126 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
These flowers were sermons. Among a people sunken so low in the 
scale of humanity, all such little improvements help to lift up their minds 
a little higher. Among other faculties of their minds, the Maoris here had 
lost altogether the sense of the beautiful. Some of the very old Maoris were 
much tattooed, and there was art in the designs. I do not mean to say 
that it improved the beauty of their faces, far from it, but art and beauty 
was in the design. The same can be said of some pieces of clothing, which 
sadly distort the beautiful human form in highly refined society—there is 
art in it. Only the old Maoris carried out the art of beauty in their tattoo ; 
in that of the younger there was none. The young women had not the least 
taste for beauty, only by instinct they painted, or rather besmeared, their 
faces with the red juice of a wild berry. 
They were altogether a dejected people. I found, as I kept a register of 
births and deaths on the island, that, year by year, for every child born, 
from three to four persons died. No wonder that they had lost heart and 
felt as if there were no spirit of life left in them. Now, when Christianity 
was brought near their hearts, they began to feel as if some help were 
coming. I cannot yet say it gave them hope, for they had not even a word 
for that in their language. They liked to read in the New Testament, as 
they began to understand the meaning, that Jesus was so good and helped 
poor suffering people without asking if they were good. But then they 
would learn to love Jesus and that would make them good. It went to 
their hearts that Jesus had died for the badness of mankind. There is an 
affinity between it and a deep yearning in the human heart, and when they 
come near each other then there is a contact, and happiness is the result. 
Theological arguments, and dogmatical statements, are too poor to explain 
it. There was a belief in the old Maori religion, that the goddess of death 
was dwelling in the world of night (their Hades), and drawing her children 
(she having before been the original mother of mankind) down to her. 
That gave them no comfort. But it comforted them to learn that Jesus 
died upon the cross, that he rose again and went to his Father in heaven— 
and that he will draw all men unto him. 
By the foregoing I have simply indicated the way the Maoris have been 
converted, and science need not ignore that. 
By and by some earnest simple souls wished to be baptized. These 
were instructed more fully, and then solemnly baptized before the whole 
community. They felt that they were taking upon themselves a great 
responsibility, that all the others would watch them to detect flaws in their 
lives. This made them careful to be good and to walk circumspectly. 
Then others followed, who were likewise instructed and baptized. Soon 
the news of this spread over all the straits, and boats after boats, with 
