IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 25 2.2 2.0 1.8 f 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" — ■► v: ^ A el /y em \ '•'x 'ideriiig its age. You now find a community with hopes, and ambitions, and breathing aspi- rations, like yourselves. Many of you liave heard rumors about the unfortunate divisions at Metlakahtla, some of them exaggerated and some with- out any foundatiiui — ruinssible, without vestments or outward adornments, which in ether communitibs have so much attraction ujr frivolous church-goers. On the following Monday evening we were invited to attend a meeting in the church, at which about 5U0 persons were present. One of the native elders opened the meeting with prayer. Then many of the most prominent men made speeches in an easy, eloquent manner, offering us a hearty welcome, and all expressing sor- row at the divisions in their once united and happy village, where a short time ago they all worshipped under one roof. I am afraid they attributed a power to us which we did not possess — that of re- storing peace and harmony, and helping them to remove the cause of their trou- bles. The control those people exercised over their language in speaking to a qaea- tion on which they feel so deeply and keenly was truly wt.nderful. No harsh word.s, no threats of violence, no inviting to a l)reacli of the peace — atfTding a very marked contrast between their behavior and that of white people under similar circumstances. We replied to their speeches, com- mending them f ir their moderation and excellent conduct, for their devotion to their friend and teaciier; counseled them to go on as they had done in their faith and religion, and as law-abiding citizens, and on no account to take the law into their own hand.s, but to place their com- plaints and grievances by jietition before the governor general. This they agreed to do, and we left them preparing memo- rials and petitions. Indians from different parts of the country on hearing of our arrival left their hunting and fishing and came dis- tances of from 50 to GO miles to see us to give us a welcome and to express sympa- thy with Mr. Duncan. Frequent nie.ssa- ges of sympathy came to him from the surrounding heathen tribes, all con- demning Bishop Ridley for attempting "to reap where he had not sown." They say Mr. Duncan gave his life to us, toil- ing and laboring to break our heathen customs and bring us to the light. He pLjughed the land, so ed the good seed which is growing and ripening, and now (3) H atnuifjer who luis not toiled or done Hiiytliiiig wishes to smp in and ttiku till the fruit. "Let liiiii take ex;iiii|ile by whiit Mr. DiiiR-aii hii.s done mid cultivate new fields f«ir himself." One of the most ' niMrvelous things is the influence the \ work at Metlakiihthi has had tm all the surrounding nations. The Word spoken there ha.« leavened the wimle coast, made ' Hydahs and other warlike tribes forsake many of their heatlien and evil habits, and now they can visit each other in con- 1 tidence and i)eace, instead of meeting as I they used to do as deadly foea. Another great work done by Mr. Duncan has been the suppression of the whiskey trattic along the coast. Although 8'>ine of the heathen Indians manage to smuggle bot- tles now and then in bags of flour and in other ways, yet the trade, so far as white men are concerned, is crushed out. A short time ago the managers of the can- neries on the Skeena were greatly op- posed to Mr. Duncan and very bitter against him simply becau.se he insisted on the Indians being treated properly and justly and because they would not work on Sunday. Now those very men are among hi.s warmest friends, because they see that he and the Indians acted on good and conscientious principles. I wish you all to understand clearly and unmistakably that all the work done at Metlakrhtla has been done by Mr. Duncan, a layman, my impre.ssi(m being that the help given by his asasstanta was not of much account; and I wish it to be understood clearly that Mr. Duncan h?.s gone on for over twenty years without change or vacation, teaching and preach ing the same truth and the same gospel. He gave satisfactiiui to the society, to the Indians and to his friends, and they are many, who were and are justly proud of him and his work. The Church Mis- 8i(mary Society were proud of his success and held his work and mission up as an example to other missions, and all went well and smcjothly until Bishop Bompas visited Metlakahtla a few years af,o, when the question for the admission of some of the people to the Lord's Supper was brought forward. This wa.s no new question; it had been discussed by Mr. Duncan and the elders, who saw many difficulties in the way, owing to the In- dians not HiifHcicntly understanding the