With a sympathy for every good work Mr. Black was identified with every
moral movement in Red River Settlement. Coming as he did to people who
had had for forty years an unfortunate religious experience, he had
naturally to take a firm stand against evil of every kind. The Highland
ideal of church discipline is very high, and Mr. Black seemed equally
solicitous with his people to suppress aggravated forms of sin. It would
neither be interesting nor expedient to detail the session cases which
came up as the years rolled on. There was one thing always to be said,
that the moderator never flinched in his duty, but it is plain to see
that he rather aimed at the reclamation of the wrongdoer, than took
satisfaction in meting out punishment to the offender. He associated
himself very heartily with the ministers of the Church of England, who
welcomed his assistance in joint meetings for prayer and temperance
reform throughout the parishes. He was instrumental in carrying out the
work of the Bible Society. He was also very anxious to gain the
acquaintance of the officers and men of the Hudson's Bay Company--many
of them his countrymen--scattered over the Northwest. With these men he
kept up a correspondence, and hardly a chief factor or trader from the
interior visited Fort Garry, who did not think it a duty and a pleasure
to take the five miles journey from the Fort to Kildonan manse to visit
the representative of the church of his fathers. So strong did this
feeling become that in 1862 Governor Dallas invited Mr. Black to hold
service at Fort Garry, and this was undertaken with the approval of
Kildonan session, and thus was begun the first Presbyterian service on
the site of the city of Winnipeg, which has become one of the
strongholds of the Presbyterian Church in Canada to-day. In every good
thing the Kildonan pastor was a leader, and while his sympathetic nature
encouraged many a confidence, and many a sad story that caused him
trouble and anxiety, yet he was full of resource, and thought nothing of
pain and trouble and expense if he might be helpful to the vicious, or
lead the young into wisdom's ways,
"As a bird each fond endearment tries
To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies,
He tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay,
Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way!"
[Illustration: REV. JAMES NISBET,
Presbyterian Pioneer Indian Missionary, 1866.]
CHAPTER VIII.
A Kindred Spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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