. Ati and Kit, and Mary Leisk, remained with their kind friend until their respective marriages, the two former to native Christian converts, and the latter to a devoted missionary, the Rev. Mr. Russell. Others of her pupils have given evidence of real conversion, and are her joy and hope. Among her servants also she has met with several instances of delightful success in her Christian instruction; while among the Chinese her motives are far more correctly appreciated than at first, and her influence has in consequence rapidly extended.

Chiefly depending on her own resources, and nobly devoted to the cause, she has at length been compelled,

by the increase of her school, to ask for some help; but we will let her own letters speak for themselves, extracts of which, with great reluctance, she has at length kindly allowed to be made public.

"Ningpo, Dec. 30, 1851.

"I cannot forbear writing a few words, in order to put you in a position to participate in my joy. Asan, to whom I have frequently referred in my different communications with friends in England, and who has long resisted the influences of the Word and Spirit of God, has at length, I trust, yielded her whole heart to the Divine Saviour, and yesterday, in the presence of a Chinese congregation, consisting chiefly of mission. schools, and the Chinese members of missions' families, made an open profession of attachment to the cross of Christ, and received the ordinance of baptism.

"We are now residing in the midst of this heathen city, and have had to meet a storm of evil reports more threatening in their influence, perhaps, than those with which we were annoyed on the other side of the river on first opening the school. This people have a strange taste for untruth. Truth as truth, is utterly without value in their esteem; but there is nothing too monstrous in the way of a lie for them to believe. It was generally believed a short time back that I had murdered all my children; and the mother of one of the children having heard that her child was dead, was permitted of course to see her, when she took the opportunity of drawing her aside, gravely asking her, whether she had not, indeed, been killed, and brought to life again! I have good reason to believe that these reports are got up by influential natives, who fear the influence of foreign ladies on their ignorant females. Miss Leisk, who speaks like a native, calls, accompanied by myself, on a few Chinese females, occasionally at their houses; and those who venture to come to our Chinese services, and afterwards look round the house, are very much aston

ished at, and attracted by, the kindness they receive. Our next door neighbours remarked the other day, that it would be impossible to have better neighbours than were these foreigners; indeed they said, not a Chinese family could be found, were the search to be made, whose conduct could for a moment be compared to theirs, which was minutely and altogether correct. "The two windows of our little dining-room open out upon the Corfucian gardens; a cottage in these gardens is occupied by a poor man connected with the temple, and is very near to our windows, so that, whether in the cottage or the gardens, Miss L. and myself are heard as we sing at our English family service. While we were at tea this evening, we heard a Buddhist priest strike up his noisy gong-beat and monotonous prayers; on inquiry of our servants I found that the mother of the family residing at the cottage is seriously ill, and I fully expect to be suspec ted of having caused her illness by our religious singing. Ere the priest had finished his noisy doings (indeed I still hear them as I am writing this, in my own room at the other end of the house) our time of evening service arrived; I felt as Daniel, that it would not be right to go away from the windows where we were wont to worship. My thoughts were strangely mixed with pain and pleasure, when I thought of the immeasurable difference between the nature of our worship and the unmeaning clatter, almost deafening our ears, under our windows; and the beings worshipped-the One, infinitely holy, and the other, the devil cast out from heaven."

FROM MISS ALDERSEY'S JOURNAL.

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Ningpo, Jan. 2nd, 1852. "Miss Liesk called last Tuesday with the young Christian widow, San Avong, on her heathen mother, who lives also in the city. We have arranged to call,

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