cent
organizations are in efficient operation among these former savage
dwellers on these plains.

Seven other natives have, also, been ordained to the priesthood in the
Episcopal Church, making thirty-three in all, who have served their
fellow-tribesmen in the high and holy office of the Christian ministry.
There is not a single ordained Romish priest among the Sioux Indians.

"Watchman, tell us of the night,
What its signs of promise are."

Seventy years ago, among the twenty-five thousand Sioux Indians in the
United States, there was not a single church, not even one professing
Christian.

They were all polytheistic pagans. There were signs of pagan worship
about every teepee. It might be the medicine sack tied behind the
conical wigwam, or a yard of broadcloth, floating from the top of a
flagpole as a sacrifice to some deity. There was more or less
idol-worship in all their gatherings. One of the simplest forms was the
holding of a well-filled pipe at arm's length, with the mouth-piece
upward, while the performers said, "O Lord, take a smoke and have mercy
on me." In the feasts and dances, the forms were more elaborate. The
Sun-dance continued for days of fasting and sacrificial work by the
participants.

Now these signs of pagan worship have almost entirely disappeared among
the Dakotas. These facts speak volumes--one in eight of the Dakotas is
a Presbyterian. There are two-thirds as many Congregationalists, twice
as many Episcopalians and twice as many Catholics. More than one-half
of the Dakotas have been baptized in the name of the Triune God and
thousands of them are professed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now what has wrought this great change among the Dakotas? It was the
power of the Holy Spirit of the Lord, working through the means of
grace as employed and applied by these faithful missionaries. They
renounced heathenism, not because the government so ordered, but
because they found that there was no God like Jehovah and Jehovah said,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Even those who have not
accepted Christ have generally cast away their idols.

Now do missions pay? Do Indian missions pay? Let the grand work among
the Dakotas and its glorious results be an all sufficient answer. It
does pay a thousand fold.

Hear the Christian tribesmen sing the Hymn of the Sioux.

Lift aloft the starry banner,
Let it wave o'er land and sea;
Shout aloud and sing hosanna!