going to do all I can, and to earn
all I can, and save all that I have, to support the missionaries."

Another says, "I am going to leave off buying candy." What is that? Can
little girls and boys do without sugar-candy? I am afraid that many of
you, my dear children, would find it difficult to go without it. But let
me quote all that this child wrote. "I am going to leave off buying
candy and such little notions, unless it is necessary, and save every
cent that I can get and give it to the missionaries."

Now, my dear children, I do think that if you would save some of those
cents which you spend in buying candy, fire-crackers, and similar
things, and buy Bibles and tracts for the poor heathen, you would do
much more good with them.

I want to tell you about a little boy who belonged to one of my schools
in Ceylon, who has, as I hope, gone to heaven through the means of a
tract which cost only two or three cents, and which was the cause of his
coming under my care. After he had attended preaching for some time, he
begged me to admit him to the church. As he was quite young, not eleven
years old, I was afraid to receive him. This feeling, perhaps, was
wrong. He never joined the church on earth. He has, however, I hope,
gone to join the church in heaven. When he was about eleven years of
age, he was attacked with the cholera and died. In this country, when
children are very ill, the father or mother will catch up a cocoa-nut or
a few plantains, and run off to the temple, and say, "Now, Swammie, if
you will cure my little boy or little girl, I will give you this
cocoa-nut, or these plantains." The mother of this boy saw that he was
very ill, and she told him that she wished to go to make offerings to
one of her idols, in order that he might get well. But he requested her
not to do so. "I do not worship idols," said he; "I worship Christ, my
Saviour. If he is pleased to spare me a little longer in the world, it
will be well; if not, I shall go to him." The last words he uttered
were, "I am going to Christ the Lord."

Now when you think about this little boy, I want you to ask yourselves,
whether it is not better to give two or three cents to try and save the
soul of some poor little heathen boy or girl, than to spend them in
buying candy, and other useless things.

But I must tell you about a little girl whom I saw some time ago, who
refused to buy candy while there are so many heathen without the Bible.
Her father is