96 LESSONS FOR THE SABBATH AND THE SCHOOL.

A gentleman of renown was on his dying bed, when a friend, near at hand, spoke of the Saviour. "As to the Bible," he replied, "it may be true; I do not know." "What, then, are your prospects ?" he was asked. He replied in whispers, which indeed were thunders, “Very dark-very dark." "But have you no light from the sun of righteousness? Have you done justice to the Bible?" "Perhaps not," he replied; "but it is now too late too late."

A mother, who had laughed at religion and religious people, was seen restless and miserable on her bed of death. She desired that her chidren should be called-they came : in broken accents she addressed them: "My children, I have been leading you in the wrong road all your life; I now find the broad road ends in destruction; I did not believe it before. O! seek to serve God, and try to find the gate to heaven, though you may never meet your mother there." Her lips were closed for ever, and her spirit departed to its account, while the household looked on terror-struck. Reader! would you die thus ? O, no. Then point to heaven, and lead the way.

J ly 5 David

XLII.

XLIII. Rev. i. 5, 6.

Rev. i.

King.

chosen XLIV. & 1 Pet. i. 15, 19. 2 Sam. i., ii. & v.

LETTER FROM THE REV. DAVID SANDEMAN.

SOME of you remember Mr. Sandeman's visits last year before he went to China. You heard him preach, and you were struck with his earnestness for the salvation of souls and the glory of Jesus. He is now in China, distributing your Bibles and tracts, and doing what he can to make known the salvation of God. You will read with interest, we are sure, the following portion of a letter which he sent to us from Amoy in April last. He says:

Amoy, 10th April, 1857.

MY DEAR SIR,-There is much cause for thankfulness to Him who is Lord over all for the good of His Church, that hitherto there has been no disturbance at this part of any kind whatever. At the commencement of hos tilities at Canton, some of the dissolute mob tried to frighten the native Christians by threats; but it all ended in words, and, no doubt, only stirred up the believers to more prayer and faith. At the same time, five Chinese came forward, and were not ashamed, before many witnesses, to profess their faith in the Lord Jesus -that they "turned to God from idols-to serve the living and the true God." Two of them were aged men -one, I believe, nearly seventy-and it was touching to see them kneeling down along with two young men, that the water of baptism might be sprinkled on their heads; and as it trickled down their wrinkled and furrowed faces, to think that it was a sign and seal of the powerful blood of Jesus, which had prevailed to cover the mountains of sins of these hoary-headed idolaters, and make their hard and brawny hearts, by His Spirit, those of new-born children in the kingdom of heaven.

LETTER FROM THE REV. D. SANDEMAN.

99

Oh! that it might please the God of all grace, that when some fellow-countryman at home, who is standing now in the midst of the mighty mountains of sin-seventy years' accumulated guilt-when he reads of this triumph of the blood of the Lamb, that his heart may be smitten with the conviction by the Spirit of God, that he too may be, at the eleventh hour, wholly pardoned.

These converts were added to the American church. Not long ago I made my first visit to the little churches on the mainland, which are more peculiarly under the care of your missionaries, viz., Pechuia and Beh-pih. From the former, formed mainly through the blessing of God on the labours of Mr. Burns, the truth has spread to the latter. From his knowledge of the language, Mr. Douglas is now very well able to preach and take the charge of both of them, and visits them during the cool season about once a fortnight.

Pechuia, as you are aware, is about twenty miles from Amoy-perhaps some ten of them frith or estuary, and the remainder a fine winding river. We started (Mr. Douglas and myself) on Saturday morning, about nine o'clock, in the "Gospel Boat," which is well-known to many of the Sabbath scholars, whom I had the pleasure of seeing last year. In passing through the inner harbour our boat went by a vessel, which brought to mind the rich mercy of God, for the captain of it had, but very lately, after a life of carelessness and disregard of his God and of a Christian mother's counsels, been brought to a knowledge and love of the truth, and was now making all sail for the fair haven of Emmanuel's Land. By eleven o'clock we had reached the entrance to the Pechuia river, after an interesting sail. The sea and hills around the estuary have a great resemblance to those of the Frith

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LETTER FROM THE REV. D. SANDEMAN.

of Clyde, of which I am constantly reminded. There is the same beautiful variety of hill and island, and far reaches of the sea, which one now loses sight of, and again catches a glimpse of their winding arms as they enclose mountain, and island, and mainland.

It stands upon

By one o'clock we reached Pechuia. the bank of the river, and has about 8,000 inhabitants, but makes much less appearance than a town of the same size at home; the houses being more closely built together, and streets much narrower.

As our purpose on this occasion was principally to visit Beh-pih, we then took the road for that place across the hills. These are not very high, but rich in the products of Chinese industry. At every available spot of their ascent the ground is levelled, a soil prepared, and wheat, barley, rice, or the betel-root is seen growing. The valleys at that season were covered with the rich blossom of the peach tree.

At Beh-pih a good many of the Christians were waiting to receive us; and though I could not understand their tongue, it was easy to make out the warm and villagelike welcome they gave us. The whole scene reminded me much of what I had witnessed among the highlands of Scotland. At evening worship, the room was full of eager and earnest faces, anxious to hear the Word of Life.

Next morning, the Sabbath, they were early astir, and prayer and praise were poured forth as from the heart. There was some meaning in the profession of these people, for during the previous week some of them had had their fields bared of their ripe produce for the name of Jesus. But they stood fast by the strength of their Lord, and, as it may be supposed, would be among those to whom Christ's Word was precious on that, His Holy day. The