AMONG my institution duties I embodied private conversation with the students. He whose turn it was to deliver the address at the prayer meeting on the Saturday evening, came to my study on the following Monday, and I had then an opportunity of dropping a few encouraging words, or admonitory hints, as the case might require. On these occasions I often felt much interested in accounts given me by the young men of their early history, and, in several instances, got them to commit to writing some of the facts elicited in the course of conversation.

I might fill a volume with the auto-biographical notices to which I refer, but I must be contented with a few condensed extracts. I shall give them, as near as I can, in the translated words of the young men themselves, omitting here and there things of minor importance.

1. "I was once," says one, "dark and ignorant. I cared for nothing but the body. When Sabbath came round I delighted in it, because there was no particular work to do, and I could sleep all day if I pleased. I hardly ever went to the chapel or to a school. I lived like a beast of the field, without any thought of futurity. By-and-by I was taken ill. I could not walk, and my arms were crooked; I could not stretch them out. I felt alarmed, and thought it must be a judgment from God, as I had been away in the bush the Sabbath before, with other lads, stoning birds. I recovered, and away

went my fears. I lived just as before. Then my brother came and talked to me about my wickedness, and entreated me to turn to God. I told him to leave it with me. Two months after he came again, reasoned with me, and begged me to tell him why I would not turn from sin. I said, I did not wish to lose my companions. He then asked me what my companions could do for me in sickness and death. I thought that was true, for I had often been ill, and lay alone, as they seldom looked near me. I thought my brother was right after all, and began to think in earnest about life in heaven. I had learned to read when I was a little boy, and now felt the advantage of it. I commenced reading the Bible, and felt interested. When Sabbath came, I felt less inclination to sleep, and a real desire to read and go to chapel. About this time I was roused more than ever, and alarmed by a sermon from a teacher on the text, 'Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker.' I knew that I had been striving against God, and that I had done, over and over again, what he forbad. I was dreadfully afraid, but found Christ who died for sinners, and was, in course of time, received into the church."

2. Another wrote as follows:"When the Word of God was first brought to Samoa, I attended the schools, learned to read and write, and for a long time was steady, and a servant with the missionary, Mr. Slatyer. When he left I fell back

into sin. War broke out, and I was drawn into it. I was at the battle of Safata, and three other fights. One day Mr. Murray visited our war-camp. He knew me well when I was steady. He asked me what I was doing there. I said that I was just fighting with the rest of them, but that I hated it, and also that I did not forget God, and thanked him daily for sparing my life. Mr. Murray reminded me of what I had been taught in former happy days, and I made up my mind to break off from the war party, but I determined first of all to go with a number of others on a visit to the island of Tutuila. We went, and were caught in a gale. Ropes, mast, and sail were all blown useless, and we were drifted off to sea, we knew not where. The storm continued. Two nights and two days we were in the midst of it, our food gone, no appearance of land, and there we wept and wailed, and gave ourselves up as lost. I prayed earnestly to God to save us, and determined, that if my life was saved, ever after to devote it to God. The storm cleared off, we sighted land, pulled for the shore and were all saved. I thanked God, begged forgiveness of my sins through the blood of Christ, went to the teacher, conversed with him, and gave in my name as a follower of the Lord."

3. Another thus writes:-"At the commencement of the mission, I was appointed a teacher, and laboured in four different villages. Afterwards I fell, and lived for years careless and worldly. After a time one of my children died, then another, and a third, and a fourth. My wife and

I began to think that God was in this way punishing us for the neglect of His word. I was struck, too, at this time with what the teacher said to me. He said that my children were safe in heaven, and that I might go to them, but they could never come to me. I determined to go to them, and began afresh to seek salvation. I felt also a strong desire to devote the remainder of my days to the service of Christ. I am afraid lest I should again be drawn away into sin, but I try to keep close to my Saviour."

4. Another related respecting himself as follows:-"The first thing which roused me to think of my sins was a severe illness, but as I recovered I became careless again. After that my wife died. I was in great grief, and, as I looked down into her grave, I thought that that would soon be my road too, and felt alarmed to think that I was quite unprepared to die. I commenced to attend the chapel regularly, and from that time my desire to leave sin and serve the Lord continued to grow."

5. Another, a young man, the son of a teacher, who first came to the institution with his father, and who is now preparing for the work of the ministry himself, thus said respect- | ing his conversion:-"It was not any sickness that first led me to think of my sins and my Saviour, but the reading and exposition of God's word, together with the teaching of His Holy Spirit. It was some time in 1853, when listening in the class to the exposition of the Gospel of Mark, that I first felt love to Christ growing up in my

heart. I prayed for the help of the Holy Spirit, that my love to Christ might grow stronger and stronger, and that I might be kept from all sin. I felt that I was weak, and, like a young lamb, an easy prey to wild beasts if far away from the shepherd. The more I think of the vanity of vanities of which Solomon speaks, the more do I feel inclined to devote soul and body to the service of God."

