And thus full of faith he laboured on, telling the people of these scattered islands, which besprinkle the southern ocean like stars in the milky way, of the love of Christ.

He was still ready to condemn himself just as he did in his early days.  From Norfolk Island, in 1870, he wrote to his sister when he was holding an ordination:  “At such times as these, when one is specially engaged in solemn work, there is much heart searching; and I cannot tell you how my conscience accuses me of such systematic selfishness during many long years—­I mean I see how I was all along making self the centre, and neglecting all kinds of duties—­social and others—­in consequence”.

He was much grieved by the accounts which reached him of the terrible war which was being fought between France and Germany in 1870.  “What can I say,” he writes, “to my Melanesians about it?  Do these nations believe in the gospel of peace and goodwill?  Is the sermon on the mount a reality or not?”

Yet he had troubles closer at home than this even.  The trading ships were coming in numbers to the islands, and carrying off the natives either by guile or by force to Fiji and other places where labourers were wanted.

Notwithstanding the anxieties which beset him on this account, the good bishop continued to work as hard as ever, and very happy he was about his people.

On Christmas Eve, 1870, he writes:  “Seven new communicants to-morrow morning.  And all things, God be praised, happy and peaceful about us.”  He wrote of the large “family” of 145 Melanesian natives he had around him; at another time he spoke of his sleeping on a table with some twelve or more fellows about him; and people coming and going all day long both in and out of school hours!

In August, 1871, he baptised 248 persons, twenty-five of them adults, all in a little more than a month, and he rejoiced in the thought that a blessed change was going on in the hearts of these people.

He had never experienced such cheering success before, and, though his friends were endeavouring to persuade him to take rest and change for his health’s sake, he determined to labour on while there was so much need for his exertion and such blessed results followed.

The desire to believe on the part of some of his people was very touching.  One of them said to him:  “I don’t know how to pray properly, but I and my wife say, ’God make our hearts light—­take away the darkness.  We believe that You love us because You sent Jesus to become a man and die for us; but we can’t understand it all.  Make us fit to be baptised.’”

Some, of course, were not so enlightened as that.  After the kidnapping traders had been harrying the islands, one of the chiefs said that, if the bishop would only bring a man-of-war and get him vengeance on his adversaries, he would be exalted like his Father above.