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HAWAII
'S GREAT AWAKENING
1835-1840
TITUS COAN: GOD'S SERVANT
Just prior to the missionary meeting of 1836, a new member of the mission
team had arrived in 1835 in
Hilo
, on the
island
of
Hawaii
, to become the pastor of the church. His name was Titus Coan. The church in
1836 had 23 members, although Coan reported in his missionary report the Sunday
attendance was 300 adults and 100 to 150 children. This church was about to see
a massive change, for God had brought to the islands the second ingredient for
the Great Awakening, the man of faith.
Titus Coan was born in
Connecticut
in 1801, the child of a devotedly religious family. His mother was the aunt of
Asahel Nettleton, the well-known evangelist of the Second Great Awakening in
New England
. Although exposed to the gospel most of his life he did not surrender himself
to Christ until 1829, during a revival in his home town after a prolonged
illness. His surrender was wholehearted and he began to pursue opportunities to
involve himself in ministry. In the summer of 1830 he met with Charles Finney
and a number of his associates while working with a minister friend in
New York
. After two years of study at Auburn Theological Seminary, a brief stint as a
missionary in
Patagonia
, he married and soon after took his bride to become missionaries to the
Sandwich Islands
.
It is important to weigh Coan's contributions to the revival in light of
all that happened. All the islands experienced a revival. However, it was the
island
of
Hawaii
's revival that accounted for 3/4 of all the new members added to the church.
Secondly, it was Titus Coan's belief and those like him that helped to spur on
the revival. Let me explain this point. S.E. Bishop in his article published in
the March 1902 issue of The Friend gives an interesting insight. He states,
"...I think it true that the severer forms of Calvinism presented by the
earlier missionaries were less adapted to facilitate the work of the Divine
Spirit, than were the gentler and sweeter forms in which the Gospel was
presented by those more lately arrived who had been in the wonderful revival
under Finney's preaching." He goes on to tell his own personal experience
as a child in hearing the gospel presented by these new missionaries. He went on
to conclude that the "entrance of these devoted men into the Hawaiian work
gave a new impulse to the evangelization of the people. There was a more direct
and efficient presentation of Christ, less encumbered by the old and stiff
Westminister forms of doctrine. This new preaching undoubtedly contributed much
to the great spiritual awakening among the Hawaiians.'' In another article in
December 1902, Bishop names the missionaries who experienced the Charles G.
Finney revivals in
New York
. They were, "Dibble, Coan,
Lyons
, and Lowell Smith, whose souls had felt the peculiar kindling of the Spirit and
who brought with them His peculiar flame.''
These new missionaries had experienced revival in the
United States
and believed God for revival in their respective fields. They caught a vision,
a new vision of what God could do, without which the revival could not have
happened. This vision of revival was all encompassing in that they did the very
things they had seen God use to bring revival in the
United States
. Dr. Rufus Anderson recorded that: "the means employed were those commonly
used during times of revival in the
United States
, such as preaching, the prayers of the church, protracted meetings, and
conversing with individuals or small companies." He went on to note that
during "the protracted meetings much care was given to the plain preaching
of revealed truths, with prayer in the intervals." He even jotted down some
of the topics preached which were so effective: "The gospel a savor of life
or death; the danger of delaying repentance; the servant who knew his Lord's
will and did it not; sinners not willing that Christ should reign over them;
halting between two opinions; the balm of Gilead; the sinner hardening his neck;
God not willing that any should perish."
Anderson
states that the topics most insisted on was the sin and danger of refusing an
offered Savior."
The rationale for the reproducing of what God had done in the revival
movement in the
United States
is provided by Titus Coan who found that "like doctrines, prayers and
efforts seemed to produce like fruits."
Not only did Coan take the success of the Finney revivals
and reproduce it in
Hawaii
, he characterized what attitude a missionary was to have if they were to be
used by God powerfully to bring forth a great harvest. He exemplified the
incarnation principle, love in action. Historian Gaven Daws comments that
"Love was the driving force in his life: he loved his wife, he loved
Christ, and he loved his work." In a letter Coan wrote to colleagues
concerning the passion of his early Christian love he stated: "When I came
to these islands, and before I could use the Hawaiian language, I often felt as
if I should burst with strong desire to speak the word to the natives around me.
And when my mouth was opened to speak of the love of God in Christ, I felt that
the very chords of my heart were wrapped around my hearers, and that some inward
power was helping me to draw them in, as the fisherman feels when drawing in his
net filled with fishes.''
S.E. Bishop spent his childhood in
Hawaii
and Titus Coan was his spiritual father. He comments on Coan's "personal
magnetism of love" that drew him, "sweetly and irresistibly, to the
love of God in Christ." He goes on to mention how in later life he
personally met Finney and was influenced by his intellectual and spiritual
power, but he never met anyone that matched the "winning power of
love" like that of his spiritual father, Titus Coan."
The incarnation is expressed so beautifully in John 1:14,
"the word became flesh and dwelt among us." This is what Titus Coan
attempted to emulate. His love for the people was expressed first by the mastery
of the Hawaiian language and secondly by his desire to preach the gospel to
everyone living in his district, which was around 15 to 16,000 all living within
the distance of 100 miles. In order to preach to everyone, in the fall of 1836
he decided to make a tour on foot of his entire district.
In his autobiography he tells about this tour and how he "preached
three, four, five times a day, and had much personal conversations with the
natives on things pertaining to the
Kingdom
of
God
." He goes on to share how in the Puna area there was a greater response
among the people, all eager to hear the "word of life". He states,
"Many listened with tears, and after the preaching, when I supposed they
would return to their homes and give me rest, they remained and crowded around
me so earnestly, that I had no time to eat. And in places where I spent my
nights they filled the house to its entire capacity, leaving scores outside who
could not enter." This went on till
midnight
and would resume at the crack of dawn. In the most popular area of Puna, in two
days, Coan preached ten sermons while spending the time in between the services
in personal conversation. A number of people were converted, one being the High
Priest of the Volcano, a violent man who was a drunkard, adulteress, robber and
murderer. He broke and began to seek the Lord. This first tour was 30 days long
during which he not only preached, but examined 20 schools with a total of 1,200
pupils.
It seems, from what I can gather, that Titus Coan went on tour often times
each year attempting to personally touch for Jesus every person in his parish.
In fact, he had a unique and thorough follow-up system in order to keep track of
his converts and new members. Coan states, "I had a faithful notebook in my
pocket, and in all my personal conversations with the people, by night and by
day, at home and in my oft repeated tours, I had noted down, unobserved, the
names of individuals apparently sincere and true converts. Over these persons I
kept watch, though unconsciously to themselves; and thus their life and
conversation were made the subjects of vigilant observation. After the lapse of
these, six, nine or twelve months, as the case might be, selections were made
from the list of names for examination. Some were found to have gone back to
their old sins; others were stupid, or gave but doubtful evidence of
conversions, while many had stood fast and run well. Most of those who seemed
hopefully converted spent several months at the central station before their
union with the church. Here they were watched over and instructed from week to
week and from day to day, with anxious and unceasing care. They were sifted and
re-sifted with scrutiny, and with every effort to take the precious from the
vile. The church and the world, friends and enemies, were called upon and
solemnly charged to testify, without concealment or palliation, if they knew
ought against any of the candidates.''
