THE

WESTERN

MONTHLY REVIEW.

JUNE, 1830.

The following extract from "The Shoshonee Valley, now in the press, is given with the double purpose of presenting a sample of the work; and it is believed, a fair specimen of many of the discourses, which have been delivered among the Indians, and their modes of replying to such doctrines.

This evening was the reign of Elder Wood. He had gradually prevailed, to be able to introduce regular religious exercises, when the tribes were stationary in their towns, twice in a week; on the Sabbath, and on Wednesday evening. As the Indians have much leisure, and spend but a small portion of their time in labor, they naturally covet holidays. Any thing, that creates a distraction for the wearying monotony of their thoughts, is a relief to them. Gatherings to attend Elder Wood's worship were additional holidays engrafted upon their ancient stock. His services were not without their effect. Most of them spent no profound or painful thoughts upon the subject; though all thrilled at the grave and serious presence, the deep words and solemn tones of the minister. To some, who reasoned with him, and were capable of that exercise, the exposition of some of his dogmas was positively revolting. But he visited the sick, and prayed with all, who would allow him. He relieved the wants of those, who failed in their hunt or supplies, or were in any way poor and destitute. He cultivated peace and good will among them; reconciled, as far as they would allow him, their quarrels, gave always good counsels; and on the whole, exercised in the tribe a high, salutary moral.influence. There was of course a general and unequivocal feeling of respect towards him. Partly from that feeling, partly from curiosity, and partly from their natural love of a festival, or any kind of distraction, they generally attended his meetings with a great degree of punctuality. Two or three Indian women had professed themselves serious, and Vol. III.-No. 12.

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were now catechumens, under his especial care, as preparatory for administering to them the ordinance of baptism.

To attend upon the service of the evening, to talk over the preceding evening's circumstances, and to see and communicate with the strangers, once more brought a numerous concourse together. The preacher was clad in a full black suit of canonicals, put in order by Jessy and her mother. The added number of distinguished strangers, and the nearness of the time to the great Indian religious festival of the preceding day, concurred to make this a season of peculiar display. Long and deeply had he meditated his subject; and while he would have severely tasked Jessy and the young men, for devoting midnight vigils to considering, in what dress they should appear next day, he overlooked his own night-watchings, where the All Seeing Eye, probably, discovered, that the chief element in his meditations, was to produce an imposing display of oratory this evening. It must be allowed, that the scene was one of most impressive and touching interest. In a deep grove, God's first temple, under the huge 'medicine' sycamore, beside the Sewasserna, the same calm rolling river, that was the night before broken by the movements of a thousand warriors, and flowing in crimson with the light of as many torches, was the place of worship. Beneath its long, lateral, white arms, held out as if in shelter, were collected thousands of these simple people, of every age. Their uncovered heads, their ever grave copper faces, their stillness, and the intense interest in their countenances, the earnestness of their efforts to hush the cries of their children, all united to give deep interest to the occasion. Half formed leaves rustled over their heads; and through the branches, the blue and the stars were seen twinkling in the high dome of the firmament. The sighing of the evening breeze, as it came down the mountains, over the hemlocks and pines on their sides, sounded in the ear like the deep whisperings of communication of heaven with earth. The ancient mountains, with their hundred peaks, stood forth in the light of the moon, to testify the eternity of that Power, who had reared these enduring and sublime piles, and to bear concurrent witness with Elder Wood.

Under such circumstances, the minister appeared before them, venerable in form and person, serious and thoughtful in his manner, and with enough of the peculiar temperament of his country, to be not only perfectly composed, but even to feel the full influence of an excitement, which imparts to a person, so constituted, the power of achieving something more, on the spur of the occasion, than he could have accomplished in the silence of his closet. It has been remarked, that the Indians are singular for the decorous attention with which they listen to whatever purports to be worship. The arrangement was in semi-circles, commencing a few feet from the preacher, who sat central to the smallest. On the first were the

white people, the visitants, and Jessy in the brightness of her beauty, but with the thoughtful look, which she always bore at divine service, as if waiting to hear. Next were the chiefs and their families; and beyond them, circle after circle, until the outer circumference of the multitude was lost in the darkness.

The most conspicuous influence, which Elder Wood could be said to have wrought upon this people, was in having inspired in them a taste for psalm singing. The Indians, it is well known, as a race, are keenly alive to the influence of music. Though it may be presumed, that Elder Wood had thoughts above the sleeping majesty of the eternal mountains, that constituted the glorious outer walls of his temple; yet, no doubt, he felt some leaven of earthly mould, in a disposition to display to the best effect, the proficiency of his red pupils in psalmody, in proof of his own industry, and that a part, at least, of his apostolic labors, had prospered. It must be admitted, that the heart of this good man kindled with rapture, as well as pride, while he heard his catechumens sing.

He arose, after the fashion of his country, without note or book, save the bible and a collection of hymns. "The Eternal,' he said, 'dwelleth not in temples made with hands. In ancient days, the pure in heart worshipped Him in the covert of groves, as we do. Yonder are his goings above the mountains. We have met in his unwalled temple, to show forth his praise. He hath sent me to proclaim redemption for sinners, even for the red dwellers in the wilderness, 'who were once afar off, but now are nigh.' There is hope in the eternal mercy of God, of the pardon of sin, beyond the grave. We are all journeying to the common place of meeting in the dust. Beyond is eternal retribution. Let us then, with true hearts, worthily celebrate the praises of the Eternal. Let us invoke his mercy, pray for deliverance from sin, and for a neverending life of glory and felicity beyond the stars, and beyond the grave.' Such was his exordium, delivered slowly, and with deep intonation, uttered first in English, and then with deliberate and distinct enunciation rendered into Shoshonee. In the same impressive manner, he recited first in English, and then in Indian, the following lines of a hymn:

Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings;

Thy better portion trace;

Rise from transitory things,

Towards heaven, thy native place.

