THE BLIND PREACHER OF HAWAII.

HAWAII is the largest of a group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, called the "Sandwich Isles." It was first called "Owhyee," and will be always remembered as the place where Captain Cook, the great navigator, was killed. The group is not very distant from California, on the western shores of North America.

Some years ago, American christians pitying the savage islanders, sent out missionaries to teach them. After many years patient labour they succeeded, and now the people are civilized, and many of them are sincere christians. Here is an interesting narrative respecting a blind man, who was the first native convert, and who became a preacher. He was baptized, and the name of "Bartimeus" was given to him, in allusion to the blind man mentioned in the gospels; but his former name was Puaaiki. This was in 1825. Puaaiki was born about seven years after the death of Captain Cook, and when an infant was buried alive by his own mother; but somehow or other he was saved. He grew up a neglected wicked heathen boy, of filthy and drunken habits. He lost his eyesight before he was a man; and being the subject of a hideous disease, and of a deformed small stature, he was a disgusting object. In this state he was made a laughing stock by boys and others.

He was a great dancer; and in this way he obtained food by dancing before the Queen; but being taken with illness he was left to perish. This was in 1820, when the missionaries first arrived. They visited him, and talked to him of sin and salvation. He listened, and when he was able went to their place of worship. The following is the report which the missionaries afterwards gave of him. He died in 1843.

In the early journal of the mission, we find it said, "No one has manifested more childlike simplicity and meekness of heart-no one appears more uniformly humble, devout, and upright. He is always at the house of God. If he happens to be approaching our habitations at the time of family worship, which has been very frequently the case, the first note of praise, or word of prayer, which meets his ear, produces an immediate and most observable change in his whole aspect. An expression of deep devotion at once overspreads his sightless countenance, while he hastens to prostrate himself in some corner in an attitude of reverence. Indeed, so pecu

THE BLIND PREACHER OF HAWAII.

liar has the expression of his countenance sometimes been, both in public and domestic worship, especially when he has been joining in a hymn in his own language to the praise of the only true God and Saviour-an expression so indicative of peace and elevated enjoyment-that tears have involuntarily started in our eyes at the persuasion that, ignorant and degraded as he once had been, he was then offering the sacrifice of a contrite heart, and was experiencing a rich foretaste of that joy which in the world to come will rise immeasurably high.

He is poor and mean in his person, and his countenance, from the loss of sight, not pleasing. Still, in our judgment, he bears on him the image and superscription of Christ; and if so, how striking an example of the truth of the apostle's declaration : —God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen ; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence!'

After a suitable probation, and satisfaction given to the missionaries of his conversion, Bartimeus was received into the church, along with one other, a female. The following is Mr. Richards' record of the examination undergone by this blind Hawaiian at the time of his admission:

'Why do you request to be received into the church?'

'Because I love Jesus Christ, and I love you, and I desire to dwell with you in the fold of Christ, and to join with you in eating the holy bread, and drinking the holy wine.' 'What is the holy bread?'

'It is the body of Christ, which he gave to save sinners.' 'Do we, then, eat the body of Christ?'

'No; but we eat the bread which means his body; and as we eat bread that our bodies may not die, so our souls love Jesus Christ, and receive him for their Saviour, that they may not die.'

'What is the holy wine?'

It is the blood of Christ, which he poured out on Calvary, in Jerusalem, in the land of Judea, to save us sinners.'

'Do we, then, drink the blood of Christ?'

'No; but the wine means his blood, just as the holy bread - means his body; and all those who go to Christ, and leau on

THE BLIND PREACHER OF HAWAII.

him, will have their sins washed away in his blood, and their souls saved for ever in heaven.'

'Why do you think it is more suitable that you should join the church than others?'

Perhaps it is not (hesitating.) If it is not proper, you must tell me. But I do greatly desire to dwell with you in Christ. (Here he wiped his blind eyes.)'

'Whom do you think are the proper persons to be received into the church?'

Those who have repented of their sins, and obtained new hearts.'

'What is a new heart?'

'It is one that loves God, and loves the Word of God, and does not love sin, or sinful ways.'

'Do you think you have obtained a new heart?'

At one time I think I have; and then I think again, and think I have not. I do not know. God knows. I hope I have a new heart.'

'What makes you hope that you have a new heart?'

'This is the reason why I hope I have a new heart. The heart I have now is not like the heart I formerly had. The heart I have now is very bad. It is unbelieving, and inclined to evil. But it is not like the one I formerly had. Yes, I think I have a new heart.'

These questions were new to him, and answered from his own knowledge.

