lietoa became one; and services
had been, held in Tongatabu before any of the chief men turned to the
faith; and already numerous churches had been established in Fiji before
Thakombau, the most despotic and fierce of the rulers of the isles of
the Pacific, bowed his knee in worship to the true God. People who know
how utterly savage and barbarous the natives had become will easily
understand that numbers among them were pining for a purer faith, for
some system which would relieve them from the intolerable burdens, from
the utter misery under which they groaned. When Rihoriho overthrew his
idols and burned his temples he knew nothing of Christianity; but he had
discovered that his idols were no gods, and that the religion of his
fathers was utterly abominable and foolish. In many islands, when a
chief lotued before his subjects, he did so at the risk of being deposed
by them; and in every direction there are instances of rebellions being
raised by the heathens against the chiefs who had professed
Christianity. For many years the fact, that whole communities of once
cannibal savages had become civilised Christians was denied; and now
that the fact can no longer be denied, certain so-called philosophers in
Europe are at pains to invent explanations to suit their own theories.
The natives might answer them as the blind man restored to sight by
Jesus did the Pharisees of old: `Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that
ye know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes.' The
explanation which should best satisfy Christians is, that God has worked
with us. In His infinite compassion and love He has presented
instruments exactly fitted for the work to be accomplished; and though
He has thought fit in many instances to exercise the faith and patience
of His servants, He has at length made the way clear before them.

"If I desired a particular proof that man has fallen from a high estate,
and that he came forth pure and bright, and with a mind capable of
rapidly acquiring knowledge, from the hands of his Maker, I should point
to these savages, among whom, debased as they are, so many have a
yearning after a better existence, a consciousness of sin, a desire to
propitiate an offended deity, a weariness of their degraded condition,
of the state of anarchy, of the bloodshed and immorality amid which they
live. If these and other facts were known in England, though people
might still wonder at the great change whic