POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
305 
In our public instructions, we inculcated on those 
who, we had reason to believe, were under the decisive 
influence of the Spirit of Christ, the duty of comme¬ 
morating his dying love by that ordinance which he 
had instituted, and by which his disciples were to shew 
forth his death till he should come.—Those who had 
been baptized, now desired to be more particularly 
•informed how, and in what circumstances, they were 
to observe this injunction of the Lord. We, therefore, 
proposed to devote one afternoon every week to the 
instruction of such as had been baptized, and de¬ 
sired to be united in church-fellowship. Fifteen indivi¬ 
duals attended the first meeting, and were afterward 
joined by others. We met them regularly, and endea¬ 
voured to instruct them as fully and familiarly as possible 
in the duty of partaking of the sacrament; the nature, 
design, and scriptural constitution of church-fellowship ; 
the discipline to be maintained, the advantages to be 
anticipated, and the duties resulting therefrom. 
Next to the personal piety, which in church-members 
is considered indispensable, it appeared most important 
to impress the minds of the people with the distinctness 
of a Christian church from any political, civil, or other 
merely human institution. In the system of false reli¬ 
gion under which they had lived, and by which their 
habits of judgment had been formed, the highest civil 
and sacerdotal offices had been united in one person.— 
The king was generally chief priest of the national tem¬ 
ple ; and the high-priesthood of the principal idols was 
usually held by some member, or near relative, of the 
reigning family. On many occasions of worship also, 
the king was the representative of the god. The chiefs 
and the gods appear always to have exercised a combined 
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