Pitcairn Bible

Psalm 119 9-16

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?

By living according to your word.

10 I seek you with all my heart;

do not let me stray from your

commands.

11 I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

12 Praise be to you, O LORD;

teach me your decrees.

13 With my lips I recount

all the laws that come from your mouth.

14 I rejoice in following your statutes

as one rejoices in great riches.

15 I meditate on your precepts

and consider your ways.

16 I delight in your decrees;

I will not neglect your word.

We have a book with the ability to change lives

Today as you know is Bible Sunday.

Why is the Bible so important to us?

I would like to suggest that it is - because the Word of God produces spiritual life.

Story: Let me tell you the story of the Pitcairn Bible. Any of you know the story of the Pitcairn Bible?

The story of the Mutiny on the Bounty has been told many times and has been made glamourised by the 1962 film starring Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando in the lead roles.

But the one part of the story that is not so well known is the transformation on Pitcairn Island of the survivors of the Mutiny.

You probably know the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty quite well.

Fletcher Christian, the second in command led a mutiny of most of the crew of the Bounty against the Captain, Lieutenant Bligh on 28th April 1789.

The Captain and those of the crew that refused to join mutiny were sent adrift.

After much hardship and brilliant seamanship on the part of Bligh, they reached the island of Timor.

Fletcher Christian took the Bounty and the rest of the crew to Tahiti.

But in September 1789, he and eight other Englishmen from the Bounty, six Tahitian men, eleven Tahitian women and one child, sailed from Tahiti on the Bounty

Early in the following year 1790, found and landed on an uninhabited island, Pitcairn Island.

They burnt the ship in order to escape detection.

At first, the island seemed a paradise.

But soon the Englishmen started to mistreat the Tahitians and stole one of their wives, causing a rebellion.

Within four years, all the Tahitian men and all but four of the Englishmen had been murdered.

The only survivors were Alexander Smith, Edward Young, Matthew Quintall, William McCoy.

McCoy soon learnt how to distill liquor from the roots of the “ti plant”, and soon the men were drunk almost all the time.

Fearing for their lives, the women and children fled to another part of the island and build a fort for protection.

One day McCoy threw himself over the cliffs in a drunken stupor.

Matthew Quintal became so dangerous when he was drunk that he threatened the lives of everyone else. So Smith and Young had to kill him for the safety of the others on the island.

Smith finally came to his senses and destroyed the still and all the liquor on the island. He went “cold turkey” for several months.

Young, who was dying of TB, was taken in by the women to nurse him.

While Smith was living alone, he discovered among the stores taken off the Bounty - before it was destroyed - a copy of the Bible and a Book of Common Prayer.

However these weren’t much use to him as he was illiterate.

Eventually, Young recovered and he and the women returned to the village where Smith was living.

Young was literate and so he taught Smith to read using the Bible.

In 1801, Young died.

Alexander Smith continued to read to Bible in its entirety, and grew to understand it over a period of several years.

Seeing the importance of teaching the Bible to others, he began teaching the children how to read, and eventually some of the mothers learned to read as well.

Using the Bible, he taught everyone about the Christian faith and instituted a daily prayer time, grace before meals, and Sunday worship.

One of his prayers was as follows:

“Suffer me not O Lord to waste this day in sin or folly. But let me Worship thee with much Delight.

Teach me to know more of thee and to serve thee better than ever I have done before, that I may be fitter to dwell in heaven, where thy worship and service are everlasting. Amen.”

In 1808, Pitcairn’s Island was discovered by captain Mayhew Folger of an American ship the USS Topas.

The members of the crew were amazed to find that the island was inhabited by thirty five English-speaking people of Polynesian descent who were practicing the Christian faith.