Coan goes on to tell how on his numerous tours he would
take his book with him and call the roll of church members in every village.
"When anyone did not answer the roll call, I made inquiry why. If dead, I
marked the date; if sick, visited him or her, if time would allow; if absent on
duty, accepted the fact; if supposed to be doubting or backsliding, sent for or
visited him; if gone to another part of the island, or to another island, I
inquired if the absence would be short or perpetual, and noted facts of whatever
kind.'' This personal care even extended to his parishioners who became sailors.
When they returned he would check as to whether they lived for the Lord or not.
Even while in Honolulu once a year he would put up a public notice and 50 to 100
people who were his parishioners that had moved to Honolulu would show up for a
meeting.
Both Titus Coan and Lorenzo Lyons who was also a missionary on the
island
of
Hawaii
, his district being Waimea on the other side of the island from where Coan was,
were used mightily by God in the growth of the church. For example, in six
months from January to May of 1838, Coan admitted 639 new members, and Lyons
2,600. Their two stations combined were responsible for 3,239 of the 4,930
additions of formal members to the church in 1837-1838.
In the following year, Coan admitted 5,244 and Lyons 2,300. This
tremendous addition to the church brought criticism from some of the more
conservative missionaries and from some of those back home in
New England
. Their concern was whether people were really converted and could it be people
were brought into membership too fast. Some even criticized the way Coan and
Lyons preached and what happened in their meetings. But, Coan was convinced what
was happening was a work of the Spirit. He felt strongly that to leave people
outside the protection of the church in the name of caution was to abandon them
to "wander in darkness, uncertain as to their own character, exposed to
every temptation of earth and hell, unknown and unrecognized as the sheep and
lambs of the Lord Jesus, and in danger from the all-devouring lion.''
Coan had a tremendous concern for the lost to be found. His
love for lost souls drove him because he feared that he would die before the
task of seeing his people saved was accomplished. This made him a "people
person" having great results. His critics were silenced when after a number
of years, it was found that his losses were not any different proportionally
than his critics who were over cautious in admitting new members. The reason for
this was his hard work in reaching, sharing, and caring for people.
A final aspect of Titus Coan that represents the kind of
person God used mightily to bring forth the Great Awakening was the fact that he
saw things in light of a spiritual battle. To Coan the work was a tremendous
spiritual battle. He referred to the "weapons of our warfare" and a
militant view of God. Repentance was brought about by "Jehovah's
Hammer" or the "battle-ax of the Lord," or the "Arrows of
the Almighty". In fact, he saw the struggle for souls as a fight that he
wanted to fight till he died.
The man of faith seems to be an integral part of a great revival. Titus
Coan was that man or at least exemplified that kind of person. What is
fascinating to note is that even twenty years after the Great Awakening, Titus
Coan was asked to tour
Oahu
. The tour produced a revival and more people were added to the church in
Oahu
than at any time since 1839, the height of the Great Awakening. It was reported
by Coan as the "gentle revival". However, the fact that this could
happen in Titus Coan's later life speaks much to the fact that he was genuinely
a man of faith, a key in the Great Awakening.
Coan's wish was "to die in the field with armor on, with weapons
bright." God gave him that wish for in the midst of a revival, he suffered
a stroke and died praising God. He had served the Lord for forty-seven years in
Hilo
and by 1870 had received 13,000 members to his church, the largest number by
any pastor in his generation.
GOD'S MERCIFUL JUDGMENT
"On
the 7th of November, 1837
, at the hour of evening prayer, we were startled by a heavy thud, and a sudden
jar of the earth! The sound was like the fall of some vast body upon the beach,
and in a few seconds a noise of mingled voices rising for a mile along the shore
thrilled us like the wail of doom. Instantly this was followed by a like wail
from all the native houses around us. I immediately ran down to the sea, where a
scene of wild ruin was spread out before me. The sea, moved by an unseen hand,
had all of a sudden risen in a gigantic wave, and this wave, rushing in with the
speed of a race-horse, had fallen upon the shore, sweeping everything not more
than fifteen or twenty feet above high water mark into indiscriminate
ruin." So Titus Coan describes the great tidal wave that hit
Hilo
. Houses, furniture and everything else along with two hundred people were
floating or struggling in the great waves. It was so unexpected that no one had
time to prepare for it. All one could do now was hope their loved ones were not
in the waves. Cries for help were heard while frantic children, wives and
husbands ran looking and calling for lost family members.
Titus Coan goes on to comment that "had this catastrophe occurred at
midnight
when all were asleep, hundreds of lives would undoubtedly have been lost.
Through the great mercy of God, only thirteen were drowned." To Titus Coan
this tidal wave was as if God was speaking to the people to "Be ye also
ready." They began to listen. Titus Coan mentions how they buried the dead,
"fed, comforted, and clothed the living, and God brought light out of
darkness, joy out of grief, and life out of death." He states, "Our
meetings were more and more crowded, and hopeful converts were multiplied.''
This was not only the case for
Hilo
, but in other places in the islands that were affected by the tidal wave.
People realized their need for God when coming so suddenly close to death. The
revival increased in intensity because God's third part of the Great Awakening,
his merciful judgment, had taken place.
THE MARKS OF THE REVIVAL
In answering the question of how did The Great Awakening happen, we have
seen how the stage was set, how God raised up a man of faith and others like
him, and how his merciful judgment was poured out.
This brings us to the fourth aspect of the Great Awakening, what I call
the marks of revival. Whether these marks brought about the revival, are simply
the results of the revival, or how a revival is known to be happening, is not
clear. It can be said however, that these elements are common to other recorded
revivals and were clearly a part of
Hawaii
's Great Awakening.
Prayer
The writers who recorded what happened during the Awakening
were struck by the tremendous emphasis of the people on prayer. The missionaries
in their annual meeting of 1836 had prayed and had sent requests to the
United States
for prayer on behalf of the
Sandwich Islands
. The Hawaiian people themselves it was noted had a unique ability to give
themselves wholeheartedly to prayer. Missionaries on each island reported a
tremendous interest in prayer. On
Molokai
, Mr. Hitchcock noted that "a number were in the habit of rising an hour
before light and resorting to the school house to pray for the coming of the
Holy Spirit.'' This was before an awakening took place on
Molokai
. Rufus Anderson in his book, History of the Sandwich Island Mission... states,
'Missionaries declare that they had never witnessed more earnest, humble,
persevering wrestling in prayer, than was exhibited by some of the native
Christians at this time; and that they had reason to bless God for being so
greatly edified, comforted, and assisted by their earnest supplications.'' This
was not only true for the adults, but the children as well. Mr. Baldwin reported
how in Lahaina, for a lengthy period of time that "one could scarcely go in
any direction, in the sugar-cane or banana groves, without finding these little
ones praying and weeping before God.'' An interesting preface to the revival was
what took place on board a ship that was loaded with re
info
rcements from
Boston
for the Sandwich Island Mission. The missionary team prayed both morning and
evening and preached on Sunday with a revival taking place on board ship. The
captain, one of his officers, and several on board ship made an open commitment
to Christ and were taken in as church members along with the Hawaiian people on
their arrival in the
Sandwich Islands
.
