The Story of My Life Part 10

_Feb. 28th._--This month presents the most mournful portrait I have ever beheld in retrospect of my past time since I began to travel.

Since I visited my friends everything has gone against me. The season of recreation was not improved as it ought to have been; I lost the unction of the Holy One, and returned to my Circuit depressed in mind. Shall I sink down in despair? No, I will return unto the Lord. He has smitten, He will heal. I will go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. I will renew my covenant, and offer my poor all to him once more.

_March 23rd._--This day closes my twenty-third year and the first of my ministry. How mysterious was the providence which induced me to enter the itinerant ministry. It was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in my eyes. Since I have devoted myself to Him in a perpetual covenant, how great has been His paternal care over me. I have felt the rod of affliction, but, He has sanctified it. I have been a.s.sailed by temptation, but He has delivered me. I have been caressed and flattered, but the Lord, in great mercy, has saved me from the dangerous rocks of vanity and pride. My soul has at times been overspread with clouds and darkness, but the "Sun of Righteousness has again risen" with brightness on his wings. I have oft been cast down, but blessed be the Lord who has given me the "oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." My mind at times has been filled with doubts and fears, and I have been tempted to say, "I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency," but the Lord has saved my feet from slipping, and established my goings upon a firm foundation. He has put a new song into my mouth, and enabled me to say, "What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee."

_April 17th._--This day, for the first time, I have declared to the aborigines of the country that "Jesus is precious to those who believe." My heart rejoiced in G.o.d, who is claiming the heathen for His inheritance.

_April 19th._--[On this day Dr. Ryerson wrote from Saltfleet to his Mother. He said:--

As you, my dear Mother, were always anxious about my health, I write to-day to a.s.sure you that since I left home it has been extremely good.

I think I am making some small progress in those attainments which are only acquired by prayer, and holy devotedness to G.o.d. I find the work I have undertaken is an all-important one. I have many things to learn, and many things to unlearn. I have had some severe trials, and some mortifying scenes. At other times I have been unspeakably blessed, and I have been greatly encouraged at some favourable prospects. Several times my views have been greatly enlarged, and my mind enlightened, while, with a warm and full heart, I have been trying to address a large and much affected congregation. It is not my endeavour to shine, or to please, but to speak to the heart and the conscience. And with a view to this, I have aimed at the root of injurious prejudices, and notions that I have found prevalent in different places. I find, by experience, that a firm reliance on the power and grace of Christ is everything. I hope that you, my dear Mother, will pray for me that the Lord will give me grace, power, and wisdom to do my whole duty.

I am very sorry to hear of your ill-health. I hope and pray that the Father of all mercies will continue to support, comfort, and deliver you, in the midst of your afflictions and sorrows. Blessed be the Lord, dear Mother, the day is not far distant when you can rest your weary spirit in the arms of Jesus; and should I survive you, while you are pursuing the blessed, triumphant theme of redeeming love, in strains the most exalted, I will endeavour in my feeble way to follow you to the same blessed kingdom.

Brother William received a letter from John last week. His health is very bad. His excessive labour has overcome him. He has forty appointments in four weeks. He is now stationed in Kingston.--H.]

_April 25th._--For several days past I have been altogether engaged in writing a controversial pamphlet, and have attended little to the duty of self-examination.

_April 28th._--I have been much blessed in reading the Journal of John Nelson. When I compare the unwearied labours, and severe sufferings of that brave soldier of the Cross, with my little efforts and sufferings, I blush for my lukewarmness, and am ashamed of my fearfulness.

_May 10th._--[In these early days, the Methodist ministers had but little time for study before commencing their ministerial labours, and, as Dr. Ryerson often told me, they had to resort to many expedients to secure the necessary time for reading and study. This had often to be done on horseback. Dr. Ryerson's eldest brother, George, who had attended Union College, N.Y., turned his advantages in this respect to a good account. He sought to stimulate his younger brothers to devote every spare moment to suitable preparation for their work. In reply to a letter on this subject, from Rev. George Ryerson to his brother William, he said:--

I thank you for your kind advice respecting composition, and shall endeavour to follow it, although my necessary duties leave but very little time for literary improvement. Since I saw you, I have been princ.i.p.ally engaged in Biblical studies which I find both profitable and interesting. I am now engaged in reading the Bible through in course with Dr. Adam Clarke's notes, also Paley's books.

