The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1876-12-27
NATIONS BORN IN A DAY.

As the gospel is preached more and more
in heather countries, there is reason to be-
lieve that it's progress will be more rapid ;
and that instead of individr al conversions,
whole villages and communities, and even
tribes and nations, will be brought to the
knowledge of the truth. Something OF what
we may see hereafter may be inferred from
what has already occurred 10 the Sandwich
Islands, and more recently among the FDs.
The case is thus stated n an English review:
One of the most extraordinary aud at the
same time hestascertained facts in the his
tory of Christianity is the sudden complete
ness OF It's victory over scme savage tribes.
The great paganiems of I'D we're very slow
20 yield to its Influence, the great paganisms
Of to-day, Hinduism and popular Buddhism,
yield their converts one by one, and NOLAN.
mechanism may be said to be unimpressiona-
bic; but savage creed-a creed unsup-
ported By philosophy or an explanation of
The C0smos-ylelds every now and then ut
ierly, finally, and at once. The Russian
pagans became Christian in day. No relic
If any African creed, though many of Afri-
can practice, can be found among the ne.
,ross of the American Union, though they
lsvs been there scarcely century; the
whole population of Hawaii became Chris
;ian in ten years; the ruling race of NADIA
gascar adopted Christe itg, as it were, at
blow; the K4rens of Pegu offered themselves
for baptism at pace which alarmed mission
airy consciences, and one tribe at least of In
dia-the Coes-oame over in whole villages
at time. One would have expected that
conversions 80 sudden and based upon such
slight extension of knowledge would have
been imperfect, and no doubt one change
has occasionally been followed by another
the Hovas, for instance, having apostatized
and repented, and an entire Christian village
in Cauara proclaiming itself Mohammedsn
by sound of drum-but, nevertheless, the
conversion has very often been found in
one way singularly complete. The ancient
supernatural fears which one would suppose
to last longest, are all gone. A PolyneSian
that minute converted will chop up an idol,
or cut down a sacred grove, or bid outrageous
defiance to a visible and, as it we're, demon
strable hell, in the shape of lake of volcanic
fire, without an apparent twinge of fear. The
Karens become in an hour, in their relation
to the powers of the air, altered beings, and
the Coles defy their old deties with Sc
renity that modern skeptics have never dis
played.
A scene of this kind, of almost unequslled
picturesqueness and grandeur, has just &C.
Cured in FIJI, and, as it happens, is de-
scribed by the governor, Sir Arthur Gordon,
in letter to private friend. Sir Arthur
Gordon is, perhaps, the most noteworthy
man now in the colonial seryice-a man, we
fear, of domineeriug temper, who accumu-
stes diSlikes on himself as other men accu-
mulate money, but for all that, God-fear-
ing, just, and able man, who thinks the poor
and weak ought to have justice, and will sac
rifce not only his time but his comfort in the
effort to insure that they do have it. His
testimony is beyond all doubt, even if it
were not backed, as in this instance it is, by
independent story:
'The Christian army was encamped round
Bukatis, very strong place, vast mass OF
rock rising somewhat like the Acrocorinthus,
above the river and the plain. This town
h&1 never been taken, and was regarded as
! sa preguable b. the S-xnibals The oracles
of their gods are shouted aloud by the priests
speaking as in the gods name, and this night
an oracle was declared The moon shone on
the white river mists, and threw the great
black shadow of the rock far over the plain.
Out of the stiffness, from the very top of the
rock, rang out the hoarse cry of the priest,
audible nearly mile of, Fire is unknown
to my house in Bukatia. With one accord
the whole beleaguering host shouted out in
slow and measured tones the reply, Wait
till tomorrow And the next day Bukatia
was taken and the devil-temple burnt" An
other narrator mentions the spontsneousness
of the reply, its defiant tone, and, rolling as
it did from the lips of fourteen hundred men,
suddenly moved to the same triumphanty
defiant ejaculation, its marvellously startling
effect. No description we have ever read in
history or in fiction has more aboutit of dra-
matte grandeur-the grandeur of intense
surprise--and none excites deeper sense of
bewilderment. Here were fourteen hundred
criminal savages converted, as it were, but
yesterday, all born pagans, trained cannibals
habitual murderers- there is no story in
Dante more horrible than J4ckson's history
of his life in Fjji,)-and they, under crcum-
stances that might have moved old Christians
to awestruck emotion, hurl into the air at
night and with bloody battle before them,
open defances to the gods whom they had
been bred since childhood to adore.