The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-12-18
A TRIBUTE
OF SORROW

The members of the Board of the
Hawaiian Evangelical Association have
heard with deep sorrow of the death
of their beloved co-laborer, Rev. Hiram
Bingham, D. D.. who passed away in
Baltimore on October 25.
In the decease of DR.. Bingham we
recognize the departure of one who has
filed large place in the missionary
world and who has accomplished an I'M
usual and remarkable work for human
/ ity.
DIR. Bingham was the son of Rev.
Hiram and Mrs. Sybil Bingham of the
first company of missionaries sent from
Boston to these islands, who landed
on these shores in 1920. Born in 1881,
at the age of ten years, he went to
the States with his parents upon their
return to their fatherland in ls41.
Having completed his collegiate and
theological course and enlisted in the
service of the American Board he re-
turned to his native islands in the first
Morning Star, under appointment as a
missionary to Micronesia. The mission
airy vessel on November 10, 1857, land
ed Mr.. Bingham, with his devoted wife.
Mrs. Clarissa Brewster Bingham upon
Apaiang, one of the Gilbert Islands, in
the center of the chain of islands con-
tanning population of 10000 people,
and constituting it may be said, the
most difficult missionary field in the
world. We can but touch upon some
! of the difficulties of the work and brief
ly allude to few of the very severe
trials of a life of years upon those
sand islands. The lack of government
and of harmony among the people, and
consequent bloody wars; the gross ig-
norance and nakedness of those whom
they sought to teach; the lack of any
of the productions of the soil known
to civilized man as useful for food, the
uncertainty and infrequency of commu-
nication with the islands and continents
all removed by hundreds, and some of
them by thousands of leagues of old
ocean; these all, and each, constituted
barriers stupendous and appalling to
any but the most heroic heart, fortified
by immovable faith in present God,
and in the power of the Gospel Saliva
ton they We're sent to proclaim.
Faith may remove mountains, but
nerves, muscles and vitality have their
limits. With the passage of years of
incessant laBors and patient endurance
of universities, health failed, and these
model missionaries came to our balmy
Hawaii, to prolong the remaining lease
! or life, and here to continue their in
valuable literary labors for their dear
ly beloved Gilbertese people.
In 1857 when DIR. and Mrs. Bingham
landed in their island field the language
was unwritten, letters were unknown,
and the power to communicate thought
by means of written characters had not
been conceived. At the end of fifty
one years, we find the entire Bible
translated and in the hands of the peo-
pie, with hymn books, arthmetics,
biographies, a Bible dictionary with il
Illustrations, book of Bible stories and
a commentary on Matthew. and besides
these a dictionary of the language.
There is also a commentary upon the
four gospels and the Acts of the
apostles now in print, but which has
not yet reached the field. All these
works are the result of the diligence
of DR.. Bingham and his wife, while
both during the latter twenty-five years
of their lives were in very poor health.
The history of modern missions, so
far as we know, furnishes no parallel
to the case of DR.. Bingham, who re-
duced the language of savage people
to writing, translated the whole Bible,
and furnished in measurable degree text
books and literature for whole peo-
pie. Truly DR.. Bingham and his wife,
who laid down her burdens five years
ago, were bright examples of faith, in
dustry and devotion.
1t remains to speak of DR.. Bingham
as leader and guide to the more than
forty native Hawaiian ministers who,
during the past fifty-five years, have
gone from Hawaii as missionaries to
the Marquesas and Micronesian islands.
The first Hawaiian missionaries to Mar
quesas and Micronesia reached their
Bingham entered upon his mission. But
all who have gone to either the Mar
shall or Gilbert islands have been aid
ed and upheld by the guidance and ex-
ample of DR.. Bingham. Nineteen men
who were missionaries upon those two
groups have either died in the field. or
have returned to their native land and
here been laid to rest. Seven are still
in gospel work as most valued pastors