*/
A DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE SYNOD OF MINNESOTA,
SEPTEMBER, 1860,
BY
\
REW BROHRGE H. PONI).
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SYNOD.
REPRINTED
|ammim a ſtmon Murship.
FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW, JANUARY 1861.
PHILADELPHIA:
WM. S. YOUNG, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 52 NORTH SixTH STREET.
1861.
º
2
º


Jaganism ºtman Murship:
A DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE SYNOD OF MINNESOTA,
SEPTEMBER, 1860,
4…-
REW. Gºłł6H. H. POND.
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE SYNOD.
REPRINTED
FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW, JANUARY 1861.
PHILADELPHIA:
WM. S. YOUNG, B00K AND JOB PRINTER, 52 NORTH SIXTH STREET.
1861,
- -
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PAGANISM A DEMON WORSHIP.
WHEN the apostle affirms with emphasis, “But I say that
the things that the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils
and not to God,” he fully sustains the position which we
mean to take in this Article. It is, that all Pagan nations,
so far as they are religious at all, are devoted to the service
of the great adversary of God and man. Holy Scripture
further teaches us that it is the will of Jesus that his friends
shall go to them all, and tell them what he has done and .
endured to save them from the degrading service of the devil;
and that the story of the cross—the doctrines of Jesus—
if received, will certainly effect the complete and eternal
salvation of every one who receives them. This is what every
true friend of the Redeemer must believe. To carry out the
purposes of Jesus, in this respect, and by this means to do
this work, is that to which each of them has, directly or indi-
rectly, solemnly consecrated himself. Yet, that there is a
great amount of practical unbelief in Christian churches, in
our own country and all over the Christian world, on this mo-
mentous subject, is abundantly evinced, by the general apathy
of both ministers and people, by the feeble efforts of the
churches, the smallness of the number of those who are found
willing to engage directly in this work, and by the insufficiency
2

4.
of the sums which are contributed to meet the pecuniary de-
mands of such an enterprise as the evangelization of the world.
It is true that there is, at the present time, a considerable
degree of interest in missions manifested in all the different
branches of the Christian Church, which has greatly increased
during the last fifty years, and which is still increasing. The
assurance that it will still increase more and more is a matter
of great joy. Individuals have evinced, and are now evincing,
in a high degree, the spirit of apostles—the spirit of Jesus; and
by the public consecration of themselves, and of all that they
had of a secular nature, either in possession or in prospect, to
this work, have demonstrated that they believed the teachings
of the merciful Saviour in this matter, and that they believed
with all the heart.
Still, it is painfully evident, that the churches are, to-day,
far behind the spirit of their Lord, and that the individuals
who even approach the standard of the apostles, and of the
Great Captain of the Christian host, in zeal and effort, and
sacrifice of ease, to carry out the purposes of God's grace, in
behalf of the idolatrous nations of the earth, are, in propor-
tion, as but one to a thousand. -
The millions of those who compose the churches, believe, or
profess to believe, that the teachings of the Bible are the
teachings of God. They profess to believe that man is lost
in sin, that Jesus toiled and died to save him, and that nothing
else can save him, eaccept the provisions of the Gospel. Each
one of these millions professes to believe that it is the expressed
will of the risen Redeemer, that he should make it the great
and all-absorbing business of life, the whole life, so far as he
is able to do it, in his own person, or by the agency of others,
to tell every human being, plainly and earnestly, that Christ
died for him, and to strive to win his soul to Jesus. Every
one of these many millions professes to believe, that the Gos-
pel of our Lord Jesus Christ is so wedded to the divine power,
that it will certainly effect the complete and eternal salvation
of every one who receives it. They profess to be in full sym-
pathy with him who loved all and died for all, and with the

5
apostle of the Gentiles when he said, The love of Christ con-
straineth us, for we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were
all dead, and that he died for all, that they who live should
lºve henceforth not unto themselves, but unto him who died for
them and rose again. Every one of them has openly declared,
that he is alive to his responsibility to his blessed Redeemer,
and that he has taken the unalterable resolution that he will
meet and live his responsibility. He has, in the most solemn
and affecting manner, entered into an especial agreement with
God, his Father, his Saviour, his Sanctifier and Comforter, and
with the Church, that he will devote his life, his thoughts, his
feelings, his efforts, his substance and his prayers, to the ser-
vice of Jesus, to carry out and complete that which was so
well begun by the apostles of Jesus; and yet, notwithstanding
all these professions, Pagans may be counted by tens and by
hundreds of millions who have not even heard the name of
Jesus. Hundreds of millions have not a solitary friend to
point them to the Lamb of God; to the blood of the atone-
ment. -
As we run our eye hastily over the nations, we see only here
and there one or two, or it may be, half-a-dozen, resolute sol-
diers of Jesus, standing alone, in the midst of the camp of the
enemy, toiling at mighty odds to subdue them to Jesus, and
who are often obliged to feel that, in a great measure, they
lack the support of even the sympathetic feeling of their pro-
fessed brethren and sisters in Christ. They are obliged to see
door after door open before them, in the good providence of
God, for the entrance of Christianity, and no one appears
to enter and carry through it the Gospel of salvation. They
often hear the Macedonian cry come up from the perishing
millions, and they echo that cry in the ears of the churches
at home, and still there is no response, or if the churches return
an answer, it is often only that the treasuries are empty, or
that the men cannot be found who are willing to go; while it
is well known that multitudes, in these very churches, are
amassing wealth by hundreds, by thousands, and by tens of
thousands, and that scores and hundreds of ministers even are
seeking in vain to crowd themselves into the towns and cities

6
of our own country, many of which are already more than
supplied. Does not this state of things evince an astonishing
amount of unbelief on the part of multitudes of the professed
friends of Jesus and of his cause on earth? If not, what
does it mean, when we see countless multitudes of our fellow
creatures, groping their dark way down to the regions of death
and hell, perishing for lack of knowledge, with no one to instruct
them, while our churches are full of the professed followers of
the toiling, suffering, self-sacrificing Saviour, who are loading,
burdening, themselves with costly but useless, and often dis-
gusting, ornaments, to feed their vanity, and luxuriating in
wealth, while their Lord's treasury is empty, or only stingily
supplied with a very small part of the unused surplus of the
proud rich, mingled with the mites of the poor? When we
hear the perishing nations prolong their deep groans for help,
which groans have gone up to heaven and stirred the compas-
sionate love of God, induced him to become incarnate, and
shed his blood for them, and yet such multitudes of those who
profess to be in full sympathy with him are as unmoved as if
they were mere machines?
The churches do not believe the testimony of Scripture
touching this matter. They do not believe that the heathen
will be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God.
They do not believe that it is the will of Jesus that they shall
go every where to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. They
do not believe that the Gospel can renovate and save the de-
graded and idolatrous nations, and that there is no other
name, except the name of Jesus, given under heaven whereby
we must be saved. They do not believe that he that hath the
Son hath life, and that he that hath not the Son hath not life.
They do not believe that they are bound by the bonds of the
Gospel to evangelize the nations. They do not half believe.
What does the Gospel demand of our faith in this matter?
The very provisions of the Gospel indicate what we are to
believe concerning the character and condition and prospect
of Pagan idolaters—of all those for whom its provisions have
been made. We do not need to go to them to learn what are

