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THE HEATHEN MOTHER.

With an indescribable look of tenderness, she drew her to her side, and, putting her arm around her, said, 'This is my only one.' 'Have you not had more children?' I asked. 'Ah! yes, ma'am, I have had six; but they are dead. Yes, they all died: five of them, one after the other; they all died.' 'And you, poor thing, how sorry you must have been!' 'Heigho! how sorry! Too much trouble I took; too much expense. After the first died I took sacrifices to the temple, and made worship to the idol, and told him I would give him all I could if my second might live; but he died. Then my heart was very sore; and when my third came, I went to a guru, and took a cloth, and fowl, and rice; and he said mun trums and made pujah (worship); but no; that child, he died. My heart was like fire; it burned so with sorrow. I was almost mad! and yet I tried some fresh ceremony for every child.'

"What did you think had become of the spirits of your children,' I asked. 'You knew their bodies died, but did you think much of their spirits ?' Ah! that was the thing that almost made me mad. I did not know. I thought perhaps one devil took one, and ano ther took another; or perhaps they were gone into some bird, or beast, or something I did not know; and I used to think, and think, till my heart was too full of sorrow.' 'But Amah,' I replied, you do not look sorry now.' With a look almost sublime, she said, 'Sorry now! Oh no, no. Why, I know now where my children are. They are with Jesus. I have learned that Jesus said, "Suffer little children to come unto me." My sorrow is all gone, and I can bear them not being with me. They are happy with him, and, after a little while, I shall go to him too, and this little girl, my Julia, and my husband too. Since I have learned this Christian religion my heart is all joy, and I have left weeping for my children. Julia goes every day to school here, and can read a little, and will, I hope, soon learn more.' She thanked me for offering to take her, but hoped I would excuse her not sending her, as she was her only one.'

THE JUVENILE REPORTER.

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How often do bereaved ones, who have the light of the gospel, forget how much they owe to it for every gleam of hope that shines upon the gloom of the grave! The heathen mother clings to her babe; but when it dies she has no hope-none for herself, none for her babe. She knows not His name who hath brought "life and immortality to light." Shall we, then, keep the light to ourselves? No, rather let us delight to take or send light wherever we can; and if only a beam of comfort and light shine across the graves of five little ones, so as to comfort one bereaved mother, it will not have been labour lost.

THE JUVENILE REPORTER.

THE Reporter, like most old people, has a short memory, and it often causes him to forget things he wishes to remember. Two months ago he intended to say something about the missionary money of the Ranelagh Sabbath Schools. In the class-boxes they collected during the year £11 0s. 6d. ; of this sum, £3 12s. Od. was voted for the support of an orphan girl in India, and the remainder was voted to our own China Mission. The Reporter cannot help thinking that in the beautiful address of the Rev. Thomas Alexander they received more than the worth of all their money.-The Reporter was sorry to find that in the May number a slight mistake was made about the Somers Town money. It was said to have been "collected by the Infant and Juvenile Classes;" but he is very glad to hear that it was the work of the Infant Classes alone. In their money-boxes they had no fewer than 83 pence, 412 halfpence, and 333 farthings. May they work on and prosper; and may the contributors so live, that God, even our own God, will bless and save them.

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SABBATH LESSONS.

To a good many July is a sort of holiday month; some are away from school, others are at the sea-side, and, "There is little doing." as the shopkeepers would say, The Reporter hopes, however, that none of his young friends will ever take a holiday from doing good. It was not the way that Jesus lived. He was always about his "Instant Father's business. Let us try to be the same. in season, out of season," is the Christian's motto.

DIAMOND DUST.

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.Proverbs i. 10. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.-Proverbs iv. 14. Be ye not therefore partakers with them.-Ephesians v. 7. He that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.-Proverbs xxviii. 19. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.—Psalm i. 1. A companion of fools shall be destroyed.-Proverbs xiii. 20. Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee.-2 Chronicles xix. 2.

SABBATH LESSONS.

SUBJECT.

TO LEARN.

TO READ.

Question.

July 8 Peter delivered. 13 & 14.-2 Cor, 1. Acts 12. 1-19.

9, 10.

15 & 16.-Psa. 146.

Acts 12. 20-24.

Acts 13. 6-13.

19.-2 Cor. 3. 14, 15. Acts 13. 42-52.

THE VENERABLE BEDE.

TWELVE centuries ago there lived in one of the monasteries in the north of England a man whose name has descended to us through all the intervening years, and who by his life and works has earned for himself the honourable name of "Venerable." He was born at Jarrow, near Gateshead, in Durham, about the year 673; and here, shortly after his birth, was built the monastery in which he passed his life. His eager thirst for knowledge was early supplied from the library of the monastery, and the ardour he displayed in its pursuit soon distinguished him from all others of his years. Indeed, so remarkable was his proficiency in learning, and so great his piety, that he was admitted to holy orders at nineteen years of age, instead of at the usual age of twenty-five. From the time of his admission to the office of the priesthood, his whole life was spent in study, in teaching, or in writing. His books are so numerous that they would almost form an encyclopædia in themselves. The oue best known to us is his Ecclesiastical History; but he also wrote two books of Homilies, a Life of St. Cuthbert, a Book of Martyrs, a Book of Hymns, translations of the Gospels, and commentaries upon every book of Scripture. Bede, therefore, may well claim our veneration.

As we have spoken of him as living in a monastery, we had better, in a few words, explain what the monasteries of England were in Bede's time. It would be wrong to suppose them either the corrupt asylums of idle and luxurious monks, as the monasteries were that John Wycliffe preached against; or the abhorred receptacles of every vice like those which Henry VIII. suppressed.