SLES WITH AND WITHOUT THE GOSPEL.

"Surely the isles shall wait for me."

The missionaries found upon these islands naked savages, without
books, education, or courts of justice. The people were slaves,
governed arbitrarily by chiefs. It was a nation of debauchees,
thieves and drunkards. There were no marriage laws. Two-thirds of the
children born were destroyed. If an infant was ailing or troublesome,
the mother scooped a hole in the ground, covered the child with earth
and trampled out its life. The aged and infirm were taken to the brow
of a precipice and pushed over. The sick were removed to such a
distance that their groans could not annoy, and left to die. The
insane were stoned to death.

God opened the way for the missionaries by a revolution which did
away with idolatry, but did nothing for the uplifting of society.
Some of the noblest specimens of our American manhood have devoted
their lives to these desolate, far-away creatures. The mention of one
will suffice as a sample of the salt that purified those bitter and
filthy waters.

When he stepped on shore at Hilo, in 1832, it was to stay till his
work was finished--and he lived beyond the three score and ten. Such
a life is a rebuke to the restlessness of many modern workers. For
forty-two years he labored patiently in pressing himself and what he
knew upon Hawaiian youth--nearly a thousand in all--many of whom are
now pastors, leading lawyers, men of affairs, missionaries to
Micronesia, and the men who stand for righteousness in the native
churches. Great events and advances in science were exciting his
native land, but he worked on, struggling for things unseen and
eternal. Amid uninspiring surroundings, and performing many menial
duties, he led a high spiritual and intellectual life, not seeking
honor, but service--thereby gaining honor, and the "rest that
remaineth."

As for the results of such consecration, wisdom and work, the facts
are a marvel in history. Any prophecy in regard to them would have
been thought a wild dream. These islanders have taken their place
among the Christian nations. Marriage is considered honorable, the
family established, as well as schools, churches and a government,
whose constitution ordains that "no law shall be enacted at variance
with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or with the general spirit of His
word."

In proportion to the population, there are more readers than in
Boston. The proportion of true Christian