But Mr. Duncan, to his great sorrow, was quite unable to get away from his incessant duties at Metlakahtla. A second and third summons followed in quick succession, and presently came the news of his death, accompanied by a few unfinished lines:—
"My dear Sir,—This is my last letter, to say I am very happy. I am going to rest from trouble, trial, and temptation. I do not feel afraid to meet my God. In my painful body I always remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Well may we say, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
Reverting to the history of the Mission, we find that in 1866 the Bishop of Columbia paid a second visit to Metlakahtla, and after careful examination, baptized sixty-five adult converts on Whit Sunday in that year. "I truly believe," he wrote, "that most of these are sincere and intelligent believers in Christ, as worthy converts from heathenism as have ever been known in the history of the Church." And in the autumn of the following year Mr. Cridge, then Dean of Victoria, who had from the first manifested the deepest interest in the Mission, stayed for some weeks at the settlement, and on September 8th baptized ninety-six adult Indians and eighteen children.
Dean Cridge was struck by the advanced age of the candidates presented to him. Twenty-six were over fifty; and one man, who was sixty-five, said, "I feel like an infant, not able to say much; but I know that my heart is turned to God, and that He has given His Son to wash away my sins in His blood."
"When he entered the room to be examined, he knelt down and offered a silent prayer. While speaking of his sins he showed emotion, and covered his face. Amongst other answers, these are some of his words: 'I repent very much of my past sins before Jesus.' I asked why Christians were not afraid to die; he said, 'Faith in God will make us not afraid to die,' I baptized him Jeremiah; he is about forty years of age. His wife was not less satisfactory in the testimony she gave of a true conversion to God, and was added by baptism at the same time with her husband to the fold of Christ."
What can we say to such tokens of true knowledge and faith as these, but that the words of our Lord to Peter are still applicable to many even of the most degraded heathen in our own day?—"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is it Heaven!"
VII.
METLAKAHTLA—MATERIAL PROGRESS AND MORAL INFLUENCE.
Metlakahtla is no hermit's cell in the wilderness, removed faraway from the haunts of men, and exerting no influence upon them. Rather is it a harbour of refuge, whose lights radiate forth into the darkness, inviting the bark in distress to seek its friendly shelter, and guiding even the passing vessel in its course. Very rapidly it acquired a recognized position of importance and influence as the centre—one might almost say the official centre—of all good work of every kind among the coast Indians.