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There was once a great king. He lived in a beautiful house called a palace. had a son; and a king's son, you know, is called a prince. Now, it wanted three weeks to the prince's birthday. So the king called one of his servants, and told him to mount one of his horses, and to go round the city, and call upon the young noblemen, and invite them to come to the supper on his son's birthday. The servant did as he was commanded, and delivered the king's message.

The day at length arrived, and there were such preparations made. There was a long table spread in the hall with delicious food, and the seats were ranged around the table; the room was dazzling with the bright lamps, and the harpers were harping; the violin, and flute, and other sweet music delighted the ear; and bright flowers filled the room with their fragrance;-it looked so beautiful and gay. When all was quite ready, the king said to his servant," Go out - quickly, and tell the young noblemen, 'All things are ready, come to the supper.''

The first on whom the servant had waited, said, "I cannot come to-day; I must first go home and ask my father; if it were tomorrow, I might perhaps come." Another said, "I am so busy at school, I cannot leave; if it were a holiday, perhaps I might." One after another, they all found

an excuse.

So the servant went home, and told the king how his invitation had been slighted. The king was angry that his kindness was thus abused, and that the prince should be thus treated on his birthday; so he said to the servant, "Go out again into the lanes and villages, and invite all you meet; tell them they are welcome to the feast; none shall be shut out who come."

So the servant went, and as he crossed a field, he met a poor boy, coming toiling up from his hard day's work in the vineyard, with his spade in his hand, going home,

perhaps, to an empty cupboard; his face was pale. The servant stopped him, and said, "My boy, the king invites you to sup at the palace to-night; there is a seat for you." The boy gazed with wonder; he saw the servant had the king's livery on, so it was no mistake; and then he said, "He' cannot have invited me, a poor ragged boy, to such a feast!" "Yes," said the man, "haste to the city; a robe is provided to cover thy rags by the lord of the palace." The lad went joyfully toward the palace; but as he drew near, he could hardly gaze for the brightness. He mounted the steps, and as he went up the staircase, one of the king's servants threw a rich robe across his shoulders. The hall door was thrown open, and he went into the feast.

But let us follow the king's servant. He next met a poor cripple boy, coming along on his crutches. The boy had heard there were strange doings at the palace; so he was hastening to the spot to see and hear for himself. The servant stopped him, and repeated the invitation, "The lord of the palace invites you to come and sup with him to-night." Tears rolled down the poor boy's cheek, while he said, "What mercy! what condescension ! that he should think of me; I am not worthy to eat the crumbs that fall from his table!" And then he quickened his pace, and went straight to the palace. The robe was thrown around him, covering his infirmities, and he was made welcome to a seat at the table.

Next, the servant went down a long retired road, where lived an old lady with her little granddaughter. He knocked at the door, and had a hearty welcome, when the old lady saw he was one of the king's servants. He talked with her about the king's feast; her face beamed with joy while she listened to the wonderful story how that the king had sent to invite all of every age and condition to come. And then the servant turned to the little girl, and said, "The prince has sent a message to you, and this is it, Suffer the little children to come unto me.' He invites you, my little child, to come to the feast." But there was one objection the old lady made,-their clothes were too old to appear on such an occasion, -they must wait until they could appear in

clothes befitting such an entertainment. "No," said the servant, "you must come at once; the feast is ready; if you tarry, the door will close." So they got ready, and went with the servant; and as they ascended the staircase, the robes of glittering brightness were placed on their shoulders, and they went into the supper.

Presently, one of the noblemen's carriages rattled down the street, and stood before the palace. A young lord stept out, attired in his robes. The way was cleared by his attendants, for a crowd had gathered round the steps. But the king's servants admitted no one but on whose forehead was the mark of the prince. Well, this young lord pushed his way up the staircase; but when the servants held the king's robe, he rudely turned it away, saying he would appear in his own at the table. So he took his seat.

