JUVENILE EFFORTS FOR MISSIONS, JUVENILE EFFORTS FOR MISSIONS. Brought forward from below, TO THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, about To THE FREE CHURCH SCHEMES, from 1844 to 1845, 63 L.29,676 2,000 1,700 394 L.33,770 Besides this there have been considerable sums raised for the Moravian Missions, the British and Foreign Bible Society's movements, and other missionaries' institutions. I, for one, feel truly grateful to God, that he has enabled us to attain such a result; and, though it is not all it might have been, it is a noble sum, and demands our thanks. Ir is now about four or five years since the first great efforts were made to interest the young people in behalf of the missionary cause, by holding large meetings with them, and publishing distinct Magazines, and so on, bearing entirely on this, one object. During this period large sums of money have been raised by the young people of Britain, and almost all our great societies have had cause to thank God for what has been accomplished in this way. Besides this, great interest generally has been raised up amongst the young, which we hope will lead many of them when they grow up to be men and women, either to give themselves as missionaries, or to aid more self-denyingly in the promotion of the cause. A kind friend of mine has sent me You see, my young readers, what you what, he thinks, is about the sum raised by are able to do, if you only make the effort. the efforts of the young in the period just I hope the statement will make you more mentioned; and as I have cause to believe anxious to assist the work of God than his statements to be correct, and also ima-ever, and that if we are spared another gine you will like to know what has thus four years, we shall be able to speak of a been raised, I shall here present you with much larger sum. Some of you have not the statement. even begun to collect yet. You then have no credit in all this work. Begin then at once. Buy yourself a little missionary box with the first penny you can spare, and call your own. Let it stand in some place where it will be seen in your house, and put into it all you would spend on foolish things. You will be surprised how much it will gather, and what a large sum it will make when put together. In twelve months open your box, and take the money to some good society. It will be a happy moment in your life when you carry it to the gentleman appointed to receive it, and feel it was all your own, and freely given. The entire sum, you will see, exceeds £33,000, and is to be looked upon as the free and hearty collection of the young people of this country within four years. It has been divided as follows; TO THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, To do. 1842 to 1843, L.1718 1693 Το do. 1843 to 1844, 3547 To the Missionary Ship, John Williams, 6237 L.13,195 L.13,195 Price d., or 4d. per dozen. Published by J. GALL & SON, 38 North Bridge, Edinburgh. G. GALLIE, Glasgow. W. M'COMB, Belfast. J. ROBERTSON, Dublin. HOULSTON & STONEMAN, London. the snow. God has so arranged it, that they may run over the ground without being seen, and so escape their pursuers. While winter lasts the Greenlander lives in a little hut he has built of blocks of snow, something of the form of a great bee-hive, about as high in the middle as a man of six feet could stand upright in, and of whatever size round his family may need. He makes a very low door, through which he creeps on his hands and feet; and he makes a little kennel for his dogs outside GREENLAND lies, as you may see, to the and other animals, turn white, just like north-east of North America, and is a cold and cheerless place. There the winter reigns for nine long months in the year. The ground through all that period is covered with a mantle of snow; and all the rivers, and creeks, and bays, and ponds, are frozen up. For three or four months of the time, that is from September to January, the sun never rises; and one long night sets in on Greenland. During this time, too, all the birds, and rabbits, and hares, and wolves, and bears, and foxes, September 1845. it, like a passage. He makes the door so, dirty people. They live on train-oil, fat, low, to keep out the cold; and he has the blubber, and seal's flesh, which they will kennel for his dogs around it, to guard it eat when it is nearly raw. A few dipt from the bears or wolves that might other-candles are quite a luxury, and the little wise try to pay him an unwelcome visit. I children would enjoy them the same as am sure you would not think it very nice you would enjoy some nice sugar candy. to live in a snow-house for nine long They are also very stupid and ignorant, months; but the Greenlander does not and sunk in all kinds of wickedness and mind it much. He wraps himself up in his vice. warm fur jacket; and, though the cold is The first missionary that went to them, very great, and the night is very long, he now about 120 years ago, was a good man manages to get through. And now, since called Hans Egede. He took with him the Gospel has come to Greenland, these his wife and children, and laboured amongst snow huts have often resounded with the them for several years; but with no appasongs of praise, and have become bright rent success. The wicked Greenlanders spots, to which many Christian Green-treated him very cruelly, and sometimes landers will look back from heaven with he was in danger of losing his life amongst gratitude to God. While the long winter them. At last he was quite worn out, and lasts the people employ themselves in mend-was forced to leave the country, which ing their nets, getting their little canoes he did with an almost broken heart, after into good