nothing for my services, and teach him all the hooks and crooks of chimney-sweeping. And there isn't a boy in all Brunswick that knows more of them than I do. I have been in the business three or four years, and applied myself solely to my profession. I think when I represent the whole matter to the count, he will agree to it without a murmur. The countess-to tell the truth, I never thought of her in reference to this matter before-couldn't be expected to go about with her husband, and assist him in his labours. But she could live in a house in the Fleischstrasse, where the most of us sweeps lodge at night. I am sure there would be no difficulty in her finding one. I know all the landlords, and would willingly interest myself for her. Now, how shall I broach the subject? I have a sheet of paper at home, and here in my waistcoat-pocket is the piece of charcoal that I whittled down yesterday morning into quite a respectable pencil. When I get home to-night I will wash myself very clean, powder up these black hands to make them smooth, and then I will make my proposition in as good language as I can command. But what am I about here? The countess may step in at any moment, and what would become of me then? I must be making observations as speedily as possible, and then get to my work."

It was one of Gotfried's peculiarities that he generally thought out loud. Sometimes he would deliberate to himself a little, and then, before he became aware of it, he would be talking all his thoughts. He frequently found this leading him into trouble; but he was using all his efforts for the last few months to break himself of it. And so ought every boy and girl who has a bad habit always be trying to get clear of it.

After finishing his speech, every word of which he should have kept to himself, his eyes fell first upon the great looking-glass that reached from the floor to the ceiling. No sooner did he get a fair look at it than he went up to it and beheld himself. It may appear wonderful to many of the readers of these lines, but yet it is true, that Gotfried had never before seen himself pictured out from head to foot. He had a piece of broken looking-glass in his lodging-room, but it was only large enough for him to see two-thirds of his face. Imagine his feelings then when he beheld himself-Gotfried, the Brunswick chimney.

now

sweep-large as life in Count Rulman's splendid mirror. Look at him gazing first on his face, then on his hands and finally on his feet. Now he turns half around and takes a side view of his lordship. By-and-bye he becomes fully satisfied that he has thoroughly examined himself, and secretly hopes that when the count gives him his house he will have the kindness to leave his mirror and other serviceable articles there. What would even Count Rulman's grand palace be without the furniture? I wouldn't give a fig, thought he, to have this room, if I couldn't have these sofas, and chairs, and pictures, and this chandelier, and this glorious looking-glass.

Just now he beheld a new object of interest. It is the countess's gold watch and chain. How bright they shine! Any sensible goldsmith would have given a large sum for them both together. No sooner does Gotfried see them hanging near the bookcase than he takes them down. The chain is bright and long, so he hangs it around his neck and again takes a view of himself. His head was almost turned upside down when he saw his picture-Gotfried, the sweep, with a watch on!

My own opinion is," so he reflected aloud, "that a boy is not a real gentleman unless he has a watch. I sometimes sleep too late in the morning, and if I had this watch of the countess's it would save me a great deal of inconvenience. I think, too, that when I become possessor of this house, people would think me a great dunce if I hadn't a fine gold watch. So in either case I find it indispensable to my comfort and respectability. I must take it with me; no one would dream of my having it. No policeman in Brunswick would search Gotfried's pockets; he is only a poor chimney-sweep. Now I am rich and happy!

"Happy, did I say? Can what one steals make him happy? And rich-can a thief be a rich man? My poor mother told me before she died to be honest to the value of a pin or a penny; and this watch and chain are worth thousands of pins and pennies. I would, then, be disobeying my mother who has gone to heaven. No, I will not take this gold watch and chain. It would only make me unhappy and poor, instead of happy and rich. I obeyed my mother living, and I will obey her dead."

Noble words were these; and when the

little chimney-sweep had finished them, he kneeled down and folded his hands in prayer. I will not repeat all his prayer, though he spoke it aloud, but only a part: "I thank thee, O God! that thou hast rescued me from this great temptation that has threatened the destruction of both my soul and body. I thank thee for a good mother who gave me such instructions as to remind me of my duty to thee and to myself. If Count Rulman had not seen me, thou wouldst have beheld this wicked deed; 'thou fillest heaven and earth with thy presence.' I thank thee a thousand times -- million times-for thy preserving care.”

By way of postscript to his prayer, he added: "I have no business whatever in this room. In future I will attend to my work, my whole duty. Then I will be sure to escape temptation."

