miles to the westward of Shanghae. In all of these places we went freely through the crowded streets, and distributed our books to eager applicants, while we explained their contents to the crowds of listeners. Leaving Hoo-chow, we went to a city lying to the north-west, distant thirty miles, called Chang-hing. This city had never before been visited by Europeans, yet we found the people quiet and civil, receiving our books with thankfulness. From thence we sailed into the Tae-hoo lake, visited a large island in its centre, called Tun-ting-san, and then proceeded northward to the city of Woo-seih, which lies about thirty miles to the west of Soo-chow. Here, also, our operations were public and unrestricted, and our deliveries of books abundant. From Woo-seih we went still further northward, until we reached the great river Yang-tze-keang, on the banks of which we visited several cities, and then returned to Shanghae. During this expedition we circulated, amongst the most respectable class of the inhabitants, 600 New Testaments and 100 Old Testaments.

The colporteurs we have engaged have been out several times, distributing the Scriptures in a quiet and judicious manner. They have sometimes met with opposition, on account of their going alone and attacking the superstitions of the Chinese; but a little friendly talk has allayed the ferment. They have both of them kept journals, which are very satisfactory, and one of them has appended a list of the names of the parties to whom he has given copies of the sacred word.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

(From the Rev. T. Phillips, Hereford.)

The last quarter, like the preceding one, has been well filled with Bible Society work, and almost wholly in my own district. The public meetings attended

were fifty-five in number, and the sermons preached, with special reference to the Society, were twentyone. Some of the latter were intended as substitutes for meetings, but in the majority of places they were supplementary.

During the last three months I have had rare opportunities to address large numbers of young people, members of Sunday and day-schools, the subjects being, the Bible, and the Society which circulates it. When addressing a day-school, I have occasionally used the diagrams. Such gatherings, however, though interesting and profitable, are not regarded or ported as public meetings. They cannot fail to be useful as means for training a generation of future supporters to the Society.

At the usual time, the Cambrian Societies of Manchester and Liverpool were visited, and I am thankful to be able to state that those excellent Societies continue to manifest an unabated interest in the Society and its work. A free contribution of £80 from the former, and £380 from the latter, are substantial evidences of the zeal of our Welsh friends in those large towns. At Manchester we are greatly indebted to the excellent treasurer and secretaries of the Welsh Branch, to the Rev. Owen Jones, the senior Welsh minister, and several others. The continued efficiency of the Liverpool Welsh Branch is a matter of surprise and thankfulness. We owe it, under the Divine blessing, to the indefatigable secretary and treasurer, Messrs. Lewis and Davies, and to the public advocacy of the Society's claims in the pulpit, year year, by the Rev. Messrs. Rees and Hughes, and other Welsh ministers of the town. It would be impossible for any agent of the Society to receive more able and willing assistance in the pulpit and on the platform than I receive during my annual visits to the above Societies; hence their continued and even increasing efficiency.

after

THE ANGEL OF LIFE.

THE morning of our life, how fair it is,
How freshly to the breeze the young leaves play;
But noonday comes, and withereth our bliss,
With dust that chokes the morning of our day.
Down life's long lane our aching eye doth stray,
And chides the hour-glass and its weary sand;
Then when night's shadows steal along our way,
How welcome is that angel's beckoning hand,
Who guides our wandering feet to that fair unseen land.

EVENINGS WITH THE EDITOR.

A. Z.

EVENING THE THIRTY-FIFTH.

Emm. What a prolific writer she is!
Aug. She! who is she?

Emm. I thought you saw what book I was reading; I refer to Catherine Bell, the authoress of UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE. Aug. Catherine Bell!-I am trying to think-no; I really cannot say I have the pleasure of the lady's acquaintance. Emm. Easily accounted for, as she has previously written under the nom de plume of "Cousin Kate.'

Aug. Oh, "Cousin Kate; of course I know her. I have generally, I believe, expressed a favourable opinion of her lucubrations. So she is the fair incognita.

Emm. How do you know she is fair?

Aug. Of course she is.

Critics are bound to be severe upon everything except a lady-writer's looks. So Miss or Mrs. Bell, whichever it be, is a fair incognita.

Emm. Or rather has been; we must consider her now as known.

