The Portland daily press., 1869-12-10

PORTLAND
Friday Morning, December 10, 1859.
The Men We Rai.e,

The Men We Raise.
In the few notices give you, shall con-
fine myself to College classmates, who are ma
tives of Maine, but have left the State, and
distinguished themselves elsewhere. 1 do
this partly that we may know the value Of
our State and of its institutions of learning
and of our young men; and that we may be
led TO appreciate, in part, the merit that has
passed away from our sight, or has failed of
appreciation from the fact that men do not
ordinarily get honor from their own State.
l will speak briefly of Rev. Elias Bond, now
at Kohala, one Of the largestiof the Sandwich
Islands. He was a native of Hallowell, Me-,
was brought up under the preaching Of DR..
Shepard, was graduated at Bowdoin, 1887,
and at Bangor 1910. He left the country in
1S4l, for the then distant Sandwich Islands,
where his life work has been.
But what of Bond when he was here with
US? / knew him only in College. He was
distinguished there for industry, modesty and
great excellence and uniformity of character.
He vas prompt at recitation, and every col
lege duty. i think no one remembers any
wrong word he ever said, or any wrong he ev
er did, while at college. But his voice was
seldom heard; his diffidence restrained him
from any snowy demonstration. But he was
always at the place of prayer, and at the post
of duty. Every one thonght well of Bond,
and said he would do good in the world; but
perhaps no one supposed he would ever be-
come distinguished. His great modesty and
diffidence forbade any such hope.
Nearly thirty years ago he left the country
(having taken Ellen S. Powell of Portland as
his companion) and Joined the Sandwich Isl
and missions. He has held his position there
with honor and credit to himself, during all
these years. He was put in the midst of
blank heathenism, to teach the natives Chris
tianity. There was no one there to fear but
God, and that in the good sense. His diff
dence and modesty could not well come into
play, in any injurious form, or in the midst of
that great mass of ignorant and degraded hu-
manity. His mental and christian develop
ment was positive, and to many astonishing.
Good things were looked for from him, and
useful things in abundance, but not great and
startling.
Let me now give brief record of thirty
years not from his own modest hand certain
ly, but none the less true nevertheless. He
worked away iupon that heathenism, he
preached, he taught, he prayed and wept, but
rejoiced in the Lord, and in his work, greatly.
Ten years ago, he had received seventeen
hundred members to his church on profess
ion. He received over seven hundred in one
year, when the greatest revival, perhaps, ever
known in the church, occurred. These MEM
bers have held out as well as could have been
hoped under the circumstances.
As the natives crowded around him to
hear, he set himself and them to the work of
building stone church. The timber was
dragged down from the mountains by large
gangs, with ropes. The lime for mortar was
gotten from corals, in the bed of the ocean,
seven miles distant, the natives diving for it.
The great church was done; but the winds of
heaven blew it down. Another was built in
the same manner, a bell was put upon 1t, an
organ was put within it, and all was done un-
der his leadership, the hardest worker always
in the whole gang.
Mr.. Bond was the first missionary to throw
himself upon the native church for support.
His salary has never been over 5000 dollars;
part of the time it has been only about half
that sum.
His rule of benevolence, his brethren tell
us, has been One-tenM of his salary and one
fifth of all else. He makes quarterly tour,
OF two weeks, to twenty schools, examining
them, preaching to them, &c. He boards and
cate over two hundred in his family school
He has done great service to the cause of ed
ucation in the islands, defending it from pa
pal, semi-papal and infidel efforts. He has
prepared books, hymn books, &c. He has
been sub-commiSsiOner to settle land claims
between chiefs and people. He has been
Health Commissioner, involving much labor
in years of great sickness. He has had
charge of the school fund, and been Treasurer
for the people. He has been Land Surveyor,
and has laid out some fifteen thousand acres
in lots Ha is Dosfmasfar mailing sop,a
three thousand letters yearly, and all this
without pay. He has rejected numerous Of
fers to engage in profitable business. He es-
tablished a sugar plantation, to furnish en-
ployment to the natives.
He has been one of the most busy men in
the world. He stands among the first now in
point of influence and talent, among the mis-
| sionaries at the Islands. His field has been,
perhaps, as large as our country. He has cul-
| tivated the whole of it, in some sense. He is
| laying OFF congregations and churches now
| (under native pastors) from his great charge
| where he has been spiritual overseer and
| an omnipresent itinerant. He has never re-
| turned home to this country. A thousand
dollars were offered him some years ago, by a
benevolent friend in Portland, to pay ex-
penses OF visit, by himself and wife, to this
country; but he could not leave; his work was
there, his heart was there and there he wish
ed to rest at last. But he is now wearing out.
He came this year to California, for his health,
and stopped a few weeks. The Pacific rail-
road tempted him to cross the continent; the
voices of friends and of affection called him
here, to his native State. But he has gone
back to his loved Hawaii.
This is one of the sons of Maine. We will
not be proud of him, but we will be thankful
for him. He is the offspring of Bowdoin and
of Bangor, and is a standing proof of their
usefulness to the State and the world. He
was brought up by pious parents in rather
humble circumstances; and under the minis
| try, have said, of DIR. Shepard. He was ia
| ken into the church under his care: and his
work abroad has been but one of the hand
fuls of his seed sown upon the mountains by
that great man, that now shake like Lebanon
| WV.