POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
329 
The entire dissolution of this association, and the 
abolition of its cruel and abominable practices, on the 
introduction of Christianity, is one of the most powerful 
demonstrations God has given to his church and to the 
world, of the irresistible operation of those means which 
he has appointed for the complete demolition of the 
very strong holds of paganism, and the universal exten¬ 
sion of virtue, purity, and happiness among the most pro¬ 
fligate arid debased of mankind. It is a matter of devout 
acknowledgirient to the Almighty, by whose power alone 
the riieans employed Have been rendered efficacious in its 
annihilation, and furnishes a cause of hallowed triumph 
to the friends of moral order, humanity, and religion. 
No sooner did these deluded, polluted, and cruel people, 
receive the gospel of Christ, the elevated sentiments, 
sacred purity, and humane tendency of which, convinced 
them that it must have originated in a source as opposite 
to that whence idolatry had sprung, as light is to 
darkness, than the spell in which they had been for 
ages bound was dissolved, and the chains of their cap¬ 
tivity were burst asunder. They were astonished at 
themselves, and were a wonder to all who beheld them. 
The fabled legends by which, as by enchantment, they 
had been deceived, were banished from their recollec¬ 
tions ; the aboriiinations, and the bloodshed to which 
they had been addicted, ceased y and they became moral, 
virtuous, affectionate, devout, and upright members of a 
Christian community. There is reason to believe that 
many, even of the Areois, have been purified from 
their moral defilement, in that blood which cleanseth 
from all sin, and that the language addressed by the 
apostle to the Corinthians may with propriety be ap¬ 
plied to them. 
