The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-03

| is pure selfishness. The first thing
is to set men enthusiastically to lifting
one another out of the mire. 1t was
not by any such doctrine or practice
| that~Hawaii was lifted out of the mire
of heathenism and set upon its feet rs
an enlightened people.
| The missionaries at once wrought
| zealously in the old-fashioned Gospel
method. They sought with all faith
=! and strength to turn the hearts of in
-dividual men and women first of all to
the Living and Holy God. They la
bored to enlighten the people religious
ly, and make them hear the gracious
call of God to become His children in
His son Jesus Christ. They strove to
teach them to fear God and Him only,
to seek His eternal salvation in life
and in death. They held before them
the Heaven of blessedness and the He'll
of perdition, and urged each one to
embrace the great salvation, and find
sonship and peace through repentance
from sin and faith in the Lord and
Savior.
They taught the people in every pos
sibIe way by books, by literature, by
training schools, by example, in the
arts of life, in the social duties. But
the great emphasis was udl1y anu d.
ways upon the duty and need of COM
ing to God through the Lord Jesus
Christ, and finding full salvation. This
done, all the rest that was needful
would follow. Especially would all
altruistic effort spontaneously follow.
The saved sinner, rejoicing in Gods
mercy and Jesus love, at once and
eagerly turns to convert and save his
brother and neighbor.
The Hawaiians were receptive. They
heartily received and obeyed the Cos
pei preached to them. In eighteen
years the Truth had penetrated their
minds, the Holy Spirit descended in
great power upon the churches al
ready gathered, and the people poured
in in hundreds and thousands of ardent
converts. A new nation was born in
day. The great revolution was eff
fectively accomplished. Set right to-
ward God and His law, the people
eagerly and ardently sought together
for all higher and better things, So
cially and politically. And another
decade saw the Hawaiians standing on
their feet as a civilized nation, because
first Christianized.
What is our lesson from this? Is it
not our perpetual and enduring lessen
for all effective reform and uplifting in
all strata of society, that the first and
essential thing to be done is to set the
individual man straight with God and
Eternity? Before all else, the spirit
ual nature of the man is to be awak-
ened, the blind eye to be opened and
the deaf ear to be unstopped, the evil |
and Maynard heart to be turned to the |
choice of good in the fear of God. and |
the faith of His salvation. The fallen, |
the sunken, the bemired, the MANNED |
and debauched souls will not, cannot, |
be brought UP into cleanness and light /
until the Heavenly light of Christ finds ,
entrance into them and they are |
brought into intercourse with the Di- |
vine and the Eternal.
That great Redemption Of Hawaii /
sixty years ago. let it be studied ana .
pondered, a notable and fruitful lesson /,
for the redemption OF society, every
where. First of all, bring the individ- |
ual into communion with God IS a |
saved soul. Then will he become a
center of uplifting to all around him.
S. E. Il.