STORIES OF THE HUGUENOTS.

PERSECUTIONS OF LOUIS FOURTEENTH.

FOR nearly a hundred years the Hu

guenots lived in peace. They had four colleges-those at Montauban, Saumur, Montpellier, and Sedan. Their ministers were good and peaceful men; the people were skilful and industrious. And for nearly a century Henry Fourth's edict protected them, and they worshipped in their quiet valleys without fear or harm.

At length this came to an end. Louis Fourteenth was on the throne-an old king who had reigned a long and wicked reign. He thought he would serve God and atone for his sins by destroying the religion of the Huguenots in France. So on the 18th October, 1685, he revoked the famous edict which Henry Fourth had published, and commanded that all his subjects should become Roman Catholic.

The people could not do that-they loved their faith, yet it was death, or worse than death, to remain a Protestant in the kingdom of Louis Fourteenth. So they fled in haste across the boundaries of France-men and women and children, four hundred thousand, it is said.

Many came to England, and found here a quiet home, and taught their delicate industries to the people they lived among. To Scotland, too, they came, scattered here and there among its towns and villages, and lonely rural homes. John Howie of Lochgoin, who wrote the Scots Worthies, was one of the many descendants among us of the exiled Huguenots.

they have been called, 'flying from the yoke of a new Pharaoh.'

And Louis was alarmed at the loss of so many of his best subjects. He placed all along the boundaries of France cordons of soldiers to arrest and send back the fugitives. It was made a crime to leave the country-the prisons and the galleys were filled with those who were taken in flight. A million of Huguenots were still left in France. These were subjected to sufferings such as in England or Scotland were never known through their very darkest days.

"Their personal liberty was attaked, and they were hunted like wild beasts; then, worst of all, their children were taken from them, to be educated in a religion that their parents abhorred; even their lives were often sacrificed, sometimes by excruciating tortures.'

Driven to despair, the people at last rose in arms-they were called the Camisards from the sort of coat they wore. The war of the Camisards is a dark page indeed. Headed by Cavalier and Roland, they defeated the king's armies again and again.

It was not till 1706 the insurgents were finally subdued, and then it seemed that the Protestant church of France was utterly ruined. The king congratulated himself that it was so, that Protestantism had disappeared from France. You will hear in another chapter how the light broke once more among those sorrowful vineyards on the slopes of the Cevennes.

HENRY MARTYN,

H. W. H. W.

It is said that on one single day more than two thousand Huguenots arrived in small Lausanne. The little city was hospitable, and opened its gates to whoever came, but it could not find house for all the strangers. Its streets and squares were full, in the autumn of 1687, with groups of poor French families who had fled from the dreadful persecution. Fifteen hundred Huguenots, it is said, settled here, and made Lausanne their home. 'A new Isarel,'

missionaries to India, and the son of a Cornish miner, was born in Truro, in the county of Cornwall, in the year 1781. His father, John Martyn, employed his leisure time in improving his education, and by this means obtained a situation of trust, and a position of worldly comfort. This enabled him to give his son a good education. Little Henry, when eight years old, was sent to the Grammar School of Truro, and continued there for about eight years. Of these early days very little is known, except that

he was a very quiet, inoffensive boy, rather feeble in health, and called by his schoolfellows, 'little Harry Martyn.'

He was now sixteen, and went to Cambridge University. Before he left home, one of his sisters, who loved Jesus, and wished her brother to love Him too, asked Henry, very earnestly, to promise that he would read a portion of the Bible every day. His love for his sister made him keep this promise, although he found it a wearisome task. His loving sister did not forget to tell Jesus about her brother, and after she had prayed and waited for nearly two years her heart was gladdened by a letter from Henry, telling her that he too had found the Saviour that she loved, and to whom she had so often tried to lead him. He thus describes his feelings after this great change had passed upon him: 'I am born for God only. Christ is nearer to me than father or mother or sister-a nearer relation-a more affectionate friend; and I rejoice to follow Him and to love Him. Blessed Jesus! Thou art all I want-a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through as a Christian, Minister, or Missionary.'