7
their necessities. It is a glorious and solemn truth, that Jesus
christ came to seek and to save those that were lost; to bring
back to God those who were gone away from God, and the
inspired apostle tells us, that the nations of the earth are
without God in the world. It is true that they are not with:
out religion, for in all things we find that they are still, as in
Paul's time, too superstitious—too walkan. But what does
Paul say of their religion? The things that the Gentiles sacri-
fice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. If anywhere on
earth, we might expect to find the knowledge of the true God,
where the sacred writings were unknown, surely it should have
been among some of those people who had been so long favoured
with the teachings of the philosophers and moralists of Greece
and Rome. But Paul and his associates canvassed the Roman
Empire, which had swallowed up the States of Greece, and did
they find it? No. They found those nations all dead ºn tres:
passes and sins. God was not known. Even those Roman
officers who had long been stationed in the province of Judea,
who read the Hebrew Scriptures, who gave much alms to
the people, who built synagogues, and who thus learned to pray
to God, even they stood in perishing need of the gracious pro-
visions of the Gospel. What did Paul think of this matter?
Read his description of Pagans in his letter to the Romans,
the best, because the most truthful, description of the character
of Pagans that has ever been written; or read the significa-
tion of the labors of Paul's life, and learn what sentiments he
entertained.
Now shall we believe the scope of the whole Gospel scheme,
the manifest design of all the Gospel provisions, the direct and
unequivocal declarations of the sacred writings, the reality and
honesty of the lives and deaths too, of Jesus and of the apos-
tles whom he had chosen; or shall we believe the contrary and
stupifying testimony of those liberal moralists who make no
pretensions to piety, and of those professed friends of Christ
who would have us think that the poor heathen are doing the
best they can do in religion, that they are sincere, and hearty,
and zealous in their way, and that the merciful God will accept
their good intentions and forgive their errors; and thus, in our

8
faith and sympathy, give the lie to the teachings, and insult
the death agonies of the world's Redeemer? The fact is, “the
poor Indian”—the Pagan—does not “see God,” but demons,
“in the clouds, and hears them in the wind.” “Jehovah” is not
“in every clime adored.” The poet uttered a great falsehood,
for the “heathem know not God.” They do not know any more
of God now than they did when Jesus lived on earth, and when
Peter and Paul preached and wrote. “No man knoweth who
the Father is but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son doth
reveal him.”
Let us look at this subject as facts present it to us at the
present time; let us read a chapter from the great book of
demon worship—that worship which has for long ages been
celebrated with all the zeal and devotion which even devils
could demand, along the rivers, in the forests, and over the
plains of Minnesota, by those strange, those mysterious people,
who so lately occupied the points where now stand our towns
and villages, and those fertile fields whence come the rich agri-
cultural products with which our granaries are now filled. When
we think of them, in all their physical, and social, and political
degradation, we feel sad; and when we see that this is only the
legitimate fruit of that spiritual tyranny which binds them in
bondage to the devil, we could sit down and weep over them as
Christ wept over Jerusalem. Darkness broods over their souls.
No ray of light beams on their anxious mind. To them, heaven
and earth are full of demons, rankling with hate, engaged in
eternal strife, but there is no glimpse of the Almighty God of
love and grace to calm their agitated mind, and soothe their
sorrow. Dread of future evil fills their souls, and through fear
of death they are all their lifetime subject to bondage. Chains
of ignorance bind and devils oppress them. They are slaves
to the hateful wahkan, and they bow down their back always.
When we get the idea which the Indian attaches to the term
wahkan, we have a correct and full idea of all that is called
god by him, or that he worships. The Dahkotah gods are
Tahkooh-Wahkan, i. e., that which is wahkan. The objects of
their superstition are almost numberless, but wahkan is the
chief quality of them all; and the chief difference among their

9
gods is that some are walkan for one purpose and some for
another, some to a greater and some to a less degree. We
believe that what is expressed by this term is the only quality
that these Indians deify. This they do revere whenever they
see it, and they see it everywhere. The word signifies any-
thing which an ignorant savage cannot comprehend-anything
that is strange or mysterious.
We have been as familiar with the Dahkotah mind on this
subject as we could be, being with them in a great variety of
circumstances, and for a long time, and constantly studying
this subject with intense interest, yet have we never been able
to discover any evidence that they divide those imaginary beings
whom they worship, into classes of good and evil. We find no
reason to believe that the Dahkotahs ever distinguished what is
termed the GREAT SPIRIT from their other divinities, till they
were taught to do so by men of other nations, who were ac-
quainted with the teachings of the Bible. They have no chants,
nor feasts, nor sacrificial rites, which have any reference to
such a being, who is superior to all other beings, that we have
been able to discover, except it may be some, that there is satis-
factory evidence to show are of recent origin, and which do not
properly belong to their system. Even the name which they
give to the Great Spirit now, is simply, the Great Wahkan.
The Indians are sometimes evidently ashamed to have the
white man know what is the object of some of their religious
performances, and they may tell us that their medicine-dance,
wahkan-wahchepe, has respect to the Great Spirit, but we
know positively that both the medicine-dance, and the me-
dicine-feast were, according to their belief, instituted by a
great imaginary monster, whose spirit pervades the earth
and the water, and which they call the OANKTAYHE. The cele-
brated medicine sack is also from him, and their most respect-
able and important religious rites have respect to this object
of superstition, and to the souls of dead men. Mr. Carver re-
lates a strange ceremony, the performance of which he wit-
messed when with them, the object of which he tells us, was to
obtain an interview with the Great Spirit. But this assertion
only proves that he assumed to know, what he did not know;

