The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-07-08

The following address delivered
before the Missionary Children's
Society by Rev. 0. P. Emerson
June 18Th gives "Some of the
Causes which have Operated to
bring about the Present Weakness
of the Native Churches :"
Our interest in Hawaiian character,
especially that of the native pastor
and Christian worker, may well lead
us back little to the study of the
situation in which they have been
placed, to see if with much that has
been faultful in their conduct, there
are not also things that are praise
worthy and even heroic.
The members of the native churches
show up today battered and weak and
few, but may be they have come by
their wounds honesty.
There is much in the history of the
past thirty years, which If under
stood, will put their case in q more
part of some of our native breEhren,
not little hardihood.
Before we can know the soldiers
bravery and excuse the disarray OF
his equipage, his wounds and lassi-
tude, we must hear the story of his
marches and battles.
Let his sufferings be pictured in all
their realism-the heat, the cold, the
hunger, the forced marches, the fight
ing, the wounds, the blood-then,
aware of these, we will applaud his
Ii a 70 N rf
the appeal of the halting ranks and
torn flags.
Undoubtedly the native, be he in
the capacity of pastor, or of a dea-
con and leader in his church, has un-
dergone experiences in which, if any
thing has been won, it has been from
the very clutch of the enemy, and if
anything has been lost it has been in
a stubbornly contested campaign in
which he has been fiercely pressed
in marches cut by ambuscadeS and
close, hand to hand fights.
The first crisis which came to the
native churches was in the steps
taken towards launching them as in
dependent organizations under the
charge of native pastors. Worthy as
was the intention Of this move whi ch
was made in 1868, it is now confessed
to have been precipitated.
The history Of the last thirty years
warrants this conclusion. For, unfOr-
tunately, the experiment was tried
during a period of storms, and the
storms were of unusual severity, an d
in them the quality of the native
Christianity was put to an extreme
test. It was what the fathers fear ed,
that their beloved successors in the
work would be tried overmuch. Glad
ly would they have had the days OF
trial postponed. But it was not to be
as they wished.
Decline in Church Membership.
Here are a few figures: There were
in 1868 twenty-five churches, under
the charge of sixteen American mis-
sionaries and four native helpers, with
a membership of 19, ,725.
Five years later, in 1868, these
twenty-five churches are found to
have been divided into fifty, with
twelve American missionaries and
thirty-five native pastors, the mem
bership having shrunk to 1877.
Twenty-Five years later, in 1888, th ere
are found to have been fifty-seven
churches, one American and thirty
two native pastors, and membership
of only 5235.
These figures indicate most alarm
ingly rapid reduction of the Christian
force among the Hawaiians, until
now, thirty-two years later, we learn
by the report of 1895, that there are
fifty-six churches, all but one of them
under the charge of native pastors,
with total mem bership of only 1874.
If, in attempting to account for this
rapid reduction, we should attribute
the cause to the decrease of the native
population, we would find that the
figures do not bear US out, for while
during the twenty-five years extend
ing from 1865 to 1890, the decrease of
the population was 80 per cent, the
! decrease of the church membership
was very nearly 20 per cent. There
were other causes for the result.
1t is undoubtedly true that one un-
derlying cause was the inability Of the
native pastors to maintain the high
standard of effort kept up by the mis-
sionary fathers. Yet, it is question
if the missionary fathers themselves,
| had they lived in these later days,
under the changed circumstances,
could have saved the churches
from serious decline-it is
kept, through all these later
trying conditions, the high-water
mark of the olden time. For there
came serious changes into the life of
the people for which the native pastor
and Christian were in no wise respon
sible
First, there was the change which
came by the sudden passing away of