Both of them were born in Massachusetts in the early 19th century, both graduated from Union College (seven years apart), both went into the ministry after graduation, both had delicate constitutions, and both were writers of hymns-in the days when Toledo, Ohio, was considered part of the Western frontier and Hawaii was a foreign country.
Lorenzo Lyons, Class of 1827, did most of his hymn-writing in Hawaii. Edmund Sears, Class of 1834, stayed closer to home, but gained fame by writing a familiar Christmas carol.
Lyons graduated from Union with honors, then went on to Auburn Theological Seminary. Choosing to be a foreign missionary, he was sent to the Hawaiian Islands in 1832, where a mission had been established 11 years earlier. He was stationed at Waimea and lived on the slopes of Mauna Kea. Respected and well-loved in his adopted home, that's where he married and raised a family. He was known by his parishioners as Ka Makua Laiana (The Poet of the Mountains, Father Lyons).
A quick study, Lyons picked up the Hawaiian language soon after his arrival, and three months into his stay was already preaching in Hawaiian. He also began writing poetry in Hawaiian and was the author of the Sunday school hymnbook. He translated not only sacred songs into Hawaiian, but also amused himself by translating more secular poetry, such as Poe's “The Raven” and “Home Sweet Home.”
He composed many poems and hymns, but the translation of “I Left It All with Jesus” (“Hawaii Aloha”) is his most famous work. The hymn is still sung at solemn occasions, and most Hawaiians still stand during its presentation.
The king of Hawaii made him a gift of a large Hawaiian flag, because Lyons had said, “That is my flag also. I wish that when I die I may be wrapped in the flag I love.” And it was in this flag that he was buried, 54 years after arriving on Hawaiian shores.
HAWAII ALOHA(chorus)
Happy youth of Hawaii
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gentle breezes blow
Love always for Hawaii.
May your divine throngs speak,
Your loving people, O Hawaii.
The holy light from above.
O Hawaii, aloha.
God protects you,
Your beloved ridges,
Your every glistening streams,
Your beautiful flower gardens.
Edmund Hamilton Sears, Class of 1834, was a born poet. As a child, he wrote, “when at work, some poem was always singing through my brain.”
A studious man and a poet from an early age, as a Union undergraduate he published in the college literary magazine (and won a college prize for his poetry), and composed a Christmas hymn entitled “Calm on the Listening Ear of Night.” When it was published in the Boston Observer, the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes declared it to be one of the finest in the English language.
After graduating from Union, Sears studied the law, taught briefly in Vermont and then turned to study for the ministry under Addison Brown, minister of the Unitarian Church in Brattleboro.
Sears, whose family was descended from the Pilgrims, became a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts. He is best known as the author of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” which he wrote in 1849. Interesting to note that in the lyrics, he portrayed the world as dark, full of “sin and strife,” and not hearing the Christmas message. At the time, the hymn was criticized as being too secular and humanist, and “little more than an ethical song, extolling the worth and splendour of peace among men.”
His missionary work took him to what was then considered the West-the frontier area around Toledo, Ohio. It was just after the first railroad had been built.
The introverted country minister had a dreamy, poetic, even mystical disposition, and wrote in a clear and graceful style. Best known for his two Christmas carols, he was also a prolific writer of poetry and religious works. He was editor of the Monthly Religious Magazine and published seven books. Although considered conservative, he had many ideas that were surprisingly modern, among them, equality for women and men, and the idea that killing in war is just as wrong as killing in private life. In fact, with the Mexican War fresh in his mind, he wrote a satirical poem in 1847, arguing that since soldiers killed on orders from the President, the President too should be punished:
And does he make men shoot and kill?
Then let some pious folk,
A gallows build at Washington,
And hang up Mr. Polk!
After the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, Sears declared from his pulpit that “when the human and the Divine law were in conflict it was the duty of all to obey the latter.” And he predicted that the crime of slavery would lead to national retribution.