meaning of that sicrament. if those who were most tit to go to the Lord's Table to partake of what the Indians would call a feast went up before the whole coiigrega- tiiiii they thought it would lead to jealousy and ill feeling, and if the non- par! icipants left the church whilst others remained for the sacrament they would fancy that some wonderful, mysterious ceremony was going on. They therefore came to the concli;sion that it would be wise to r the last twenty yoars. " Mr. Diiiicfvii, Hcninj,' tlmt tlii-y wero all i>f oiio iiiiixl, CDiisi-iituil to cdii- tinue with them. Such was his oniirni- tidii, and ill my t)i)ini()n a very cimplute one. Directly aftir Mr. Diinciin's iliMmi.s- Bil the hi.sluip went to Eniilniid, and evi- dently he and the Society eanie to the com idsion that they had acted fooha-^tily, for on hi.s n^tiirn we tiiid him writiny a letter to Mr. Duncan a-skiiii; him to couie l)ack; and that same letter contains one of the mo.tt insulting proposals which could be made to a man like Mr. Duncan, viz., that he c()uld retain the monopoly of the trade. Such a l)ait, aiui to a man like Mr. Duncan, who has j^iveii his i whole life to the spiritual instruction of the Indians, and who cares iiotbin^ for the trade excepting so far as it haruionizes with the spiritual work, and contiuues to be a marked benefit to his people! If Mr. Duncan was wrong in his teach- ing, or in any of his acts, how is it that the bishop seeks to enter iuto a couipact with him to return — a hi^h and mit.'lity bishop oti'ering a bait of that kind to a man whose spiritual work he evidently despises^ What is the meaning of it alW lis clearly this, that the bisliop and the , Society lind that they are in the wrong; that they have acted on unfounded accu- sations JiastUy and without judgment, and that tiiey would like to have Mr. Duncan's services attain. How coidd he, whose work is so great and so Manifest, and who has labored so unceasingly for the last '25 years, allow any one to take the .s])iritual work of Met- hikahtla, and he retain only the temporal It would be an acknowledgment that he was in the wrong, and had been wrong all those years, and that now he had to sur- render to a stranger, who so fiir had done nothing, and whose only claim to sjiiritu- ality seemed to be that he wore ditleront clothing to that worn by Duncan. ^o!noI He could not hand over his people or his work for any such childish reasons. I ask again, if Mr. Duncan has done no good work, why does the bishop ask him to return! This same letter which the bishop wrote to Mr. Duncan he parades and holds up as an evidence of his wish for peace and harmony, and whilst bidding that olive branch in one hand he unilermiiu's Mr Duncan witli the oilu'r — seducing his schoid teachers, his (»rganist and others by ottering pi-i'iiniary advantages, and trying to teni|il the people with cheap goods; but tluy are not to be boiinhi and sold like children. Where is the Chris- tian consistency of such acts/ I am cre- dibly informed that the bishop despi.ses the spiritual work at Metlakahtla If so, why does he wish the peopln to come to the Lord's tal)le? Where is the consis- tency/ I hope yoii all understand that there is no change in .\lr. Duncan's mainu-r of teaching, he is goiny on as he has done for the last 25 years, and that whatever may ha[)in;n at Metlakahtla he is not to blame. .All weiii smoothly and well until ecclesiasticism stepped in. 'I'hoso unfor- tunate divisioii.s are doing great injur}' tu the spiritual and temporal work and de- stroy all discijiline, which Mr. Dunciin found so benehcial formerly in dealing with the young men and young women. Now, if they are chastised or corrected they will tind a refuge with the opjtosi- tion l)arty, and the uncertainty hanging over allairs retards the improvement of ; the village. To sum up, the prescmt condition of affairs stands thus: That the Society : have dismissed Mr. Duncan on groundle.ss ' accusations, and they would like very much to have him back again; but he pre- fers to be free and untrammeled by aiij society. That a church has been estab- lished called the ''Christian Church of Metlakahtla." That the whole village, excepting about 40 adults and some chil- dren, are with Mr. Duncan, and that nearly all those who have left him are j)ersons or friends of persons he had to punish for offences iit some time or . other. That he has services in tlie church I three times on Sunday; Sunday sclu.ol; service on Wednesday evenings ; day ! school each day. jj Attending to the sick of the village is ; ; the most arduous work of all, giving him j '• no rest from o'clock in the morning till j 12 at night^ — not even time for his meals; j yet he never speaks a harsh word or sends I; an Indian away, but listens patiently to I I all