Converting the Heathen.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
Not long since Bishop Huntington published a letter in the New York Evening Post, on "The Onondaga Reservation," giving an account of the moral condition of that tribe. The picture he draws is certainly not a pleasant one to contemplate as existing in a professedly Christian country. Here are some of his statements:— "Agriculture as a science is unknown. A few framed and painted houses are built by Christians, but the pagans are for the most part content with huts and cabins. Fences are rude. Roads are scarcely passable. Rubbish litters the dooryards. Swine roam at large. Meals are irregular. The women cling to heathen styles in dress and manners. They are made to work in the field. The worship is a howling superstition. Wedlock is neither respected nor practised. The men exchange their female companions, or 'wives,' from time to time as they do their cattle. Home is a word without a meaning. The dreary monotony of an ill-supplied animal existence is broken only by coarse amusements. The annual feasts disgrace the settlement—the 'Green Corn Dance' and the 'White Dog Sacrifice.' Decent whites who have gone from curiosity to see these grotesque ceremonials, have hurried away with their children, before the spectacle was over, disgusted and appalled. They saw the license of the ancient mysteries without their refinement or athletic discipline. Such things take place yearly in the heart of the State of New York; and hitherto they have been scarcely alluded to in the sermons and appeals, the journals and assemblies, where Christians are besought to take pity on a foreign heathendom, and money is given to send missionaries of Christ to all the corners of the earth. Immature and vicious visitors of both sexes are attracted to their unclean orgies, ending in drunkenness and pollution." What makes the matter the more discouraging, is the Bishop's statement that for twelve years the Protestant Episcopal Church has had a mission established at the Reservation. The Methodists have also had a missionary there. For twelve years these missionaries have been laboring for this tribe of Indians, only three hundred and fifty in number, and no results appear. What is the trouble? Missionaries are successful in India, China, and Africa, among the most benighted tribes; why are they powerless with a little band surrounded with the blessings of civilization? The thought occurs to us that possibly those who are so opposed to the restriction of Chinese immigration, on the ground that if they are allowed to come they can be reached more effectually with the gospel, are not laboring for the best interests of the Chinese. A large majority of the inhabitants of this country make no profession of religion whatever, and of those who do, a large per cent. bring no credit to their profession. But the heathen do not discriminate, and look upon all the white race as Christians, and regard all the actions of white men as the legitimate outgrowth of Christianity. There is no reason why they should not do so, for it is one of the fictions with which nearly all are pleased to console themselves, that this is a Christian nation. When the heathen receive the gospel in their own land, they see its teachings exemplified by those who teach it. It makes no difference that they are surrounded by millions of degraded persons, for these profess nothing better; but when they hear it in a so-called Christian country, and see the vast amount of iniquity on every side, they naturally lose all confidence in Christianity, and are confirmed in their heathenism, while the more enlightened become infidels. At this rate, when will the world be converted? E. J. w.