Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/372

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322 CHARLES HENRY CAREY

vation of Oregon?" But were there only you and I, sir, it should be enough, even though we are as far sundered as New York and Wascopam. The promise is to two, and it is enough. The Lord our God shall furnish the men and means in number, measure and weight, as they shall be necessary.

"You have seen what he could do in a few short months, in the account which I gave you two years hence. 0! can He not work the same work again and in manifold greater power? Yes, a thousand times, if necessary. Oregon will be saved. The Church has asked it. It was doubtless long since ceded to Immanuel. 'Ask of Me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.' Dif- ficulties in the accomplishment of this work we expect. Satan will doubtless try to hold on to these old posses- sions ; but the Lord is a man of war ; the Lord is his name. Is desertion an unheard thing that you or our friends at home should give up all for lost, or even should half of us now remaining desert? You have not so learned war. The throne of grace be your Thermopylae still. Hell shall yet tremble and all heaven rejoice."

The spirit breathed in these communications com- mands our highest approval, and merits our highest com- mendation. For although our brethren in Oregon are evidently aware that unfavorable rumors have reached the Board concerning the Mission, yet with an unyielding firmness they reassert that confidence in the success of their undertaking. They evince a spirit of patient en- durance, invincible purpose, unconquerable zeal and un- wavering faith, which seems almost to preclude the pos- sibility of defeat.

And shall we abandon ourselves to despain because our expectations have not been fully realized? The la- borious husbandman casts his seed into the earth and patiently waits for the promised harvest. And does it become us, because our plans are sometimes partially