faith that is based upon it. The results include the noblest phenomena
of human experience, the richest fruitage of our christian civilization.
The Bible is the one great regenerative and redemptive agency in the
world, and this soon becomes apparent, whenever it is read in the homes
of the people.

UPLIFTING POWER IN NEW HEBRIDES' ISLANDS

A very interesting illustration of this fact has been narrated by John
Inglis a Scottish Missionary to the New Hebrides. On going there about
the middle of the last century, he selected for his abode an island
occupied by cannibals. Among the things he took with him was a mason's
hammer. When he began to dress and square the hard rocks of the
neighborhood to build the chimney of his house, the novelty of the
operation drew a crowd of the natives around him. They looked on in
wonder, and were surprised to see the hammer break in pieces and bring
into shape those hard stones, which no one had before attempted to
break.

Missionaries, like philosophers sometimes find "sermons in stones," as
well as "good in everything." On this occasion, he took the stones and
the hammer as his text and gave them a short practical sermon as
follows:

"You see these stones and this hammer. You might strike these stones
with a block of wood till you were tired and you would not break off
a single chip; but when I strike with a hammer you see how easily
they are broken, or cut into needful shapes. Now God tells us that
our hearts are like stones, and that his Word is like a hammer. Some
white men came among you before the arrival of the missionaries, and
you continued as much heathen as ever. But when the missionaries
came and spoke to you, you gave up your heathenism, began to keep
the Sabbath day, to worship God and to live like christians. What
caused this difference? The words of the missionaries were not any
louder or stronger than those of the other white men. The difference
was merely this--the other white men spoke their own words; they
spoke the words of men; and that was like striking these stones with
a piece of wood. But the missionaries instead of speaking to you
their own words read to you the Words of God; and that was like
this hammer striking, breaking and bringing into shape your stony
hearts."

This illustration took hold on their imagination; the sermon on the
stones and the hammer was not soon