The Promised Land. A sermon delivered at Goshen...
The Promised Land. A sermon delivered at Goshen, (Conn.) at the ordination of the Rev. Messers. Hiram Bingham & Asa Thurston, as Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, Sept. 29, 1819.

Boston: Samuel T. Armstrong, 1819.

Slim octavo, 40, xvi pages.

Genesis of the Hawaiian mission

Rare and historically significant sermon delivered at the ordination of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston shortly before their departure to Hawaii as first envoy of the American Board of Foreign Missions: 'this rare pamphlet may be cited as the inception of the Christian missionary movement in Hawaii' (Hill).

Rare and historically significant sermon delivered at the ordination of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston shortly before their departure to Hawaii as first envoy of the American Board of Foreign Missions: 'this rare pamphlet may be cited as the inception of the Christian missionary movement in Hawaii' (Hill).

The missionaries were accompanied by five assistants, their wives and three native teachers, all listed with respective roles allocated: interestingly the printer for the first Hawaiian mission press, Mr Elisha Loomis, is listed amongst the assistants. The work is rich in references to the first Hawaiian born missionary Henry Obookiah who was closely associated with the community at Goshen and a founding member of the mission school. Obookiah died in 1818, shortly before the departure of the mission to Hawaii, and the sadness and disappointment of the congregation is reflected throughout this rare book.

The sermon was published under the auspices of the Mission School where the native teachers were trained alongside royalty: 'George Tamoree - son of Tamoree, king of Atooi and Oneeheow, two of the Sandwich Islands, who has been educated with the other Native Youths, at the foreign Mission School, Cornwall, Connecticut returns with the Mission to his Father.'

This copy was once in the possession of Statham Clary, with his ink manuscript note to the title-page. Clary was a Presbyterian missionary who was dispatched on a "domestic mission" to Bath, New York State, a frontier town with a belligerent population that lacked a church until Clary arrived in 1824. Here he achieved modest success under difficult circumstances, converting a handful of folk to his church through incessant labour and gifted sermons.

Forbes, 'Hawaiian National Bibliography', 499; Hill, 852; Sabin, 33794; Shaw and Shoemaker, 48291.

Condition Report: Title-page a little thumbed with a few closed tears, last leaf a little chipped, of few spots of foxing yet good, disbound lacking wrappers.

Ref: #3902029

Condition Report