forth, destined to eternal happiness, belonging to a redeemed world!

"We must bear in mind our low estate, and learn to love it. We see Jesus in his form as a servant; no Crystal Palace preserved his works, but the sick, the blind, the deaf, the poor and afflicted were his palace."

In a letter lately received, she alludes to the distress that has been prevalent in her neighbourhood during last winter. "I will not enumerate all the reasons for my long delay in writing, but at once make you acquainted with our position, that you may descend to the forest life of Smaland. It is a wide step from the mantle, the bonnet, the tea, and the fine white loaves of the poor in England, to the barley bread mixed with straw. Yes, my dear friend, the great distress in our neighbourhood during last year has not only taken up all my exertions to letter-writing, but also my thoughts, while I have wandered for hours up and down my dear drawing-room, with my knitting in hand. There our Saviour speaks to my heart, from eight different pictures, and helps me (not there only) in all my trouble. After the harvest it became rather better, but the little corn-fields of the poor people had been cut, while the corn was still green, dried, and ground together with straw. The potatoes were taken up before they were ripe, and, immediately after Christmas, Herrestad was besieged by people who wished for work. Want is want, and help continues to be help, as long as our Father in heaven lives, and continues faithful to his promises.

"A dear, dying sister in Germany, whom I never have seen, but who became so interested by reading our annual report, and loved our contented poor, bespoke one hundred yards of grey cloth for the Orphan Asylum of Bremen, and said to her daughter, shortly before her death, 'The poor in Sweden I lay on your heart, do not forget them'; and the daughter

At

was not slow in accomplishing her mother's wish. our school on the Hill twenty-two poor children have been fed during last year's famine, besides the children of the estate, and the same number this year. We are going to have there an industrial school too, that the boys may learn handicraft. In the humble way in which everything is conducted at Herrestad they will only learn to make wooden shoes, agricultural implements, &c., &c.

"For several years I have wished to begin such an undertaking, but could not sustain the expense alone. I had promised the Lord that, when the first gift came, I would join my efforts in faith, considering it to be the will of the Father, who placed his own Son in the workshop of a carpenter; and lo! without my having asked for it, there came, from dear friends in Hamburg, four pounds ten shillings, to be appropiated to an industrial school! And there, in the same place, we have the bread of life! The schoolmaster, you know, is a zealous Christian; when at leisure from the school, he goes about expounding the Bible. The peasants come from a circuit of forty or fifty miles to fetch him to their homes. See what a hunger is here for the word of the Gospel! Every Sunday evening he explains a chapter here; he speaks loud, and the Lord opens my deaf ears, and lets me rise above the sorrows of earth, under the rich heavenly influence of the bright rays of the Sabbath. My hearing and power of writing are fast declining. I am soon seventytwo years old, and praise God who has not incapacitated me for my dear calling, which sweetens my quiet winter months. My deafness increases, but more resignation is given, which must be daily, yea, hourly strengthened and renewed by the inner hearing of the Word of God, and the inward sight of Jesus the crucified, from whose blood we derive all power.'

Dear English reader, would you, for the sake of Christ, gladden the heart of this devoted Christian,

and encourage her in her work of love, by giving some grains of corn to her little "sparrows on the Hill? The least gift goes far in Sweden to keep a poor child from starvation. Would you promote her industrial school; would you enable her to give more work to her poor, suffering neighbours, and assist her in spreading the Word of God more freely in the little cottages of Sweden? Any gift that you would put into her hands would be made useful, and return in blessings on yourself and your own happy and favoured country.

THE MOTHER'S DREAM.

A REAL INCIDENT.

ONE calm night a sleeping mother wandered, in a pleasant dream,

O'er a wide and fertile garden, through which flowed a silvery

stream:

Fair and fresh all looked as Eden,-soft and balmy was the air; And the richly-tinted flowerets bloomed in pristine beauty there. Birds their sweetest notes were singing, in the high and thickleaved trees,

And the breeze and waters murmured their responsive melodies.

With a light and joyous footstep many a winding path she pressed,

Till, beside a cooling fountain, wearied, she sat down to rest. Near her grew a lovely rosebud, hanging on a slender stem, Nurtured by the dew and sunshine, fresh and pure-a perfect gem!

Other flowers might look more brilliant, but that seemed to her the best,

And it called forth strange emotions unawakened by the rest.

As she gazed with admiration, forth was stretched a hand unseen, Which that fair young rosebud gathered from amidst its bower of green.

Why, oh, why was that one taken! bursting into life and bloom

Rich with promise for the future ?-oh, it seemed a mournful doom!

And that gentle mother sorrowed, filled with sadness and with fears,

Till her grief dispelled her slumbers, and she woke all bathed in tears.

Weeks rolled on, enriched with blessings-calm and peaceful was their flow;

And, surrounded with her children, oh, how bright all looked below!

But within her home's fair precincts soon the direst shadow fell, And the anguish of her feelings, mothers! ye alone can tell :For her boy-her pride, her first-born-drooped and faded, day by day,

Till, when spring came robed in gladness, his young spirit passed away.

Meekly she resigned her darling to his Saviour's loving care ;Heaven had gained a new attraction, for her precious child was

there.

As she softly closed his eyelids, smoothed the hair on his fair brow,

And on those pale, tranquil features, her last kiss imprinted

now,

She exclaimed, with deep emotion, yet with every murmur stilled,

"Gathered is the early rosebud, and my dream is now fulfilled!"

Yes, fond mother! it is gathered, from a world of sin and strife, To a land of cloudless sunshine-to a new and better life :There its petals are unfolding in the radiance of God's smile; There earth's trials and temptations never can its bloom defile :Weep not o'er the fragrant rosebud, linked so closely with thy love,

But rejoice that it is planted in the paradise above.

H. M. W.

CHRISTMAS AT JERUSALEM.

[We are glad to have the opportunity of presenting to our readers the following independent testimony respecting the progress of the Lord's work in the Holy City, from the pen of a traveller who arrived in Jerusalem a few days before the festival of Christ's Nativity.-ED.]

December 25th. In walking up to the English place of worship this morning, I could not but feel that I was a privileged person, to be allowed to join with the little flock of worshippers assembled to commemorate the joyful event which has on this day taken place, and was simply and beautifully alluded to by a dear little girl about three years' old. She said, Mamma, I like the Saviour's birthday better than all the others, because it brings so many good things.' The service was rendered more peculiarly interesting by the fact of two little infants being brought to the font, literally in swaddling clothes, to receive Christian baptism. The mothers were present, native Christians, who have joined the Protestant community-one from Nazareth, the other from Jerusalem. They were both habited in what is called a veil, but which really resembles a large white sheet, entirely enveloping the whole person; all that is seen are two dark expressivelooking eyes. The baptismal service was performed by Mr. Klein, who is stationed at Nazareth, and who has been greatly blessed in his work there among the native Christians, and several of whom, with himself, came up to worship at Jerusalem on the present joyous occasion.

We had a searching, faithful, simple, experimental sermon from the Bishop, and afterwards the Lord's Supper was administered. After the Europeans had received it, and when I thought the service was ended, a number of persons came forward, habited in all kinds of costume, which, judging from that alone,