THE INDIAN S RELIGION-MATERIAL GOOD DESIRED. 185



but a feeble deity; for does he not permit the Indian to
be defeated in war; to starve, and to freeze? Do not the
Indian medicine men often fail to save life, to win battles,
to curse their enemies? The Indian's God, he argues,
must be a good deal of a humbug. He sees the white
men faring much better. They have guns, ammunition,
blankets, knives, everything in plenty; and they are suc-
cessful in war; are skillful in a thousand things the Indian
knows nothing of. To be so blest implies a very wise and
powerful Deity. To gain all these things they are eager
to learn about the white man's God; are willing to do
whatever is necessary to please and propitiate Him. Hence
their attentiveness to the white man's discourse about his
religion. Naturally enough they were struck with won-
der at the doctrine of peace and good will; a doctrine so
different from the law of blood by which the Indian, in
his natural state, lives. Yet if it is good for the white
men, it must be good for him; at all events he is anxious
to try it.
  That is the course of reasoning by which an Indian is
led to inquire into Christianity. It is a desire to better
his physical, rather than his spiritual condition; for of the
latter he has but a very faint conception. He was accus-
tomed to desire a material Heaven, such a world beyond
the grave, as he could only imagine from his earthly ex-
perience.  Heaven was happiness, and happiness was
plenty; therefore the most a good Indian could desire
was to go where there should forevermore be plenty.
  Such was the Indian's view of religion, and it could be
no other. Until the wants of the body have been sup-
plied by civilization, the wants of the soul do not develop
themselves: and until then the savage is not prepared
to understand Christianity. This is the law of Nature and
of God. Primeval man was a savage; and it was little