Indians' Apostle

Roman Catholics are always adding to their roster of saints. The Protestants have a way of forgetting theirs. One such Protestant hero was John Eliot, "Apostle to the Indians." Last week, at the historic First (Unitarian) Church in Roxbury, Mass., was celebrated the 250th anniversary of John Eliot's death and the 300th anniversary of his Bay Psalm Book, first book published in the U. S.

Brilliant classical scholar, Eliot at 28 became second minister of Roxbury's First Church, eight years later, in 1640, he was one of three editors of the Bay Psalm Book, then titled "The Psalms in Metre, faithfully translated for the Use, Edification and Comfort of the Saints in public and private, especially in New England." Critics panned it severely, said its verse constituted "the most unique specimen of poetical tinkering in our literature." But for a century, as edition followed edition, the Puritans liked the Bay Psalm Book.

To his 58-year job at the First Church, Eliot added missionary work among the neighboring Indians. He learned Algonquin, a language which abounded in words like "noowoomantammoorkanunornash" ("our loves"), preached to the Indians in their own dialect, established 14 self-governing Indian communities, converted more then 1,000 savages, of whom some 25 became preachers. Eliot's Indian converts docilely kept the Sabbath, wept over their sins, tackled theology with a will, were rewarded, at times, by apples and biscuits.

In 1663 appeared Eliot's masterwork: a translation of the whole Bible into the Massachusetts dialect of the Algonquins. When King Philip's War came, Eliot's "praying Indians" dwindled away. But his great influence over the savages undoubtedly saved many a Puritan life.

John Eliot died full of years and good works at 86, outliving his wife, all but one of his six children. Said his admiring friend Cotton Mather: "We had a tradition among us 'That the country could never perish so long as Eliot was alive.' "

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