Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands -  Part 15 - The Ancients

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Historical Collections of Hawaii
Keepers of the Culture
Influence of Foreigners on Hawaii
Part 15 -- A new Religion
Religious results on the Hawaiian.

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Part 15 --

One wonders whether the new religion of the missionaries took a firm
hold in the Hawaiian peoples.  No doubt on this point will be
entertained by one who makes a candid study of the subject.
Unquestionably there was much superficiality, particularly in many of
the conversions during the great revival; the Hawaiian churches had
their full quota of 
" backsliders," and there were innumerous instances of the survival of
idolatrous and heathenish beliefs and practices. On the other hand, the
record is full of examples of sincere and consistant Christain piety and
good conduct, and the Hawaiian churches can point with just pride to
such characters immortalized in the verse by the poet Tennyson and those
Hawaiians who carried the gospel to other islands in the Pacific. By
1840 Hawaii was officially a Christain nation. King Kamehameha III
never became a member of the church, but in the constitution which he
gave the people in 1840 it was decreed " That no law shall be enacted
which is at variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or at variance
with the general spirit of his word. All laws of the Isalnds shall be in
consistancy with the spirit of God's law."

The educational work of the American missionaries in Hawaii was
incalculable value indisseminating  knowledge and inplanting and
nuturing some of the better elements of western civilization.To the
missionaries themselves its greatest value lay in the fact that it
opened the minds and hearts of the people for the reception of religious
ideas. From their standpoint, the real success of the missionary
enterprise must be measured by the number of souls gathered into the
kingdom of God, symbolized by the number of persons admitted to the
church, the visible earthly representative of the invisible heavenly
kingdom. No one was to be admitted into the church until his character
and conduct had been transformed and brought into harmony with the
standards of evangelical Prostestantism. It was not easy in any
individual case to tell when this change had taken place; the missionary
had to exercise his own judgement in deciding the question; and we find
that in the early years of their ministry they were extremely cautious
about admitting Hawaiian converts to membership in the church. There was
no lack of desire on the part of the people. By 1825, church membership
had been given the chiefly stamp of approval and from that year the
people came forward in increasing numbers. The missionaries considered
it necessary to apply very searching tests in order to be sure that the
candidates were in a fit state for admission to the church. One of them
wrote from Honolulu in 1831:
" The attention to religion here continues, and the pressing to get into
the church is very great; and if an entrance into the visible church was
the guaranty of salvation, we should do wrong to hold the people back.
But we find so little of that deep feeling of sinfulness and
unworthyness, which a correct knowledge of the human heart and a clear
discovery of the character of God always produces, that we feel
justified in putting off most of the applications for admittance of the
church." 

The result of this policy was to retard the growth of the church. During
the first seventeen years of the mission less than 1300 persons were
admitted for membership. For those admitted, the rules of discipline
within the church were, from the present day standpoint, excessively
rigid. Leaders of the missionary movement in the United States
felt the missionaries in Hawaii guarded to closely the doors of the
church. Dr. Rufus Anderson, corresponding secretary of the American
Board, wrote to them in 1836: 
" Your caution in trusting to the religious professions of the natives
results unavoidably, no doubt, from your experience; but is it in no
danger of being excessive? May you be in no danger of quenching the
smoking flax, and breaking the bruised reed? ..... Our standards by
which to judge of piety, cannot be the one for the Sandwich Islands, nor
any heathen country. Nor can our standard for conviction of sin, nor for
genuine revivals."

Partly no doubt as a result of thsi fraternal
word of advice, a more liberal policy was adopted at some of the mission
stations, and this must have had some relation to the " great revival "
which occurred during the three years from June, 1837 to June 1840. In
this period nearly 20,000 members were taken into the Hawaiian churches.
But there were other causes back of this revival. From the early years
of the mission religious interests swung somewhat like a pendulum,
varying among the people with a degree of interest manifested by those
in authority. From 1824 to 1832, during the regency of Kaahumanu, there
was, generally speaking, a growing attention to religion. Then following
her death came serious reaction during the disorders occasioned by the
king's assumption of power. By 1837, the pendulum was ready to swing
back to the other side. We may use a different figure and say that the
succededing three years were a harvest season when, as it happened, the
laborers were more numerous than they had ever been before. The largest
of all reinforcements of the mission arrived in 1837 and many new
workers had come during the preceeding years. The conditions were
peculiarly favorable.

But taking the numbers of converts in this period as a lump sum (20,000)
gives a rather misleading view of the " great revival." An analysis of
the figures of admissions to the nineteen churches existing in 1840 show
that of the total  number admitted during the rivival years three fifths
were at two stations ( Hilo and Waimea ) on the island of Hawaii, and
one third at the single station of Hilo. Next to the island of Hawaii,
the contagion was felt strongly on Oahu; less strongly on Maui and
Molokia; and least of all on Kauai. The statistics and other evidence
indicate that the revival first gained a strong impetus at Wainea, but
reached its fervent climax at Hilo. Wherein lies the explanation of this
localization of the revival spirit? Largely it would seem, in the
religious zeal and evangelistic ability of the pastors of the churches
at Hilo and Waimea. At Hilo was Titus Coan, a man of broad culture and
human sympathy, a preacher of great power, like one of the old Hebrew
prophets, the evangelist par excellance. He arrived in Hawaii in 1835.
After mastering the Hawaiian language, he traveled over the districts of
Hilo and Puna, preached to the people with sympathy and undertanding,
and aroused them to a high pitch of religious emotion.
Second only to Coan in this grat revival was Lorenzo Lyons, pastor of
the church at Waimea, who is est known as a wrter of Hawaiian hymns.
These two pastors baptized converts literally by hundreds, and admitted
them to the church in the same wholesale fashion. The revival spread the
diminishing intensity to other part of the Kingdom.

Some members of the mission and some of the missionary leaders in the
United States felt that Coan and Lyons and possibly others had allowed
their zeal to outrun their discretion and that they were too hasty in
receiving new members into the church. Rev. Richard Armstrong wrote:

" At Hilo and Wiamea the work is astonishing beyond everything:
.........
But I must say that with all my joy I tremble. The people are naturally
excitable, especially on anything of a religious nature. Christianity is
popular: A profession of religion is the road to respectability and
therefore multitudes use every means to get into the church and many are
self-deceived: Therefore I have no other expectation than that
multitudes who profess to be converted, when the excitement passes off,
will fall away. The brethern on Hawaii hold their converts on probation
but a littlewhile and then take them in the hundreds, and a profession
of religion being popular, this induces others to follow into their
track and so the wave spreads."

Following the revival the growth of the church proceeded at a more
normal rate.

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Continued in part 16.