Part 26 (1/2)
”Do the Indians listen to what he says?” inquired Bernard
”They listen; Indian always listen,” said Esther, ”and the wind blow the words through the ears”
”I suppose so,” said the young”Holdenin the wilderness, and a wilderness it is likely to reuage that jarred the feelings of Faith, and she said:
”I will never give up the hope that these poor people may be Christianized Do you not think, Esther, that there has been an improvement in the habits of the tribe within a few years?”
Esther hung down her head, and only answered, ”Indian will be Indian”
”I will not despair,” said Faith ”Be sure, Esther, you co for you, and a e for Father Holden
”I can conceive of no character,” said Faith, after they had parted from Esther, ”more noble than that of the Christian s, the only real knight that ever lived
You s at Bernard ”Do you not think so?”
”I think with you,” he replied ”There can be no nobler man than he who subh love to his fellow man It is God-like But I smiled at the association of ideas, and not at the sentiht”
”To ht When I look at him, I see not the coarse unusual dress, but the heroic soul, that would have battled valiantly by the side of Godfrey for the holy sepulchre”
”I am afraid he will meet with only disappointment in his efforts to reform the Indians”
”We cannot know the result of any labor We will do our duty, and leave the rest to God”
”They have not the degree of cultivation necessary to the reception of a religion so refined and spiritual as the Christian They must first be educated up to it”
”But you would not,for which they are educated Religious instruction s refinement with it”
”Certainly, if it can be received; but therein consists the difficulty I ae to apprehend the exalted truths of Christianity, as one unaquainted with geometry, the forty-ninth proposition of the first book of Euclid”
”The comparison is not just Science de, perhaps h cultivation, the heart feels instinctively, and that of a peasantthan a philosopher's and for that reason be race of God?”
”You have thought deeper on this subject than I, Faith But how hard h the blackness of that degradation which civilization has entailed on them!
The conversion of the North Arireater our duty,” exclais we have inflicted But, Williaood Esther”
”Esther deserves your praise, I aood She could not be with you, without being benefited”
”You are very kind, but no merit attaches to me They were the precepts of Christianity that softened her heart, though she was always gentle”
”It was the sweetness of religion she heard in your voice, its kindness she read in your eyes, and its loveliness illustrated in your life, that attracted and improved Esther”
”Were I to adion”
The sun had nearly reached hiscouple approached the house of Mr Are had been produced in a few hours! The warlorified the landscape had robbed it of its sparkling beauty The trees no longer wore their silver arht, had lost the graceful curves and resuer bedecked the evergreens; and all around, large drops were falling, as if lanificence