I received a letter from brother John a few days since. He had received a number into the Society, and there were a number more who appeared to be seriously awakened. Elder Madden, who was at York last week, says that Egerton is well, and that the cause of religion is prospering in York, and on the Yonge Street Circuit. We have had but very little increase in Niagara since I saw you, although our congregation is very large and attentive.--H.]

_May 18th._--[In writing to-day to his brother George, Dr. Ryerson mentioned that he and Elder Case had visited the Credit Indians. Elder Case, he said, had come up to get Mrs. Wm. Kerr (_nee_ Brant) to correct the translation of one of the Gospels, and some hymns, in order to have them printed. He also wished Peter Jones to go down and preach to the Indians on the Bay of Quinte (Tyendinaga). It was there, he said, that the work of religion had begun to spread among them. About twelve had experienced religion, and others are under awakening. They do not, he said, understand enough English to receive religious instruction in that language; and, therefore, he wished Peter Jones to go down for two or three weeks.

In this letter Dr. Ryerson said: I think the cause of religion is prospering in different parts of the Circuit. Upwards of thirty have been added to us in this town (York) since Conference, and our present prospects are equally encouraging. My colleague is a man who is wholly devoted to the work of saving souls. I hope that G.o.d will give us an abundant harvest.

I am employing all my leisure time in the prosecution of my studies. I also practice composition. I am reading Rollin's Ancient History, Greek, and miscellaneous works. Are Father, and Mother, and all the family well? How are their minds disposed towards G.o.d and heaven?

We have formed a Missionary Society in this place. I think we shall collect $40 or $50. I hope that period is not remote when the whole colony will be brought into a state of salvation!--H.]

_June 7th._--My mind has been much afflicted with care and anxiety, for some days, on account of the controversy in which I am engaged.

I feel it to be the cause of G.o.d; and I am resolved to follow truth and the Holy Scriptures in whatever channel they will lead me. Oh, Lord, I commend my feeble efforts to thy blessings! Grant me wisdom from above; and take the cause into thy own hands, for thy name's sake!

_June 25th._--I have spent some days in visiting my friends, and also attending a Camp-meeting. The weather has been very unfavourable; but the showers that watered the earth are now past, and showers of Divine blessing are descending. The song of praise is ascending, and sinners are crying for mercy. Oh, Lord, carry on the glorious work!

_July 7th._--The enemy gained victory over me to-day, by tempting me to neglect Cla.s.s for other employments. But I was defeated.

Company coming in, I was hindered from doing what I desired.

Conscience condemned, and darkness and distress followed. Oh, Lord, henceforth help me _to do my duty_!

_July 9th.--Sabbath._--I was called this evening to a drunken, dying man. He was entirely ignorant both of his bodily and spiritual danger. What a scene! An immortal soul just plunging into h.e.l.l, and yet hoping for heaven! How awful is the state of one whom G.o.d gives over to believe a lie! His life is ended, his family dest.i.tute, and his soul lost!

_July 19th._--Surely nothing can afford more pleasure to an enquiring mind bent on historical researches, than the perusal of doc.u.ments relating to the ancient chosen people of G.o.d. That a people who could, according to their legitimate records, number more than eight hundred thousand fighting men, should slip from the records of men, hide themselves from human observation, and inhabit limits beyond geographical research, is a phenomenon unprecedented in the world's history; and that they should remain in this state more than two thousand years, among the vast discoveries which travellers have made, is still more surprising. Such is the wonderful government of Him whose ways are past finding out. I trust the day is not far distant when the lost will be found, and the dead be alive!

_July 26th._--For several days I have been holding meetings and conferences with the Indians. Their hearts are open to receive instruction, and their hands extended to receive the bread of life.

If the Lord will open the way, I will try to acquire a knowledge of their language. My soul longs to bring them to the Word of Truth.

_July 30th._--A day or two since I had the pleasure of seeing a brother whose ecclesiastical duties have separated us for nearly a year. How many tender recollections of G.o.d's care and merciful dealings, since our last meeting rushed upon our minds. But while enabled to rejoice together, we were called upon to mourn the loss of one brother, taken away to the world of spirits.

