Chapter 9

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_ CHAPTER NINE. WHEN ENCAMPED, DONALD IS VISITED BY AN INDIAN, WHO ASSISTS IN CARRYING ALEC TO THE TOWNSHIP--INFLUENCED BY THE CONDUCT OF THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS AND THE EXHORTATIONS OF HIS FRIENDS, ALEC IS BROUGHT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH.--HIS BROTHER REQUIRES HIS PRESENCE IN ENGLAND, TO RECOVER HIS FATHER'S PROPERTY, AND HE SETS OFF.

Donald was still reading from his pocket Bible, but had begun to feel somewhat drowsy, when he was fully aroused by seeing a tall figure moving through the forest towards him. As the stranger approached, the light of the fire exhibited a person of a dark countenance, with black hair, in which were stuck a few tall feathers, while his coat and leggings, ornamented with fringe, were of untanned leather. Donald at once knew him to be one of the natives of the land. The Indian approached fearlessly, and sat down beside him.

"I see your fire from my camp," he said, in tolerable English. "I white man's friend. Where you go?"

Donald, who knew that the natives in that district were on friendly terms with the settlers, at once told him who he was, and the difficulty in which he was placed.

"I help you," said the Indian. "We not far from river. Canoe take up your friend to township."

The assistance offered was just what Donald had been praying for.

"God has sent you to my help, my friend," he said to the Indian, "and I gratefully accept your offer."

"You know God and His Son Jesus Christ?" asked the Indian.

"I do, my friend, praise His name that He has made Himself known to me."

"I know and love Him too," said the Indian. "He good Master; I wish all my people knew Him and served Him, then they not drink the fire-water, and vanish out of the land, as they are doing."

Donald grasped the Indian's hand. "I do, indeed, wish that not only your people, but mine also, were subjects of the Lord," he said. "Let us pray that we may have grace to make His name known among them."

The white man and the red knelt as brothers, side by side, and together offered up their prayers for the conversion of their countrymen.

"Please read God's Word to me," said the Indian. "I love to hear it."

Donald gladly did as he was requested, his companion occasionally asking him questions. It was nearly midnight before the Indian rose to return to his own camp, promising to come back in the morning with some of his people to convey Alec to the river.

Soon after daybreak, he appeared with a litter, which he had had constructed, and a supply of food, in case, as he said, his white brother might require it. Alec had been for some time awake. He did not appear surprised when the Indians arrived.

"I heard you reading to the stranger," he said, "but I was too weary to speak."

As soon as breakfast was over, Alec was placed on the litter, and the Indians bore him along lightly and easily through the forest. It was past noon before the bank of the stream was reached. Here they launched two of their canoes, which together were sufficient to convey the whole party. Alec was placed in one, under charge of the chief, and Donald took his seat in the other. At night they camped on shore, when Donald read the Bible to his redskin friends, Alec being apparently an attentive listener.

"It is strange," he afterwards remarked to Alec, "that that book should have such a power over the men of the wilderness as apparently to change their savage natures."

"God's Holy Spirit is the power applied to those who accept His offer made to them by means of the book," continued Donald. "You, my dear Alec, will experience the same change if you will but take God at His word and trust Him, although you, from having had these offers often made and rejected, may have to pass through many troubled waters, such as these children of the desert have not experienced. But remember His words, 'Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' 'What encouragement does that promise afford sinners, conscious that they are such, and tossed about with doubts and fears.'"

Alec made no reply. Donald, however, felt sure that the conduct and conversation of his Indian friends had had a great effect on his mind.

On the evening of the second day, the party reached the township, when the Indians conveyed Alec to Donald's house. The sincerity of the chief was proved, when he refused to receive any reward for the service he had rendered.

"No, no, my friend," he answered. "I rejoice to help brother Christians, for I remember the Lord's words, 'I was hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.'"

Alec, who had been laid on Donald's bed, desired to bid farewell to the Indians before they took their departure, and to thank them for the service they had rendered him.

"Do not speak of it, friend," answered the Indian. "Jesus, our Master, went about doing good. I only try to be like Him, and I very, very far away from that."

"It is wonderful, very wonderful," murmured Alec, after the Indians had left him. "I do not think my philosophy could have changed them as their faith in the Bible appears to have done."

Notwithstanding this, it was long before Donald perceived the desired change in his friend's heart.

The surprise of David may be supposed, when, on his arrival from the office, he found a stranger in the house, and discovered who he was, and though he grieved to see him in so sad a condition, yet he was thankful that he had thus been placed under his and his brother's care. Like brothers, indeed, they watched over him, assisted by Mr Skinner, who, as they had to be constantly absent, proposed taking up his abode with them till Alec's recovery.

"I shall make a capital nurse," he said, "and may be able to minister to a mind diseased."