Once in the church, this blind Bartimeus continued to grow in knowledge, grace, and usefulness. He became a true helpfellow with the missionaries, learning constantly at their lips, and communicating what he learned to the people.

In the year 1829, we find it said of him, that he was beginning to recover his eyesight a little, and was making a painful effort to learn to read. A missionary's wife at Hilo, in 1830, where Bartimeus then lived, collected a few children, and taught them the elements of reading, Bartimeus at once applied for admission to the class, but was discouraged on the ground of his blindness, and that the school was merely for children. His reply was, that he was a child, and must insist upon attending. And, by literally digging, as it was said-for he was so dim of sight that he used to bury his face in his book-he became able to make out a verse or two in the Bible. The disease in his eyes, however, suddenly assumed such an

THE BLIND PREACHER OF HAWAII.

aggravation, that he was forced to abandon his design of becoming a Bible-reader, and to throw himself for Scripture knowledge entirely upon the resources of his own tenacious memory. Every text and sermon he then heard were indelibly in his mind; and fragments of Scripture at that time being printed in his native tongue, were made fast in his memory, 'word for word, chapter and verse, by hearing them read a few times."

"The arrangement of providence," says Mr. Green, "by which he was obliged to hide the Word of God in his heart, was a wise and benevolent arrangement; for he never could have become so eloquent and mighty in the Scriptures as he actually became, had he depended upon his imperfect vision, instead of his extraordinary memory. Still his example at Hilo, putting himself in the place of a little child, learning his letters, and spelling out sentences till he could actually read, was of incalculable value. It was to him also a matter of unfeigned delight, that he had been able, though for a short season only, to trace with his own eyes the lines of the Book of God, which he loved more than his daily food."

He laboured with great assiduity and delight during the great revival of 1837 and 1838, when he was publicly ordained to the office of elder. In 1840, he was duly received, upon examination at Wailuku, as a minister of the Gospel in Honuaula, where he laboured with great fidelity and acceptableness, up to the time of his decease, returning every few weeks to recruit his stores, and refill his urn at the missionary well head, at Wailuku, where he was always welcome.

I have heard Mr. Clark narrate with great interest an account of a sermon which Bartimeus preached there at a protracted meeting, when the king was present, in the evening. His text was Jer. iv. 13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind.' He seized upon

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the terrific image of a whirlwind or tornado, as an emblem of the ruin which God would bring upon his enemies. This image, said Mr. Clark, he presented in all its majestic and awful aspects, enforcing his remarks with such passages as, shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath." (Ps. lviii. 9.) "And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind."-(Prov. i. 27.) "And the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble."—(Isai. xl. 24.) Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing

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whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked."—(Jer. xxx. 23.) "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."—(Hosea viii. 7.)

Many other passages also he referred to, in which the same image is presented, always quoting chapter and verse, till the missionary was himself surprised to find that this image is so often used by the sacred writers. And how this blind man, never having used a Concordance or Reference Bible in his life, could, on the spur of the moment, refer to all these texts, was little less than a mystery. But his mind was stored with the precious treasure, and that in such order, that he always had it at command.

I was never, said our informant, so forcibly impressed, as while listening to this address, with the remark of the apostle, "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;" and seldom have I witnessed a specimen of more genuine eloquence.

Near the close of his remarks, turning to the king and his chiefs, he said, Who can withstand the fury of the Lord, when he comes in his chariots of whirlwind? You have heard of the cars in America, propelled by fire and steam-with what mighty speed they go, and how they crush all in their way. So will the swift chariots of Jehovah overwhelm all his enemies. Flee, then, to the ark of safety! Here (added Mr. Clark) his appeal to the king and chiefs was bold, and yet persuasive, and, one would have thought, irresistible.

Many more things might be told, and addresses quoted of this blind Hawaiian preacher, over the field of whose ministry in Honuaula, I could not ride without feeling that it was dignified as with the footsteps of angels, for having been the scene of the labours of this man of God. I praised as I passed, the compensating grace of God, who, first choosing so unpromising an instrument as this dwarfed and deformed outcast of humanity, from whom wisdom was at one entrance quite shut out, did so marvellously make up to him the loss of outward sense by inward seeing. Those lines ascribed to Milton, might have been uttered by him :

"I am old and blind!

Men point at me as smitten by God's frown;
Afflicted and deserted of my kind,

Yet I am not cast down.

"I am weak, yet strong;

I murmur not that I no longer see:

Poor, old, and helpless, 1 the more belong,

Father Supreme! to Thee.