had passed without sense
of break or violent change into a church school, and thence to
Cambridge, where he was associated with the Evangelical leaders, who
emphasised the individual rather than the corporate aspect of the
Church's teaching. We have seen that in 1819 he sent over a Methodist
preacher to report upon and to stimulate his nagging workers. He was not
in favour of the Methodists sending a mission of their own to New
Zealand, but when in 1822 his friend Mr. Leigh determined to settle in
the country, Marsden put no obstacles in his way. Not only so, but in
1823 Marsden himself brought over Leigh's colleagues, Hobbs and Turner,
who established their station at Whangaroa, after consultation with the
settlers at the Bay of Islands. The stations were not far apart, and
constant brotherly intercourse was maintained between the occupants.
When the Wesleyans fled from their homes in the turmoil of 1827, it was
to Kerikeri and Paihia that they betook themselves in the first place,
and it was Marsden's parsonage at Parramatta that sheltered them
afterwards. It was by Marsden's advice that they settled at Hokianga on
their return, and they always looked forward to his visits as eagerly as
did their brethren at the Bay of Islands. He himself rejoiced to
receive them to the Holy Communion; their converts were admitted to the
same holy ordinance at Waimate and Paihia; the missionaries preached
without hesitation in one another's pulpits. So anxious were the leaders
on both sides to spare the Maoris the spectacle of Christian disunion,
and to emphasise the fact that they baptised not in their own name but
in that of their common Master, that on the occasion of the reception
into the fold of the great chief Waka Nene and his brother, Patuone,
they arranged that Patuone, who belonged to the Methodists, should be
baptised by the church clergy, while Waka, who was an adherent of the
church mission, should receive the sacred ordinance at the hands of the
Wesleyans.

Highly irregular! some will exclaim. But there are important
considerations which must be kept in mind. In the first place, the
unhappy separation between the Methodist body and the historic Church
had not then assumed the hard and fast character which it bears to-day.
The followers of Wesley were still in fairly close touch with Wesley's
mother Church; they still occupied, to a large extent, the position of a
voluntary order within the established framework. They us