e, I fell asleep on a bundle of
bullrushes; and when I awoke, I found that I had been sleeping
unconsciously on one of the men's heads."

Incidents such as this did not, of course, happen every day; but this
one is typical in that it shows the _religious_ character of the Maori.
Here is a war-party who start out with the object of shooting down a
number of unsuspecting people. They come back talking in quite friendly
fashion with the men who had baulked them of their prey. What had worked
the change? Simply the singing of a hymn. Where could we find stronger
evidence of a disposition naturally religious, or a more striking
instance of the divine guardianship?

In trying to trace the causes of the wonderful spread of Christianity
among this ferocious people, it is natural to think first of the
_combination_ of benefits which the missionaries were able to bring.
They stood for all the knowledge and civilisation of the outside world,
as well as for the message of a world to come. They had no telephones,
no motor cars, nor even matches; but they brought tools of iron and of
steel, they had strange animals and plants, they used glass and china
and wool and cotton, and above all they learned from books. Such marks
of power could not fail to tell upon a shrewd people like the Maoris.
The most intelligent of the chiefs, without at all understanding the
truths of Christianity, were at once attracted by these signs of
mechanical and intellectual superiority. We have seen how much the
mission was indebted to the three great generals of New Zealand--Hongi
in the north, Waharoa in the centre, and Rauparaha in the south--for the
main steps of its advance. It might seem at first as though the
explanation of Maori Christianity were a fairly simple matter.

Yet such a conclusion would be very far removed from the truth.
Undoubtedly the prestige of the white man's civilisation gave a valuable
leverage at first, as in the notable case of Ruatara. Undoubtedly also,
many of the common people were simply swept along by the current when
once it grew strong enough to make itself felt. But the earliest real
converts were old men, delicate girls, consumptive lads, and wretched
slaves, whose hearts were caught not by axes and blankets, but by the
message of a Father's love and of a home beyond the stars. The Maori was
a religious being, and when his old faith failed him in the hour of
need, he turned to the new gospel of certitude and hope. Nob