RELIGIOUS EXERCISES. 
411 
preached, after which a short hymn is sung, prayer 
presented, and the benediction given ; with which 
the service closes, between half past ten and eleven 
o'clock. 
Although the religious exercises are now rather 
longer than they were when the people first began 
to attend, they seldom exceed an hour and a half 
on the Sabbath, and little more than an hour at 
other times. It has always appeared preferable, 
even to multiply the services, should that be ne¬ 
cessary, than weary the attention of the people by 
unduly protracting them. In the religious ser¬ 
vices, the repeated singing, the reading prayers, 
and preaching, afford sufficient variety to prevent 
their being irksome or dull, while there is nothing 
childish and unmeaning, or purely ceremonial. 
When the congregation has dispersed, the children 
are conducted to the schools in the same order in 
which they came to the chapel, and are there dis¬ 
missed by one of their teachers. 
In the afternoon they assemble in the schools, 
and read the scriptures, and repeat hymns, or por¬ 
tions of the catechism, and are questioned as to 
their recollection of the sermon of the forenoon. 
We have sometimes been surprised at the readi¬ 
ness with which the children have recited the text, 
divisions, and leading thoughts in a discourse, with¬ 
out having written it down. Often it has been 
most cheering to see them thus employed ; exhi¬ 
biting all the native simplicity of childhood, min¬ 
gled with the indications of no careless exercise of 
mind on the important matters of religion. It is 
always delightful to watch the commencement and 
progress of mental improvement, and the early 
efforts of intellect; but it was peculiarly so here. 
In the Sabbath-schools of the South Sea Islands, 
