CONCLUDING REMARKS
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CONCLUDING REMARKS.
From the contents of the foregoing pages, I think a general argument is fairly deducible, in favour of the ancient practice of the Church of Christ revived by different denominations of His followers in modern times, viz. --that of proclaiming the gospel in all lands and to every creature, as the wisdom of God and the power of God unto the salvation of every one that believeth it. Whether the civilizing effect of the simple truth as it is in Jesus upon those who believe it with the heart, however low, ignorant, and savage their previous characters, be not an evidence likewise of the Divine origin of that truth, is a question for which the Christian philosopher has a ready answer in his own faith and practice; but it is one which the sceptic to whom the preaching of the cross is foolishness, would do well, in the secrecy of his own chamber, to examine in all its bearings; with all candour, humility, and fairness, to discuss fully; and with all resolution and honesty, as becometh one who seeks the truth in the pure love of it, to decide manfully, and finally. To my own mind, the argument for the Christian Religion supplied me in the wilds, and by the sight and hearing of the converted cannibals of New Zealand is irresistible. What the natives of that country were, what mul-
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titudes of those now living, still are, admits not of a doubt. The two leading features of their national character, are features which moral philosophy excludes from all part in her definition of a civilized people. By the Son of God, and the Saviour of men, they are used to pourtray the prince of darkness and the author of evil, even Satan, who was a murderer from the beginning, a liar and the father of lies. Falsehood and murder were the distinguishing features of the New Zealanders generally, I had almost said, universally, when SAMUEL MARSDEN, whom I shall be excused for styling the first Bishop of New Zealand, first planned and carried into effect, a scheme for elevating their moral by the previous exaltation of their social character. For this purpose, in 1814, he succeeded in introducing into the country some Christian mechanics as missionaries, with the double view of teaching the inhabitants the arts of peace, and the truths of Christianity. Year followed year, and no healing appeared to drop from the wings of the Sun of Righteousness, upon the sin-sick race whom it was sought to benefit. They applied themselves to, and became adepts in the useful arts, but if they heard at all, it was obvious they could only be hearing with indifference, the truth by which a moral renovation of their characters was to be brought about; a moral revolution of all their habits in thought, and speech, and action, to be achieved; while those habits and that character remained unchanged: or else, that the truth by which this national miracle was expected to be wrought, was
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inefficient to produce so great a result, and not what it purported to be, the wisdom of God. and the power of God, and therefore not of God at all, but a cunningly devised fable. The faith of the church was tried, but tried only to be strengthened by the trial; the patience of the church was taxed, but no taxation could exhaust its powers of endurance, until it had had its perfect work. In the meanwhile, navigation, and commerce, and trade, brought other influences into operation, and were trying a rival experiment upon the native mind. To the astonishment of those who were for civilization to be the forerunner of evangelization, navigation did no more for New Zealand, than it had done for all the world beside, namely, make known its situation and extent, to the civilized nations of the earth, and open the way for commerce to improve upon the discovery. Commerce was not slow to follow in the way thus opened to her, and the spacious harbours of New Zealand enabled her shipping to prosecute the pursuit of wealth with a widening prospect of success, by enabling them to make more strenuous efforts, and to continue them longer, in seas. so remote from Europe. But, beyond thinning the forests of its stately inhabitants and propagating among the natives a filthy and terrible disease, commerce, while returning enriched herself from the ports of New Zealand, left the country unimproved by her visitations, and its aboriginal tenantry, not a little injured by her importations.