they have to say. There can be no (6) diiubt that 0>)d created and raised him up Mpecially for tlie work he in now duinjj 81) well. The caniiory estaMishud to furniHh em- ployiiie?it for the people of the villa;,'e he has to superintend, owing to the sicknesH and inefheiency of his manager. The cannery is a sight worth seeing. Men, women and children, clad in the cleanest cotton clothini; and apri^ns, going about their work in a quiet, business-like way; no harsh language, no swearing, no con- fusion or noise; all showing admirable training and management, and a great contrast to many other places where a ditfereni class of laborers is employed. My hope is, that with all these burdens on his mind and shoulders he may con- tinue in good health, and I have to ask you to give him your prayers and sym- pathy. Bishop Cridge referred to his first visit to Metlakahtla fifteen years ago. A great work had been done. Four years pre- viously about fifty of the converts had been removed from Fort Simpson to sep- arate them from old associations. The stoiii — an absolute necessity — had already yielded over §3,000 profit, the whole of which, together with grants of materials from Governor Douglas, had been spent in ret. i!ding the village and other im- provements. Two things especially struck the speaker: Mr. Duncan's care in spirit- ual matters, especially in admitting con- veits to baptism; and his entire self-sac- rifice. The mission house was open from early rising to late taking rest; none were denied access; none cut short in their business, however trivial it might be. On revisiting Metlakahtla last month, after the lap8« of fifteen years, Mr. Duncan was found doing the same work on the same combined plan of industry and re- ligion, with the same self-sacrifice and toil, and with no change but that of progress along all the lines of his work. On Saturday, the day of the visitors' ar- rival, the olders met to arrange the ser- vices for the following day, and requested Bishop Cridge to preach in the morning. Native preachers in curn occupied the pulpit once on each of the four Sundays the visitors were there, and their earnest scriptural exhortations were listened to with every sign of devout attention by their native brethren. Mr. Dutican preaches twice each Sunday, and on VVedne-vday evenings. Bible cIiiHsei" and Sunday schools are conducted in part by Mr. Duncan and in part by native m>-n find Women. The church, built entirely by native hands, will hold eleven hun- dreiHM iiiir fiii'iiriitlici'.s; (iiir iinrosturs Niilil indiviiUiiil hIjiviis, Itiit. tli(!^*< "hio not atraitl to Ixiy ii wIioIh villii;{t!. " Ht; vvuiild yive iiii cxtniol ffui 'lis imti^h i»f tilt' |K).iii)t'iil fH'i'ctH of Mr. Unm-an'rt work 1111(1 of its a|>|>iciMatioii liy thu iia- tivurt all aroiiiid. At a toa liivoii l)y Sen- ator Macdoiiald about four liiiinlrLMl nat down, iiK-liiilin^' a ]iarty of llydahs who had c'onnt to tradtr, and vvlio wuru also in- vited. I he hand |ilayod durini; the re- past. After tt'a, accordiiis^ to cn.^toni, Heveral Hpeakers, both T.^Mn-sheanH and Hydahs, adrouL;ht s that has done thin." Ahout thirty !ars aj,'o a party of Hydah-t lay in ain- bn.sh on the site of the prt-Ment vdlaye of Metlakalitla and rushed on a party of T.simsheaiis pas.sinjj; iiy. After a Idoody hizht the HvddiH carried oi}' a Isimshean hoy and ^'iil. .Sonn- ytNirs afterwards the Tsimsheans h(.n<{ht back tlie lioy. He is now a Christian, and was the interpn'ter for the Hydaiis at this fea-st. 'I'he ^irl became the slave wife of the Hydah chief . and bore a .son, who, accordinji; to custom, was also u slave. At the retjueat of the Tsimsheans Air. Duncan sent to the Hy- dahs to deliver up the boy. After some negotiation he was sent back. He is now a Christian, and une of the fishermen. Instead of receiving a ran.som for the boy the Uydahs themaelvea had tu make com- pensation for the original outrage. "We know Mr. Dinioan," said one ot the Hy- dahs at this meeting, "and will do what he says. He haa punished us, but it haw been for our yood. Who are thi-y that , want to send .Mr. Duncan away / NVe ilo I iu>t undiu'stantl it." : It was was moved by ,Mr. ii. W. Pearse I and seciuided by the Uttv. .! Ii. Chan- trell. That in view of the successful workini; of Mr. Dunciin's plan of ciuniiining in- dustry with religion in his labors at Met- lakatl.t, this cong">gation strongly depre- cates the coni.i : enuMit if a rival trade- st! gospel anittng the surround- ; ing tribes. Carried. ."senator Macdoiiald moved a vote of j thanks to the chairman, Jas. Douglas, \ Es(|., which being seconded was carried unanimously. Similar votes of thanks were moved to Bishop Cridge and Senator Macdtuiald for their exce'lent addresses. The meeting was then closed with a benediction.