Hawaii Churches and the Global Great Awakening of 1857
by Nicholas Freeman, PhD, Adj. Professor, Florida Christian University
While much has been written about various Great Awakenings around the world, including the Great Hawaiian Revival of 1836-1842[1], Hawaii’s involvement in the global Great Awakening of 1857-1862 has largely been overlooked. The Awakening began in 1857 in New York City in the midday prayer meeting movement and soon spread around the globe, including the rest of America and Canada, then crossing the Atlantic to England, Scotland, and Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, North and South India, St. Domingo in the West Indies, into Rarotonga. Jamaica, and finally across the Pacific Ocean to Australia, New Zealand, and the Sandwich Islands.[2]
The revival soon touched four of the main Hawaiian Islands, Oʻahu, Maui, Hawaiʻi, and Kauaʻi. At Lahaina, Maui, first signs of the revival were reported in 1859, as outlined in Dwight Baldwin’s Missionary Station Report for the year:
“I mentioned, in the report of last year, an unusual religious excitement among the natives. It was then in progress and went on increasing for months. For a time, it seemed as though the most wicked and thoughtless of our population would all be converted. At many of our prayer meetings, not a word of exhortation was heard from any except the notoriously wicked, which exhortations they brought out in confessing their sins. There were always more people ready to expose the blackness of their lives than we had time to hear…This was a scene of things altogether new to us, - and we hardly knew to what it would grow. We looked steadily at all who professed to have found the Saviour, for a year or more, and, on the first Sabbath in April, of this year, 103 of them were received to the church. A few other candidates remain in Lahaina, and many in Olualu.”[3]
Later in 1860 at Honolulu, a pastor described the revival stating,
“Several months during the last year, we were favored with a revival of religion, & our church members were unusually engaged in prayer meetings, & in visiting from house to house. We were forcibly & happily reminded of the great revival scenes at these Islands in the years 1838, 9, & 40.”[4]
The next move of revival was noted at services led by the Hawaiian pastor Rev. Moses Kuaea, in Kaneohe, Oahu in 1860. Rev. Kuaea was a powerful speaker, who later served at churches on Maui and was instructor at the North Pacific Missionary Institute.[5] The mission report for that year recorded,
“We have had for a part of the year an unusual interest among our people in religion. The Spirit of God has most evidently been in our midst awakening sinners and converting them to God…There are at least 500 in the district who profess to be on the Lord’s side. They desire baptism and admission to the church of Christ. A great portion of them are among the younger part of the community.”[6]
Artemas Bishop went on to write of Pastor Kuaea,
“After the visit made by Kuaea and others to Ewa in July of last year, unequivocal evidence of a revival of religion appeared in that district. These religious impressions were multiplied and strengthened by the visits of the pastor and native assistant among the people, and by the preaching tours of other Oahu brethren. This good work resulted in the hopeful conversion of 100 or more people, and by the return of many backsliding brethren to the bosom of the church. The good effects of the work are being evidenced by a large increase of the worshiping assembly on Lord’s Day, and by the multiplication and sustentation of prayer meetings in every part of the district, which are still kept up. During the year 99 people have been received into the church.”[7]
Another account described the revival at Oahu adding,
“The good work spread along the northern side of the island, and about one hundred persons have been added to the church of the Rev. Mr. Kuaea. Of late the inhabitants on other parts of the island have manifested an unwonted eagerness to assemble where they might listen to the preaching of the gospel. The churches at Waialua, Ewa, and both native churches in Honolulu, have been crowded. Evening services have been held in the city churches. This awakening accompanies preaching missionary tours, which have been made by missionaries accompanied by their lunas or deacons. One of the old missionaries lately remarked that he had not witnessed scenes like these since the days of the great revival, more than twenty years ago.”[8]
The Friend’s October, 1860, obituary of Rev. Richard Armstrong, founder of the Hawaiian Kingdom school system, includes this passage:
“Only a few days before his death we had a long interview with him, while he lay upon his sick bed, from which he was hoping soon to arise and resume his duties. Our conversation chiefly related to the recent revival among the Hawaiian people. This awakening was a source of great encouragement to him. He spoke of it as the brightest feature at present in the nation..”[9]
At Koloa, Kauai, in 1860, the revival there resulted in “Over a hundred persons have been received into the church the past year on profession of their faith chiefly the fruits of the revival of 1860. Of this number about 20 were young people under 30 years of age. The number of admissions exceeds that of any previous year.”[10]
Then in 1861, Rev. Benjamin Parker and Rev. Titus Coan toured the island of Oahu, preaching from church to church with the following results:
