the pool. On the side opposite to the water there is a magnificent hall, ornamented with 999 columns of blue granite, covered with sculptures representing the principal Hindu idols. One of the greatest curiosities of this pagoda is an immense granite chain of exquisite workmanship, extending from four points of the circumference of the cupola to the nave, and forming four festoons 137 feet long, with the ends held by four enormous wedge-shaped stones belonging to the arch. Each link is somewhat more than three feet in length, and the whole of a beautiful resplendent polish.

THE PAGODA OF TANJORE

Is reckoned the finest specimen in India of a pyramidical temple. Its grand tower is 199 feet in height, rising from the ground by twelve successive stages. In a covered area is a bull carved in black granite, sixteen feet in length by twelve and a half feet in height, esteemed one of the best works of Hindu art.

THE PAGODA OF SERINGHAM,

AN island opposite Trichinopoly, is pre-eminent in magnitude and splendour, being about four miles in circumference! There are seven successive inclosures or walls, twenty-five feet high and four feet thick, and 350 feet distant from each other. Some of the stones forming the columns of its gateways are thirty-three feet long, and five feet in diameter: those which form the roof are still larger. The innermost shrine has never been violated by any hostile power; nor has any European ever been admitted. It is visited by

crowds of pilgrim idolaters from all parts of India. The priests and their families once formed a population of 40,000 souls, maintained by the offerings of superstition. "Here, as in all the other great pagodas of India,” says a traveller, "the Brahmins exercise an authority which knows no resistance, and slumber in a voluptuousness which knows no wants."

THE PAGODA OF MADURA,

ALSO, with its spacious areas, and four colossal porticos, each a pyramid of ten stories, covers an extent of ground almost sufficient for the site of a town!

We might go on to describe many more of the magnificent edifices of India, but these may be sufficient to give an idea of them. What millions of money they must have cost, and all to dazzle the eyes of the people with the power and splendour of their Rulers. How much better will it be with the people of these vast and rich countries, when the Gospel of God finds its way amongst them, and teaches them that true happiness consists, not in earthly splendour but, in the favour of Him who giveth us all things richly to enjoy!

AN INCIDENT OF THE INDIAN WAR.

WHEN a regiment of Sepoys mutinied at Allahabad and murdered their officers, an English ensign, only sixteen years of age, who was left for dead among the rest, escaped in the darkness to a neighbouring ravine. Here he found a stream, the

waters of which sustained his life for four days and nights. Although desperately wounded he contrived to raise himself into a tree during the night for protection from wild beasts. Poor boy! he had a high commission to fulfil before death released him from his sufferings. On the fifth day he was discovered, and dragged by the brutal Sepoys before one of their leaders to have the little life left in him extinguished. There he found another prisoner, a christian catechist, formerly a Mohammedan, whom the Sepoys were endeavouring to torment into a recantation. The firmness of the native was giving way as he knelt among his persecutors, with no human sympathy to support him. The boy officer, after anxiously watching him for a short time, cried out, "Oh, my friend, come what may, do not deny the Lord Jesus!" Just at this moment the alarm of a sudden attack by the gallant Colonel Neill with his Madras Fusileers caused the instant flight of the murderous fanatics. The catechist's life was saved. He turned to bless the boy whose faith had strengthened his faltering spirit. But the young martyr had passed beyond all reach of human cruelty. He had entered into rest.

There is something painfully pleasing in this incident. We understand the parents of this youth reside at Evesham, in Worcestershire; and it is to their honour that their son had been taught to know Jesus Christ; and must be for their consolation, though lamenting the sufferings and death of their beloved son, that he bore so good a testimony for his Saviour, and was just able, with his dying breath, to confirm the faith of that poor Mohammedan convert.

AN AMERICAN MISSIONARY SHIP.

WE have told you before that Missionary Ships have been bought, fitted up, and paid for, chiefly by the subscriptions of children in sabbath schools in England. So you see that though a penny is only a penny, yet hundreds of thousands of pennies will make altogether thousands of pounds, enough to buy a ship large enough and strong enough to sail round the world. And so it is in other things-many little things make one great thing—the greatest shower is made up of single drops.

The christian people of America, who, like the christian people of England, wish to send the gospel all over the world, have now proposed to build a Missionary Ship. This is what they say:—

"MISSIONARY SHIP.-The American Board of Missions appeal to the children and youth of their churches to furnish money to build a missionary ship.

The Sandwich Islands are now christian. But westward of them, in the great Pacific Ocean, there are thousands of other Islands, filled with heathens. Many of the christian Sandwich Islanders are willing to accompany missionaries to carry them the gospel. These heathen Islanders are called Micronesia. They are scattered over a space nearly as large as the whole of the United States. There should be no longer delay in sending the gospel to Micronesia. But how shall missionaries go to them? Few ships visit these far-off barbarous islands. If the American Board would send them the gospel, it must have a vessel for this purpose.