Presently, the folding doors of the great hall were opened, and the king and his son walked in where the guests were assembled. How bright and glorious did he look. His countenance was as the sun. His raiment bright and dazzling to look upon. There was inexpressible love in his face, while he spoke these words, "Eat, oh, my friends; drink, yea, drink, oh, beloved." He gazed round the table; all faces beamed with happiness; but one was there whose countenance fell, his knees smote, his garment became dim. The king looked at him and said, "Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? Depart, depart, accursed !" The servants were commanded to carry him out, and consign him to that awful place that burn

eth with fire and brimstone. This was the young nobleman who refused to wear that wedding garment provided by the king for his guests.

Now, my dear little friends, some of you know the meaning of this story. God is the great king. Jesus the prince. The supper the gospel provision. The servants the ministers of the gospel. The young noblemen represent the Jews, to whom the gospel was first sent; but they rejected and despised the invitation. The guests who gladly accepted it were the Gentiles.

And now, my dear young friends, Jesus invites you, like the little labourer, the poor cripple, the little girl. Listen to Christ's message, and now, yes, now, turn to the palace. There waits the Saviour dressed in love, and He says, "Come, for all things are ready."

Take warning from the young lord. You cannot go to heaven without the wedding garment. Jesus alone can provide a robe for you. Jesus died to save you, and His blood cleanseth from all sin. Ask Him to make you His child, to give you His Spirit, and to fit you to live with him in heaven. Think of the dear children now in glory. Your little hymn says,

"In flowing robes of spotless white,
See every one arrayed,

Dwelling in everlasting light,

And joys that never fade,

Singing glory."

I pray that you, too, may sit down at the table of Christ on earth, and at the great supper of the Lamb above.

A. B.

GOD THE SOURCE OF PROSPERITY.-Unless God send prosperity, prosperity will never be realised. If the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts, it is by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. If we resemble Christ in our disposition and conduct, it is because that, "beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Are we preserved in the midst of temptation, and kept from the pollutions of the world? it is because we are sanctified by the God of peace, and our spirit, and soul, and body, are preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, by God. If we purpose any good, it is because God puts it in our hearts. If we effect good, it is because God

blesses our efforts. The ministry is an earthen vessel, but the excellency of the power is of God, and not of man. "Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." All efforts are valueless without God's blessing. The intrepidity of Peter, the zeal and energy of Paul, the eloquence of Apollos, the pathos of Barnabas, the tender affection of John, had been powerless without the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Were all the talent, wisdom, energy, piety, and zeal of the whole church combined in one individual, and concentrated in one effort, for the conversion of one sinner to Christ, that effort would fail unless God rendered it effective. The letter killeth,

the Spirit giveth life. But there are certain means of divine appointment; certain channels which God has opened, certain circumstances and conditions of being, in the employment of which means, at which channels, and under which circumstances and conditions of being, as certainly as that God is an unchangeable and faithful God, prosperity may be confidently expected, and will be realised. And, on the other hand, there are certain circumstances and states of being, and modes of operation, in connexion with which God, unless he disregard his own honour, and appear to impress his sanction on iniquity, and regard sin with indifference, cannot command a blessing, or give prosperity.-Bigwood's Prosperity of Zion.

MY OWN PICTURE.-Suppose all christians were just like me! What would become of the world? Suppose none prayed more, or more fervently, how many sinners would be awakened? How many revivals sent? Suppose none were more faithful in exhorting the impenitent, how many would be led to Christ? If none evinced more of the power and spirit of holiness in their lives, how many gainsayers and sceptics would be convinced and put to silence? If none were more liberal than I am, how would the pastor be sustained, the gospel spread, the kingdom of the Redeemer extended to the ends of the earth? In short, if all christians were just like me, when would the millennium come-the day of Zion's triumph, when there shall be one Lord, and his name one-every knee bowing, and every tongue confessing to him alone? Alas! have I not too much reason to fear that that happy day is yet far distant, if no one is to be more efficient in bringing it about than I am? Oh, if my faith, and my zeal, and my liberality were the measure for the whole church, there would be a sad prospect for this dark, ruined world! Who would take care of our country, if no one was more willing to sacrifice his own ease and comfort for it than I am? Who would give the water of eternal life to famishing millions in heathen lands, if no one had more bowels of compassion than I have? And

