MISSIONARY LABOUR AT THE OUTPOSTS. 



211 



from the Hudson's Bay Company. Perfect freedom of 

 action in inducing Indians to settle ; in the education of 

 Indian orphan children, and in teaching them and adults the 

 blessings of a settled, Christian home, as opposed to a hea- 

 then hunter's life, are essentially necessary before much 

 satisfactory progress can be made. Can the ministrations 

 of the Church in the English tongue to orderly resident 

 congregations of European, Canadian, or half-breed origin, 

 be missionary labour in the sense in which that highest of 

 all duties is understood by those who contribute to the 

 spread of the truths of Christianity among a wandering, 

 degraded, and barbarous heathen race ? 



Missionary work at the outposts is altogether different 

 to missionary work in the settlements. In no respect do 

 the material means, necessary to make life comfortable, 

 fall short of rational requirements at Eed Eiver, if proper 

 forethought be exercised ; but at the distant stations, iso- 

 lated and often alone, the missionary's work becomes 

 a labour which must spring from the heart in order to 

 secure even an outward show even of promise or success. 

 Many country parishes in England are far less attractive, 

 remunerative, or desirable than the missions at Eed Eiver 

 Settlement. 



Those who have not experienced the privations result- 

 ing to missionaries in remote outposts from the non-arri- 

 val of their supplies by the customary route and at the 

 expected season, can form but a feeble conception of the 

 troubles and anxieties which chequer the life of a zealous 

 missionary in the wilds of Eupert's Land. It is not mere 

 personal inconvenience which causes him care and em- 

 barrassment ; it is the impossibility of taking advantage 

 of many opportunities for inducing wandering Indians to 

 settle around the mission, of clothing and feeding the chil- 



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