Mrs. M. I don't feel certain of that, Emmy; she seems to me more of an incognita-how fond you and Augustus are of fine words!-as Catherine Bell than as "Cousin Kate."

* Edinburgh: Kennedy.

Ed. This is not criticism, young people. Pray begin your labours.

Aug. A critic's labours are very light and very pleasant when reading "Cousin Kate's" books. They are always interesting, and full of high moral purposes.

Emm. What a shower of sugar-plums!

Ed. I suppose the title is descriptive of the contents.

Aug. Yes; the story is of a certain Horace and May, brother and sister, who pass from childhood to mature years, and through various trials and sorrows, before the story reaches its close. May is the heroine, and exercises the most beneficial influence over her brother. Although he is, on the whole, a brave fellow, whose motto is "MUST;" yet he would often fail, but for the sympathy and help of his watchful and loving sister. We will recommend all sisters to read this story, and then perhaps their brothers may turn out very differently. A sister's influence may be unconsciously exercised, but when rightly guided, must be very strong.

Emm. How is she to guide it rightly, if she is to exert it unconsciously?

Aug. Sharp little sister, I did not say she was to guide it; I spoke of its being rightly guided. I meant that the instinct of a loving Christian heart should be the controlling power. Emm. I see what you mean now.

Ed. No faults to find?

Aug. The only one I feel inclined to mention is, that the reader is told a little too much about the family relationships, so that it is somewhat difficult to keep them in mind. Perhaps this is a fault perceptible in her other books, and that too many personages are brought under the reader's notice. Usually speaking, the fewer the dramatis persona, the greater the interest.

Mrs. M. Is this a very amusing book?

Emm. Sufficiently so; the adventures of Horace and May, when they live together in the house without blinds, are very amusing, because so natural.

Mrs. M. House without blinds! what do you mean?

Emm. My dear mamma, as Cotton Mather's mother said to him, "Read, and you will know.' I must not forestall the pleasure you will have in reading this book.

Aug. Emmeline, you might read a few sentences about Mrs. Douglas-here, page 178; it will not spoil the story, and is very good.

Emm. Very well:-" Mrs. Douglas was really the most tender-hearted, kindest woman I ever knew; she would not willingly have given pain to the meanest creature that

breathed; and yet, from her want of tact and observation, from her fidgety temperament and habits, she vexed and provoked her friends almost every hour of the day.

"So early deprived of a mother's watchful direction, May had acquired a good many awkward little habits. Her elbows had a strange affection for the table; the two hind legs of her chairs seemed to her quite sufficient support; and her foot as convenient a means of shutting the door as her hand. The judicious correction of such faults would have been a benefit, but Mrs. Douglas's efforts in that line were a positive grievance.

"Poor Aunt Jane, she never could choose the right time, nor the right way-never could weigh the relative importance of things. One day she would call May down stairs from a most important, pressing employment, to tell her that she had been sorry to see her lolling back in her chair while old Mrs. Gray was speaking to her; and she would detain her for a quarter of an hour to prove, in her gentle tones—what May never thought of denying-that such an attitude was disrespectful; and to press upon her, with half-a-dozen different arguments, the propriety of abandoning a habit which as many words would have sufficed to convince her she ought never to have contracted. The poor child's impatience under such a torrent of kind but unmeaning and unnecessary words may be imagined, and the difficulty she felt in repeating her dutiful 'To be sure' and 'Certainly,' in the proper tone and place.

"At another time, when Harry was going to show the girls one of his most interesting chemical experiments, when they were leaning forwards, intently watching his operations, at the very crisis May's attention would be distracted, by a piteous entreaty that she would learn not to rest her elbows on the table, in a tone of earnest pleading, that might have befitted an exhortation to refrain from a crime of the deepest dye.

"Or at another time, when a circle of merry companions was forming for a round game, poor May's cheeks would be covered with blushes of shame and vexation, by being reminded aloud, that a chair ought to be lifted by the hand, not drawn in by the hand."

Aug. Quantum suff., Emmeline.

Emm. Of this book, or of Miss Bell?

Aug. Not of Miss Bell; for I perceive, by a glimpse of that bright green book next mamma's elbow, that Cousin