First Steps. O you've found your feet at last, 'Tis a long and weary path Now the gold of morning shines Thro' your skies so blue, ་ tread When the morning gold is dim And the roses dead. Will you battle for the right, None can tell what life may bring, But the Father's tender love We can trust His sleepless eye Though our sight be dim, ANON. "They Say;" or, The Tongue of Calumny. "Tis slander whose tongue outvenoms all the worms of the Nile; HERE is a Latin saying, and untraceable personages in the world who A certain poor man had a bitter enemy, who, to gratify his malice and hatred, set about a variety of calumnious reports concerning the said poor man, who took them so much to heart that he fell into a severe illness and was in danger of his life. The calumniator heard of this, and was struck with remorse. He, therefore, determined to visit him and ask his forgiveness. He found him, as had been represented, dangerously ill. After having expressed his sorrow and repentance he earnestly begged for forgive * That is, carries its lies into all corners of the earth. BY THE REV. A. E. MOULE, B.D., MISSIONARY OF THE C.M.S. AT NINGPO AND HANGCHOW; AUTHOR OF SONGS OF HEAVEN AND HOME." V. 66 A CHINESE CHRISTIAN. T the close of a long day spent in wayside preaching, I proposed to my Chinese assistants to press on into a large market town in front of us, for one more proclamation of the Gospel before nightfall. "Why not preach here?" the catechists replied, pointing to a small hamlet of about one hundred souls, which we were passing; "is not every creature to hear the good news ?" "Be it so," I said; and we entered the courtyard. Bamboo chairs were placed at once for us to sit upon; and the women ran indoors to prepare tea for our refreshment. I began to converse, and as I spoke an old deaf man brought a chair, and placing it close in front of me, with his hand up to his ear, he listened eagerly to the strange message. Presently a hand was laid on my shoulder, and looking up I saw an old woman standing behind me. "Give it to him well," she said; "that's my brother, and a bad brother he is to me, swearing, and shouting, and quarrelling all day long; his tongue is the plague of our village." The old man looked up, and his eye twinkled as he saw his sister, knowing well what she was saying. The blessed story of the Cross was related to the old man, and as point after point struck him, conviction of sin followed, and then the glad news of free salvation made him clap his hands in astonishment and delight. He accepted the invitation to attend Divine service, and came regularly for many Sundays, walking about six miles to and from the Mission station. Then he asked for baptism, and we asked in our turn about his tongue. "Oh!" the old man replied, "that is incurable. It has grown old with me; and it is too late to change that." "But it must be changed," I replied, or at any rate you must give proof of your earnest desire to change." "I will try," he said; but for a while it was all in vain. His sister reported no improvement; and so, though he continued a regular and earnest Christian worshipper, he could not be accepted as a catechumen. 66 One day, however, the old man appeared radiant with smiles. "I have done it," he exclaimed. "Will you not baptize me now ?" He had a younger son, an undutiful lad, and one who had taken a strong prejudice against foreigners, and who was therefore enraged at the idea of his father joining the foreigners' religion. This son had set a hen on twelve eggs, and had placed hen nest and all out of doors under the deep eaves of his father's house. It came on to rain and blow; and the old man took the basket indoors. Presently father and son sat down to dinner; and when they had done, the father returned thanks and rose up from his chair. "What should I do," he said (relating the story to me), "but step back right into the nest, and break half the eggs. Didn't my son's tongue go? Didn't he storm and swear? And time was, sir, when my tongue would have beaten his; but I didn't move it. I felt that it was my fault, however unintentionally; I knew that it would do no good to get angry; I prayed for God's help; and I didn't move my tongue." sistent example. He was confirmed and admitted to the Lord's Supper to his great joy. Of his own accord, and without a hint from any friend, he burnt a cross into his wrist, so that he might remember the love of the Crucified. He attended an aggregate meeting of all the Christians connected with the different missions in Ningpo, and was lifted several steps nearer to heaven, (as he told me) by the thought that there were so many as four hundred Christians in the world! A strange revelation to him who was alone in his native village, and formed a member of a congregation of only twelve. "Enough," I replied, "that will do. God help you by His Holy Spirit's grace to go on conquering and to conquer." The day for his baptism was fixed; and he received the name Simeon. The old man grew in grace. Sixty years he had spent in darkness. Two years were passed in growing light, and then the perfect day burst upon him. Those two years were full of earnest work for God; seeking to bring others to Christ, and stirring up even the old Christians by his fervent and con Then he fell ill and died; a peaceful courageous death. Bidding his elder son follow the same path, and trust in the only Saviour if he would meet his old father in heaven, "he gave commandment concerning his bones." No Buddhist priest was to be called in, no incantations, no tinsel paper burnt. He died, and the Catechist who came to tell me burst into tears, with almost the very words of the Bible on his lips -"A prince and a great man is fallen today." |