call for some expression of our obligation; and, however small the pecuniary value of the gift, considering its intrinsic worth, and the object in presenting it, we doubt not you will be pleased to accept it as a mark of much affection and grateful respect."

Clitheroe.-On Saturday, December 17, the teachers and scholars of the Low Moor Sunday School, held their annual meeting. About five hundred took tea, after which Jeremiah Garnett, Esq., of Roefield, presented in the name of the whole assembly, a very beautiful pocket communion service to the Rev. R. W. B. Marsh, who is about to remove into the south of England. The address of Mr. Marsh, in expressing his thanks, melted all to tears, and greatly deepened the strong attachment felt by the flock he has served in the gospel of Christ.

Frankton, near Ellesmere.-On Monday, December 26, a tea party was held at the Independent Chapel, in aid of the Sunday school. Mr. John Lea, a superintendent of a neighbouring school, was called to the chair. This meeting was one of uncommon interest. The company was large, and the tone was deep and devout. One of the scholars, Ann Davies, had recently died happily in the Lord. This had poured fresh life into the teachers, and had, consequently, greatly increased the number of the children. From forty, the attendance has advanced to a hundred and thirty. The child whose departure gave such an impulse to the friends of schools in that neighbourhood, was proverbially wicked-the grief of her parents-the terror of her village. She was induced by some children to attend the Sunday school. From that period her conduct underwent a changethe result, we devoutly hope, of an inward change. It was pleasing to mark her constant attendance, in all weathers, even though very scantily clad; and especially to see her carrying younger children to the school when they became wearied with the distance. An address delivered at the school seems greatly to have affected her heart and impressed her mind. At length she was overtaken with sickness, and soon departed, assuring her weeping friends with her last breath that she was perfectly happy. During her illness she was much in prayer. The holy exercises she had been taught in the school, appeared to have been implanted in her new nature. Thus, amid poverty, was this child made rich in faith, giving another evidence of the blessed tendency of Sunday schools. The result of this conversion on the minds of the friends of the school is most delightful. The teachers are united, and happy, and persevering in their work, and on the whole school the spirit of God seems to rest.

Wigan.-St. Paul's Chapel.-A new school room, especially for elder female scholars, has been effected in connection with this place of worship. It was formally opened on Monday, January 2, by a tea party, being beautifully decorated by the young ladies with evergreens and prints. The Rev. W. Roaf, the minister of the place, presided. Thomas Cook, Esq,, read the cash account, from which it appeared that the entire expenditure, including the removal of a debt, and the purchase of a most complete tea service, made for the place and ornamented with suitable designs, had been met, and that a small balance remained on hand. He also stated, that during the several years he had sat on the Magistrates' Bench, not a single person attending any Sunday School had been brought before him. The crowded assembly was then most admirably addressed by Ministers and friends from various places. A number of circumstances conspired to render the meeting one of deep delight and cheering hope.

THE manufacture of lanterns is carried on to a great extent in China,-thus affording employment to a large number of individuals who would otherwise be thrown as a burden on the State, or be cast out to beg or to perish in the public streets. Much skill, taste, ornament, and expense are displayed in their construction and mechanism. They are made of paper, gauze, silk, glass, or horn, but more commonly of the last material, which is so thin and transparent that at first sight it might be mistaken for glass. Each lantern consists, apparently, of one piece of horn, the junctures being so nicely formed, by means of boiling water, as to be imperceptible. The lanterns in common use

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have the names of the owners written upon them, with the addition of appropriate mottos, and those employed on festive occasions are of all shapes and sizes-many of them representing men galloping on horseback, birds flying, fishes swimming, and even 'snakes, sixty or eighty feet in length filled with lights from one end to the other, twisting themselves into different forms.' The moving principle in these,' according to Davis, 'is the same with that of the smoke-jack, being a horizontal wheel turned by the draft of air created by the heat of the lamp. The circular motion is communicated in various directions by fine threads attached to the moving figures. The general effect is extremely good; though as objects of real use, the Chinese lamps labour under the disadvantage of giving but a poor light, which arises in part from the opacity of the materials and the superfluity of ornament, but principally from the badness of the lamp itself, which is simply a cotton-wick immersed in a cup of oil; and they have no way of increasing the light except by adding to the number of wicks.'The finest exhibition of them occurs at the great National Illumination, designated

THE FEAST OF LANTERNS ;

which commences on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year, about the beginning of our March. This festival, observed for several days, is popular throughout the empire being adapted to the taste of the people, who are much celebrated for the ingenuity of their fire-works. It is called 'Shae-tang'-(a striving to excel inthe exhibition of lanterns).-During the period of its continuance, by day lanterns are carried on long poles in procession amidst gazing and admiring crowds, while at night the empire is lighted up from one end to the other by them, which are seen suspended at every door, on every roof, in every city and village, along the banks of the rivers, and the shores of the sea.

