62 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
time have been. He had been many years among 
the people before any change in favour of Chris- 
tianity took place, and had often beheld them, not 
only ignorant and wretched, sunk to the lowest 
state of debasing impurity, and accustomed to the 
perpetration of the most horrid cruelty, but alto- 
gether given to idolatry, and often mad after their 
idols. 
Our joy arose, in a great degree, from the de- 
lightful anticipation awakened in connexion with 
the admission of the anxious multitude, who were 
waiting to enter into, and, we hoped, prepared of 
God to participate in, all the blessings which this 
ordinance signified, and in reference to the eter- 
nity we hoped to spend with them, when we should 
jom the church triumphant above. His joys, 
however, in addition to those arising from these 
sources, must have been powerfully augmented by 
the recollection of what those individuals once 
were, and the many hours of apparently cheerless 
and hopeless toil he had bestowed upon them, now 
so amply, so astonishingly rewarded. 
A state of feeling, almost unearthly, seemed to 
pervade those who now, for the first time, united 
with their teachers in commemorating the dying 
love of Christ. Recollection, perhaps, presented 
in strong colours the picture of their former state. 
Their abominations, their reckless cruelty, their 
infatuation in idolatry, the frequent, impure, and 
sanguinary rites in which they had engaged— 
their darkened minds, and still darker prospects— 
arose, perhaps, in vivid and rapid succession. At 
the same time, in striking contrast with their 
former feelings, their present desire after moral 
purity, their occupation in the worship of Jehovah, 
their hopes of pardon and acceptance with him, 