He had now firmly resolved to spend his whole life in the service of that Saviour who had done so much for him. When his studies were completed, he was ordained curate to Mr Simeon of Cambridge, where he preached the gospel very earnestly for two years. He was then appointed to go to India as a military chaplain. In those days that was almost the only way that a Christian missionary could get liberty to labour in India; and Henry Martyn gladly agreed to go, resolving that, besides preaching to the British soldiers, he would embrace every opportunity of telling the story of the cross to the poor heathen.

On the 10th of September, 1805, he bade farewell to England, and to all that was dearest to his heart in this world, and sailed for Calcutta, where he arrived on the 1st of May, 1806.

Eight long weary months at sea! No wonder that these early missionaries felt that going to India was like going down a dark mine, and that they must break the

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dearest earthly ties. But Henry Martyn made this sacrifice cheerfully for Jesus' sake. When he arrived in India he was gladly welcomed by the Rev. David Brown, another military chaplain at Aldeen, a village about fourteen miles from Calcutta. Mr Brown invited him to stay at Aldeen, till he was appointed to a station, and fitted up a deserted pagoda or heathen temple, in the grounds of his own house, for the young missionary.

Henry Martyn was soon sent to a station at Dinapore, where he labourd for two years, preaching to the soldiers, and studying the Hindoo language, and translating the New Testament into Hindoostanee. The hot climate and hard study, had so enfeebled his health, that he was oblidged to leave Dinapore, and seek a more healthy spot. He sailed from Calcutta to Bushire, and went from that to Shiraz in Persia. Here is his own description of his Persian dress, for he must dress like a Persian to get living there. 'Our Persian dresses are now ready, the dress is composed of stockings and shoes in one; next a pair of large red boots; then the shirt, and above it the coat-both of chintz-and a great coat. I have described my own dress, most of which I have on. On the head is worn an enormous cone, made of the skin of the black Tartar sheep with the wool on. If to this description of my dress, I add that my beard and moustache have been suffered to vegetate undisturbed ever since I left Dinapore; that I am sitting on a Persian carpet, in a room without tables or chairs; that I bury my hand in a dish of pilaw, without wating for spoon or plateyou will give me credit for being an accomplished Orential.’

At Shiraz he translated the New Testament into Persian, and also often spoke to the people about Jesus. Once when he was speaking in this way a heathen got very angry, and spoke in most abusive language about Christ. Henry Martyn was so grieved to hear his best Friend thus insulted that he could not help shedding tears. His gentle loving heart was almost crushed by the wickedness he saw on every side, and his health again failed. He set out to go to England by way of Constanti

nople, but he never got beyond Persia. His strength was not equal to the journey, and

on arriving at Tocat on the 16th of October

1812, without an earthly friend or even a European near him, Henry Martyn fell asleep in Jesus. His missionary life was short but he did a great work, gave the New Testament to the Hindoos and Persians in their own language; and who can tell how many through reading that Testament have become wise unto salvation? He finished the work God gave him to do, and no doubt received the blessed welcome, 'well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'

the war;

The valley of vision lies heaped with the slain,
But where is the prophet to plead on the plain?
A voice full of misery reaches the sky,
While the bones they are scattered and
shrivelled and dry!

Wake! Christian, awake; through the mulberry trees

There are whisperings low of the life-giving breeze;

A movement is heard of bone coming to bone,
Then why stand ye idly afar looking on?
Rise, rise from your lethargy, Christians, unite,
Leave paltry divisions and manfully fight,
Till under one banner united, yet free,
The gospel is carried o'er island and sea.
Wake! Christian, awake; though unable to
roam,

There is work to be done for the heathen at
home;
There are

unsought,

thousands unheeded, unaided,

Stray souls to be gathered, and lost to be brought

Back, back to the Saviour; then aid with your prayers,

Send help to the needy, leave self and its cares With Christ, the Provider, till, victory won, Ye join in the triumph, and share the 'well done.'

