The Central Presbyterian

CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

Missionary Riddle.

The following is said to have been written in aid of the funds of a London Missionary Society, and is called, on that account, "A Missionary Riddle." It is at all events very ingenious, and can be solved only by those who have looked carefully into one of the books of the Old Testament.

Come and commiserate
One who was blind,
Helpless and desolate,
Void of a mind;
Guileless, deceiving,
Though unbelieving,
Free from all sin;
By mortals adored,
Still I ignored
The world I was in.

King Ptolemy's Cæsar's
And Tiglath Pileser's
Birthdays are shown;
Wise men, astrologers,
All are acknowledgers
Mine is unknown.

I ne'er had a father
Or mother; or, rather,
If I had either,
Then they were neither
Alive at my birth;

Lodged in a palace,
Hunted by malice,
I did not inherit,
By lineage or merit,
A spot on the earth.

Nursed among pagans,
No one baptised me;
A sponsor I had,
Who ne'er catechised me;
She gave me the name
To her heart that was dearest,
She gave me the place
To her bosom was nearest,
But one look of kindness,
She cast on me never,
Nor a word in my blindness
I heard from her ever.

Compass'd by dangers,
Nothing could harm me;
By foemen and strangers
Nought could alarm me;
I saved, I destroy'd;
I blessed, I alloy'd;
Kept a crown for a prince,
But had none of my own;
Filled the place of a king,
But ne'er sat on a throne;
Rescued a warrior;
Baffed a plot;
Was what I seemed not,
Seem'd what I was not.

Devoted to slaughter,
A curse on my head,
A king's lovely daughter
Watched by my bed;
Though gently she dressed me,
Fainting with fear,
She never caress'd me,
Nor wiped off a tear:
Never moisten'd my lips,
Though parching and dry,
(What marvel a blight
Should pursue till she die?)

'Twas royalty nursed me,
Wretched and poor;
'Twas royalty cursed me
In secret I'm sure.

I lived not, I died not;
But tell you I must,
That ages have passed
Since I first turn'd to dust.

This paradox whence?
This squalor! This splendor!
Say, was I a king,

We will wait two weeks for an answer to this riddle, and if our young readers then "give it up," we will answer it for them.