picture! The government had tried, by munificent offers, to tame this tribe, to fix them down to a settled state; but nothing could induce them to renounce their roving habits, till the gospel entered among them, when the result was such as we have now seen.

The Martyr's "Narrative" abounds with illustrations to the same effect, but far more varied and striking.* He sets forth the following table of arts, vegetable productions, and animals.

The country which can boast these arts and animals, has already the means of comfort, and the elements of greatness. The possession of these involves every necessary and fundamental avocation, and will inevitably lay the basis of such as are more a matter of taste and of ornament. Let us hear the missionary's own comment upon the matter:-"In communicating to the people the useful arts specified above, I have spent many hundreds of hours, not merely in explaining and

* Williams, pp. 11, 12, 13, 16, 20, 24, 29, 44, 45, 58, 63, 86, 106, 112, 121, 151, 152.

superintending the different processes, but in actual labour. For this, however, I have been amply repaid by the great progress which the natives have made in many of these departments of useful knowledge, but especially in building small vessels of from twenty to fifty tons. More than twenty of these were sailing from island to island when I left, two of which belonged to the queen, and were employed in fetching cargoes of pearl, and pearl shells, from a group of islands to the eastward of Tahiti. These are exchanged with the English and American vessels for clothing and other articles.

"From these facts it will be apparent, that, while our best energies have been devoted to the instruction of the people in the truths of the Christian religion, and our chief solicitude has been to make them wise unto salvation, we have, at the same time, been anxious to impart a knowledge of all that was calculated to increase their comforts and elevate their character. And I am convinced that the first step towards the promotion of a nation's temporal and social elevation, is to plant amongst them the tree of life, when civilization and commerce will entwine their tendrils around its trunk, and derive support from its strength. Until the people are brought under the influence of religion, they have no desire for the arts and usages of civilized life; but that invariably creates it. The missionaries were at Tahiti many years, during which they built and furnished a house in European style. The natives saw this, but not an individual imitated their example. As soon, however, as they were brought under the influence of Christianity, the chiefs, and even the common people, began to build neat plastered cottages, and to

manufacture bedsteads, seats, and other articles of furniture. The females had long observed the dress of the missionaries' wives, but while heathen they greatly preferred their own, and there was not a single attempt at imitation. No sooner, however, were they brought under the influence of religion, than all of them, even to the lowest, aspired to the possession of a gown, a bonnet, and a shawl, that they might appear like Chris

tian women. I could proceed to enumerate many other changes of the same kind, but these will be sufficient to establish my assertion. While the natives are under the influence of their superstitions, they evince an inanity and torpor, from which no stimulus has proved powerful enough to arouse them, but the new ideas and the new principles imparted by Christianity. And if it be not already proved, the experience of a few more years will demonstrate the fact, that the missionary enterprise is incomparably the most effective machinery that has ever been brought to operate upon the social, the civil, and the commercial, as well as the moral and spiritual, interests of mankind."*

Now, my esteemed friend, what shall we say to these things? They are true, or they are false. If true, who shall estimate their value? If false, is not confutation easy? Thanks be to God, they are true, and none can gainsay them! It is now as clear as experiment can ever make it, that the gospel of Christ is the only

The proofs of this

remedy for the woes of our world. allegation have been accumulating upwards of 1800 years; and, surely, it is now time that the speculative should give place to the practical; time that we should

* Williams, p. 152.

cease disputing with the infidel about the origin and qualities of Christianity, and proceed, in good earnest, to the universal dispensation of its benefits. One principal proof of its divine origin, lies in its power to reform, renovate, and bless those who receive it. Eternity apart, it is the grand source of all real happiness in the present life. It is fully adequate to meet, to the largest extent, the wants of man. There is not an evil

for which it does not supply a complete and immediate cure. Its universal reception would introduce a better than the golden age. Approaching the temple of truth, let us consult the oracles of history, and inquire of her whether any code of legislation, or any system of morals, or any thing, in fact, ever exerted a power, in the slightest measure, analogous in its effects, to the power of the gospel of peace? We may inquire, too, whether voyager, traveller, commercial factor, voluntary or compulsory exile, ever effected such changes among any portions of men, as those achieved by the Martyr of Erromanga? Have any of these, or all of them, through all ages, united, accomplished the millionth part of it? Did they ever thus bless a single family, or a single man? No! to impart good is not their practice; it is not their purpose. If it were their province, without personal piety, it is not in their power.

How long, my friend, is the world to be unjust? When will it awake to the glory of the gospel and the utility of missions? As a man of reading and observation, and great experience, you are but too well informed of the contempt with which multitudes of educated men, among the middle and upper classes, regard the missionary character. I challenge the attention of all such to the facts of this chapter. If the man who

achieved works so various, so wondrous, so beneficentworks embracing so many people, and in their effects extending through all coming time-be contemptible, I ask them, who is illustrious? If John Williams be

little, let them tell us who is great? Is any man great but as he promotes greatness? Who can do more for the creature than he who restores him to the favour and friendship of his Creator, and, at the same time, lifts him up to the elevation of civilized man? Who can do more for the isles of Polynesia, than he who fits them for the fellowship of Christian nations? Truth answers, he, and only he, who fits them for the fellowship of angels and of God! John Williams has done both! Who, then, I desire to know, can add to the benefactions of the man who has done these things? Let the pretender stand forth, put in his claim, and hasten to make it good! He who can do so, and he alone, is of a rank superior to the missionary; he, and he alone, is a greater man than the Martyr of Erromanga!