Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1884-08-23

be any fine and permanent up building
Morality and industry generally goI
together Especially in the weak trop
zeal races, idlencss, like ignorance,
breeds vice The best Of sermons and
schools amount to little when hearers
and pupils are thdhlcss, live from
hand to mouth, and arc packed at
night either in savage huts or in dirty
tenement houses Morality, though
founded in spiritual life, depends very
much upon outward and social condi
tons and, II man is to work out his
own salvation, he must learn how to
work. Granted that character in its
highest sense is the objective point
then mission work evidently
should be organized with reference to
supplying The conditions under which
morality and the creation Of character
arc feasible Practical men, il posi-
bic, should go with preachers to study
and In some measure 10 develop, local
resources OF labor, pf land, or Of pro
ductlon, thus creating industries, occu
patton, and the conditions Of Christian
living. The right men can do much
in this way with little capital other than
their own brains The man is half the
battle. Progress through sclfhclp'
is the motto Of our best missionaries
to-day but ability to carry out the
principle is rare. What is impossible
with one is possible TO another Seldom
will man of mere theoretical cduca-
ton appreciate the power Of seemingly
destitute savage people to help them
selves. They can do more than he
thinks. The reaction of selfhelp upon
character is the best result OF it. The
English missionaries in Madagascar
seem to have worked on the right prin.
ciple, leading those people primarily in
their industrial life Labor as moral
force, is not yet fully recognized in the
missionary field.
Where the work is parental, as
among the childish Polynesians, Afri-
cans, ard Indians, as distinct from
ccat,05eySiai among Mohammedans and
Chinese, the people accept mission
aries as superior beings and become
even more religious than those who
inherit Christian ideas, in so far as reli-
gion consists in the outward expression
Of rites and ceremonies. Their Ian
guagc is rich in words Of reverence
and alteration it makes prayer easy !;
and, on the spiritual side, their lives
flower out without effort and with
grace and beauty wholly their own.
Mentally, too, they are far from stag
nant. But Of true morality they have
little or none, because they do not
possess its conditions, which require
self-control rather Than pure devotional
life. In our own highest civilization
morality is common, but spiritually is
rare.
But the Hawaiian missionary was
sent to proclaim the gospel, to convert
the heather. Conversion is, indeed,
the starting-point of a better life it is
to character what the seed is to the
ripe fruit The choice of Gods
service is the initial step; the goal
is the rounded, perfect, Christian
life. To take the step requires
the decision, possibly, of a moment ::
to reach the goal is the struggle Of a
lifetime. Viewed thus, one under
stands that it is not the planting Of the
seed that costs, but the wise and vigi-
liant care Of the growing crop. Much
of the missionary work Of the world
has been a patient, unselfish sowing Of
seed, which, taking root at first, has in
its early frail growth been choked by
the vicious weeds about it.
The Hawaiians, who stand as type,
soon learned to read the Bible and to
pray to God yet in two entire genera
tons they have not escaped from the
surroundings and the habits that make
virtue impossible. That. in the second
stage of work on the islands, certain
mistakes were made, seems evident
For example, until the year 1855 the
native girls were comparatively neg
lected. The few neutrality-suspicious. es-
tablished for them amounted to little.
The sexes were not educated together,
on moral grounds.
On this point the testimony from
Northern teachers of the negro race
has direct bearing. Contrary to the
strongest convictions in the South,
Northern teachers have been able, in
the leading institutions for those who
lately were slaves Whose weakness is
on the moral side), to bring the sexes
together most successfully during the
past fifteen years. The plan is equally
good with Indians, and l believe for
all people in the early, il not in every
stage, of progress The way to
strengthen the weak is constantly to
test them under favorable conditions
TO change low ideas Of their mutual re-
lations into higher ones they must be
trained, not in the abstract, but in the
concrete. Separation will not teach
practical wisdom in future intercourse,
any more than by being kept out of the
water can boy be taught to swim. II
it be granted that the sexes Of a race
cannot on moral grounds, with good
management, be educated together,
then that race had better be given up:
it is doomed to immortality. When l
was in the Hawaiian Islands, in 1886, I
found no one who believed in such
co-education, though the other plan was
a failure on the side of mortality To
pay there is hardly ray of hope for
the Hawaiian women. In spite of
African degradation and the loose
morals of slave life, many Of the
colored girls of the Southern States,
trained by the side Of their black
brothers, have in and after school made
record of noble steadfastness, Sepa-
rate schooling would | believe have
lett them far weaker, and less able to
protect themselves, Stronger teachers
and more expensive buildings are re-