The Hawaiian gazette., 1873-12-10

our country is Christian country, in this
sense, that the vast majority of the PEG.
ple believe in Christ and the Gospel, and
that Christian influences are universal
and that our civilization and intellectual
culture are built on that foundation
1t was no accidental or natural drifting
together of elements that has constituted
and built up such nation Gods hand
has been in her moulding and in her his
tory. Can any one doubt that it was un.
der wise providence. and for a great
purpose. that He kept that new continent
until He could bring there whatever OF
greatness and goodness the mighty strug-
giles for truth and freedom in the old world
had resulted in, and until in fact the world
through its great reformstions and inven-
lions was ready for Just such q new, en-
larged and untrammeled Christian develop
menL Our country. it is true, as is some
times charged by the older nations, is raw
and without venerablenesS But she is
not without history. Her history, it is
true, does not go back into antiquity, and
it is not hoary with superstitions and per
secutions and wars of belief and of con-
quest, and all the better for that, but she
has history, and one that is maturing
and ripening every hour. She has cul-
ture and discipline, and spirit, and q
character, and a manhood and mission,
and all these in their general type are
Christian. They are baptized if not into
the name yet into the truth aud purposes
of God. Though without state religion,
and with perfect religious freedom for all,
vet in her very hearts blood. and life
force, in her bone and muscle, in all her
elements of strength and beauty, in her
spirit and faith, and culture and thought
aud civilization, she is Christian. She is
not Moh2medan, or heather, or infdel,
but Christian. She is enlightened with
the light Of Divine revelation. And for
an American to 60 forth upon the earth
dispsraging his country in this respect
and trying to subvert this her very best
and highest influence, is for him to show
himself to be renegade. For him TO 60
out among the heather, TO China, to Jap
an, to the islands of the sea, and Willy
this his country's best renown that goes
forth among nations, this her best SAVIOR
that would Christianize and elevate and
save them-for him to vituperate the mis-
sionary ard his work, shows him to be in
spirit bastard and not s true son. He
reviles his country, who reviles that which
is the perfection of her beauty. And l
may add that if Hawaii, to-day, has 8
place among the nations, if her laws are
equal, and her government tolerant, and
her homes secure, and her people at all
enlightened with Christian truth. it is be-
cause the Lord has put upon her some
thing Of that same eomeliness which He
has put upon other Christian lands. And
need say also that the more thoroughly,
truly and heartily Christian is this. or anv
other nation, the more perfect will be its
beauty, the more enlightened. and pro-
gressive and happy will be its people. 1t
is not infdel America, or infidel England,
or inidel Germany, but Christian America
and Christian England and Christian Ger
many that are the glory of the earth, and
are having 8 saving power in all the
world. 1t is not heather Hawaii but
Christian Hawaii that to-day has national
beauty. As Christian nation she has a
birth, and development, of which &C
cording to her measure, she need be
scarcely less proud than are the greater
Christian nations of theirs. And shall she
now be taught to go back upon and des- +.
pise her own birth and history as a Chris |
tian people Shall she be turned against
the very comeliness that God has put up
on her? l doubt not that those who have
planted here Christian institutions. and 1
helped to build up Christian civilization, |
will from the future of Hawaii, be look
ed back upon with much of that same /
Yeneration and pride with which America 1
regards her pilgrim fathers and the found !
ers of her institutions
1t is very proper also for US to-day, to
think of the physical beauty of our coun-
try as part of the comeliness which the 4
Lord has put upon her. Her land, her
sky, her seasons. her rivers, her mountains,
her prairies, her fields of grain, her hills
of gold, her beds of coal, her vast manu-
her commerce, the many and
varied fruits of her toll, her harvests so
bountiful that railways and ships are bur
dened and clogged with their transporta-
lion, her every where Astounding comforts
Of life, the full and felt sense of security
not only of safety from injustice, but of
,opious blessings almost guaranteed to
her every citizen, are all elements in this
beauty that God has given her. She is
,omely, adorned snd enriched, in the gifts
If Divine providence. Not only in the
production of raw material but in applied
lrts, in ship5uilding, in works in iron, and
wood and wool and cotton and fur, she is
blessed with great prosperity and is rapid
Y exeelling. We say this in full view of
he late financial panic, that has over
brown so many colossal fortunes, and is
low giving temporary embarrassment and 1
distress to so many of her industries. The [
owering. tottering schemes of human sell {
ishness have but fallen into her great ]
tream of prosperity and produced thus
destructive eddy. Abundance fills the
and.
But In our gratitude to-day let ms re-
member that we do not thank God that s
re are not as others are. We thank Him s
a no spirit of rivalry, but for his great {
1ercies to US
Israel had land where the vine grew, &
nd the cattle fed and the showers of rain I s
anne down, and the luxurient fields of 6
rain ripened 1t had picturesque scenery
diversified by mountain and valley, and |
-as favored with a bracing and salubrious I
lime. Gods comelineSs was upon it. But a
'alestine was not perhaps more beautiful t
nd favored than other countries. Egypt g