A beautiful feature of the Commencement season here at Santee was the communion service of last Sunday, at which time six young Indian men came forward from among their companions and publicly united themselves to God’s people! We call them boys, but they are not boys; they are old enough to realize the position they now occupy, and it has come to them only after the long, hard struggle which seems always to insure earnest lives for the future. Most beautiful of all was the baptism! Tears rolled down their cheeks as they bent for a blessing from the white man’s God and their God. The eyes of the teachers, who had prayed and labored so earnestly for this very occasion, were filled to overflowing. Five different tribes were represented by these boys: Mandan, Ree, Assinaboine, Yanktonais and Titon. Two of the young men are the sons of chiefs still in their blankets, who, recognizing the great needs of their people, are urging their sons on to more earnest study, so that they may come back as missionaries to those who wait for them as for deliverers. It would seem enough of an achievement that these scores of Indian boys and girls have been brought out of the superstition, the unbelief, the savagery of their tribes, into the customs, manners and religion of civilization, even if the work stopped there; but the three days following the communion Sabbath have shown such results in regard to a growth as well as change of mind, that to one seeing the work for the first time it is simply marvelous. It is one thing to sit in an Eastern audience and listen to the most earnest recital of the needs of, and work among, the Indians, and to say, “O, yes, the needs are very great; the work is glorious; we fully understand your solution of the ‘Indian problem’; we agree with you and aid you!” (while in a day the needs are forgotten, and the work is overlooked). It is another thing to stand here on the ground and listen to the silent appeals of these hundreds of thirsty human souls—appeals that are all the stronger because of their utter helplessness. Another thing is it to stand and _behold_ the work already done, and the change already made! To see with our own eyes is to wonder and believe, in such a way that we can never forget. Would that all men might not only hear, but see!