_August 17th._--Scarcely a day pa.s.ses without beholding new openings to extend my ministerial labours. To-day, in an affecting manner, I witnessed the hands of suffering humanity stretched forth to receive the word of life. More than five hundred aborigines of the country were a.s.sembled in one place. In a moral point of view, they may be said to be "sitting in the valley of the shadow of death." "The day star from on high" has not yet dawned upon them.

Alas! are they to perish for lack of knowledge? Can not the dry bones live? Oh, thou who art able to raise up children unto Abraham! speak the word, devise the means, and these long lost prodigals shall return to their father's house! I noticed activity, both in body and mind, superior skill in curious workmanship; genius flashed in their countenances; and yet shall these n.o.ble powers be bound fast in the cruel chains of ignorance, and these immortal spirits go from a rayless night to midnight tomb? Oh, Thou Light of the World, shine upon them! One of their nation whom G.o.d has plucked as a brand from the burning, attempted to explain the Christian religion to them. They listened and bowed a.s.sent, saying "ha, ha." Oh, Lord, if Thou wilt qualify me and send me to dispense to them the Bread of Life, I will throw myself upon Thy mercy, and submit to Thy will.

_August 20th._--Amongst all the authors with whom I am acquainted, who treat on Church Government, the Rev. Dr. Campbell is the most clear and satisfactory. With a great deal of talent, penetration, and research, he exhibits the Church in all her various forms, till her power made empires tremble, and her riches bid defiance to poverty. His excellent lectures have enlarged my mind on the subject of ecclesiastical polity, and rendered my feelings more liberal. I am convinced that form of government is best which most secures order and union in society.

_August 20th--Sabbath._--To-day closes my ministerial labours at York, where I have been stationed for two years. Many precious seasons have I enjoyed; and, blessed be the Lord, He has set His seal to my labours, and I think I can call G.o.d to witness that I have not failed in my feeble way to declare the whole counsel of G.o.d. Oh, Lord, seal it with Thy Spirit's power!

FOOTNOTES:

[6] A fuller reference to this subject will be found in Chapters vi. and viii.--H.

[7] Letters to the Hon. W. H. Draper on "_The Clergy Reserve Question; as a Matter of History, a Question of Law, and a Subject of Legislation_." Toronto, 1839, pp. 11, 12.

CHAPTER IV.

1826-1827.

Missionary to the River Credit Indians.

At the Conference of 1826, I was appointed Missionary to the Indians at the Credit, but was required to continue the second year as preacher, two Sundays out of four, in the Town of York, of which my elder brother, William, was superintendent, including in his charge several other townships. He was aided by a colleague, who preached in the country, but not in the town.

The Chippewa tribe of Indians had a tract of land on the Credit River, on which the Government proposed to build a village of some twenty or thirty cottages, with the intention of building a church for them and inducing them to join the Church of England, upon the pretext that the Methodist preachers were Yankees. As my Father had been a British officer, and fought seven years during the American Rebellion for the unity of the Empire, was the first High Sheriff in the London District (having been appointed in 1808); and had, with his sons, fought in defence of the country in the war of the United States with Great Britain, in 1812-1815, and my father's elder brother having been the organizer of the Militia and Courts of the London District, the name Ryerson became a sort of synonym for loyalist throughout the official circles of the province; and my appointment, therefore, as the first stationed Missionary among the Indians, and from thence to other tribes, was a veritable and standing proof that the imputation of disloyalty against the Methodist Missionaries was groundless.

When I commenced my labours among these poor Credit Indians (about two hundred in number) they had not entered into the cottages which the Government had built for them on the high ground, but still lived in their bark-covered wigwams on the flats beside the bank of the River Credit. One of them, made larger than the others, was used for a place of worship. In one of these bark-covered and brush-enclosed wigwams, I ate and slept for some weeks; my bed consisting of a plank, a mat, and a blanket, and a blanket also for my covering; yet I was never more comfortable and happy:--G.o.d, the Lord, was the strength of my heart, and--

"Jesus, all the day long, was my joy and my song."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Indian Village at the River Credit in 1827--Winter.]

Maintaining my dignity as a minister, I showed the Indians that I could work and live as they worked and lived.