Perhaps the best history of this festival is narrated in the interesting work of Le-Compte, a Jesuit Missionary, published in 1697, an abridgment of which appears in the Missionary Annual of 1835, to which we are indebted for the following sketch. In writing to the Duchess of Bouillon on the magnificence of the Chinese, he relates-'On the 15th day of the first month occurs the feast of lanterns, because they hang up lanterns in all the houses and in all the streets in such a great number that it is a madness rather than a festival. They light up on that occasion, it

is reported, two hundred millions of them. Some of the lanterns thus appropriated are of the most costly materials, being valued at two thousand crowns each; and such is the desire of superiority in the display, that individuals in the upper ranks of life are known annually to retrench something from their table, apparel, or equipage, in order to appear more magnificent in lanterns. Their immense size, not less than their gaudy and dazzling appearance, deserves remark. They are to be seen upwards of twenty-seven feet in diameter; there are halls or chambers in them; such is the extent of space they occupy, that it has been asserted, and that on credible authority, that persons may eat, lie, receive visits, represent comedies, and even conduct a ball in a lantern. They are illuminated by a vast number of wax candles; and at a distance the effect produced is at once brilliant and imposing. Besides these, there are others of smaller dimensions consisting of six panes, each of which constitutes a frame of four feet high, and one and a half broad; it is composed of varnished wood, either neatly painted or adorned with gilding, having the interior hung round with fine transparent silk, on which are depicted flowers, trees, rocks, animals, and human figures.

'With respect to the origin of this singular custom there is a diversity of opinion. We can only refer to the account generally believed among the common people in China, which traces it to an accident that occurred in the family of a famous Mandarin.

'A daughter of this individual walking one day on the banks of a river fell in, and was drowned. No sooner did the intelligence of the melancholy event reach the afflicted father and his family, than they repaired to the spot, in hopes of being able to rescue the object of their distress. Previous, however, to the commencement of the painful search, the Mandarin ordered a considerable number of lanterns to be procured and lighted up. Most of the inhabitants of the place accompanied him with torches; but after having spent one night in vain, they were compelled to abandon further endeavours to find the individual, who had met with so untimely a death. The anniversary of the day in the ensuing year was commemorated by the lighting of fires on the shore, adjacent to the fatal spot; and the renewal of the ceremony was continued with every returning anniversary during a series of years, until, in the course of time, the observance of this custom, so far from being confined to one district or neighbourhood, became universal in the Empire.'

REVIVAL IN THE SABBATH SCHOOL AT CHARLINCH.

In the Sabbath School at Charlinch, near Bridgewater, the spirit of God has been largely poured out. The following brief account is abridged from the statement made by the Rev. H. J. Prince, the devoted servant of God under whose labours the work took place.

On the 19th December, 1841, the revival commenced. For fourteen months the minister had laboured no less in the school than in the church, without witnessing so much as one child become even serious. On Dec. 12th and 15th he had spoken to a few of the children with some power. On the 19th, the Lord directed him to announce from the pulpit, that, if any persons would send their children to the school-room that evening, he would lecture to them. Accordingly about fifty were assembled. The word spoken was at first very solemn, and in a few minutes, the Lord seemed to have made the mouth of the minister like a sharp sword. The children were smitten to the heart with the most dreadful conviction of their sin and danger; boys and girls, great and small together, were either leaning against the wall quite overcome with their feelings of distress, or else bowed down with their faces hidden in their hands, and sobbing in the severest agony. The most heartfelt anguish was written on almost every countenance that could be seen; whilst some of them looked as though they were inwardly wrung with agony. During the prayer that followed, the impression made by the Spirit became still deeper, till the walls of the school-room resounded with the sobs and cries of the children kneeling on the floor; and, for some time after the minister had ceased to pray, they continued where they were, not weeping, but literally deeply wailing. When he left the room, they followed him to the rectory, expressing their desire to forsake their sins, and to seek the Lord. There were more than forty thus smitten with conviction; and most of them were so affected, that for some time afterwards they could scarcely speak for sobbing.

Three of those most deeply smitten were hardened reckless boys, whom the minister had been obliged some months before to turn out of the school for their continued misconduct; after which they used to come to church, where they would sit in a pew opposite the minister, and make faces at him as he was preaching the most solemn and affecting truths. Often has he looked down from the pulpit