64 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
cerning his will. On the other hand, we were 
equally fearful of encouraging the indulgence of 
improper views, or of admitting to the ordinances 
of the gospel any who were uninfluenced by those 
motives which Christ would approve. 
There was, however, no part of our charge in 
whose welfare we now felt so deeply interested, as 
the little flock, of which the great Shepherd had 
made us the pastors. So far from considering our 
work done, with special reference to those whom 
we had instructed in the nature of a Christian 
church, and had admitted to this fold, we con¬ 
sidered it as only the commencement of a new 
series of important and interesting duties, arising 
out of the new relation now subsisting between us. 
We experienced an attachment binding our hearts 
to theirs, to which we had before been strangers, 
and we had reason to believe the feeling was re¬ 
ciprocal. 
Their knowledge was but limited, notwithstand¬ 
ing all our efforts to instruct them; and as their 
duties increased, their situation became more con¬ 
spicuous, and their temptations greater. Latent 
depravity still lurked in their hearts, and it might be 
expected that their great spiritual adversary would 
not leave them unmolested. We were also fearful 
lest the privileges they were raised to enjoy might 
engender or nourish secret pride, or induce a 
disposition to rest satisfied with having obtained 
admission to the outward and visible church of 
Christ, and thus lead them to neglect that constant 
seeking after God, and the cultivation of those 
Christian virtues, by which alone they could sus¬ 
tain, with credit to Christianity, and benefit to 
their own minds, the situation to which they had 
been raised. They would naturally become models 
