The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-01-05
A SIMPLE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

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Let us therefore cast off the works
of darkness, and let us put on the
armor of light.-Romans, xiii, II.
After General Armstrong, founder
of the Hampton Institute for the
training of Indian and negro lads,
passed away, it was discovered that
he had left some important memoir
anda behind.
In one of these papers he gave his
views concerning matters IN which
we are all interested. They are the
views of clear headed patriotic man
who looked the grave questions of
life and death squarely in the face,
and who found that the faith that he
had formulated was quite sufficient
for any emergency that could posi-
bly, arise.
We know nothing of the mental
struggles through which he passed
when constructing a moral basis for
his life work, but there is something
appealingly pathetic in his state,
ent:-"The shorter ones creed the
better. Simply to Thy Cross l cling
is enough for me-"
A grand and noble nature, throw
ing down the elaborate creeds of the
ages, finding no use for them as
motive power in the activities to
which he devoted himself with the
ardor of knight of the Middle Ages,
aud accepting the Cross and the
necessity Of clinging to it as all
sufficient for his purposes, presents
a very curious and suggestive
picture.
With the arm of an iconoclast he
brushed aside every cold, stern and
man made dogma, searched through
the crowd until his eyes fell on the
great Parsonage of history, knelt at
His feet to kiss the hem of his gar
ment, and then went about Gods
work with the friendship of Christ in
his heart.
1t is SAID of Button that from the
thigh bone of an extinct creature he
could reconstruct the whole animal.
In like manner we may say that If a
man has the Cross and desire to
fill his life with the ideas which it
represents, he has whole system of
theology in his soul. And if he is
loyal to that Cross, this one little life
will be filled with good deeds and
holy thoughts. 1t is not the quantity
of your beliefs, but the quality of
them that tells. A mighty conviction
that you must make the world better
for your living in it is more effective
than a mere assent to all that Athan-
asius or Calvin ever uttered. When
Armstrong said, 1T pays to follow
ones best light, to put God and
country first and ourselves after
ward" he left very little for any one
else to say on that subject
He knew that his hold on life was
like "the spiders most attenuated
thread" and that his physical condi
ton indicated an early summons, but
he looked at death with the same
quiet smile with which he regarded
life. With this difference, though,
that while he knew all about the pres
ent, he had a great curiosity as to the
future. He wondered what would
be his state Of mind when he should
get his first glimpse of the next
world. Glow will it all SCENT" he
asked himself, and then answered
the question by saying, Perfectly
fair and perfectly natural, no doubt;
we ought not to fear death, it is
friendly"
Everybody, or at any rate those
who are we'll along in years, has
given more or less thought to this
matter. We would like to feel that
we shall wrap the drapery Of our
couch about US and lie down to
pleasant dreams. But while we re-
peat Addison's words:-
1t must be so-Plato, thou reasonest |
well! - Else whence this pleasing |
hope, this fond desire, this longing
after immortality?
we still have secret dread, an in
ward horror, and the ghostly shadow |
Of a doubt benumbs the soul Then
takes the place of faith,
and we are both unfit to die and unfit |
to live. The man who dies with
clinched teeth or clinched fists feels |
like one who is being buried by an
avalanche. What must be must be,
and since he is no coward he defies
fate. But the man who, like |
Armstrong, knows that there is
another world, and is even curious
to get glimpse of it, who be-
lieves that death will simply !
usher him from this antechamber OF |
the King into the Kings immediate
has something in his soul |
which all the diamond fields of Africa |
could not purchase.
General Armstrong has laid US
under obligations in his death as
well as il his life. His words,
his childlike faith, are as re-
freshing as a draught of water from
a mountain stream on an August day.
When his last hour came he gathered
together the memories of his past, |