The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-04-22

These two testimonies would hardly be received
a. - r~cbutting evidence in Court | know that
there is abundant evidence to sustain DR.. Ander-
sons statement that = they thought 1t \ right.
perhaps 4 duty, 10 baptize infants who had not
been baptized, wherever they could do IT, with
out regard 70 the Protestant Churches T. which
the parents belonged, or to the relations sustained
By the parents 70 the Missionary pastors. In
some cases, 4 similar policy seems To have been
pursued in procuring pupils tor their schools.
But, not % dwell on these petty matters, Will
the Bishop pretend 10 say that II was the pur-
pose of his Mission TO conine itself to the ten
thousand or 50 natives supposed TO be uncon-
nected with any existing religious denomination?
Was 1t not rather to establish q branch of the
English Church rs the predominant, if not the
National, Church Of this Kingdom, on the ruins
Of the preexisting Protestant Churches, and
then, from these Islands as a centre Of operations,
TO disturb and override in like manner the nu-
merous Missionary Churches planted IL the Mar
quesas Islands and Micronesia? Such, certainly,
is the impression conveyed by the letters of the
Bishop which have been published in England.
There is q certain sang troad in the remark,
We owe them many thanks for having pre-
prepared the way for US by teaching the ele-
mentary truths Of Christianity. Those who are
engaged in this movement have certainly shown
no unwillingness - to enter into other mems Ia
bors, nor can they say, like Paul, that they
have strrven = to preach the gospel not where
Christ was named, lest they should build on
another man iOundation.'
The charge that he ignores what has been done
by the American Missionaries, notwithstanding
the Bishops denial Of it, is fully sustained by the
language of this very pamphlet, especially by the
caricature Of them and their work which he has
drawn in the appendix. 1t seems to be his object
there 70 give the impression that Hawaiian plety
Is all a sham, and that the natives are little If
any higher in the scale of moral purity than their
pagan torefathers. Yet he insists upon it that
he Is an ally. The American Missionary may
well say, Save me from such allies -
| pass over for the present their endeavors TO
take possession of schools and of church proper
ty which had been the result of years of faithful
labor on the part of the American missionaries.
If, as DR.. Anderson says, they have met their
American brethren at all, it has not been as
Christian ministers, and this is understood by
the natives. Their (the Protestant) churches are
no churches, and their people are given over
like heather to the uncovenanted mercies Of
God. The following lines are taken from a
poem, believed TO have been written by a mem
Der of the English mission, soon after their
arrival, and which for intolerance Is worthy OF
Bishop Bonner himself.
We. the Catholic Christian is sure Of his road,
And if you're a Dissenter, he will pray, SIR, for YOU
For he knows that the meIeies of Jesus are great
And in answer to prayer, He will open the gate"
The Bishop seems actually to believe that
American %clergymen had entered into a conspi-
racy for the purpose of involving them in a
dilemma and of forcing them into an attitude OF
hostility. Nothing could be farther from the fact,
The two clergymen who invited the Rev. O..
Mason TO attend n monthly concert for prayer,
did 50 on their own responsibility, without con-
sulting any Of their brethren. They did it with
no Interior views, but simply as Christian gen
tlemen. When such men as Rev. Mr.. Damon,
who has lived among US for more than 20 years,
or Mr.. Corwin, are guilty of laying traps, l
think it will be for larger game. The Bishop
says that - the pulpits Of the Congregational
meeting houses rang with denunciations. Who
is his authority for this assertion? 1t is true,
l think, that on their first arrival the English
missionaries were alluded to from one of these
pulpits in the kindest manner AS allies engaged
in the SAINT great work. Since then there has
never been the slightest allusion made to them
in either Of the Congregational pulpits. On
the other hand there probably was more dis
tinctiyoly sectarian preaching in that temporary
cathedral during the first two months after their
arrival, than had been heard in all the Congre-
gatioual churches Of Honolulu for two years
! before.
The fact is that the Protestant community on
these islands had been uncommOnly free from
s~ectarian feuds. Presbyterians. Baptists, Epis-
copalians, Methodists and Quakers, worshipped
together in the same churches, and those national
prejudices and petty cliques which had been
the bane Of society here, seemed to be gradually
diving out. Need [ say how all this has lately
been changed, how the smouldering embers OIL
old feuds have been rekindled, how national
antipathies have been intensified, and the com
munity more hopelessly divided than ever.
Those who are acquainted with the circum-
stances, will smile at his attempt to make a
conspiracy out of the eccentric impulse of al
individual clergyman, who introduced himself
as the Bishop Of -, as he was indeed et de
facto ct de jure. The clergyman referred to
asked no ones advice on the subject, and would
be far from asking any one to share the resron-
sibility with him. Indeed he merely asserted a
principle which was conceded by the early Eng
lish Reformers, as Wicklife. and Cranmer, and
which was affirmed IN the two declarations OF
Christian doctrine Issued by the English Church
near the end of Henry the Eighth's reign,
Nor was the use of the title here an innovation
The title of bishop is constantly used in the
constitution and discipline of the Presbyterian
Church INTERCHANGEABLE with pastor, and il
often so used in church records, marriage certi
t%cates, &c. 1t was so used by clergymen in Homo
lulu before the English mission to these island.
had been ever talked of. That the Pacific Com
nsercial Advertiser is III any sense the organ o
the American Missionaries will be news to them
as well as to the conductors Of that paper. The
object Of the statement will be perfectly under
stood here.