The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-07-08

| LIZ Il Ii LIH- iuL St!cH EFFORTS USUAL
illustrated piety rather than melody
| Two generations have passed since thi
| description was applicable, and toda
the Hawaiians are distinctively mus
cal race, more so probably than tn
| American people taken as a whole
IV.-RELIGIOUS STATUS.
While reading the question. "Ar
| they secretly pagan in their supersti
| tiOns?' my mind recalled an inciden
detailed in a recent issue of a grea
American daily, wherein a Unite,
States Senator, representing one of tn
| mi ghtlest commonwealth in the Union
was pictured as baking al hotel room
numbered Is. Another apartment ha,
to be found for him. The article wen
on to state that not a few of the mos
fashionable hotels had been compelled
to Danish this number from room door
and to have no thirteenth floor. L
hardly seems as though we of America
could afford to throw stones at the Ha
wallan. Superstitions die hard. This
nature race Is scarcely so years out OF
paganlsm with the terrible hold of its
fears of demons. The kahuna (witcl
doctor) still lives. In time of sickness
superst1tlous dread is apt to revive. But
the Hawaiian cannot be stigmatized as
secretly pagan in superstition to any
exceptional degree. The sincere Chris,
tlan is as true a disciple here as in
America. He meets death with the
same serenity He is probably Just as
unsclentltic as many a good Mainland
Christian who believes patent medicine
advertisements and follows old wives
fables in the treatment of the ills of
life.
The two most fundamental inquiries
are those which question the thorough
ness and permanence of the benefits
wrought by Christianity. The contact
of the old-time missionary home with
native life put clothes on man and
woman, banished the miserable grass
hut and brought into the family life
comforts The Hawaiian of
today is immeasurably happier than his
grandsire of 1880 He knows more,
lives a larger life, is better fed, works
more regularly. These changes are
thorough going and permanent.
Christianity is steadily raising the
of the family True, the
Mormon is here preaching poIygamy.
We must not, however, Judge the race
l..
Take our Christian girls schools
There is an atmosphere making for
purity within them today unknown 25
Or 80 years ago. is the testimony of
DR.. Bishop. The hardest virtue to up
build in Hawaii has been chastity. That
here is more of it today than before
S the conviction of men who know the
Hawaiian best. Christianity has had
-hn u S Of Io,- L, e
chastity found among the women of
'ur race. 1t is being slowly accom- |
olished. In dealing with this matter |
We have no right to forget the records |
If our American divorce courts or to |
our ideal for our practice of |
his virtue. When it is remembered
hat the chief sinner in Hawaii is the |
White man with his power to compel, |
here remains little to be said against |
lis victim.
Throughout the Islands there are
numbers of families which measurably |
eallZe the ideal of the Christian home
here has not been time to create the
onesty, sobriety, chastity, truthful
ess and self-control which ages of
'hristian practice have developed into
wall u utleHce ABOUT tDe nature OF q
hid born into our most favorable |
american environment. Alas, how
ften, even with this wonderful ad-
antage, numbers of our best born de-
1t is, however, this inherited
rend towards righteousness which a
tudent of Hawaiian character most II
llsses. But it is in process of crea-
on. One finds no little of it in many
ONES. Herein Christianity is produc-
lg soundest and most lasting fruit.
Within the short space of Sc years a
elf governing commonwealth has been
reated here. In this Hawaiians pre-
They do not measure favor
bly, with the pick of Americahs. Too
any of them are bribable, trait also
characteristic of Delaware voters. Graft
nds certain of them easy, still Hawaii
far from the depths of Tweed s New
ork. Perhaps if there We're more
ghteous white political leaders there
ould be lass to complain of in the cleo
rate. But speaking relatively and
18th parts of the United States in mind,
has no call to blush for its :
;hievement in carving citizens out of i,
olvnesian stuff
Finally the power of Christian truth
upbuild strong, noble, righteous char
ter in the individual is just as evil
mt in Hawaii as anywhere else on
nth. Among our church members
ere are large numbers of true sturdy .
seiples, tested by temptation once .
elded to now conquered, refined by
ial, able to stand and worthy of their j.,
ord. new type of young manhood I
I'd of young womanhood is being turn {
cut of our great Christian schools, G
It one whit behind the average of our
me churches, circumstances being
ken into account. Only the man, who
pscts more than the Gospel and
fence demand, experiences disappoint- I
ant in the achievement of Christian ..
, in Hawaii. D. S