376 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
sit down, and repeat several of the truths they ha‘3 
neard respecting the name and attributes of Je« 
hovah, his law, and the name and offices of Jesus 
Christ, the only Saviour. They also requested to 
be more particularly informed in what manner 
they should pray to him, and how they should 
know when the Sabbath-day came. We told 
them to go to Jehovah in prayer, as a child went 
to its parents, assuring them they would find him 
more ready to attend to them, than the fondest 
earthly parent was to listen to his most beloved 
child. This did not satisfy them; we therefore, 
after observing that God did not regard so much 
the ivords as the desires of the heart, mentioned 
several expressions of praise, confession, and peti¬ 
tion—which the natives repeated after us till they 
could recite them correctly. The chief then sent 
for a youth, about sixteen years of age, of whom 
he seemed very fond, and, after he and his wife 
had requested him to attend very particularly to 
what he should hear, they requested us to repeat 
to him what we had told them. We did so ; the 
youth evidently tried to treasure up the words in 
his memory; and, when he could repeat correctly 
what had been told him, the parents appeared 
highly pleased. Indeed, the greater part of the 
people seemed to regard the tidings of ora roa ia 
Jesu (endless life by Jesus) as the most joyful 
news they had ever heard; “ breaking upon them,” 
to use the expressions of the natives on anothes 
occasion, “ like light in the morning.” The chief? 
wife, in particular, exclaimed aloud, “ Will my 
spirit never die ? and can this weak body livt 
again?” When we departed, she rose up, and, 
by the help of two sticks, walked down to the 
beach with us. Here we took an affectionate 