6. Another, who traces his conversion principally to the reading of God's word, says: "I was long hardened and obstinate. I was with the troops during the most of the last war. I felt sick of the camp life, and after escaping in safety through five of the battles, I thought there was something peculiar in God's goodness to me in preserving my life. I then determined to break off from the war party, and set myself to the reading of God's word to see what was in it. I caught a pig, sold it for money, and bought a New Testament. I then read about Christ-His coming into the world, His life, His miracles, and His death. Light broke in; I wondered at such amazing love. I still feel dark and ignorant, but I am persevering, and that good Spirit who led me to Christ will, I trust, continue to enlighten my dark mind."

7. Another thus writes:-" For years I was undecided for God, but my wife gave me no rest. Ever since she became a church member

(fifteen years ago) she has kept steadfast, and in my days of folly she never ceased to exhort me to repent and turn to the Lord. What Paul

says about the unbelieving husband being sanctified by the wife, is fulfilled in my case. The hand of God also was laid on me. I was laid down and very ill, and then formed resolutions, that, if ever raised up again, I would live a new life. I recovered, and, ever since, I have tried to serve the Lord, and pray that I may be faithful unto death."

8. Another, who became connected with the institution when he was a boy, related as follows:"But for my parents, I might have been bad enough. They watched me with great care. I was never allowed to go near a night-dance. If I happened to get off to the bush at any time with other boys, it was not long before there was a message from my father for me to go back, and play in front of the house. It was the same in the moonlight nights; I had to keep near the house. I learned to smoke, but my father did not know it. He would have been angry had he known that. When my parents were appointed to go to the institution, I did not wish to go with them, and it was arranged that I was to remain behind, under the care of my uncle. But up comes a message to say that I must go, as the laws of the institution require that teachers who have children must assemble them also in the institution, to be taken care of and instructed. I had. not been long on the premises until I felt a great desire to join the youths' class, and be allowed to attend the lectures. I made every effort, and prayed to God to help me, that

might be able to read any part of the Bible, and not be rejected when I applied. Great was

my joy when I was received, and took my place in the class."

This young man is still under instruction, and will, I trust, yet rank among our most useful teachers.

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9. Another case occurs to me, the very reverse of this in parental influence. "My father," says the narrator, was a wicked old man. The Christian religion was set up in our village, but he was enemy to it, and we, the children, had to comply with his wishes. As I grew up, it seemed to be my very trade to lie and steal; and the Sabbath I generally spent in hunting wild pigs. Then it happened that I was taken very ill. My father and all the family were crying, and concluded I was dying. In my distress it occurred to me, as a last resort, to call upon God, and for the first time I prayed to the true God. Next morning I felt better, and continued to recover. I now determined to give up heathenism, and serve the Lord. About that time I heard Mr. Hardie preach, and well remember his saying, 'Make haste and repent; for if you do not, death will come, and then you can never obtain eternal life.' This made me all the more anxious to follow Christ. After a time war broke out. My father did all he could to get me off to the war. He first tried to coax and flatter me, praising my bright sharp eyes, which would make me the beauty of the corps, but this did not do. He then tried anger, and at last went off in a rage. My mind was made up. I was determined to hold on to Christ. Instead of going to the war, I got up, put on a decent cloth, and joined a party of

church members and steady people who were going off to remonstrate and try to prevent fighting. For a long time I did not make it known formally to the teacher what a change had come over my mind. I thought it was enough, for the time, that God knew. People wondered and talked about it. They saw that I had begun to pray, attend schools on the week-days and on the Sabbath, just like a church member, and yet I was not one. By-and-by I opened my mind to the teacher, and, after a year or two, was received into the church. I am greatly delighted to add, that my old erring father seems now to be turning to the Saviour, too. I heard lately that he has become a candidate for admission to the church."

FAITH AND UNBELIEF. BY THE REV. E. DAVIES, HOXTON, ALAS! there are tens of thousands in these Gospel times, who, while they cannot for a moment question the Divinity of Jesus, like these Jews, practically refuse to acknowledge His claims, and bow their neck to His easy yoke. They also "know the truth," but it does not come home to them with Divine power and unspeakable preciousness. They hear it without being moved and rapt in ecstacy by it. Ah! if many of the degraded, benighted heathen possessed but their privileges, they would have risen in rapture long ago, and the very slave would have leaped with delight, notwithstanding his heavy chains of bondage. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in