The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-06-27

Nt&A "a + 80 e TA-+ Id EAEAr am ~ - 2 AAE
yet entered B,D the Home work. The transition
Is not easy, ard The field is suffering in II. The
heart Of the c7eEches is not strung to the work.
The laborers haze not grasped the sickle. and
though the field JThitens, the harvest is not gath
cred. Il may be tbroHgh many bitter experiences.
but we shall surely pass this transition period. and
q new and betterday OF Christian prosperity will
come to its nool ON these Islands. But in the
mean time-our iced. How plain it is that more
of a Home MissioI larry work Of some kind must be
done here HOwS plain that We must adjust our
hearts. our plans, our efforts, and benevolences 10
it, The low stat, OF religion in the churches, the
falling of in attendance in greater ratio than the
population decreASes, the fact that the rising gen
Grafton OF AVA ms and halfcastes seem to be
swerving of fromiChristian influences, the decrease
OF Christian love for others than their own race.
the large number of destitute churches. the poor
support OF the ministry, the fact that a proper
share Of the better talent Of the nation is not COM
ing into the ministry. and that not enough Of any
kind are coming into it 10 make good the loss by
death and lapses on the Home field the 1000
Chinese whO BIZ intermarrying are to be a part Of
the very life blood of this people. and vet for
whose Christianization the churches are doing
nothing nay. We might say are even refusing to
do anything the stil Astounding impurities and
vices of the race that keep eating out the vital
part OF Christian character as well as fastening
the destruction OF the people the increasing use
OF opium and strong drink which is on the rise
like q Hood TO sweep away the nation all these
show the urgent necessity for vigorous systematic
earnest Home Missionary culture and effort.
1t has been heretofore supposed that by quick
ening and intensifying the interest in Foreign
Missions, there would be from it a reactlng infu-
ence upon our churches quickening them to home
faithfulness and efforts. This to an extent is cor
rect The churches for their own good need the
enlarging spirit that the foreign work gives. But
that reaction will not do the work at Home. A
thorough Home work is yet more needful to the
foreign than the foreign TO the Home. If religion
runs to q low ebb, if it is without its power. and
not doing its leavening work at home. it can but
nnOrlU recommend ItSalf eG ~ noau ahrnal onl
weakness will soon show itself in its foreign work.
Contributions will fall of, the missionary spirit
will die out, and missionaries to go abroad will
not be raised up.
The problems of the Home work here NAV he
difficult, but they cannot well be neglected for
some respects. The Home Missionary work is
always not so simple and easy as the foreign. 1t
is more complicated. 1t has a greater variety of
bearings. 1t Is more perplexing. 1t requires
more wisdom and care to know just what it is best
to do. 1t has the task of reaching those whom the
foreign work has not reached. 1t has to encounter
special infdelities a7d prejudices which Christian
ity has awakened against itself. 1t has to deal
with natures which have in q measure become
gospel hardened. 1t has to apply itself to all the
knotty problems of reform and evangelization
which the foreign work has left undone. The
foreign work On the contrary, though hard and full
of priVations TO the missionary who goes abroad,
is yet a simple one 10 the churches at home. The
object is definite. The method is plain. The sys-
tenn is easily organized. The churches give, and
missionaries go forth with the sympathfes and
of the Christian world. They go to new
ground, generally to a people, some of whome are
for light, and who have heard of the
civilization. They carry a new gospel,
that shines in contrast with the old darkness.
They gather converts of the more religiously in
clined. They get a recognized place for Christ.
They organize churches. And then when these
can support themselves, and the land is
nominally Christian, the foreign work is supposed
to be accomplished. All this, though recurring
great self-denial, and love for Jesus is yet definite
and simple in its plan. But now when the work
becomes a home one, new trials and cares arise,
and the burdens and difficulties press more imme-
diately on the churches. The failures are seen
more clearly and felt more deeply, and some times
it almost seems as if there were more to be done,
more dlfhcultles to meet, more sins to answer for,
more immoralities and oppositions to be met, than
before the name of Christ was known. Some do
not understand this, and they get impatient be-
cause the work is not Enished up as it goes, as q
mower leaves a finished swaths behind him. But
Christ's work is not so done. 1t is a work of
patience and development. 1t is ever opening out
with new and deeper needs and requirements.
New and keener foes arise. Stronger unbeliefs
start forth. Deeper and more persistent deDEavi--
appear and while we are lis IL tne grandeur
Christ is unknown. and where men are cropping in
thick darkness, while we are lifted up with the
thought of the glorious and Astounding harVests
that will in future be gathered from the sowing Of
few seeds in new lands, while our hearts thrill
with the hope of the great trees that will grow on
heather ground from the tiny mustard grain of our
planting, we are experiencing at nome all the
CRIME and smoke and WEAKNESS of a hand to hand
hard work that seems in the immediate prospect to
be well nigh hopeless. Christ is TRANSPORTED on
the mount of Foreign Missions, while the disciples
are feeling helpless over the home devils.
There are some special difficulties in the Home
work on these Islands at the present time. The
itself is changing. 1t is dying, and yet it is
10 live, or at least there is to be a population. The
ioreign missionary work has been done upon the
Hawaiian race, and in fixed lines of effort. That
81 -
ioreign elements, and will more and more until
what is left of it will differ from its old Hawaiian
as much as the English differ from the original
Britons. The foreign element is increasing and
he native diminishing, and ~mingling with the
oreign. Heathenism, and the religion of civilized
ands are largely entering into the new make up of
his people. The language is becoming English,
md the more active yet silent moulding influences
hat are changing the race, are little affected and
empered by what has been done in a missionary
way for the Hawaiians. In other words the need
# a new Outstanding work is all the while open
ng up which the Hawaiian pastors. with their
present qualifications, can scarcely touch. 1t is to
,e feared rather that these pastors and churches as
he weaker force are in a measure succumbing to
he strange uncAristian and demOralizing influences
hat come both from within and from without the
race. The missionaries have done their
york well and grandly, q great work, and fruitful,
,ut their work in the past will not suffice for the
hanging condition of things to-day. 1t is almost :
question now of g. new laying Of foundations,
.lu CeIldlLil1 OA q ISW DuiiulilE up III tue one
But where are the builders? Who
re taking hold of the work religiously and ade-
Iuately? God is ready to bless new effort now as
lie did old effort in the past. His spirit awaits the
for its coming. We but need to take
he great burden of this new work on our hearts
nat God may help us in it. This kind will go
by prayer and fasting no less readily than
lid that kind which the Missionaries a few years
.go met here and bent their hearts and strength to.
And This leads me to say still further, that there
5 not now in this transition state that bowling to
he Home work, that shouldering of its burden,
md that conservation and overcoming faith, in
with it. which the exigencies of the case
demand. am one of those who fully believe that
pechl emergencies require men who are girded
o meet them, and also that God is ever saying to
lis people, BE it unto you according to your
attn | believe that with faith as a grain of
mustard seed mountains of moral and social evil
nay te removed, and that with prayer, and what
: implied in the word fasting all devils may be
oft. Almost every good and rightful work.
n urhSh nnrnn-t rn,-n hnlinrSnn nnn-nnrnAnl /