since the islanders at last expressed | but after a smiling wrestle with the a willingness to receive a Samoan warm-hearted people, I got clear, and teacher, during which the good work has gone on and prospered. "By 2 p.m. we were off the station of our teacher Samuela, on the south side of the island; and Captain Williams, Mr. Inglis, and I proceeded in the boats to the shore. Although the sea ran high, no fewer than seventeen canoes were off to meet us, and, accompanied by this fleet and its happy band of natives, we pulled to the landing-place. The first glance at the people from the ship's deck showed a marked change since I was here before. Instead of nudity and the long dishevelled hair flying in the wind, or fast in a coil between the teeth, all have their hair cut short, and at least n wrapper or kilt of some sort from the waist downward below the knee. "We found the teacher and his family well, and living in one of the best teacher's houses I have ever seen, quite a palace of a place; eighty feet by thirty; divided into seven apart ments, well plastered, finished with doors and venetians, and furnished with tables, chairs, and bedsteads. We were delighted also with the size and unusually fine workmanship of the chapel. It is ninety feet by twentyfour, holds 500 people, but it is too small, and they are about to build one larger.... Retired to rest on a nice muslin-curtained bedstead, which they kindly spread for me, with blanket and sheets, luxuries rarely to be met with in a native teacher's house; but I had too much to think about to get more than a short nap. Soon after midnight the natives were all on the move, church members, candidates, and others going to the meeting, and others catching pigs and fowls to take off for sale to the vessel. It went on again along the road. The natives have completed a good six feet wide road all round the island. It has been partly made and kept in repair by fines. For theft and other crimes, the chiefs sentence offenders to two, five, ten, or even fifty fathoms of road making. They fill up the spaces between the uneven coral with small stones, and level all with a layer of earth or sand. They are raising a row of cocoa nuts on either side of the road for a shade. A missionary will find this road a great facility to his labours, as it will enable him to take a horse all round the island-a distance of forty to fifty miles. "About half way, I looked in as I passed to a school house, fifty feet by twenty, just finished in the finest style of their workmanship. They have five more of these school-houses at distances round the island, between the five large chapels. I was at Alofi by 7 a.m. Here I met with some of the natives who had been with us at Samoa, was besieged again by the hand shakers, but soon got into the teacher's house-a fine building, even more so than the one I saw the day before. Here I met with the other three teachers, namely, Paulo, Paula, and Lakaii, and commenced the important but very difficult work of examining candidates for admission to the church. The teachers had evidently been careful in the selection of them, and out of those proposed from the five stations, we decided on receiving thirty-one men and nineteen women. Those who were formed into a church last year have all remained steadfast, | and, with the addition of these just named, there is an aggregate of 102 of the Savage Islanders in church fellowship. After baptizing the newly-admitted members, we all united in commemorating the death of Christ. was heart-stirring at daylight to hear the voice of prayer and praise proceeding from the cottages of the natives as we passed along the road. Some "We supplied them with copies of had family worship over, and were out, theCommentary on the Gospel of eager to get a shake of the hand as I Matthew' in the Samoan dialect, and passed. Some were not content with left 4,000 copies of a revised hymn the hand or arm, but they must seize and scripture lesson book in the Savage the leg too, and give it a hearty Island dialect, the paper for which was national snuff or smell! I was thus kindly furnished by the London Rebrought to a fast stand-still at times,ligious Tract Society. "The teachers handed me a manuscript of a translation of the Gospel of Mark in the dialect of Savage Island, with a request to print it at Samoa, if approved by us. It was translated by Paulo, who has been ten years on the island, and subsequently all the teachers met in committee and revised the manuscript. I said they might go on with Matthew next. Of course they translate from the Samoan version. They will exert themselves, I have no doubt, to do it well, and although a translation of a translation, and by native teachers, the manuscript may be of much service to missionaries, who, I trust, will ere long be sent forth to this island. "The population may be set down at 4,300. All are now Christians, with the exception of some ten, who still stand aloof. The opinion is universal throughout the island that there is now an increase of the population. The women are much more numerous than the men, and we were all struck with the number of children to be seen compared with many other islands. There was a fearful destruction of children in the days of heathenism. The climate is remarkably healthy. We have found this universal with the low coral formations. It is on the volcanic islands where our teachers and missionaries have suffered so much from fever and ague. The teachers said the chiefs wished to know how they could obtain a protectorate from the British Government. I said it was not likely that Britain would grant their request; still, it could do no harm to make known their wishes; only they must do it, not through the missionaries, but through some of Her Britannic Majesty's official representatives, say the British Consul at Samoa, or the commander of any of Her Britannic Majesty's ships which may touch at the islands. "The John Williams' was off the settlement at Alofi all day, and the boats made five trips to the shore, taking off arrowroot, pigs, fowls, yams, teachers' parcels, &c. The arrowroot amounted to upwards of 2,000 pounds, and is the proceeds of the sale of books: 1,540 yams, ten pigs, and forty fowls were a present from the people to the John Williams,' and in addition Mr. Griffen, the second officer, bought fifty pigs and 120 fowls for the vessel. I was glad also to find that the demand from Mr. Griffen was not for tobacco, but exclusively for such useful articles as calico, shirts, knives, hatchets, &c. "In the afternoon we had a public meeting in the chapel. It is a 100 feet long by thirty-five, and is one of the finest chapels I have seen in the South Seas. It was closely packed with a clean, decently clothed, and