METLAKAHTLA by Mrs. Willard

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 19, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 29.

METLAKAHTLA.

By Mrs. Willard

WHAT is it?—Metlakahtla is an Indian village of about eight hundred population, on a beautiful island in Alaska, about one hundred miles north of Fort Simpson. Within less than fifty years these Indians have been transformed from savage cannibals to refined, devoted, intelligent Christians, having a distinct Christian community, with nice, large, well-built homes, schools, manufacturing and fish-canning plants, street lamps, brass band, pianos, and a large, fine church, seating between seven hundred and one thousand. How was this change brought about?—It was the work of the Gospel, preached and lived by an English missionary, since 1857. He is an old man now, over seventy, but is still the active pastor

of the church, preaching twice on Sunday, conducting the children's Sunday-school and the midweek prayer-meeting, the spiritual and temporal adviser and counselor of his people, by whom he is revered and beloved with almost worshipful intensity. This community is attracting the attention of the civilized world. Much has been written about it lately. The name of the missionary is William Duncan. Do missions pay?—Mrs. Willard, in Christian News.