a

TFB LGN Ga aa

{0 Snapshots from the ‘Worth Paccfie.

en oe ee

““T am writing this in a canoe on a quiet reach of the
Skeena River, twelve days distant from my lodging (not
having yet found a home), and last Sunday was the tenth
since March I have spent on the sea or river, or in the forest.
My hearers have been people of all sorts and conditions. There
1 have been the downright sort, some Heathen, some
. Christian; and Christians who are heathen at heart, and
) Heathen who are all but Christians. The first were so
ignorant of Jesus Christ that the one who asked whether He
was a@ man or a woman was not behind the rest, but only
) more inquisitive. The downright Christian often, or as
often as I met with such, made me value the communion of
saints. The other sort of Christians, the greater number of
them white men, moved my heart towards them, for they
care as little for their own souls as they have been cared for,
and truly they have been as sheep without a shepherd. No
wouder if they sometimes outsinned the worst of the Indian

2

St ee tot

Native Christians is working this beneficial change among
them.

‘Heathen, and placed a stumbling-block in the Native .
Christian’s way. The Heathen who are almost Christians
are those unbaptized Indians who have learnt so much of
Christianity that they have renounced the ancient devilry and | |
learnt to pray to God through Jesus. Intercourse with the |

|

““My hearers have been sailors, traders, loafers, miners,

Greeks, Germans, and Norwegians; French, Maltese, and |
Britons; Russians, Kanakas, and Yankees; Chinese and |
Canadians ; Jews and Gentiles; whites and greys, browns
and blacks, Caucasians, Semites, and Mongolians; Indians
of the salt water, and fresh-water Indians; hunters, fishers,
packers, and nondescripts; round heads, flat heads, and
peaked heads, all beautifully supplied with hair as black as
jet, sometimes short and clean, sometimes foul, creased,
and matted.

“*T have preached on the beach and on shipboard, in the |
a | miner’s cabin and trader’s log hut, in the Indian branch-
¥ built hunting lodge, and his larger but less agreeable village