10
for we have learned certainly, that in the performance of that
same ceremony, there is no reference whatever to such a being,
but that the object of it is to propitiate the favor of another of
their imaginary gods, which they term Tah-koo-shkan-shkan, a
god which is by far the most wantonly wicked, and outrage-
ously cruel, and capricious, and deceitful, and false, of their
numerous demons; so that if there is one of their gods who is
more completely a devil than the others, this is the one. He
is believed to dwell in stones, and implements of war, and is
constantly served by them through fear. To him belong the
armour-feast, wotahway wohampe, and the vapor-bath, enepe.
It is true that the Dahkotahs do sometimes appeal to the Great
Spirit, when in council with white men, but not near so often
as interpreters do it for them. Their appeals are to the Tah-
koo wahkan, not to a Great Wahkan—to the gods, not to a Great
God. When they do appeal to the Great Spirit, it is done
from respect to the white man's religion, and Christian wor-
ship is by them often distinguished from heathen worship, by
this term, the worship of the Great Spirit. They know not
God. There is no idea of the true God to be found in their
whole system, except as Europeans have introduced it. Even
the idea of eternal easistence, the mind of the Indian does not
seem to have conceived, and all their gods are mortal. They
are continued by succession. They are male and female like
the gods of the Greeks, and subject to the same physical laws
of propagation generally, as mere animals are.
We deem it out of place here, to say anything, in particular,
concerning the form or mode of the physical manifestation of
the gods, or of the places of their abodes, and will only remark
in passing, that they are engaged in constant and deadly strife
among themselves, and the different classes feel the same in-
veterate hatred towards each other, that is seen to exist be-
tween the different tribes of Indians.
The representatives of the Dahkotah gods on earth, are what
we call medicine-men, but in their own dialect they are more
appropriately termed wahkan men, veehashtah wahkan. These
men are gods with diminished proportions, and differ from other
men, in that they do not come into existence, in human form,

11
in the same order of nature. According to the account which
these men and women too, for females are sometimes wahkan,
give of themselves, they first wake into conscious existence
mysteriously floating in ether. As the winged seed of the
thistle or of the cotton-wood is floated in the air, so they are
gently wafted by the intelligent influence of the “Four-winds,”
or by Tahkoo-shkan-shkan, through the regions of the air, un-
til they are eventually conducted to the abode of some one of
the superior gods, by whom they are received into the most
intimate communion. Here they remain until they become
familiar with the abilities, desires, caprices and employments
of that particular class of the Tahkoo wahkan. They become
assimilated to them in all their wahkan qualities, imbibing
their spirit, and becoming thoroughly acquainted with all the
chants, feasts, fasts, dances and sacrificial rites, which it is
deemed necessary to impose on men in this life. In this man-
ner, some of them are believed to pass through a succession of
inspirations, with various classes of the superior divinities, un-
til they are completely waſ kanized, and prepared for human
incarnation.
In particular, they are invested with the irresistible powers
of the gods, to do good or evil, their knowledge and cunning,
and with their everywhere present influence over mind, instinct
and passion. They are taught how to inflict diseases and to
heal them, to discover things which are concealed from those
who are merely human, to manufacture implements of war, and
infuse into them the missive power, the tonwan of the divini-
ties, and to perform all sorts of wonders. This process of in-
spiration is termed, Tahkoo wahkan ehahmmahpe, dreaming
of the gods.
Thus qualified for his mission, this germ of the future medicine-
man is again committed to the direction of the winds of heaven,
and rides forth on their wings in silent majesty. From this fa-
vored position, he surveys the condition of men, and deliberately
selecting a place in which to exhibit himself to mortals, humbly
enters the body of an unborn infant, and in due time, thus
concealed, effects his entrance into this world, to serve the
mysterious purposes for which the demons have designed him.
It may not be out of place, here, to remark, that when one

12
of these wahkan men dies, he returns to the abode of his god,
and receives a new inspiration. He is thus qualified for a se-
cond incarnation, and to serve another generation of men, in
some other part of our world. In this manner they pass through
four incarnations, and then retire to their primitive nothing-
ness. *
Now, as we proceed we shall see what use these characters make
of their assumed superhuman powers, and what their people think
of them. It has been well said that it is with the human mind and
heart, as with plants which draw from the surrounding soil,
only that which is congenial to their nature, and essential to their
growth. This assertion appears to be very truthful. The pure
mind and clean heart, even in the midst of heathenism, will draw
an abundance of support and nutriment, and grow up more and
more into the love and likeness of the intelligent and holy di-
vinity, while in the same surroundings, the savage mind and
heart will become more and more savage, until it will ripen
into a horrid demon. Blind credulity, and disgusting super-
stition, are twin daughters of ignorance, and no absurdity is
too great, or too clearly foolish to be heartily received by an
ignorant savage, when cunningly presented to his mind and
heart. These medicine-men are such, generally, as are born
with an uncommon share of shrewdness and impudence, and
they combine whatever of talent they possess, for the benefit
of the craft. While this is the case, the blind savage generally
feels that he is in a world of mysteries, whether he has thoughts
or not, and is oppressed with a consciousness that while all
around him is beyond his control, and he comprehends nothing,
he is constantly exposed to all evil. The very earth on which
he treads teems with life incomprehensible. It is wahkan, and
excites, by turns, all his superstitious hopes and fears, thrilling
him with such joy as a savage can feel, or chilling him with tor-
menting anxiety and dread. The vegetable covering of the
earth, the forests, the streams, the lakes, the springs, the hills,
the vales, are to him all full of awful mystery. He looks up
to the sun, the moon and the stars, and sees so many gods and
T
* These characters are believed, also, to appear often in the form of beasts,
such as the wolf, the bear, buffalo, &c

13
goddesses gazing down upon him in silent dreadfulness. A
thousand queries concerning these matters arise in his mind,
but he hears no response except that a dreadful thrill runs
through him, and with his hand on his mouth, he involuntarily
exclaims, Wahkanſ ahtay onshemahdah! He extends his
propitiatory pipe in every direction, and lifting up his voice,
weeps—chaykeyahs. When he enters upon the chase, to which
stern necessity drives him for subsistence, the beast which he
pursues to-day, shuns his approach, perhaps, apparently with
the ability of an intelligent being, the art of a god, and to-
morrow, seems to be completely destitute of even brutal in-
stinct, and has no ability to escape. Again he lays his hand
upon his mouth, and wonders, while all the sentiments of his
soul respond, Wahkan do! and he promptly pays his religious
devotions to the spirit of the beast whose body lies dead at his
feet, on which himself and family will feast at night. He sees
at one time, a strong and active hunter and warrior, instantly
seized with pain, and in a few hours expire in awful agony, and
at another time, another waste away almost imperceptibly,
without pain, through long years, and then die in utter stu-
pidity, and again, amazed, he wails out the deep sentiments of
his soul, and echo rolls back in wild notes on the night breeze,
“Wahkan do!” and in sullen silence, he resolves to offer the
costly sacrifice of the medicine dance to the Oanktayhe, and to
the souls of the dead. He still again sees one prostrated with
racking pain in an instant, who suffers without mitigation for a
time, and then almost as suddenly, eased and restored to his
former health and vigor, while another drops, unnotified into
the arms of death, and there is no apparent cause. Pains,
often excruciating, on one part of his own body, at the next
moment with the rapidity of thought, leap to another part, and
then, perhaps, as suddenly vanish altogether, and his supersti-
tious feelings went themselves in a wild chant to the gods, and
in the vapor-bath, it may be, he presents his body a living
sacrifice to the Tahkooshkan-shkan, or hangs himself sacredly
to the elevated pole, in honor of the Wahkenyan, god of thun-
der, or of the sun, as the medicine man may direct.
We may sneer at such silliness, and say that it is all
pretence, but all these and ten thousand other occurrences like

