Blessed emblem! that
any should so confound their own names and denunciatory practices
with the revealed truth, as to imagine that a standard so
appropriate should ever be out of season and place, when it is
proper for man to use aught, at all, that is addressed to his
senses, in the way of symbols, rites, and ceremonies! To the Jesuits
succeeded the less ceremonious and less imposing priesthood of
America, as America peculiarly was in the first years that followed
the Revolution. There is reason to believe that the spirit of God,
in a greater or less degree, accompanied all; for all were self-
denying and zealous, though the fruits of near two centuries of
labor have, as yet, amounted to little more than the promise of the
harvest at some distant day. Enough, however, was known of the
missionaries, and their views in general, to prepare the council, in
some small degree, for the forthcoming exhibition.
Parson Amen had caught some of the habits of the Indians, in the
course of years of communication and intercourse. Like them he had
learned to be deliberate, calm, and dignified in his exterior; and,
like them, he had acquired a sententious mode of speaking.
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