Part 3 (2/2)
”Now, brethren,” said the chairhty were the opinions delivered One brother thought that Mr Grey had plenty of work to do at hooose chase after the heathen folk of the wilderness His church needed hilect of duty
Another thought that the Indians were descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, and as such should be left in the hands of God To atteelize theht the same; but then, how about that vision of Mr
Grey? He couldn't get around that vision
”I don't know, brethren, I don't know!” he concluded, shaking his head
Still another declared positively for Mr Grey The good people of the colonies owed it to the savages to do so that so little had been done They had taken their land from them, they had pushed them back into the wilds at the point of the sword; now let them try to save their souls This man had been plainly called of God to be an apostle to the Indians; the least that they could do was to bid hith the venerable chairlass upon the table before hiular mixture of shrewdness, benevolence, and superstition
He said that, as Christians, they certainly owed a duty to the Indians,--a duty that had not been perforation, and would go at his own expense It would not cost the church a shi+lling His vision was certainly a revelation of the will of the Lord, and _he_ dared not stand in the way
A vote was taken, and the majority were found to be in favor of ordination The chairman pronounced himself pleased, and Mr Grey was recalled and informed of the result
”I thank you,” he said sirateful smile
”Now, brethren,” said the worthy chairh at hand, and the good people of this place have prepared entertainment for us; so ill e'en put off the ceremony of ordination till the afternoon Let us look to the Lord for his blessing, and be dismissed”
And so with a oing to the places where they were to be entertained Happy was the man who returned to his home accompanied by a minister, while those not so fortunate were fain to be content with a lay delegate
Indeed, the hospitality of the settlement was so bounteous that the supply exceeded the deo around; and ood househo had baked, boiled, and roasted all the day before was ood
Early in the afternoon entertainers and entertained gathered again at the -house Al alike The house was packed, for never before had that part of New England seen a ospel to the Indians It occurred, too, in that dreary interval between the persecution of the Quakers and the persecution of the witches, and was therefore doubly welco , perchance like the ot and the stake?
To those who had long known hiher plane, surrounded by an ath iven him of God, to which was now to be added the sanction of holy men
So they made way for him, as the Florentines had made way for ”il Frate” and as the people of God had made way for Francis Xavier when he left them to stir the heart of the East with his eloquence, and, alas! to die on the bleak sea-coast of China, clasping the crucifix to his breast and praying for those who had cast hih pale, was calrandeur of the occasion It would be difficult to put into words the reverent and tender exaltation of feeling that animated him that day Perhaps only those upon whose own heads the hands of ordination have been laid can enter into or understand it
The charge was earnest, but it was not needed, for Cecil's ardent enthusiased upon hi as it were on the threshold of an unknown future, he wondered if he should ever hear a serain,--he, so soon to be sed by darkness, swept, self-yielded, into the abyss of savagery
Heartfelt and touching was the prayer of ordination,--that God ht accept and bless Cecil's consecration, that the divine presence ht be touched and softened, that savage lives h his instruht be sown in the wilderness which would spring up and cause the waste places to be glad and the desert to blossom as the rose
”And so,” said the oldas they rested on Cecil's bowed head, ”so we give him into Thine own hand and send him forth into the wilderness Thou only knohat is before him, whether it be a harvest of souls, or torture and death But we know that, for the Christian, persecutions and trials are but stepping-stones leading to God; yea, and that death itself is victory And if he is faithful, we know that whatever his lot lorious; that whatever the endinto the presence of the Most High”
Strong and triu the oldCecil into the hands of God To him, as he listened, it seeland was severed, and he stood consecrated and anointed for his mission When he raised his face, ht of those words of the Book where it speaks of Stephen,--”And they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel”
A psaliven, and the sole, however, before the people left the house They lingered around Cecil, bidding hio forth at dawn the next day upon his mission They pressed his hand, some ords of sympathy, some silently and et eyes Many affectionate words were said, for they had never known before how er a pastor, but a ht hiers from a distance--lifted their children up, so that they could see him above the press, while they whispered to theood Mr
Grey, as going far off into the west to tell the Indians about God
Long afterward, when nearly all that generation had passed away and the storather over the colonies, there were a few agedwho sometimes told hohen they were children, they had seen Cecil Grey bidding the people farewell at the old h all the lapse of years they rehtness was on his face, and hoeet and kind were his words to each as he bade theood-by forever