The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-05-23
STORY OF FIFTY YEARS
THE HISTORY OF THE MISSION
CHILDREN.
Told BY Those who Could Say "All
of Which l Saw; a Part of Which
l Was"

1 Was"
The Hawaiian Mission Childrens So |
ciety celebrated the completion of fifty
years of organization with appropriate
| services at Central Union Church last
evening. The church was appropriate
| l. decorated and there was a large at
tendance. Charles H. Dickey, the pres
| ident presided. Besides the musical
and devotional exercises, interest cen
tered in the historical papers present. /
ed dealing with the history and work
OF the society by decades.
Rev. o. H. Gulick presented the story
Of the first decade closing with a stan
"a of Kipings Lest We Forget"
Speaking of the membership of the So
ciety during it's first year, he said:
THE names of the members recorded
al the close of the first year, May 21st,
1858, were 1853 in number. OF these So
have died, leaving 9S still living at the
close of fifty years. This is a life rec
ord which speaks volumes in favor of
our halcyon climate, and also for the
good morals and steady habits which
the missionary fathers and mothers
left as a legacy to their children. Life
insurance among us would have been
a most profitable business"
OF the spirit and work of the first de-
cade, Rev. Gulick said:
The departure of DR.. Gulck and
wife, with the Shows and Sturgeses,
for Micronesia in the little schooner
Caroline, and their subsequent career,
gave an earnest missionary type to the
whole circle of cousins This interest
was increased by the entering, five
iycars later of another child of the mis-
sion, Rev. Hiram Bingham, on this
same missionary work. He and his
wife sailed in the first Morning Star, a
vessel which was built expressly for
the carrying on of the work in Micro
nesia.
The building and services of the
four successive missionary vessels,
bearing each the name Morning Star,
were among the more remarka BILE
events of the latter half of the mis-
sionary century; but special interest
clusters around the first vessel of the
series. A happy thought was the sug-
gestion made in 1855, that the children
of the Sabbath schools of America be
asked to build a missionary vessel of
$50 tons, for the service of the mission
to Micronesia. The vessel was to be a
joint stock affair and to cost about
1 $4,000 Certificates of stock in shares
OF ten cents each were issued, and tens
o. thousands of youthful share holders
from American and other lands re-
] sponded and one year from the laying
OF the keel, 2S5, 454 shares had been TAX
en-, and S,54540 had been raised. The
Il vessel when ready for sea- cost $13, 600,
and over $4,000 remained for insur-
arce, repairs, and future running ex-
L penses. A multitude of the supporters
Il of missions to be found in the Ameri-
can churches today trace the first
awakening of their interest in foreign
: missions to the purchase of a ten cent
share in the first Morning Star. She
\ sailed from Boston around Cape Horn,
y was most jOyfully welcomed at Homo
lulu in the summer of 1857, and was re-
ceiVed as an angel from heaven by the
missionaries and Christians of Micro
nesia. Never was vessel followed by
more faithful prayers from greater
number of ship-owners, and never was
4 shining white canvas more eagerly
} welcomed to any sung harbor, thar
was that blessed Morning Star. The
furnishing eagerness of souls hungry
for human sympathy and yearning fol
words of love from kindred and friends
of whose existence and welfare not {
word had been heard for a year. non,
can realize more wildly than those
who went down in that first Morning
Star. Among those permitted to enjoy
this thrilling experience was the sec.
, Ond president of this society, who went
as second officer of this clipper brigan
tine. 1t was his privilege to assist il
the erection and shingling of Mr. anC
Mrs. Bingham's cottage, beneath the
Cocoanut groves of -Apiang-the frs
shingled roof seen on that lagoon, the
first Christian home on the Gilbert Isl.
|. ands, and the center of one of the mos
heroic struggles between the powers o.
darkness and the messengers of light
- that missionary annals record. Thi!
beautiful craft and her successors haC
much to do in keeping alive the mis-
|, sionary spirit in our missionary so
:, lciety.
a ,"Dr. l.. H. Gulick, after nine years OF
faithful service in Micronesia, during
which time many of the savage island.
: ers became the followers of Christ
was obliged on account of failure il
health to return to his native land
and the next nine years were spent il
missionary work in these Hawaiian
Islands"
The story of the second decade wal
given by Rev. DR.. Serene f. Bishou
Speaking of the spirit of this decade he
said:
In examining the annual reports OF
1. the society from 1863 to 1872, one il
. struck by the careful and enthusiastic
. work of the corresponding secretaries
who made it their duty to note al
d events of interest occurring in the cir.
Gle of Cousins and their families. This
was especially the case with Miss NJ
A Chamberlain, who filed that Office
during all except the first year Of those
famed, as she has done during so larg,
a part of the later years
During the earlier years of the dec.
ade these records abound in echoe:
. from the camps and battlefields of the
= Civil War, where so CALAMITY strOv,