Church der difficul ties. CHAPTER XXVI. CHURCH AND HOUSE BUILDING. CHURCH building, at native expense, made constant progress on the Islands, though generally building un- under very great difficulties. At Kohala, on Hawaii, the people, in their effort to procure a new and more commodious house of worship, had to bring the timber six or eight miles from the mountains. The wood was hard and tough, axes were scarce, and there were few facilities for keeping them sharp. After the timber had been cut and hewn, from eighty to a hundred and fifty persons of both sexes laid hold of a long rope, made fast to one of the timbers, and a day was required to drag it up and down the precipitous ravines and through woods and brush, to the ground set apart for the building. Oxen could have done nothing were they obtainable, because of the ravines. The fondness of the people of Kohala for the ordinances of the sanctuary, was very strikThe district is subject Fondness for worship. ingly manifested. at certain seasons to continued and violent winds and rains; and females, young and old, used frequently to come several miles in the rain, over precipices and ravines, to the place of worship, with a single scanty garment of brown cotton, and that garment, as well as their hair and entire persons, completely drenched. The author well re AT KEALAKEKUA AND KANEOHE. 221 members his surprise at finding this same church filled with people one Sabbath morning in 1863, notwithstanding a furious rain-storm, in which they had travelled with great discomfort from their homes. Had they had umbrellas, they could hardly have carried them in so great a tempest. The laborious efforts of the native churches to procure convenient houses for worship, At Kealawere further illustrated at Kealakekua, an- kekua. other name for the Kaawaloa station. The house was built of stone, and in the first place, every stone had to be carried by the church members on their shoulders an eighth of a mile. The lime had then to be obtained by diving for the coral in from ten to twenty feet of water. After a piece had been detached a rope was made fast to it, and the mass was drawn up, and put into a canoe. Thus the limestone was procured. To reduce it to lime, a large amount of wood was needed, and every stick had to be brought one or two miles. This was done by the men. The women carried the lime a fourth of a mile in calabashes, in all many scores of barrels, and afterwards as much sand, and about an equal quantity of water. The posts and beams were brought by the men from the mountains, each timber requiring the joint efforts of from forty to sixty Their labor was all gratuitous. To pay the masons and carpenters, each man subscribed according to his ability, varying from one to ten dollars, to be paid in such useful articles as they could command. men. At Kaneohe, on the island of Oahu, when the old grass meeting-house was no longer in a condition to be occupied, the members of At Kaneobe 222 ON MOLOKAI AND IN KAU. the church, which contained not more than seventyfive able-bodied males, erected a stone edificé, ninetyfive feet in length by forty-two in width. The efforts of the church at Waimea, on Hawaii, to erect a new stone church, in the year 1842, were quite as extraordinary as those performed at Kealakekua. At Waimea. Among the means for building a stone meetinghouse of considerable size on Molokai, was On Molokai. a subscription by the women of more than two hundred dollars, which they earned by making mats, though each earned no more than eight cents a week. The contributions from the men were chiefly the result of transporting firewood in canoes across the channel, twenty miles wide, to Lahaina, carrying seven sticks in a canoe, which sold for eight cents a stick. Timbers for the church had to be dragged ten miles by human strength. In the Kailua district. In 1844, places of worship were erected at four of the outstations in the Kailua district. Their walls were of mud, hardened in the sun, painted without and plastered within with lime mortar. In Kau. The church at Waiohinu, in the district of Kau, on Hawaii, was completed in 1846; men, women, and children conveying the stones from several heathen temples; and coral, also, which was taken from the bottom of the sea, they carried seven miles to be converted into lime. The timbers had to be drawn from the mountain forests. It was a fine building, and the author had the pleasure of meeting and addressing a large Sabbath-school, and a still larger adult congregation, within its walls. The building was destroyed by the great earthquakes AT HONOLULU AND HILO. 223 of 1868; and has been since replaced by a neat framed building, painted within and without, and well seated, with a steeple and a bell. The cost was two thousand two hundred dollars, and seven hundred dollars of this sum was contributed by sister churches on the Islands. At Honolulu. What is known as the great Stone Church, at Honolulu, was dedicated on the 21st of July, 1842, in the presence of the king, his premier, the high chiefs, and an assembly of more than three thousand. Its cost was about thirty thousand dollars. The dimensions of the edifice are one hundred and thirty-seven feet by seventy-two. Galleries were afterwards introduced, and a tower and steeple, with a bell and town clock. At the dedication, the king presented a deed of the building and premises "to the church, and those of like faith who should come hereafter." It was five years from the commencement to the completion of the building. The present church edifice at Hilo has very much the appearance of country churches in New At Hilo. England. It was completed and dedicated in 1859; is a neat substantial building, fifty by seventy-five feet, finished on the outside with pilasters, and roofed with zinc, with a tower rising thirty-six feet above the ridge. The inside is neatly finished, and well seated, with galleries across one end, and a pulpit. The cost of the house and appurtenances was about thirteen thousand dollars in money, besides a large amount of gratuitous labor by the people. They very properly resolved not to consecrate the house until it was paid for. The requisite amount was raised after several meetings, and there remained a balance of more than three hundred dol 224 EXTENT OF CHURCH ACCOMMODATION. lars in the treasury. The dedication was further deferred two weeks for the arrival of a bell, weighing a thousand pounds, which had been ordered from the United States. The people were jubilant when it arrived. Multitudes rushed to the shore, and lashing the bell to spars, bore it with shouting to the church door. It was soon hoisted to its place in the tower, where it sent out its 'inviting peals over the hills and fields of Hilo. Introduction of seats. At first, the people seated themselves in their houses of worship upon mats, spread on the ground; but they came gradually to feel the need of seats. When a man had procured for himself a pair of Sabbath pants, and a woman a calico or white dress, the next thing was to have a seat in the meeting house, in order to keep their new garments clean. 1870. Extent of commoda tion. The Hawaiian people now no longer worship in thatched meeting-houses. With a very slight exception or two, all the churches are framed church ac- or stone buildings. Most of them are neatly finished, with seats or pews; a number of them have a gallery, or raised seats for the choir, and almost all have steeples and bells. A considerable number of the churches are being furnished with melodeons to assist in the singing, the instruments being played by some one of the people. The number of the church buildings cannot be less than one hundred and twenty; and the work of building, repairing, and modifying, to suit the ever-improving tastes of the people, is still in progress. In June, 1870, over ten thousand dollars, out of a total of thirty-one thousand dollars contributed for religious |