WHO LIVES FOR SELF?

"Nor for myself alone I live,” Exclaimed a dew-bespangled flower: "To bee and insect food I give,

And earth with fragrant beauty dower."

""Tis not to self I pay my vows," Rejoined the widely branching tree: "The birds are lodged amid my boughs, And 'neath my shade man hastes with glee."

"Not for myself I sparkle clear,"

The mountain-streamlet laughing cried: "Man, beast, and fish, my waters cheer, And add their mite to ocean wide."

"I live not for myself alone;
So warbled forth the soaring bird:
"God's praise inspires my every tone,
While man to hope and joy is stirred."

Then not to self, ah, not to self,
Let thinking souls devote their powers,
But, spurning folly, ease, and pelf,
For God and man employ their hours!

YOU HAVE NO INFLUENCE!

WHO says he has no influence? Does any boy or girl say that? Does any one believe it?

Do you say, "I am but a child, and what can I do? How can I exert any influence?" Listen to the story we have to tell, and see.

A gentleman once took a steamer for a distant town. As he went on board a stranger came to him, and asked if he would be so kind as to take charge of a boy ten or twelve years of age.

The gentleman assented, and selected for the boy a berth directly under his

own.

Early in the evening they went into the cabin, and there, close by their berths, were a company of men gambling, with their money lying around the table before them.

The gentleman, seeing this, immediately asked the boy if he had not better retire. He did not wish him to stop and witness such wickedness. The boy said he thought he had. He went to his berth, took off his jacket, and, according to his custom at home, knelt down quietly to say to himself his evening prayer.

One of the gamblers saw it, and, springing to his feet and smiting both hands upon his breast, exclaimed, "My God! I cannot stand that!" and immediately turned away, leaving the cards and money upon the table. One after another of his gambling companions quietly followed him, till every one had left the cabin, and the gambling was broken up!

That boy was but a child, and it was but a little thing he had done, yet what a mighty influence he exerted! Had the gentleman who had charge of this boy, or a minister of the Gospel even, remonstrated with these wicked men, they might have laughed them to scorn; it might have been "casting pearls before swine." But that simple act of a child no doubt recalled their own tender childhood, and the earnest instructions of their pious mothers, and they were convicted and overwhelmed with a sense of their guilt.

O children! you can, and you do daily exert a mighty influence, for good or for evil, upon your associates and all around you. Be careful, then, what you do. Never be afraid to do what is right. Had that little boy felt ashamed before those wicked men to do what he knew was right, those men would have continued their gambling.

The Psalmist says, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies: that thou mightest still the enemy and the

avenger.

BIMBIA.

On the other page we present our readers with a view of another of the stations occupied by the Baptist Missionary Society in Western Africa. This station is Bimbia. It has recently been reoccupied, with encouraging prospects, by our brother Mr. Peacock. In a recent letter from Mr. Peacock we learn that the district around Bimbia is under the government of two native kings, King Bell and King Aqua. These two kings are now at war, and the one is endeavouring to destroy the other; so that we may easily understand some of the difficulties with which the missionary has to contend. Mr. Peacock has, however, entered on his work with great zeal. His hopes of success seem especially to be with the young, for the older people are so sunk in degradation and wickedness that it is difficult, if not hopeless, to induce them to listen to the Gospel. In his last letter he states especially the need he has for native helpers. The natives, he tells us, can better endure the climate than can Europeans. "A European may be well to-day, and to-morrow be laid aside by sickness.' Native agency, says our brother, is valuable likewise, because whatever might happen to Europeans, there would, with native agents, always be a spark left behind that might at some future time break forth into a flame and consume the ignorance around." What Mr. Peacock says is true of all missionary stations; but it is especially true of Africa. Let us pray that our brother may soon have the help that he needs, and that so, through the people themselves, the Gospel may be preached to the perishing

around them.

We shall hope on some future occasion to give our readers some further account of the labours-we trust also the successes-of Mr. Peacock.