14
them, are to the Savage practical realities, and in the midst of
them—under them—he is born and reared, and his character
is formed. As, therefore, the tinder is susceptible of ignition,
so the savage mind is ready for deception, and hails with joy
one who claims to comprehend and control these mysteries, ex-
plain these occurrences, and successfully contend with all these
intolerable evils; it waits for the wahkan man just as a suffer-
ing, dying son of misery, waits for relief. -
To establish their claims to inspiration, these men and women
artfully lay hold of all that is strange and mysterious, and, if
possible, turn it to their advantage. To do this is the one ob-
ject and effort of their lives. It is their study, day and night,
in all circumstances, at all times, and on all occasions. They
follow it as Death follows his victim, never turning or slacken-
ing their pace. For this they use all means which are at their
command, in season and out of season, like an earnest and un-
principled aspirant for political office. They live and die for
this. All are not, of course, equally successful; but all try,
and do what they can to accomplish their object.
They assume familiarity with whatever astonishes other peo-
ple, with a degree of self-complacency, and an air of impudence
and assurance, which, at the beginning, strike their people with
amazement. They foretell future events with a degree of ac-
curacy, or of ambiguity, sufficient for their purpose; those at
one village affect to be familiar with what is transpiring at an-
other village leagues distant; persons who are almost reduced
to skeletons by wasting disease, are sometimes, in a day or two,
restored to ease and health, apparently by their supernatural
agency, and without the use of any natural means. When
game is scarce, and the chase is unfruitful, when famine pinches
the helpless infant, and its disconsolate mother, and even the
proud hunter sits over his lodge fire, in silent gloom, relief
often comes suddenly, in an unlooked-for, and even improbable
manner, apparently through the influence of these demi-gods;
or if their efforts to obtain relief are not successful, and the
suffering is protracted, their want of success is attributed to
the unexpiated sins of the people. By the mental illumination
of the wahkan fires, obtained by the almost superhuman watch-
ings, fastings, self-tortures, and efforts of these men, the posi-

15
tion and movements of an enemy are discovered, which is
triumphantly proved when the little band of murderers return
to the village bearing the bloody scalp, torn by them from a
surprised and fallen foe. When occasion requires, they ap-
pear to calm the tempest, or to raise the storm, to converse
with the thunder and the lightning as with a familiar friend
and equal; and if one of them is killed by the electric fluid, as
sometimes happens, it only proves to the living the truth of
all he taught them concerning the gods of thunder, and that
they killed him for his sin against themselves.
These men are not only in intimate and constant communion
with the superior gods who are out of them, but they also have
inferior gods dwelling in them, to satisfy whose cravings they
frequently, with great parade, and in the most public manner,
tear off with their teeth, and eat the raw, quivering, and bleed-
ing flesh of newly-slaughtered animals, like starving beasts or
birds of prey, thus devouring parts of dogs and fish entire, not
excepting bones and scales; and we have been told that with
apparent zest, they quaff human blood, which we believe to be
true. They can eat raw, the heart of a murdered foe.
By the performance of thousands and tens of thousands of
wonders, like those we have specified, these pretenders triumph-
antly substantiate their claims to divine inspiration, and they
are fully believed to be the great power of the gods. If some
are thought to be mere pretenders, this fact only turns to the
advantage of those who, being more shrewd and wary, are
successful.
We have never known an individual among the savages with
whom we were acquainted, who did not yield full credence to
some of these god-men and god-women, except when their con-
fidence in them had been destroyed by the introduction of the
doctrines of the Christian religion among them. Such excep-
tions, at the present time, are numerous.
These wahkan qualities fit those who possess them, to act in
any capacity, and in any emergency.
THE PRIEST.
As a priest, with all the assurance of an eye-witness, of an
equal, of long and intimate communion with them, he bears tes-

16
timony for the divinities. He gives a minute and full descrip-
tion of their physical appearance, their dwelling-place, and
their attendants. He reveals their abilities, their dispositions,
and their employments, as one who has been there and lived
with them on terms of equality. He dictates prayers and
chants, institutes dances, fasts, feasts, and sacrifices; defines
sin and its opposite, and their consequences, and imposes upon
the people a system of demonism and superstition, to suit their
depraved tastes, and vile passions, and caprices, and circum-
stances, and interests, as savages, with an air of authority and
subtle cunning, which does seem to be almost super-human—a
system so artful, so well adapted to their character, condition,
and felt wants; so congenial to them, that it weaves into them,
enters the body, soul, and spirit, and becomes a part of them,
insuring their most obsequious submission to its demands. Sin
consists in a want of conformity to, or transgression of the ar-
bitrary rules of the priest—the walkan man—or a want of re-
spect for his person and occupation; and the rewards and pu-
nishments are of such a nature that there is no danger that
they will not be understood and appreciated. In the capacity
of a priest, the influence of these characters is so complete and
universal, that scarce an individual among their people can be
found, who is not a servile religionist. All are trained to it
with all diligence from their infancy. Much as the savage loves
ease and self-indulgence, we have known numerous instances
where they cheerfully submitted themselves to almost any pri-
vation, discomfort, and toil, for days and weeks, and even
months together, in order to obtain the necessary provisions
for a sacrifice, which the priest assured them the gods de-
manded; and if they failed, they fully believed that the penalty
would be the infliction of any one or of all the evils to which
an Indian is subject. We will specify one instance. A man
made a trip on foot, from the “Little Rapids,” on the Minne-
sota river, to Big Stone Lake, and brought on his back a pack
of jerked buffalo meat, weighing probably sixty or seventy
pounds, a distance of about two hundred miles, to be used in
the Medicine dance, a sacrifice to the Oanktayhe, and to the
souls of the dead. We travelled in company with him a part of
the way, and knew, that, weary and hungry as he was, his only

