INDIVIDUAL EFFORT of a SABBATH-SCHOOL CHILD.

AT a meeting of the Sunday School Convention, held in Exeter Hall lately, the Rey. Professor Nàgel said, "He had been three weeks in London, but had seen no sight so splendid as that of the six thousand children, belonging to forty schools, gathered together on Sunday in Mr. Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle. They made the most beautiful concert, too, that he had ever heard: six thousand infant voices uniting in singing to a beautiful melody, 'Saviour, like a shepherd lead us."" Proceeding to speak of Switzerland, Professor Nagel gave an illustration of the blessed influence of Sabbath-school instruction at Neufchatel. "He had in his school a little girl, eleven years of age, about whom he had not thought or expected more of than any of the others. She attended for about two years, and was then obliged to go home into the country. There was no Sunday-school in the village. She felt the want deeply, and said to herself, 'As there is no school, I must open one.' She spoke to the little girls of the village, telling them of the school in Neufchatel, and asking, 'Will you not come to me next Sunday? and we will pray together, and sing hymns, and read the Bible, as they do in Neufchatel.' They responded to her request; the first time five or six, then ten or twelve, then twenty or more. And then the elder girls of the village went with little girls-having obtained permissionand at length the dear girl of eleven years saw around her every Sunday a school of forty children from six to fifteen years of age. She read the Bible to them, taught them hymns, and prayed with them. Her mother said she sometimes listened from behind the door, and could never hear her little girl reading and praying without shedding tears. Christmas Eve came for these villagers as for the whole world. That evening the school-children of Neufchatel used to have a great treat, assembling, dressed in their best clothes, in a brilliantly lighted and beautifully garlanded church, their faces lit up with joy, and every eye shining like a star. In order to make the treat as complete as possible, every scholar received from the superintendent a little book written expressly for the occasion. Now this little Sundayscholar would not let Christmas Eve pass over without any treat; and as she had no little books to give to the children, she thought to read to them the one she had received the previous year. Her purpose becoming known, the parents of the scholars resolved to go also. Distress fell upon the little girl when she thought of praying and speaking before adults. What was she to do? She thought, If it should be a blessing to them, I must not refuse. But cannot I get my father to come and help me? He has always laughed at me and my Sunday-school, but yet I will ask him. He could not resist her entreaties, and the consequence was that he was brought to love Jesus. If a little girl could do so much, what might not every Christian do for the glory of the blessed Saviour?"

THE ANNUAL MEETINGS.

In our Number for May, last year, we had the pleasure of giving our young readers a view of the Baptist Mission House. In the present Number it may not be deemed inappropriate to give a drawing of the interior of "the Library," which is the largest room in the Mission House, and the room where a considerable number of the annual meetings are held. It is in this room that, now for many years, that interesting prayer-meeting is held, of which many of our readers have heard, and which some of them have, we hope, attended; which at least many of them will, we trust, attend, as the years go on, and those who now are young take in their turn the places of those who are called to the upper sanctuary. This meeting is one of the most interesting of all the meetings. It is introductory and preparatory to the rest; and there, for the first time, all the brethren assemble, greeting each other in the name of the Lord, and commending the beloved mission to the care and blessing of the Father who is in heaven. At the time we write the prayermeeting this year has not been held; but our venerated friend Dr. Hoby, who has been for so many years a devoted friend of the mission, is expected to take the chair; and doubtless he will be surrounded by many honoured and beloved brethren whose names are known even to the youngest in our congregations. Not only is the prayer-meeting held in the Library, the annual meeting of the members of the Society is also held there. This meeting is only less interesting than the prayer-meeting. At this important gathering the affairs of the Society are fully discussed, and the officers and Committee for the new year appointed. We are sorry to tell our readers that, this year, the painful announcement will have to be made, that the funds of the Society are seriously less in amount than they were last year. They are less by more than seven thousand pounds; and for the first time during many years there will be a balance amounting to more than a thousand pounds against the Society. This balance will, however, it is hoped, be removed through the kindness of a few friends; and with regard to the decrease of

the income, it is only right to add, that the income for last year was unusually large, through several extraordinary receipts, and specially through a large gift by one of the Society's oldest friends who has since gone to his reward. Still, any decrease of income is a thing to be mourned over, and we trust that our young friends will do their part, as we feel assured that their parents and teachers will, to take care that the Mission shall be maintained in its full efficiency.

We hope that at the beginning of this year those of our young friends who know the privilege of praying to God-and we believe that many of them pray to him-will join in offering their prayers for God's blessing on the labours of the beloved missionaries. We know that "praying breath is never spent in vain ;" and we are sure that the prayers of the youngest, if offered in faith, will be listened to by our heavenly Father.

"WHOM THE LORD LOVETH HE CHASTENETH.”

A STORY FOR SUFFERING CHILDREN,

ROBIN HOOD-not the famous outlaw, but a little nineteenth-century boy who bore that name-was cross, very cross indeed, on a certain evening in the month of May, 186-, and the reason-if reason there can be for that kind of madnesswas as follows: Jim and Fred, his two brothers, had been taken to hear a lecture, illustrated by a first-rate panorama, and he, Robin, could not join them, because, as his little sister Lizzie would have said, he was bearing one of God's afflictions."

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Let us look upon Robin as he sits there in the firelight-for even in May they have fires in that northern Blankshirelet us study our "hero" while he rests

on that little sofa, with his leg on a pillow. We have here a pale child, with large eyes and soft light brown hair, with a wrinkle almost big enough to adorn the forehead of a grandfather on his brow, and a mouth like a snapdragon. There he sits with a cushion behind him, and a pile of new books in his lap, with a darling mamma, in a white cap and grey silk dress, exactly opposite, and a little sister, with long, wavy hair, and a smile like a sunbeam, playing one of his favourite tunes on the piano; but he is not happy. Who in the world can be happy when he is cross?

The music ceases, and Lisette, on discovering that her efforts to amuse her