56 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
yet the free admission, not only to baptism, but to 
the ordinance of the Lord’s supper, of such persons 
as sincerely desired to receive the same, without 
requiring evidence of their being true spiritual 
converts to Christ, threatened great irregularity 
and confusion; it was therefore discontinued. 
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 commemorating 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 instruc¬ 
tion of such as, having been baptized, desired to 
be united in church-fellowship. Fifteen indi¬ 
duals attended the first meeting, and were after¬ 
wards joined by others. We met them regularly, 
and endeavoured 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 insti¬ 
tution. In the system of false religion 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.— 
