The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-11


the hearts of many here present.
What I desire to touch upon is this;
What was behind all the sending and
being sent? What led those first seven
men and seven women to sail in that
little brig Thaddeus around the stormy
and dreary Horn to these islands which
were indeed the Ultima Thule of the
world. Men with the passion of dis
covery and of adventurous gain had
been here before. But these men in
1920 and the other companies which
followed brought their wives with them
and came 70 live. What was behind
the movement? It was the principle
and the power which has been behind
every Missionary enterprise, which
means every enterprise which has been
for the humanizing of man, the up
lifting of women and the salvation of
little children. What was it? 1t was
1t living faith in their Father God and
in their brother man. 1t was faith in
Go1 a1i faith in the capacity Of His
children to respond to His love and to
His revelation of Himself in the per-
son of Jesus Christ. 1t was the same
faith which had sent missionaries to
our fathers when they, a few centuries
ago, where fierce SaYages in the for
ests of Germany, blood thirsty pirates
of the Northern Seas or tattOoed bar
barianS of distant Britain. 1t was that
spirit of Missionary effort which has
always been derided and maligned as
Christ Himself was and as missionaries
will always be. You see it everywhere
today. People don't believe in Mis-
sions," which simply means that they
do not believe in Jesus Christ and the
Brotherhood of man. They forget that
all which they hold dear in life now
is due to those missionaries who were
sent to their fathers and who were
scoffed at by the intellectual Greeks
and Romans as wasting their time 1T
is impossible to make Christians of
those people" was said then as now
and the worldly wise We're sure that
the religion of those people (our an
cestors) was good enough for them and
all they could understand But the
missionaries went, and they still go,
and in their train will go the blessings
of the Gospel.
There was not only faith in these
men and women but there was the
spirit of sacrifice the spirit of God. He
was lifted up that He might lift up
His brother men. These men the faith
ers and mothers of many here toiled
on, little realizing the importance on
the future of Missions of the expert
ments which they made. little realiz-
ing that they were laying the founda-
ton of a history which for interest,
romance and pathos is fascinating to
every student of human nature.
Let us speak a word of the women
who came. The islands needed the
quiet influence of Christian women and
the example of the Christian home to
make efficient the preaching of the
Gospel. These women came with ev
cry company. Gentle, intelligent, re-
fined. made courageous by the love of
God which filled their souls. I have
said before in public that in these is
lands, that which is most wonderful
to me are the types of womanhood who
were the mothers of those now in ac-
tive life in Hawaii. In a certain way,
woman occupied from an early period
a marked place of influence on these
islands. The kuhina inui had great
power and there have been women of
the Hawaiian race who will go down
into history as types worthy of any
people. AS | go about | find in the
wives and mothers the secret of the
advanced civilization and culture which
are here. Coming from the Atlantic
States or far of England they brought
with them that which was truest. pur-
est and best. Their homes show in iso-
lation and often surrounded with every
form of evil they have kept up the
old faith, the old refining conventional
usages, the old learning, until when
strangers come they are amazed at the
cto Of IA
verse conditions. All honor be to the
noble women. wives of missionaries
and others, the pioneers of Christian
homes from which have come strong
men and pure women. No more wom-
land. Amidst all that was strange they
bright in their souls
Such a one is she whom we delight
to honor today and let this generation
keep in mind and at heart that no
wealth, no luxuries. no culture can
ever keep society sweet and clean and
men and women true and noble Only
faith burning in the heart can keep
society from going down from indif-
ference to degradation. Periods of the
highest culture and learning have often
tiers IF Hawaii nei of whatever race
they may be, remember that the hand
that rocks the cradle rules the desti-
MES of social life, sets its standard and
determines its upward or downward
keeps it sweet. or plants in
it the 1eaven of corruption. Learn of
the mothers of this genera ton to live,
to think. to do and to dare for God
and for humanity.
The object of such a gathering as
this is TO dwell upon the past that it
may be helpful to US in the present. 7
have no intention of going into ques-
tons of rights or wrongs of the past,
nor am I here to blame on the one hand
or to defend on the other, or to praise
those who need no praise. I am here
at the request of the Committee to say
some word if possible which will pro-
mote Christian Unity and advance the
Kingdom of God among men.
AS I go about these islands meeting
all sorts and conditions of men, I find
people. among them descendants of the |
who have a feeling of |
dependency as to conditions and the |