Lights And Shades Of Missionary Life Containing Travels Sketches Incidents And Missionary Efforts During Nine Years Spent In The Region Of Lake Su

Author : John H. Pitezel
Publisher : Theclassics.Us
ISBN 13 : 9781230232478
Total Pages : 102 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (324 download)

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Download or read book Lights and Shades of Missionary Life; Containing Travels, Sketches, Incidents, and Missionary Efforts During Nine Years Spent in the Region of Lake Su written by John H. Pitezel and published by Theclassics.Us. This book was released on 2013-09 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXX. PLEA FOR INDIAN MISSIONS The Christianization and civilization of the aboriginal tribes of North America have enlisted the warm Christian sympathy and enlarged benevolence of many of the wisest and best men. Such, evidently, do not look upon the efforts of the Church and the nation, in this direction, as visionary and impracticable, but as founded upon reason and the higher demands of revelation. Still it is not to be questioned that skepticism prevails widely among men whose influence is felt, and felt, too, even within the pale of the Church, and the energies of many thus become paralyzed, and the streams of benevolence are dried up or turned out of their course. When traveling on Lake Superior I fell in company with a gentleman of learning and talent--a statesman--a man of influence as a popular orator, who evinced, in general, great respect for religion, but who considered that "the attempts of missionaries to better the condition of Indians had hitherto proved an utter failure, and that it was to fight against Providence to attempt, under existing circumstances, to better their condition." In the very able and important reports of Messrs. Foster and Whitney on the Geology and Topography of the Lake Superior region, after an interesting and highly-appreciatory sketch of the labors and sufferings of Jesuit missionaries, in the vicinity of the lakes, we have the following statement, which, if we understand it, is intended to apply to all missionary eflbrts bestowed upon the Indians. The idea is, that they have proved a failure. The statement, without qualification, is copied into Sheldon's Early History of Michigan, and is thus embalmed in the history of our country. It is as follows: "The effect of the contact of the two...