Immediately he turned round and started for the fire-place to begin his duties in the chimney; but when he was about half across the floor, a little side door suddenly opened, and in came the Countess Rulman! "Stop!" said she; "I have a word to say to you."

Gotfried trembled like an aspen.

"You need not be afraid, little chimneysweep," said the good-hearted lady, after looking at him a moment; "I have been gazing at you every minute of the time that you have been here in my chamber. You might well have trembled if you had taken my watch and chain, but as it is, dismiss all alarm. You heeded the voice of conscience just at the right time. It gives me great pleasure to think that you have resisted the tempter. And your prayer -it went to my heart; I shall never forget it. You thanked God for a pious mother. I wish every child in Brunswick, and in the whole world, would acknowledge God's goodness when he gives them a praying mother."

The words of the countess made warm tears flow from the little chimney-sweep's blue eyes. They were like balm to his soul; she seemed like his mother risen from the grave. Oh! how many there are in this world who, by kindness and love, could take the place of departed mothers.

"Ah! countess, don't praise me. I don't deserve a word of kindness or sympathy. I was very wrong in yielding to my cu riosity. Like many other boys, I was led into temptation by a desire to be wealthy, and by this foolish prying into other people's business."

The countess took the opportunity to teach him a lesson of obedience to conscience which he never afterwards forgot. In closing her admonition, she inquired of him if there was any other occupation he would prefer to his present one.

"Now don't fear," said she, "to speak your wishes to me. I will take good care to gratify them if they are proper ones.

Then Gotfried related his history, and spoke of how he had been compelled from poverty to become a chimney-sweep. He would have gone to school if he had had the means; but as it was, he confessed that he was not only too poor to get instruction, but also to buy books. All his earnings were required to pay for his clothes and boarding.

"O countess! I would rather have a good education than anything else." And, as he spoke, the tears flowed afresh down his soot-covered cheeks.

The lady was greatly gratified at his wish, and promised him faithfully that it should be gratified.

"Take this present," said she, "and tomorrow-night you may expect me in your little garret-room in the Fleischstrasse."

So saying, she handed him a piece of gold with which to purchase good clothing; and instead of Gotfried having to clamber up the chimney to get out of doors, his new-made friend showed him to the front door and told him he could always enter her house in future by that means.

"Countess Rulman coming to my room! Who could have dreamed such a thing? Never did chimney-sweep have such good fortune as this before. Now I will get my clothes, arrange my little room, buy a candle, and prepare for my benefactress." So Gotfried spoke as he went along the street.

The next evening has come, and it finds him with clean hands and face, freshly-cut hair, new clothes, and a nice sperm candle burning brightly from the neck of an old beer-bottle. Above all his outlay, he found enough remaining to buy himself a plain Bible. So there he sat in his little room reading that Bible.

"Hush! hark!" said he, " she's coming." True enough, it was the rustling of Countess Rulman's silk dress. She was attended by a gentleman, not her husband, but some one Gotfried had never before met with. The happy boy arises, takes his candle, opens his door, and shows his visitors the way to his room.

"Gotfried, the gentleman who attends me is Professor Acker of the college in this city. I have called to see him to-day, and stated your circumstances and wishes to him in full. Moreover, I have paid him your tuition-fees for a year in the institution with which he is connected, and will continue to do so until your graduation. He has also given his consent to your boarding in his family and having the advantage of his personal intercourse. Here is a note which you must give to Mr. Leismeister, the bookseller, and he will furnish you in future with whatever books you may desire. To-morrow morning you can bid farewell to this little garret-chamber and commence a new life. I trust it will be one of usefulness and honour. The Professor here will be your steadfast friend, and he will give you all necessary instruction. Meanwhile I shall want to see you frequently at our house. You know in what street it is. You need never climb its chimneys again, but enter by its front door, and warm yourself by its fires. And in order to smooth your way as much as possible by enabling you to divide your study hours properly, I give you this gold watch. You have seen it once before! indeed, you have even once had it around your neck. But it was not your own then, and you would have been afraid to wear it in public. Now it is your property, and the whole world cannot make you ashamed of it. To-day I have caused a slight change to be made in it. Inside the case you will find an engraving representing a chimney-sweep praying to God. As long

as the watch lasts this little design will endure. Let it teach you every day gratitude to your heavenly Father for delivering you from temptation, and for his goodness in granting you the holy example of a praying mother."