why should any one feel more responsibility in these matters than I do? If I can free my skirts, why not others? Have we not all one Master, one Judge to whom we must render our account? If then I can answer for my delinquencies, others will have no more difficulty. There is no justice in easing one, while all the rest are burdened. If I can get a dispensation to serve Mammon, or Belial, or self, why may not others? If I may love the Lord with less than my whole mind, and soul, and strength, and my neighbour less than myself, so may every disciple of Jesus. And if I may seek the gratification of my own desires as the first end of my being, so may all the world beside. And Satan may riot amid universal ruin and death, till the last trump shall wake us all to receive according to our deeds, whether good or bad.

HUMILITY AND PRAYER.-What is the practical exposition and demonstration of humility? A constant habit of earnest prayer. Humility is the emotion of which prayer is the expression. Humility is the devotion of the heart, prayer that of the lip. Humility is the feeling of dependence, prayer is its language. Prayer is more constantly and necessarily connected with spiritual religion than speech is with natural life; there may be natural mutes, there can be no spiritual ones. The ear of the renewed soul is never closed, nor its tongue ever silent. Prayer is not only our duty, but it is our honour and our privilege; for it is the converse of man with God,-the intercourse of the finite spirit with the Infinite, the coming of the child of grace and heir of glory into the presence of his Heavenly Father. Prayer is placing ourselves under the outstretched arm of Omnipotence, entering the secret place of the Almighty; it is, in fact, putting on the power of God as a shield, and taking hold of his might. No where has infidelity, with all its plausibilities, less weight,-no where has christianity, with all its difficulties and incomprehensibilities, more power, than when both are contemplated together by an act of devotion in the light of God's countenance.-J. A. James.

BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSIONS.

THE ANNUAL REPORT.

In accordance with the annual custom of the Baptist Missionary Society, the Committee proceed to lay before the subscribers their report for the past year.

THE FIELD OF LABOUR.

The missionaries sustained by the Society labour in Asia, on the western coast of Africa, in France, and in the islands of the Western Sea. In Asia they encounter

three great forms of religious error, the most powerful and extensive of all systems of religion-Brahminism and Mohammedanism in India-Buddhism in Ceylon. In degraded and enslaved Africa, Fetishism, with its charms, closes the heart against the truth of God among the native tribes,-the Isubus, Duallas, and Fernandians. In Haiti, Trinidad, and Brittany, the perverted christianity of the Church of Rome is the prevailing belief of the people, mingled in the two first with the superstitious and fearfully licentious rites of African Obeahism

and serpent worship; while in India, the practices of Rome are, to some extent, conformed to many of the usages of the heathen. In Ceylon, part of India, and the Bahamas, an additional hindrance to the progress of the gospel is found in the presence and active exertions of some of the clergy of the Church of England, whose exclusive claims of apostolicity, and assertion of the efficacy of the sacraments for salvation, carry the strifes and sectarianism of our native land to regions but at the best imperfectly imbued with christian truth. At about one hundred and ninety-four stations and sub-stations, the gospel of Christ Jesus is regularly preached to many thousands by the missionary brethren, from week to week, while their itinerant labours extend to many hundreds of villages and towns, and the message of God is daily proclaimed to thousands more at fairs and at markets, by the road-side and at the nightly resting place.

THE LABOUrers.

The service of Christ is carried on in this extensive field by forty-eight brethren, with their wives, and nine females engaged in the special department of education. It has been, however, one of the blessed results of their toil, that from the midst of the converts there have been raised up by the grace of God, not less than 120 natives of the different lands where the gospel has been proclaimed by our brethren, to aid them in the further extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. And this is not the whole of the means that have been brought into operation; about 180 other christian brethren gratuitously devote more or less of their time in making known the unsearchable riches of Christ. To these must be added thirty or more schoolmasters, in order to embrace in a brief view the whole of the christian agency employed or set in motion by the Society.

