Egerton Ryerson

“The next morning was, as usual, bright and cloudless, but it was bitterly cold. The mercury was frozen in one thermometer, and in the other one the spirit indicated fifty-five below zero. Yet so impatient were these spirited children to be off with their gifts to Souwanas, and with something also for each member of the family, that their pleadings prevailed. A cariole with plenty of fur robes was soon at the door, and with old Kennedy as their driver they were soon speeding away behind a train of dogs.””

“Except for the priests who accompanied Cortez, Pizarro, and other military adventurers in the early sixteenth century, priests were only laboring in Florida and the Rio Grande country for the conversion of the natives. They counted their converts by thousands long before any considerable settlement of English speaking people had been formed on the continent.””

“One genuine case was that of an old man who was one of the Wood Cree Indians that lived beyond Norway House. He renounced his old life and habits, burned his medicine bag, and gave himself to the Saviour. Great and marvelous was the change produced in him. When he came to the church for baptism, in answer to my question, “Name this man,” he promptly said, “Call me Daniel.” “Why Daniel?” I asked. “Because,” he replied, “I heard you preach about Daniel, and you told about his being delivered from the lions. It was a great deliverance, but not as great as mine from my sins.” Then, lifting up his right hand and looking intently at it, he said in a voice that almost startled us all: “Missionary, that hand has mixed the poisons that have killed fourteen people. I have been a very wicked man, but I have heard the Great Spirit’s voice. I have come to him and he has saved me, and my deliverance is greater than that of Daniel, for I was in a deeper, darker place, but he has brought me out into the light.” So, amid the hushed excitement of the audience, we baptized him Daniel. BANFF SPRING HOTEL, CANADIAN NATIONAL PARK””