17
resting-place was the bare earth, and his only food was that
which he picked up along the wilderness way, or begged of such
travellers as he chanced to meet with; yet he plodded on, taci-
turn and patient as a mule, for the priest had told him that it
was the will of the Tahkoo wahkan. They will do and suffer
anything that they can do and suffer, right or wrong, to com-
ply with the arbitrary and capricious requisitions of the priest.
THE WAR, PROPHET.
But the medicine-man, as a war leader, is not less necessary
than as a priest. Every Dahkotah man, sixteen years old and
upwards, is a soldier, and is formally enlisted into his service.
From him he receives the spear and tomahawk, carefully con-
structed after a model furnished from the armory of the gods,
painted after divine prescriptions, and charged with the spirit
and power—ton wan—of the divinities. From him, also, he re-
ceives those paints which serve as an armature for the body.
To obtain these necessary articles from the Mday tah-hoon-kah,
—for that is what the war leader is called—the proud applicant
is required to abase himself, and for a time become his servant,
while he goes through with a tedious series of painful and ex-
hausting performances, which are necessary on his part, to pre-
pare him for so important a service. These performances con-
sist chiefly of vapour baths, fastings, chants, prayers, and
nightly watchings. The spear and tomahawk being prepared,
and thus duly consecrated and rendered wahkan, the person
who is to receive them, with a most piteous wail, reverently
approaches the Mday-tah-hoon-kah, and imploringly presents to
him the pipe of prayer, as to a god. This done, he lays his
trembling hand upon the sacred head of his master, and sobs
out his desires, in substance as follows:—“Pity thou one who
is poor and helpless, a woman, and confer on me the ability to
perform manly deeds.” The prophet then, with the bearing of
a god, presents to him the weapons desired, saying:—“Go
thou, and test the swing of this tomahawk, and the thrust of
this spear; but when in triumph thou shalt return a man, for-
get not thy vows to the Tahkoo-wahkan.” In this manner
every young man is enlisted into the service of the medicine-
man, as a war prophet, and enlisted for life. The weapons in

18
question are preserved by the Dahkotah warrior as sacredly as
was the holy ark of the covenant by the religious Hebrew of
ancient times. They are carefully wrapped in cloth, together
with sacred plumes and pigments, and are laid outside of the
lodge, in fair weather, every day, and may never be touched
by an adult female.
Every warrior feels that his success, both on the battle-field
and in the chase, depends entirely, upon the strictness, prompt-
ness, and constancy with which he adheres to the rules which
are imposed upon him by this wahkan warrior. The armour
feast is of almost daily occurrence, when the fruits of the chase
are sufficient to support it; on which occasion these implements
of savage murder are reverently unwrapped and exhibited, and
perfumed with the smoke of burning incense around the smoking
sacrifice.
Thus the influence of the medicine-man as a murderer, per-
meates the whole community, and it is hardly possible to over-
estimate it. Those who are led by him will be murderers; and
those who are thus bound to him will be led by him, unless they
renownce their religion. Retaining their religion, they must
of necessity be a nation of murderers. The Indian, if he can,
will kill his hereditary foe, as long as he is a pagan. The fa-
vour of the gods, and even his very manhood, depends upon it.
They are not men till they have killed a foe. Till they do
this, they may be insulted and abused in the most outrageous
manner. I have known young men to be forced to put on the
female dress, and thus exhibit themselves in the public dance
as women, because they had not killed a foe. This is why the
Indian will murder those of another tribe, if he can.
THE DOCTOR.
In the capacity of a doctor, Wahpeyah, the influence of these
characters has scarcely any limits. He is as much revered,
perhaps, as the superior gods themselves. The subordinate
gods dwell in them, and confer on them the power to suck out
disease from the human body, and to charm or drive away the
gods who inflict diseases, by the music, or by the horrid ugli-
ness of their chants. If these persons are long without prac-
tice, it is said that they suffer much inconvenience from the

19
restlessness of the gods within them. This is the reason why
they sometimes drink human blood, as has been already men-
tioned.
When one of these Wahpeyah has been respectfully called to
minister to the relief of a poor sufferer, he has the patient laid
on a blanket, on the ground, in a lodge vacated for the pur-
pose, with the body chiefly naked. He also lays off his own
clothes, except the middle cloth. After chants and prayers,
the rattling of the sacred shell, and numerous other ceremo-
nies, and uttering a variety of unearthly sounds, with an air
and attitude of self-conceit and impudence which only a devil
could inspire, he mutters out the following, or something like
it:-"The gods told me, that having this, I might approach
the bones of a dead man even, and that they should live.”
Tahkoo hookahyah wankah ashtah, day yoohah ame day chem-
han, nahzheen yahkeyay ktah chay, Tahkoo walkan amak
keyah chay. He then drops upon his knees by the side of the
patient, and applying his mouth to the part of the body imme-
diately over the seat of the disease, he sucks with the energy
of a demon, at the same time rattling the shell with the utmost
violence. In this manner, the god which is in the doctor, draws
the disease from the poor sufferer. After thus applying him-
self for a considerable time, like a beast in a rage, he suddenly
starts to his feet in apparent agony. He utters dreadful
sounds and groans, which can be distinctly heard for a mile or
more, violently strikes his side with his hand, and the earth
with his feet, twisting the whole body into the most hideous
contortions. A stranger might be excused, even if he were to
mistake him for an incarnate devil, just let loose from the in-
fernal pit, in hot pursuit of some devoted victim, instead of a
tender and skilful physician, ministering to the necessities of a
poor, weak, suffering mortal. We have sometimes thought that
the ancient prophet of God was inspired with a sight of one of
these jugglers, ministering to the sick, when he penned that
significant passage, “The tender mercies of the wicked are
cruel.” But we are digressing. When the disease is thus vio-
lently extracted from the patient, placing his mouth in a dish
of water, which the doctor has now grasped with his left hand,
he Pºlº with a most disgusting sing-song bubbling, to de-

