MISSIONARY QUALIFICATIONS. 



199 



imposed by the position in which the missionary is placed. 

 These imperatively demand rare qualities, which in com- 

 mon life it is difficult to find united in one man ; patient 

 endurance, much long-suffering, deep heartfelt sympathy 

 for the objects of his care, a warm interest in his work, and 

 unflinching readiness to encounter difficulties, whether they 

 be those of language and superstition, or mere physical 

 hardship and privation. 



The school-house appears to be beyond all compari- 

 son, the main hope of missionary success. In order to 

 christianize the rising generation, they must be induced 

 to relinquish their wandering habits of life, and settle 

 down in permanent villages. Nomadic Christian Indians 

 are subjected to extraordinary trials, which do not readily 

 occur to one not familiar with their character and man- 

 ner of living. Indians are extremely susceptible of ri- 

 dicule, and possess a great degree of family pride ; they 

 are consequently often unable to resist the jeers and 

 scoffs of the conjurors, or rise superior to the taunts of 

 those who upbraid them for forsaking the gods of their 

 fathers. 



It is very desirable that a missionary station should 

 not be situated near a fur-trading post ; a settled life is 

 diametrically opposed to the fur trade, whose stability 

 rests upon the hunters and trappers in its employ. It has 

 happened in Eupert's Land, that when a missionary has 

 succeeded, after years of anxiety and toil, in establishing 

 a station, and gathered round him a little band of Indians 

 who have embraced Christianity, a fur-trading post has 

 been established close by, tending to unsettle and de- 

 moralize those who would otherwise have remained 

 quiet and stationary Christians. 



In such districts as Mackenzie's Eiver, the missionary 

 is absolutely dependent upon the Hudson's Bay Company, 



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