180 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
were translating into the vernacular tongue. The 
attention of one of the party was arrested, his 
heart deeply affected, and ultimately his character 
entirely changed. This circumstance led to a 
complete alteration in the instructions they gave. 
The incarnation, the life, especially the sufferings 
and death, of the Lord Jesus Christ, were, from 
this time, the principal subjects brought before the 
minds of their hearers ; and the results were such 
as to shew the propriety of the alteration. Where 
they had before been unable to make the least 
impression, they now beheld numbers deeply 
affected, on whom these truths appeared to pro¬ 
duce an entire change of character and deport¬ 
ment. I do not, however, suppose we are to infer 
from the account that is given of this amazing 
work in Greenland, that, during the first five or 
seven years of their labours there, the being and 
character of God, &c. were inculcated, to the ex¬ 
clusion or neglect of the way of salvation through 
Jesus Christ. Their teaching would, in that case, 
have been more defective than I am willing to 
suppose it was. Nor do I think we are to con¬ 
clude, that, after the change in their instruction, 
the doctrine of the Saviour’s advent, sufferings, 
and death, were insisted on, to the exclusion of 
the former; this mode of exhibiting scripture 
truth would have been almost as defective as the 
other: but I suppose that, during the earliest 
years of their labours, the first principles of reli¬ 
gion were more frequent and prominent in their 
instructions, than the doctrines peculiar to the 
gospel, and that, subsequently, these points re¬ 
ceived that more frequent attention, which the 
character, being, and law of God, had formerly 
obtained. No alteration, even of this kind, how- 
