ment in the villages. These Christian families, whose parents were educated at Batticotta and at Oodooville, where the children are trained up in Christian habits and in the fear of God, are rapidly multiplying in the land and have a most happy influence.

We next passed on to Fillipally, where we saw nearly four hundred children from the village schools all arranged in classes according to their progress, and each class under the care and instruction of a monitor. After having recited their catechisms, Scripture history, and Bible lessons, they were all seated in rows across the church, on mats, and listened about twenty minutes to an exhortation of the missionary. The children (of whom nearly half were females) seemed much interested and very happy. The next day we crossed over the district to what they call "the other side of the river," (a small and shallow arm of the sea which runs quite through this part of the province,) and spent a day at Varany and Chavacherry in much the same way in which we had spent the preceding at Oodooville and Fillipally. We took some pains to understand their system of village and central schools, in which some four thousand children are under daily instruction. The course is purely Biblical, commencing with the smaller catechism and with the alphabet at the same time, much after the plan of our Sundayschools and Bible-classes, thus carrying along in

parallel lines, both the literary and Biblical departments, until the child can not only read and write the Tamal language, but until he has a good knowledge both of the history and of the text of the Bible. This system is common to all the missionaries, whether church, Wesleyan, London, or American, both in the Jaffna province and on the neighboring continent, and is carried as far as the missionaries are able to extend their own personal labors, or as far as the churches in England and America will contribute funds to carry it on by native agency. In view of this department of missionary enterprise, which is of late gradually gaining popularity among the females, as well as among the males,—in view of the trifling expense of education, which amounts to only about one dollar and twenty-five cents, or one dollar a year for each child,—and in view of the fact that the language conveys heathenish and idolatrous meanings, and that the children and people, too, must be taught a Christian meaning to each word, and have Christian thoughts before they can have Christian hearts, and that nothing short of this is implied in preaching the Gospel, we could not help sighing for a larger amount of funds, and for more laborers to carry on this efficient system of Biblical education, which is fast blotting out the heathenism and idolatry of southern India, and filling the land with Christian sentiments and Christian hearts.

As we left this province we could not help repeat

ing to each other what Bishop Turner said when he visited this place-"Surely this is the Goshen of missions in India." It certainly is a goodly land. The government of the island is liberal in the cause of education, shows much kindness and impartiality towards missionaries of different denominations, and is making rapid progress in constructing roads and bridges, and in other internal improvements. Private individuals are also introducing the nutmeg, clove, and other spices, from the Chinese archipelago, and trying various experiments in the cultivation of the soil. Indeed, the whole island is coming rapidly into notice. The native, the planter, the civilian, and the missionary, are looking forward to no distant time when Ceylon will be in reality the Eden of the east, as it now is in fable the Eden of our first parents, where, it is said, the footstep of Adam is still to be seen, imprinted in a great rock on the top of the mountain bearing his name, seven thousand feet high.

Christmas Eve.

BY THE REV. J. W. BROWN.

"TIS CHRISTMAS-EVE !-midst clouds of gold and

dun,

In soften'd glory, sets the winter sun ;—

While vale and upland, mead and forest bare,
Sleep in calm beauty 'neath the misty air;—
The tall old pines on many a verdant crown,
Catch the rich lustre as his orb goes down,
And the bright brooks, in crystal fetters bound,
Like burnish'd mirrors skirt the landscape round.

Where sweeps the road from yonder piny ridge
Through the sweet vale, across the rustic bridge,
Stands the old hall midst elms and giant firs
Through whose tall tops the breath of ev'ning stirs ;
High o'er the portal hangs the holly-bough,
And the broad trellis smiles with verdure now ;-
Cheerful and bright its mullion'd windows gleam
In the soft radiance of the sunset beam,
And thickly, round its ancient porch, entwine
The leafless tendrils of the clinging vine.

"Tis CHRISTMAS-EVE!-from sweet-toned village

bells,

The vesper-peal o'er all the country swells,
In solemn prelude to the joyous chime
Which soon shall hail the merry Christmas-prime,
When, with to-morrow's sun, the sacred morn
Shall ring with tidings of the Saviour born.
As softly mid the hush of closing day,
That peal, like dying music, melts away,
From the broad post-road winding 'neath the hill,
Loud, merry voices in the distance thrill,
And quickly, o'er the dells by echo borne,

Breaks the shrill music of the coachman's horn;—
They come-they come ;-the household doors fly
wide,

Forth rush the eager inmates, side by side,

The dear, long absent friends they haste to meet, The cherish'd ones with words of love to greet. What tender welcome gleams in every eye! How speaks the long embrace, the grateful sigh, The quick inquiry, warm, but half suppress'd, Leaving the eager kiss to tell the rest!

The lofty walls with joyous tones resound,
As through the hall the blithe new-comers bound;—
There, 'neath the odorous fir and mistletoe,
The children speed with quick steps to and fro,
While the glad servants wreathe, with willing hand,
Green festive garlands for the youthful band,