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have spied the spoiler of their folds, men who have been lazily smoking round the tent fire, drop their pipes, dash out of their tents, fling themselves on the horses standing ready saddled close by, and armed with horse-catchers, poles some fifteen feet long, in a few seconds are scouring the plains with a speed almost swifter than the wind, and woe betide the wolf if they get between him and the hills in time to throw the noose over his head. There is nothing that throws a quiet Mongol community into instantaneous action with such electric suddenness as the sight of a wolf, and there seems to be nothing a wolf detests so much as to see a yelling Mongol rushing at him. And the Mongol theory may be right. Treated in this ostentatiously hostile manner for generations, it may be that the wolf has an inherited dread of his enemy. The Chinaman, on the other hand, when he sees a wolf, thinks his last hour has come, and flees, if his terror leaves him strength and presence of mind enough to flee; and the Mongols say that wolves sometimes attack and devour Chinamen. It is the delight of the Mongol to tell stories in which bold Mongols faced and destroyed wolves from which armed Chinamen fled in dismay, throwing away their weapons as they ran. After all there may be something in the Mongol's theory. Chinamen and Mongols dress so differently, that even when not much more than small figures on the horizon, Mongols and Chinese can be distinguished, and it is not improbable that wolves may distinguish them, and regard them almost as of a different race. The Mongol theory, at any rate, is that a wolf knows a Chinaman and runs at him, but flees from a Mongol..

Cares, fears, and trials, and difficult duties, are very much like what Mongol wolves are said to be-dangerous to those who fear them, but cowards before those who face them bravely. Let us then not be dismayed before them, but meet them courageously, not in the off-hand, reckless way some men go through life, but in faithful dependence on our Heavenly Father, who knows what we have need of

before we ask Him, and on whom we may cast all our care, for He careth for us. Doubts and fears when quailed before grow bold and menacing like the Chinaman's wolf, but when boldly met, and in God's strength looked in the face, falter and shrink away, and are put to flight like the Mongol's wolf. Godly courage is a Christian duty that is strongly insisted upon in the Scriptures, as in the case of Joshua, where with reiteration we find the servant commanded to be strong in the Lord, and of a good courage. And in the case of Jeremiah more urgent language still is used, when the prophet is warned not to be afraid of their faces lest God confound him before them.

In short, want of courage in the things of life amounts to a distrust of God, under whose care and protection His people are. It is a want of faith, an unfaithfulness which dishonours God, and as such is to be avoided. Learn the habit of rushing at the wolf, and he'll learn the habit of running away from you.

Beata and Agusina.

HE history of the Moravian missions in Greenland has given us a glimpse of a lovely character. Agusina, one of the

converts, had an only fifteen, who used to read By constantly listening to Agusina fixed it thoroughly His wife was dead, and he had no child but little Beata. She had a melodious voice, and every evening the hymn was heard rising in the cottage, the deep tones of the father mingling with the sweet singing of the girl. She was everything in the house; and when he was returning from hunting or fishing, waited anxiously for him. Very often, when Agusina rowed his boat to land, he saw waiting for him on the shore the gentle Beata. But one

daughter Beata, aged the Bible to him every evening. it in this way from his child's lips, in his memory.

day she was taken ill; and in a few more she was dead. Her father bore the shock with peaceful strength, though it was terrible. "Except Christ," he said, "she was his all on earth." At length he sank under his sorrow. When the hunt was over, and the northern day was done, the house was like a grave, for Beata was gone. The Bible words she used to read so beautifully, seemed more sorrowful than glad. At last he also died, outworn; and now one grave holds the remains of Beata and Agusina.

W.

To-day; or, when to begin a better Life.

OMETIMES, when men are dissatisfied with their present course of life and are resolved to live a better one, instead of beginning the new life at once, they put it off for a longer or shorter time. They fully intend to begin some day, but not just now. A great many such resolves are made to stand over till some particular day, a New Year's Day or a birthday, for instance. There is an interest about the time itself, and to date from it some great and beneficial change in spirit and conduct will, they think, make it doubly interesting. But then how frequently it happens that the thing so put off is never done at all! A quaint and witty old writer, Thomas Fuller, has well said about this mistake: "I do discover a fallacy, whereby I have long deceived myself, which is this: I have desired to begin my amendment from my birthday, or from the first day of the year, or from some eminent festival, that so my repentance might bear some remarkable date. when those days were come, I have adjourned my amendment to some other time. Thus, whilst I could not agree with myself when to start, I have almost lost the running of the race. I am resolved thus to befool myself no longer, I see no day like 'to-day.' The instant time-that is, the present time is always the fittest time. Grant, therefore, that 'to-day' I may hear Thy voice."

But

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"Not long ago a lady walking on the quays in Dublin observed a poor woman carrying a miserable-looking infant in her arms. . . . . As the lady lingered, pitifully watching the baby, a passer-by said in half-brutal jest,Ah, throw it into the river.'

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