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BLUE AND PURPLE AND SCARLET.

work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all His service, and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man that offered, offered an offering of gold unto the Lord' (Ex. xxxv. 21, 22).

And then a little further on it said: 'And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats'

hair.'

Then it told what the rulers brought; the onyx stones, and the spice, and the oil. But Nelly did not care much to read that, because she could never be a ruler.

She missed two verses, and read again: 'The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.'

It was this had made Nelly fall into these happy day dreams, which the sound of her name had broken,-which the sight of her Bible had recalled.

Nelly could remember now quite well what she had been thinking of. She had been thinking how nice it would be when she was a woman herself; a lady with plenty of jewels of gold, and as much money as she liked, to buy the blue and the scarlet. For, of course, nobody could spin the blue, and the purple, and scarlet, unless they had money to buy it with. And she would need to learn to spin too, but that was easy (everything is easy in a dream). Nelly had seen a spinning wheel once in a big country kitchen; and the spinner only held the wool that lay in a cloud at her feet, and moved something with one foot, and the wool grew a long smooth thread. How easy it looked, and how beautiful it would have been if the thread had not been white, but blue or purple or scarlet, like the threads of the wise-hearted women.

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Nelly had rather misty ideas of what should be done after this. For there was no tabernacle now, and she knew quite well that all these bright things were not wanted for church. But a dream, as every one knows, has no difficulties in it. And puss purred louder still, and the fire crackled on, and the wind moaned, and soon her dream had changed from a waking to a sleeping one.

Nelly was she did not know where. But she saw a great many people; and some of them had coarse patched clothes, that looked very old; and some of them had silken dresses, covered with gold and lace. And some of them had worn faces, eyes that were weary with thinking, and very dim with tears; and others were fair and sunny, not one care line drawn upon them. And some had tired hands,-that worked, and paused for rest,-hard and wasted with their labour; and others had white hands, that were but softly busy; for Nelly noted only there were no idle hands there.

And Nelly wondered in her dream who all these people were. And she asked a passer in the street, who had a kind face, and who she thought would tell her.

'They are workers for the tabernacle,' he said.

O!' answered Nelly in her dream, 'I daresay some of them are; but where can the poor people get the crimson, and blue, and gold? And their hands look so busy and tired, how have they time to spin? How?' asked Nelly, eagerly wondering if she could spin too.

Little Nelly,' said the passer (Nelly wondered how he knew her name), 'you mistake, you do not understand.'

'O me!' sighed Nelly, 'I wish I did.'

'I will help you, little wonderer. The world is God's tabernacle now; and it does not need to be hung with woven blue, and purple, and scarlet. God's own hand has adorned it, given it already all its bright colours without spinning, and lighted its lamps without oil.'

O the lamps are the stars!' exclaimed Nelly in a sudden dawning of light.' Lamps that never burn out.'

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THE WRECK OF THE MISSION SHIP DAYSPRING.'

And the blue and purple and scarlet, these must be the flowers. There are scarlet poppies, and there's blue forget-menot, and there's purple foxglove—Õ that's fine!'

'Brighter than woven threads.'

'But then, what can the people bring? They were to bring something, you know, every one that was willing hearted.'

'And they must; more, far more than the people brought long ago.'

'What can it be?' said Nelly.

'For gold we must bring love, that is most precious of all. "He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." And all the gold in the world is not half so precious as the love that turns trustingly to Him. We owe Him this; we owe Him all. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." What can we bring Him for this? what, O little child!'

And Nelly's eyes dropped reverently; but she answered the speaker nothing.

'And for blue we must bring faith, and faith enfolds hope in its bosom; quiet and strong-eyed are they, and very glad and tireless.'

Nelly's blue eyes glanced up, and caught a blue gleam of sky.

For purple we must bring contrition, sorrow, and confession of our sins; the contrite heart Christ greets tenderly,-'tis an offering pleasing to Him.'

Then one tear on Nelly's soft cheek spoke the thoughts she could not tell.

"For scarlet we must bring the ready actions, the willing hands and feet; to do whatever lies before us with strength, and heart, and mind; to do good always, to obey, and to sacrifice.'

And the lamps?' asked Nelly in a whisper.

For lamps that burn always, we must bring that long sweet patience which waits God's time, and is busy and bright while it waits.'

And then Nelly heard a low music-it came from the willing hearted peoplewith notes glad and sorry through it, yet blent in such lovely harmony as is only heard in dreams:

This our service to the King,
These our offerings we bring;
Fretted gold He asketh not,
Linen fine, nor crimson wrought.
Our poor striving He doth take,
Makes it lovely for His sake;
Hideth, in His love's deep well,
All the sin we cannot tell;
And, of His exceeding grace,
Findeth evermore a place
For the least poor offering

Which the willing heart doth bring.' Perhaps the music wakened Nelly, for 'twas then she opened her eyes, and saw Bobby's eyes shining on her, curiously from under the sofa.

'Nelly, was 'oo sleeping?'

'I think I was,' said Nelly, only half awake.

'And why was 'oo laughing and crying?' 'O Bobby, was I?'

"Es 'oo was; did 'oo not see me before?' 'No; then it was you,' said Nelly, ‘and I looked all round the room and could not see anybody.'

