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

The HawaiianS we know are not doing IL II Is
TO be doubted if IL Is in their nature to burden
themselves spiritually or otherwise with any great
perseverance, aud the Home Missionary problems
are simply too great for them in their present de-
gree Of advancement They know not how 10
organize or 10 plan or 60 grasp results They can
not reach the foreigners. and weld the people into
brotherhood and true nationality. They are not
making advance on the old ground. and thev know
not how to break new. And This | state not for
their disparaEement. bat only as looking the facts
or the case ia the face. I know that God can
throw down walls with the blasts Of rams. horns
be can use inadequate nstrumentahues but ! am
speaking now Of the fact that there IS here little of
that conqueTiRg faith and Of that real thorough
enkindled heart and head, and hand work for souls
and for Christ. which He points 10 in our text. and
in connection with which His promise gives as
surance.
But some OF you perhaps are asking what can
be done. Have you any suggesionsE This of
course is no place or time for maturing plans. but
q few things on general principles seem obvious.
In the first place. It is clear, that if the Home
Missionary work on these Islands is TO acquire
force and efficiency, an interest in. it must be
awakened. The churches must be aroused to it's
Importance. The need Of it must be realized, and
a responsibility for il felt. And to this end there
should be an indoetrination and a training in
reference to the Home work. The duty Of caring
for the kingdom Of Christ in the midst of them
should be impressed upon the churches. Their
efforts and benefactOns and prayers should be
directed toward it. They should be brought 10
feel that all this nation must be ChriSts. A Christ
like sympathy for souls as souls, for men as men,
not for 4 race as . race should be kindled. Can
any one doubt that a persistent looking toward
such an end with right instruction and loving
appeals would not be futile or fruitleSs. Certainly
O genuine Home Missionary spirit can be awakened.
not all at once, but in time and can any one
doubt that with such a Home Missionary spirit in
the churches, the prejudices of race would melt
away? Can any one doubt that with this, one of
the first and most important conditions in all
Home Missionary problems would be metz
And does it not seem evident In order to awaken
such interest there should be bPpun ut Ouca in all
the churches regular collections for the Home
Missionary work. When men are asked to give
they wantto know why they give. and then they take
an interest in what they give for. The home col
lection should not supercede the foreign in any
way, but it should take its place alongside of it, as
scarcely secondary in Importance. The Hawaiians
might be reluctant at first to give 10 q Home work,
that was to embrace all classes in the nation but,
so much more need is there of their doing it, and a
stand should be taken on that ground, if ii takes
all summer or years to secure it. And no one
who understands the silent workings of truth and
influence can doubt that in q few years the Hawai-
ians would be just as hearty in this work as in the
foreign. 1 would even have this enlarged Home
Missionary fund available for any and every de-
partment of the Home work. l would have it
available for work among the churches and others,
and even if necessary for aiding feeble English
congregations in some of the villages. for this also
must be a part of the Home work. The kingdom
of Christ in these Islands cannot afford to let the
many of foreign origin go without religious infu-
ences. They largely shape public sentiment. They
are influential. They need the gospel. and the
kingdom of Christ needs them and besides what
ever help might be extended to them would more
than be paid back into the Treasury of the Board
by them. But the great advantage would be, il
would unity the work, and l believe also the nation.
In some places such congregations drawing in also
English speaking Hawaiians could be maintained.
AT least the feeling ought to be engendered that
the Home work in all its departments is one, and
the one thought should be to win all to Christ. OF
course all this may seem impracticable to those
who are unwilling to do anything except to let
things remain as they are. To me it seems not
only entirely practical, but absolutely necessary
to the right building up of Christ's kingdom here.
Such a Home Missionary Fund also is becoming
more and more necessary to aid feeble native con-
gregations. AS / said. some OF the pastors are in
need. Most of them are shamefully i'll paid.
Some receive but a pittance from their people.
They should be, they must be, better paid or sad
results will rapidly follow. The stronger should
help the weaker. Every church that is able should
be brought up to the point of giving its pastor a
good support and also to the feeling that it must
help those who cannot support their pastor.
know that it is feared and said, that if we per-
nit the Hawaiian churches to feel that they can
have aid, they will relax effort for themselves and
fall back on the charities of others-that if we
once open the door for this thing most of the
II IS true that this would be the case if things
are to go on as at present, and without the Home
Missionary training for which l am pleading. But
impress them deeply with the need and greatness
of the Home work, call on them to give for it, and
they will soon learn TO care for their own church
and pastor better than they do. The only remedy
against the already, present, and increasing feeling
of helplessness and the disposition to lean on
others it seems to me is this quickened sense of
responsibility for the Home work. 1t is generally
found that the churches trained in q Home Mis-
sionary way, feel an obligation to care for them
selves as soon as possible. 1t is one of the prin-
ciples of Home Missionary Sosieties in the United
States, that churches receiving aid shall regularly
contribute to the funds from which they receive it.
They thus come to realize the necessity Of caring
for themselves, and at the same time to be helpers
Of others.
Again it seems to be evident that our Home
work will be demanding more and more higher
qualifications in the Ministry. More and more
there will be needed here a ministry who can have
influence with all classes-who cannot only take |
their places with the very best educated HaWaiians
in the land, but who also can reach and lead |
others-who can be efficient ministers to the mixed
races, who can care for the educational interests of
the people. and be a power against the old heather
tendencies, aud who can intelligently take hold of
the moral and social problems and evils that are
puzzling and cursing this kingdom. A nation
without a ministry that can grasp and struggle
with, and finally get power over its social evils, its
RIGHTEOUSNESS, its low state of ordinary virtue, its
debasing supeTstitions and its ruinous designations
nation without a ministry that can lift up the
people to a higher social level, and to something
of a refining and purifying society, is simply in a
We may school the daughters of Hawaii in our
Seminaries, we may educate and refine them, and
make them Christian ladies, and yet of what avail
is it, if after they leave the Seminary there is no
good or suitable society for them to go back into,
aud if they are again dragged down, as most of
them are, into that from which they were taken ia
carly childhood. We should not educate them
less, hut our churches should be made the nucleus
Of a better society for them. There should be a
more thorough culture in the arts and ways and
morals of civilized Christian society and to this
a superior ministry, a ministry educated in
English is becoming necessary. In the increasingly
mixed population of these Islands and the rapidly
changing state of things it, to me, is evident that
an exclusively Hawaiian speaking ministry with
the few books and resources at their command, will
be altogether inadequate to the demands of the
work. 1t seems to me desirable even that some
force. a few more young men educated in the
Colleges and Theological Summaries Of America
if they are the sons Of our old missionaries,
all the better-should be brought into this work.
chot1l1 Fhrnur themselves into ~ os 4hafr life