not do such shocking things even if they were told to do so. And perhaps, they also often think how wicked and hardhearted the Jews were to crucify the Saviour.

Dear children, look first into your own hearts. Every time you sin against God, you are playing with that weapon which killed Jesus. It was sin which crucified the Saviour. And if you laugh at sin and encourage it, instead of resisting it, you are as bad as the Jews who cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him." It is indeed sad to look at our picture, and see that little child stamping with all his strength on a cross of wood. Poor child, he is taught to hate the very name of Christ. And what have you been taught, my reader? Probably, to love the name of Christ; you have been told of his sufferings to save you from hell; you have been pointed to him as your friend and Saviour! And yet, perhaps you do not love him any better than these ignorant children in our picture. How shall we know if you love Christ? By seeing you hate sin. How shall we know if you hate Christ? By seeing you love evil. O go and pray for the love of Jesus to melt your hard heart.

EUNICE.

SKETCHES AND ANECDOTES OF CHINESE

LIFE.

NO. IV.

CHINA suffered much from the frequent inroads of the Tartars, who, subsisting partly by hunting and partly by plunder, and being more warlike than the Chinese, were enemies much to be dreaded. To preserve the country from their incursions, the Emperor Chi-hoang-ti built the great wall, about two hundred years before the birth of Christ. In order to procure a sufficient number of workmen to carry out such a great design, he had recourse to very cruel and unjust measures. Every third labouring man throughout the empire was impressed into the service of the emperor, and made to work hard every day, without receiving any thing more than a bare supply of food. Had he known and loved the holy precepts of religion, he would have respected the rights of the meanest of his subjects, and not cruelly oppressed them with burdens, as Pharaoh did the children of Israel of old. The golden rule which Christ has given is, to do always, in little as well as in great things, unto others as we would they should do unto us.

The great wall was fifteen hundred miles long, and it was fortified by a great number of towers, placed at equal distances, in which guards were kept to watch against the attacks of the enemy. The exterior was of stone and brick-work, of very solid construction, and it was filled in with earth, that it might be as se

cure as possible, and to breach being made in it.

guard against any This wonderful work

of man was carried over high mountains, through valleys, and over rivers by means of arches; by which we see that the principle of the arch was not unknown to the Chinese in those early times. The whole of it was finished in five years.

But the Emperor Chi-hoang-ti was not contented with the fame arising from such a great work; he wished to be known by succeeding generations as the founder of the Chinese monarchy; and he had so much of the pride of the human heart, that he determined to do all he could to gratify this desire. He commanded that all books and writings should be burnt, that no traces might remain in their historical records of the ancient state of the country, and of the sovereigns who reigned before him. But although many were put to death for trying to evade this order, means of concealment were found underneath the floors of different houses, and behind walls, until at the death of the emperor it was safe to bring such hidden records to light.

This folly was quite destructive of its end. Instead of elevating the emperor in our eyes, it gives us a very mean opinion of his character, and is a warning to us to check the proud thoughts which are continually rising in our minds, and to seek from the hands of the gentle and the lowly Jesus that ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.

J. H.

TO THE LITTLE READERS OF THE
"CHILDREN'S FRIEND."

As you so often, my dears, hear and read of "missionaries," perhaps it may not be uninteresting to hear some account of a part of Africa, unvisited I believe by Europeans, with the exception of those good persons who have left home, friends, and country, to tell the glad tidings of a Saviour and a better faith to the inhabitants of that benighted quarter of the globe. Last summer, being with my children at one of the beautiful watering-places with which Devonshire abounds, a missionary meeting was advertised to be held directly opposite our pretty cottage; so taking my eldest child, a boy nearly ten years old, with me, we joined the persons entering the large room where the meeting was held.

The assembly was first addressed by a gentleman who had laboured in the East Indies; but who was not able to remain there long; and then came forward and spoke the good missionary from Abeakutoo. We listened to his details with much interest, whilst he spoke of the inhabitants of that distant region; that although they were heathens, we must not suppose them without some knowledge of a God, and even they had an idea of a mediator between them and God, for if they offered a sacrifice, it was to one they thought would try to propitiate "the one great being," whom they knew governed all.

The good missionary and his wife were the

only white persons there, and his wasted frame shewed the effects of the burning sun under which he had laboured. After many interesting details, he said he had one of their gods in his pocket, and that it was not much trouble to

carry it about. You may guess how we all stared, and I and my little boy as eagerly as any. What do you think it was ? "Nuts." Palm nuts, sixteen of them forming an idol. Those Africans were fully alive to the benefits conferred by European science, and requested the missionary to tell his queen to send them persons who might teach them our arts; and, above all, to tell them of the Gospel.

The missionary has, I believe, returned to Abeakutoo, and may a blessing rest on his labours amongst his black brethren, is the sincere wish of

LYDIA.

SPOKEN TO A NUMBER OF CHILDREN WHO WERE ABOUT TO READ GOD'S WORD.

HAVE you ever looked into a nest of little birds in summer? If you have, you would see that if anything made them think that their mother was coming, they would all put up their heads, and open their mouths wide! If the bush rustled, or they heard anything like their mother's flight, there are all their little heads, and open, wide open mouths, to be seen! Even the little and weakest one at the bottom of the nest lifts up his yellow bill, and opens his little red throat. They do this because they know