The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-11-19
Miscellaneous Items.

AN English scientist considers worry and over
work to be the most important causes OF debility.
The men, he says, who first entlced women and
children into an industrial career, and they who
have in later times devised the scheme OF COM
petitive examination, have done more to enleeble
the British than can be cOunterbalanced by the
most perfect systems of drainage and ventilation,
with the highest personal cleanliness superadded.
THE New York Sun says 1t may seem very
fine to Captain Hooper to change the name of
Wrangel Land to a. New Columbia, but there
is no sense IN his proposition: Wrangel Land is
much the better name Of the two. Perhaps he
would attach less Importance to it's remaining
Wrangel Land if he had been successful in find
ing even the remOtest vestige of the Jeannette vOy-
age, which was what he went for.
COMMENTING on the depopulation of Acheen,
which was referred to the other day, the Straits
Times says :-'' We commend this sad picture
1.-THE annihilation of over 200 900 people) to the
Aborigines Protection Society and the humani-
tarlans of England generally. with the question
whether England, and especially England's
present Prime Minister Is free from : blood
outlines in the matter. The war was due, as
we have said, entirely to England's abandonment
of an old and faithful ally. 1t was one of pure
wantOn aggression on the part of the Dutch, and
could only be paralleled by Germany g warning
upon Holland because she wanted q sea-board.
Our Dutch friends were virtually indignant at
Englands attempt to suppress the Iransvaal re-
bellion. The Achinese are human beings as we'll
as the Beers. They declared from the first they
would never submit to Dutch rule, and they have
kept their word. The war is not yet over, and,
apparently, the end will be the utter eXtermIna-
ton of q brave, primitive, and interesting race,
guilty of nothing but an unconquerable desire
for independence, while England looks calmly
on" GThe determination of the Achinese will,
no doubt, be regarded as the mSst atroclOus
political crime of the nineteenth century.-ED.
p. Q. Al
PRAYER.-NOw that we are in a prayerful habit,
it is interesting to recall what an old writer said
of prayer two centuries and a half ago " L ind
some prayers so piercing and powerful that they
are able to invade heaven and take 1t by violence
If the heart doth its Office as we'll as the tongue.
But whereas they consist only of requests, being
all supplIcatOry prayers, we would do well to IN
tersperse among them some eucharistlcal eJacu-
latiOns and dOxO!Ogies, some OblatIons OF thank
lulness we should not be always whining in a
pulling petitionary way (Which is the tone OF the
time now in fashion, before the gates of heaven
with our fingers in our eyes, but we should lay
our hands upon our hearts and break into rap
lures of joy and praise. \ soul thus elevated ls
the most pleasing sacrifice that can be offered to
God Almighty it is the best sort of incense.
PRAYER causeth the first shower of rain, but
praise brings DOWN the second the one iruotIi
feth the earth, and the other makes the hills to
skip. All prayers aim at our own ends and IN
terests, but praise proceeds from the pure
motions of love and gratitude, having no other
object but the glory of God. That soul which
rightly dischargeth this part OF devotion may be
said to do the duty Of an angel upon earth.
Among other attributes Of God, prescience or
foreknOwledge is one: for He who knows our
thoughts, our desires, our wants long before we
PROFOUND them. And this is not only one OF
Ills attributes, but prerogatiye royal: therefore,
to use so many iterations, inculcatings and tau
~tologies, as 1t is no good manners in moral phIlo-
sophy, no more is it in divinity it argues a
instantaneous and mistrustful soul. OF the two
/ had rather be overlOng in praise than prayer,
vet | would be careful it should be free from any
Pharisaical babbling. Prayer compared with
praise is but n fuliginous smoke issuing from the
sense Of sin ard human infirmities praises are
the true, clear, sparkles Of piety, and sooner
fly upward.