Part 19

Mr. Collison mentions that during the winter he conducted a class of catechumens, and that, after due examination by Bishop Ridley, seventy -two persons, men and women, were baptized on Sundays, Jan. 25th and Feb. 1st, of the present year, 1880. During the year under review sixty-three children also were baptized. "Thus," writes Mr. Collison, "the visible Church increases; but our greatest care and concern is that they may be united to Christ by a living faith, and grow up in Him into a spiritual temple, of which Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner-stone."

* * * * *

Such is the story of Metlakahtla and the North Pacific Mission. An unfinished story, indeed, the plot of which is still unfolding itself, and the issues of which, in this world, are known only to Him who sees the end from the beginning. And yet a story which, embracing as it does, the separate life-stories of many individuals, again and again comes to a true "end," to an "end" for which we may well render unceasing praise. What the destiny of Metlakahtla may be, none can say; but what the destiny is of soul after soul that has passed away in peace and hope, and that owed that peace and hope, under God, to the influence of Metlakahtla, we do know. The day is coming--it may be very soon--when Metlakahtla will, share the universal fate of the things that are seen and temporal, and will have become a mere memory of the past, while the men and women, and children, whom it brought to the God and Father of all to be washed, and sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, live on and on in the power of an endless life. No tall church spire, rising from the inlet of Kahtla will then be needed to guide the mariner through the Archipelago of the North Pacific coast, "for there shall be no more sea." But the great temple of living souls will stand forth in all its glory and beauty, and among the stones of that spiritual house will be many hewn from the quarry in the Far West. Tsimshean and Hydah, and many another Red Indian tribe, shall find a place in the building which, fitly framed together, shall then have grown into a holy temple unto the Lord. Happy indeed will those then be who have had a share, however humble, in the work of raising it, stone by stone, to His praise who will make it His dwelling for ever!

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

1776. Discovery of Vancouver's Island by Captain Cook.

1792. Further discoveries by Captain Vancouver.

1819. Attention of the C. M. S. Committee drawn to the Indian Tribes on the North Pacific Coast.

1856. July. Captain Prevost's Appeal for British Columbia appeared in the C. M. Intelligencer.

" Contribution of L500 received to begin a North Pacific Mission.

" Dec. 23. William Duncan sailed with Captain Prevost in the Satellite.

1857. June 13. The Satellite reached Vancouver's Island.

" Oct. 1. Duncan reached Fort Simpson.

1858 June 13. Duncan preached his first Sermon in Tsimshean.

" Nov. 19. Duncan opened a School for Indian children.

" Dec. 20. Legaic's attack on Duncan.

1859. Bishopric of Columbia founded.

1860. April. Duncan's first visit to Nass River.

" Aug. 8. Arrival of Rev. L. S Tugwell.

1861. July 26. First baptism of Indians--nineteen adults.

" Oct. 10. Return home of Mr. Tugwell.

1862. May 28. Foundation of the new Settlement at Metlakahtla.

1863. April. Visit of the Bishop of Columbia to Metlakahtla--Baptism of fifty-seven adults.

1864. July 2. Arrival of Rev. R. A. Doolan.

" Nass River Mission begun.

1865. May. Second visit of Bishop of Columbia.

1867. May 27. Arrival of Rev. R. Tomlinson.

" Aug. Return home of Mr. Doolan.

" Kincolith Station established on Nass River.