The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-08-28

Text: Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee; the remainder Of wrath
shalt thou restrain.-Psalm 76: 10.
I'VE regret, from want of space, to
have to omit the preliminary third part
of the discourse. We begin at the appli-
cation of the text and subject to our i'm
mediate case.-ED. P. G. Al
See the perilss into which this little
Kingdom has sometimes come; her
government fined and dragooned, and
her autonomy threatened at the mouth
of the cannon her flag dishonored; her
very nationality annulled. Many a
threatening cloud has hung over this
little island sovereignty. But never yet
one that did not break and let in more
light and more liberty. So it seems
to be the law, good out of evil, under
Gods overriding.
Now, in milder way than to judah
under the wrath of Sennacherib, but yet
in a way startling enough to have voice
of warning in it, God has let disaster
come upon us. Our happy city has had
a day of terror. Our peaceful streets
have heard just little of the sound of
battle. Our quiet citizens have had an
hours dread of mutiny and massacre.
Our defenceless homes have had a weary
night of watching in fear of the torch
and of pillage. And all from the wrath
of handful of plotting and perjured
men, rising up in their rage against the
right for the overthrow of law and order.
For that was what they wanted, the old
regime of spoils and corruption back
| again. They haG lost their clutch upon
the nations revenues by the new order
of things, just as Sennacherib lost his
| extorted tribute when Judah came back
| to decency and duty. And it angered
them. They wanted no reform. 1t was
not in the line of their plans, They had
| no sympathy with the new order OF
things. They did not care to stop the
| vices that were consuming us, or to have
away the idolatries that were being set
up among US, or to hinder the wasting
of the revenues that was impoverishing
us, or to end the corrupting of the peo-
pie that was taking the nation back to
its old time tyrannies, or even to wipe
! out the shame of the barterings and the
briberies that were bringing upon us the
scorn of the world. None of these
things. They just wanted spoils, and
place, and power. And because they
had lost them, they plotted insured
ton. Instruction, mark; not revolu-
ton. Let nobody be mystified here
pleading for these desperate men the
right of revolution. It was instruction
cruel anu careless revolt against right.
eous government. There is right OIL
revolution. But it must have adequate
cause. 1t must be against gross abuses
against highland iniquities, against
manifest misrule, against persistent per.
versions of justice, against entrenched
wrongs, against tyrannous usurpations
It must be able to justify itself before
God and the world. And it must have
sought redress in vain at the lawful
tribunals, pleading its wrong and pray
ing for the restoration of its rights and
immunities. That is the right of revo-
luton. 1t does not take the sword first
and plead it's reasons afterwards. 1t
does not plunge peaceful city, without
a word of warning into terror and tor
ture. 1t does not steal through its I'M
guarded streets at midnight with armed
ranks OF murderous men, and seize its
police, and scale it's palace walls, and
demand surrender of its household
| guards, and refuse all parley with the
lawful authorities, and train it's guns
upon the peaceful homes and the city's
thronged streets. That is not revolu-
ton. That is instruction cruel and
| causeless.
And that is what God has suffered to
| come upon us and startle us for little
out of our sweet dreams of peace.
And now the providential meaning OF
it. What good is to come of it? Some
good, we know. For God rules and he
has said the wrath of men shall praise
him. So l should confidently expect
blessing for us from this wicked emente,
even though we could not see it. But
we can see it, some Of it with our eyes.
We can see over our palace walls now.
We can all look over now into our own
domains, and not be sent to the police
station for it either. That midnight
marauding has let light into our city.
More beautiful, by half, our fair city is,
for it's one sad day of terror. We are
swiftly rid of a nuisance and menace
that we should not have been rid Of in a
generation of peace. And / look upon
those PROSTATE walls as symbol of how
abuses are being swept away all the
world over, as the outcome of permitted
disaster.
Then>we are rid of another menace.
Our palace grounds are no longer an
arsenal. The artillery is gone out of
them. All the munitions of war are
gone out of them. And that means
peace from the throne forevermore. And
that. is worth more than the price of one
day of terror.
And with the going of the menace
goes also the cost of maintaining it.
And there is a wasteful folly ended, to
the lettering of the nations treasury.
Then we have recognized police, as
the outcome of one day of terror And
that means more security for our bus
mess and for our homes; less crime and
less alarm hereafter. And that is worth
all the cost of this disaster.
But better than these visible things.
are the political, and social, and moral
uplift this outbreak of wicked ambition
has given US. For see what has come
of it.
First, the settling for ever of the ques-
ton of the royal perogative. We know
who governs now in Hawaii Nei. Well
come liberty now in Hawaii Nei. No
more irresponsible power in this little
Kingdom forever. Priceless the boon
And at so small a cost. Why, great
nations have gone through years and
years of bloody battle to win that guer-
don. But we have it only at the cost of
only one wild day of alarm. Surely the
wrath of man praises Him.
Then, second, we have not only learned
who rules, but we have also learned the