OOD DAY to you, my young friends! I am right glad to meet you, and greet you once more. A happy new year to you all; and a whole heap of good wishes, such as these:-I wish you a genial spring time, a sunny summer, and a fruitful autumn; in other words, may you bot be happy in childhood, joyous in youth, useful in manhood, and ripe in old age! May you live for Jesus here, and live with Him hereafter! "May the grace of Christ our Saviour, With the Father's boundless love, And the Holy Spirit's favour, Rest upon you from above." There I think I have set before you a rich cluster of good wishes for your own well-being; now let me add a No. 1.-JANUARY, 1869. B few for the Magazine-your magazine-which is this day like a re-fitted vessel, floating out of dock for another year's cruise. I wish to make it more interesting, more attractive, more instructive, more useful, and, if you have as strong a WILL to increase the circulation, as I have an ardent wish to secure it, then the thing will certainly be done. You have helped it right heartily during the past year, so that now there are so many copies sold, that it no longer draws upon the Society's funds, but rather does something to increase them, for which we may well feel glad and thankful to God. But I want you to try and get me some more readers if you possibly can, so that more good may be effected, and my heart be increasingly gladdened. I mean, if spared, this year to do all I can to make the Magazine more instructive, sparkling, and pictorial, and I hope you mean to speak to a good number of your young friends to get them to take it in; and then, if we thus "pull together," we shall soon pull it into the sunshine of perpetual popular favour amongst the young folk of our families, schools, and congregations. ONCE MORE, let me just say in parting, as God has graciously permitted you to enter upon a new period of time--Don't waste it; "Live unto the Lord; do something for Christ: spiritual idleness brings moral wretchedness. The Devil is represented as a fisher, who, while he uses all sorts of baits, catches the idle without any bait at all. "An idler's like a clock, without the hands, As useless when it goes as when it stands." Queen Elizabeth, on her death-bed cried, "A world of wealth for an inch of time!" but neither time nor ide will stay at the bidding of either peasant or prince. A little girl once sat on the brink of a river picking a 1osegay to pieces, and casting each flower into the rapid stream, which laughingly bore them away. When all were gone, the little girl began to cry for them, and sat shouting in vain, "Give me back my flowers." Take heed lest your wasted time should thus end in hopeless grief. To help you to improve time, will be the endeavour of your loving friend, THE EDITOR. From the Coral Reef to Heaven. A TOUCHING STORY. OANAKINO and two companions went fishing on the coral reef off Mangaia. It was a lovely day. They had been fishing some time with good success, and were just saying to each other that they would return home, when two of their number unfortunately found that their fish-hooks Now were caught in the coral, in rather deep water. the poor natives set much value on their fish-hooks; they cannot always obtain them easily. As the sea was smooth they dived for them, the usual practice of fishermen under such circumstances; but, alas they had scarcely left the reef, when suddenly a breeze sprung up and immediately the sea became very rough. They tried to return to the reef, but they were continually baffled in their attempts by the surf which was running very high and dashing with great force against the sharp shelving coral. Their friend ashore He held out his on the surf could do but little for them. long fishing rod, a bamboo cane, for them to catch hold of; but, alas, it was too short. There was no canoe near, but he immediately ran off for one. An hour elasped ere the canoe arrived. In the meantime one of the poor fellows in the ocean complained that he was getting weak and very cold. His friend tried to hold him up by his arm. After a time poor Moanakino, fearing his friend's strength might also fail said, "Let us pray together to God for help, but if He should see fit to take us to Himself, we will say, Thy will be done." When their prayer was concluded poor Moanakino said, "I know I shall be drowned, I have no sensation in any of my limbs. Now leave your hold of me, for fear you also should sink. Farewell, I am going to Jesus and to Heaven." His friend continued holding on to his hair as long as he could, and for sometime after he was dead. The body at length sunk to the coral bottom. When the canoe arrived several men dived for poor Moanakino's body, which they obtained with considerable difficulty. They fetched Mr. Gill, who tried every means he could to restore animation, but to no purpose. Moanakino was a young man of great promise, and has left a young widow. Poor thing, she was standing on the reef tearing her hair when her husband's lifeless body was brought on shore. Surely of this poor South Sea Islander it may be said, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." M. L. G. Mangaia. Something Worth Seeing in Bangalore. D R. NORMAN MACLEOD, with whose name as the Editor of "Good Words" our young friends are familiar, says that nothing struck him more during his recent visit to India, than the large Missionary Institutions for the education of Native youth-filled, not with boys, but to a great extent with young men, eagerly engaged in the study of English literature, and receiving also daily instruction in the truths of the Bible. The accompanying |