are taken out in the cold nights, and the nights are very cold there, so cold that there is sometimes frost. They were led round a field, and they have no jackets or trowsers, and they were often whipped to make them hardy; and if one cried with the pain, he was pierced with a spear. I know a man, whose son, when he was so punished, looked up in his father's face, and cried out-"O father, that is painful," and the poor boy wept, and his father thrust his spear through him; and that was the only education children received in that country. And the girls, when they come to a certain age, were also drilled, and prepared for the hard labour that women must undergo in that land; and in order to try their fortitude and endurance, a piece of hot iron was put into their hands, and if they dropped it, they lost caste, they were considered as disgraced, and were lost to society for ever. This trial is intended to represent that the earth is hard, and that their hands must be hardened too, for the work of cultivating the ground, which in their country is performed by women. O! my children, thank God that you are born in England. Now I will tell you what a delightful change has been brought about by the missionaries, and I will relate an instance or two, in which the gospel has been remarkably blessed, and blessed too, by means of little children.

I know not whether you are acquainted with the little story of a missionary having taken the

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body of a little baby out of the ground, and rescuing it from death. I shall tell you the story. These were the hands that took the baby out of the ground. The baby was buried by its mother. Yes, its cruel mother buried it when it was only a month old, and left it for dead. A person who was coming from a distance, passed by the spot where this poor baby lay; and as she passed by, she heard something cry-it was a very faint cry, and she came to our house and told us what she had heard, and asked us if we had lost a kitten. I said that I would enquire; but I found that there was no kitten lost. A short time after, another woman came in, and she had heard that a mother had thrown away her baby. "Who knows," said the other woman, "but that is the little baby I heard crying as I came along." When I heard this, I said, “if the baby had been thrown away, it would have been eaten up." For little children who wander away from their parents are often devoured by savage hyenas, and I have rescued little children with my gun from this awful death. When I heard that a baby had been thrown away, I said to the woman, "where did you hear the sound ?" And she immediately pointed out a bush about half a mile from our house. I then started off for the spot, and Mrs. Moffat came running after me, but I ran fastest, and I was soon there, for I always felt anxious about little children; and when I got to the place, I looked round, but I

could see nothing, and I was just about to go away, when I happened to set my foot on a part of the ground which was very soft. I thought this was very remarkable, and I looked down, but I could see nothing. And would you think I could imagine that a baby was under the ground? That never entered my head; but when I stopped to examine the spot, I thought I heard something-it was a very little sound. But my curiosity was excited, and I pulled away the loose earth, and after getting down about a foot and a half, I came to a large flat stone, which the mother had thrown in to kill her own baby; but the flag being somewhat larger than the bottom of the grave where the body lay, the child was unhurt; for when I lifted up the stone, there lay the little baby! There was nothing on its poor body; it was alive, and that was all. Well, I took it up, and gave it to Mrs. Moffat, who had come up by this time, and she took charge of it, and nursed that baby with a great deal of care and trouble, and that baby is now in England; she is fourteen years of age, and she can read and talk about many things, and she has been instructed in the infant school system. I wish she were here, for she could sing you a nice hymn, that would delight you. I can talk to her in three different languages, the Dutch, the English, and the Sechuana: so she seems to have lost nothing by being put in the grave. She is about to go back with me to Africa, as an

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infant school teacher, to instruct others. We call her "Sarah Roby," and she calls us father and mother. The natives call her by a name which signifies one pressed under a stone." Now, although that girl does not love and fear God as much as we desire, we trust that she will do so yet for it was a wonderful Providence by which she was rescued from death and brought under our care. And when, my dear children, you pray, pray for her, for God loves to hear the prayers of little children.

But I will tell you another story, about another little girl. This little girl was perhaps not more than two months old, and her father left her, and went to another country, to another tribe, and there he lived. He was a warrior, a very roughlooking man. This little baby grew up, and after she grew up she was left to do as she liked, and she went about wherever she thought she could get a bit of food. Well, this little child, after she grew up, happened, one day, to pass by the door of our school, when the children were singing a hymn, and the natives like to hear hymns very much; she listened and listened outside, but the poor timid child was afraid to come into the school. She was frightened, and went away. Another day, she came again, just as the children began to sing; but this time she came nearer and nearer the door. The schoolmaster happened to be outside at the time, and seeing the little girl listening so anxiously, he

came behind her, and put his arms round her neck, and asked her if she wished to come in and learn to read; she was delighted. The schoolmaster then took her to another little girl, and said, "Here is a strange little girl; you must be very kind to her, and teach her the A B C." The little girl soon learned to read, and she grew up to be fifteen or sixteen years of age. One day her father came into my house; he had travelled a great distance, 130 miles. I asked him where he came from; he answered, in his own language, "I come from-I come from-I come from-" but he would not tell me the place he came from. I then asked him, "Where are you going?" and he replied, "I