The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-11-21

honor me, l wiz honor"
There is a tendency in the current popular and
scientific thought Of the passing age to ignore a
divine agency IN human affairs. The proclama-
ton, at the call OF which we are this morning
convened, Breathes no such sentiment. am con-
6dent there were many of the Kings loyal sub
jects and foreigners residing IN his dominions
who read with emotions of delight the ~proclama-
ton, setting apart this day " as a day of Public
Thanksgiving TO Almighty God for the blessings
vouchsaied to this Nation during the past year,
and Of prayer that he may be pleased to prosper
and guard His Majesty during his absence from
his Kingdom" The wording Of this p%roelama-
ton expresses In the most full and satisfactory
manner, that God is a Sovereign Ruler over the
universe, and also n prayer-hearing being who
may be addressed by the children Of men. The
most prayful and devout believer in the religion
of the Bible, could not ask for a more full and
explicit recognition Of Divine Providence in ma
tional affairs.
Because this Proclamation so harmonizes with
Bible-truth, as expressed in Old Testament
phraseology, 1 have been led to select my text
from that portion of the Sacred Scriptures.
" For them that honor me, I will honor"
My object will now be to prove and illustrate
the following sentiment, based upon the text:
NATIONS HoNoRING GOD, HE WILL HONOR.
Thirty years ago, l preached a sermon on a day
set apart by Kamehameha ILL.,, and on an occa-
sion, not unlike the present. My text was then
selected from that most sublime specimen of He
DICn pOCLiJy IN AOOhR VI NIOScc, Us TtCOEucQ III
the 32d of Deuteronomy, opening with the
words, Give ear, . ye heavens, and L will speak;
and hear, o Earth, the words of my mouth"
In that song, Moses refers for illustration to the
"days OF old, " and when speaking Of Gods deal
ings with the Jewish people, useth this language,
"He found him, in a desert land, and in a waste
bowling wilderness; he led him about, he in
structed him, he kept him, as the apple of his
eye" endeavored to- illustrate the manner of
Gods dealings with the Hawaiian people,-how
I'd C1V-I -
friendiess people; then how he had led, instructed
and protected them. / furthermore remarked,
that while God had thus watched over the Ha-
waiians, as a nation, he had not failed to punish
evil-doers, adding, "the Sandwich Islands is no
field for wicked men and the Opposers of truth and
righteousness, to think of practicing their schemes
before High Heaven unless they were willing to
incur the awful risk of being pursued, even in
this world, by the retributiye justice of God"
Observation since made does not lead me to
change my opinion, but rather confirms me in the
position than taken. A whole generation has
since passed away, including four of the Hawaiian
Sovereigns, and many of the High Chiefs; yet the
nation lives, and we all know how signally God
has, again and again, interposed for the nations
protection and perpetuity. .aa
HAWAIIAN NATION HoNoRING GOD.
L will now advert to various instances, wherein
the Hawaiian people have honored God, and also,
wherein He has most signally honored them. I
do not forget, overlook or ignore the fact that in
diyiduals in this nation may have ~fearfully dis
hOnored God, but | now speak of the Hawaiians
as q nation. Whoever has followed the history
of a nation" remarks Taine, the French histori-
cal critic, "cannot help recognizing in the life of
a nation a continuity as strict as in the life of an
individual" Nations commence their existence,
live and die. here on earth. Nations are not i'm
mortal, but there is an important sense, wherein
q nation has a moral and religious character, or
the reverse. God may,-nay, does reward and
punish nations as he will individuals; but the
sphere of a nations reward or punishment is con-
fined to this world, and does not extend to another,
as in the case of individuals. The same great
laws of growth and decay, influenced by moral
and religious considerations are as apparent in the
history of the Hawaiian race and nation, as are
to he witnessed in the great nations of antiquity,
as portrayed upon the page of history or as they
are to be seen passing before our eyes in the
present state of the nations of the world.
Hawaiian authentic history extends not beyond
the period of one century, but this very limited
period renders the subject intensely interesting,
because causes and their results are seen to ma
ture so rapidly. In great and populous nations, it
requires a grand sweep of centuries and historic
cycles to witness results produced by remote
causes lying hid in the dim twilight of legendary
antiquity, but upon Hawaiian shores an ancient
system of idolatry is abolished as if by the wand
of the enchanter, and old feudal institutions
crumble away and vanish like the dissolying
views of a kaleidoscope or magic performance.
would now remark that the Hawaiian nation
honored God by its ready and cordial acceptance
Of Christianity, as the religious faith and belief
of the nation. The idolatrous system Of this peo-
pie was abolished in the months of October and
November, 1919, coeyal with the departure of
the American missionaries from Boston. On
their arrival, the way was fully open for the
preaching OF a new faith, and that the gospel of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Observes a
late writer, in a London Magazine, who is re-
viewing the history of the Hawaiian Islands, sub
sequent to the abolition Of idolatry and the arri-
val of missionaries, " 1t is curious to read in the
annals of 4 not inconsiderable monarchy, that the
King and his younger brother referring to Ka-
mehameha III. and Ill. with twelve chief men
and as many chief women, were now learning to
read and write. Marriages begun to be cele-
brated in connection with the public worship of
the mission. The King requires rest on the sab
bath, with a penalty for disobodience and the
crier goes round on Saturday evening to proclaim
the new law Rome was not built in a day,
neither did the Hawaiiansadop Christianity with
out much labor on the part of their teachers.
just twenty-one years, however, to a month from
the abolition of idolatry, or on the Sth of October,
A. d. 1910, the Hawaiian King and chiefs form
ally adopted the Christian religion, and based
the Consultation of the Hawaiian Kingdom upon
the religion of the Bible, using the following
language:
"God must be our aid, for it is his province
alone 10 give perfect protection and prosperity.
Wherefore We first present our supplieation to
him that he will guide us to right measures and
sustain ne in our work. 1t is therefore our fixed
decree, that no law shall be enacted which is at
variance with the word of the Lord Jehovah, or
at variance with the general spirit of his word.
All laws of the Islands shall be in consistency
with the general spirit Of Gods law"
For more than thirty years since that emphatic
and distinct recognition of the Bible and the God
of the Bible in the affairs of the Hawaiian nation,
the general tone Of all legislation has been in
harmony with the noble and Christian stand
then taken. Individual kings, individual chiefs
and multitndes OF the people may have f~earfully
dishonored God, but as a nation, when acting in
its collective capacity, the Hawaiians have been a
Christian people.
| am fully aware that some are inclined to take
dark and diseOuraging views of the Hawaiian ma