A unique aspect of the Holy Spirit's work in causing the people to pray
was the kind of praying the people participated in. The prayer was united and
verbal, each one expressing himself individually but all out loud together. Each
one would intercede over what the Holy Spirit had impressed on their hearts to
pray. They would pray earnestly and with much emotion oblivious to the fact they
had joined a whole chorus of people praying out loud together. This kind of
praying was unique in the 1830's at least among the early New England
missionaries who had first come to the Sandwich islands therefore some of them
opposed it. However, for those who had experienced revival fires in
New England
before joining the missionary team in the islands, it was a mark of God's
working. It seemed as though the Hawaiians were fulfilling James 5:16, "The
effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much." (NKJV).
Repentance
This brings us to the second mark of this revival:
repentance over sin was expressed openly. The people desired to be righteous. At
times such emotion was evoked that the missionaries did not know how to handle
it. Titus Coan reports such an incident. He was holding an outdoor meeting in
Puna while preaching on "Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus." One man burst out in the middle of the meeting with much emotion
and tears saying, "Lord, have mercy on me; I am dead in sin." Titus
Coan goes on to record how his "weeping was so loud, and his trembling so
great, that the whole congregation was moved as by a common sympathy. Many wept
aloud, and many commenced praying together. The scene was such as I had never
before witnessed. I stood dumb in the midst of this weeping, watching, praying
multitudes, not being able to make myself heard for about twenty minutes.'' This
soon became a pattern in the meetings. The burden to be rid of sin, through
confession of sin and restitution was real. Loud crying, shrieks, falling down,
and wailing was not unusual in the meetings. Titus Coan reports, "I arrived
yesterday at
8:00 A.M.
Found a large company of children collected...in the meeting houses besides
several hundreds of adults. I was a little weary, but I felt the Spirit break
upon my heart; so I went right in among the children and fell upon my knees and
looked up to Heaven. The Holy Spirit fell instantly, so soon as I opened my
mouth. The place was shaken. The congregation was all in tears, and there was
such a crying out as I had not heard before. The overt expression of repentance
manifested in the meeting continued for over two years. Some missionaries
criticized Coan and Lyons for allowing such displays. But, to Coan the physical
manifestations of repenters were a "token of the Holy Spirit".
It is fascinating to note that holiness, right living, and open repentance
was much a part of the Great Awakening that even after this move of God, people
still saw this kind of life style to be the normal Christian life. Rev. H.T.
Cheever who visited the islands not long after the Great Awakening described a
communion service.
"In the afternoon was the sacrament. Kaipuholo, our
host, had previously come to ask Mr. Bond (the missionary in charge) if his wife
might come to the communion. He said that the evening before, after the
preparatory lecture, she had quarreled with her neighbors about her goats
getting into their enclosure. As we entered the church the man with whom she had
quarreled was confessing his sin before the whole congregation and professing
his repentance. His wife followed, and with great dignity and self-possession,
confessed the same."
"But Kaipuholo's wife remained silent. At the communion when it was
asked if any had been omitted in the distribution, she arose to confess her sin,
and when the elements were passed to her, she partook with considerable
hesitation. The whole incident evinced a conscientiousness and sense of
propriety the more pleasing as it was entirely self-moved."
Hearers felt God's power so strongly that their muscles
quivered. They waited in "tremendous throes" like a "dying giant
or broken down with an "earthquake shock". Sometimes the fallen lay
"groaning on the ground for fifteen minutes or half an hour after the fight
was done!''
The Word of Life
A third mark of the revival was the tremendous hunger for God's word. The
town of
Hilo
swelled to ten times its original size growing from 1,000 people to 10,000.
This was due to people moving in from outlining areas so they could attend
church and hear God's word. Titus Coan first saw this hunger manifested in his
1836 tour. He describes how people would hear him speak in one town and walk
over with him to the next town so they could hear another message. Titus Coan
mentions how during his tours throughout his parish he saw the following take
place. He writes: "There were places along the routes where there were no
houses near the trail, but where a few families were living half a mile or more
inland. In such places, the few dwellers would come down to the path leading
their blind, and carrying their sick and aged upon their backs, and lay them
down under a tree if there was one near, or upon the naked rocks, that they
might hear of a Savior. It was often affecting to see those withered and
trembling hands reached out to grasp the hand of the teacher, and to hear the
palsied, the blind, and the lame begging him to stop awhile and tell them the
story of Jesus.'' Protracted meetings, that is meetings everyday became a common
thing in each of the stations. People could not get enough of God's word.
Dr. Wetmore tells of the style of life of the Christians due to their
hunger for God's word. He writes: "It was intensely interesting in those
earlier days to see Christians keep with them at home and abroad their "ai-o-ka-la"
(daily food), and their hymn book, and to hear them day by day repeat over and
over again, (whole families of them), the passage of Scripture specially
designated that they might thoroughly commit it to memory as a portion of their
Sabbath school exercises, and their strive to learn its meaning and the lesson
it taught." Rev. Coan, because of the hunger for God's word, would send out
church members from
Hilo
two by two to preach, throughout his parish.
One final item that should be mentioned that helped to encourage this
hunger for God's word was the printing and distributing of the Hawaiian language
New Testament. In fact, Queen Kaahumanu was given the first copy of the Hawaiian
New Testament on her death bed in 1832. This availability of God's word in the
language of the people and the fact a large number of people had learned to read
helped to foster a hunger to understand what the scriptures meant and how it
applied to one's life.
Giving
The generosity of the people was a fascinating mark of the revival. Titus
Coan remembered how although extremely poor his people did not want to come to
church empty handed. He writes, "Among their humble gifts, you will see one
bring a bunch of hemp, another a pile of wood for fuel, a mat, a tappa, a male,
a little salt, a fish, a fowl, a taro, a potato, a cabbage, a little arrowroot,
a few ears of corn, a few eggs. The old and feeble and children who have nothing
else to give, gather grass wherewith to cover and enrich the soil. Each give
according to his ability and shuns to approach empty-handed."
