The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-06-27
ANNUAL SERMON ON HOME MISSIONS,
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IN The Fort Street Church, June IAN, 1874.
Printed By Request

Printed By Requestl
" Howbet his Kind gaeth not cat, 5u: by prayer and fasting
Mari. l. FL
The disciples had been doing blessed works in
the name OF Christ. But now, while there was 4
gloTifcation Of Jesus going on upon the mount.
here on the plain, they were trying IN vain 20 cast
an obstinate devil ont Of a mans son. Perhaps
they had become someBha self-eonfdent in view
Of the great things that they had done and were
expecting easy victories. But the Master was away,
and their faith failed them, and they found that
there were some things far less difficult than the
removing OF a mountain, which they could not do.
When Jesus came, q word Of His Tebuked the
foul spirit, and the child was restored to the Hatu-
raj use Of his faculties. The disciples asked IN
surprise. " why could not We do it, Our text is
the reply This kind goeth not out but by
prayer and fasting There are some devils that
are hard TO cast out, and there are certain states
and conditions OF faith, of pleading, and earnest
ness in Christians which are Necessary, in order to
their doing some works in the name Of Christ
By appointment of the Hawaiian Board. am to
speak tonight; on the subject Of Home Missions.
l feel il to be a subject OF present and pressing
Importance. Dropping our text at this point, and
seeking to carry with US, only the tone Of earnest
ness, and faith, and humble burdened prayer lm-
piled 10 IL, l address myself at once to the theme,
the Home Missionary work on these Islands, the
field, the needs, the hopes and hindrances.
Let US first get our position and see where We
are standing. Is it on Home or foreign Missionary
ground? II is but little more than fifty years ago
that Christians 6rst came from America to these
Islands to convert an utterly beathen people to
| OuIloAs nuu II " ENG~
nearly all that was expended in the work OF Chris
tianizing this people came from abroad. Aforeign
board directed the enterprise. Foreign means
supported the pastors and teachers, and even what
the churches that were organized contributed, ex-
cept perhaps in the building of meeting houses
was reported to, and dispensed under the direction
Of the Foreign Board.
But all this is now changed. Christians in other
lands are no longer giving their money for the
ChristianizatioD OF this people. They are no longer
prayiuR for their conversion from heathenism.
Tho American ROard IL iS trup "a in dutY
bound. is still caring for its old workers on this
soil. IL does not throw of upon the world, those
who have spent their strength and vigor in its
employ. 1t also now and then makes a contribn-
ton for special purposes to its Hawaiian Board
but it regards its wor,- here as finished. Its mis-
sion is concluded. OF coarse it has not completed
the work Of Christ. 1t has only ended its work as
a foreign missionary society. Christ's work Is
never done. In all Christian lands it is still press
ing. Sin still abounds. No one generation is
wholly Christianized, and each new generation
needs a new gospel work. So the work of Christ
here is very very far from being done, but the
nation is nominally Christian. 1t has Christian
churches and pastors. 1t has schools and theoret-
ically a Christian government and laws. As a
foreign Geld it has been abandoned and thrown
upon its own resources. We hardly need except
from this statement what may be given elsewhere
for sectarian propagandism among those already
Christianized.
So far then as our work here is concerned, we
are standing upon Home Missionary ground. 1t is
this or nothing for not only are our churches left
TO care for themselves, but upon them is thrown
the burden of evangelizing the masses of this
kingdom. But ii we look again. it would seem
almost as if this were hardly regarded as a mission
airy field in any respect Scarcely anything is
doing in a Home Missionary way. L cannot stop
to specify exceptions that might be made to this.
or course what each church does for itself, ir its
own maintenance, and ediication. is not, within
my meaning, Home Missionary work. What it
does for other and feebler churches, or to plant
new churches, or to give the gospel to outlying
districts, to Christianize the heather that are in the
country. or to bring under gospel influences, and
win to Christ the irreligious masses around it, or
TO do away with the evils that hinder the kingdom
of Christ generally, all this is Home Missionary
work. And there are Christians and Christian
institutions that help in these directions. But l
am speaking of efforts made by our churches as
such. The churches in the United States, for
instance, besides caring for their own support and
growth have their Boards through which they send
the gospel to foreign lands. And then there are
besides a multiplicity of organizations through
which they labor in almost every department of
Christian effort at home. The whole country is
regarded as a Home Missionary field. The monthly
between the Home MfEsiofnaFy Society and Foreign
Board. And even in Christian America the amount
given to the various Home Missionary operations,
is in excess of what IS contributed 10 SEND the
gospel abroad.
If now we look to our own home field in this
kingdom. what do we see? Leaving out the
special effort which was made year before last to
purchase a building for the Hawaiian Theological
Seminary which was exceptional, and in the inter-
ests Of the foreign work as much as OF the Home,
we End that almost nothing is contributed by the
churches directly for Home Missions. In fact 1t
may be said. that almost no Home Missionary work
has been done professedly as such by the churches,
such as we see in other Christian lands. If l mis-
take not the two annual collections such as are
taken to-day, the one in Kaumakapili this morning,
and the other in this house tonight are the only
ones in the kingdom that are made definitely for
Home Missions. The Hawaiian churches have not
vet taken this work to their hearts, nor given
directly to it. OF the amount contributed last
year for missionary purposes to the Hawaiian
Board, which is the agent of the churches in their
Home work as well as foreign. S3,1ll were desig-
mated for Foreign Missions, while only Sl95 were
specifically given for Home Missions. The year
before, out of SlO,S4s given. S5,792 were desig-
mated for Foreign Missions. and only S79 for Home
Missions. This last year the Board expended only
$500 in aid OF feeble Hawaiian churches, and the
year before it only expended $50. Besides this it
conducted no Home Missionary labors.
1t ought however in justice to be said that the
maintenance of q book depository, and the pub
fishing of a page in a weekly newspaper, may be
considered as having something of a Home Mis-
sionary bearing. l might refer also to what the
Mission Children's Society and the Ladies Benevo-
lent Society do in the way of aid to three or four
schools. and to some other things in the same line.
But you must remembe that l am limiting myself
to the direct interest of the churches in the Home
Missionary work. They have not taken hold of it.
Their mind and heart have not been stirred to it.
Interest has not been aroused, nor measures con-
certed in reference to it. The native pastors have
not burdened themselves with il. The churches
have not been made to feel a responsibility in
regard TO it. In fact their missionary training has
been almost entirely a Foreign Missionary train
ing. They have been melted and spurred to do for
the heather abroad, and have not been made to
feel that they should give and toll for the heather
and others at home. The appeals made to them
and the collections made by them are with the
thoughts on the foreign field. So that while they
give, according to their means, with great liber-
atty that is held up as a model for churches in
other lands, and is almost boosted of, they have
not yet learned even TO care properly for their
own pastors, or to pay to them the small sums that
they pledge themselves to pay. The consequence
is that some of these pastors are to-day actually
in want Of poi. or as we would say in more ele-
CANT phrase of the necessaries of life. Many of
them are receiving less, and faring more poorly,
and are having a harder struggle to live than are
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