to dispose of their right and title to the site of the old Bethel in such a way as to receive in exchange a new and very eligible site. They had perfected their plans and were to meet and vote on the propositions of the contractors. Just then Mr. Cruzan (pastor of Fort St. Church) resigned. It was proposed in a prayer meeting at Fort St. Church to unite with the Bethel and join in building a new church for the united congregation. It was so voted and a committee was appointed to carry out the project . . . I have no responsibility in the matter but I deeply regret it. The mere proposal voted by the Fort Street prayer meeting was sufficient to kill the Bethel people's enterprise.6
Dr. Hyde doubted the merger would be approved, but it was. There was some discord arising in and from the fusion proceedings and he was relieved that the Rev. E. G. Beckwith was called as the first pastor. This man was one of Punahou's most gifted leaders. Although he had left the school and the islands 28 years before, he was remembered for his levelheadedness and tact. The imprint of his schoolmastering on his Punahou students aided in his return. Beckwith did a great job and laid the groundwork for a noble and enduring Congregational effort. Dr. Hyde could recognize this and wrote to the American Board, ". . . Dr. Beckwith's influence was telling on the people . . . The prayer meetings are taking on a more spiritual type . . . Dr. B's sermons are of a high type, and such truths must finally tell on character and conduct. The change is very great from what it was under the former pastorate. Dr. B is orthodox to the back-bone."7
Hyde was just as orthodox in his views, ". . . this talk of liberality," he continued, "reminds me very much of some small patterned men that are all the while talking about their dignity, and ready to pick a quarrel with any who disregards their ideas of their own dignity. When in organizing the Central Union Church this article of faith in regard to eternal punishment came up, it is my impression that the majority were ready to vote it down. But the few of us who did believe it were so evidently and so fully decided in our convictions of the truth of the doctrine (not the plausibility of some hypothesis) that the matter was not pressed."
The American Board in Boston had been experiencing a liberality revolution of its own and elicited this comment from Dr. Hyde: "I am very sorry to hear of the revival of theological differences, but it seems to be 'in the air' everywhere. I doubt whether Central Union Church here has another 'orthodox' evangelical pastor, whenever Dr. Beckwith shall retire."8
But there were also varieties of orthodoxy that displeased him. ". . . Elder Starr of the Central Bible Institute, Chicago, has been giving 'bible readings' insinuating the principles of interpretation of the Seventh Day Adventists. It seems too bad to admit such schismatics to the Central Union Church and the YMCA, but our good Christian people are so afraid of being denounced as 'Sectarian' that they give place to the messenger of a perverted Gospel and see no difference."9
While doctrine was being debated, the masons and other artisans were following the plans on the trestleboard. The magnificent new church building with walls of dressed lava from Yoachim quarry and Kapena Falls was completed and readied for dedication. At the service, Dr. Hyde gave an address, "The House for a Church." A congregation numbering 1037 "seated" was in attendance that December 4th, 1892.
Dr. Beckwith handled Central Union's first years with marked success but retirement was inevitable. Prospect of this worried Dr. Hyde. "The special item of interest is Dr. Beckwith's resignation. While it appears to be his own voluntary action, yet he could have wished to have spent three years more in the pastorate here, retiring when he reached the age of 70. But the coming of Mr. Rader (Dr. McLean's assistant at Oakland) to occupy the pulpit during Dr. Beckwith's vacation, has precipitated matters. Some of our younger and more flighty people want such a minister, rather than one of Dr. B's mature piety, intellectual superiority, and judicious conservatism. It comes to me as a personal loss."10
Grumble as he did, Dr. Hyde needed the heartiness and understanding inherent in the circle of agreeable friends at the church. The understanding of his intimates and trusted acquaintances, re-enforced by his religious faith, equipped him to strike out with ever fresh zest.
It was the native Hawaiian who called him and as was his nature, his approach was rarely that of circumambulation. It was "attack, attack, attack!" His North Pacific Missionary Institute was his attack route but the flanks bristled with unfilled needs and opportunities not altogether free of booby traps and mine fields.
Kaumakapili Church was, in a sense, the second-ranked Hawaiian church. Kawaiahao Church was the largest, but aside from occasional sermons and incidental meetings Hyde did not include it in his tour of duty. At Kaumakapili he found work. "I have been chosen S.S. Superintendent at Kaumakapili and after consultation with friends have accepted the position and begun the work."11 In 1879 the congregation raised $14,000 of a needed $15,000 for a new church. His first year in the Sunday School was then coming to a close. He agreed to stay on but intense dissension developed over the political inclinations of the Kaumakapili pastor, over the questionable handling of the building fund, and even over Dr. Hyde's participation in the work of the church ". . . I thought it best to decline peremptorially to serve any longer as S.S. Supt. I was chosen unanimously, however, and it was gratifying to know the reason. They wanted someone who could teach them Bible truths I consented to take charge of the Teachers' Meetings as before. I think I shall also take charge of the Women's Bible Class."12
But things would not smooth out. The Congregational tenet of local autonomy was sorely tried in a situation such as this at Kaumakapili. It was so serious, it was carrying the practice of autonomy into a grotesque weakening of the very mission itself. This happened in many Hawaiian native churches, "We are nonplussed as to what to do about Kaumakapili, he wrote. "Nominally the church has the charge and responsibility of its own affairs but if any Hawaiian Church is left to run itself without any supervision from time to time, records are lost, funds are made away with, parsonages sold, churches mortgaged, discipline neglected, unworthy and disreputable persons get control of church work and church affairs."13
A growing racism was edging between the natives and the foreigners Hyde was in mental turmoil, and King Kalakaua was definitely promoting this cleavage. The King had gone so far as to attempt to persuade the Hawaiian churches to place a religious stamp of approval on his political actions. This, of course, outraged Hyde's sensibilities and tended to estrange him from this native church.
The Board of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, more commonly called the Hawaiian Board of Missions or just simply the Hawaiian Board, was the broad working base, the real vehicle, for Dr. Hyde in his work with the native churches. His effort with Kaumakapili was an independent, personal gesture.
The Hawaiian Board coordinated the work of the Congregational Church in Hawaii, except those projects directed by the American Board such as the North Pacific Missionary Institute. Work of the Board was carried on largely at the level of the individual churches in island associations, a division of which was the island ministers' association. Here the ministers could get together on their own in semiannual meetings. The first of the ministers' meetings that Hyde could attend was in March, 1878. He wrote his impressions to the American Board:
I was very much pleased with my first attendance at a meeting of the Oahu Association of Ministers. It was the semiannual meeting held this year at Waikane, 16 miles N.W. of Honolulu. Accompanied by one of the students as guide, I left home [horseback] last Tuesday at 6 AM. The morning was lovely and we had frequent dashes of rain. But we were only too thankful for the rain so long withheld and would not have been disappointed if it had poured down in torrents. I presume you have taken the same ride through Nuuanu Valley, down the Pali, across the plains of Kaneohe below, and along the seaside to the charmingly sweet and peaceful nook, with the long stretches of green rice fields from beyond which stands out conspicuous from the whole distance of the plain the white spire of the pretty little church . . . the evident freshness of the paint on the church building and the newness of the fence around the church grounds of the Evangelical Society betokened enterprise and thrift . . . There was no great depth of thought in anything said at the gathering but there was genuine Christian humility, kindness, and interest.14
He was asked to preach the Home Missionary sermon at the annual meeting of the Hawaiian Board in June 1878. He was also chosen Recording Secretary at that meeting. In 1879 and 1880