Donald had also obtained the assistance of a surgeon, who at first seemed very doubtful whether Alec would ever recover the use of his limb, and expressed himself somewhat carelessly to that effect in the hearing of his patient. Alec groaned.

"To be a miserable cripple and a friendless beggar for the rest of my life," he muttered.

"No, no, dear Alec, you will not be either friendless or a beggar," said David, who sat by his side. "While Donald and I live you will find means of employment, even if you lose the use of your leg; and I am sure you know enough of us to feel that we can only rejoice to have you beneath our roof."

For many days Alec continued ill and feverish, and seemed to pay but little attention to what Mr Skinner from time to time said to him, although his kind friend spoke most judiciously, and always sought the right season for speaking. He did not always, indeed, address him directly.

"It seems surprising to me," he observed, one day, "that anyone should fail to acknowledge that man is composed of two parts, the physical and spiritual, and that God, his maker, who has so amply provided for his physical wants, and formed this world so beautifully and so perfect, should have neglected supplying the wants of his spiritual part--by far the most important--with what it so greatly requires, guidance and direction; and above all things, what it so yearns after, a knowledge of Him who formed it. Now those who really study the book (which professes to be given by God) according to the way He in it points out,--namely, in a humble spirit,--with prayer for enlightenment--invariably find that want fully supplied; and making due allowance for the various constitutions of the human mind, they are entirely agreed on all cardinal points regarding the Bible, while its opponents, who profess to be guided by the light of reason alone, differ in every possible way, their theories being almost countless; while they agree only in denying the authority of a book, of the Divine nature of which they have no experimental knowledge, declining, in their pride, to follow the directions it gives them for obtaining that knowledge. Then, when we take a glance round the heathen world, past and present, we find men following courses, with habits and customs destructive to human happiness, and abhorrent to the conscience which God has given man when uncontaminated by them. Contrast the result which the theories of philosophers and the heathen systems produced, with that which the mild loving faith Christ taught, if universally adopted, would bring about in the world, and who would hesitate between the two? And then when, in addition, we remember that Christ ensures to His followers eternal happiness, greater even than the mind of man can comprehend, what madness is it in those who hesitate to accept His offers! True, there are mysteries which even the Bible does not explain, such as the existence of Satan; but it does explain why Satan has power over man, and why sin and misery and death came into the world. This was the reason that man was disobedient, that man refused to trust to his Maker and listened to Satan. Man, in the pride of youth, health, and strength, and mental powers, may look with contempt on the Gospel, but God, in His loving mercy brings down those He loves, by poverty, suffering, and loss of friends, and then they feel their weakness and the vanity of all human systems, and are led to turn to Him who alone can lift them up and give them comfort, and a promise of a better life. How plain and easy are the demands He makes; how full of mercy; how simple is the plan He has arranged."

Alec, as usual, had had been listening attentively to all Mr Skinner had said. He never attempted to argue with him. He had long lost all confidence in the correctness of the notions he had held. Tears filled his eyes. "I believe, help Thou my unbelief," he ejaculated, in a broken voice.

His health and strength had been rapidly improving. Through the assistance of his friends, when perfectly recovered, he obtained employment, and was soon able to lay by money, and to feel himself independent. Notwithstanding this, by his life and conversation, he showed that the good seed had taken root; the only companionship he sought was that of Donald and David, and Mr Skinner, and other true Christians whom he could meet with in the neighbourhood. He had followed his friends' example, and purchased a piece of land, which he had commenced cultivating, and on which he told them he hoped soon to put up a substantial log-house.

"You will not like to live a solitary life," said Donald. "You will want a companion. I did not get on half as well as I do now before David came out."

"Perhaps I may some day find one," answered Alec, smiling. "I shall live on in hopes that one of congenial tastes to my own may be sent me."

"Till you find him you must promise to remain on with us," said Donald. "We cannot part with you, and I suspect that we should be jealous of any one whom you might select."

A short time after this Alec received a letter from one of his long absent brothers, who had returned to England. He wrote saying that he had looked into their father's affairs, and found that there was yet some property which might be recovered, but that it would require his presence and that of the rest of the family, to settle the matter. A remittance, to enable him, without inconvenience, to pay his passage home, was enclosed in the letter. Donald and David were truly glad to hear of this.

"You must not be persuaded, Alec, however, to stay away," they exclaimed. "You must promise to come back as soon as your affairs are arranged. You are wanted in this country."

Mr Skinner, while he congratulated his young friend on the brightening of his worldly prospects, cautioned him affectionately against the temptations to which he might be exposed.

"I know that I am very weak," answered Alec, humbly. "But I go forth, not in my own strength but seeking the aid and direction of God's Holy Spirit."

"While that is sought, and it will never be denied, you will be strong, and I have no fear of the result," was the answer.

The Morrisons and Mr Skinner undertook to look after Alec's property during his absence, and he set off on his journey to England. _

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