e has been a marked change in the children. Their
characters have much improved and they have been, in all respects,
more conscientious and trustworthy. One of the boys has, I think,
found a Christian home, and the other is waiting for one.

"IT ALMOST MAKES ME CRY."

"It almost makes me cry to think of the heathen," said Willie Dudley,
as he was standing by his mother's work-table, with his elbow leaning
upon it, and his head resting upon his hand. "I don't wonder
missionaries go to them." His face was thoughtful and sad, and the
tears stood in his eyes.

He had just been looking at two hideous idols, which had been brought
from Africa, and his mother had been telling him that the heathen
thought they were gods, and prayed to them.

Little Eddie wondered that any people could think these stone images
were God. His large, blue eyes looked larger and rounder than ever,
they were so filled with amazement at what he heard. He could only
say, "Oh, mother! oh, mother!" in tones which indicated surprise,
pity, and horror.

Mrs. Dudley told her children that the heathen had not been taught, as
we have, that God is a spirit, and that they had never learned the
commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, the Lord thy
God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my
commandments."

"I don't wonder that the missionaries go to them," was the sentiment
on the mind of Willie, as he thought of the ignorance and degradation
of the heathen. He loved, himself, to hear about God, and our blessed
Saviour, and he knew that God required a pure and spiritual worship.
He knew God was the Creator of the world, and that his power and glory
could not well be represented or conceived by man. He had often heard
of the heathen, and had read about their idols, but to see and handle
a stone head which had been actually an object of religious worship,
made it seem much more real to him than ever before, that there are
many people who have never learned to worship the true God.

Willie has always had a great reverence for his heavenly Father.
Several years ago, he was readin