that?" They answer, “Our elders.” We reply, “But your ancients were men like yourselves. They could deceive themselves as well as you, who in your relations so often mix up exaggeration, deceit, and falsehood. How then can I believe you with confidence?” This argument cuts them keenly. They are bombastic in their tales. They make up fables, and have no hesitation about lying. We follow up the argument thus: As for us, we carry with us irrefutable witnesses for that which we teach, — namely Scripture, which is the word of God, and which cannot falsify. Scripture does not change like the speech of men, which is a deceiver almost by nature. After having admired the excellence of the material Scripture (which we are not wont to appreciate, because of familiarity), they come to recognize the certainty of the divine word, which we show them contained in the holy books dictated by the Lord himself. We read them the promises, the commandments, the threatenings; and often the simple and artless recital of the judgments of God and the pains of hell prepared for the guilty stirs them with a fear and terror like that which we read of as taking hold of the unjust judge Felix.
“ ‘But the strongest argument was that which we drew from our case after the example of the great Apostle to the Gentiles. Without prejudice to his profound humility he recounted to his disciples at Corinth, but in the third person, not only his sufferings and the labors which he had undertaken in the service of his Master, but also the revelations and the marvellous gifts which he had received from them who had sent him to preach his holy gospel. We did not scruple to use this language to our savages: —
“You see us here, Brothers, among you, languishing rather than living, in ashes and smoke, half-naked, pierced with cold, dying of hunger and wretchedness. Remember now that we were born and educated in a country where all things abound. There we did not have for a bed, as here, a rough bark or a coarse plank, but a bed of soft fleece. Salt was not the only seasoning of our food, but there was so great a difference between ours and yours that those who were nearly famished among us would not touch their lips to what you eat. Our houses were not dark and filled with smoke, like your cabins, but large, commodious, and light. Ask your people who have visited the French at Kebec [Quebec] the difference there is between their way of life and yours, and if it be possible to compare the blessings they enjoy with your miseries. And still they
