The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-05-01
ANNUAL ADDRESS OF RIGHT
REV. BISHOP RESTARlCk


change and die Most of those who are
led off are those whose early ideas OF
the Christian religion We're narrow
hard and unlovely, and in rejecting
these they think they have rejected
Christianity. In finding certain pleas
ing truths in the system which they
embrace they think them new, where
as we stand and wonder why they have
not seen that these truths have al
WAYS been held in the church. In fact
the Catholic church embraces all varle-
tief, in universal charity and a man
need not leave the church to find that
for which his soul Graves.
NEGLECT OF WORSHIP.
1 have spoken frequently Of late up
on neglect of worship One is much
struck with this at Easter time. The
priest sees people at the Holy Com
munion whom he has not seen at church
for a year or more. 1t is not that these
people are irreligious or living in open
sin, it is simply that they are indif-
ferent and neglectful. There is con-
tentment with the things of the world,
living without God, or without feeling
the need of God. They are doing moth
ing to preserve or spread the gospel TO
which they owe all they are and all
they value in social life and progress.
There is no Lords Day, and no Lords
house no Holy Bible, nothing sacred.
The injustice is to the children. Good
ness and truth may live in the parents
who were trained in their youth IN
Christian homes, but where will 1t De
in the next generation among those
whose children neither go to church nor
have religious life in the home, and
there are ominous signs in social life
what this neglect will bring. It is not
fair nor just nor reasonable to refrain
from giving the children the moral and
spiritual advantage which the parents
enjoyed. Goodness is not self-propa-
eating 1t grows if human lives propa-
gate it.
Take the Cathedral church. There
We're as nearly as we could count 342
communicates on Easter Day. There
are say about so communicates who did
not make their communion then. The
question is where are these commun-
icants every Sunday? They are not
in church. There are say 600 baptized
members of the Cathedral parish over
s years old. Where are they on the
Lords Day If they were to do their
duty we should have to build not only
one bay but several The same condi-
lions exist elsewhere in our parishes
and missions.
l do not believe in the undue multi
plication of societies. but I should like
to see a, society of the Lords house
in which members We're pledged TO be
in the Lords house once at least on
! the Lords Day. Every effort should
be made to get every person to follow
this rule. If children are not trained
to attend church when young they will
not do it when they grow up. If they
have to miss either the Sunday school
or the church let it be the Sunday
school if there is Christian training at
| home. But better have a short session
of the Sunday school and then take the
| children to church. This is done in
| two of our island churches with eX-
cellent results.
THE REVIVAL NEEDED
We hear good deal in the papers
and magazines about the need of re
vival. We do need a revival, not of re-
| ligious feeling but of religious life.
| We need a revival of religious life in
the homes. We read of the utter lack
| of honesty and honor in so many cities
| of divorces and the lack of any sense
| of responsibility on the part of those
who take solemn obligations. All this
has come with the decay of religion in
the home and the best, and truest, the
deepest revival that we could inaugu-
rate would be to become earnest in
faithful abundance at the house Of
God and the reading of the Holy
Scripture and prayer in the home. L
know the rush of life in this age and
| the difficulties in the way but the old
question is this, rs the life" the
spiritual life of ourselves and children,
rs the life more than meat?" The
| answer which thousands of homes are
giving is that meat and raiment and
wealth is more than the life It is
because of this that We need a revival
and a conversion of heart
CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH.
No one could have attended the
Easter services at the Cathedral and
not have been impressed with the
catholicity of the church. At a. m.
service at which 1 assisted there we're
| Hawaiians, white people, Chinese, Jap
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