The giving was not just in things, but in time and talent. This was
especially seen in the building of the churches. The building of the church
whether it was a timber thatched with grass or structures made of stone or
coral, the task was undertaken willingly and joyously. The amount of work done
for the building of a single structure was incredible. If it was a wood
structure, the men who had axes went to the mountains and cut down trees then
transported the logs by hand to the building site. This would need hundreds of
people to complete the task, both men and women. Others wove mats for the floor
or thatched the roof from grass and reeds they had been collecting. The task was
even greater when it came to stone constructed churches.
However, their giving was more than simply their time or resources, they
gave of themselves to the work of the gospel. During the awakening it was not
unusual to see people bringing others to the meetings with them. Some of them
were blind or lame, elderly or the infirm. Their concern for others to hear the
word, motivated them to reach out and bring people to worship with them.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
Throughout this revival there was one reoccurring theme,
that the Great Awakening was a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Everyone who
wrote about the revival saw that it was the Holy Spirit that caused the people
to pray, to share their faith, to hunger for God's word, to repent of sin, and
to give. The missionaries saw their powerful preaching of the gospel as a unique
work of the Holy Spirit. S.E. Bishop recalls as a youngster, the impression made
upon him on one Sunday morning at the beginning of the revival. His father was
preaching, but not like he had done before. It, was Prophetically powerful. He
writes about his father's preaching: "He was usually colloquial in his
preaching, without special impressiveness of manner. On this occasion, he seemed
to be another man, flaming with the power of the Spirit. I had at that time
learned only a few words of Hawaiian being sedulously kept from doing so. But, I
remember the impassioned emphasis with which the preacher said 'U'oki! U'oki!'
(Stop! Stop!). He was manifestly another man, with a divine power inspiring him.
I think that this was a common experience of the missionaries."
The Spirit's work was not only seen in the preaching, but
even through unusual demonstrations of power. One interesting example is what
happened during one of Titus Coan's meetings. He writes: "A young man came
once into our meeting to make sport slyly. Trying to make the young men around
him laugh during prayer, he fell as senseless as a log upon the ground and was
carried out of the house. It was sometime before his consciousness would be
restored. He became sober, confessed his sins, and in due time united with the
church.''
There was an awesome reverence for what the Holy Spirit was
doing. Titus Coan mentions how his wife "who's soul was melted with love
and longing for the weeping natives, felt that to doubt it was the work of the
Spirit, was to grieve the Holy Spirit and to provoke him to depart from us.''
For all involved in this Great Awakening, it was clear that God had
demonstrated in their midst the reality of Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might,
nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts."
THE AWAKENING WANES
The revival made a major impact on the nation and the Pacific. As to the
nation,
Hawaii
became known as a Christian nation. In the law code of 1846, the Christian
faith was established in this statement, "The religion of the Lord Jesus
Christ shall continue to be the established national religion of the
Hawaiian Islands
.'' After a brief takeover of the government by the British, the kingdom was
restored on
July 31, 1843
. Kamehameha III's speech was simple, but reflected the faith of the people.
"The life of the land, is preserved in righteousness." The revival's
effect in the Pacific was seen in that the native church became so strong it
sent out its own missionaries. The Hawaiian Society of Foreign Missions was
formed in 1850, with the desire to share the gospel with other nations. On
July 15, 1852
, the first Hawaiian missionaries set sail for the
Caroline Islands
with a letter of greeting from King Kamehameha III to all the chiefs of the
islands of the Pacific urging them to receive the missionaries kindly, and
encouraged them to renounce their idols and worship the true and living God.
Although the revival had a powerful effect it waned. This
was due to a number of items. First the nature of revival is that it is like a
wave that breaks against the shore and draws back. There are seasons in God's
working. Just as in the natural realm, there are seasons in the spiritual realm.
There is a time for planting and a time of harvest. In spite of this, men of
faith see the harvest when others do not. They precipitate the harvest through
their vision, and through their perseverance continue to bring people to God
even though others have ceased. Titus Coan is a good example of this for
although the Great Awakening had passed, he continued through his efforts to see
people added to the church, even seeing the gospel thrust into the Pacific
through the purchase of ships to take missionaries to other island nations.
Secondly, the revival waned not simply because of the nature of how God
moved, but due to a number of other factors.
Hawaii
became inundated with other religious expressions. After a stormy beginning,
the Catholics, under the protection of the French government, established its
mission on a permanent basis in 1839. The Mormons arrived in the 1850's and the
Episcopalians in the 1860's. Coupled with this change came the tremendous
changes in population. The decline of the
Hawaii
population that had begun in the thirties escalated in the 50's through
unbridled epidemics like smallpox and measles. With the rise of the sugar
industry came the need for workers and large numbers of Chinese, then Japanese
came into the islands bringing their own religious beliefs and customs. By the
end of the century other groups had begun arriving in large numbers with each
one bringing with them their own traditional-religious beliefs. One historical
commentator interestingly saw the gold rush in
California
as another factor. His point was that the life-style of the population changed
when money became the common medium of exchange.'" With it came a shifting
of people's minds from the concerns of their soul to that of secular matters.
Political changes was another factor which caused much confusion and in some
cases resentment that hardened some to the gospel. Also, men like Titus Coan
were a dying breed. He continued in his evangelistic fervor till he died, but
others who followed him did not seem to have the same kind of commitment to the
lost. By 1870 the American mission had closed its doors leaving the work to be
carried on by the national church. The church in
Hawaii
had come of age, but there was a need for men of vision and without them the
church settled into the task of simply maintaining the work. Help from
missionaries' children who still lived in the islands was disappointing, as far
as the Preaching of the gospel was concerned, since most chose to go into
business and politics.
.ADVENTURES
IN PATAGONIA
TITUS COAN AND THE
REVIVAL IN HAWAII IN 1837
(A brief mention in 'The Revival We Need, by Oswald J. Smith.' Chapter 2, 'The
Outpouring Of The Spirit,')
AND
AN INTRODUCTION TO TITUS COAN
BY
REV. HENRY M. FIELD
FROM
ADVENTURES IN
PATAGONIA
BY THE
REV. TITUS COAN
|
|
In
the year 1835 Titus Coan landed on the shore belt of Hawaii. On his first
tour multitudes flocked to hear him. They thronged him so that he had
scarcely time to eat. Once he preached three times before he had a chance
to take breakfast. He felt that God was strangely at work.
In 1837 the slumbering fires broke out. Nearly the whole population became
an audience. He was ministering to 15,000 people. Unable to reach them,
they came to him, and settled down to a two years' camp meeting. There was
not an hour day or night when an audience of from 2,000 to 6,000 would not
rally to the signal of the bell.
There was trembling, weeping, sobbing, and loud crying for mercy,
sometimes too loud for the preacher to be heard; and in hundreds of cases
his hearers fell in a swoon. Some would cry out, "The two edged sword
is cutting me to pieces." The wicked scoffer who came to make sport
dropped like a dog, and cried, "God has struck me!" Once while
preaching in the open field to 2,000 people, a man cried out, "What
must I do to be saved?" and prayed the publican's prayer, and the
entire congregation took up the cry for mercy. For half an hour Mr. Coan
could get no chance to speak, but had to stand still and see God work.
