The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-01
Religion Of the Native


THE query has been put to M low
does the state of religion among I.a,gaii-
ans compare with our ownV Il one
sense the question can be answerod most
faVorably. What Were the
Hawaiians originally, and what We're the
ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons? The
one branch of the Malay family OF the
human race, the third in point OF intel
ligence; their chief characteristics a love
of maritime adventure, with a brutal
courage which looked upon death with
an icy apathy, because they had but lit
tie to enjoy below, and less to hope for
in the future; Z" a warm, eXcitable
imagination, and docile to instruction;
by turns a child or adult in pleasures
and passions-weeping the one moment,
the other revealing with boisterous mirth;
in short, a creature of base sentiments,
more like a man who, under the infu-
ence OF intoxicating gas, acts out that
which is uppermost in his nature, than
a human being endowed with moral feel
ings. ADDED to this a superstition skill
fully concocted and strongly sustained
by the few for the degradation and sub
servience of the many. Chris
tianity introduced into soils so widely
different must, humanity speaking, -four
ish in accordance with the relative fi.-
ness of either for it's support and in
crease. And 1t has been So In England
and America roofing itself in the super
ior sentiments and intelligence of the
people, it now exhibits itself in it's fairest
and purest light; transported to the Hn-
waiian Islands by Anglo-Saxon minds.
it is there sustained by the strength IT
brought with it. The Anglo-Sax-
on race are capable of teaching; the Ma
lay of being taught; the one by its own
native energies can conquer and rule the
world the very existence and advance
ment of the latter is dependent upon the
md
former. Such are the natural differences
the two and these must be
borne in mind, If a just opinion of the
capacity of the Hawaiians for civiliza-
ton and Christianity is to be formed.
They should be judged by the standards
applicable to their position in the human
family, and not by our own. The
conduct which would bring censure up
On an American Christian, should not
upon a Hawaiian; their temperaments,
and circumstances are widely
and they are not to be bal
,nced in the same scale. OF him to whom
much is given much will be required.
moral sentiment, founded more upon
, classified ton of certain actions either
Is evil as good, and their attendant
,unshments or rewards, than upon any
lefinite ideas of sin and virtue, consid-
red in their relations to moral purity,
md the love of the Father pervaded the
lation. The intelligent observer
will find much in their present character
O crafty him, and more to surprise,
When he contrasts them with what they
we're but score of years since. 1t Is
till difficult TO make the natives under
tand the nature of truth They have
een so accustomed from the earliest
ears, to habits of deception, that with
many perhaps the majority, it may be
QUILTED whether any other sensation
rises from the detection of a falsehood
han modification at being discovered.
n no other point are they more obtuse,
ut this moral bluntness is gradually
-earing away"
JAMES JACKSON JARVIS.