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OUR MISSIONARY PAGE.

THR

CHOOSING AN INDIAN SISTER,

HREE years ago a lady came back from India to recover her health; her name was Miss Neele. It must have been very pleasant to see all her dear friends again; but she loved One better still. He had put into her heart the wish to tell about His love to heathen children, and so she was ready to leave home again.

One Sabbath afternoon Miss Neele came to see an English school. The children knew that she was coming, and that she would tell them about her orphan scholars. And they were going to choose something that afternoon-what was it? a little Indian sister! And every child had put some pence in the missionary boxes to support their new little sister.

Can my readers fancy they are sitting opposite to Miss Neele; and will they be ready to choose a sister? This is what she said:

Shall I tell you about my orphans? I call them my dear children. They call me their mother. What made them orphans? A famine, nothing to eat. The famine had driven many poor families into Calcutta, and they lay dying in the streets. Many had eaten grass for days. If your parents loved you, would they sell you? These poor mothers did, for something to eat. One mother brought her child to sell while it was asleep, and then ran away. Think how it cried for its mother. We got a large room for these poor children, and fed, and clothed, and taught them.

'One night there came a cyclone, that is, when the wind blows round and roundnorth, south, east, and west. It blew off the roofs, and even large houses and churches were blown down.

'My poor orphans awoke, and heard the crashings, and saw their roof shaking. I heard them scream, and ran and opened the door, and they all ran out quite safely. The sick orphans were in a stronger house, and I hoped that would not be

blown down. But my head man came and said, "It will fall."

We had to go down a street; the water was rushing up to my knees; the man took my arm, for the wind was fearful. I got in and ran to little Pooree's bed, and wrapped her in a blanket. Just after all the poor sick ones were carried out, down came the roof. Next morning we found a doll with its head cut off, just where a live child had lain.

"Though I could not walk through the street alone before, now God gave me strength to carry Pooree in my arms without any help. As I carried her in that dark wild night I prayed that she might be a child of God, and that she might be a little Moses, "drawn out of the waters," to go and teach her fellow-countrymen.

'Pooree was very ill from long hunger. There seemed no blood left in her veins. She was eating grass when the police picked her up and brought her to us.

'She is better now, but she has no friends to pay for her support.

But there are two other girls you shall hear about before you choose your sisterNoozena and Koreman. They are both orphans; but I do not know Noozena's history. Koreman had been parted a long time from her sister Shodah. They were together in the famine school without knowing each other. One day Koreman came to me with tears of joy saying, “I've found my sister!" How? "I felt she was my sister, and I said, what was your father's name; and were you not called Shodah a long time ago?" "Yes." "Then you are my sister!"

'But there was no money to pay Koreman to stop in my school with her sister. She was sent far away to the Government Foundling Hospital. Would it not be happier for the two sisters to be in the same school?

'Now, which will you choose for your sister-Pooree, Noozena, or Koreman?'

The hands were held up for all three. But we had not money enough for three sisters.

'Hands up for Pooree.'

Then Miss Neele gave a few farewell words; and her bright happy face seemed to say, 'I have come to Jesus, and He has made me glad.'

The last seed she dropped in the school was this: 'May every child here be able to say what a wee one died lisping,

"Jesus died inted of me.""

May every reader of the 'Dayspring' say it too; and may the Holy Spirit write deep down in the hearts this verse: 'Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.'

MARIA V. G. HAVERGAL

IS IT THE 'RIGHT WAY?'

'Is this the right way, Lord?'-My child, what dost thou say?

Hast thou not placed thine hand in mine for all the way?

Thou knowest I held it when the path proved rough and drear,

Now that it's dark besides, child, canst thou think I am not here?

And didst thou say thou wert alone?—that cannot be;

Alone with Jesus thou must mean,-and I AM HE;

And I can bear thy weight, since then thou

BIBLE QUESTIONS.

THRE

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HREE Prizes, in each of the two divisions, are offered for the largest number of correct answers. The Prizes to be awarded in December 1873. The following are the conditions:

1. In the first, or Junior division, the questions for which will be printed first in order; competitors not to be above thirteen years of age.

2. In the second, or Senior division, competitors not to be above eighteen years of age; and in both divisions the answers must be honestly the work of the individuals competing.

3. All answers to be addressed, not later than the 18th of each month, to the Rev. JOHN KAY, Greenbank Cottage, Coatbridge.

As a matter of convenience and economy the answers may be written on post cards. Be careful in all cases to give the name and address of the competitor.

APRIL.

JUNIOR DIVISION.

