The task of spreading
Christianity would not, after all, be so difficult were it not
for the efforts of those apostles of the devil to keep the
islands as they would like them to be--places where lust runs
riot day and night, murder may be done with impunity, slavery
flourishes, and all evil may be indulged in free from law, order,
or restraint.
It speaks volumes for the inherent might of the Gospel that, in
spite of the object-lessons continually provided for the natives
by white men of the negation of all good, that it has stricken
its roots so deeply into the soil of the Pacific islands. Just
as the best proof of the reality of the Gospel here in England is
that it survives the incessant assaults upon it from within by
its professors, by those who are paid, and highly paid, to
propagate it, by the side of whose deadly doings the efforts of
so-called infidels are but as the battery of a summer breeze; so
in Polynesia, were not the principles of Christianity vital with
an immortal and divine life, missionary efforts might long ago
have ceased in utter despair at the fruitlessness of the field.
We were enjoying a most uneventful passage, free from any
serious changes either of wind or weather which quiet time was
utilised to the utmost in making many much-needed additions to
the running-gear, repairing rigging, etc.
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