News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-08-30

know them well. / knew the natives,
too, as they were many years GO and l
am fully convinced that the change /
see is from the influence of the religion
of the Bible"
One boy was the means Of the civil
cation and evangelization of the Sand
witch Islands. His father and mother
were killed, and he ran away with his
baby brother on his back The infant
was slain by a spear. The heroic boy
got ON a ship for New England. He
was found weeping on the steps of Yale
college, Connecticut He told the story
of his native island. That story aroused
the Christian world. "A little child
shall lead them. " The Tahitian islands
have felt the same supernal power.
They had been in the habit of Staying
aged parents, and where there were too
many children in the family they were
put out of the way. Cannibalism was a
part of the diet There was no law of
morally for unmarried women. One of
their religious sacrifices was a man and
pig roasted together. In the Fiji is
lands parents were buried alive, and
wives We're captured as buffalo are las
seed. Incarnation was common, and
snake worship prevailed Among the
Marquesans polyandry, or the custom of
having many husbands, was considered
right. An iron needle was worn in the
nostrils The lower lip, by force of tor
lrixva,, 70 ,,f,, die
tortion. There was a canoniZation of
filth and obscenity and massacre. The
Friendly islands and the Society islands
were at the lowest depths in morals and
cruelty. All these islands have been
illumined, and the most Of the abomina-
tions have speed away not because of
the threat of foreign guns or as a result
of national or international politics, but
by the influence of that which yonder
mighty crucifix in the night sky typi-
fies. Let no ship captain ever see it
from deck on the Pacific or passenger,
whether for pleasure or profit sailing
amid these islands, behold it without
remembering what the southern cross
has done for the besotted savages bound
ed on all sides by these vast wildernesses
of water.
Oh, that southern cross! Were ever
four worlds better placed than those
which compose it? Though they were
uninhabited and built only for this sig
nificance, they were worthily built.
Shine ON until all the people of this
hemisphere who see thee shall bethink
themselves of the sacrifice thou dost de-
pict A cross not made out of darkness,
but out of light A cross strong enough
hopes upon. One night while watched
this celestial crucifx the cloud gather
ed, and the top Of the cross was gone,
and the foot Of it was gone, and the out
spread arms were gone. No more Of it
to be seen than if it had never been
hoisted. Had the cloud conquered the
stars? No. After awhile the clouds
parted and rolled back and off, and there
it stood viii the same old emblazonment
the southern cross. So the hOstilities
of earth and hell may roll up and seem
to destroy the hope of communities and
of nations but i'll Gods good time the
antagonism will fall back, and all OBJ
scurations will be dispelled, and all the
earth shall see it, the southern cross for
the south, the northern cross for the
north, the eastern cross for the east, the
western cross for the west, but all four
of the crosses found at last in the new
astronomy of the gospel to be one and
the same cross-that which was set up
1900 years ago and of which have
found either a prophecy or reminis-
cence in that uplifted splendor seen
night by night while pacing the deck Of
a steamer on the Pacific
T. DE WITT TALMAGE.