Quarrels were made up, drunkards reclaimed, adulterers converted, and
murderers revealed and pardoned. Thieves returned stolen property. And
sins of a lifetime were renounced. In one year 5,244 joined the Church.
There were 1,705 baptised on one Sunday. And 2,400 sat down at the Lord's
table, once sinners of the blackest type, now saints of God. And when Mr.
Coan left he had himself received and baptized 11,960 persons.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TITUS COAN
by
REV. HENRY M. FIELD
Taken from the introduction of Coan's book entitled ADVENTURES IN
PATAGONIA
The writer of the following narrative is one of the most venerable of
living missionaries, and a noble type of the "high caste" to
which he belongs. With the strong religious conviction which comes from
Puritan birth and training, with a faith that never doubts, and a zeal
that inspires courage and devotion, he unites a practical turn of mind, a
natural sagacity, and a quickness of adaptation to all vicissitudes of
experience which may come to him in strange lands and among strange
peoples--qualities which, combined, have made the American missionary a
marked character in many parts of the world, and given him great success.
The Rev. Titus Coan is a native of New England, born in Killingworth,
Conn., where his life began with the century, February 1st, 1801. He was
the son of a farmer, and had no advantages but such as were afforded by
the common schools. He developed a stalwart and rugged frame, and became
noted for his physical strength. In manly sports he was an athlete,
performing with ease the feat of lifting a barrel of flour to his
shoulders. He joined a military company, in which his strength and courage
gave him precedence, and he soon rose to be a captain. This military
training was not lost upon him, and the endurance thus developed did him
good service in the privations, hardships, and exposures of his
after-life.
One could not live in Connecticut in those days without having his
religious impressions and experiences. The famous evangelist, Asahel
Nettleton, a native of Kiilingworth, was then setting New England aflame
by his fervid eloquence. Wherever he went he was followed by crowds, to
whom he preached with an earnestness and solemnity that filled them with
awe. Young Coan was a cousin of Nettleton, and could not but be moved by
the tide of religious feeling that swept over the country, though it was
not till he had grown to manhood that lie took the decided stand implied
in making a "profession" of his faith. When religion takes hold
of a strong character, it takes the stamp of the man, and stands out
pronounced and positive. One who had been the athlete of his native town,
foremost among his comrades, was not likely to be afraid of letting them
see the new stand that he had taken. Prompt and bold in everything he did,
no sooner had he come out on the Lord's side, than he "wheeled into
line" with the precision of a soldier, and taking Christ for his
Captain, marched in the van under his great Leader.
Hardly had he taken this stand, before his thoughts turned to the
profession of the ministry. He was then living in Western New York, near
Rochester, and the nearness of Auburn Seminary offered him a place for
theological study. Preparing himself with such opportunities as he had
(without the delay of going through college), he entered the Seminary in
the fall of 1831. Looking forward to his future career, he had already
decided to (devote himself to the work of foreign missions, when the
American Board (being assured by a sea captain lately returned from South
America that a hopeful field might be found among the tribes of Patagonia)
was looking around for a couple of intrepid soldiers of the Cross, to
undertake an exploring expedition, and fixed upon young Coan, who had at
once the physical strength and the fervent spirit. Reports were
conflicting about the country and its people, and the expedition promised
to be one of a good deal of adventure, if not of personal danger. It might
be too much to say that the adventure and the danger were an attraction to
the late captain of the militia but they certainly did not intimidate him.
After due deliberation, taking counsel with his teachers, and with one
whose voice might be more potent still, since she was to share his life
and his fortunes in any quarter of the globe, he accepted the appointment,
and with a fellow-student set out for the extreme point of the continent.
The following pages contain the narrative of his adventures in Patagonia,
which were certainly full enough of excitement and of danger to satisfy
the most ardent spirit. A few months' experience of the wild country and
its untamable inhabitants showed him that the field was not so promising
as he had been told, and he returned to the United States for further
orders He then married, and accompanied by his bride, set sail for the
Hawaiian Islands, which through the voyages of whaling ships had become
somewhat known to the American public. There was then no overland route,
nor short cut across the Isthmus of Panama. They took the long course
around Cape Horn, and were just six months on the voyage, when they came
in sight of the beautiful islands which were to be their home for the rest
of their days Then began that long course of service which has few
parallels in the annals of missionary life-- few in the display of
fidelity and devotion, "enduring hardship as a good soldier,"
and fewer still in its marvellous successes. Cast almost like a
shipwrecked voyager on a distant shore, among a strange people, with whom
at first he could only communicate through signs or by an interpreter, he
set himself at once to master the language, and so quickly did he catch
the words and inflections, that in three months he preached his first
sermon to the natives in their own tongue. In his intercourse with this
simple people, of whom he sought to gain the affection and confidence, he
showed a tact which was his birthright as a son of New England. He had a
great deal of mother wit and natural shrewdness and pleasant humour, which
gave a charm to his conversation even with these untutored children of
nature, while his overflowing kindness soon opened to him the door of
every native's hut and heart. Desiring only to do them good, he tried to
aid them in every way. He was a little of a doctor, knowing the remedies
for the more common diseases, and, having a chest of medicines, prescribed
for the poor people who were suffering. Often the natives stood in great
numbers on the porch of his dwelling, with dusky arms outstretched,
waiting for vaccination, or for his lancet to open a vein, that by
bleeding they might be relieved of a burning fever. He even performed
graver surgical operations. Those who had domestics troubles of any
kind--wives who had shiftless husbands, or husbands who had termagant
wives--alike sought the counsel of Father Coan, who was the general
peacemaker. Thus he seemed to unite in himself the duties of preacher,
pastor, and magistrate, and to be at once the teacher, guide, and friend
of the whole population.
Nor were his labours confined to the spot where he lived. He made
missionary tours to other parts of the island, now sailing in a canoe
along the coast, and landing at the different places where he had made
appointments to preach, and now climbing the slopes, which ascend in a
series of ridges towards the mountains which make the centre of the
island. In these journeys he encountered every sort of hardship. The
tropical rains often came down in floods, converting in a few hours a
rocky gorge into a foaming torrent, which no boat could cross and no
swimmer could stem. But here his ready contrivance did not desert him.
Calling to the natives on the other bank to throw him a rope, such as they
make of the bark of the hibiscus, he seized it with his strong hands, and
tying it around his body, was dragged across.
Thus the fame of this man of God spread abroad, and wherever he went the
people "thronged him."
When he could not go to them they came to him. From all parts of the
island they flocked to Hilo. "Whole villages gathered from many miles
away, and made their homes near the mission house. Within the radius of a
mile the little cabins clustered thick as they could stand. Hilo, the
village of ten hundred, saw its population suddenly swelled to ten
thousand, and here was held, literally, a camp meeting of two years. At
any hour of the day or night a tap of the bell would bring together a
congregation of from three to six thousand. Meetings for prayer and
preaching were held daily."