J. K. M.

ACCEPTED.

'Accepted in the Beloved.'-EPH. 1. 6.

WHO is accepted in the Beloved'?

You, if you have come to your heavenly Father, asking Him to receive you for Jesus Christ's sake. Dear little one, wanting to know that you are saved and forgiven, take all the beautiful comfort and joy of these words! They are for you just as much as for any grown-up person.

Ask Him now to give you faith to believe them for yourself, while you try to understand what they really mean for you.

Suppose a king came and proclaimed among a number of poor children that he would take any one to stay with him in his beautiful palace, who really wished to go and asked him to take them. Suppose you heard this, and wished the king would take you. Then the king beckons you, and you venture near; and then the prince royal himself comes and leads you up to his father, and tells you to say what you want, and you say, 'I do want to go, please take me! Will the king break his word and not take you? Why, in the first place, he never breaks his promise. And then he beckoned you himself, and that was what made you go. And then the prince, who is his beloved son, took your hand and brought you; and would the king send the little one away whom he brought? There can be no mistake about it; he cannot have rejected you, and said he will not have you, so you must be 'accepted.'

So every one who has come to Jesus, even if only a little girl or boy, is 'accepted in the Beloved.' Accepted, because God has said, 'I will receive you.' Accepted, because He Himself has called and drawn you, or you never would have wanted to come. Accepted, because the beloved One has made the way open for you to come by His own blood, and saves all that come unto God by Him. Accepted, not because you were worth God's accepting, but ‘accepted in the Beloved.'

'Safe in the arms of Jesus,

Safe on His gentle breast,
There, by His love o'ershadowed,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.'

(From 'Little Pillows,') FRANCes Ridley Havergal.

When the golden sun

Throws his beams about thee,

Still thy ripples run,

As if aught could doubt thee:

Doubt thee, child of day,

Free from care and sorrow;

Doubt thy joy, they may
Who thy skill can borrow.
Not the darksome cloud,
Or the rain descending,
Can thy spirit shroud,

All its sunshine ending.
Even the sunset hour,

With its parting splendour, Owns the subtle power Of thy song so tender. Yet, though far on high, Goes thy music swelling, Nightly thou dost lie In a lowly dwelling. Oh! sweet bird of song, Though so low we find thee, 'Twere a cruel wrong

On this earth to bind thee.

J. K. M.

ONCE

BAD BARGAINS.

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NCE a Sabbath-school teacher remarked that he who buys the truth makes a good bargain, while he who barters it for aught, makes a bad one; and inquired if any scholar recollected an instance in Scripture of a bad bargain.

'I do,' replied a boy: Esau made a bad bargain when he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.'

A second said, 'Judas made a bad bargain when he sold his Lord for thirty pieces of silver.'

A third boy observed, 'Jesus tells us that he makes a bad bargain who, to gain the whole world, loses his own soul.'

PRIZE BIBLE QUESTIONS.

THREE Prizes, in each of the two divisions, are offerd for the largest number of correct answers. The Prizes to be announced in January, 1878.

In the Senior division, competitors not to be above eighteen years of age.

In the Junior division, Competitors not to be above thirteen years of age; and in both divisions the answers must be honestly the work of the individuals competing.

All answers to be sent, with the name and address of the competitor, not later than the 18th of each month, to the Rev. JOHN KAY, Coatbridge.

SENIOR DIVISION.

7 Where was the name of a city called after a heathen god changed, in order that the command should be obeyed, 'make no mention of the name of other gods?'

8 In what case was the death of a leading person in the state, the means of procuring freedom to certain prisoners?

9 An unmarried woman of the tribe of Manasseh was called by the name of one of the patriarchs. Give the name and the passage in which it occurs.

JUNIOR DIVISION.

7 Where is God's omnipresence taught by three consecutive questions?

8 Where are four consecutive questions put by Jesus, to encourage us to pray?

9 What question from the prophets teaches man's inability to change his own heart?