20
posit the disease in the dish, keeping time with his sacred
rattle, which he still shakes violently. This operation is con-
tinued, with brief intervals for smoking, for hours, and some-
times day after day, and night after night, if the occasion re-
quires it. By such means the sick one is always relieved of
several dishfuls of disease, to the astonishment and gratifica-
tion of all who are interested in the recovery of the sufferer.
But besides the temporary relief thus imparted, the sin is dis-
covered which is the cause of all the difficulty, and also the
particular god who has been offended. An image of the god is
then made by the practitioner, which is hung upon a pole, and
shot by two, three, or four persons in quick succession, and
falls to the ground. Now the demon which is in the doctor
leaps out at his mouth, falls on the spirit of the image, and
kills it, and the sick person begins rapidly to amend, or at least,
he will try hard to recover. Sometimes the operator finds, af.
ter repeated trials, that he is unable to cope with the wahkan
who inflicts the disease; and unless some other wahpeyah can
be found of greater powers, the patient is left to die. These
men and women are wahkan to a degree corresponding to the
strength of the gods by whom they are respectively inspired.
It is believed that there are those who can vanquish any foe to
health till the superior gods order otherwise, but it is difficult
to obtain their aid. For if they are not duly respected at all
times, and on all occasions, and in all their relations, and well
remunerated for their services in advance, they may let the
sufferers die without exerting their powers, or perform their
work deceitfully. This is a necessary provision of their sys-
tem, as it affords ample room to account satisfactorily for all
failures.
It is believed, not only that the persons in question can cure
diseases, but that they can also inflict them at their pleasure,
on any person who may dare to offend them. It only requires
a purpose on their part. The disease of the lungs, from which
these people suffer much, and which often terminates fatally, it
is believed, is inflicted by the wahkan men. They are feared,
if possible, more than the gods themselves, for they are present
in the camp, and in the lodge. If one is sick, he will give all
that he possesses, and all that he can obtain on credit, to secure

21
the services of one of these doctors, and will promptly give a
horse, in advance, for a single performance, such as has been
described. The instances which have come under our own ob-
servation, where families have sacrificed, on these pretenders,
all that they had, when one of their number was sick, may be
counted by hundreds; and to be abandoned by them, is felt to
be a most dire calamity. Parents are as careful to train their
children to respect and revere these wahkan characters, as
was an early Puritan to inspire his children with reverence for
the divine institutions of Christianity. They are respected.
They sit in the highest seats, and have the best of every thing.
If there are impostors among them, this fact only enhances
the importance of such as are believed to be true.
When the Dahkotah pagans occupied the sites where now
stand the towns of Winona, Red Wing, St. Paul, Shakopee,
Louisville, and St. Peter's, bands which contained from two
to six hundred souls each, there were from five to twenty-five
of these wahkan men and women in each of the little bands,
who, as doctors, had a fair reputation, and considerable pro-
fessional practice. Twenty-six years ago, we do not believe
that an individual Dahkotah could have been found among
them who did not believe with his heart, that these jugglers,
sorcerers, these human demons, could heal diseases, if they
would, without the help of either vegetable or mineral medi-
cines—heal them by means of their wahkan performances; and
they were patronized in the families of some Europeans who
were dwelling among the Indians for purposes of commerce.
These medicine-men and women exerted, and still exert, and
as long as they exist, will exert an influence, in their various
official capacities, which is absolute, and which pervades Dahko-
tah society—an influence which controls all their affairs, so far
as it is possible for it to be carried, and which bears with all
its force on every individual among them, to crush him down
still deeper and deeper in ignorance, superstition, degradation,
and misery, of body, soul, and spirit, and force him into un-
reserved submission to their mandates, except as individuals
have been wrenched from the grasp of this hateful despotism
by the light and power of gospel truth, which has been pub-
lished among them, in spite of the medicine-men, who have un-

22
flinchingly opposed every inch of the way. To accomplish
their object, and hold on to their victims, these wahkan pre-
tenders—these Dahkotah Brahmins—have not hesitated, and do
not now hesitate, and they never will hesitate, to make use of
the most unmitigated falsehood, and the foulest slander, to
spoil the reputation and influence of those who would instruct
the people, and to render them odious in their eyes. They
often go as far to injure them, both in person and property,
as they can or dare go. -
To oppose and prevent the acquisition of knowledge, by
those of their people who evince a desire to learn, they exer-
cise the most constant and despotic vigilance over them, to
keep them away from their teachers, by both day and night.
They will cause the moccasins of little boys to be hid, so that
if they will go to school, they shall go barefoot, which we have
known them to do in the cold of the Minnesota winter; they
will heap upon them threats and abuse of all kinds, without
measure. If some will still learn, they take particular pains
to improve every opportunity, and even to create opportunities
to traduce, and insult, and injure them; they will hold them up
to scorn and derision before the public, whenever it can be
done; they will thrust them out of society; they will sneer at,
slander, and taunt them, without scruple and without stint; they
encourage others to insult them, and to trample on their rights,
and honour those most who most abuse them, so that they are
like helpless lambs among a pack of hungry dogs, or wolves.
They often exclude them from participating, to the extent of
their rights, in the distribution of such annuity goods and pro-
visions as are furnished them by our government, and which
belong to one as much as to another, and the oppressed have
none who can effectually help them. We have known an in-
stance where these men, or their tools, entered the room where
children were collected by their missionary for religious in-
struction, and have driven them out, when the terrified chil-
dren would scatter and flee like a brood of chickens when a hun-
gry hawk pounces on them. We knew one female—a mother—
who was beaten by her husband, at one time with a club, and
at another time with a hatchet, till she was unable to walk for
several days, because she would observe the Christian Sabbath,

23
and would meet on that day with those who worshipped the
God of the Bible. He finally left her, slandered and traduced
her, inhumanly disowning his own son, to injure her character.
That mother is now, we trust, in heaven, and her orphan son
is living in a Christian family in our own parish, and is one of
the most intelligent of the children of our Sabbath-school; but
his father now owns him, and has for years been making every
effort to carry him back into his own family, because, chiefly,
if he had him, he could draw on his account from their annuity
fund ten dollars a year! We knew a young man in Blooming-
ton township, who had a charge of shot fired into his body,
because he would learn to read, in spite of less violent opposi-
tion. We are now well acquainted with several young men,
who could once read well in the New Testament Scriptures
in their own tongue, and who have long since abandoned their
books altogether, and probably nearly or quite forgotten how
to read, because, they said, they could not bear the abuse, and
insults, and sneers, and jibes, and scorn, which they were
obliged to receive, at all times, in all places, and on all occa-
sions.
If any have learned to revere the day of the Christian Sab-
bath, as many have done, these men and women are very par-
ticular to discommode and vex them, to insult and insnare them;
to oblige them, if possible, to violate the principles of their new
religion, and the dictates of their enlightened and emancipated
consciences; and for this they have peculiar facilities, on ac-
count of their community of interests, and gregarious habits,
of which there is not time to speak particularly. If one of the
followers of the religion of Jesus Christ is afflicted, either in
his person or in his relations, or if one dies, all means are used
that can be invented by their enemies, and these enemies of
all righteousness, to make the impression on the community,
and especially on the young, that the gods directly, or by the
agency of these wahkan men, have afflicted or killed them; and
that none of them can change their religion, except at the peril
of comfort and of life.
These are some of the ways which these leaders of pagan-
ism adopt to keep the people in ignorance; and the things spe-
cified will give some idea, faint though it be, of the spiritual