If navigation only ascertained for these islands their geographical positions, the utmost that com-
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merce can be said to have done, is the discovery of their value, and the partial development of their resources, with a display of which to invite trade to add to her inventory the productions of the soil of New Zealand. Trade, never indolent when wealth was the sure reward of industry, landed with her wares among a people of savages--she brought them muskets and gunpowder, because they delighted in war--she sold them tobacco and gin; because from the use made of these articles by their visitors, they esteemed them luxuries, and partook of them till they became necessaries. For the former she received in exchange the heads of murdered men! for the latter she obtained lands and forests, and flax; the last, an article of considerable value everywhere but in New Zealand. But trade was too busily employed in taking care of herself to care for the natives by whose property she flourished, and on whose vitals she fed--her footsteps in the land left indeed their stamp behind them: but for that stamp her presence might be unsuspected--a thinning of the tribes, the almost depopulated shores of New Zealand, leave room enough for the most cursory observation to detect the impressions of her feet. Misery, disease, and death, remain where she trafficked. I say not that the natives were not previously subject to these accidents of our human nature, for they are evils to which all flesh is heir, but facts, undeniable facts, bear me out in affirming that misery unheard of before; diseases unknown before; and deaths made fearfully more numerous than, and of a kind
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unthought of before, have been introduced with the introduction of trade among a people, who owe no debt of gratitude whatever to trade, however she may have increased in value and in bulk the contents of her warehouses, and the sales in her markets, by the productions of a foreign soil, sometimes forcibly, at other times fraudulently and by surreptitious means, obtained from the rightful owner, although I am free also and glad to confess, frequently procured by fair and equitable dealings. Trade, and commerce, and navigation have succeeded and combined with one another upon New Zealand ground--they have improved by the adventure, and benefited themselves and their promoters, but New Zealand they have neither directly benefited nor improved; what advantages may yet accrue to it from the indirect tendencies of all the three, it is not my affair to enquire, nor need we be curious to learn: that He who causeth all things to work together for good to them that love Him, to them that are the called according to His purpose; and identifying His own glory with their good, will overrule every thing for His own glory, the Christian believes and is sure; and beyond this no Christian requires to be informed. As poison in the prescription of a wise physician is calculated to contribute to the recovery of the patient, so the blight that has withered the speculations of political economists, as to the wisest way of raising the tribes of the heathen from their moral and social degradation, into the ranks of civilized beings, and to a place among the nations of the
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earth, may serve to exhibit in more perfect contrast, how superior is the foolishness of God to the wisdom of man--how infinitely superior the most insignificant means of his employment, to the most complex, artfully contrived, ingenious, and costly devices of any creature, although that creature, considered as a spiritual intelligence, be himself none other than one made after the image and in the likeness of God, the alone wise!
The enquiry naturally follows, what has been the result of the experiment made by missionaries entrusted with the twofold task of instructing in civilization and Christianity? As long as it was attempted to better their outward condition as a preparative to their reception of the Christian faith, the result was as decided a failure as in the cases stated before. It was not God's way, and it had not God's blessing. But as soon as the plan of the mission was altered, and fresh labourers added to those already employed, and religion put first, and civilization regarded only in its place as a sequence of it, the change commenced. That change, at first individual, is becoming general, and will go on, it may be safely predicted, --until it become a national one, and the whole land be subjugated to the easy yoke, and brought under the light burthen of the meek and lowly Jesus.
What has Christianity done for the New Zealanders? just what Christianity did for the barbarous inhabitants of ancient Britain, including in that title England, Scotland, and Wales. In the words of one, to the witchery of whose words
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the inhabitants of modern Britain may be said to have rendered an almost universal tribute--"Over a wild people, inhabiting a country as savage as themselves, the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing under his wings. Good men, on whom the name of saint has been justly bestowed, to whom life and the pleasures of the world were as nothing, so they could call souls to Christianity, undertook and succeeded in, the perilous task of enlightening these savages. Religion, although it did not at first change the manners of nations waxed old in barbarism, failed not to introduce those institutions on which rest the dignity and happiness of social life. The law of marriage was established among them, and all the brutalizing evils of polygamy gave place to the consequences of a union which tends, most directly, to separate the human from the brute species. The abolition of idolatrous ceremonies took away many brutalizing practices, and the gospel, like the grain of mustard-seed, grew and flourished, in noiseless increase, insinuating into men's hearts the blessings inseparable from its influence." And of a truth, all this and much more has been effected in New Zealand by the simple enunciation of the gospel from week to week, and from day to day, by men unarmed-- apparently defenceless--often in peril of being murdered; in the sight of murders frequently perpetrated; and of debaucheries constantly practised; in the hearing of filthy conversation, by which their souls were vexed every hour of their lives: by men neither distinguished for learning nor
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for science, unknown or at most but little known in their own country--in the estimation of the wise, fools) in the judgment of sobriety, mad! in the opinion of sages, fanatical! but in the mind of the church, good men, full of faith and not without a measure of the Holy Ghost. Did the church err, or were the wise, the prudent, and the learned in error? The church's judgment was a just one, but the work was not of man but of God; and the church's confidence was not in man, but in her Lord and her God, a confidence never misplaced, and then surest when most trusting.
What has Christianity done for New Zealand? It has substituted there, righteousness for unrighteousness, marriage for fornication, goodness for wickedness, generosity for covetousness, for maliciousness--loving-kindness. Instead of envy, it has brought in love, and given life in lieu of murder. Angry and unprofitable debate it has turned into gracious and edifying conversation. The wiles of deceit it has caused to make way for the simplicity of truth, and scattered the seeds of mercy over the grave of malignity. Those who once whispered away the lives of others, waiting only till the backs of their neighbours were turned, to bite like serpents, and destroy whom they slandered, the gospel has converted into men of candour and uprightness. The haters of God, and of every thing good, it has transformed into his likeness, and enriched with his love. The despiteful it has made tender hearted; pride and boasting it has excluded, bringing in, in their stead, humility and diffidence.
