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either suspended our conversation , or induced an abrupt transition to som « other topic . " " The doctrine of the resurrection of the body has ever ap * peared to them , as it did when announced by the apostle to the civilized philosophers of Athens , or the august rulers in the Roman hall of judgment , as
a fact astounding-or incredible . Of another world , and the existence of the soul in that world after the dissolution of the body , they appear at all times
to have entertained some indistinct ideas , but the reanimation of the mouldering bodies of the dead , bordered , to their apprehension , on impossibility /' The welcome which missionaries to foreign lands have at first received , has often been misinterpreted into a willingness to hear the gospel , when , in fact , it was owing solely to a desire of improving by the superior skill of the new-comers in the mechanical arts . An instance given by Mr . Ellis may gerve to illustrate this remark . A chief of the Society Islands remarked , that the missionaries " gave the people plenty of talk and prayer , but very few knives , axes , scissors , or cloth . " This desire may , indeed , lead to something better . " Their" ( the missionaries' ) " acquaintance with the most useful of the mechanic arts , not only delighted the natives , but raised the missionaries in their estimation , and led them to desire their friendship . In every clime the great principles of human nature remain essentially the same . Our readers will remember who asked , " Have any of the rulers believed ? " " They scoffingly asked the missionaries if the people of Matavi had attended to their word ; if the king or any of his family had cast away Oro ; declaring that when the king and chiefs heard the word of Jehovah , then they would also . " « . The vices of those who have conveyed missionaries , or the supply of their wants , to the stations in Heathen countries , have always proved a serious obstruction to the spread of the gospel . " The ravages of disease , originating in licentiousness or nurtured by the vicious habits of the people , and those first brought among them by European vessels , appeared to be tending fast to the total destruction of Tahiti The survivors of such as were carried off by these means , feeling the incipient effects of disease themselves , and beholding their relatives languishing under maladies of foreign origin , inflicted , as they supposed , by the God of the
foreigners , were led to view the missionaries as in some degree the cause of their suffering , and frequently not only rejected their message , but charged
them with being the authors of their misery by praying against them to their God . When the missionary spoke to them on the subject of religion , the deformed and diseased were sometimes brought out and ranged before them as evidences of the efficacy of their prayers , and the destructive power of their- God . The feelings of the people on this subject were frequently so strong , and their language so violent , that the missionaries have been obliged to hasten from places where they intended to have addressed the people . Instead of listening with attention , the natives seemed only irritated by being , as they said , mocked with promises of advantage from a God by whom so much suffering had been inflicted . "
We wish that all idols , idols of Christians as well as Heathens , the idols in the heart as well as in the temple , had suffered the same fate as Oro : •« They ( the soldiers ; entered the depository of Tahiti ' s former god—the priests and people stood around in silent expectation ; even the soldiers paused a moment , and a scene was exhibited analoj ^ ous to that which was witnessed in the temple of Serapia in Alexandria , when the tutelar deity of that city was destroyed by the Roman soldiers . At length they brought out the idol , stripped him of his sacred coverings and highly-valued ornaments , and threw his body contemptuously on the ground . It was a rude , uncarved log of aito wood , about six feet long . The altars were then broken down ,
Untitled Article
94 EUis ' s Polynesian Researches .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1831, page 94, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2594/page/22/
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