The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888Various
History
The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
But, with the solid ground of the Dawes bill beneath, and the further
protection of the judiciary certain to be given at no distant day, he
needs, more than all else besides, the Christian school and the
Christian church. He now has "Land." If we are earnest and persistent
he will soon have "Law." But, most of all, does he need "Light," and
that light which is from above. All the laws we may enact the next
hundred years will not change the character of a single Indian. To a
considerable extent he is a superstitious pagan still. He needs Jesus
Christ. He needs to learn the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man. As it is a part of the Indian man's religious belief that his
god does not want him to work and he will be punished if he does, it
is especially necessary to touch his religious nature first. When he
accepts the Christian's God, then he will be ready to go to work for
himself. The taking up of the hoe and the spade is his first
confession of faith. What has already been accomplished through the
new laws giving him his civil rights, puts an added responsibility
upon the church. It is the Indian's last chance. Our further neglect
is his certain death. Shall we leave him with his "Land and Law"
without God? Do we realize that we have lived with these original
owners of our soil for more than two and one-half centuries, and yet,
today, there are sixty tribes who have no knowledge of Jesus the
Christ? Shall we allow longer such a stain? I know well the pressure
of various claims in religious work at home and abroad, but in the
light of what has been said, is not the duty of Christianizing the
Indians a debt of honor, a "preferred claim," which should take
precedence over others? In this way only can we partially atone for
our "century of dishonor."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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