“Work for the good that is nighest,
Dream not of greatness afar;
That glory is ever the highest
Which shines upon men as they are.”
--_W. Morley Punshon._
It was in the fall of ’69 that a few Christian friends in the City
of Victoria undertook the organization of a Sunday-school and other
services among the Indians who lived in and about the city, as well
as the Songees people on the reservation opposite. In February of the
following year, Amos Sa-hat-son, a Songees chief, and two others of
the same tribe, experienced the converting grace of God through the
instrumentality of these services.
In many cases it was native or lay agents who first commenced practical
mission work and so prepared the way for the regular missionary. The
efforts of our brethren and sisters in the various centres where the
Indians congregated is worthy of all praise. It is my joy to speak
kind words of appreciation of the help given by Brothers Bryant,
Raybold, Raper, Brinn, Tate, Green, and others in Nanaimo; by Father
McKay, Sister Russ, Brothers J. Bullan, J. E. McMillan, and others in
Victoria. At New Westminster, too, Brothers Dawson, D. S. Curtis, R.
Wintemute, and other young men, assisted by the pastor’s wife (Mrs. A.
E. Russ), held meetings and carried on a Sunday-school on behalf of
the hundreds of Indians who lived near that point. After the revival
referred to at Chilliwack, Brothers A. C. Wells and J. Whitfield
commenced a Sunday-school at Atchelitz, and carried it on successfully.
These Sunday-schools and locally conducted services were a great
blessing, not only to the natives, for whose benefit they were held,
but also to the teachers themselves. There is nothing like some form of
Christian activity to keep the spiritual life strong and healthy.
As we look about us on the many lines of missionary need--Chinese,
Japanese, Hindu and Indian--we cannot help feeling that our young
people and Leaguers are missing an opportunity, which God has placed at
their door, if they do not endeavor to reach out for these “strangers
within our gates.” An opportunity, too, which, if made use of, brings
its own reward--the joy of unselfish and successful service on behalf
of others.
In all our mission fields we should make a more general use of the
talents of our native converts. What matter if they are not educated.
When their hearts are filled with love and zeal get them to work--as
class-leaders, exhorters, local preachers, visiting the sick, in
evangelistic efforts of every kind--and out of a full, happy heart
they will tell, as did the early Methodists, what the Saviour has done
for them, and what He will do for others. When Amos Cushan, our first
native preacher at Nanaimo, went out he could not read, but he could
tell of the disease and the cure. When Sallosalton commenced his work
on the Coast the people marvelled and asked, “Where did he get this
wisdom?” Unsaved, hardened men melted before his burning words and
loving heart, and his Christian friends were led to rejoice as they
listened to him. Many others of our native brethren, like Capt. John
Sua-lis and August Jackson, have been mightily used of God in spreading
the Gospel among their people.
SALVATION IN A BAR-ROOM.
The services at Victoria were first held on the reservation, and
then transferred to a building in the city which had been used as a
bar-room. In this building, still bearing the sign of its earlier
occupancy, a work of saving grace was begun and carried on, the
results of which eternity alone will reveal. It was a service held
in this “old bar-room” which was instrumental in opening the way for
the Methodist Church to enter those great fields among the Indians of
the North--Tsimpsheans, Kit-eks-yens, and Hydahs on Queen Charlotte
Islands, Hylt-chuks and the Kling-gets in Alaska, and others--where, in
the providence of God, I was afterwards to labor.
On a Sabbath morning in October, ’72, Elizabeth Deex, a chieftess of
the Tsimpshean nation, who had left her home at Port Simpson, wandered
into the “old bar-room,” and there by the preaching of the Word was
brought under deep conviction for sin. At a prayer-meeting held later
in her own house she was savingly converted to God, and immediately
entered into the work of bringing others to Christ.
That meeting proved to be the beginning of a revival which lasted
continuously for nine weeks and resulted in the conversion of upwards
of forty natives, among whom were a number of northern people.
It was our great privilege to be with the dear friends for some time
in that blessed revival, and when the people were starting north we
bade them good-bye, urging them to stand up as witnesses for Jesus, and
promising them that, if possible, we would visit them some day.
This was in the month of September, 1873, when, by a strange
providence, the way was opened for a visit to my friends at home. And
now as they started northward I started eastward, little imagining that
I should so soon follow them to their northern home, and remain with
them so long--for about the next quarter of a century, indeed.
[Illustration: THE TRANSFORMED BAR-ROOM, VICTORIA.]