attentive audience. Captain Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Inglis, the Misses Geddie, and others from the ship were also present. Including those on the verandahs on either side of the chapel, there were at least 1,100 present. Mr. Inglis and I addressed them through the teachers as interpreters, who also conducted the singing and devotional parts of the service. Such a sight, and in such a place, made it a season of joy to all of us, which we shall never forget. "We were again on board ship and off for Samoa before dark. I have repeatedly wished in the course of this voyage that I had another body to dispose of and give up to labour in the cause of Christ; but I never felt this to such an extent as I did on leaving the shores of Savage Island, covered with a loving, grateful people, all eager for a shake of the band and to express as best they could their unfeigned regard. And these are the children of the men who rushed out upon our great navigator Cook like wild boars,' and who, for sixty years after his time, kept to the determination that no stranger should ever live on their island. They repeatedly assailed parties of white men, as they did Captain Cook, and were occasionally fired upon in return. Natives of other islands, who were drifted there in distress, whether from Tonga, or Samoa, or elsewhere, were invariably killed. Any of their own people who went away in a ship and came back were also killed, and all this was occasioned by a dread of the introduction of disease. For years, too, after they began to venture out to ships, they would not immediately use anything Contributions. obtained, but bung it up in the bush in quarantine for weeks. Eleven years ago the exclusive system, against which we had so long been struggling, gave way, and the assurance was formally made known to us that Samoan teachers would be received; and now nothing would be more grateful to them than the arrival of white missionaries. Soon may God grant them the desire of their hearts! "Nor is the great change confined to their reception of Christianity as a religious system, but, as is manifest from what I have already said, the whole framework of their political and social life is changed. Their open wars and secret lurking for each other's blood are ended. Old grievances are laid aside, and free intercourse is the rule all over the island. The pigstye 79 like dwellings are fast giving way to the Samoan model of large houses, well spread with mats. Instead of destroying, as they formerly did, all the plantations and fruit trees of a person who dies, that they might go with him, all is now spared, and the consequence is an abundance of food such as they never had in heathenism. Instead of living in single families, and migrating here and there in the bush, the five teacher's stations are fast becoming the nuclei of settled villages, with magistrates and laws. The change of the whole state of affairs is as amazing to the people themselves as it is to a stranger. I have never seen a more inviting field of missionary labour. Happy the men who come to cultivate it!"-Missionary Magazine. We have much pleasure in acknowledging the following sums, being SACRAMENTAL COLLECTIONS for the Establishment of a Fund for the Widows and Orphans of Missionaries, and for Missionaries incapacitated from labour by age and infirmity. In some cases the whole Collection has been devoted to the above object, in others simply the amount in excess of the ordinary Sacramental Collection, but in every case, the amount has been contributed with great cordiality and cheerfulness. The commencement of this new effort is considered very hopeful, especially as similar Collections have yet to be made by other Churches in localities where the first Sabbath of the year was not a convenient time. The Missionary Committee would rejoice to be able to announce in the MARCH or APRIL OBSERVER THAT EVERY CHURCH IN THE CONNEXION HAD CONTRIBUTED SOMETHING IN THE SHAPE OF A SACRAMENTAL OFFERING TO THE FUND, NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE AMOUNT! THERE IS STILL TIME TO DO THIS, AND IT WOULD BE A REFRESHING PROOF OF OUR DENOMINATIONAL UNITY!! Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by Robert Pegg, Esq., Treasurer, Derby, and by the Rev. J. C. Pike, Secretary, Quorndon, near Loughborough, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books and Cards may be obtained. THE GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE. MARCH, 1861. THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED IN HEAVEN.* REV. v. 9; vii. 9-10; xiv. 1-3. an earthly and therefore transitory one-had earthly sanctions and promises, and 'could not make the worshippers perfect;' for not only had it merely representative sacrifices and a priesthood compassed about with infirmities,' but it only surmised the resurrection of the body, and dimly and fitfully descried the place and employment of the separated spirit. Accord PERSONS oft express a wish to go to heaven.' It is often idle and fraudu lent, and may well provoke the remark, The road to hell is paved with good intentions' and wishes. We are rational creatures, and as such, should use our common sense in things spiritual as well as in those commercial. Were a person going to a situation in Australia, or some other remote and strange country, he would ascertainingly, even David, the most enlightened the character of its climate, manners, people, &c., and seek to be fully prepared for the position he was to occupy. How much more serious and enquiring should we be to be ready for that heaven of which we speak, and to be thoroughly in harmony with its society, employment, and above all, its head and life. To aid us in this, we have infallible and the amplest instruction. Life and immortality are brought to light in the Gospel, and herein consists one of our peculiar and most blessed privileges-one which places us on high vantage ground, and qualifies for that which otherwise would be so high that we could not attain unto it. The Jews' dispensation was VOL. II., NEW SERIES. No. 3. and godlike of that dispensation, speaks of the state of the dead so pathetically, describing it as covered with clouds and characterized by inactivity and repose. How painfully does he complain, The dead cannot praise Thee, neither any that go down into darkness;' and how reiterated and pathetic are the strains in which the future is anticipated! How very different are the representations of the New Testament, and how vastly more ennobled and exultant is the character of its saints! As Christ came to 'show us the Father,' so He told us of the Father's house and its many mansions; Preached on occasion of the death of Mrs. Newman, in Walker-gate Chapel, Louth. |