The GOSPEL TRUTH
LETTER OF

CHARLES G. FINNEY

1836

To Gerrit Parmele Judd

4 November 1836

 

[MS in Judd Family Papers, Ms Group 70, Box 3.6, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii]

 

Address: Garrett Judd M.D.

Missionary at the

per Miss L. Smith } Sandwich Islands

 

Letter:

Packet Boat near Rome Oneida co. N.Y. 4 Nov 1836.

Dr. Br. Judd.

I am now on my way from Oberlin

Ohio, where I spend my Summers, to N York city where

I spend my winters. Prehaps you are aware that I

am connected with a Theological Seminary in Ohio &

that I also continue to sustain the relation of

Pastor to the "Broadway Tabernacle" church in N.Y.

The school with which I am connected is a University.

Including a preparity school College, & Theological

seminary. Males & females are united in the same

class & go if they desire it through all the depart

ments. We have, I believe about 300 students at present.

Many of our young people are expecting to become

foreign missionaries. One of these, Miss Tenney, is now

on her way to your Islands. We have recently had

a powerful revival at Oberlin & I hope many of the

young people are better prepared to enter into

the work than before.

I have fallen in with Miss Lucia Smith on boar[d] the

Packet, now on her way to Boston to join the Mission

family for your Islands. I wrote a line by Miss Tenney

now Mrs -----, I cant remember his name, to Br. Gulick

in reply to one recd from him. You are aware that I

once purposed to visit the Sandwich Islands, but

was taken too ill to go, on the very day I was to

have started from N York to take passage at

N. Bedford. I went up the Mediterranean. I am

now a good deal recovered from the difficulty

under which I then labored, viz a bowel complaint.

But last winter I got over done again & have

[page 2]

nearly laid aside with hoarseness for nearly a

year. I have been a good deal better of late

so as to be able to take hold at Oberlin.

Our people in N. York have recently desired

me to rest again in order to which they wish

me to go to the Sandwich Islands & return

through India, visiting the Missionary

Stations. I hope however that I shall not be obliged to go.

It is possible however that I may go yet this winter.

I suppose that you keep along in your knowledge

of our affairs about 6 months behind our dates.

We have had much shameful controversy here in

& out of the Presbyterian church. The subject of

the emancipation of the Slaves is now the absorbing

topic & has swallowed up almost all other

excitements for the present. There are comparatively

few revivals recently. But as we hope to complete the

triumph of Abolition in a year or 2 more I am

in hopes that the revival spirit will not be grieved

away but that we shall have more powerful revivals than

ever. Weld is the leader in the Abolition movements. The

cause is gaining ground with great rapidity.

I have left My wife & family at Oberlin in good health.

Will you present our kindest regards to Mrs Judd. I have

sometimes thought of becoming a foreign Missionary

& going to your Islands, in case my health seemed

imperiously to demand a southern climate.

How long would it require to get the language

of the people so as to be able to address them

in their own tongue. I need to rest from publick

labors about a year. Can I acquire much

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knowledge of their language in that time?

I have a 1000 things to say but must lay down

my pen. I want to inquire about the spiritual state

of the Missionaries, for from what I saw up the

Mediterranean as well as from the fact that some of our

Missionaries have returned home as cold as an

Iceberg, & also that so little is accomplished by

them, I have reason to fear that many of our

Missionaries need a Missionary to wake them up

before they will ever do much.

Dr. Br. Judd, do you "walk with God".

Does your Dr. Wife live in the light of his

countenance? Are the Missionaries holy men

& women. Do they prevail in prayer? Do they

love one another? Are they temperate in all [things]

I must say that I have felt many discourag[ements]

& distressing apprehensions in regard to the spiritual

state of some of our missionaries. The writings of

some of them seem to me to indicate a state

of extreme blindness & hardness of heart & unbelief

as to the power of the gospel. They seem to me not

to have the Apostolic Spirit, but to be by far too

secular in their views & effort. This I have not

observed so particularly of the Missionaries at your

Islands as elsewhere. Some of our Missionaries

in the east seem to me to be living & travelling

more like Ministers of State than like Apostles

& followers of him who traversed the burning sands

of Judea on foot & had not where to lay his head.

The policy pursued by some of our Missionaries in

the east appears to me to be very secular & blind.

But I must stop. The Lord be with you forever. C. G. Finney.

 

The letter was duly delivered. Henry Dimond, in a letter back home to his family from Honolulu, dated April 24th 1837, wrote:

Mr. Finney writes to Dr. Judd that he thinks of coming to the S. Islands. Tell him we shall be glad to see him, he will find a good climate, nor do I think anyone will quarrel with him about new measures. Many of the missionaries preach plain and faithfully to the people. I do not think there are many cases of marked conversion such as we like to see at home.

(Julia Dimond Wood Kramer, Let Us Go Shouting to Glory; the Story of Ann Maria and Henry Dimond (Privately Printed, 1984), p. 197.)