The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1870-06-01

Of what Christianity was intended to do, and
what happily, it has, in a measure, done, for sll
classes and conditions of f1en. They are, to a
good degree, successful and prosperous churches.
They have an acknowledged position and in
fluense Their loss from these Islands would be
disastrous TO their best interests. do no: know
where churches of the kind are more needed, or
where labor in connection with them is more re-
wardiug They have as active and efficient a
membership as will be found in connection with
the better class of churches in the father lands.
All the various agencies Of these churches
prayer meetings, Sunday schools, benevolent So
cieties, and choirs, are ably and vigorously sus-
tanned. The labors of Christian ministers among
them are fully appreciated, and well and punctu-
ally paid. So much can be said without fattery
or exaggeration. The foreign churches of these
Islands will not suffer. believe, by comparing
them with churches of like faith and ability any
where.
But the peculiar circumstances of these
churches expose them, no doubt, to peculiar
dangers, and impose upon them special duties.
Bear with me while | mention some of these
and while include in my remarks, to some ex-
tent, all the foreign churches of these Islands,
have particularly in view the Fort Street Church,
to which it has been my pleasant privilege to
minister.
We are at liberty to suspect--at least enough
to guard against it in the years to come-a
gradual letting down, from merely natural causes,
Of the moral standard of these churches 1t has
undoubtedly been much to their advantage, hith-
erto, that they have been so largely made up of
persons who had Christian faith and moral hero
ism enough to come here, years ago, as moral
teachers This has no doubt, largely contributed
TO give a character for stability, purity and ac-
tivity to these churches. But it is evident that
this special influence is not as strong as it once
was, and it will probably grow still weaker. What
is native and indigenous, or at least what is nat
ural under these circumstances, has an evident
tendency TO supplant the earlier foreign importa-
ton. And men no longer come here as mission
aries, but only for purposes Of business for recre-
alton or pleasure. They come IRON various
quarters of the earth, with diverse creeds and if
old fashioned Orthodoxy does not become many
colored, it will, it is likely, be sadly patched and
fringed out on its bOrLers. The relaxing climate,
too, will in the long run make itself felt. This
tropical softness feeds the animal more than the
spiritual. Moreover, the shadows of a scarcely
extinct heathenism, if not as deadly as that of
the tabled upas tree, are at least depressing.
Such surroundings, it is evident, not favorable
to moral Drawn, stalwart saints, of the Crom-
wellian and Puritan stamp.
Life is too much life in common here, for the
highest development of the individual conscience.
Absolute privacy is almost impossible. The We
randa is the proper type of our social life. We
live with our doors and windows open to any one
who will enter. There is reason to fear there
are too few places with doors that shut close
where one can be alone with himself and with
God.
Then, we are a people of excitements, and
doubtless. not little of our moral ENERGY effer
vesces in that direction. We fill up with hot
matter, and blow off, much in the same way as
our own Kilauea. A startling piece of news,
like an electric shock, goes through the COM
munity. l speak Of this, and of other things,
less for purposes of criticism than as showing
some of the causes that might be supposed to
hinder religious steadfastness and growth that
and the dimiHuendo. So, too, we have great
many visitors to these Islands. | have heard
this mentioned as one of the special advantages
they enjoy in their comparative isolation. Doubt
less there are many advantages in such state Of
things, but we are now considering the moral
and religious effects of this periodical incoming
and exodus Of multitude of strangers. 1t is in
with my observation that, in our older
countries, the places of transit are the most of
all given to wickedness, explain it as you will
The nomadic and the settled life do not seem to
lake kindly to each other Abraham's religion
bore transportation admirably, but the religion
Of our day seems to suffer from it. And we do
not expect The strangers-I hope the respected
strangers present will pardon me for saying it
We have come not to expect that strangers will
risit these Islands to introduce religion, or in
degree to exhibit it. We take it for
granted that they come rather to look about
hem, to visit our noted places. to admire our
delightful scenery, to make scientific explorations,
% lounge, to recover their health; or if they
,ome for purposes of business, as whalemen or
merchant vessels and steamers, to combine as
much as possible the dulce with the mile; or if
hey come on the occasional slips of war, to be
oily rather than to be good We naturally fall
n with these pre-suppositions. Entertainments,
are the order of the day So
iety is feverish for the time being and 1t is dull
nd PROSTATE when it is over. We depend, at
asst, upon this periodic stimulus, and when it is
7anting, we feel as we might suppose the topper
o feel, without his dram. / speak, of course,
# the average life to a greater or less ex-
ent, including the life that lies at the basis of
ur religious activities. 1t is plain, that in the
Meantime, institutions which, like our churches
epend for their efficiency upon steady work, es-
ecialy, upon the nourishment and growth of the
inward life, are in danger of suffering lncalculabe
amage. Please to notice that | am pointing |
ut dangers to which we are liable | would by 1
o means be understood to imply that there has
cen no mitigation of these agencies. or that our
hurches have already suffered to the extent indi-
ated am taking no lugubrious retrospect to-