Mission, and he has providentially been permitted to continue in its
service ever since. He, however, took over the work on Nass River,
begun by Mr. Doolan, so that Metlakahtla still remained without an
ordained missionary. But the grace of God is not tied to a regular
ministry, and the settlement grew and prospered, spiritually as well as
materially, under the loving care of its lay founder. In 1873, Mr. W.
H. Collison joined the Mission as a schoolmaster, and in 1878 Mr. H.
Schutt went out in the same capacity, to leave Mr. Collison free to
begin new work in Queen Charlotte's Islands. In 1877 the Rev. A. J.
Hall, a young clergyman in full orders, was appointed to Metlakahtla;
but he, too, under the advice of his brethren, removed soon after his
arrival to Fort Rupert, to break up fresh ground. At length Mr.
Collison, having been ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Bompas, of
Athabasca, during the latter's visit to the coast in the winter of 1877
-8, and having been released from the work at Queen Charlotte's Islands
by the arrival of Mr. G. Sneath in 1879, again took up his abode at
Metlakahtla as pastor of the settlement.

In the meanwhile, certain unhappy disputes in Victoria, arising from
the extreme doctrinal views which found an entrance into the Church in
the Colony, as they have into the Church at home, had resulted in a
secession to the American "Reformed Church" under the leadership of the
Rev. E. Cridge. Mr. Cridge was greatly beloved by the Christians of
Metlakahtla, having given much godly counsel and help to the Mission;
and they not unnaturally felt much sympathy for him in the painful step
he had felt it his duty to take. In this state of things, the Bishop of
Columbia, anxious not to rouse feelings which it might be hard to
allay, with much wisdom and generosity refrained from visiting
Metlakahtla, and wrote to Bishop Bompas, of Athabasca, who is a devoted
missionary of the C. M. S., asking him to come over and visit the