24
condition of pagans. The craft is in danger, and these ser-
wants of the devil are determined to save it. To carry out
their determination, is the best service that they can render
to demons and to demonism; and the best service that the
friends of Christ can render him, is to oppose them.
But these characters are not contented to use such means
and influences as they have within themselves; they drag into
their service whatever they can lay hold of out of themselves.
It would astonish the Christian world if they could see to what
an extent commercial interests have, in years past, been yoked
into the service of these crafty despots of darkness, and by
their management made to rivet the chains of ignorance, bar-
barism, and superstition. Even the mighty influence of the
United States government has often been made to tell on these
infernal interests to such a degree as to make the heart of a
Christian philanthropist bleed. We will give but a single in-
stance.
At their instigation, and after years of cunning and toil,
one chief, or head man of one of the bands, a chief of long
standing, and of more than ordinary ability, for no other crime
than that of committing himself openly in favour of education,
and of the introduction of Christian doctrines among his peo-
ple, was shamefully deposed from office; and another, of much
less than common abilities, was exalted to his place, for very
little, if any other reason, than because he was an open and
determined enemy of education, and of the Christian religion,
and was warmly devoted to the service of the medicine men.
It is not probable that the honourable agents of our govern-
ment meant so; but they did it, and thus gave their official in-
fluence to promote the triumph of these servants of darkness
over the introduction of light among their deluded followers.
It was so understood by the Indians. The priesthood felt that
they had obtained a victory, and that the strong arm of the
President of the United States was with them.
Now, if the inspired writings did not positively assert that
pagan priests are priests for devils, as it is asserted of those
who were ordained priests by Jeroboam; if they did not assert
that what pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to
God, and that they know not God, still facts which have been

25
gathered in relation to other pagan nations, by travellers, by
seamen, by military and civil officers, by men of commercial
enterprise, by philosophers, by missionaries from all Christian
nations, and from almost every Christian denomination—facts
gathered from every other country, and from the islands of the
sea, show conclusively that the description which has been
given of the Dahkotahs, so far as it goes, is substantially true
of them all. These facts are familiar to all who interest them-
selves in such matters, and there is no occasion to detail them
here.
The hundreds of millions of India, of Burmah, of China,
of Japan, of the numerous tribes of Africa, and of the islands
scattered through oceans and seas, are bound hand and foot
by the wahkan men of these nations, and are ruled by them as
with a rod of iron. So far as it can be done by them, these
priests of demons have shut against these millions of our fellow-
men every door of hope to escape from their bondage. They
have not only bound them with chains, but they have wound
their chains around them—around each individual of their vic-
tims—chains of ignorance, and superstition, and fear, and lies,
and sin, from head to foot, and riveted them at every turn.
They have not simply shut against them every door of hope,
but they have bolted and barred the doors, and then put out
the eyes of their prisoners, as the Philistines did those of Sam-
son, and stationed sentinels to watch them—sentinels who never
sleep, and who are never careless—and there they grind in the
great prison of paganism. Witness the scenes enacted in Ma-
dagascar, in India, and in Syria. Witness the Brahmin and
his Veda. Witness the offer of a pecuniary reward for the de-
tection of a Christian in Japan, of two hundred years' stand-
ing, and the one hundred families of watchers in the city of
Yeddo, who are supported for this particular purpose at the
public expense. Witness the wahkan man of the Dahkotah.
The darkness of death has settled down upon the nations.
“Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people.”
The whole creation groans under the despotic rule of the mi-
nisters, of the innumerable millions, of the hideous and horrid
monsters, which are the creation of the inflamed and bedevilled
imaginations of these wahkan men—monsters “which are called

26
gods, and worshipped.” The heart sickens at the sight. Are
these wretched nations well enough without the gospel; and
will zealous devotion to these systems of falsehood and super-
stition raise men to purity, to heaven, and to God? Not while
it stands written that God is holy. Not while the truth re-
mains that God has purposed to make a distinction, and an
eternal separation between truth and lies—between good and
evil. Not while it remains true that “dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie,” shall not enter in through the gates
into the city. Not while it stands written in the sacred Book,
“The heathen shall be turned into hell, and all the nations
that forget God.” The nations are lost. They are dead.
There are no remains of life in them. Let not that man flatter
himself that he is like Christ, who can look upon them with in-
difference, and “pass by on the other side.”
Is there no hope? Must the Church of Jesus Christ give up
in despair, and cease her efforts to strike off their hellish chains,
and emancipate the dying millions, and redeem them to God?
Can the Christian world do no more than to sit down in sad-
ness, like the Jews by the rivers of Babylon, and weep? Even
this would be something. Oh, that the Christian world could
once weep –that Christians could weep tears of pity, and ten-
derness, and love, over these lost souls, in sympathy with their
Master, who wept over the wretched citizens of ancient Jeru-
salem! Merciful Jesus! forgive our stupidity, our ingratitude,
our unbelief! Pour down from heaven, upon all thy people,
thy softening influence, and baptize them with thy Spirit!
Breathe into them the breath of benevolent life, that they may
enter into sympathy with thee, and with that cause for which
thou didst pray, and suffer, and bleed!
What was it that rose to heaven, touched the pity of God,
and brought Jesus down to the earth, and to the cross? Was
it the hopeful condition, and upward tendency of man? No.
It was the wretchedness, and spiritual slavery, and helpless,
hopeless misery, of a world lying in wickedness, and led cap-
tive by the devil at his will.
He determined to save. Did he over-estimate his ability?
Was he rash in his purpose, and did he plan to be disappointed?

27
He came to destroy the works of the devil, and he will do it,
and deliver the prey from between the teeth of the spoiler.
He will fully accomplish his purpose, and do it by human
agency, and by means of the gospel. There is power in the
gospel. “It is the power of God unto salvation, to every one
that believeth.” Jesus will breathe into his people his own
sentiments, just as God at first breathed into man the breath
of life, and they will become living Christians. Christ will
live in them, as he did in Paul, and they will preach delive-
rance to the captives, to the ends of the earth. The gospel
will certainly accomplish that whereunto it is sent, and demons
will fall down before it, and be broken as Dagon's head was
broken off when he fell down before the ark of the God of
Israel. Jesus shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satis-
fied. This is as certain as it is that Jesus lived and died in
Judea. Men, constrained by his love, and moved with com-
passion for the stripped and wounded, will pick them up, and
carry them to the inn, and take care of them, even at a sacri-
fice of ease, and honour, and wealth. They will go every where,
and tell sinners that Jesus died for them—tell them with ten-
derness, with humility, with tears, with longing desire, and with
godly sincerity, that He is able and ready to save the chief
of them; and sinners will listen, and look to Jesus, for God will
open and turn their hearts, as he did the heart of the seller of
purple, in the city of Thyatira.
We infer from what God has done, what he will do. The
gospel provisions have been made, and they are adequate to
meet the necessities of man. The energy of God is in them.
The gospel had power to save the very betrayers and murderers
of Jesus, three thousand at a time. It had power with Saul
of Tarsus. It had power to save the fornicators, the idolaters,
the adulterers, the effeminate, the abusers of themselves with
mankind, the thieves, the covetous, the drunkards, the revilers,
the extortioners, of the dissolute city of Corinth. It had power
with the proud Pantheists of Athens and of Rome. It had
power to save the savage hordes of Northern Europe, and even
the Druids of ancient Britain. Witness the power of the gos-
pel among us, in England and Germany, in France, in Sweden,

