hastening the overthrow of their enemies. It vain to fight against God: they that continue to so, must be overthrown. He calls you to leave th service of sin, and to flee from Satan's power promises to deliver, and guide, and bless you, an to bring you safely to heaven. Obey His command trust His power and love, follow His guidance; and you shall find a land of eternal rest, peace, and joy Lerwick, Shetland. W. P. SEVERAL insects are luminous at night, and some are very brilliant. The glow-worm is well known. In Italy there is a beautiful fire-fly, of which both the male and the female are winged. When numbers are seen at night flitting among the oves, the effect is extremely fine. In the antennæ orns or feelers) of some species, and in the eyes others, the same property has been marked. In outh America and the West Indies, various insects e like bright lamps of the night. The fire-fly is kind of beetle, an inch long, giving out its principal ght from two eye-like points on the chest. When the wing, this insect seems adorned with gems of ch golden radiance. The Caribs of Domingo, it is id, were wont to use these living lamps at their vening household occupations, and in travelling by ight. Fire-flies greedily devour gnats. quit eace The accounts of " lantern-flies" and "candle-flies" re wonderful indeed; but they are to be received ith some caution. SOMETHING ABOUT CEYLON AND INDIA.* If you turn to the map of Asia, and look to the outh of India, you will find Ceylon. This is a wely island, abounding in noble trees, bearing ither beautiful flowers, delicious fruits, or fragrant nd precious spices, or else valuable for their hard nd durable wood. In the thick forests are found lephants, tigers, leopards, and serpents, some of thich are poisonous; also scorpions, and spiders of n uncommon size. Annie. And is it not there that the beautiful ⚫ From a little book which we commend to children,-"What re Missions? and, What can I do to help them?" (John Mason.) with their tall straight stems, a palm-trees grow, Mamma.-Yes; palms far taller and more state than those you admired so much in the glass-hot at Kew Gardens, abound in the woods of Ceylon. The island is nearly as large as Scotland, a contains nearly two millions of inhabitants. In 1 northern part a different language is used from t spoken in the south; but our Missionaries prea there also. In the day-schools which they h opened, English is taught, as well as the nat languages; and they have more than four thousa children under their care. Above one thousand f hundred men and women have thrown away th idols, and have become Christians. In the Quarte Paper for June, 1853, you will find an account of 1 schools, and a picture of the one at Jaffna. In India, the vast land stretching away to 1 north of Ceylon, there are some of the high mountains in the world, whose tops are alwa covered with snow; and rivers deep and broad, w large cities on their banks. In this country, whi is ten times larger than all England, Scotland, Wal and Ireland, put together, our Society has on thirteen Missionaries; and in some parts, containi hundreds of thousands of people, there is not a sing European to guide these perishing myriads to the Saviour. It makes one's heart ache to think of i And these Hindoos (for so they are called) a nearly all subjects of our Queen Victoria, and are in a special sense our brethren; and yet we ha done so little for them. The state of the women in India, as in heathen ountries generally, is very sad. When a little girl born, her parents, instead of rejoicing, are angry, nd do not love the little one; and, until very lately, ey would even throw the poor baby into the river, leave her in the forests, that the jackals or vultures ight devour her: or, if she be allowed to grow up, er life is generally one of sorrow and suffering. con are the happy days of childhood over with her; or, at the age of six or seven, she is married, or romised in marriage, to a boy about her own age; r, sometimes, to an old man, whom, perhaps she as never seen. If he should die, she must remain widow all the rest of her life. In former times she would have been burnt on the funeral-pile with the corpse of her husband; but English law in India no onger allows that: so she lives on, a slave and drudge, Eespised by all, and treated as if unworthy of the ood she eats. The wife's lot is not much happier. Her husband does not treat her as his friend or ompanion. She does not walk or ride with him, or t by his side, but stands timidly at a distance, tching what he wants, and waiting upon him. She not allowed to learn anything good or valuable; d so is unable to instruct her children. These ings make the Missionaries very anxious to train e girls; and they have opened boarding-schools, here they may learn many useful things, and be etter prepared to be good wives and mothers. LUCRETIA'S GRAVE. THE subject of this short effusion was a little gi of uncommon beauty, whose bright race was like beauteous cloud melting away in the mornin light. She was the daughter of Wesleyan-Method parents, who early taught her to make her wai known to her great Father in heaven. She wo never retire to rest at night before kneeling down her bedside to say her prayers, often repeating t verse, "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," &c. The spring had come, and the flowers had fade summer and its songs had passed away; autumn b pulled off the leaves of the forest; and when win was congealing the face of the waters with his ke ice-breath, my loved Lucretia sickened, and aft eight days she died, Dec. 23d, 1855, aged six yea and five months. Like a beautiful flower in t forests of earth, kissed by the gentle breeze cheered with refreshing dews, and warmed by t rays of the great sun, so blossomed my little on till the destroyer came and blasted her beaut Suddenly seized with illness among her pretty pla things in the garden, after lingering a few days h gentle spirit passed away to the land of light, to b for ever with her Saviour. Though so young, she seemed in love with nature and with nature's God. She climbed our Cornis hills, brushing their heath-mantles with her tin feet; she ran along our tuneful rivulets, well please to hear their murmuring chimes; she walked amon |