One young man said he had felt all the year, as never before, that all his blessings came right from the hand of God. He had felt it in his teaching, and had thanked God for all his success. He thanked God for this school, and for those friends in the North who had established it, and for all the benefits it is conferring upon the people of this State. One youth said he was thankful he had learned the true object of man’s life—what he was made for. He used to think a man could serve God or let it alone—that his time and faculties were his own, and he could do as he pleased. But now he had learned that a man’s true calling is to serve the Lord. He was glad to know that the great God has something for every one to do, and has His eye upon the way he does it, and that his reward is according to his faithfulness, and not according to the greatness of the work. It seemed to make life worth living.
Prof. Salisbury was with us three days of the last week, in the tour of the schools which he is making to get his work in hand. He gave us a helpful talk in chapel one morning, and again gave an account of the other schools he had visited, and we trust his subsequent visits will aid in promoting the symmetry and efficiency of the work of this school.
THE INDIANS.
CHURCH AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK AT S’KOKOMISH, W.T.
BY REV. MYRON EELLS.
June 22d and 23d, 1874, this church was organized with eleven members, only one of whom was an Indian. But while there was only one Indian, it was hoped that God would bless the work so that others would be induced to come in, and we have not been wholly disappointed. Since that time twenty-eight Indians and half-breeds have joined it and our new church at Jamestown, near Dunginess, besides thirteen whites who have joined on profession, and thirteen more by letter, making seventy-five in all, including the first members. Forty-five Indian marriages have taken place here in a Christian way, and twenty-seven funerals. All of those married, who are alive, are still living together, owing mainly to the Agent. Christian services at funerals are something about which the Indians at first cared very little, and often have the dead been hurried off to burial without even letting me know that any one was dead; and their burying-ground with its small houses and clothes, cloth and other things, was a curiosity to visitors. But after a time, having made some slow improvements, they opened a new burying-ground, and when the first grave was made the chief said to me: “To-day we become white people. We do not like the idea of having cloth and other things around our graves, and we expect that there will be none of it here.” That was nearly four years ago, and there are now no such things visible. At a later day I was absent when one person died, and no white man was present at the funeral; but when I returned, the Indians asked me to make arrangements so that if I should necessarily be absent some Christian white man should go and help them bury their dead in a Christian manner.
A prayer-meeting was begun here as soon as the present Agent came (before there was a church or minister), which has been constantly maintained, and its influence has gone into all the Christian work here. But it has been too old for some of the children, and too far away and in a wrong language for many of the Indians; hence it has been supplemented by children’s, ladies’ and Indian prayer-meetings.
It has been my custom, as I have been able, to hold such meetings with the Indians at their logging camps. The following incidents show a change. About six years ago they said they did not know how to pray or what to say. So to help them we would say a sentence and let one whom we supposed to be the most suitable in heart repeat over the prayer, line after line. One evening something comical struck one, and he burst out laughing in the midst of his prayer. At another time a hunter came home during a prayer-meeting, and, without any regard to it, came in, throwing down his saddle and things, and talking very much as if there were no prayer-meeting there. That Indian of late has been one of the leading ones to pray. Another evening, when I was through and was leaving I said “Good night,” and the reply came, “Good night,” but as I was outside the door and shutting it, the words were added in a not very complimentary way, in a lower tone and yet so that I heard them, “old man.” That Indian, after going to great lengths in gambling, has been one during the past few months to try to induce his relations to enter the right road.