Congregations so vast and so long continued have not often been assembled
since Apostolic times, and the Spirit came down upon them as on the day of
Pentecost. The preacher himself was thrilled by the scene, and catching an
inspiration from the thousands of eager eyes and listening ears, felt
lifted up with a strange power. "There was a fire in his bones."
Were the congregation ever so large and tumultuous, it hushed at the sound
of his voice. He said: "I would rise before the restless, noisy crowd
and begin. It wasn't long before I felt that I had got hold of them. There
seemed to be a chord of electricity binding them to me. I knew that I had
them, that they would not go away. The Spirit would hush them by the truth
till they would sob and cry 'What shall we do?' and the noise of the
weeping would be so great that I could not go on."
As the fruit of these remarkable scenes a large part of the population
abandoned heathenism, and professed to be converted to the Christian
faith, insomuch, that when they came to be baptized, the good man was
obliged to perform the sacred rite for them en masse. Seizing a
brush like an aspersarium, and passing to and fro among the crowded
rows of the candidates, he sprinkled them by scores and hundreds,
pronouncing over them the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Strange as it may seem to us, the service did not thereby lose any of its
solemnity, but was rather more impressive from being done in this grand,
majestic way, whereas on a smaller scale it might have lost by the endless
repetition. By these immense additions the church at Hilo grew till it
numbered over five thousand members, making the largest Protestant church
in the world.
Mr. Coan and his wife remained on the islands thirty-five years before
revisiting their native country. When they came back in 1870, they found
another world than that which they had left. All things had become new.
They had made their outward voyage in a small sailing vessel. They
returned in a steamship. When they landed in San Francisco they had
scarcely seen a railroad. Now they were whirled in fire-drawn cars up the
mountains and over the plains, across the whole breadth of the continent.
The fame of the missionary had gone before him, and wherever he came among
the churches he was welcomed with an enthusiasm such as had not been
manifested since the heroic Judson came back from Burmah, years before.
When they visited New York they were guests in the house of the writer,
where we were charmed alike by the intelligence, sprightliness, and
animation of the veteran missionary, and the sweetness of her who had been
his faithful companion during his long exile. It was then that, as we sat
in the library, he talked freely, though very simply and modestly, of all
the way in which God had led him. Among other things he related his early
experiences in Patagonia, and it was perhaps in response to our suggestion
and that of others that he prepared the narrative which follows.
They returned the following year, and when they reached the Islands were
received by the natives with great demonstrations. Here was to be their
home for the rest of their days. Two years after the wife and mother died,
while the father still lives in his eightieth year--a hale and hearty old
man, happy in the recollection of the past, happy in the good which he has
done to the people to whom he has given his life, and happy in their
tender and affectionate veneration. He cannot be expected to continue
long. In a few more years he will be laid beside her whom he so much
loved. Though they sleep far from their native land, it is not unmeet that
they should be laid to rest in the island for which they had done so much;
on those beautiful shores where the waters of the Pacific come rippling
and murmuring up the beach. Nor will their memory depart. As long as the
generation that knew them shall remain, the simple natives will often
visit their graves, and recall their virtues with tears of love and
gratitude.
H.M.F.
NEW YORK, March, 1880
|
Introduction Henry Obookiah
The purpose of this introduction is to give you some
background information and insight into how the Memoirs came about. In the
eighteen-hundreds few Christian movements or endeavors brought more people to
Christ than "The Memoirs of Henry Obookiah".
The Memoirs changed the way the white man thought about the
dark man, and the way the dark man thought about God. Civilized people thought
the "heathen" could not learn or understand the God of the Bible. But
then they met Henry Obookiah, a brown man from a "heathen" land, who
could out-think, out-spell, and out-read most of the civilized folks he met.Henry
Obookiah was not a proud man but humble and always presenting himself as a
Christian. He was the first Hawaiian to become a Christian. His actual name in
Hawai'ian is Opukaha'ia which means "stomach split open." We can only
speculate as to the reason for such a name. Perhaps a chief's wife had a child
born by Caeserean section and Opukaha'ia was given that name to commemorate the
event.
The ship captain probably gave him the name of Henry. It was a practice to
give Hawai'ians English names, as they were easier for the white people to
pronounce and remember. The New Englanders gave Henry the name Obookiah as it
was the way his original name sounded to them. In his letters and other
documents, he signed his name as Henry Obookiah.
After he arrived in
New England
, Henry was found by Edwin Dwight weeping while sitting on the steps of Yale
college. He was crying because he had no one to teach him. Edwin was so moved by
Henry that he began teaching him how to read and write. Later he introduced him
to his father Timothy Dwight who was the president of Yale collage. And so
Henry's education began on the steps of Yale. Henry was an exceptional scholar.
He translated the Book of Genesis from Hebrew into Hawai'ian, and was also
working on a Hawai'ian dictionary, grammar, and spelling book shortly before his
death.
Henry was a powerful evangelist in the
New England
area. He inspired and touched hundreds of individuals. He awakened them to the
need of sending missionaries to
Hawai'i
. Large sums of money were donated for the Hawai'ian mission because of Henry's
speeches and sermons. It is safe to say that the Foreign Mission Society
received much of it's funding because of Henry's anointed sermons.
Everyone assumed that Henry was chosen to be the one to
bring the
Kingdom
of
Hawai'i
to Christianity. But alas on
February 17th,1818
at the age of 26 Henry died and so did the hope of evangelizing
Hawai'i
. At Henry's funeral, Lyman Beecher said in his sermon:
"We thought surely this is he who shall comfort Owhyhee (
Hawai'i
) …We bury with his dust in the grave all our high raised hopes of his future
activity in the cause of Christ."
The Christian community was so devastated by this Hawai'ian
man's death . . . one who they loved so dearly . . . that they deeply etched
these words into his tombstone:
IN Memory of HENRY OBOOKIAH a native of OWHYHEE.
His arrival in this country gave rise to the Foreign mission school, of
which he was a worthy member.he was once an Idolater, and wasdesigned for a
Pegan Priest: but by the grace of God and by the prayers and instructions of
pious friends, he became a Christian. He was eminent for piety and missionary
Zeal. When almost prepared to return to his native Isle to preach the Gospel,
God took to himself. In his last sickness, he wept and prayed for Owhyhee, but
was submissive. He died without fear with a heavenly smile on his countenance
and glory in his soul.
Feb, 17, 1818
; aged 26
As the voice of Abel's blood cried to God from the earth,
so was the death of Obookiah crying to God for
Hawai'i
. Shortly after Henry's death, Edwin Dwight, Henry's friend and teacher was now
to become his biographer. He began by collecting letters that Henry had written
and other biographical information from Henry's many friends. Just a few months
after his death, the "Memoirs of Henry Obookiah" was published.
