The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-03-17

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Coming across the Pacific to Homo
lulu the passenger list of POO people
contained forty-one missionaries, en-
route to foreign lands. One Sunday
morning a little child of three came
laughing gayly into the ships writing
room. Her voice sounded like a trill
Of a happy bird and ] turned to look at
the child, just as her father, a young
missionary, called at her sternly Hush
don't you know that this is Sunday?
You must not laugh like that
It was not my business, Of course,
but l could not remain silent. please
let your baby laugh on Sunday" / said.
Surely God cannot be displeased. And
do not let her grow with a dread Of
Sunday as a day Of gloom"
Il do not wish my child to consider
Sunday a holiday" the young mission
airy replied boldly. But ] pleaded,
you give her a wrong impression of
God The best man l know-a man
tie with himself for years to overcome
a dread of the life after death, just
because he feared heaven would be
like the Sunday of his New England
childhood. He really felt hell fire
would be more cheerful"
Gods day is dear to those who love
Him." said the missionary, and he
turned his back upon me.
The laughing baby tiptoed out OF
the room, with trouble in her young
eyes.
In the Honolulu Advertiser recently
there appeared i'm the "Bystander"
column an interesting paragraph
speaking of the various classes Of so
ciety in Honolulu. 1t said:
Then there is the conservative mis-
siOnary society. l saw it rather at a
golden wedding years ago, and the
scene carried me back to old New
England days. 1his society dressed
soberly, the women bringing out a
little old lace, perhaps, heirloom
yellow ground and the like, and show
ing a penchant for layer cake, tea and
tatting. 1t was a society without We
neer, with an interest in serious things
with a Puritan dislike for frills ana
furbelOws and without much fun. THAT
petrified intolerance known as the New
England conscience, ran through it all;
and it seemed 80 me, as / mingled with
the grave assemblage, that it always
kept the end of the passage in view.
The feast and the skeleton were never
separated"
That is just the way it seems TO me I;
in their church hymns one always feels
the funeral element; and with their
'petrifed intolerance" they dig up the
very essence of life-which is love.
! have so long lived away and apart
from this type of Christian that ! had
grown to think the specie extinct.
Dwelling among New Thought" and
"Theosophical" and Great School"
people, who believe in joy as an ele-
ment Of religion, had forgotten much
of the horror Of the old creeds; and so
it came upon me again with a shock
of surprise that nature is anchored to
the eternal principles Of religion.
would sooner go begging my bread
from door to door, homeless, friendless,
prosecuted and despised by men, than
give up my belief in immortal life, in
a God Of Love and Light, in the min
istering of angels, the guidance of in
visible helpers.
/ know / am an immortal soul. ]
know / have always lived, and will al
ways live, passing on from sphere 20
sphere, from cycle to cycle-passing at
great periods of time to contemplate"
God in NirYana-and yet again going
forth as His expression But this faith
this knowledge, fills me full of Joy.
Life is so great privilege, its oppor-
J tunities for usefulness, for happiness,
for achievement, for pleasure, so Inn
mense that there is ever a song in my
heart.
Perhaps, because | wake always with
this song Of gratitude in my soul DC
not find 1t necessary TO make Sunday
a particular day Of praise giving. Al
all events dare to laugh and be glad
} on Sunday, and since all days are holy
days to me. so Sunday is holy. It IS
good to rest from hard labor on that