order, and preparing their har-fifteen years of unsuccessful labour. Soon poons and other weapons, against the fish-after Hans Egede left, the Moravians sent ing and hunting season, when their sum-out some missionaries; but they met with mer shall come round; for summer does at no better success at first. The Greenlast come round; and very bright, and landers often held them up to ridicule, and very pleasant indeed, is it when it comes. I would steal from them, and misuse them, Then the ice and the snow are melted, and whenever they had a chance to do it. the little creeks and bays are open for the Sometimes the poor missionaries were boats, and the green ground appears; and almost starved to death. The Greenlandup spring the beautiful crocus, and snow-ers they had come to teach would rather drop, and anemone, and many beautiful throw the food to their dogs than give flowers, that make the land as lovely and them a morsel, however earnestly they as cheerful as heart could wish. Then the sun comes back, and to make up for his long absence in the winter, he never sets for three long months. Now the busy time of the Greenlander begins, and out he goes, to fish in the creeks, and to hunt the seals, and to catch the birds; and so lay up a store of provisions for the winter, and get the furs to make his clothes, and gather the oil to burn in his lamp, when the sun is gone away. All is life, and all is bustle then, for the summer is very short, and the people have much to do in its brief hours as they last. The Greenlanders are naturally a very asked for it. They often tried to preach to them, and told them of a God that had made them, and saw them, and would judge them; but they cared nothing for that, and only turned it into sport. They were so wicked as to say, when the missionaries told them of hell, that they would like to go there, because there was a great fire there, and it would keep them warm. In this way the poor missionaries laboured on for eight years, and then they began to think of coming home, for they were apparently wasting their time and ruining their health, and yet doing no good. Just as they were resolving on this, however, God THE SAILOR BOYS OF EIMEO. 67 showed them a great mistake that they | he made those marks, though it was 1700 had made; and, by setting them right, he years before. They accordingly sat down, enabled them to succeed at once, and that and the missionary read to them the achas kept them or their successors there count of Christ's agony in the garden,till now, while it has been the means of his betrayal-the buffeting and spitting bringing many, very many of these once upon him; his being crowned with thorns, wicked Greenlanders to heaven. and scourged and crucified. As he went on The mistake they had made was this: they Kajarnack got greatly interested, and getnever told the Greenlanders about the gos-ting up from his place enquired, "Why did pel-they thought they were too ignorant to they treat the man so? What had he understand it; so they only told them there done?" The missionary answered, "This was a God-that they had souls-and that man did nothing, but Kajarnack did. Kathere was a heaven or a hell to go to when jarnack murdered his wife. Kajarnack they died; but they never explained to them filled the land with wickedness, and this what Christ had done for them. They man was bearing Kajarnack's punishment thought they must first understand about that Kajarnack might be saved," and then the matters I have just referred to, before went on explaining to him the gospel, till the they could comprehend anything respect- tears rolled down Kajarnack's cheeks, and ing Christ. But that was a great mis- coming forward to the missionary, he cried take, and the way God showed it to them out, "Oh! tell me all that over again, for I was this. too would like to be saved!" The missionary explained it all, and Kajarnack believed it under the teaching of the Holy Ghost. His heart was changed: he left the place a converted man, and went back to his people to preach to them the gospel. This was the first conversion; and, as they had found out the way to the Greenlander's heart, they now began to labour with fresh zeal. Many more were brought to the truth, and now almost all the shores of Greenland are under the power of the gospel. You see, dear children, from this story: One day a party of heathen Greenlanders came down to the missionary village, I think to plunder it. They were led on by a savage man called Kajarnack, and entered the hut where the missionary was sitting writing. He was at the time finishing his final correction of a translation of the four gospels, and was then engaged on that part of St John's gospel which relates the sufferings of Christ. Kajarnack was struck at seeing the missionary writing, and at once asked him what he was doing. Writing!" "What is writing?" The missionary explained, that when any person looked at the black marks he had there made, they knew the thoughts that were in his mind when he made them. Kajar- 2. That no men are too savage to be nack thought this impossible, and the mis-tamed by the gospel; and sionary told him and his followers to sit 3. That the message of God's love in the down, and he would let them hear the gift of Christ is the only instrument by thoughts that were in St. John's mind when which souls can be saved. 66 1. That we must not be discouraged though we wait long for an answer to our prayers. THE SAILOR BOYS OF EIMEO. "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee."-Psalm 1. 15. ONE Saturday evening, two boys about the age of fourteen, belonging to the same school, left Tahiti in a large sailing-boat. They were going to Eimeo, an island about |