Burned Bridges | Page 9

the job undertaken before by folk who--beggin' your
pardon--ha' little conception of the country, the people in it, or the
needs of either. Ye'll find the Cree has more concern for meat an'
clothes, for traps an' powder, than he has for his soul. Ye'll understand
this better when ye ha' more experience in the North. Indeed, it's no
impossible ye might come to the same way of thinkin' in time."
The dusk hid the shocked expression that gathered on Thompson's face.
"'What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world if he knoweth not
God?'" he quoted gravely. "The priests of the Catholic church have
long carried on missionary work among these tribes. We of the
Protestant faith would be lacking if we did not try to extend our field, if
we made no effort to bear light into the dark places. Man's spiritual
need is always greater than any material need can ever be. I hardly
expect to accomplish a great deal at first. But the work will grow."
"I see, I see," MacLeod chuckled dryly. "It's partly a matter of the
Methodist Church tryin' to compete with the fathers, eh? Well, I am no

what ye'd call devout. I ha' had much experience wi' these red folk, an'
them that's both red an' white. An' I dinna agree with ye aboot their
speeritual needs. I think ye sky-pilots would do better to leave them to
their ain gods, such as they are. Man, do ye know that it's better than a
century since the fathers began their missionary labors? A hundred
years of teachin' an' preachin'. The sum of it a' is next to nothin'--an'
naebody knows that better than the same fathers. They're wise,
keen-sighted men, too. What good they do they do in a material way. If
men like ye came here wi' any certitude of lightenin' the struggle for
existence--but ye canna do that; or at least ye dinna do that. Ye'll find
that neither red men nor white ha' time or inclination to praise the Lord
an' his grace an' bounty when their life's one long struggle wi' hardships
an' adversity. The God ye offer them disna mitigate these things.
Forbye that, the Indian disna want to be Christianized. When ye come
to a determination of abstract qualities, his pagan beliefs are as good for
him as the God of the Bible. What right ha' we to cram oor speeritual
dogmas doon his gullet?"
MacLeod applied himself to relighting his pipe. Thompson gathered
himself together. He was momentarily stricken with speechless
amazement. He knew there were such things as critical unbelievers, but
he had never encountered one in the flesh. His life had been too
excellently supervised and directed in youth by the spinster aunts. Nor
does materialistic philosophy flourish in a theological seminary. Young
men in training for the ministry are taught to strangle doubt whenever it
rears its horrid head, to see only with the single eye of faith.
Neither the bitterness of experience nor a natural gentleness of spirit
had ever permitted Thompson to know the beauty and wisdom of
tolerance. Whosoever disputed his creed and his consecrated purpose
must be in error. The evangelical spirit glowed within him when he
faced the factor across the little table. Figuratively speaking he cleared
for action. His host, being a hard-headed son of a disputatious race, met
him more than half-way. As a result midnight found them still wordily
engaged, one maintaining with emotional fervor that man's spiritual
welfare was the end and aim of human existence; the other as
outspoken--if more calmly and critically so--in his assertion that a

tooth-and-toenail struggle for existence left no room in any rational
man's life for the manner of religion set forth in general by churches
and churchmen. The edge of acrimony crept into the argument.
"The Lord said, 'Leave all thou hast and follow me,'" Thompson
declared. "My dear sir, you cannot dispute--"
"Ay, but yon word was said eighteen hundred years past," MacLeod
interrupted. "Since which day there's been a fair rate o' progress in
man's knowledge of himself an' his needs. The Biblical meeracles in the
way o' provender dinna happen nowadays--although some ither modern
commonplaces would partake o' the meeraculous if we didna have a
rational knowledge of their process. Men are no fed wi' loaves and
fishes until they themselves ha' first gotten the loaves an' the fish. At
least, it disna so happen i' the Pachugan deestreect. It's much the same
the world over, but up here especially ye'll find that the problem o'
subsistence is first an' foremost, an' excludes a' else till it's solved."
With this MacLeod, weary of an unprofitable controversy, arose, took
up a candle and showed his scandalized guest the way to bed.
Thompson