The past year has witnessed several important changes in this department. Two highly valued brethren rest from their labours, having fallen asleep in Jesus. Mr. Davies of Ceylon, after five years only of successful toil, and Mr. Merrick of Western Africa, after nine years of devoted service, are no more to be numbered among the missionary band. Sickness has borne heavily on the energies of others, and driven them to fairer climes. Captain and Mrs. Milbourne have returned to Jamaica, and Mr. and Mrs. Yarnold have relinquished the work in Africa. And as we write, two other highly esteemed and useful missionaries-the brethren Makepeace of Saugor, and Dawson of Ceylon, overpowered by disease, are on their passage home. Mr. Phillips of Muttra, has for the present year undertaken to supply the station at Saugor; while the vacancies occasioned by the decease and return of the rest, have not been filled up. The financial difficulties through which the Society has passed, have altogether forbidden, not merely any extension of the field of labour, but even any attempt to repair the breaches which death and

disease have made. One station, that of Patna, has been relinquished chiefly from the same cause, since on the cessation of Mr. Beddy's connexion with the Society, it was found impracticable to maintain it. The station is not, however, without the services of a faithful minister of Christ of our denomination. It is supplied by a christian brother supported by the Rev. William Start. From the same cause, the missionaries have been compelled to withhold support from about twenty of their native helpers; so far weakening the mission in that most efficient and valuable branch.

Motives of economy, combined with the reduction in the number of the brethren labouring in Africa, and the increasing means of communication between the various parts of the coast, have led to the recall of the missionary ship Dove. The thanks of the Committee are justly due to the young friends who have so liberally and so long kept her afloat, and they are sure that although this object of their benevolent exertions is about to be removed, their interest in the work of missions will not diminish. Other channels of equal or greater importance, as, for instance, the maintenance of mission schools, will open before them, into which their efforts and gifts may freely flow.

The circumstances connected with the mission in Central America, and the apparent hopelessness of obtaining for the gospel an entrance into Yucatan, conjoined also with the necessity of retrenchment, have decided the Committee to withdraw from that part of its field. Mr. Kingdon's connexion with the Society will cease during the present year. Painful as are many of these changes, yet are they under the controlling power of Him who is Head over all things for his church.

THEIR LABOURS.

These may be divided into three chief departments-1. Translation; 2. Evangelization; 3. Education.

1. Translation.

In

In translations, the precedence must be given to the transference of the word of God into the languages which are spoken by the people among whom the brethren labour. Although no new language has this year been undertaken, much progress has been made in several versions, and copies of portions of the divine testimony have in large numbers left the press. Hindi, for the use of the population on the Ganges between Monghir and Benares, 4500 copies of the Gospels and Acts have been printed. This edition has been issued under the superintendence of Mr. Leslie. In Hindustani, for the use of Mohammedans, in Persian and Bengali, 62,500 Gospels, Acts, or perfect Testaments have been finished, chiefly under the supervision of Mr. Lewis. And in Sanscrit, under brother Wenger's care, 7500 copies of portions of the New Testament have appeared. Other large editions are in progress, especially of

the Old Testament in Bengali and in Sanscrit by Mr. Wenger. The Bengali Testament, the work of Carey, Yates, and Wenger, is passing under a new ordeal; but has been triumphantly vindicated by the last mentioned brother from the charge of heresy made by the clergy of Bishop's College in Calcutta. The total number of copies printed during the past year is 74,500; the number distributed, upwards of 50,000. In Central America, Mr. Kingdon has been diligently employed in revising and perfecting his version of the Gospels and Acts in Maya.

