Egerton Ryerson Young

“One genuine case was that of an old man who was one of the Wood Cree Indians that lived beyond Norway House. He renounced his old life and habits, burned his medicine bag, and gave himself to the Saviour. Great and marvelous was the change produced in him. When he came to the church for baptism, in answer to my question, “Name this man,” he promptly said, “Call me Daniel.” “Why Daniel?” I asked. “Because,” he replied, “I heard you preach about Daniel, and you told about his being delivered from the lions. It was a great deliverance, but not as great as mine from my sins.” Then, lifting up his right hand and looking intently at it, he said in a voice that almost startled us all: “Missionary, that hand has mixed the poisons that have killed fourteen people. I have been a very wicked man, but I have heard the Great Spirit’s voice. I have come to him and he has saved me, and my deliverance is greater than that of Daniel, for I was in a deeper, darker place, but he has brought me out into the light.” So, amid the hushed excitement of the audience, we baptized him Daniel. BANFF SPRING HOTEL, CANADIAN NATIONAL PARK”
― Egerton Ryerson Young, Stories from Indian Wigwams & Northern Campfires

“I tried to say some comforting words, but oh, how hollow and full of mockery they seemed! I could not but feel that all he said was true, awfully true—that we, who have the Book, with all it reveals of the loving Father and His Son Jesus, are verily guilty because we are not more prompt and zealous in sending and carrying the gospel to those who have it not, that their dark minds may be illuminated and their cruel natures made kind and affectionate.”
― Egerton Ryerson Young, Battle of the Bears: Life in the North Land