Polynesian., 1861-02-09
No. Al.

eSsehal haiure were base deceit discovered and
of fatal after consequence to faith in either man or God
1t is absolutely necessary that not only one but two
new and strange beliefs be established 1t is necessary
that Hawaians be brought to believe that they have
immortal sOuls and less immortal bodies and that
this life is but the portal by which these pass into aboes
of everlasting bliss endless woe according il shall
be adudged them at that great and awful day which
awaits all the sons OF On this belief, strange to
Hawaans but which, unless so far the resurrection
OF the body is concerned, is Christianity,
with so many other religions the whole superstructure
of faith, worship and doctrine that is peculiar to the
Christian system is to be built up. How is this to be
accomplished:
If you would have believe something new and
wonderful, you must show that you have had the
means of ascertaining that it fact, and you must
convince me by your conduct that you yourself believe
| it to be so.
You tell me, who poor and ignorant and who
have never been away from this the place of my birth,
that beyond the distant mountains you have discovered
vast deposits of gold to be had by merely removing the
few inches of soil that covers them You say to me
Out of the great love bear you have come here
to inform you of this in order that the
OF winter have passed away, may together 90 and
gather riches to hearts content The tidngs
to me strange and wonderful as almost to surpass
belief But know that you wise, full Of know
ledge, and Of far travel They may therefore, be
true. have at least of contradicting you.
Still my faith you may not be exactly such in
duce me to abandon my present pursuits connections
and enoyments to 60 long and tolsOme road in quest
OF what seems almost too good to be true While thus
heSating it occurs to me to ask you how much money
will be required to take two there You four
hundred dollars will be amply sufficient. And how
much have you in your purse 2" ''Six hundred dol
lars . That, then, is much more than enough.
Give me- pray YOU, fifty dollars for friend of mine.
who is in great dstress.'' If you refuse and IT, still
further, that day after day you are planning and
toing from early till dusky night in order to add
few dimes to your store, words of yours will
vince me that You have yourself any confidence in the
treasures of which you vaunt Your conduct bellies it.
ANA, though L may not be sure that you have come
with prepared lie Of love and kindness in your mouth
with which to cheat me out of something you covet.
yet cannot help having strong suspicion Of it. Had
l, on the contrary that your heart set
that distant wealth that despised all the petty gains
within your reach, must needs have believed you,
| and placed confidence in what you told me. While
| human nature IS human nature 50 will men think and
act What concerns religious belief forms exception
In order to inspire lively faith, must not only
have II HIMSELF but he must have the means of proving
that he has it. If men see that one is so completely
possessed with the belief of an eternal world Of happi
ness that he eseems naugh all the possible evils and
accidents that may beal him in this if they see
over that his heart overOws with love for them that
he counts as nothing all the sacrifices he may be called
t. make in order that they may be parakers in that
happiness they cannot but believe in the sincerity Of
his faith u the reality of his love- And if in addition
to this, they know that he has had far superior
to theirs for ascertaining the truth of what he preach
they almost necessarily become his 1t Is
thus alone that Christianity has been successfully
propagated. If look to the early history Of the
Church, it is to the tolls the hazards the martyrdoms
early apostles that the success of their abors is
to be ascrbed So wide the plenitude of the faith
possessing the breasts of these that it left
in their hearts for other considerations. Heaven, with
| its eternal delights, was open to their eyes, Hence
| their triumph. As had been predicted, great fight
was before them-a fight to be carried between the
visible and the invisible between the things Of this life
and the things of the other between the ruler of this
world the Caesar, before whose image all men fell down
IN alteration, and the Lord Of the other, the Christ
who had ascended to Heaven before his followers there
to prepare for them mansions eternal where they were
to enjoy with him delights unspeakable forevermore.
That full faith in their Lord was necessarily victorious
Through it the martyr, whether a gray bearded man
or tender virgin, when borne onward to be q witness
to Its truth went OyOusy sparkled in the eye, and
spoke through every bodily member, joy that he had
been deemed worthy to be decked with the only earthly
| crown he coveted, the crown of martyrdom, thing
too little indeed to satisfy his longing ASPIRATIONS but
which yet he might bear with humble thankfulness to
the feet of his Captain, his Releemer. his God, fully
assured Of the greeting awaiting him -" Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the
| joys of thy Lord
With soul thus prepared, the teeth Of the wild beast.
the sharp steel of the soldier the consuming fire. had
no terrOrs for him. Protected by that broad shield
able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil he felt
them not, but eouehed himself the red hot ron and
the tapping fame, bed Of roses, short repose
which to watt him far away, for evermore, from
all pain and suffering to regions Of bliss eternal the
| Heavens.
1t was thus that the whole power of imperial Rome
| succumbed to the new belief The most cruel of her
tyrans the wisest of her Emperors in vain made
against it, He whom they marked out as a base GRIM
inal, conspiring against her sacred institutions in
the estimation of all who behed him to the dignity Of
witness for the truth Of the faith The blood Of
her martyrs became the seed of the Church
Now, this, the vast power of absorbing faith, is
4 -. D.l..c
mankind, and he that has a strong faith and the
means and the courage to make it manifest possesses
a true power But if he want the means, lack the
courage to them, his faith will be dead within his
own breast it will go forth living force
compelling the wills Of men. He need never hope to
enlarge the circuit of Chrstendom by his conquests
over the lands lying in darkness beyond her borlers
might cite examples through all history but content
myself with the contrast which two present.
Three centuries ago the heart Of a man. noble, Of
what then perhaps the nobest Kingdom in Chris
tendon. burnt within him with zeal for the spread
of his Redeemers Kingdom, swelled with the high
courage with which living faith inspired it, that il
sent him FORTH new Apostle, to gather in remotest
Heathendom to the fold Of the Catholic Church How
went he forth The King, having then the greatest
power in the remote Indies wished to speed him in
fitting pomp and honor. But he knew that the King
dom of which he had become the soldier not Of this
world, and could not be extended By conformity to
this worlds ways So he, man who had from infancy
been tenderly nurtuFed, and dantily served, went
forth alone. During all that long voyage the bare
deck his couch the scraps that fell from the sailors
table his food Yet he forth all alone. TRUTH
hope and charity the companions of his voyage
and that glad sterhood shed such ustre round him,
that demeanng himself the owliest Of the lowiy.
he esteemed the highest, for ne held the
undoubted servant Of the Most High The triumph of
his cause, begun shp board. extended itself on
shore That living faith that gowed in his own breast
burst forth all around swift the electric FASH pow
erful as the whelming food His converts were reek
oned not by pful tens and hundreds, but by thous-
ands, tens of thousands and hundreds Of thousands
Az he moved along Christianity took visible root in all
the regions around and the spires Of Christian churches
to greet his passage But not content with the
Indies the and popuOus Empire of China attracted