The book was a best seller that touched the heart of a
nation. Farms were sold and the money donated to the Foreign Mission School
which would not have existed if not for Henry. This large influx of funding to
the
Mission
School
was able to send missionaries to many nations. The Memoirs were eventually
published in three languages. Woman and men solicited for marriage so that they
may be considered to be sent as missionaries to
Hawai'i
and other lands. All of the first company of missionaries to
Hawai'i
were inspired to leave their comfortable lives in
New England
for a life in
Hawai'i
. And so the dream, the cry, of Henry Obookiah became the dream of thousands.
C. Scott Berg
Henry Opukaha'ia
The Youth Who Changed
Hawai'i
by Betty Fullard-Leo
Henry Opukaha'ia was only 26 years old in 1818 when he died of typhoid
fever in
Cornwell
,
Connecticut
, but because of a slim volume he wrote about his life, his feelings, and his
philosophies that was published after his death, the destiny of
Hawai'i
was forever changed.
Few details are known about Opukaha'ia's early life, though most
historians believe he was born about 1792 in Ka'u at Ninole near Punalu'u on the
Big
Island
. From Opukaha'ia's own account, written much later, both of his parents were
killed during a war made after the old king died, to see who should be the
greatest among them. Opukaha'ia, who is thought to have been ten or 12 at the
time, fled from the rampaging warriors carrying his infant brother on his back.
A spear thrown by one of the soldiers found its mark, and the baby brother was
killed. Opukaha'ia survived, but the same soldier who had killed his parents
became his guardian for the next year and a half.
During this time, Opukaha'ia discovered that a kahuna at a nearby temple
was his uncle, so he was allowed to go to live with his grandmother and this
uncle. While he was visiting an aunt in a nearby village, soldiers came to take
her prisoner for some infraction of the kapu system, but Opukaha'ia once again
survived by escaping through a hole in the grass hale (house). While he watched,
a soldier threw this aunt over a pali (cliff) to her death. Opukaha'ia returned
to the home of his uncle at Napo'opo'o where he was schooled in the rituals of
the priesthood, so eventually he could take his uncle's place as a kahuna at
Hiki'au Heiau, the same heiau where Captain James Cook had met his demise two
decades earlier in 1779.
In his memoir Opukaha'ia wrote, ...I began to think about leaving that
country to go to some other part of the world... probably I may find some
comfort, more than to live there without father or mother.
As soon as the sailing ship Triumph anchored in
Kealakekua Bay
, he went on board. Captain Brintnall invited another young Hawaiian boy named
Hopo'o, along with Opukaha'ia, who spoke no English, to stay for dinner and to
spend the night on board ship. The next day, it was arranged that the two boys
would sail with the ship. Opukaha'ia was 16 years old.
The sailors called Opukaha'ia Henry, and spelled his last name the way
they pronounced it, Obookiah. During the next two years, Opukaha'ia sailed on
the Triumph to the
Seal
Islands
(situated between
Alaska
and
Japan
), back to
Hawai'i
, to
Macao
, and around the
Cape of Good Hope
, landing in
New York
in 1809. On board he developed a friendship with a Christian sailor named
Russell Hubbard, who began teaching Opukaha'ia how to read and write, often
using the bible as a primer.
When the ship was sold in
New York
, a merchant invited Opukaha'ia and Hopo'o home for dinner. The boys were
astounded at the number of rooms in the house and by the fact that cooking was
done indoors, but they found it even harder to believe that women sat at the
same table and ate with men, and the gods did not harm them. In
Hawai'i
, the old kapu (taboos) were still observed; women could not eat with men.
Opukaha'ia continued his studies while he lived with Captain Brintnall and
his family in
New Haven
,
Connecticut
, but it wasn't until he met a man named Edwin Dwight, a student at
Yale
College
who became his teacher, that he made real progress. Certain English sounds
proved especially difficult-r was often used in place of l for example. Years
later, in the writings of early missionaries, words such as
Honolulu
and
Kilauea
were written Honoruru and Kirauea.
With his new reading skills, came a new view of religion. As Opukaha'ia
began to believe in a Christian God, he compared Hawaiians' worship of gods
represented by wooden idols. He said,
Hawai'i
gods. They wood-burn. Me go home, put 'em in fire, burn 'em up. They no see, no
hear, no anything. On a more profound note he added, We make them (idols). Our
God-he make us. His new faith was further ingrained when he lived for a time
with the family of the president of
Yale
College
, who, as he put it, was a praying family morning and evening.
During the spring, summer and early fall, Opukaha'ia moved from farm to
farm around Torringford and Litchfield, Connecticut and Hollis, New Hampshire,
planting, harvesting and always studying. The church communities of Litchfield
encouraged him, and by 1814, in addition to speaking publicly, he began to
translate the bible into Hawaiian and to start compiling a dictionary/grammar
book in the Hawaiian language. People in Connecticut had begun to talk of
sending missionaries to foreign countries-Hawai'i, in particular, as several
young native Christians (like Opukaha'ia) would be able to pave the way.
Opukaha'ia continued to fill his inquisitive mind with knowledge at
Yale
College
. Not only did he undertake Latin, Hebrew, geometry and geography, he improved
his English by writing the story of his life in a book called Memoirs of Henry
Obookiah. By 1815, he had finished writing his personal history and had begun to
keep a diary that detailed his feelings about his faith.
By 1817, a dozen students, six of them Hawaiians, were
training at the Foreign Mission School to become missionaries to teach the
Christian faith to people around the world.
But the following year, Opukaha'ia fell sick. A physician, Doctor Calhoun,
quickly diagnosed his illness as typhus fever. Though treatment seemed at first
to help, Opukaha'ia continued to get weaker and weaker, and he died on
February 17, 1818
. Attendants noted a heavenly smile on his face. He was 26 years old. Among his
last words were Alloah o e-translated in his memoirs as My love be with you.
The little book about his life was printed and circulated after his death.
It inspired 14 missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the
Sandwich Islands
. Of those who sailed on the Thaddeus on
October 23, 1819
, only Samuel Ruggles had met Opukaha'ia face-to-face. The work Opukaha'ia did
on translating the bible and recording the Hawaiian language in a
grammar/dictionary/spelling book, paved the way for the missionaries to print
the first Hawaiian primer and bible stories in the Hawaiian language.
Opukaha'ia's body was buried in a hillside cemetery in
Cornwall
,
Connecticut
, where it remained for 185 years. In 1993, a group of his descendants,
spearheaded by Deborah Lee, brought the body home to the
Big
Island
. The remains were reinterred at
Kahikolu
Cemetery
in Napo'opo'o, near
Kealakekua Bay
in
South Kona
. A plaque marks the spot, cared for by Ka 'Ohe Ola Hou, a group formed to
perpetuate the achievements of the devout young man who is believed to be the
first Hawaiian convert to Christianity-a young man whose zeal was the reason the
first missionaries came to Hawai'i in 1820.
THE GREAT
HAWAII
MIRACLE
By C.
