of the missionaries, and was a willing and able instrument in
propagating the doctrine which he had embraced among his
countrymen. A few of them soon followed his example; and
a small community of proselytes was formed, which in a few
years increased to a considerable number.
When such a commencement had once been made, the conversion
of the Esquimaux of Greenland to Christianity seems
copying part of a translation of the Gospels, he read a portion of it to these savages,
and took an opportunity of explaining it to them. £ The Holy Spirit, ’ say the
missionaries, c prompted this brother to describe the agonies and death of Christ,
with more and more energy ; and he exhorted them with a warm heart to think
seriously how much it had cost our Saviour to redeem us, and that on that account
they should by no means withhold their hearts from, him, which he had
earned at so dear a price; for he had been, wounded, and shed his blood, and
died to purchase them, and had endured such anguish of soul, that it made him
sweat blood. At the same time he read, out o f the New Testament, the history
of our Saviour’s agony on the Mount of Olives^ and of his bloody sweat. Then
the Lord opened the heart of one of the pagans, whose name was Kajamak, and
he stepped up to the table and said with a loud, earnest, and affecting v<fip, ‘ Sow
was that ? tell me that once more, for I fain would he saved 40%’ c These words,’
-says the missionary, c penetrated my very soul, and kindled in me such, an Ardour
that I gave the Greenlanders a full account of our Saviour’s whole life and death,
and of the counsel of God for our salvation, while tears ran down, my cheeks.’
From that time Kajamak became a disciple of the missionaries, and was a willing
and able instrument in propagating the Christian doctrine among his countrymen.”
In a further account of the state of the new converts, written a few'years after
the transaction above related, we find the following reflections.
,« Though the woeful state of the heathen still grieved the brethren, yet the
fruits of grace which they discern in Kajamak and the rest of the catechumens
rejoiced them more and more. They evinced plain signs, not only of a true consciousness
of a divine- being and erf a profound reverence for him ; not only joy
that Christ will raise the dead, and that believers will be happy in another world,
but principally a real sense _of their own misery, a joy in the love of God manifested
to the fallen human race, in the atonement by Christ, and a .growing desire
after the word of life. It was plainly to be seen that the work of grace had taken
deep root in their hearts, by a change of life, by a voluntary abstinence from
heathenish vanities, and by cheerfully enduring the reproach of their infidel
countrymen, by whom they were forsaken, hated and despised. Kajarnak, after
his country people had been catechised by the missionaries, used to subjoin an exhortation,
that, having been so long ignorant, they should now embrace the truth
with «—willing and thankful heart, and let it effect a true change; or he would
sometimes conclude with a short hut fervent prayer. And here let it be observed,
that this was not a thing he was ordered or led to do, but of his, own free impulse.
He had at the same time a clear head, helped his teachers to the words they wanted
iu the language of the Greenlanders, and often corrected them, because be pretty
well understood their meaning,”
to have proceeded rapidly,; In the year 1744, it was evident
that a considerable effect, had been produced upon the minds
of the people- geftetally sugreat number® WOT©;- interested in
the t suhjeefei which the missionariesfjset | before them. In
1748, not less than two hund?ed>a»d thirtyreQMeftSr®ejided
at -Mew Herrohnt, ■ thijty-five rof .whom : had, -been baptized
during the y e a r,. “ Though ; these - .people : - are not without
imperfections,” say the-historians pf these missions, “ it is
yet evident that they are advancing. Their intercourse with
one whether is become more and more characterised by tpu-
tual; kindness hnd the proofs of real eP^version-” A few
years afterwards it was observed, ■ that though nearly bwo
hundred - persons baptized by the missionaries had- finished
their earth lyeareen the congregation now ^9Épiste|l%f ife lf
hundred persons. “ Inoge, 1742l> When the first general pwakem*
ing of the natives? commenced, the increase > has been ; confit
derable in proportion to the population of the country.”'. JS’èr
ver al newcolonies- bad now been established g by 'th e Dawes*
provided -with missionaries- from
hagen. These we^e; stationed in different pafte.pfrftheacopit
try. Two additionaLsettlementswere founded by-the United
Brethren in 175§iffnd l774, a t Lichtenfels and at Lichtenau,
new:icpftpb Thrswrfh where there was sopn a congregation, qf
two hundred and five baptized Greenlanders. In the coar
clusion of-the history drawn up a few years ago* it is observed,
- that sine© the commencement, of the mission,- a very
remarkable moral changejaas takenplace inth© state of the
country and the character of the natives. “ Along the whole
extent of the western coast, the barbarities of savage life and
the enormitiss eyer attending Paganism where it is dominant
are now rarely to b# met. with ; and the, stat© of.4be-^oantry,
Compared with what it was eighty,Or *bu& fifty yearsrago, may
be tefmed civilized; ’ The nature’and climate of this dreary
region, and the methods by which the natives proCure^theif
subsistence, necessarily pKeçliadntheintrodnetiw^many (tris
of-civilized society. Th© pieople can nèitfaertill the. land nor
employ themsélffes in manufactures., Éj A Greent'ander can
neither live in the European manner n o r. clothe like
an European, dwelling as he does; on sterile rpeks and under
o f | |