Evening star., 1903-10-23
ANGLICAN CHURCHES
Continued from First Page)

tribes. speaking almost one hundred diff
ferent languages, scattered on ABOUT sew
enty different reservations, among Io,op,-
COO of Englsh-speakng people can be
found only if the smaller people are led TO
flow in with the current of life and ways
of the larger. The Indians are not an
insulated people like the islanders OF the
South Sea. our proper method of work is
not that which builds up national Indian
church with a national liturgy in the Indian
tongue, but rather that of resolving the
Indian structure and preparing its part for
being taken up into the great whole in
church and state
However much the missionary may. for
the time being, have to devote himself TO
one class. namely, the Indians, he should
struggle against falling into the notion
that he is a missionary to Indians alone
and not a missionary to all men, and his
aim should be to break down the middle
wall of partition between whites and In
dians. and to seek not the welfare of one
class or race but the common good.
AS a further preliminary remark. let me
say that Indian missions call for the hard
est kind of work and the hardest kind of
1t will not be done by people who
think that every Indian girl is a Poca-
hontaS.
The work must be thoroughly human and
sympathetic: it must make allowances; it
must be appreciatve Of any good in the
Indians: but the lndiar must not be seen
as in a mirage-though mirages be common
in the desert which he freuuents-nor up
lifted from the ordinary run of things and
HOdtlnP vague III the etner. am, per-
haps, not confident in my opin-
ions regarding the Indians as l
was novice. but this | sure
of, the work calls for hard work and hard
sense. | have seen nothing to lead me to
think that there is anything in the Indian
problem to drive either to mere senti-
mcntation. to ouackery or to despair. 1t
will find it's solution. under the favor of
God in the faithful execution of the powers
committed by God to the civil government,
and in a common-sense ministration of the
offer and the gracious gifts deposited with
His church.
Next l should say the methods should
be on the highest plane of Christian en-
deavor. The work lIes among those whose
confidence has been abused and perhaps
destroyed 1t can be regained only by per-
sons of high sense of justice and sustained
nobility of feeling. Moreover the Indian is
our helpless ward Helpessness calls for
persons of strong paternal feeling-not pa
ternal feeling socalled. which makes one
merely fond and indulgeut. but the pa
ternal feeling which makes one pitiful,
patient, wise and strong. l read some time
ago in newspaper the following words
called forth by gross abuses in the treat
ment of the inmates of certain state poor
houses and HOSPITALS:
The vast ma ajority of men and women
are not fit to exercise authority over other
beings whose condition is one of entire
dependence. There are some noble natures
In whom helplessness will only breed
spect. cOnsiderat ton and true cha rity: but
these are few and far between. indeed and
1t Is not disparaging ordinary human nature
In the least to say that their price is above
ruhies."
All this is emphatically true of workers
among our native races. Men who have
passed all their lives In low and vulgar
life even though good rarely suited
TO this work. They are apt to be eIated
by being placed in authority over the igno-
rant and helpless and free from the bal
ances and checks which clergyman finds
among white people The Maoris we are
noticed difference hat
the undetermined and the vulgar mission
ares who came among them and their
comment was, Gentlemen, gentlemen
don't mind; pig gentlemen mighty par
ticular
The methods should be such as to give
the missionary strong church backing.
1t being presumed that the missionary is
the right sort of man. he should not owe
his place, or his living, in any way to po-
htical favor or to local government Off
GERS, nor be dependent on them in any way
except so far as a gentleman may receive
courtesies from a gentleman and so far
as one who is in close touch with the
needy may look with manly trust to those
who command resources. There in the
Indian country representatives of the gov
er1ment, Indian agents and others whom
l am happy to call my friends and in whose
family life / have found many a time sweet
solace>-the Indian service is a distinct
ly higher plane than it when | first
knew it, but many parts of the Indian coun-
try are infested with persons who are the
most unscrupulouS scheIners and villainOus
land grabbers-eVen government officials
sometimes deserve this name. Nothing
suits the purpose of such persons better
than to have the representatives of religion
tied TO tlSir string.
The methods should inspire confidence in
the beneficent strength of the church The
Indian has had experience of strength
Cften bitter experience He knows we'll
the strength of the white mans gun; the
strength of his well-built houses. great
cities Of them; the strength of his enter
prise in subduing the wild and turning
over IN a few weeks hundreds of thousdn IS
of acres of virgin sod: the strength of his
railroads running over hill and dale and
briusinS mighty rivers. There has been
handed down. among them, generation af-
te: generation. the story of the irresistible
progI ess of the white man. "A great peo-
pie, and a strong. a fire devoureth before
them; and behind them a fame burneth"
The Indian admires strength, while in his
case he fears it; but, alas while so many
other things of The white man are strong
his beneiicent effort often seems TO the
Indian transient and weak. a mission is
begun. missionary appears. He lacks
good sense. His local enemies of religion
make him a laughing stock. He has not
succeeded anywhere else he does not sue
ceed there. He withdraws. a mission
building was erected. Now 1t stands unoc-
cupied. SO much as to strengthening the
Indians religious weakness. Now as 10 his
physical strength To save this an Indian
mission should take distinct stand in fa-
vor of productive occupaticn-work in farm
ing, III raising STOCK, in handicrafts and in
other pursuits which strengthen his body
and bring In returns. Sucn texts as the
following should occupy very prominent
part of public and private exhortations:
Go TO the ant, thou sluggard; consider her
ways. and be wise: which having no guide
oVerSeer, or ruler, provideth her meat in
the summer and gathereth her food in the
harvest" And How long wilt thou sleep
% sluESard? When wilt thou arise out of
thy sleep? Yet little sleep. little slum-
Der. little folding of the hands to sleep;
so shall thy poverty come as one that
trava'lsth. and thy want as an armed man -
Even when we We're with you, this we
commanded you. that if any would not
work. neither should he eat" And no
pains should be spared to bring wildly be-
fore the Indians. on the one hand the de-
sptcable condition into which many of them
are sinking, and on the other. the honorable
and well-to-do place which many Others are
securing by patient and intelligent effort.
No native should hold a position on the
mission force who will not try to make him
self an example in these things
This is a staggering blow and If possible
should never be permitted. therefore never
accept any man except the right man But
when the right man has taken hold never
let him What he has c-rr1- o,,