NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 57 
The king was generally chief priest of the national 
temple; and the high-priesthood of the principal 
idols was usually held by some member, or near 
relative, of the reigning family. On many occa¬ 
sions of worship also, the king was the represen¬ 
tative of the god. The chiefs and the gods appear 
always to have exercised a combined influence 
over the populace. The power of the gods often 
seemed only exercised to establish the authority of 
the king, who was by the people regarded as filling 
his high station by lineal descent from them, while 
the measures of the government as often appeared 
to be pursued to inspire fear, and secure acknow¬ 
ledgments for the gods. Hence, when human 
sacrifices were required, the priest applied to the 
king, and the king gave orders to provide the 
victim. Since the kings and chiefs, as well as the 
people, had embraced the gospel, and many had 
taken the lead in propagating it, and had uni¬ 
formly adorned it by their example, the people 
sometimes said, that had their chiefs been idolaters 
or wicked rulers, it would have been improper for 
them to have interfered in any matters connected 
with Christianity, but that now they were truly 
pious, it accorded with their ideas of propriety, that 
in the Christian church they should, as Christian 
chiefs, be pre-eminent. 
We told them they had not imbibed these ideas 
in a Christian, but in a pagan school; that the 
authority of their kings and chiefs was exerted 
over their persons, and regarded their outward 
conduct; that they held their high station under 
God, for the well-being of society, and were, when 
influenced by uprightness and humanity, the 
greatest blessings to the communities over which 
they presided. We also stated, that in this station 
