life of that world which knows no cares, which
feels no sorrows? Indeed, these are no conventional words. We must not
seek to anticipate the season of rest. It is a blessed thing to work in
the Lord's vineyard; it is cowardly and ungenerous to wish to shorten
our time of service in the army of Christ. But, oh! the thought that a
time will come, if our faith fail not, when we shall feel the burden of
anxieties and trials and disappointments and bereavements taken away,
and the continued warfare against sin all ended and for ever: the
thought of this cannot surely be given us for naught! It must not make
us less diligent now; it must not draw us from our appointed tasks; but
it stands written as a word of consolation and encouragement for all,
'There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.' 'Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord; they rest from their labours.'"

But there was a duty to the living as well as to the dead. What was to
be done for Mr. Grace? The clergy gathered at Bishopscourt asked the
question sadly and hopelessly. Even Selwyn was at a loss. At last,
Wilson urged that application should be made for the help of the H.M.S.
_Eclipse_, then in the harbour. The application was granted, and Captain
Fremantle was soon taking the bishop on an errand of rescue. But
where was the prisoner to be found? Report said that he had been carried
off to Poverty Bay by the Hauhaus, who intended to attack Bishop
Williams at Waerenga-a-hika. To Poverty Bay, accordingly, the warship
was directed, and there too a critical situation was found. Patara and
Kereopa, with their band of fanatics, had just arrived (though not with
Mr. Grace) within a few miles of the bishop's residence. A small army of
400 Maoris was drawn up in battle array to defend the bishop, but their
minds were divided, and their hearts were faint. Selwyn's exhortations
had little effect, but he obtained the help of two loyal Maoris, who
undertook to assist in Mr. Grace's rescue.

[Illustration: ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, PALMERSTON NORTH.]

The _Eclipse_ sailed back to the Bay of Plenty, and anchored outside the
bar at Opotiki. It was the sixteenth day of Grace's captivity, and the
Hauhaus had agreed to exchange him for a Maori prisoner who was being
kept at Tauranga. His treatment lately had been not unkind, but now that
the man-of-war appeared, such excitement arose in the _pa_ that his
former fears revived. However, the landing of the two messengers fro