TOPICS OF MISSIONARY PREACHING. 181 
ever, appears to have taken place in the kind of 
doctrines inculcated by the Missionaries among 
the Tahitians. From the time of my arrival in 
the islands, I had always a great desire to know 
whether any change had been made by the early 
preachers in their discourses, and other means 
employed at this period : but I have not been 
able to learn that there was any thing extra¬ 
ordinary ; they do not appear in any respect to 
have varied the manner, or the matter, of their 
instructions. I have often asked Mr. Nott, and 
others who were on the spot, if there was any 
alteration in the mode of instruction, or the nature 
of their addresses, as to the prominency of any of 
the doctrines of the gospel, which had not been so 
fully exhibited before; but I have invariably 
learned, that they were not aware of the least 
difference in the kind of instruction, or the manner 
of representing the truths taught at this period, 
and those inculcated during their former residence 
in Tahiti. 
Their aim had always been to exhibit fully, and 
with the greatest possible simplicity, the grand 
doctrines and precepts taught in the Bible, giving 
each that share of attention which it appeared to 
have obtained in the volume of revelation. God, 
they had always endeavoured to represent as a 
powerful, benevolent, and holy Being, justly re¬ 
quiring the grateful homage, and willing obedience, 
of his creatures. Man, they had represented as 
the Scripture described him, and their own obser¬ 
vation represented him to be, a sinner against his 
Maker, and exposed to the consequences of his 
guilt;—the love of God, in the gift of his only 
begotten Son, as a propitiation for sin, and the only 
medium and ground of reconciliation with God, 