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Inventors of evil things it has turned into promoters of good. Under its frown disobedience to parents has disappeared, and beneath its smile filial piety has grown up and flourished. Those who were void of understanding it has enlightened with wisdom and true knowledge. Those who were covenant-breakers it has bound to their contracts by a moral obligation stronger than the fear of death. The selfish, under its genial influence, have been warmed into sociability; the implacable have been taught the, to them, most difficult art of forgiveness, and the unmerciful instructed how to show mercy. These are the achievements of Christianity in New Zealand! these the benefits conferred by the gospel upon the spirits of the New Zealanders! But, has the Christian religion only ameliorated their spiritual condition? It has done more. While it has brought in a better hope than any they before possessed, and paved their way in Time to the enjoyments of Eternity; it has fitted them, as intelligent beings, for conversing with their kind upon terms of equality, as men gifted with all that distinguishes man from the brute creation, and wearied from all the puerilities of savage life, whereby they were scarcely distinguishable from children long after they had attained unto man's estate. In early infancy, soon as the tongue exercises itself to speak, the New Zealand child is taken and placed in the careful "fold" of an infant school, where its lips learn to perfect praise, even the praise of Jehovah. From that time the powers of its mind, as they gradually unfold themselves, are
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watched over with parental solicitude, until the character be formed, and the future employment determined; when the grown-up native is accustomed to habits of industry, and taught the arts of civilization. Christianity has not only saved the souls of the New Zealanders from sin, it has informed their minds with useful learning, and instructed their hands to handle the spade or guide the plough. The sight is now to be seen of numbers engaged in agriculture, who once knew only to point the musket or wield the slaughter-weapon. The nobler sight is common in numberless villages, of numbers submitting themselves to be instructed in the arts of reading and writing, the simplest, but at the same time most potent of all arts, and becoming, when taught themselves, the voluntary and unpaid teachers of others. But the spectacle of greatest sublimity and most affecting interest, is also to be seen, week after week, of whole multitudes met together to make known their wants and their weaknesses unto the God of the whole earth, and "laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings," desiring and drinking in the unadulterated milk of the word of life, that they may thereby grow in grace daily, and in the knowledge of Him whom to know is life eternal!
Let navigation, seated on the circle of the earth, and surrounded in her turn by the circle of her sister sciences, point to the territorial divisions of both hemispheres, and boast of the perfection of her knowledge of lands and seas, and the facility with
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which she can make the ends of the world to meet. Let commerce, while she unloads her navies, freighted with the produce of all countries, plume herself upon the broadness of her way, and the greatness of her wealth, and vaunt that the balance of power is with the nation to which she allies herself most closely. Let trade, as she wearies herself in the variety of her wares and the riches of her merchandize, and paves her streets with gold, and roofs her home with cedar, talk of the seas she has traversed, and the lands she has rendered tributary. Christianity alone can look man in the face, and say unto him, in the land of the savage, or the realm of the civilized, Thee, when hungry, I have fed; to thee, when athirst, have I given drink; thee, when a stranger, I have been careful to entertain; clothed thee when naked; when thou wast sick I ministered to thy necessities; when the slave of sin and the prisoner of Satan, I visited thee in mercy, and brought thee out of thy wretched captivity into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
These effects have, it is undeniable, been produced by the introduction of Christianity among the savages of New Zealand. The effects and the cause are matters of history. Is the cause detached from supernatural agency? or, to speak the language of faith, rather than the jargon of philosophy, falsely so called, is the gospel preached to the New Zealanders sufficient to account for the change in their character, and the improvement of their condition, which has actually taken place
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in every instance in which that gospel has been duly preached to and faithfully received by them? Alone, unblessed by the influences of the Holy Ghost, and considered as a device of man, and not in very deed the truth of God, is it possible that words, mere words, could have wrought what that gospel has wrought? On the supposition that that gospel is after all but a cunningly devised fable, --and if it be not a revelation from the Most High, a fable it must be, --even the most inveterate sceptic will, I think, agree that it requires a greater credulity to admit that any fable, however specious, --any lie, however plausible, could work such and so thorough a reformation in the hearts and lives of a multitude of wild and desperately wicked men, as has been wrought through the gospel; than to believe that the Creator of the human race has made a revelation of his will to that race, --acknowledged that revelation to be his by signs, and wonders, and miracles, such as he only both could and would work, --confirms it still in the happy experience of every one who believes it, by causing the faith it begets to work by love, -- and seals the same by the continued gift of the Holy Ghost, as the earnest of that promised future inheritance, which it declares to be incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, but is reserved in heaven for them who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time! And that revelation from heaven is the gospel which we preach.
According to the Christian scheme, the pheno-
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menon of a regenerated race, regenerated by simple belief of a plain testimony so far as man can see, is intelligible and easily accounted for. According to it, the gospel is the message of God to the spirits of men; according to it, the gospel is a divinely appointed mean for the recovery of fallen man from a state of sin and misery, and his restoration to holiness and happiness; according to it, whenever the gospel is preached the wisdom and power or God are both put forth on behalf of those who hear; according to it, the soul of the believer becomes the shrine of God's own Spirit, even the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and a right mind; and according to it, those who remain steadfast in the faith of the Son of God, who is the object of that revelation, of that gospel, work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in them to will and to do according to his good pleasure. And in this way, the most unlearned Christian can account for and explain so striking and marvellous a phenomenon as that exhibited in the altered lives and conduct of the New Zealanders, when it can in no other way be accounted for or explained by all the philosophy of the whole world.
But if the foregoing narrative of events in New Zealand supplies the freethinker with an argument in favour of the divine origin of our holy religion-- an argument, which I am fain to believe, however weakly stated by me, would in abler hands prove unassailable by all the shafts of the most ingenious sophistry, or the most wily infidelity. How strong
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an argument does the consideration of the actual triumphs of divine truth in a country like New Zealand, present to all who profess and call themselves Christians, in favour of renewed and vigorous exertions to spread abroad the knowledge of that truth, which, accompanied by the almighty influence of its Divine Author, is thus demonstrated to be able to make men wise unto salvation; until the gospel of the Kingdom, which God hath ordained in the hands of a mediator, shall have been preached for a witness unto all nations: --until the gospel of the grace of God, bringing salvation, shall have been proclaimed in the hearing of every creature: ---until it be no longer necessary for a man to say to his neighbour, know the Lord, because all shall know him, from the least even unto the greatest: -- and until the knowledge of God covers the earth as the waters cover the great deep, and the whole earth be filled with his glory!
I have previously spoken of navigation, of commerce, and of trade, in terms which their respective votaries may deem harsh, and with a severity which to such persons may appear both unmeasured and unmerited. That which I have believed I have spoken--and that which I believe, I must continue to speak. And my speech is now addressed to my fellow-Christians, to "the holy Church Universal throughout the whole world."
Although science contributed nothing to the civilization of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, science sent out her missionaries at a very early period to those uttermost ends of the earth; not indeed to
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make glad the moral wilderness and the solitary place, solitary because without hope and without God; nor to cause the spiritual deserts to rejoice and blossom like the rose; but the missionaries of science did circumnavigate the globe, and that too at a time when the cost, and labour, and peril of doing so, was much, very much greater than at present, and for what purpose? to accomplish what end? Why, the first memorable voyage of the celebrated Cook was undertaken for the purpose of observing, not the length and the breadth of human misery in order to remove it, but to observe the transit of Venus! To solve a geographical problem at one time, an astronomical one at another; to satisfy the cravings of philosophical curiosity on the one hand, the hungerings and thirstings of literary research on the other, scientific bodies have expended money, and time, and talent lavishly, liberally, and in a way which the church would do well to take example front.
To increase the wealth of nations and even to add to the riches of individuals, lofty enterprizes have been undertaken, severe toils undergone, and extreme perils and dangers encountered. In all, the principles of faith and hope were severally exercised. But the faith of the men of science was founded upon the accuracy of their calculations and the legitimacy of their reasoning; and the hope of the men of business became operative only after they had long and carefully marked the trepidations of the balance between the profit and loss likely to result from the employment of their capital in new
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and previously untried channels; and could pronounce with comparative certainty upon the success of their venture. During the trial of their respective experiments, they had to wait for months, and even for years, before receiving any return; however, their perseverance, I speak it to their credit, surmounted every difficulty, and their patience was more than enough to preserve their tranquillity till the end of their undertakings could be satisfactorily ascertained.
Shall a society of astronomers, or a company of merchants, whose pursuits, however exalted or however praiseworthy, cannot for a moment be compared to the work of an Evangelist, shall these be able, and the Church which is the body of Christ, unable to compass the entire surface of the habitable globe! Shall the astronomer send forth men to the antipodes, to plant a telescope on a spot the most suitable for observing the motions of the stars, and shall Christians, with the promise to those who turn many to righteousness, of shining as stars in the firmament of heaven themselves, shall Christians not send forth men to all the isles of the sea, and into every corner of the earth, to point the eye of the benighted savage to the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star! in His transit from a throne of glory to a cross of shame, for us men, and for our salvation; to his occultation in the valley and shadow of death, who died for our offences; and to his rise and ascension from the depths of hell, and the fastnesses of the grave, -- who rose again because of our justification, invested
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with power, and crowned with great glory! Shall the merchant freight his fleets with riches, and man those fleets with wise and skilful mariners, to open a communication between the farthest east, and the extremest west; and shall the poles of the earth be drawn together by them for the purpose of establishing a reciprocity of trade--and can we, whose treasure is in heaven, whose Father is the possessor of heaven and earth, to whose Lord alone belongs the silver and the gold, and to whose God pertain the ability and the will to save unto the uttermost all that come unto him! Can we, children and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, hold back our silver, our gold, our young men, our wise and our brave, our sons and our daughters, the servants and the handmaidens of the Lord, from exhibiting the heathen of all lands, the way of access opened for them as well as for us into the presence of God; and from bringing within the embrace of an expansive and universal and reciprocal charity, all the tribes and families of the whole earth!
God has delegated to the Church the performance of his will and the completion of his work. To ensure both, He has entrusted to her his Wisdom, and fortified her with his Power. While one nation remains to whom the Gospel of the Kingdom has not been preached for a witness, while one individual lives to whom the gospel of the grace of God has not brought salvation, either prophetically or possessively, the will of the Lord God Almighty is left undone, and the work of the Majesty of hea-
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ven, requires to be finished. The success of Christian missions to the heathen, is a matter of conjecture no longer. The mission in New Zealand furnishes proof enough, even if America and Greenland had not long before established the point, as one that may no longer be mooted. The Church believes it, and the world cannot gainsay it, the word of the Lord has never returned to him void from any part of the earth, but has every where accomplished that for which he sent it. What then hinders that word that it should not henceforth and for ever have free course and be glorified in all places whatsoever, into which the feet of man have been led? Let those answer for themselves, who have never yet bestirred them so much as to think of the miserable condition of the heathen, far less stretched forth their arms to help, or opened their hands to relieve the spiritually poor, wretched, miserable, blind, and naked, of their fellow-creatures. Those who have already assisted to forward this good work, with a single eye to the glory of God, and a sincere desire for the salvation of men, need no encouragement from my pen to perseverance in well doing, seeing that they are encouraged of God himself by the mouth of his holy apostle Paul.
"THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, BE YE STEDFAST, UNMOVEABLE, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LOUD, FORASMUCH AS YE KNOW THAT YOUR LABOUR IS NOT IN VAIN IN THE LORD."
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To those who have perused the previous narrative, and whom it may have interested in the future progress and prospects of society in New Zealand, where civilization may truly be said to be but in its infancy, and Christianity only beginning to dawn in glorious day, I would say, come over and help us, to perfect the mission in New Zealand. If the half of what the Lord has enabled his servants in that country to do for the people, has not been told you, neither has the hundredth part been laid before you of what remains to be, done, for its many tribes who cannot, if faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God--who cannot believe, because they have not a preacher. For the tribes over whose dwelling's the shadows of Mount Egmont are cast, for the poor tribes whose towns have been burnt to the ground, whose whole store of provisions have been mercilessly destroyed, and whose blood in which is the precious life, has been shed without pity, and without remorse, I ask of the Church of Christ, an apostle to lay a good foundation, whereupon others may build; a PROPHET to exhort the people to repent and believe the gospel, to edify such as shall be saved, and to comfort them that mourn; an EVANGELIST, to preach Christ crucified, and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints; a PASTOR, to feed the flock of God, and a TEACHER to carry the lambs of that flock in his bosom; and lead them beside quiet waters, to lie down in pleasant pastures; until as many of those tribes and families as are ordained unto eternal life, though now "without
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Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world," shall be "brought nigh by the blood of Jesus," and ceasing to be "strangers and foreigners," shall become "fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God," and be "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord."
For the southern tribes of New Zealand, and especially for the Natiawa, Natiruanui, and Taranaki tribes, I ask of the church of the living God as a body, and of all her members in particular, an Apostle, a Prophet, an Evangelist, and a Pastor and Teacher, for the perfecting to the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till God's elect who may now be hidden among those tribes be gathered together with ourselves in one, in Christ Jesus; and we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, that we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things who is the head, CHRIST, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the
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effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love!" And to whom, "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see, be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