“This tour was followed by others of the brethren in the same manner through the summer. They were accompanied by a number of their elders in the churches, some of them as precursors to visit among the people in their several neighborhoods and stir them up to come out to hear the preached word. These were all listened to by throngs, multitudes of whom had long neglected the house of God and had become practical heathens. These movements were the commencement of a revival of Religion in all parts of the island of which Ewa partook with the others. Religious meetings became frequent and full, the church awakened from its long lethargy, backsliders returned from their wanderings into the bosom of the church by a public confession of their sins…On the first sabbath in January last, we received 85 candidates to church membership, and in April 14 more in all 99 persons.”[11]
In 1861, comparing the present revival to the Great Revival of 1836-1842, Rev. Lowell Smith testified from Honolulu,
“The precious revival of religion with which they and their people have been blessed, has very considerably increased the labors of the pastor, & at times he has felt that he should sink under them. But by the grace of God, he has been enabled to preach, exhort & labor, much as in the great revival season some 20 years ago.”[12]
Rev. Smith wrote, “One of the effects of our revival upon the people is to engage in building meeting houses at out Stations. Hitherto they have used the government School houses, but it is difficult often times to be accommodated in those houses, without interfering with the schools.”[13] This was evident at Waimea on the Big Island, “the people also worked hard and performed nobly. Seven churches were to be completed, and if paid for, dedicated, during 1860. Four more were to be built in 1861 and another restored, keeping him (Rev Lorenzo Lyons) engaged in the building of 12 churches.”[14]
Rev. Lorenzo Lyons on the Big Island reported of the churches in his district:
“Of the 14 churches in 1860 that most of them were enjoying a revived state. The houses of worship were well filled - Wanderers came forward & professed repentance & were restored…sinners professed to be converted - some who had resisted the influence of all previous revivals were among them... My heart swelled with joy for the privilege granted me of receiving some from the churches in every place. At the end of my tour I found I had received 102 to the churches on profession & restored 72 - Waimea & Waipio are the largest shares in this revival”[16]
Lyons also reported from the mother church in Waimea, “We prayed much, unitedly, separately, specifically, by name possessively, anxiously, submissively, yet feeling we could not let the Angel of the covenant go till he had blessed us, and he did bless us, we enjoyed a special revival in Waimea, and some 60 of the converts were added to the church…Before me were seven seats full of converts and reclaimed backsliders.”[17]
At Haili Church in Hilo, the cornerstone was laid on November 14, 1857, and dedicated the building April 8, 1859.[15] Haili Church Pastor, Rev Titus Coan reported in 1861:
“There has been a gentle & precious revival of religion over most portions of the field. The church has been aroused & encouraged backsliders reclaimed & sinners have been hopefully converted.”[18]
Later at South Kona, in 1862, Rev. John Paris noted in his mission report,
“During the last two years we have experienced a very precious revival, in which some 8 or 10 of the wives & children of foreigners have been hopefully converted. The church now numbers in all 120.”[19]
This revisitation of awakening on the Hawaiian Islands was part of a worldwide revival movement, that soon moved through the Pacific Islands, landing later in New Zealand and Australia. Rufus Anderson added of this later revival in Hawaii, “In no one of the previous twenty years, had there been such evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the churches. The voice of rejoicing for spiritual mercies came up from nearly all the stations. Churches were revived, backsliders reclaimed, the fallen raised, the weak strengthened, the timid made brave for the truth, and hardened sinners converted to God.”[20]
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LINK: Articles by Nicholas Freeman
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Freeman, Nicholas. The Great Hawaiian Revival of 1836-1842. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7840/
[2] “Otago,” New Zealander (Auckland, New Zealand), December 28, 1861, 3, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18611228.2.19.
[3] Mission Station Reports - Maui - Lahaina - Lanai - 1848-1864 22f74cd9c26ac2b843981e39a53408c4.pdf, p.95.
[4] Mission Station Reports - Oahu - Honolulu - 1858-1863
[5] Nancy J. Morris and Robert Benedetto, Nā Kahu: Portraits of Native Hawaiian Pastors at Home and Abroad, 1820–1900 (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2019), 174.
[6] Mission Station Reports - Oahu - Kaneohe - 1835-1862, p.7.
[7] Mission Station Reports - Oahu - Ewa / Waianae - 1835-1863, p.103, 0f9fa28da7df74ebca273f064838b7a8.pdf
[8] The Friend - 1860.08.01 - Newspaper, 0d264e6f0035ae89ff9b29fc722437ed.pdf, “August 1, 1860, p.60.
[9] The Friend, “Death of Rev. Richard Armstrong, D.D”., October 1860, cdc2d9489244c43b65f4281496c5b320.pdf, p.76.
[10] Mission Station Reports - Kauai - Koloa - 1835-1871, 085dbf0c9a079abc81d4765e9a2a0ec2.pdf, p.82.
[11] A. Bishop and S. Kahoohalohola, 1861 Mission Report, 0f9fa28da7df74ebca273f064838b7a8.pdf, p.100.
[12] Mission Station Reports - Oahu - Honolulu - 1858-1863, 1861, p.34, Honolulu 2nd Church.
[13] Ibid, 34.
[14] Larue W. Piercy, Hawaii’s Missionary Saga, p. 153.
[15] Ibid., 114.
[16] Mission Station Reports - Hawaii - Waimea - 1860-1863.
[17] Missionary letter read by Nicholas Freeman while researching at the Lyman Museum Archive, August 21, 2024.
[18] Mission Station Reports - Hawaii - Hilo - 1851-1863,b301deed12a398712dad61f2a063ee94.pdf, p.131.
[19] John Paris, S. Kona 1862 Mission Report, c4da6ced26bcaffcee486a272b667451.pdf, p.51.
[20] Rufus Anderson, The History of the Sandwich Islands, p.273.