n.

Perhaps, too, some warlike captain, dressed in his buff-coat, with a
corslet beneath it, accompanied the governor and counsellors. Laying his
hand upon his sword hilt, he would declare, that the only method of
dealing with the red men was to meet them with the sword drawn, and the
musket presented.

But the apostle resisted both the craft of the politician, and the
fierceness of the warrior.

"Treat these sons of the forest as men and brethren," he would say, "and
let us endeavor to make them Christians. Their forefathers were of that
chosen race, whom God delivered from Egyptian bondage. Perchance he has
destined us to deliver the children from the more cruel bondage of
ignorance and idolatry. Chiefly for this end, it may be, we were directed
across the ocean."

When these other visitors were gone, Mr. Eliot bent himself again over the
half written page. He dared hardly relax a moment from his toil. He felt
that, in the book which he was translating, there was a deep human, as
well as heavenly wisdom, which would of itself suffice to civilize and
refine the savage tribes. Let the Bible be diffused among them, and all
earthly good would follow. But how slight a consideration was this, when
he reflected that the eternal welfare of a whole race of men depended upon
his accomplishment of the task which he had set himself! What if his hands
should be palsied? What if his mind should lose its vigor? What if death
should come upon him, ere the work were done? Then must the red man wander
in the dark wilderness of heathenism for ever.

Impelled by such thoughts as these, he sat writing in the great chair,
when the pleasant summer breeze came in through his open casement; and
also when the fire of forest logs sent up its blaze and smoke, through the
broad stone chimney, into the wintry air. Before the earliest bird sang,
in the morning, the apostle's lamp was kindled; and, at midnight, his
weary head was not yet upon its pillow. And at length, leaning back in the
great chair, he could say to himself, with a holy triumph,--"The work is
finished!"

It was finished. Here was a Bible for the Indians. Those long lost
descendants of the ten tribes of Israel would now learn the history of
their forefathers. That grace, which the ancient Israelites had forfeited,
was offered anew to their children.

There is no impiety in believing that, when his long life was over, the
apostle of the Indians was welcomed to the celestial a