I will not speak of Gotfried's feelings, or of his noble reply to the words and gift of the countess. They can be imagined without much difficulty. Nor is it necessary to follow the boy to the college, and witness his constant attention to his studies. He passed through the entire course, and finally graduated with distinction. After leaving the institution, a wealthy merchant of Brunswick requested him to join him as partner of his business. Gotfried accepted it, since the inducements were of no ordinary nature. He thrived in business beyond all calculation, and was known in the neighbouring provinces and kingdoms for his attention to the wants of the poor, and especially for his care of the orphan. I first made his acquaintance in the south of France, where the chances of travel threw us together for a single night. He is the owner of a castle there, situated high up on a mountain summit, where he spends the three summer months of every year. There he has a better opportunity of beholding the wonders of nature than from a chimney-top, and he spends hours of each day in admiring the glorious works of his Creator. During the course of our conversation he showed me the watch presented him by Countess Rulman, and I saw within it the little design of the praying chimney-sweep.

THE GREATNESS OF LITTLE
THINGS.

THERE are great events in human history of which the world takes little note; events whose influence extends far into the future, to results interesting as are the destinies of an immortal soul. The act of a humble fisherman in persuading his brother to have an interview with a man of Galilee called Jesus; the accident which led a monk to examine the contents of a Latin version of the Bible, which he found chained up in one of the cells of his con

vent-were small things, as seen by the secular historian; but in their relations to the future they were great events, which have had their far-reaching influence on the minds and destinies of millions. The conversion of a youth in a Bible-class, or of a child in the Sunday-school, though it seems a small thing as estimated by the world, may be the first link in a chain of influences affecting the character and welfare of thousands. Many of the little incidents of life, the little acts of men as they appear to the world, are great in their results, signalized by the providence of

God, with whom nothing is great or small, and before whom all nations are but as the dust of the balance.

THE ANGEL OF PATIENCE. To weary hearts, to mourning homes, God's meekest angel gently comes: No power has he to banish pain, Or give us back our lost again; And yet, in tenderest love, our dear And heavenly Father sends him here. There's quiet in that angel's glance; There's rest in his still countenance; He mocks no grief with idle cheer, Nor wounds with words the mourner's ear;

But ills and woes he may not cure
He kindly trains us to endure.
Angel of Patience! sent to calm
Our feverish brows with cooling palm;
To lay the storms of hope and fear,
And reconcile life's smile and tear;
The throbs of wounded grief to still,
And make our own our Father's will.
O thou who mournest on thy way,
With longings for the close of day,
He walks with thee, that angel kind,
And gently whispers, "Be resigned;
Bear up, bear on: the end shall tell
The dear Lord ordereth all things well."
-J. G. Whittier.

PROGRESS.

IN our last issue we brought before our readers the statement of the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, that they feared a large deficit in the income of the present year. We are glad to be informed that the appeal of the Committee has met with a cordial response from all parts of the country, and that in many places prompt efforts have been made to meet the difficulties into which the Society has been led. Everywhere we hear expressed the utmost unwillingness that any missionaries should be recalled. With the exception of about £30, the debt of last year has been paid, and increased receipts have reduced the expected deficit by some £2,000. So far this is most encouraging; but a debt of even £6,000 will be a heavy burden to bear, and will require very strenuous effort to avoid. What has been done during the past two months shows that the churches nave resources yet untouched, and when all parts of the kingdom have done their best we may hope not only for the removal of this prospective debt, but for the provision of means to enlarge the operations of our beloved mission.

Meanwhile God continues to bless the labours of the missionary brethren. In all parts of the field there is steady advance. În Trinidad a new chapel has been completed and opened for the worship of God, and several additions have been made to the native churches in the district. In Fernando Po our persecuted converts con

tinue steadfast in the truth, although the Spanish authorities have issued more stringent regulations, and forbidden even those private meetings for prayer which hitherto have been carried on without molestation. In the two schools the use of the Bible is wholly forbidden. The people are therefore anxious to send their children to Amboises Bay, to place them under Mr. Pinnock's instruction. The want of proper accommodation in this new settlement alone at present hinders the fulfilment of their wish.