28
in Ireland and Scotland, in the Sandwich Islands, in Madagas-
car, in Ceylon, in India, among the Indian tribes of our own
country—the Senecas, the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and even
the Dahkotahs. God will not stop at half-way. He will end
triumphantly and gloriously, what he has so graciously begun
to do. It is not like God to begin to build, and not be able to
finish. He will finish his work, and finish it quicker, perhaps,
than we anticipate. A short work will the Lord make in the
earth. He has promised to do this work, by the agency of his
people, and he will be with them till the end, and give them
success. He will cast down the devil suddenly, as the light-
ning falls from heaven, and break his kingdom to shivers. He
has promised to do it; and what he has promised, he is able
also to perform. He has commanded it, and his command will
be obeyed, for his word is with power. The disciples of Jesus
will go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea-
ture. The power of the gospel will “lift the world.” It will
lift the nations of pagans up from the deep darkness, from the
grinding despotism, from the loathsome pollution of devils, and
of demon worship into the light, and liberty, and purity of the
Christian religion.
What has been said concerning the character of Paganism,
impresses upon us the thought, that the work which Jesus has
given his people to do is a great work. We are not called to
patch the old garment with new cloth—to reform and correct
the institutions of demonism—to lop off some of its branches
and graft in their place scions from the tree of life. This pro-
cess has been already sufficiently tested. We are to destroy
the old garment of filthy rags, of folly and hatred, and spiri-
tual insanity, and clothe the naked with the garments of wis-
dom, and love, and of a sound mind—garments new and white
—to overturn, and dash in pieces, and utterly destroy, all these
pagan institutions, which are strong by the growth of thousands
of years in a rich soil, and which have taken fast hold of six
hundred millions of our fellow-creatures, and woven themselves
into their very texture, and to establish Christian institutions
in their place—to tear up, root and branch, this tree, the fruit
of which has filled the world with pollution, confusion, and

29
death, generation after generation, and age after age, from
one end of the earth to the other, and plant in its room the
tree of life; the fruit of which, whosoever eats, shall live for
ever. We are called to attack, seize, and subvert the kingdom
of Polytheism, and Pantheism, and Demonism, and Wahkanism,
and to establish all over the world and in the islands of the
sea, the kingdom of Jesus—the kingdom of a God of light, and
purity, and wisdom, and love, and power, and eternity. The
struggle is, and will be deadly. There will be no bending, no
submission, but a dashing to pieces “like a potter's vessel.” It
will be victory or extermination. Paganism will hold its sway
over its victims with a terrible firmness of purpose, till it is ac-
tually trampled in the dust; and will die clutching them with
the grip of despair and death. The strife between Jesus and
that old serpent, which is called the devil, is real and deter-
mined on one hand, and malignant and desperate on the other.
It involves the eternal well-being, or the eternal ill-being of un-
numbered millions of immortal souls. All that can be done,
will be done to oppose the spread of the religion of Jesus in its
purity everywhere, and the great Apollyon, the angel of the
bottomless pit, will bring into requisition all his resources.
He will meet the soldiers of Jesus in ten thousand varied forms,
with craftiness and energy of purpose, which nothing less than
the skill and power of the mighty Captain of our host can effec-
tually oppose. He will array against them not only flesh and
blood–mortals like themselves—but principalities and powers,
the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wicked-
ness in high places. This strife will shake terribly the nations,
and test the nerves—try the souls of men. It is already be:
gun, and is every day waxing hotter. The soldiers of Jesus
have need to gird on the whole armor of God, and to stand fast.
Who does not see, who does not feel, that this is a great work,
and the work that God has given us to do?
Another thought moves our souls, and we exclaim with Paul:
“Who is sufficient for these things?” Who is sufficient? Who
is quite ready to enlist, and struggle on until he is released by
victory or by death? He who has faith in God like Noah, who
could toil a hundred and twenty-five years to build a ship on
dry land; or, like Abraham, who could go, and go anywhere,

30
not knowing whither he went. He who can toil on heartily
amidst opposition, and sneers, and jibes, and abuse, even though
he is not permitted to see the results which he desires to see,
simply because it is God's will that he should toil. He who has
faith in God's word, and is confident that it is mighty through
God, to the pulling down of strong holds, and to cause even
devils to tremble—who can discard all other means of aggres-
sion or of defence, as David did the armor and sword of Saul,
and in the simplicity of his piety, preferred the five smooth
stones from the brook. He whose heart is humble, who feels
his own spiritual poverty, and is full of simplicity and of godly
sincerity, and whose conscience is clear. He whose whole soul
is thrown into the service of Jesus, and whose tenacity of pur-
pose will cling to that service, in all circumstances, as unyield-
ing as eternal truth itself. He who is conscious that he is in
Christ, and Christ in him, and in whose heart dwells the ten-
derness which can bear to be imposed upon, insulted, slandered,
detested, and be tender still; and who, like Jesus, can pray
with all the earnestness of his soul, for those whom he knows
to be his bitter and determined enemies, and to deny himself
ease, to work for their good; who can be stoned and whipped
like Paul, or spit upon and murdered like Jesus, and be tender
still. He whose spirit burns and heaves with love to Jesus, his
word, his institutions, his people, and trembles with true com-
passion for sinners—love which can suffer long and be kind
—love like that described by Paul, and exemplified by the life
of the hated Galilean. He is sufficient for these things. He
may venture to be a missionary, and go like Jonathan into the
camp of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt him.
Jesus is in him. One such will chase a thousand, and two put
ten thousand to flight. His person and weapons may appear
as contemptible as David and his sling did in the eyes of Go-
liath of Gath, or as the barley cake in the dream of the Midian-
ite, but God is with him, and he need not fear. May God call
such men into his church, and send them into all the world, and
then the kingdom of Jesus will triumph!

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