THE HEATHEN WORLD.

HAVE our readers ever considered how large a portion of the inhabitants of our globe are without God and without hope in the world? The population of the globe is estimated in round numbers at 1,000 millions. Of these, 330 millions are the followers of Buddh, adherents of a system of utter atheism, which acknowledges no God, no Redeemer, no resurrection from the dead; 100 millions are the worshippers of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, the most subtle and sophistical of all the religions of the heathen, and at the same time the most utterly obscene and licentious; 150 millions are Mohammedans; 100 millions are African idolaters, worshipping sticks, stones, or animals, as fetishes, and given up to the most debasing idolatry; 10 millions are idolatrous inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean; 60 millions are connected with the Greek Church, and, though versed in its corrupt creeds and image-worship, know not the true God; 150 millions are Roman Catholics, and though individuals among them may even through its mummeries have found Christ, yet the great masses are ignorant of him. Finally, 100 millions are nominally Protestants, but how small a portion even of these are really Christians! Truly there is need to pray, "Thy kingdom come."-Missionary Herald.

THE YOUNG DUKE OF HAMILTON, THE Duke of Hamilton, who died when a youth, at the close of the last century, was, from a child, remarkably serious, and took great delight in reading the Bible, from

96

SABBATH LESSONS.

which he became "wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus."

r

When about nine years old, the Duchess, his mother, told Lady Cr that she said to him, Come, write me a few verses, and I'll give you a crown." He sat down, and in a few minutes produced the following lines:

As o'er the sea-beat shore I took my way,

I met an aged man who bade me stay.

"Be wise," said he, "and mark the path you go—
This leads to heaven, and that to hell below:

The way to life is difficult and steep,

The broad and easy leads you to the deep."

When his death approached, he called his brother to his bedside, and, addressing him with the deepest affection and solemnity, closed with these remarkable words: -"And now, Douglas, in a little time you will be s DUKE, and I shall be a KING!" Rev. i. 6.

DIAMOND DUST.

HONOUR the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.

An oak is not felled at a stroke.

Write injuries in dust kindnesses, in marble.

SABBATH LESSONS.

SUBJECT.

TO LEARN.

TO READ.

Question.

June 10 Saul converted. 106.-1 Cor. 4. 6.

Acts 9. 1-19.

17 Eneas & Dorcas. 107.-Mark 16. 17, 18. Acts 9. 32-42.

THE

JUVENILE MESSENGER

OF THE

Presbyterian Church in England.

THE BOY MARTYR.

IT was at Antioch, about three hundred years after the birth of Christ, that the deacon of the church of Cæsara-as we are told-was subjected to the most cruel tortures, in order to try his faith, and force him to deny the Lord who bought him with his own precious blood. The martyr, amidst his agonies, persisted in declaring his belief that there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." His flesh was almost torn to pieces-the Roman Emperor Galerius himself looking on. At length, weary of answering their taunting demands that he should acknowledge the many gods of the heathen, he told his tormentor to refer the question to any little child, whose simple understanding could decide whether it were better to worship one God, the Maker of the heaven and earth, and one Saviour, who was able to bring us to God, or to worship the gods many and lords many, whom the Romans served.

Now, it happened that a Roman mother had approached the scene of the martyr's sufferings, holding by the hand a little boy of eight or nine years old. Pity, or the desire of helping the sufferer, had probably brought her there; but the providence of God had ordered for her an unexpected trial. The judge no sooner heard the martyr's words than his eye rested on the child, and pointing to the boy from his tribunal, he desired the Christian to put the question he proposed to him.

The question was asked; and, to the surprise of most 1860.

JULY,

H

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THE BOY MARTYR.

of those who heard it, the little boy replied, "God is one, and Jesus Christ is one with the Father.”

The persecutor heard, but, far from being either softened or convinced, he was filled with fresh rage. “It is a snare," he cried: "O base and wicked Christian! thou hast instructed that child to answer thus." Then, turning to the boy, he said, more mildly, "Tell me, child, who taught you thus to speak? How did you learn this faith ?"

The boy glanced up to his mother's face, and then replied, "It was God's grace that taught it to my dear mother; and when I sat upon her knee, a baby, she taught me that Jesus loved little children, and I learned to love him for his love to me."

"Let us see now what the love of Christ can do for you," cried the cruel judge; and, at a sign from him, the lictors, who stood ready with their rods, after the fashion of the Romans, instantly seized the poor trembling boy. Fain would the mother have saved her timid child, even at the expense of her own life. She could not do so; but she could whisper to him to trust in the love of Christ and to maintain the truth. And the poor child, feeble and timid as he was, did trust in that love; nor could all the cruelty of his tormentors separate him from it.

"What can the love of Christ do for him now ?" asked the judge, as the blood streamed from that tender flesh. "It enables him to endure what his Master endured for him, and for us all," was the reply.

Again they smote the child to torture his mother.

"What can the love of Christ do for him now ?" they asked again. And tears fell even from heathen eyes as that Roman mother, a thousand times more tortured than her son, answered,—

"It teaches him to forgive his persecutors."

And the boy watched his mother's eye as it rose up to heaven for him, and he thought of the sufferings of his dear Lord and Saviour, of which she had often told him: and when nis tormentors inquired whether he would not now acknowledge the false gods they served, and deny

THE INFIDEL FATHER, ETC.

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Christ, he steadfastly answered, "No! there is no other God but one; Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world. He loved me, and I love him for his love."

Then, as the poor child fainted between the repeated strokes, they cast the quivering and mangled little body into the mother's arms, crying, "See what the love of Christ can do for him now."

And as the mother pressed it gently to her own bleed ing heart, she answered,

That love will take him from the wrath of man to the peace of heaven."

"Mother," murmured the gasping child, "give me a drop from our cool well upon my tongue."

Child, thou shouldst not have time to receive it ; ere it was here thou shouldst be drinking of the river of life in the paradise of God.

She spoke over the dying; for the little martyr spoke no more; and thus the mother continued, "Already, dearest, hast thou tasted of the well that springeth up to everlasting life, the grace of Christ given to his little one; thou hast spoken the truth in love; arise now, for thy Saviour calleth for thee. Young, happy martyr, for his sake, may he grant thy mother grace to follow thy bright path!"

The boy faintly raised his quivering eyelids, looked up to where the elder martyr was, and said again, "There is but one God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ;" and so saying, he died.

THE INFIDEL FATHER AND HIS

LITTLE BOY.

AT the Fulton-street prayer-meeting in New York, a merchant lately stood up and read a letter from a man who had been an infidel. This man had been taught the way of life, when a little boy, by Christian parents, but had lived an infidel for many years, denying the truth and living without God and without hope. But the Lord began to work in the mind of his little boy. Speaking of his son, the father says in his letter: