In our public instructions, we inculcated on those who, we had reason to believe, were under the decisive influence of the Spirit of Christ, the duty of commemorating his dying love by that ordinance which he had instituted, and by which his disciples were to shew forth his death till he should come.-Those who had been baptized, now desired to be more particularly informed how, and in what circumstances, they were to observe this injunction of the Lord. We, therefore, proposed to devote one afternoon every week to the instruction of such as had been baptized, and desired to be united in church-fellowship. Fifteen individuals attended the first meeting, and were afterward joined by others. We met them regularly, and endeavoured to instruct them as fully and familiarly as possible in the duty of partaking of the sacrament; the nature, design, and scriptural constitution of church-fellowship; the discipline to be maintained, the advantages to be anticipated, and the duties resulting therefrom.

Next to the personal piety, which in church-members is considered indispensable, it appeared most important to impress the minds of the people with the distinctness of a Christian church from any political, civil, or other merely human institution. In the system of false religion under which they had lived, and by which their habits of judgment had been formed, the highest civil and sacerdotal offices had been united in one person.The king was generally chief priest of the national temple; and the high-priesthood of the principal idols was usually held by some member, or near relative, of the. reigning family. On many occasions of worship also, the king was the representative of the god. The chiefs and the gods appear always to have exercised a combined

influence over the populace. The power of the gods often seemed only exercised to establish the authority of the king, who was by the people regarded as filling his high station by lineal descent from them, while the measures of the government as often appeared to be pursued to inspire fear, and secure acknowledgments for the gods. Hence, when human sacrifices were required, the priest applied to the king, and the king gave orders to provide the victim. Since the kings and chiefs, as well as the people, had embraced the gospel, and many had taken the lead in propagating it, and had uniformly adorned it by their example, and the people sometimes said, that had their chiefs been idolaters or wicked rulers, it would have been improper for them to have interfered in any matters connected with Christianity, but that now they were truly pious, it accorded with their ideas of propriety, that in the Christian church they should, as christian chiefs, be pre-eminent.

We told them they had not imbibed these ideas in a christian, but in a pagan school; that the authority of their kings and chiefs was exerted over their persons, and regarded their outward conduct; that they held their high station under God, for the well-being of society, and were, when influenced by uprightness and humanity, the greatest blessings to the communities over which they presided. We also stated, that in this station every Christian was bound, no less by duty to God than to man, to render obedience to their laws, to respect and maintain their authority, and to pay them every due homage. And we also told them, that in the church of Jesus Christ, which was purely a religious association, so far as distinctions among men, from dignity of station, elevation of office, fame of achievement, or influence of wealth,

were concerned, that all members were brethren; and that Christ himself was the only spiritual chief or king; that his influence or reign was not temporal, but, like his authority, spiritual. The only distinction recognized in a Christian church, we informed them, regarded those who acted as officers, and that such distinctions only prevailed in what concerned them as a church, and did not refer to their usual intercourse with the community of which they were members, and in which they were governed by the ordinary regulations established in civilized society.

The duties which those who united in church fellow. ship were required to perform towards each other, towards those desirous of uniting with them, and to the careless or irreligious, were also fully and frequently brought under their notice, together with the paramount duty of every Christian to endeavour to propagate Christianity, that the Christian church might become a kind of nursery, from which other churches might be planted in the extensive wilderness of paganism around.

Next to this, the institution, nature, design, administration, and uses of the Lord's supper, were familiarly explained, that they might understand, as far as possible, the engagement into which they were desirous to enter, and the observances connected therewith.

The Lord's supper, or sacrament, we regarded as analogous to the passover, symbolical of the death of Christ as an atonement or sacrifice, of which event it was commemorative; that it was designed to perpetuate the remembrance of His death, even to the end of time, and was to be in faith participated by all who build their hopes of admission to the heavenly state on His atonement.

Having been for some months engaged weekly in imparting this kind of instruction to those who had expressed their desire to receive the ordinance of the Lord's supper, the month of May was selected for forming the church. Sixteen individuals, who in the judgment of charity we had every reason to believe were sincere Christians, then met us, and, after imploring the blessing of the great Head of the church, offering a suitable address, and receiving their declaration of faith in Christ, and desire to enjoy the privileges of churchfellowship, a voluntary association was formed, the righthand of fellowship was given, and they recognized each other as members of the first church of Christ in Huahine.

We did not present any creed or articles of faith for their subscription on this occasion. Sensible of the insufficiency of all mere human writings, however excellent, to restrain the mind, or control the opinions of men, we thought it best to dispense with them, lest the bare assent, or subscription to certain articles of faith, or doctrines of truth, should be substituted, as grounds of confidence, for an experience of the influence of those doctrines on the heart. Their names only were entered in a book kept by the Missionaries for that purpose, and called the Church-book. This little meeting was held in the chapel at Fare, on Friday evening, the 5th of May, 1820: and it is hoped that what was done on earth was confirmed in heaven, and that the union then formed among the disciples of Christ below, though it may be dissolved by death, will be realized in his presence above, and endure through eternity.

On the following Sabbath, May the 7th, an unusual number attended the large place of worship. Mr.

Davies preached in the forenoon, from Luke xxii. 19. In front of the pulpit, a neat table, covered with white native cloth, was fixed, upon which the sacramental vessels were placed. These had been furnished from England. Wheaten bread was an article of diet that we did not very often obtain ourselves, and which the people seldom tasted: we should have preferred it for this ordinance, yet, as we could not, from the irregularity and uncertainty of our supplies at that period, expect always to have it, we deemed it better to employ an article of food as nearly resembling it as possible, and which was at all times procurable. From these considerations, we felt no hesitation in using, on this occasion, the roasted or baked bread-fruit, pieces of which were placed on the proper vessel.

Wine, we were also thankful to possess for this purpose; and although we have sometimes been apprehensive that we might be under the necessity of substituting the juice of the cocoa-nut for that of the grape, or discontinuing the observance of this ordinance, (to which latter painful alternative, some of our brethren have been reduced,) we have been providentially favoured with a sufficiency. Over the elements placed on the table, a beautifully white cloth had been spread, before the accustomed service began. When this was over, although it was intimated that any who wished might retire, no one left the chapel. Mr. Davies, the senior Missionary or pastor of the church, took his station behind the communion-table; Mr. Barff sat at one end, and I took my seat at the other.

When the communicants had seated themselves in a line in front, we sang a hymn. The words of institution, viz. passages of Seripture containing the directions for