The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-04-20
UNWILLING Of BINGHAM TABLET
Continued from Page II

I
Asia.
The early settlers of New England
came into the possession of barren hills
an inhospitable climate, and a rocky
soil. They erected the church and the
school house and for a crop raised the
men who have shaped the course of
empires. Our missionaries to Hawaii.
despising not the day of small things,
stopped to the people of low estate,
adopted an alphabet, gave the people
letters and some knowledge of the
world. Teaching rulers and people
| alike to read, they gave them a trans
| lation of the Bible, wrote for them
Christian hymns, and gave them what
| literature was possible. The transfer
nation of the race, and of the condi-
| ton of the people cannot be fully esti-
mated by one who has not known
heathenism in its hopeless degradation
! and darkness. The transformation
! exceeds the power of human language
fully to represent.
| Eighty-fve years from the landing of
the pioneer band. we are here today to
unveil a tablet to the memory of one
of the two leading men of that honored
band. The son of one, and the grand
son of the other, are here to participate
| in the interesting ceremony. Child
| rens children are the crown of old
men, and the glory of children are their
fathers
Let us for a moment consider the
| character of these fathers and of those
who Joined them in the holy purpose
| of redeeming and lifting to a plane of
Christian life the then dark people.
| Conservation, a loving devotion to the
good of the people, was the browning
source of a unity, evident at every
general meeting of the Mission. This
devotion to a lofty purpose, and their
unity of heart and action We're the
open secrets of their grand success
Theirs was a pure democracy tenn
pered by advice from the far distant
American Board representa- of the
supporting churches.
These fathers were ''nen of like pas
sions as we are and of like failings.
but firmly united in the loftiest pur-
poses that can inspire human life. They
constituted among themselves an indis-
soluble brotherhood; and the most val
liable legacy they left to their children
was a like fellowship and confidence
in each other. This bond recognized
by the circle of children survived un-
dimmed years of wide separation from
their island home in the father land.
This warm fellowship of the children
of the first genera ton took on the form
of cousinhood, and assumed organic
union under the name of the Hawaiian
Mission Children's Society. This unique
circle while wholly destitute of politi-
cal purpose, neither guided by literary
nor social ambitions, cons ituted a bond
and helped to foster love and conf
dence in one another. This bond of
mutual love, confidence and respect
enabled the Hawaiian government amid
scenes of great discord and threatened
anarchy, to hold on it's even way
through the troubled seven years of
the Provisional Government and of the
Hawaiian Republic, till the group was
received under the sheltering wings of
the Great Republic.
Our fathers builded better than they
knew. Trusting in God they faltered
not. Their brightest visions their most
careful observations of the dusty bar
rem plain which stretched from Homo
lulu to the green oasis of Punahou
spring, would never have pictured the
emerald gardens, the pea ceful Christian
homes the playing fountains, the vel
vet grass. beautiful flowers and
rich fruit that fills all the plain.
The wealth of water that underlies
our city had been revealed to no hu-
man being. Franklin's kite had touch
ed the lightning of the sky, but no
Edison had then harnessed electricity
to wheels. The patient donkey, the
slow crawling, faithful missionary
horse was all they knew of rapid tran
sit.
Today we look out upon a new world
of which they knew not. And what is
the lesson for us? We are as ignorant
of what eighty-five years may bring to
US. and our posterity, as We're they.
The men of the year 1000 will look
back to the simplicity and innocent ig-
norance of the men of 1905. Blessed
shall we be if we possess the heroic
devotion the unselfish purpose, and the
abiding faith of that generation of
Christian workers; the faith to SOW the
seed and leave the rest to the Reaper.
We may know as little as did our
fathers of the purposes of the Lord of
the harvest.
Mighty problems unsolved lie all
about u.s. problems as great and as
interesting as met our fathers when
they drew to these coral bound shores.
Like them we labor on as seeing the
invisible we shall like them gather in
the sheaves in the ripening of our seed
sowing in the world yet to be. Like
Magellan we boldly enter the unknown.
uncharted. mighty Pacific Ocean of the
future Like those who drew buckets
of water to sustain the dropping life,
we shall find the everlasting flowing
artesian fountains of the deeper eternal
life
Then may it be said of US, as we can
truly say of our fathers and mothers
These are they who Through faith
subdued Kingdoms. wrought righteous
ness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions,' and received their
dead raised to spiritual life.
MEMORIAL ODE.
The next number on the program |
was an ode written in honor of the Rev. |
Hiram Bingham, in Boston, February,
nv h. Ito,