POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
311 
must have been powerfully augmented by the recollec¬ 
tion of what those individuals once were, and the many 
hours of apparently cheerless and hopeless toil he had 
bestowed upon them, now so amply, so astonishingly 
rewarded* 
A state of feeling, almost unearthly, seemed to pervade 
those who now, for the first time, united with their 
teachers in commemorating the dying love of Christ. 
Recollection, perhaps, presented in strong colours the 
picture of their former state. Their vile abominations, 
their reckless cruelty, their mad infatuation in idolatry, 
the frequent, impure, and sanguinary rites in which they 
had engaged—their darkened minds, and still darker 
prospects—arose, perhaps, in vivid and rapid succession. 
At the same time, in striking contrast with their former 
feelings, their present desire after moral purity, their occu¬ 
pation in the worship of Jehovah, their hopes of pardon 
and acceptance with him, through the atonement made by 
the offering of his Son, the boundless and overwhelming 
effects of his love herein displayed, and the radiant light 
and hopes of everlasting blessedness and spiritual enjoy¬ 
ment, which, by the event commemorated, they were 
encouraged to anticipate, were all adapted to awaken, in 
minds susceptible as theirs, no common train of feelings. 
Often have we seen the intense emotion of the heart at 
these seasons, strongly depicted in the countenance, and 
the face suffused with tears. 
The hundreds who remained to witness the scene, 
were not careless or indifferent spectators. Their deep 
interest in what was passing, was indicated in their 
thoughtful and agitated countenances, and the subsequent 
conduct of many evinced the kind of impression they 
leceived. The anxious concern which we had witnessed 
