'My compassion for my family is very great; I, therefore, write in death to you, my dear friend, about my family." What language! What pathos! What parental tenderness! How marvellous the power that can fill the savage breast with such a flood of benevolent emotion! Shall we compare this pattern of tenderness with the white-man monster, who perished in the Navigators' Islands? This man shared in all the native wars; he slaughtered his fellow-creatures with his own hands, by the hundred; he had the heads of his victims invariably cut off, and ranged before him during his meals; he often seated himself upon a kind of stage smeared with blood, and surrounded with the heads of those whom he had slain; and in this state his followers used to convey him on their shoulders, with songs of savage triumph, to his own residence!* Or shall we compare him with the mingled mass of Polynesian parents, prior to the introduction of the gospel? Contrast the unutterable tenderness of this man for his family with the Martyr's account of the prevalent crime of infanticide. "The modes by which they perpetrated this deed of darkness were truly affecting. Sometimes they put a wet cloth upon the infants' mouth; at others, they pinched their little throats until they expired: a third method was to bury them alive; and a fourth was, if possible, still more brutal. The moment the child was born, they broke the first joints of its fingers and toes, and then the *second. If the infant survived this agonizing process, they dislocated its ankles and the wrists; and, if the powers of endurance still continued, the knee and

* Williams, p. 120.

elbow joints were then broken.

This would gene

rally terminate the tortures of the little sufferer; but if not, they would resort to the second method of strangulation." To this pandemonium practice the Gospel of mercy has put a perpetual end, in a large portion of the isles of the south. Those all-powerful principles which God has most wisely and graciously implanted in the parental bosom, have experienced a glorious resurrection. What you, Sir, observe of society in Europe, with one or two verbal alterations, may be truly affirmed of it in Polynesia :-"The many wheels of its intricate mechanism are beginning to revolve, and a complicated movement, continually accelerated by fresh impulses, is bearing along the world from its wintry and torpid position, and bringing it under the influence of serener heavens and an awakening spring. All the genial powers of nature are being unlocked, and the better feelings that have long slumbered in the breast of man are being roused into life."+

To the foregoing beautiful illustration of a dying husband's love to his wife, and a parent's to his children, we may add the following of a people's love to their teachers. Mr. Williams, after a residence of twelve months at Rarotonga, intimated his intention to leave the mission of that island in the hands of others, a communication which elicited a most interesting display of sensibility. For more than a month prior to his departure, groups of the people collected, in the cool of the evening, around the trunk of some gigantic tree, or beneath the shade of a stately banana,

* Williams, p. 148.

+ Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion, pp. 296, 297.

and sung, in plaintive strains, the stanzas which they had composed to express their sorrow at the anticipated separation. On the evening of his departure, several thousands accompanied him and his friends to the beach; and as the boat left the shore, they lifted up their voice, and, with one heart, sang,—

Kia ora e Tama ma

I te aerenga i te moana e!

That is, "Blessing on you, beloved friends; blessing on you in journeying on the deep!" This they repeated at brief intervals, till the little bark was removed beyond the reach of the sound. What a scene among a people so lately buried in the lowest depths of barbarism! It affected Mr. Williams and his friends to tears. Nothing in the naval history of England, from the days of Anson to Duncan, of Hood to Codrington, can, in point of moral beauty, be compared to it. What a contrast to the drunken rejoicings and tumultuous huzzas of the population of Chatham and of Portsmouth, on the embarkation of England's murderous armaments in the sad days of her anti-Christian as well as suicidal glory!

The Martyr of Erromonga records a fact which speaks volumes on the subject of moral sensibility. While smarting under a domestic trial, he wrote to Makea, apprizing him of the circumstance; and the chief, collecting all the people of his settlement, accompanied them to Nagatangiia, to condole with the missionary under his affliction. "No individual," says

* Williams, p. 44.

Mr. Williams, "came empty-handed; some brought mats, others pieces of cloth, and others articles of food, which they presented as an expression of their sympathy. A few of the principal women went in to see Mrs. Williams, laid their little presents at her feet, and wept over her, according to their custom. The affection of this kind people remains unabated. In a recent visit paid to Rarotonga by my esteemed colleague, Mr. Barff, he perceived that the congregation of three thousand people to whom he preached, were all habited in black clothing. Upon inquiring the reason of this unusual and dismal attire, he was informed by Mr. Buzacott that, on the recent death of his little girl, the king and chiefs requested that they and their people might be permitted to wear mourning, as they did not wish to appear in their ordinary gay habiliments while the family of their Missionary was in affliction. Such an instance of delicate respect could scarcely have been expected from a people, who, twelve years before, were cannibals and addicted to every vice."*

Who, Sir, can desire a better comment on the glorious, because pacific, visions of Isaiah? Behold, in Rarotonga, the wolf dwelling with the lamb, the leopard lying down with the kid, the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child leading them! Behold the sucking child playing on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child putting his hand on the cockatrice' den! Whence arises this surprising transformation? The island is full of the knowledge of the Lord. This is the sole and sufficient cause. Who, Sir, will blush,

* Williams, p. 104.

to avow himself the advocate of a cause so fraught with peace on earth and good-will among men? Compared with the enterprise which is attended with such results, surely the pursuits of literature, science, commerce, and everything of a merely sublunary character, are but low, earthly, and vulgar. To the enlightened and candid mind this is clear and incontrovertible. Were it not for the piety that blends with the enterprise, it would be the object of boundless and universal admiration. But for the gospel-the "rod" with which John Williams wrought all his wonders-he would be all but deified! Our philosophers, philanthropists, and men of sentiment would sound his fame to the farthest shores of the civilized world! Howard, as compared with Williams, would be deemed-and justly deemed-only a taper before the blazing sun. Poets, orators, painters and sculptors, would, each in his own way, all labour to diffuse his renown, and consign it to immortality! Long ere this St. Paul's and Westminster would have had committed to their awful custody tablets and statues to the honour of the illustrious philanthropist ! Public halls would have boasted his bust; and monumental pillars, erected to his glory in our parks and promenades, had been pointing to the skies! But the cross, the offensive cross, has marred all! By this the world is as much crucified to him as he was to the world. Neither saw aught to admire in the other; and the deeds which it cannot deny, it endeavours to overlook. Till that world shall have discovered beauty in the Messiah, it will see none in the missionary.

On these grounds it is, that so much importance attaches to the labours of literary laymen, especially men of rank and property, in behalf of missions. What