"I have been there and still would go,
'Tis like a little heaven below."

But her health gradually declined last spring; she had to give up her employment, and the disease under which she was suffering made so much progress, that in a short time she was confined to the house. She was quite conscious of the nature of her disease, and that it would shortly bring her to the grave; but, through all the period of her affliction, she was never heard to murmur. She was frequently heard to say, "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good."

On one occasion a friend visited her, and asked her if she was willing to die? She replied, "I am willing either to live or to die." A few weeks before her death I saw her, and on speaking of the goodness of God to her, the many precious Sabbaths we had spent together in the house of God, and of her prospect of another and better world, she said, "I shall soon enter upon that Sabbath that will never end." On my asking her, if she had any fear of death? she replied "No, the fear of death is taken away." Afterwards, while I was engaging in prayer on her behalf, she faintly responded to the petitions offered; but when I was praying that God would save her parents, her brothers, and sisters, her whole soul seemed to be drawn out, and she said with strong feeling, "Lord, save them! Do, Lord, save them!"

About a fortnight before her death she was extremely ill, and her mother asked her if she must send for some one to pray with her? She said she should be glad to have some one, but was afraid of giving her mother trouble; and added, "Never mind, mother, I am very happy." To one of the neighbours, who went in to see Mary, and who prayed with her, after the prayer, Mary said, "O how happy I feel! I should like to die now; O how I should like to go away." On the same evening, I called to see her, but found her very weak; scarcely able to speak, but very comfortable in her mind. A few days prior to her death she called her mother to her, and asked

her to read to her the following lines from the Bible Class Magazine. Her mother accordingly read as follows.—

"Beautiful trees for ever there;
Beautiful fruits they always bear ;
Beautiful rivers gliding by,

Beautiful fountains never dry.

Beautiful light without the sun;
Beautiful day revolving on;
Beautiful worlds on worlds untold,
Beautiful streets of shining gold.

Beautiful heaven, where all is light;
Beautiful angels clothed in white;
Beautiful songs that never tire,
Beautiful harps through all the choir.

Beautiful crowns on every brow,
Beautiful palms the conquerors show ;
Beautiful robes the ransomed wear;
Beautiful all who enter there.

Beautiful throne for God the Lamb;
Beautiful seats at God's right hand;
Beautiful rest, all wanderings cease,
Beautiful home of perfect peace."

When her mother had finished reading, Mary said, “I shall soon join that throng." Her mother, weeping, said, "I hope you will." Mary, looking again earnestly at her, said, "I shall soon be there. I am sure I shall." On Friday morning, before her departure, while her father

was

sitting by her bed side, he heard her feeble voice repeating a portion of that most beautiful Psalm, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." The remainder of this day, and the following days, she was in a stupor and noticed very little, and on Monday morning, about half-past four, her happy spirit took its flight into the eternal world.

JAMES EGERTON.

THE HYÆNA, AND PROVIDENTIAL

DELIVERANCE.

ANY one who has ever seen a hyæna must have felt how dreadful it would be to meet such a fierce and cruel wild beast alone in some forest. And yet it once pleased God to make a hyæna the means of saving the life of a missionary. You shall hear how it happened.

Among the lonely mountains of Lebanon, which look down upon the Holy Land, live some tribes of wild people, who often carry on bloody wars with each other. Many of them are still heathen, and do not know the true God. They are called the Druses. About twenty years ago a missionary was travelling among them whose name was Samuel Gobat. He is now bishop in the ancient city of Jerusalem; but then he went from place to place among the Druses, and read to them from the New Testament, or preached to them of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was generally well received; and even the chiefs of these wild tribes would come to him, and talk with him about the Gospel. But while he was rejoicing at this, a secret plot was formed against him.