10. In which chapter of one of the prophets does God twice call on the sinner to look up to Him and say, My Father?

11. By what emphatic expression does an apostle bid us consider God's love in calling us His children?

12. Give two texts in which the apostle Paul speaks of the redeemed both in heaven and on earth as one family?

SENIOR DIVISION.

10. At what period of the church's history did God first reveal Himself as the Father of His people?

11. Where do we find the first recorded prayer in which God is addressed by the name, Our Father?

12. Where is the truth that God is the Father of all mentioned to reprove the sin of duplicity ?

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN FEB. 'DAYSPRING.'

JUNIOR DIVISION.

(4) Samuel's-1 Sam. ii. 26, with Luke ii. 52; (5) Samson-Judges xiii. 24; (6) Abijah-1 Kings xiv. 13.

SENIOR DIVISION.

(4) Solomon-2 Sam. xii. 24, 25; (5) Matt. xviii. 2-6; xix. 13-15; xxi. 15, 16; Luke viii. 49-55; John xxi. 15; (6) Mnason, DISCIPLE'-Acts xxi. 16.

AN OLD

For the 'Dayspring.'

Paisley: J. AND R. PARLANE.

HE will take care of you! All through the year Crowning each day with His kindness & love, Sending you blessings and shielding from fear, Leading you on to the bright home above. HE will take care of you! Yes, to the end! Nothing can alter His love to His own. Darling, be glad that you have such a Friend; He will not leave you one moment alone!

*50*

SUMMER SHOWERS.

HOW differently different people look

at the same thing! To some of my young friends a summer shower means the stopping of their games for a time, and a laying aside of the fine and beautiful clothing which they had set their hearts on wearing at some excursion. To others, again, a summer shower means gladness of heart, and deep thankfulness to the Allmerciful God who giveth fruitful seasons.

One summer, a few years ago, I remember how men were longing and praying for the blessed rain from heaven. The hedges by the wayside had their beautiful green all covered with dust; the cattle in the fields were lowing with that noise that tells of suffering and pain; and the corn, stunted, and white before the time, stood under the blistering heat, to be pulled by the hand, not cut with the scythe. Above, the heavens were cloudless, and the sun shot down upon the broad bosom of the earth his fierce rays, which were as arrows of fire. Hedge, and cattle, and corn field cried out for rain. Farmers looked with sad countenance upon the brooks, whose pebbly beds were as dry as the palm of the hand, and upon the long chinks in the soil which the drought had opened up. The poor in narrow lanes and valleys, where no breath of air stirred; the weary needlewoman in the hot, stifling attic, said: 'Would God the rain would come.' O for the summer showers! O for the summer showers! Look away yonder! On the outermost verge of the sky there rises out of the sea a little dark cloud, and another, and another; and they come sailing over the deep blue of heaven like vessels that are full of plenty for some fortress long besieged. A blue whinstone that forms the step to our home in the country, and which under the great drought had become almost white, gains back its old colour, as the moisture in the air begins to tell upon it; and upon the upturned face fall the first big drops of the long looked for, long prayed for rain. O what gladness! what great joy! Hours come and go, and still the rain comes down. The brooks are

filled, the hedges are clad in green, and the daisies drink their hearts' fill of the full river of God; and men, with a great load lifted from their souls, become as the High Priest of nature, and sing in words what the fields cannot say

'Who to all flesh gives food;

For His grace faileth never.
Give thanks to God most good,
The God of heaven, for ever:
For certainly

His mercies dure

Most firm and sure
Eternally.'

Do you suppose, my young friends, that God has summer showers only for the parched earth? What a storehouse God's is! It holds blessing not for earth alone but for the weary hearts and longing souls of men. I have seen a mother sit for days with a far-away look in her eyes, as if she would pierce the veil that parted her from the loved ones that had gone before; and the heart was as dry as dust, and the soul was parched with the fierce heat of many trials. Here it comes at last; one big drop after another falls from the deep blue eyes, and the heavy sighs, like the moaning of the wind, are full of rain, of blessed rain; and the poor, parched heart drinks of showers of refreshing from the presence of God. I have seen a little child, who for weeks was far from showing the fruits of the Spirit'-whose temper had become strangely wayward, whose countenance was overcast with the shadows of disobedience and rebellion-I have seen the little one flee to my arms with great joy written on every feature, and a holy fruitfulness in every action; and stooping and kissing the unclouded brow, and looking into the depths of the now truthful eyes, I have whispered to myself (O how happy that they had come at last) 'SUMMER SHOWERS! SUMMER SHOWERS!'

HOME LESSONS FOR THE LORD'S DAY. TRUTH AND DUTY.

WHAT do the Scriptures principally teach? That is the question we are to repeat to-night, mamma.'