Papeiha replied that the day was at hand when their folly would be revealed to them by the true GOD JEHOVAH, who would make their so-called gods "fuel for the fire." This strong declaration greatly perplexed the crowd, but they continued to listen attentively while Papeiha commented on the love of GOD in giving HIS SON to die for sinners. After he had ceased, the people asked him many questions; among others,--"Where does your GOD live?" He answered, that Heaven was His dwelling-place, but that both Heaven and Earth were filled with the majesty of His presence. They rejoined, in their inability to conceive of an Invisible but Omnipresent Deity;--"We cannot see Him, but ours are here before our eyes, and, if the earth was full of your GOD, He would surely be big enough to be seen." "And," said another, "why do we not run against Him?" To which Papeiha ingeniously responded:--"That the earth was full of air, but we did not run against it: that we were surrounded by light, but it did not impede our progress."
Five months later, a priest came to Papeiha and his associate missionary Tiberio, announcing his resolve to burn his idols; and he brought with him his eldest son, a boy of ten years old, to place under their care, lest the gods in their wrath should destroy him. Evidently, in spite of his iconoclastic purpose, the priest still cherished a belief in the power of his wooden deities. Leaving the child with the two teachers, he returned home, and next day at early dawn returned, staggering under the weight of his cumbrous idol. A crowd followed him, shouting at him as a madman, and looking upon him as one pre-doomed to destruction by his own folly; but he held fast to his resolve to embrace the word of JEHOVAH, and declared that he had no fear of the issue. He threw his idol at the feet of the teachers, one of whom fetched his saw to cut it up; but the crowd, as soon as they saw the instrument applied to the head of the god, were stricken with panic fear, and fled away. As no catastrophe occurred, they gradually returned impelled by curiosity, which is sometimes stronger than fear; and in their presence, amidst profound excitement, the first rejected idol of Rarotonga was committed to the flames.