The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-04-28
THE PACIFIC
Commercials 0bertiser
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tiHiej the matter was deemed OF the most urgent
nature, and perhaps we are not wrong In saying
that to the fact Of bis name having been traced
at the bottom Of that memorial, the actual
Premier is largely indebted for his present grasp
Of power. Under these circumstances the other
signers Of the memorial, and the public generally,
including in the very first place the planters and
employers of labor, most naturally begin to ask
very urgently, what have the Premier and bis
fellow Ministers been doing all this time in the
all important matter of male and female immi-
grafton? 1t is not for US to answer this question:;
the answer lies with the Ministry. We only re-
echo the murmur that is heard in every quarter
of the islands at the hardness or regeneration
of the Premier and Ministers in this momentous
business of the speedy introduction of a working
class of male and female immigrants into these
islands,-upon which their present and future
prosperity and progress go imminently depend.
NO REASONABLE mind can doubt of the evident
work of God in the conversion Of the native
Hawaiian race of these Islands to the Christian
religion. A simple knowledge of the facts that
Immediately preceded, accompanied and fol-
lowed upon the introduction Of Christianity
amongst the then heather Hawaiians, is of itself
sufficient to convince any believing Christian that
the finger of Providence traced out the pro-
gramme Of the Discrimination Of benighted
Hawaii nei. Since the memorable 31st Of
March, 1920, when the proto-apostles, sent
out by the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions, first saw the shores of Ha-
wall, down to the present day, over a period of
half a century, the work of God has steadily
progressed amongst the once savage race of these
islands, so that it is a matter of establishment,
not to say reVerential awe, for the Christian of
lively faith who visits this country, to witness
the actual condition of the Church of the lord
which has been erected upon the ruins of idolatry
in the once heather home of the regenerated
Hawaiian people.
But, while the triumph of Christianity has
been here so complete, the difficulties that beset
the path of the Christian everywhere, since Paul
evangelized-cannot be expected to be wholly
absent from the neophyte Hawaiian Church.
The very condition of neophyte, so admirable on
the one hand as a visible proof of the unceasirg
revelation of the true God to the heather, ex-
posed the newborn Hawaiian Christian
Church to dangers arising from its youthfulness
and consequent inexperience, so to speak, from
which even older Churches heretofore have
hardly escaped. Hence the decision adopted by
the American Board of Commissioners of
Foreign Missions, a few years ago, on occasion of
the so years jubilee of lS7O,-to leave the Ha-
waiian Protestant Church to it's own guidance
and management-has before now appeared to
some Christians of matured judgment, to be
premature and beset with perils for the Ha-
waiian neophytes themselves.
These remarks may at first sight seem
strangely out of place, and it may be asked what
has the public journalist to do with the question
of the internal organization of the Hawaiian
Christian Church? To this we answer that we
know of no greater evil than the meddling of
priestcraft in politics, and making the political.
events of the time a subject of sermons from
the pulpit of the church of God. In the
Roman Catholic world at the present day, es-
pecialIy in Ireland, for instance, the priest makes
himself a political frebrand, and breaches in
eendiary sermons from his pulpit.
We should be sorry to see the introduction of
any such unchristian system into the pulpit of
the Protestant Hawaiian Church. Hence it is
that we regret indeed to be called upon to
notice an incident which took place in one of the
native churches of this city on Sunday, April
Is, and to avoid ambiguity, we may state at once
that we allude to the native church of Kaumaka-
pill. A person, who was present on the occasion
to which we allude, has informed us that the
pastor introduced into his sermon illusions to
the political affairs of the country which were
highly iniudicious, and most decidedly out Of
place. After remarking upon the lamented
death of the late Prince and Heir APPARENT
which OF course was no harm and very natural
the pastor went on to bewail the decay of the
Hawaiian race, and gradual extinction of the
families of the high Chiefs. He then alluded to
the succession of the throne, observing that the
reigning King is childless that his eldest sister,
also childless, is proclaimed his successor that
should she succeed him, there is danger OF the
country being governed by an American, her
husband and, if her sister should ultimately
ascend the Hawaiian throne, q like danger would
exist of this country being ruled by an English
man, besides that their child is a half-breed, and
not of pure Hawaiian race, and consequently a
foreign royal family would ultimately be estab-
lished to rule over the hawaiian people. This,
according to our informant, was the substance of
the native pastors remarks to his flock on the
Sunday in question. The mischief of such Ian
guage is selE-eyident. We might remind the
native pastor, whom we by no means desire to
injure, that Queen Victoria married a German
Prince a good many years ago, and, so far, there
is no appearance of the British nation becoming
=. Germanized' in consequence !! We would also
venture to suggest to all native pastors of the
Hawaiian Protestant Church, that it has always
been our opinion that a preacher of the Gospel
all over the world who so far forgets his calling
as to discuss q politics " from his pulpit to his
flock, deserves to be driven out of his pulpit by
the strong arm of the law of the land, and
Furthermore submitted to ecclesiastical censures