I should think you would be, as the French say, embarrassed with the richness of your subject. 'I will try,' has done a good deal worth telling of, and the men who have enlisted under I will Try's' banner have been those to whom we owe nearly all our happiness and comfort. There wa George Stephenson, born in a mining district near New castle, and while a mere child, obliged to earn his own bread among the mines, principally by working on the machinery. He became a celebrated "engine doctor" as he was called, and thought himself very well off when he earned twelve shillings a week. This poor boy, with no education but what he got in the little time that he could spare his daily labour, and after he had mended the watches and clocks of his neighbours, saw his son a member of Parlia ment, became himself a rich man, and the greatest engineer in England; he made so many improvements in locomotives and railroads, that he has been called the inventor of railways. from "Then how many physical difficulties I will try' has Overcome. Dr. Nicholas Saunderson, another Englishman, lost his sight when only a year old; but when he grew up was a great scholar, and taught mathematics and optics at Cambridge University. Think of that, a blindman explaining to students how and why they could see! But all the men who have tried and succeeded are not Englishmen. It is told of the president of one of the first colleges in the United States, that he was, when quite young, reading the life of Benjamin Franklin, and said to himself: Here was a poor ignorant boy, who had no one but himself to depend upon, but he rose to be a great and celebrated man; why may not I do the same? I will try. 66 How often must each of the poor soldiers who has lost his right hand have had to say, "I will try,' before he learned to write with his left? That must have been a brave man who, when both hands were gone, learned to write with his mouth. "The man who wrote the best account that we have of the habits of bees and ants was blind; if a man who could not see could study and write about such little creatures, cannot you think of something to write about 'I will try.' "I will try' is like the steam in a great engine; it keeps all the machinery of life in motion." "I will try," said Bessie, and she ran out of the room, and her merry voice came to me from the stairway as she sang, "If at first you don't succeed, A QUIET HINT, AND A GOOD ONE TOO. MISSIONARY was attending a missionary meeting a short time ago, when one of the speakers said he liked to hear of boys and girls putting their own money into missionary boxes and the plates at the collections, getting all they could by carrying their boxes round to their friends, but not forgetting their own contributions. There was a little boy there about seven or eight years of age who heard this, and when his mother, hoping to gratify him by offering him half-a-crown to put into the plate, he said, "No, thank you; I have my own money," cheerfully put in his own sixpence, with much greater pleasure and satisfaction than he would have done the larger amount. Will not many of our young friends take the hint? " and he J. L. G. utions, each village bringing >wn, the boys carrying the dren's, the men carrying I own. 'he cotton was packed in is about 50 pounds in each, 1 two or three according to e strength of the bearers rung on a pole and carried tween two. When they got re all had to be weighed. It ok several days. The people ere most anxious to know hich village was at the top of he list, but they were not to snow until the day of the meeting, though some tried to find but by counting the number of >ales. There were 320 bales of cotton, and the whole weighed 13,237 lbs. Then there were 93 bundles of cocoa-nut fibre, and more than 4000 lbs of arrowroot. Besides these things there were £17 in money. When all was added together the value of the whole amounted to £340, of this £125 was from the children. But I must hasten to the day of the meeting. It is a grand day on Savage Island. At daybreak men, women and children were coming along each of the roads leading to Alofi. All were carrying burdens, the men great baskets of cooked food, sugar cane, bananas, cocoa-nuts, &c. The women great bundles on their backs, and perhaps baby on the top. The children food or light burdens of some kind, and some bottles of hair oil. None of the women when travelling have any hats or covering of any kind on their heads, but here, as. in England, the ladies have a bandbox each or that which answers the same purpose,-a wicker basket in which is hidden a grand hat. The weather lo oked threatening, and drizzling rain fell. We hoisted our flags (one was the 66 In Messenger of Peace," the poor John Williams' flag, presented by the Hull Sunday Scholars, and given to us by the captain who bought the wreck ), but no wind came to blow them out.. About half-past seven in the morning all the company had arrived. At the back of our house was a strange sight. a workshop and all around it, in the open air, were the ladies and gentlemen busy arranging their toilette. Some anointing their heads with fragrant cocoanut oil, others with small looking glasses before them arranging raven locks and curls. Dress ing in all its stages was going on, bundles were unpacked, and bright scarlet shirts, white trowsers, pink dresses, children's frocks and all sorts of finery being put on. The At nine o'clock the first meeting was held in the open air. I am not going to tell you much about it; you have had many reports of such meetings. Avatele and Makefu people were disappointed when they heard that Alofi had given most. There was no stamping of feet or clapping of hands. We don't do such things here; it would be rather awkward and difficult for people with bare feet, sitting on the grass, to stamp. At twelve o'clock we had the children's meeting. It was a beautiful sight to us. All the children were closely packed in the front and the adults behind. I have nothing to tell you about the speeches, but I wish you could have heard the singing They sang a translation d "Beautiful Zion," "Around the throne of God in Heaven," and several others. After the meeting was over, came the feasting. The different vil lages exchanged feasts. for none would like to eat the food they had themselves prepared. An amazing quantity of fl disappeared in a very short time, and by five o'clock all the people had gone to their own villages. Thus ended our “No day" it was a fine shady day, and a happy one too. May many more such be seen on Savage Island. KEEP IN THE PATH ! DIVINE commands are like a hedge of sweet briar, which only regales the traveller while he keeps in the path, but pricks and wounds him when he attempts to break through. So, we may pray, "Hold up my goings in Thy paths." well |