We now come to an important event in the history of Kallihirua; his
Baptism, which took place on Advent Sunday, Nov. 27th, 1853, in St.
Martin's Church, near Canterbury. "The visitors present on the
occasion," said an eye-witness[6], "were, the Rev. John Philip Gell
(late Warden of Christ's College, Tasmania), accompanied by Mrs. Gell,
daughter of the late Sir John Franklin; Captain Erasmus Ommanney, R.N.
(who brought Kallihirua to England), and Mrs. Ommanney, Captain
Washington, R.N., of the Admiralty, and the Rev. W. T. Bullock. The
Rev. T. B. Murray, Secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, who had been invited, was, in consequence of engagements in
London, unfortunately unable to be present".
[Footnote 6: St. Augustine's Occasional Paper.]
[Illustration: St. Martin's Church]
"Towards three o'clock in the afternoon, small parties began to issue
from the College gateway in the direction of St. Martin's,--that
picturesque little church, looking from its calm hill-side over the
broad Stour valley, and over the cathedral and the steeples of the
town half emerging from the smoke. In the interior of this oldest of
the English churches there is an ancient font, which stands upon the
spot (if it be not the very font itself), where King Ethelbert, the
firstfruits of the Anglo-Saxon race, was baptized more than twelve
hundred and fifty years ago by Augustine.
"In the enclosure round this font sat Kallihirua, and his 'chosen
witnesses' Captain Ommanney, and the Subwarden, Mrs. Bailey, and Mrs.
Gell. The remainder of the church was quite filled with an attentive
and apparently deeply-interested congregation, many of them of the
poorer class to whom Kalli is well known either by face (as indeed he
could not well fail to be), or as the comrade of their children in the
spelling-class at school.
"After the Second Lesson, the Warden proceeded to the font, and the
Baptismal Service commenced. Kallihirua, as an adult, made the
responses for himself, and in a clear firm tone, which seemed to
intimate that he had made his choice for once and for ever, that he
had cast in his lot with us, and taken our people for his people, and
our God for his God, and felt with an intelligent appreciation the
privilege of that new brotherhood into which he was admitted.
"May his admission within the pale of Christ's holy Church be, (as was
the prayer of many, beyond the walls of St. Martin's, on that day,)
both to himself and to many of his race, an event pregnant of eternal
issues! 'May the fulness of God's blessing,' to use the words of one
of our most valued friends, 'rest upon it, and make it the first
streak of a clear and steady light, shining from St. Augustine's into
the far North.' The Christian names added to his original Esquimaux
name, were 'Erasmus,' after Captain Ommanney, and 'Augustine,' in
remembrance of the College.
"The service being concluded, an excellent sermon was preached by the
Rev. J. P. Gell, on the text, Isaiah lxv. 1: 'I am sought of them that
asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said,
Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.'
Afterwards the same kind friend attended our Sunday evening meeting in
the Warden's house, and gave us some interesting details of the
missionary work (in which he had himself borne a part) in Van Diemen's
Land. The drift of his remarks was to give encouragement to the
principle of steady faithful persevering energy, undamped by early
difficulties, and not impatient of the day of small things; and to
show by convincing examples (especially that of Mr. Davis, a devoted
missionary in that country) how such conduct is sure in the end to
meet with a success of the soundest and most permanent kind, because
founded on the spontaneous sympathy of the people, and on the
blessings of the poor, 'not loud but deep.'
"Kallihirua had received a very handsome present in the shape of a
beautifully bound Bible and Prayer Book, as a baptismal gift from the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge."
It may be interesting to add, that the water used in the baptism was
from the river Jordan, and that it had been brought from thence by
Captain Ommanney himself.
In the _Gospel Missionary_ for February, 1854, was a pleasing
description of the Baptism of Kallihirua: and this was the sound and
practical conclusion:--
"Before we conclude, we may, perhaps, express the hope that
our young friends will sometimes think kindly of their new
Christian brother, ERASMUS AUGUSTINE KALLIHIRUA, and that
they will pray that God will bless him, and make him to
advance more and more in the knowledge and the love of His
dear Son JESUS CHRIST. When they thus think of him who is now
made their own brother by baptism, and is thus brought into
the family of CHRIST'S people, let them learn to value the
good things which GOD has given _them_ in such rich
abundance. Let them be thankful that they were born in a
Christian country, in which they have been taught from
children to know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make
them wise unto salvation through faith which is in CHRIST
JESUS."