THE INDIANS.
MR. MOODY'S MISSIONARY MEETINGS.
REV. MR. SHELTON'S ADDRESS
Mr. Moody's Missionary Meetings have been a marvel in their conception, in their remarkably large audiences and in the still more remarkably able and interesting class of speakers—some of them from distant mission fields. They show how broad and many-sided is Mr. Moody's mind and heart.
At the meeting held August 8th, Rev. C.W. Shelton, the Financial Secretary for Indian Missions of the American Missionary Association, was invited to address the meeting. We condense from the Springfield Union an outline of Mr. Shelton's stirring address, and its effect upon Mr. Moody and others in attendance, with the practical results.
The most stirring address of the morning was delivered by Rev. Chas. W. Shelton of New York City, on the Indian problem. He stated the problem with simplicity and dignity, but when he got worked into his theme, he became eloquent in his description of the position of the Indian people and their strong desire to receive the gospel. While he was illustrating his argument with pathetic incidents in his experience, there were many of his audience in tears.
The speaker described the Indians themselves; their first characteristic was the deep religious nature which swayed their whole life. They prayed oftener and more fervently than Christians, worshipping everything that was unknown and mysterious; of which the saddest thing was that the Indian's gods were all gods of anger, involving sacrifices. To show the extent to which the Indians would sacrifice themselves to appease their god's anger, a very touching story was told of a boy torturing himself for the recovery [pg 287] of his sick mother. At the close of the Mohonk Conference, two years ago, our committee went to President Cleveland to petition in regard to methods. He said that he sympathized with all our methods and ideas. "But," he said, "gentlemen, you may do all you can at Mohonk, I may do all I can here in the White House, and Congress may do all that they can over there, but," and he turned and picked up a Bible, "gentlemen, after all, that book has got to settle the Indian problem." (Applause.) And the President was right. Before you can do anything for the preservation of the Indian you've got to give him a new hope, a new salvation. I have studied many tribes, and have never found a tribe or village of Indians or a single Indian civilized before he was Christianized.
The speaker next considered the question whether the Christianization of the Indians was possible. This he answered by the case of the 400 Indians taken captive in the Sioux war which followed the Minnesota massacre of 1862. In the fall of that year, a missionary went to their prison, and in the next six months taught 392 to read and established a church with 295 members. Subsequently President Lincoln pardoned all but 39 and the survivors went among the Sioux, and the speaker considered the ten Christian churches and 2,000 Christians among the 40,000 Sioux to be owing to this church of prisoners. In Dakota, every one of the 40,000 Indians was ready to receive the gospel.
On Mr. Moody's asking how much he wanted, he said that it took $400 to start a station, and $300 a year to keep it up. He then related a very pathetic story of an old Indian who traveled 150 miles across the Territory seven times to get a missionary sent among his people. The difficulty in getting one arose from the society sending the missionaries, whose debt was so large that the executive board had refused to send out any more. ("Board wants more faith," put in Mr. Moody.) The old man finally went back to his people, saying sadly: "They must die in their darkness; the Christian people of America haven't interest enough in the poor dying Indian to try and help him."
Mr. Moody, who had been apparently deep in thought ever since the speaker had mentioned the sum necessary to start a station, now broke out, "Got a mission started where that old man wanted it?" in such an earnest way that it brought down the house. But Mr. Moody wasn't satisfied till Mr. Shelton answered in the affirmative, and added that what he said of the Sioux was true of the other tribes, 68 of whom were untouched by any missionary efforts. At this point, $300 was handed to the platform to establish a station, and the audience grew enthusiastic. The speaker continued, illustrating the need of Christian work among the Indians and their willingness to receive it by telling a story of a little Indian girl who was converted while dying. She asked of her teacher: "But, lady, how long have you known of this beautiful story?" "Many years," replied the missionary. "And how long has white man known of this?" "Oh, very many years." [pg 288] "Lady, if white man has known about God and about heaven so long, what for, why has he not told poor dying Indian about this before? If I could only get well, I would go and tell all my people this beautiful story about Jesus and home," and with those words, "Jesus and home," her eyes closed forever.
In answer to Mr. Moody's questions, he described the stations, little buildings of three rooms, and the missionaries' life, at home, and teaching the Indians to cultivate the soil, as well as preaching to them; his wife also teaching the women. The audience had become quite enthusiastic by the time he finished his eloquent appeal, and at this moment Mr. Sankey offered $700 to start one station, and shortly after Mr. Moody pledged an equal amount. A lady then handed in $400 to go with the $300 subscribed during the address. Mr. Moody himself then made a brief appeal, speaking of the Indian boys and girls in his school and the high rank they had taken. He offered a short prayer and then dismissed the audience, telling Mr. Shelton to "make himself plenty" around the buildings during the afternoon, and doubtless he would receive more money.
Mr. Shelton did "make himself plenty" around the building, and the result has been that nearly $3,000 were contributed either in cash or in pledges that have since been redeemed. Still other contributions are anticipated as the outcome of this fine address. Three out-stations will be started at once in Dakota, one of them bearing the name of Mr. Moody, another of Mr. Sankey, and the third may be named Northfield or it may bear the name designated by the donor.