Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-08-28

know them we'll j knew the natives.
too, as they were many years go, aud /
am fully convinced that the change
see is from the influence of the religion
Of the Bible.
One boy was the means of the civili-
cation and evangelization of the Sand-
wich 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 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 tho 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
morality for unmarried women. One of
their religious sacrifices was man and
a pig roasted together. In the Fiji is
lands parents were buried alive, and
wives were captured as buffalo are las
seed. Incantation 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 tho
nostrils. The lower lip, by force of tor
ture, was driven ont to utmost Ills.
tortion. There was canonization of
filth and obscenity and massacre. The
Friendly islands and the Society islands
were at the lowest depths in morals aud
cruelty. All these islands have been
illumined, and the most of the abomn.a-
tions have speed away not because of
the threat of foreign guns or as a rcsIlt
of national or international politics. lut
by the influence of that which yonder
mighty crucifix in the night sky ~ .)i-
fles Let no ship captain ever see it
from deck on the Pacific or passei CT,
whether for pleasure or profit sai lg
amid these island, behold it without
remembering wha6 the southern cross
has done for the besotted savages bound
ed ON all sides by these vast wilderneases
of water
Oh, that southern crossl Were over
which compose it? Though they were
uninhabited and built only for this sig
they were worthily built
Shine on until all the people of this
who see thee shall betEink
themselves of the sacrifice thou dost de-
pict! A cross not made out of darkness,
but cut of light. A cross strong enough
for all nations who see it to hang their
hopes upon. One night while 1 watchoG
this celestial crucifix 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 with 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 in 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
of the gospel to be one and
the same cross-that which was set up
!, 900 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.
7. DE WITT TALMAGE.