Sun and moon and stars decay;

Time shall soon this earth remove;

Rise, my soul, and haste away
To seats prepared above.

Rivers to the ocean run,

Nor stop in all their course;

Fire ascending, seeks the sun;

Both speed them to their source, &c.

These simple children of nature caught the strain of this beautiful hymn, as he raised the first notes himself. The very trees seemed to have become vocal. There was an awful key in the wild sound, as it rose loud, full and clear in the peculiar accent and tones of these native dwellers of the forest. No other people could have produced such music, and in no other place would it have been so appropriate. The singing had in itself a wild grandeur; but the circumstances would have rendered any singing, from such people, grand. The music of the hymn was in itself of the richest; and they sung it with an enthusiasm, that gave it the fullest effect. As the song was repeated, in bursts and cadences, sent back by echo from the mountains, it almost raised the impression, that these venerable witnesses for God had joined in the strain. The frame, that would not have thrilled, the heart, that would not have softened, the soul, that would not have felt the upward movement of religious enthusiasm, as these simple sons of the forest followed Elder Wood through the strains of this anthem, must have been obtuse and insensible. Frederic felt the moisture rush to his eye, and the chill of holy feeling run over his frame. Even the dissipated heart of Julius Landino acknowledged the painful compunctious visitings of a moment.

Elder Wood rose to pray, and the vast audience reverently stood up, listening with grave attention. Prayer finished, he commenced his sermon, translating, as before, sentence by sentence. The intonation in Shoshonee showed the hearers the point, on which it had been laid in English, serving as a kind of interpretation, and giving a singular impressiveness to the sentences. The discourse was sensible, fervid and eloquent; for these were attributes, that belonged to his genius and character. He manifestly strove to be simple, and to use Indian figure and illustration. In this effort he was only partially successful; for full success of this sort can be the result only of the training of a life. In the doctrinal part of his sermon, he evidently failed; for, instead of dwelling on the simple and universal, but all important points, in which thinking beings must agree, he very inappropriately selected a doctrinal subject, not only wholly unfit for the Shoshonee, but one deemed equally unscriptural and unreasonable by the greater portion of professed Christians. The tenor of his reasoning upon his subject was abstruse, abstract, and out of the range of thought of his simple audience, to whom there was but one way of becoming usefully intelligible; and that was to address them in simple ideas, clothed in language and figures drawn from their daily train of thought, and modes of conversing with visible nature. Unfortunately, the preacher had deemed it a matter of duty, to ground these simple Indians in the first points, of what he considered the only true orthodoxy. These points had hitherto constituted the chief burden of his

theme. They were the absolute and total depravity of human nature, its entire impotence and helplessness previous to grace, unconditional election, and the certain and inevitable destruction of all those, who did not receive all these doctrines and act upon them, as well those who had never had an opportunity to hear the gospel, as those who had heard and rejected it. There was power, and strong though undisciplined eloquence, in his way of stating these dogmas. But those of his white hearers, who attended to his discourse, and cared enough about the subject of his discussion, to deliberate and weigh it, clearly dissented from both his positions and conclusions, as equally revolting to Scripture and common sense. Still there was a serious earnestness and simplicity of truth in his manner, that caused the hearer, while he disliked the general doctrine of the discourse, to feel respect for the preacher. Occasionally, the deep guttural ugh! the note of doubt and dissent, arose from some of the council chiefs, as some of the stronger and more intelligible points of the discourse were rendered into their own speech.

A short extract is given, as a sample of the whole discourse. "This book came from God; and He hath given me a spiritual understanding to comprehend its true meaning. Whosoever believeth not all these doctrines, contained in it, will suffer eternally in hell, that eternal and bottomless lake of brimstone and fire, of which I have so often spoken to you. It declares, that the white men in their cities of splendor, the simple and moral people of the country, the inhabitants of the east and the west, the people of all languages and climes, children as beautiful and seemingly as spotless as meadow lilies or the mountain snow, are born wholly corrupt, entirely depraved and sinful, black with native pollution, at war with the Great Spirit, and receiving life under his everlasting wrath and curse. The infant of a span long, who dies out of Christ, and the hoary sinner of four score, who has rejected him, will alike wail forever in the bottomless pit, kindled to tenfold fierceness and fury by the wrath of an incensed God.' This declaration was followed by an immediate and general ugh! The preacher paused a moment, a little disconcerted. But his native firmness came to his aid. 'I know,' he continued, 'my dear red brethren, I know, that this is a hateful truth to flesh and blood. I know, that it runs counter to all the wicked passions of depraved nature. I know well, that this preaching does not agree with carnal and corrupt human nature. This is the preaching, that in all time has roused up all the opposition of man against God's eternal truth. For preaching these truths, missionaries and martyrs have died among the heathens. For these truths the prophets were stoned; the apostles crucified, and the Son of God bled on the accursed tree.' This too, was followed by a gentle ugh!