Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/256

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2i8 DISTINGUISHED CHURCHMEN

in which these people go about things. When I was ill with inflammation of the lungs, I discovered, but not until I was nearing the convalescent stage, that these people had prayed for three months for my recovery."

" What of their home life ? "

"Their homes are full of comfort, and are as well furnished as those of white working men. There is hardly a household without its sewing machine, and I don t think there is even one with out its musical instrument. Music, in fact, is generally loved among them, and you may be sur prised to hear that the average Indian will sing better than the average Englishman. To people in this country it would be amusing to see the number of Indian women in my Diocese who take in journals of fashion, so as to be quite up to date as regards dress. During the last twenty years, I may say, there has been a greater revolution of thought and transformation of character in British Columbia than in any other part of the mission field, excepting perhaps Uganda. I think our Christians are now a long way ahead of those in Uganda in the matter of literature, because we are producing our own, three presses being worked by Indians. The Christian Knowledge Society, to which we owe a great debt, gave us one press. Among the Indian tribes at first their languages were foreign to each other. They could not understand each other at all. Now the English language has become a sort

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