The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-06-10
I HE BRITISH
y

ish Empire, and the Divine vengeance
and her Government permit heathen-
ish rites and customs to prevail
throughout India. The heather tenn
pies and idols are carefully protected.
The ancient temple of Buddha, at
Gaya, has just been rebuilt. The sa-
cred laws of Brahman, Buddhist, Par
see and Moslem are respected, and the
violation of any shrine Of yishnu, Or
of any Hindu deity, is punished with
Imprisonment. This essayist, who is
an alarmist, asks the British public to
recall the wickedness of Solomon in
this respect, and he asks, with the fin
ger of scorn pointed in their faces,
how long will the Almighty tolerate
this encouragement of fdolatry?
On consulting the Biblical history
of Solomons rather loose dealings
with strange gods, it appears that this
venerable ancestor of Brigham Young
mixed up his matrimonial affairs with
his religion, just as many hundred
years later his distinguished relative
mixed them up in the Salt Lake VAL
ley.
NOW King Solomon loved many
foreign women beside the daughter of
Pharaoh,-Moabite, Ammonite, Edom
lite, Zedonian, and Utilities" And I'M
der the influences of these seven hum
dred wives, he built "a high place for
Chemosh, the abomination of Moab"
and he went after Asntoreth, and Mil
com, and other notorious gods whose
names appeared in the Thrum's An
nual of those days.
The parallel lines of conduct in the
mon and the British Queen have been
prompted by entirely different mo-
Sives. King Solomon, for a wise man
and an anointed person was unques-
tionably weak on the subject of mat
rimony, and miscalculated it's effects
as "a political force. Where mOnoga-
my prevails it is said that one wife
not infrequently becomes the master
of the situation. When the sew
en- hundred wives Of Solomon entered
combine" against him, and insist
ed on introducing and worshiping
their alien gods, he, like men of his
own times, and like men of the pres
ent time, yielded to female importu-
nifty, and got left" 1t is said by
commentators that King Solomon
married scores of princesses from 9TH
er nations and tribes, in order to Sc
cure peace and order. But any of the
cramps walking about the streets OF
Jerusalem would have told him, if he
had asked for points, that his policy
was dangerous one.
The British nation, and the British
Queen, on the other hand, are pro-
Tossing Christians. All matrimonial
schemes like those of Solomon have
been avoided in the government of In
dia. No member of the Royal Family
has been required to marry an Indian
Princess, however helpful it would be
to the maintenance of British rule.
AT the same time, many hundreds
of years after Solomon's unfortunate
experiments in going after other gods
this Government, perhaps the mos
enlightened upon the earth through 1T:
vast experiences in ail regions, is pro
tecting idolatry, and encouraging
heathenism While the great Church
Missionary Society is supporting mis-
sionaries, who tell the millions of PEG
pie in India that their gods are worth
less, and their religions are utterl.
wicked, the nation itself, in close part
ner-ship and alliance with the Estab
iished Church, Furnishes with impris
onment any act of disrespect to thes
brazen images.
The British nation is, probably
quite right in the attitude it has TAX
en-. But those impracticable person
who set up as moral teachers of mer
and discourse with much learning o
the abstract principles of right an
wrong, have the most serious difficult
in giving any really adequate explana
ton of this extraordinary phenome
non of civil government in India.
Fortunately in Hawaii, nearly all {
the surviving idols have been gather
ed into the Bishop Museum, where tn
High Priest Brigham feeds, cares fo
and communes with them, but doe
not permit them to leave the prem
Uses and worry the Government int
recognizing them as a social and rel
gious force, or to demand that ten
pie be built for them on some lot az
joining the Central Union premises
Beretania street.
The rights of idols both here an
in India are worthy of the most care
full examination by the Social ScienC