pirit had told His ancient people
the Jews to go and fight His enemies, and take possession of their
lands. Now he regards this as a contradiction. He says--How can a man
live peaceably with all men, and at the same time go to war with some
men, kill them, and take their lands?"

"Ah! Leo, my boy, your difficulty in answering the Eskimo lies in your
own _partial_ quotation of Scripture," said the Captain. Then, turning
to Chingatok, he added, "My young friend did not give you the whole
law--only part of it. The word is written thus:--`if it be _possible_,
as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.' Some times it is
_not_ possible, Chingatok; then we must fight. But the law says keep
from fighting `_as much as you can_.' Mind that, Chingatok, and if you
are ever induced to go to war for the sake of a little island--for the
sake of a little insult,--don't flatter yourself that you are keeping
out of it as much as lieth in you."

"Good, good," said the giant, earnestly; "Blackbeard's words are wise."

"As to the people of God in the long past," continued the Captain, "God
told them to go to war, so they went; but that does not authorise men to
go to war at their own bidding. What is right in the Great Father of
all may be very wrong in the children. God kills men every day, and we
do not blame Him, but if man kills his fellow we hunt him down as a
murderer. In the long past time the Great Father spoke to His children
by His wise and holy men, and sometimes He saw fit to tell them to
fight. With His reasons we have nothing to do. Now, the Great Father
speaks to us by His Book. In it He tells us to live in peace with all
men--if _possible_."

"Good," said the giant with an approving nod, though a perplexed
expression still lingered on his face. "But the Great Father has never
before spoken to me by His Book--never at all to my forefathers."

"He may, however, have spoken by His Spirit within you, Chingatok, I
cannot tell," returned the Captain with a meditative air. "You have
desires for peace and a tendency to forgive. This could not be the work
of the spirit of evil. It must have been that of the Good Spirit."

This seemed to break upon the Eskimo as a new light, and he relapsed
into silence as he thought of the wonderful idea that within his breast
the Great Spirit might have been working in time past although he knew
it not. Then he thought of the many times he had in the past resisted