Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-08-31
THE SOUTHERN CROSS
THE EMBLEM GOD MADE WITH FOUR
WORLDS IN THE HEAVENS.


Celestial CruciGx-Grand Work Done by
Missionaries In the South sea Islands.
Heroes and Ucrolnos.
Copyright Louis Klop7ch, 1891
STEAMSHIP ALAMEDA, Midocean, July
1O.-There are some things in the mind
year after year remaining undefnoG.
The time for explanation does not seem
to come. We had for years seen allu-
sions to the southern cross. We knew
not what It meant We supposed it to
be an appearance in the heavens at GER
tain latitude and longitude, yet we
knew not exactly what that appearance
was. But, seated a few nights ago on
the deck Of this ship in our voyage
around the world, a gentleman bent
over me and said: The southern cross
is visible. Let us 90 and see ii. " Going
TO the opposite side Of the ship, l looked
up and beheld it in all its suggestive
ness looking down upon US and looking
down upon the sea. The southern cross!
It is made up Of four bright stars One
star standing at the top Of the perpen-
dicular piece Of the cross, and another
star standing for the foot Of it. One
star standing for the right hand end OF
the horizontal piece Of the cross and
another star for the left hand end Of It,
So clear. so resplendent, so charged with
significance, so sublimely marking OIL
the heavens that neither man nor wom-
an nor child nor angel nor devil can
doubt it. The southern crossl To make
it God put those four worlds in their
places. The tender and tremendous en-
blem Of our religion nailed against the
heavens with silver nails Of star. Four
are enough.
God wastes no worlds. He will not
encourage stupidity. If you cannot
see the southern cross in the four
stars. 40 stars will not make you see
it. Up yonder they stand, the four
stellar evangelists upholding the cross.
What gospel Of the irmamentl The
cross that Constantine saw in the sky
with the words, by this conquer, "
was an evanescent cross and for one
night. but this southern cross IS for all
nights. and to last while creation lasts.
SO every night Of this voyage among the
islands of the Pacific l am reminded by
this celestial crucifx Of the only influ-
ence that has turned the islands from
their cruelty and shamelessness and hor-
4 a s Il,
Excepting the throne Of the Deity, /
think there will be no higher thrones
in heaven than those occupied by the
missionaries. Others have lived and died
for their own country. These lived and
died for the natives Of other countries.
Many Of the missionaries were the grad
mates Of Yale or Princeton or New
Brunswick or Oxford or Cambridge or
Edinburgh and were qualified for pull
pits, for editorial chairs, for medical
achievement, for great words and deeds
in courtrooms, for commercial successes
that would have brought all honors and
/ all luxuries to their feet. Many OF the
women Of this foreign mission cause
were brought up in refined associations,
could play we'll on musical instruments,
were the charm Of best society, had at
tractiyeness that fitted them for any cir
Gle Of ease or opulencc. Such men and
women took whaleships for foreign
lands. lived on fare that only cOarsest
digestive organs could manage, were
tossed for months on rough seas, landed
amid naked savages, abode in grass
huts, spent their life amid the squalor,
and the stencil, and the yermin, and
the epidemics, and the low vices OF those
whom they had come to rescue. OF a
roll Of $50 names Of such men and wom-
en- not more than four or five Of them
were ever heard of outside Of their own
kindred of the circles Of barbarians
among whom they lived.
The story Of the Christian heroes and
heroines who came to these islands OF
the Pacific in the brig Thaddeus, the
Leland, the Benjamin Bush, the Ave-
rich and the Mary Frazier under Cap
tain Charles Sumner can never be fully
told. All the talents, all the scholar
ship, all the nerve and muscle ana
brain, all the spiritual energies Of these
Christly men and women put forth ON
behalf Of people whom they had never
seen and whose names they had never
heard pronounced until the day OF the
arrival ON these islands, Some Of these
messengers of light were cut to pieces
and deyoured by cannibals. Some OF
them toiled to save the besotted saw
age, while prohigates Of Christian coun-
tries landed from merchantmen or war
vessel or whaling ship were trying to
destroy them The daughter Of one Of
the missionary families describes her
mother as toiling until the skin was
blistered off her arms and says that
while her father was about to preach a
group Of drunken sailors broke the win
J dows and one brandished knife about