VERANI AS A CHRISTIAN 73 
““On Sunday, April the 27th, I attended Levuka chapel 
in the morning, and heard with pleasure a short sermon 
from him on Luke 15:6. What he said told on the con- 
gregation; but what was better, the spirit in which he con- 
ducted every part of the service was devotional and stirring. 
In his whole deportment there is the Christian,—love to God 
and love to man in earnest. 
““At the love feast held on the 4th of May, he said that 
whilst he was going about serving Thakombau, he had his 
mind fixed on the work of his true Master, the Lord Jesus. 
The service and person of Thakombau, he said, had a low 
place in his esteem, compared with the Saviour ; that he was 
altogether His who had bought him with the price of His 
own blood; his body, soul, vessel, all he possessed, were 
easy 
After six years of labor at Viwa, during which he had 
seen great things wrought for God, Mr. Hunt, who in all 
that time had seriously overtaxed his strength and endured 
indescribable hardships, found his health completely broken. 
Greatly beloved by his fellow missionaries, and almost re- 
vered by the native Christians, he was soon surrounded by 
a dismayed and grief-stricken company. The native Chris- 
tians “gathered about that throne of grace to which his faith- 
ful hand had led them,” and prayed without ceasing that his 
life might be spared. Mr. Hunt was in great pain, and his 
end seemed near. 
“With mighty pleading did Verani lift up his voice among 
those sorrowing ones. Deeply did he love the sick mission- 
ary, and now he prayed: ‘O Lord! we know we are very 
bad; but spare Thy servant! If one must die, take me! 
Take ten of us! But spare Thy servant to preach Christ 
to the people.’ ”’ 
But it was not to be. The course of a great missionary 
life was run, and John Hunt died praying, “ ‘Lord, bless 
Fiji! Save Fiji! Thou knowest my soul has loved Fiji; 
my heart has travailed in pain for Fiji!” And again, after 
