Thirty years ago there was no church, no school house, no seminary of
learning, no regard for the Sabbath, no thought of the great Jehovah: now
all of these are found. The church tower lifts itself to heaven; the school
and the seminary are sending abroad their instructions; the Sabbath is
regarded by the mass of the people; and Jehovah is worshipped in spirit and
in truth by thousands. During the year 1840 there were four thousand one
hundred and seventy-nine additions to the church in the five islands; and
since then conversions have been multiplied and converts have increased.
The Bible has been printed, and edition after edition given to the
perishing inhabitants, until thousands of them are rejoicing in the hope
which it inspires. The whole temporal and spiritual condition of the people
has changed. Christianity has made men of beasts, and lifted up the whole
government in the scale of being.
Perhaps we can convey no better idea of the change which a few years' labor
produced in the Sandwich Islands than by giving an extract of a letter,
written by Rev. C. S. Stewart about the time of the death of his wife. It
is a beautiful and thrilling description of a Sabbath in an island where,
a few years before, was nothing but idol worship, heathen rites and
ceremonies, and ignorant superstitions.
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