MORAVIAN MISSIONS IN LABRADOR.
REV. CHAS. SCHMITT in the Christian Herald gives the following interesting account of the establishment and conduct of Moravian mission work in the ice-bound regions of Labrador. Mr. Schmitt is now laboring in that mission field. He says: Our Labrador mission was founded in 1771. The Eskimos at that time were savages and heathen, and the first missionary, Johannes Erhardt, was murdered on an island which he visited to preach the Gospel. This happened in the year 1752, and some years afterward others volunteered to take Mr. Erhardt's place, and thus the first mission station, Nain, was founded. Since then the mission has spread north and south, so that at present we have seven fully established mission stations here, with a staff of sixteen missionaries, and through their agency every Eskimo on the Labrador coast has been brought under Gospel influences. One may ask, What induced the Moravian brotherhood to start missions among the poorest of mankind, in these out-of-the-way Arctic regions? Count Zinzendorf was the instrument destined in God's hand to re-establish and mould the Moravian church. The poorest and most despised nations were thought of first, and these simple but zealous Moravians were willing to undergo any hardships in13order to reach the heathen and bring to them the Gospel of Christ, the Friend of all the needy. From Saxony, their home, they worked their way to the coast, in the hope that they might find a ship and a captain who would engage them as common sailors, so as to enable them to cross the ocean. By these means, quite a number of these undaunted Moravians reached the West Indies in 1731, Greenland in 1733, and also Labrador. They were willing even to become slaves for Christ's sake, in order that they might be a blessing to that poor and degraded class of people. God's blessing was on their work, and soon friends and means were forthcoming, which enabled them to make use of existing facilities. In after years they were enabled to buy and send out their own mission ships. Labrador needed, above all, a mission vessel, as no ship navigated this lonely, unknown, and, for the most part of the year, ice-bound coast. The mission ship, Harmony, has plied these waters now annually for many years. To some of our Eskimos, it is the only vessel they have ever seen. God has most graciously protected our ship from any serious harm for over fifty years. Our Eskimo of the present day is much more civilized than his forefathers were a hundred years ago. He still retains the same way of securing a livelihood, namely, by hunting and fishing. The polar bear, the walrus, various kinds of seals, reindeer, black bears, wolves, foxes, etc., are secured, and much skill and judgment is exercised by hunters in killing the larger game. It is an incessant and hard life-struggle with the ofttimes severe forces of the elements of wind, ice, snow, and waves. Many a brave hunter, far out at sea in his frail kaiak, harpoon in hand, while hunting the walrus or seal, has found an untimely and watery grave. The Gospel of Christ and Him crucified has brought to many of these simple homes comfort and happiness, in times of severe trial and bereavement. All the Eskimos in our care can read and write. The whole Bible, printed and published almost free of charge by the noble British and Foreign Bible Society, is greatly valued and continually in use among them. As our Eskimos have no literature of their own, we have a small press here, which has done good work. Our Labrador newspaper, probably the smallest of its kind, is published monthly, from January till June.