In Western Africa, besides the translation of the Gospels and Acts in Isubu made by Mr. Merrick, and noticed last year, a commencement has been made by Mr. Saker in the translation of the Scriptures into the Dualla, the language of the natives of the Cameroons; and in France our brother, Mr. Jenkins, is preparing another edition of the New Testament in the Breton tongue.

But the labours of your missionaries have not been confined to the Scriptures. In Brittany and in Trinidad, our brethren Jenkins and Law have been alike engaged in printing and circulating tracts on the chief errors of Rome; and in both cases have succeeded in arousing much enquiry and attention. The first volume of Barth's Bible Stories in Breton is also just ready for the press. Mr. Thompson of Delhi, too, has published large numbers of tracts on the absurdities and guilt of Hindoo idolatry. In these cases our brethren have been aided with liberal grants of paper by the Religious Tract Society. And, finally, at the time of his lamented decease, our brother Merrick had proceeded about half way in printing a Vocabulary of the Isubu tongue, and had also completed a small collection of hymns in that language.

2. Evangelization.

Every opportunity is seized by the missionaries and their companions in labour, the native preachers and catechists, to extend the knowledge of the glad tidings of 'God's love to man. Beside the usual services of the sanctuary, portions of each day are spent in calling the attention of every class to the truths of salvation. Wide excursions are made in the neighbourhood of the stations, and the seed is sown with a liberal hand. As the result of these selfdenying labours, and the Divine blessing resting upon them, there are under the pastoral care of the brethren, and of the native converts chosen to the pastorate, one hundred and eight christian churches-oases of spiritual life in the midst of deserts and death. There are at present in fellowship in India and Ceylon, 1962 persons; in Africa and the West Indies, 3007; making in all nearly 5000 professed disciples of Christ, and about 350 seeking admission into the fold.* The clear increase during the year has been 188. The most flourishing of the

mission churches are to be found in Bengal and the Bahama islands. In these places the largest additions have been made, and the prospects are most promising and hopeful. In others, discouragements have been predominant; the work of God has been stayed, sometimes by affliction, at others by outbreak of human passions, or by the hostility of enemies to the cross of Christ. As the varieties of soil on which the seed has fallen, so has been the harvest to reward the husbandman. The future prospects of evangelization in India are, however, rendered more bright than before by the long delayed declaration, recently issued in the form of a Draft of an Act by the East India government, that no native of India, on changing his faith, shall henceforward be subject to the penalties, confiscations, and the disruption of every social tie, which conversion has until now drawn in its train. It is the Magna Charta of India on liberty of conscience.

3. Education.

At

The training of young men of native origin for the ministry has not, to the Committee's regret, proceeded so favourably in every case as they could wish. The adverse influences alluded to in last year's Report as in operation in Canada, have led to the closing of the college at Montreal, and the resignation of the tutor's office, by their respected and esteemed brother, Dr. Cramp; and from present appearances there does not appear much probability of its revival. Calabar, Jamaica, one young man has completed his studies, and entered with most encouraging prospects on the pastorate of the church at Moneague. Seven other young men, negroes by birth, are receiving the advantages of the institution, and preparing for the ministry. The institution must be regarded as entirely successful in its operations, and as promising much for the future welfare of the churches of Christ in Jamaica. Our brother Mr. Denham has diligently pursued his plans at Serampore; and the Committee would have been glad were they able to employ both of the young brethren whom he has fitted for missionary service. During the year the Committee have been engaged in anxious deliberation on an offer made by John Marshman, Esq., respecting Serampore College. At present the whole matter is under consideration.

At nearly all the stations of the Society, day and Sunday schools are established. The returns of these schools are not sufficiently precise to enable the Committee to specify their exact number, or to give the sum total of the children attending them; but, as far as the accounts have been supplied, there are at the various stations of the Society eighty-nine day schools. in which are taught 3,980 children, and fifty-eight Sunday schools, with 2,680 children. Many schools are supported by the Sunday school scholars of this country; those of the West Indies in great part by grants liberally be