Hundreds, since then, of his spiritual children have had the “abundant entrance ministered unto” them, and they have joined him in that rapidly increasing throng. And although many years have passed away since he preached to them his last sermon, at many a camp-fire, and in many a wigwam, still linger old men, and women too, whose eyes glisten, and then become bedimmed with tears, as they think of him who so long ago went on before. But while they weep, they also rejoice that that salvation, which, as the result of his preaching, they accepted, is still their solace and their joy, and, clinging to it and its great Author, they shall by-and-by meet their Missionary and loved ones who have finished their course and gained the eternal shores.
On the previous page are the Syllabic Characters, as invented by Mr Evans; and on this we give the Lord’s Prayer in Cree, as printed in them.
Perhaps the following explanations will help the student who may have a wish to master this wonderful invention.
In the Alphabet the first line of characters, the equilateral triangle in four positions, reads as follows, ä e oo ah.
The addition of the little dot, as seen in the second line, adds to any character after which it is placed the sound of w. So this second line reads wä, we, woo, wah.
The following lines read thus: pä pe poo pah; tä te too tah; kä ke koo kah; chä che choo chah; mä mee moo mah; nä ne noo nah; sä se soo sah; yä ye yoo yah.
With a little patience the Lord’s Prayer can be read even without a teacher.
I have gone to a pagan band far away in the northern wilderness, and after they have become willing to receive the truth, I have commenced to teach them to read the Word of God. Very limited indeed were our appliances, for we were hundreds of miles from the nearest school house. But from the camp-fire, where we had cooked our bear’s meat or beaver, I would take a burnt stick, and with it make these Syllabic Characters on the side of a rock, and then patiently repeat them over and over again with my school of often three generations of Indians together, until they had some idea of them. Then I would give them the copies of the Bible I had brought, and at the first verse of Genesis we would begin. It paid for the hardships of the trip a thousandfold to see the looks of joy and delight on their faces as they themselves were able to read that wonderful verse.
