eam as it enters the limitless ocean of eternity. We
can do that again by-and-by. Let us turn now rather to the beginning of
that stream of life and trace it onwards.

Agnes Elizabeth Jones was born at Cambridge on the 10th of November,
1832, the 12th Regiment, of which her father was the lieutenant-colonel,
having arrived there only a few days before.

When Agnes was about five years of age, her father's regiment, which had
previously been quartered at Cork, was ordered to Mauritius. The
wonderfully varied and beautiful scenery of this little island--a tiny
gem set in the heart of the Indian Ocean--with its curiously shaped
mountains, and tropical trees and plants, made a wonderful impression on
the mind of the child, and although she was only eleven years old when
she left, she always cherished the memory of it.

But it was not only that her mind was roused to a keen appreciation of
the beauties around her during her residence in Mauritius. The higher
part of her nature, chiefly through the faithful teaching of one of the
French pastors on the island, was also touched, and in the young heart
there arose the longing to be safely folded in the arms of the Good
Shepherd. A sentence in one of his sermons haunted her night and
day:--"And now, brethren, if you cannot answer me, how will you at the
last day answer the Great Searcher of hearts?" An arrow shot at a
venture, it pierced her heart, and although she did not yet yield
herself fully to God, she never entirely lost the desire to be His, even
when apparently outwardly indifferent. We may well thank God for His
servant's earnest ministry, for had he been less faithful, the whole
course of that life, which was to prove so valuable in the service of
the Lord, might have been changed.

From Madagascar, five hundred and fifty miles from Mauritius, yet its
next-door neighbour westwards in the silver sea, there came, when Agnes
was yet but seven years old, the tidings of a fearful persecution of the
Christians. The letters received at that time told of indescribably
dreadful sufferings for Christ's sake, and the sight of the Malagasy
refugees who fled to Mauritius, fired her young soul with the desire to
become a missionary. This desire, however, in her exceeding reserve, she
kept to herself. God had other purposes for her, and it was amongst her
own country people, and not in the foreign field, that He called her
to labour.

After the return of her parents from Mauriti