NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL ANALOGIES.

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or shade of the all-surrounding fluid, only discoverable at first from that great height.

And in illustration of the same it may be added, that once, on a calm, clear day, when at a point twelve hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, on the top of the Rock of Gibraltar, I recollect to have seen at its base some Genoese fishermen dragging their nets, and exposing their persons in the water, all unaware of the dangerous vicinity of three huge prowling sharks, which could be seen with wonderful clearness through our spy-glass, swimming around the rocks underneath, and seeming to us every moment as if they would dart up and seize the unsuspecting fisher

men.

Now the spiritual lesson we have learned from all is this: that, in order to have a just view of the trials, and temptations, and perils of probation; of the points of safety and of danger, and the limits of each, and the lines where they meet, and the gracious providences that are ever stepping between us and destruction, we must stand on the eminence of Mount Zion above. From the top of some commanding cliff in Eternity we must be able to look backward over the troubled sea of this life, and onward upon the calm ocean of Eternity into which it has passed, before we can judge justly of its hardships and encounters, and the Divine meaning of them, or perceive the greatness and goodness of our often miraculous deliverances, or estimate aright the skill and wisdom of the Divine providential Pilot that never quits our helm.

Must we not, then, quietly leave the management of these precious barks of immortality to infinite Wisdom and Love, navigating through faith alone, by quicksand and breakers? What else, indeed, can we do, when the Unknown Future to which we are bound, is to all men what the Equatorial Coast of the Brazils is to the mariner, who makes his land-fall just at night, in the rain and howling wind, and sees the dense clouds gathering heavier and blacker, and the lurid lightnings flashing with louder thunder over those vast regions dimly before him, somewhere in the deep shades of which he is to find a port?

We must wait till the morning of the resurrection for the clouds to clear away and the sun to shine, sailing, meanwhile, by faith's chronometer, just as that navigator must lay-to and stand off, or go sounding on his dim and perilous way by lead and line, till the night and storm are past, and sunlight opens to him the glories of Nature in the tropics, even as the resurrection dawn will to the faithful soul the glories of Eternity.

That glorious but now unknown world of the future, along with its other revelations, will disclose the good that is now doing by the Missionary Station planted at Molokai. It is very near the sea, on the level land between the shore and the mountains. This interval of ⚫ arable land is from one-quarter to half a mile wide. Valleys that might be made fertile, run up further between the hills, in one of which a better site than the present was chosen, and buildings commenced. But

STRENGTH OF THE MOLOKAI TRADE-WINDS. 167

they were torn down by a creature of Governor Adams, to whom the land belonged. It would have been far preferable to the present spot, as further removed from, and yet giving a much finer view of, the sea, and as being partially screened, also, by the hill-side from violent blasts.

If Hawaiian mythology had had a god of the winds, his excellency would certainly have been assigned to Molokai, where the trades could have rocked him from New Year's morn to Christmas eve. He must have had his table in some one of those huge holes to windward, or he could hardly eat the meat of his sacrifices before it would have been blown out of his teeth. The trades rush by here as if they had just broke prison from the cave of Eolus, and were flying away at the top of their speed, afraid of being caught.

For a man to keep his breath, or his hat on, in riding against them, he must have a long wind and little head; two conditions that so seldom meet in the same person, that most who come here at first lose both. And it is well if their patience does not go, too, in waiting, wind-bound, a time to get away. Pleasant society and hospitable fare will, however, generally prove a good antidote and hold-fast to the latter.

Notwithstanding the uniformly high winds, Rev. Mr. Hitchcock, one of the missionaries, has succeeded in training a fine grapery, by erecting a high screen towards the northeast. We are now luxuriating on the

delicious fruit, whose flavor is almost equal to the uvas of Andalusia. Wine is made from it to supply the communion-table; or, rather, an unfermented syrup, which, diluted with water, forms a more fitting element for the Supper than either alcoholic wine or simple water.

The number of communicants here is somewhat over six hundred, in a population roughly estimated at about five thousand. They have the best-made meeting-house (excepting the Bingham stone church in Honolulu) that I have seen in Hawaii-nei. The material is stone, three long windows in each of the two sides, doors in the two ends and side facing the sea, a gallery in the end opposite to the neatly made pulpit, for the choir, with two small windows for light and ventilation.

The walls are one hundred feet long, fifty wide, and eighteen high to the ceiling. The roof is of thatch, and in the old Dutch style, thus saving gable-ends, which it is not easy here to make secure, and at the same time look well, of stone.

In the process of building it, the people have contributed five hundred dollars in cash, besides getting the timber from the mountain, procuring and burning the lime, plastering the walls, and putting on the

roof.

In June of 1850, there was acknowledged from the Molokai church,* by the Treasurer of the American

*The entire contributions on the Island of Molokai, for the ycar 1850, are as follows:

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Board, the sum of five hundred and seventeen dollars and fifty cents, to constitute several persons in America

Here is a lesson in liberality that deserves to be studied.

It will as

sist in doing this, to know that the population of the island is less than 3500, and to call to mind how few years it is since they began to emerge from the deep poverty of barbarism. Look now at the various items. Consider especially that noble one for rebuilding the prostrate house of worship at Kohala, and also the avails of the monthly concert. Here are respects in which we may bring ourselves into comparison with them; for the appeal in behalf of that afflicted church reached us, and what we gave the last year at the concert is also on record. But let us not content ourselves with mere admiration of their "good works," but, "provoked by their zeal," let us "sow bountifully," that He who "loveth a cheerful giver" may in turn "make all grace abound towards us."

The whole amount of contributions at all the Islands for the year 1850, is $7213.14. This includes $237 for the French Protestant Mission. The most of it given from "their deep poverty." Truly, "the grace of God bestowed on them" has "abounded unto the riches of their liberality." See how expansive is their benevolence; how heartily they responded to that appeal from France, thus showing their ability to distinguish between the nation that would crush them, and those in that nation who were one with them in Christ; yet not the less giving an example of a noble superiority to national prejudices. At the same time, let it be observed that they do not forget to "provide for their own;" and that they open their hand liberally to assist their pastors in the calamities that befall them.-Journal of Missions, March, 1851.