VERANI OF VIWA 67 
“Message after message was sent, but in vain. Verani 
was told that the hitherto ample supplies which he had re- 
ceived from Mbau would be stopped, and that he would 
come to be a poor and despised man. But he had counted 
the cost, and was not to be moved. When entreaties, prom- 
ises, and threats had been tried without success, and the peo- 
ple expected eagerly the sentence of wrath against the resolute 
convert, Thakombau astonished all, and bitterly disappointed 
some, by saying: ‘Did I not tell you that we could not turn 
Verani? He is a man of one heart. When he was with 
us, he was fully one with us; now he is a Christian, he is 
decided, and not to be moved.’ So it is: the kingliness of 
consistency is acknowledged all the world over; and even 
in Fiji men pay tribute to it.” 
Thus it was made manifest that in the gospel of Christ 
there is power to change, completely change, the most dreaded 
of Fiji’s sin-laden savages. Daring and desperate in all that 
was brutal and bloody in the past, he now became known as 
penitent but courageous for the cause of Christ. From bru- 
tality he had been brought to gentleness and kindliness. 
From ruthlessness he had been brought to humble thought- 
fulness for others. And what was wrought in him was 
wrought in many others, for the time soon came when on 
Viwa many were heard crying aloud for mercy. The enor- 
mity of their sins seemed to break upon the senses of the 
people, and as sin had abounded, so the grace and mercy and 
peace of God were sent to abound much more. The people 
that sat in darkness on cannibal Viwa had been brought to 
great light, and great was their souls’ rejoicing. 
