"Unfinished Tasks" of the Southern Presbyterian Church (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1922 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. PAYING A DEBT Section I.--Indians The Indian of the old trail was a religious being. The very perils and hardships of the chase and warpath created in him a longing for some relationship with the unseen world of mystery round about him. But the old Indian has passed on, leaving behind chiefly such vestiges of the old regime as war paint and feathers, bow and arrow, blanket and moccasin. The Indian of today is just coming into citizenship. He meets the demands of this new transition period. He has entered upon the highway of knowledge and cannot turn back to the old trails. Less than one-third of the Indian population is related to the various Christian communions; approximately 46,000 are neglected by Christian agencies and unreached by Roman Catholic or Protestant missionaries. Nine thousand Indian youths heard their country's call in the late war and left their tribal clans to fight 'for liberty. Six thousand were volunteers. That the Christian churches of this land owe a debt to the Indian, the eternal debt of love forever unpaid, which proximity and the claims of neighborliness bring, no one will question. The long-deferred payment of this debt calls for immediate settlement before the night comes on and the people are left in their darkness.--American Survey. III. PA YING A DEBT I. The Indian Of all the peoples that go to make up our great country there is none that has a larger claim upon the Church's interest and effort than the North American Indian. As old as the European settlement on these shores, so old is our debt to this race. The original owners of the continent, they were here to welcome our forefathers who sought in this new world a refuge from the tyranny of the old, but who in turn, with a few noble exceptions, drove the owne...