. He visited the sick and the convicts, going
from settlement to settlement, and from hut to hut; travelling to the
more distant stations, that were afterwards formed, as far as he could
reach, and assembling as many as he could for divine service. With what
success these efforts were attended we shall be better able to judge
hereafter; but one truth must be borne in mind, which is, that, in the
very nature of things, evil will make itself more prominent and noticed
in the world than good; so that, whilst it may almost appear from the
history of the colony, as though there was not one godly man left in it,
we shall do well to remember that there may have been, nevertheless,
many a one who was profited by the ministry of Christ's Church among
them, many a Naaman who had been taught to forsake the evil thing which
he once delighted in worshipping, many a knee which had not bowed to
Baal, and many a mouth which had not kissed his image.[91]

[86] The blame of these lax and unworthy notions must not fall on the
laity alone; many of the clergy in those days deserve to have a full
share of it; but while we see and lament the faults of that generation,
we must not forget to look after those of our own, and to correct them.

[87] See Judge Burton on Religion and Education in New South Wales,
p. 1.

[88] Certainly some of the means employed for the moral improvement of
the convicts were very strange ones. For example, we are told, on one
occasion, that some of them were "ordered to _work every Sunday_ on the
highway as a punishment!" See Barrington's History of New South Wales,
p. 184. See likewise, p. 246.

[89] In 1792, a chaplain came out with the New South Wales Corps; and
in 1794, Mr. Marsden, a second chaplain, arrived in the colony. If any
person is desirous of seeing how easily the faults and failings of
individuals may be turned into arguments against a church, he has only
to refer to Ullathorne's Reply to Burton, chap i. "The Dark Age."

[90] See the authorities quoted by Burton on Religion and Education in
New South Wales, p. 6. According to this author, the chaplain's name was
_Johnston_, not _Johnson_, as Collins spells it.

[91] See 2 Kings v. and 1 Kings xix. 18. See likewise, in proof of the
good conduct of some convicts, Collins' Account of New South Wales,
p. 42.

However, it cannot be denied that the greater number of the settlers
of every description were but