'Me was here all the time, 'oo's awful stupid,' said Bobby, emerging from beneath the sofa, with very red cheeks, and enquiring no more about the dream.

But Nelly thought of it long.

'Love, faith, hope, contrition, work, and patience,'—these, she would say, years after, when she was a herself a woman,—'are the blue and purple and scarlet which the willing hearted must bring.'

H. W. H. W.

OUR MISSIONARY PAGE.

WRECK OF MISSION SHIP 'DAYSPRING.'

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HOSE of our readers who have either kept the numbers of the Dayspring,' or who have the nice bound volume which was issued at Christmas, will find at page 21 a short paper, entitled, "What the pence of some children have done for missions.' "The pence,' it is said, 'of these children, have been given for the purpose of supporting a mission vessel which has the same name as our little magazine, the "DAYSPRING," and which has done good service on behalf of the missionaries who are labouring on the New Hebrides.'

BIBLE QUESTIONS.

It was with a sad heart that we received tidings by the last Australian mail, of the total loss at Aneityum, New Hebrides, of our favourite little ship. A new ship must be built for the service of the mission, and enable the missionaries to hold frequent communications with each other. There are two things which lessen the force of this blow; no lives were lost, and the vessel was insured, though not fully. It will be better to give you in the words of one of the missionaries the account of the loss of the mission ship.

'On Sabbath, 5th January, 1873, the weather was squally and the glass fell a little, but there was nothing to excite alarm: it was just such weather as we frequently have at that season of the year; moreover, no hurricane had ever been seen by any one connected with the mission, till nearly a month after that date.

About 5 o'clock on Monday morning, the wind blew with such irresistible violence, that both anchors were started, and the vessel dragging her chains and anchors ran out of the harbour, as if she had been a mail-steamer going at full speed. She was all but clear of the harbour, and out to the open sea where she would have been safe, when the wind suddenly veering, or a cross sea coming up, or both, she was struck with such force on the broadside, as, notwithstanding the breadth of her beam, all but capsized her; a tremendous sea, at the same time, bearing her along, pitched her right up on the edge of the reef. Here she was exposed to the full force of the breakers, and had she remained in that situation, the probability is that she would soon have gone to pieces, and every one on board have perished. But a second tremendous sea came up and carried her a considerable way on to the reef, as far indeed as the chains would permit, the anchors being caught by the coral. As soon as daylight enabled the sailors to see, they cut down the foremast, fearing lest the working of the mast would have split up the vessel.

"When the rain, mist, and spray had so far cleared off that the vessel could be seen from the mission-house, flags of distress were observed flying, and men were noticed perched on the rigging. The ships boats were smashed, and they had no means of escape. But the storm rapidly subsided, and as soon as it was at all safe to go out to the vessel, assistance was sent, and all on board were got safely on shore.

'We have chartered the Sea Witch for £130 to take the chaplain, officers, crew, and passengers of the 'Dayspring,' twenty-two in all to Noumea, New Caledonia; thence they will find their way to Sydney.'

BIBLE QUESTIONS.

THR

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HREE Prizes, in each of the two divisions, are offered for the largest number of correct answers. The Prizes to be awarded in December 1873. The following are the conditions:

1. In the first, or Junior division, the questions for which will be printed first in order; competitors not to be above thirteen years of age.

2. In the second, or Senior division, competitors not to be above eighteen years of age; and in both divisions the answers must be honestly the work of the individuals competing.

3. All answers to be addressed, not later than the 18th of each month, to the Rev. JOHN KAY, Greenbank Cottage, Coatbridge.

As a matter of convenience and economy the answers may be written on post cards. Be careful in all cases to give the name and address of the competitor.

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JEWELS.

JEWELS are precious stones.

LOVELY IS OUR JESUS.

You have seen rings, bracelets, or seals beautiful with jewels, such as diamonds, rubies, or emeralds. Sometimes we have the name of a dear friend engraven on a ring or bracelet.

Aaron, the high priest of Israel, wore on his breastplate twelve large precious stones, with the names of the twelve tribes engraven on them. He was only a type or picture of our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who takes sinners to His very heart, and makes them His pure, bright, and beautiful jewels, and brings them into the presence of His Father in heaven.

A minister went one day to see a poor sick woman. He found her in a small dirty room, covered with rags, and almost dying. He said, 'My poor friend, you are very low to-day.'

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'Yes,' said she, 'I'm a poor sick old woman, vile with sin, but the Lord Jesus can make a jewel of me.' And in a few hours she was cleansed from all the dust of carth, and shining among Christ's jewels in heaven.

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Dear young friend, do you wish Jesus to save you, and make a jewel of you, and wear you on His heart? Ask Him and He will. Say to Him: Set me as a seal upon Thy heart for love is strong as death.' Christ's love is stronger than death, and you may have it, for He says: I love them that love Me.' His love can also make us stronger than death. Gold and jewels do not perish even in the fire. Christ's jewels, passing through death, are not destroyed, but glorified for ever. Here is a hymn for children who would like to be Christ's jewels:

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London: HOULSTON AND SONS, Paternoster Buildings. The DAYSPRING can be had, post free, from the Publishers, as follows: 7 copies for 4d., or 12 copies monthly, for one year, 6s.

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