314 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
operation of the Spirit of the Almighty upon the hearts 
of the people. Our little churchy from time to time^ re¬ 
ceived considerable accessions of such as we had reason 
to hope were also members of the church of the first- 
born, whose names are written in heaven. 
In the admission of members, we acted with what per¬ 
haps many would consider the extreme of caution. In¬ 
dividuals whose moral character has been irreproachable, 
whose views of divine truth have been clear and scriptural, 
and whose motives, so far as we could judge, have been 
pure, have remained two, and sometimes three years as 
candidates, although we could not prefer any allegation 
directly against them. The admission of such has been 
declined, because we feared, that though their knowledge 
was commendable, and their conduct influenced by the 
precepts of the gospel, their hearts were not under its 
decisive influence; in short, that they had not undergone 
that change of mind, which our Lord himself, in his con¬ 
versation with Nicodemus, called being ^^born again,” 
and without which he had declared no man can enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. In other instances, however, the 
testimony relative to this change, was so decisive and 
powerful, that we could not, dared not, hesitate. 
The reason the natives have given of their Christian 
hope, has often been not only satisfactory, as it regarded 
the individual, but important, and in a high degree 
interesting, as an evidence of the universality of the de¬ 
pravity of man; and also as shewing the effects of Divine 
truth, under the influence of the Spirit of God, to be the 
same in every clime, producing the corresponding effects 
upon men of every diversity in colour, language, and cir¬ 
cumstance. Hence, one of the strongest modern evidences 
in the history of man, of the unequivocal origin of 