From the River Cameroons, the station where Mr. Robert Smith is now labouring, we have received the following striking picture of the difficulties which surround the brethren, and the trials of the converts that God gives them. Mr. Smith says:

"We are surrounded by two classes of people, the free and the slave (the position of the latter, I think, in some ways resembles the serfs in Russia). The slaves far outnumber the free, and are always ready to resent an outrage, an instance of which took place last Monday. A freeman took up an axe, and cut a deep gash in a slave's shoulder, and for a time his life was despaired of. The slaves immediately armed, and spread desolation around the offender's dwelling, by destroying his houses, cutting down all his plantain-trees, and forcing him to escape to the bush for protection. A few months since a slave, by the name of Long Ramsey, after giving evidence of a change of heart, was baptized and admitted a member of the church. His master, from some ill-feeling or other cause, went to his

hut about midnight, took him away to a canoe, and after securing the poor fellow, returned to his slave's house and plundered it of its little contents. When the master had done this, he took the man away into the country and sold him to pay a debt. Had this slave remained in his country's foolish and sinful ways, his master would have been afraid to sell him away from Cameroons. I have seen King Bell on the subject, and he has promised to use his influence in getting the man brought back where he may hear the Gospel. If he is brought back again, we shall have to advance to the church the money to purchase his redemption. I understand that each of the chiefs signed a treaty with the late Consul that every person shall have freedom of worship in this river; but that, like other papers, is almost useless, and we have to fall back upon ourselves, or rather, upon God."

In Brittany the word of God continues to grow. At Guingamp the French authorities have lately come to a decision very favourable to liberty of conscience for Protestants. On a recent communion Sabbath a man was received, after baptism, into the church under very interesting circumstances. The work of grace began in his heart about two years ago. He was reading a brief account of the sufferings of our Saviour when the words of Jesus, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children," made a deep impression upon him. He could not help shedding tears. Till then, though addicted to drinking, which his wife had failed to check, he regarded himself with no small self-complacency. Now he began to see himself a sinner. Even previous to this he had lost his confidence in the Church of Rome. He now remembered that that Church gives its adherents only short extracts from the Gospels; and the desire seized him to possess the entire New Testament. This brought him to the chapel. At the close of the service one evening he stepped forward and purchased a copy, and for the first time in his life he saw the New Testament complete.

He took the sacred treasure home, and diligently set himself to read it. His progress in understanding its contents was very slow at first. At length the truth reached his heart; he grew in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, abandoned Romanism, and became a regu

lar attendant on the Breton worship. On his resolving to be baptized, his wife, hitherto favourable on account of the change she saw in his character, became bitterly opposed to him; and on the Sunday morning when he put on Christ she came in a very excited state to the chapel, and remained a short time at the door, demanding her husband. She went away, and returned with her little girl, who came crying aloud to her father. The wife again went sobbing away. On the husband's return home he was accosted by eight or nine women, who addressed him as a foolish brute because he would be, as they said, unbaptized, and thus grieve his poor wife. There had been some talk of beating him, but he was not thus to be intimidated. Amidst much tribulation has this man entered the kingdom of God.

A scarcely less interesting case of conversion is reported by Mr. Bouhon. On his proceeding with Mrs. Bouhon early in the year to Morlaix, when leaving the port of Havre, the captain begged the missionary's wife to befriend, during the passage, a young lady also going to Morlaix. It was soon ascertained that she had been sent to France from this country in order to strengthen her in her new faith, for she had recently passed over from Protestantism to Popery. Our missionary friends spoke to her plainly about Romanism, and assured her of their sympathy and help if she should require it. The intercourse thus commenced continued after their settlement in Morlaix, and the young lady was a frequent visitor at the mission-house. She begged for a Bible; for the house in which she lodged did not contain one. The perusal of the sacred writings, with tracts furnished at the same time, shook her confidence in the dogmas of the Papacy. A priest of the town who desired to hear her confession in vain conversed with her. At length she entered a convent for three months only, just to see what a secluded religious life in nunneries was like. The trial sufficed thoroughly to convince her of the errors of the church she had so recently joined; and annoyed at the attempts to keep her in the convent longer than the time agreed upon, she hastily left it during mass on Sunday, the 28th June. She ran for an hour, fearing to be overtaken, till she reached Mr. Bouhon's door. She begged to be admitted and hidden for two or three days, lest any priest should seek after her. She was not aware that she had