Having learned that it was intended by the advisers of the Lieutenant-Governor, on the completion of the cottages, to erect an Episcopal Church of England for the absorption of the Indian converts from the Methodists into that Church, I resolved to be before them, and called the Indians together on the Monday morning after the first Sunday's worship with them, and using the head of a barrel for a desk, commenced a subscription among them to build a house for the double purpose of the worship of G.o.d and the teaching of their children. Never did the Israelites, when a.s.sembled and called upon by King David, (as recorded in the 29th chapter of the first book of Chronicles) to subscribe for the erection of the Temple, respond with more cordiality and liberality, in proportion to their means, than did these converted children of the forest come forward and present their humble offerings for the erection of a house in which to worship G.o.d, and teach their children. The squaws came forward to subscribe from shillings to dollars, the proceeds of what they might earn and sell in baskets, mats, moccasins, &c., and the men subscribed with corresponding heartiness and liberality of the salmon that they should catch--which were then abundant in the river, and which, I think, sold for about twelve and a half cents each.

On the same day, a plan of the house was prepared, and I engaged on my own individual responsibility, a carpenter-mason, by the name of Priestman (who had been employed by the Government to build the Indian cottages), to build and finish the house for the double purpose of worship and school, and then mounted my horse and visited my old friends in York, on Yonge Street, Hamilton, and Niagara Circuits, and begged money to pay for all, and at the end of six weeks the house was built and paid for, while our "swell" friends of the Government and of the Church of England were consulting and talking about the matter. It was thus that the Church-standing of these Indian converts was maintained, and they were enabled to walk in the Lord Jesus as they had found Him.

My labours this season were very varied and severe. I had to travel to York (eighteen miles) on horseback, often through very bad roads, and preach two Sundays out of four (my second year in town). After having collected the means necessary to build the house of worship and school-house, I showed the Indians how to enclose and make gates for their gardens, having some knowledge and skill in mechanics.[8]

Between daylight and sunrise, I called out four of the Indians in succession, and showed them how, and worked with them, to clear and fence in, and plow and plant their first wheat and corn fields. In the afternoon, I called out the school-boys to go with me, and cut and pile, and burn the underbrush in and around the village. The little fellows worked with great glee, as long as I worked with them, but soon began to play when I left them.

In addition to my other work, I had to maintain a heavy controversy with several clergymen of the Church of England on Apostolic Ordination and Succession, and the equal civil rights and privileges of different religious denominations.[9]

A few months after my appointment to the Credit Indian Mission, the Government made the annual distribution of presents to the Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe Indians--all of whom were a.s.sembled at the Holland Landing, on the banks of the Holland River, at the southwest extremity of Lake Simcoe. They consisted chiefly of the Snake tribe, the Yellowhead tribe (Yellowhead was the head Chief), and the John Aissance tribe. Peter Jones and I, with John Sunday, had visited this tribe at Newmarket, the year before, and preached to them and held meetings with them, when they embraced the Christian religion, and remained true and faithful. Peter Jones and myself attended the great annual meeting of the Indians, and opened the Gospel Mission among them. In my first address, which was interpreted by Peter Jones, I explained to the a.s.sembled Indians the cause of their poverty, misery, and wretchedness, as resulting from their having offended the Great Being who created them, but who still loved them so much as to send His Son to save them, and to give them new hearts, that they might forsake their bad ways, be sober and industrious; not quarrel, but love one another, &c. I contrasted the superiority of the religion we brought to them over that of those who used images. This gave great offence to the French Roman Catholic Indian traders, who said they would kill me, and beat Peter Jones. On hearing this, Col. Givens, the Chief Indian Superintendent, called them together and told them that the Missionary Ryerson's father was a good man for the King, and had fought for him in two wars--in the last of which his sons had fought with him--and that if they hurt one of these sons, they would offend their great father the King; that Peter Jones' father had surveyed Government lands on which many of the Indians lived. This representative of the Government, a man of n.o.ble feelings and generous impulses, threw over us the shield of Royal protection.

After the issuing of the goods to the Indians, Peter Jones remained with the Huron and Georgian Bay Indians, and preached to them with great power; while I went on board a schooner, with the Yellowhead Indians, for the Narrows, on the northern sh.o.r.e of Lake Simcoe, near Orillia, where the Indians owned Yellowhead (now Chief) Island, and which I examined with a view of selecting a place for worship, and for establishing a school. A Mission-school was established on this island.

It was afterwards removed by Rev. S. (now Dr.) Rose and others to the mainland at Orillia, and was faithfully taught by the late William Law (1827) and by the Rev. S. Rose (1831).