One day a messenger came to him from a heathen chief, entreating him to come to him, as he wished to speak with him concerning the religion of Christ. Rejoicing to receive such a message, Mr. Gobat sent word to the chief that he would visit him in a few days; but the missionary was taken ill, and for some days was unable to go. Then came a second messenger, with a still more earnest invitation. As Mr. Gobat was then better, he fixed a day on which he would go if possible. But on the day proposed, a number of the principal chiefs from the mountains came to him, which made it impossible for him to set out. On the following day, however, he resolved that nothing should prevent him from going, and he prepared for the journey. But just as he left his house, a letter was brought to him, saying that the ship, in which it had been arranged that he shonld go to Malta, was to sail on the very next day at noon. What was he to do? While he was thinking about it, a third messenger arrived from the

chief, most earnestly begging him to come to him. Mr. Gobat told the messenger that the ship by which he was obliged to go away would sail at noon the next day, and therefore it would not be possible for him to visit the chief. But the man assured him that, if he set out at once, he would be able to spend the night with the chief, and still to reach the ship in time. So Mr. Gobat delayed no longer, but at once began the journey.

The messenger and some other Druses went with him, and they took their way up and down the wild mountains and through the woods. About noon they reached a village, whose inhabitants received the missionary with much kindness and hospitality; and he entered into conversation with them, which became so serious and earnest, that two hours had passed before he could think of proceeding on his journey. They had scarcely set off again, when night came on, and it grew very dark. The Druses had most likely passed by this way a hundred times, but now they lost themselves in the dark and lonely mountain paths. More than an hour they lost in wandering about; but at last the moon rose, and the leaders of the party found out where they were. They found a narrow path, of which the guides said, "If we take this path, we shall come about midnight to the chief's village; but it passes by frightful precipices, and, in the dark, this way can only be taken with great danger." Mr. Gobat thought a moment whether he would venture it, but his heart was burning with the desire to speak to the chief, and he said, "We will go, in the name of God." So they turned to the path. Then suddenly they saw, by the light of the moon, that a hyæna had laid itself down across the path, exactly in their way. The Druses took up some stones, and threw them at it, to frighten it away. The hyæna sprang up, and ran straight along the path by which the wanderers were to go. And now the Druses were determined to have nothing to do with that road, for there is a saying among them. "The way a hyæna goes is an unlucky way." Mr. Gobat could not persuade them to go any farther, and nothing could be done but to pass the night

at a village near the spot where they were. However, it was agreed among them that they would rise very early in the morning, so that at least one hour might yet be spent with the chief. So they all laid down to sleep. But after their toilsome wanderings, they all fell into so deep and sound a sleep, that it was quite late in the morning before any of them awoke; and, with a sorrowful heart, Mr. Gobat was obliged to hasten down the mountain to the coast, which he reached only just in time to take his passage in the ship. All through his voyage he reproached himself for having lost the opportunity of visiting the chief; and it seemed even strange to him that the hyæna should have been permitted to come in his way, when he was so near reaching his journey's end.

At length he came to the island of Malta. There he received a letter from a friend in Lebanon, saying that he had been visited by the chief, who, with much agitation, had spoken to him as follows-"Your friend is truly a servant of God, and God has preserved him; for I wished to draw him to my village, in order to murder him; therefore I sent message after message to him, but God has delivered him from the hand of his enemies."

Now, indeed, Mr. Gobat saw that it was the good hand of God which had been over him, and he praised the Preserver of his life, who had even caused a hyæna to be the guardian of His servant.

This was not the only adventure of Mr. Gobat with a hyæna. On one occasion, when he was travelling as a missionary in Abyssinia, his spirit was depressed and discouraged by seeing no fruit of his labours; his own work seemed useless! and he turned in thought to those who were working at home, and entered a cave, to pour out his heart in prayer for them. He continued for a long time in communion with God, in behalf of absent brethren but at length his eye becoming accustomed to the darkness, he looked around, and saw at the farther end of the cave a hyæna and her whelps, with their eyes full upon him! The Lord gave him self-possession calmly to rise and leave the cave, and restrained the