Scott Berg
Isolated by time and space, alone and
surrounded by the
Pacific Ocean
for thousands of miles in all directions lies
Hawaii
, the outermost part of the world. Captain James
Cook did not discover
Hawaii
until
January 18th, 1778
, 286 years after the discovery of
America
. Cook took a year exploring the
Islands
laying in provisions and making ships repairs. Unfortunately, Cook and
his crew wore out there welcome and on February 14th in a skirmish at Kealakekua
Bay Cook was killed. Captain Clerke the second in command of the mission wanted
to smooth things over with the Hawaiian's and make peace with the chiefs. A few
more skirmishes occurred but on
the 21st of February 1779
the Hawaiians returned some of Captain Cook's
bones and there was peace. No other ships came to
Hawaii
until 1786.
The fur traders and merchant ships heading to
China
realized they could economically barter for
provisions in
Hawaii
. For instance any type of iron, a common nail,
chisel, or knife, could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large
sum of money would in any other port. The Hawaiian alii (royalty) and chiefs
were eager to obtain modern weapons and rewarded those captains who supplied
them handsomely. The captains of these ships not only sought food and supplies,
but manpower. As it was a frequent occurrence for sailors to die or desert on
these voyages good willing sailors were hard to find. The strong adventurous
Hawaiians were more than up to the task of sailing on these tall ships.
Five of these adventurous Hawaiian sailors
Henry Obookiah, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honolii, and George Tamoree
made it to New England were they became Christians. These young men leading very
exciting and adventurous lives separately all found The Lord Jesus in there own
unique way. Their desire was to return to
Hawaii
as missionaries. They came from
Hawaii
were The Kapu religious system demanded human
sacrifice for the breaking of a tabu. If men and women ate together, the penalty
was death. If a woman ate pork or certain fish or fruits the penalty was death.
If the shadow of a commoner fell on an alii or chief the penalty was death. The
Hawaiian gods were hard taskmasters demanding all manner of sacrifice and
offerings. The Kapu system was enforced by the alii who gave authority to high
chiefs and the high chiefs gave power to their various sub-chiefs and at the
bottom of the system was the common Hawaiian. All of the commoners were slaves
to the chiefs and the chiefs were slaves to the alii. You owned nothing except
by the graces of your superior.
The chiefs and alii were constantly fighting
for power. From these warring chiefs arose Kamehameha The Great. Through
intelligence, strength and some help from the English and their guns, conquered
and united all of the
Islands
(
Kauai
was not conquered but did submit to Kamehameha's
rule) to became their King.
In one of these battles for power between two warring chiefs, Henry Obookiah
at the age of about twelve helplessly watched his parents being butchered before
his eyes. Henry escaped with his infant brother, but as he was running with his
brother slung over his back the child was struck with a spear and died. Henry
was then forced to live with the man who killed his mother and father. After
that, it appeared he would be sacrificed to a god for the other prisoner with
him had just been thrown over a cliff as a sacrifice. Being alert to the peril
he took a chance and escaped. Shortly after an uncle rescued him.
(continued)
Life
in
Hawaii
had not been good to Henry and when he saw that
tall ship, the Triumph in
Kealakekua Bay
he swam out to it, with all the hopes and
desires of leaving
Hawaii
for a better life. Captain Caleb Brintnall
through interpreters realized Henry wanted to leave
Hawaii
on his ship. Henry now about fifteen years old
was signed on as a cabin boy. Henry met Thomas Hopu another Hawaiian boy in
search of adventure on the ship. Both Henry and Thomas would become original
members of the American Board Mission to
Hawaii
; though only one would return to
Hawaii
. As fate would have it at the age of 26 in
Cornwall
Connecticut
, Henry would succumb to the typhus fever on
February 17th, 1818
. Henry's testimony was published and became a
best seller. The profits of the book "Memoirs of Henry Obookiah" were
used to finance the missionary journeys to
Hawaii
and other lands.
Inspired and encouraged by the dramatic
testimony and conversion of Henry Obookiah the first missionaries sailed for
Hawaii
, on
October 23rd, 1819
aboard the Thaddeus. The Missionaries sold all
that they possessed, farms, homes, and their future in
America
. They made a solemn commitment to God and each
other to spend the rest of their lives serving the Hawaiian people. Yet, they
knew all to well that they needed the approval of King Kamehameha and that the
Kapu Priests would not welcome their presence. On the morning of
March 30th, 1820
the missionaries saw
Hawaii
for the first time. The Thaddeus cruised along
the Kohala coast on a southwest course nearing Kawaihae. The wind and water
became calm so Captain Blanchard sent a small rowboat with James Hunnewell a
ships officer, Thomas Hopu and John Honolii two of the Hawaiian Missionaries
ashore. Their task was to find out the whereabouts of King Kamehameha and the
state of his Kingdom. One disapproving word from the King and the mission would
be over before it had begun. Minutes passed like hours as they watched for the
boats return. Finally three hours, an eternity, later the boat returned. Thomas
and John were so excited they could only speak in Hawaiian, then James Hunnewell
spoke up with these incredible words:
"Kamehameha is dead; his son Liholiho
is king; the tabus and kapus are abolished; the images are burned; the temples
are destroyed. There has been war. Now there is peace."
It was obvious to the missionaries that God
had prepared the way for them. The great Hawaiian miracle had taken place all of
the obstacles that could have prevented the Gospel from being preached had been
removed. Even Hewahewa the highest kahuna (priest) and direct descendant of Paau,
the original Kahuna from
Tahiti
, was the first to set fire to a heiau (temple).
He declared:
"I knew the wooden images of deities,
carved by our own hands, could not supply our wants, but worshiped them because
it was a custom of our fathers. My thoughts has always been, there is only one
great God, dwelling in the heavens." Hewahewa also prophesied that a new God was coming and he went to
Kawaihae to wait for the new God, at the very spot were the missionaries first
landed.
King Kamehameh died five months before the
missionaries sailed but they had no knowledge of his death before their
departure. In less than the span of one year from his death, and as the
missionaries were at sea, the Kapu system had been dissolved, and a civil war
had taken place. Only the creator of the universe, Jehovah, could have scripted
these timely events. In the midst of this chaos, the stage is divinely set for
the entrance of the missionaries with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The
missionaries brought a message of peace, tranquility, and Aloha…
I am the
Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my
praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new
things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Sing unto the
Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to
the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let
the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that
Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from
the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his
praise in the islands.
Isaiah 42:8-12
The photographs reproduced in the Hawaiian
Historical Society 2003 calendar are from a collection of albumin prints by
James J. Williams (1853–1926) acquired by the Society in May 2002. Williams
was active as a photographer in
Hawai'i
from 1879 to 1926. He was one of many photographers who opened a studio or
gallery in
Honolulu
. By
1890, approximately sixty photographers worked in the
Islands
,
twenty in
Honolulu
.
Copies of photographs are available for purchase as reproduction prints or
scanned images.
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