Rev. Egerton R. Young was asked to speak five minutes
Rev. E. R. Young, Toronto, Canada. We had a glorious camp meeting this summer among the Indians. I invited you to come, and I invite you again. There were about thirty white people there with us. When we heard of the news about your beloved President I was with the Indians, and more than a thousand of them fell on their knees while we prayed for his restoration.
We were all filled with sorrow over the terrible news. We people of Canada have felt his death as a personal loss. Our cities were draped in black, our flags were at half-mast, and at the time of the funeral services were held in all of our chief churches. We rejoice and thank God for this mighty Republic, whose heart during these later years has learned to beat more and more in sympathy with the motherland. Both lands are doing the great work of giving the gospel and liberty and freedom to the different races which come under them in this great world of ours.
I should like to have referred to the English method of dealing with the Indians, and tell you how it is that we have never had a war with any Indian tribe or spent a dollar in feeding Indians, and politics is forever banished from the selection of Indian agents, but there is no time. Let me give you one incident in connection with our camp meeting this summer in closing. Two or three drunken Indians came to the camp ground one day, and some of the white people said, “Send them to jail;” but there were some Christian Indians gathered there, and they said, “There is a little house out beyond the village, and there are some good beds and plenty of food, and we will send some of our people with these drunken young fellows to keep them quiet and sober; and when they are sober we will bring them to the prayer meeting and try to get the spirit of Christ in them instead of the spirit of fire water.” That is the sort of thing that Christian Indians will do.