The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-12-21
DR., SCUODER SPEAKS
ON PACIFIC PROBLEMS

The ST. Louis Republic has the follow
ing about local clergyman:
AT the Pilgrim Congregational Church
Yesterday morning the Reverend DOC
tor Doremus Scudder, secretary OF the
Hawaiian Evangelical Association,
spoke on "Our Mid-Pacific Problem :
The speaker sketched the story of the
early missionary era in the Islands,
which eliminated in 1868, forty-thcee
years after the pioneer Congregational
preachers landed, in the chr1stlanlza-
ton of the group At that date SO 1-3
per cent of the entire native population
had been added to the churches founded :
by the American Board of Missions. |
Doctor Scudder said, in part:
ITO this glorious Appomattox tragic I
Bull Run of forty years duration sue
cee1ed. the opening of the Twen-
+; tn Century our church members had
declined from 80 1-9 per cent to 10 ger
cent of the Hawaiian people. Why
such a terrible reverse? First and fore
most. because America let go. Our
churches considered the nation chris
tanned and able to maintain its re-
ligious life.
"The question to-day is. Shall we of
America who brought these sister
churches of Hawaii into life continue
to abandon them? Not if I know the
enirit of the homeland. The call is for
a new missionary era Man the f1eid
with leaders. who, standing shoulder to
shoulder with the native pastors. shall
/ serve as friend and brother, shall TIDE
/ the Hawaiians over from the use or
their mother tongue to that of English.
shall gather all English-speakers into
the churches, and in twenty years we
may again expect to see one-third OF
this splendid people marching with US
under the banner of the cross
But the Hawaiian is only part
and that small part, of what faces US
! ir, the Mid-Pacific. Our problem is one
of Christian craftsmanship Those
blessed isles WELD a strange fasclh-
alton. Stay there two years. and the
rest of your life you sigh to return.
All neople yield to this wonderful
charm. Japanese and Chlnese come
there for a. sea son. and end by laying
their bones in our soil and leaving their
children to grow up as native-born
American citizens How are we to
train the sturdy young people from
Asia to innbibe the spirit of Uncle Sam
By bringing them to Christ and orgarf7-
ling them into free churches of the style
thar gave to the world the New Eng
land town meeting. It is big task
but if the Christians of the mania nd
viii stand by US it can be done.
1--WE live in an age which believes
in applying modern methods to Chris
tian propaganda. The Stars ana
stripes wave over our midocean ter
ritory to-day because the nation be
lHeyed its fighting men when they point
ed out the strategic relation OF HaWal
| TO the Pacific world. But the impor-
lance of Hawaii to the Kingdom o
Christ is infinitely greater than II:
value to the United States. for Hawai-
is the key to the evangelizaton o
Asia. Here on our shores are gathered
little groups of lonely Chinese and Jap
anese. who are peculiarly susceptible
= 70 christian influence. When reached
many of them are ready to return a
missionaries in their home lands, Tn
command of our Great Captain regard