Daily Reading for September 1 • David Pendleton Oakerhater, Deacon and Missionary, 1931
I was very glad indeed to hear from you; I am far from you and have never seen your faces, but you have given me a good gift and made me very thankful. I wish I could see you all in my own eye and shake hands with each one of you, but I say thank you, my kind friends, ever so much. I visit the sick almost every day, with prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ, and read the Bible to the Indians, and tell about the history that he is the Son of God. I am glad to tell them of that Blessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of the holy words we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. They are all very glad to hear them.
I keep doing that work God has given to me to do and for that reason though I am an Indian and you are of a different people, yet your faith is my faith and in all the earth there are many different races, yet to all alike God has given his one Spirit, and one life, and one faith, and one Saviour.
Excerpts paraphrased from a letter from David Pendleton Oakerhater, dated June 6, 1885; found at http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Oakerhater/Letters/DPO06061885.html