Harold Winfield Kent

Dr. Hyde and Mr. Stevenson


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century mercantilism. The cry is, "Away with this people, not fit to be capitalists and managers of trusts, nor trades-union leaders, seeking for the horny hand of toil the scepter of rank and power." If it be true that Hawaiians cannot be boss mechanics, or merchant princes, or leading lawyers—and who, that knows them, has any idea they ever will achieve such social distinction?—have they no right to life, independence, and social activity in such fashion as may best suit their national peculiarities, even if this should lie in style not in accordance with our ideas of culture? The Westminister Catechism does not give the consummate ideal of deity; it leaves out beauty altogether in its enumeration of the divine characteristics. Modern materialism does not uphold the highest type of humanity in making economic values the sole test of human worth and dignity. Help the Hawaiians to be good Hawaiian men and women, is the true policy, in my opinion, even if they should not be Christians of such high-toned spirituality, as Edward Payson or David Brainerd; or such mechanics, and inventors, and corporators as Pullman, or Edison, or Jay Gould.29

      A few years later a final reference to his language activity occurs in a letter as he was "coasting" in health but working resolutely at everything regardless. "I have just had sent to me the final revision of a little manual, I have prepared, of the Hawaiian Grammar in the Hawaiian language, and if life and health are spared, I want to prepare other such helps after the style of the Chautauqua textbooks."30

      This recital of native language efforts reveals an intellectual vigor which was of great effect in his unending labors among the people constituting his mission.

      NOTES

      1. Henry K. Hyde, op. cit., pp. 34-35.

      2. Letter Hyde to the Rev. N. G. Clark, ABCFM, June 19, 1877.

      3. Punahou School, Secretary's Records, June 23.

      4. Ibid., June 20.

      5. The Friend, Supplement, Hilo Boarding School Jubilee Notes, December 1886. C. M. Hyde, "Relation of the School to the Mission," pp.2-3. This is the monthly publication of the Hawaiian Board, founded in 1842.

      6. Letter Hyde to Clark, Dec. 7, 1881.

      7. Ibid., Sept. 28, 1878.

      8. Robert Louis Stevenson, Open Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hyde of Honolulu (Sydney Australia Ben Franklin Printers, 1890).

      9. Letter Hyde to the Rev. Judson Smith, ABCFM, Feb. 2, 1892.

      10. Ibid., Mar. 18, 1878.

      11. Ibid., July 17, 1877.

      12. Letter the Rev. Hiram Bingham to Clark, Feb. 19, 1878.

      13. Letter Hyde to Clark, Mar. 18.

      14. Ibid., June 18.

      15. Ibid., June 19, 1887.

      16. Lorrin Andrews, Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language (Honolulu, H. M. Whitney, 1865).

      17. Henry K. Hyde, op. cit., p. 72; Charles M. Hyde, Piliolelo Hawaii, Hawaiian Grammar (Honolulu, Hawaiian Gazette Co., 1896).

      18. Hawaiian Monthly, Honolulu, Vol. I, Nos. 9, 10, Sept. Oct. 1884.

      19. Letter Hyde to Clark, Sept. 28, 1878.

      20. Ibid., Dec. 23.

      21. Hymns translated by Rev. Hyde are listed below. All were first printed with music in Leo Hoonani by Theodore Richards in 1902.

      O Day of Rest and Gladness (Ka La Hoomaikai Keia)

       English Poem by Christopher Wordsworth

      I Know Whom I Have Believed (Na Iesu No I Haawi Mai)

       El. Nathan

      Sweet Peace, The Gift of God's Love (Mai Kai E Launa Me Oe)

       P. B. Bilhorn

      The Eye of Faith (Aole Au E Imi Mau)

       Rev. J. M. Maxfield

      Sound the Battle Cry (Ala! Oho E!)

       Wm. F. Sherwin

      Throw Out The Life Line (Ho Mai Ke Kaula O Ke Ala Mau)

       Rev. E. S. Ufford

      Only Remembered (Eia Ke Ala)

       Horatius Bonar

      To Live in Christ (No Iesu No Owau A Pau)

      Jesus, My All (Iesu Ke Alii Mau)

      Song of the Soldier (E Na Koa O Ke Ola)

      22. Letter Hyde to Smith, June 29, 1887.

      23. The Friend, March 1879.

      24. Letter Hyde to Clark, Aug. 30, 1880.

      25. Letter Hyde to the Rev. H. M. Hagen, ABCFM, Jan. 14, 1882.

      26. Ibid., Jan. 28.

      27. Ibid.

      28. Letter Hyde to Clark, Dec. 16.

      29. Letter Hyde to editor Hawaiian Gazette, Jan. 1, 1889, p. 4.

      30. Letter Hyde to Smith, Oct. 28, 1896.

      Chapter 6

      THE MINISTERS' SCHOOL

      EVEN BEFORE the American Board withdrawal in 1863, the local Congregationalists had clearly perceived the most striking key need of the Hawaiian mission and had so reported to the church association:

      In view of the present and prospective wants of Hawaiian churches, in view also of the pressing call for Hawaiian preachers among the benighted islanders of Micronesia and the Marquesas groups, the time appears now to have fully arrived in which it becomes us to make higher efforts than heretofore for the education of a pious and efficient ministry, for the purposes above mentioned.

      It is therefore recommended

      1. That the pastors and other members of this association, select such pious and educated members of the churches, and who appear to possess the proper talents for the ministry, to be taken under the care of the clerical associations, on trial, as candidates for the ministry, and to be put under a course of instruction for that object.

      2. That we elect one of our number as teacher of a Theological school, for the thorough training of these candidates.

      3. That we correspond with the secretaries of the Board [ABCFM] soliciting their approval of the above object, and asking for aid in support of the Teacher of the Theological School.1

      A missionary training center at Wailuku, Maui island, in 1863 was the first local effort. The Rev. W. P. Alexander was placed in charge. When he departed for a visit to the Marquesas Islands in 1870 the school was closed. In 1872 the buildings of the U. S. Marine Hospital, 56 Punchbowl Street, between Beretania and Hotel Streets in Honolulu, were purchased at the suggestion of Dr. G. P. Judd and refitted as the Theological Seminary. The Revs. J. D. Paris, Benjamin W. Parker, and A. O. Forbes served successively for short periods through June 1877.

      The problems of staffing the school were largely caused by the not unusual subordination of the work to the pressing duties of whatever regular assignment may have prevailed at the time. A full time worker was the only solution and the Rev. Charles McEwen Hyde, D.D. of Haverhill, Massachusetts was appointed.

      By strange coincidence the Rev. Mr. Parker, who had acted as one chairman of the Theological School, passed away almost at the hour of the commissioning exercises of Dr. Hyde to the new leadership at Chelsea, Massachusetts, March 23, 1877.

      The Rev. Hiram Bingham, Secretary of the Hawaiian Board, treated the arrival of Hyde with an unusual fervency in a letter:

      To the Missionaries of the Hawaiian Board cooperating with the American Board,

      You will truly rejoice with me that God has sent us an able man to take charge of the North Pacific Institute, in the person of Rev. Charles M. Hyde, D.D. We trust, his efforts among us will result in raising up well qualified reenforcements for the Gilbert and Marshall Islands Missions. Dr. Clarke writes of him, "as a very accomplished scholar, one of the best and most highly