Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 197, 20 May 1891 — WHY THE MILLENNIUM SHOULD BEGIN IN HAWAII NEI. [ARTICLE]

WHY THE MILLENNIUM SHOULD BEGIN IN HAWAII NEI.

The reverend pastōr of the Fort Street Church preached a eemaon on the above subject last Sunday erening. The reverend gentleman stated at the outset that he did not propoBe to speak of the obsta§les in the way whieh might hmder or prevent the consuoimatiōn of that bright promised millennium; but only to point out the favoring eonditions; he did not* propose to talk about the dark and discouraging features of the question. The dark and discouraging featares being somewhat in our line we propose to suggest a few of them thus supplementing the pioua view of the case. But first we muet give a glimpse of the sermon. The rererend orator based his arguments almoel wholly on our climatic and geograt>hical poeiUon. The climate was ro ealubriouB that g«od men lived to a great age; the migsionary fathers had all attained a ripe and vigorous old age; that was one !

j tfio ('<)i»(lition.s of lho niillenivi jnt, ! thnfc all should have long lif«, ■ k, a ! child shail die au hundred vears oid." Then men had to work, but not toomueh; we had a climate where men's faculties inight reach their fullefit dovelopnient without being burnt out and conßUßoed by the forced actiyities of more rinorous climatic conditions; then agoin the free and easy out door life begot a fri«ndly freedoni in social intercourse that bore a dietinct reaemhlenee to the hai)py life of the millennium; again there was the fact that therTT was very little of cast or race prejudice; the rich and the poor the light and dark-skinned mingied freely in social life. when the sword should be beaten into the plow-share, and the lion lie down with the lamb, we had always hadand might always hope to have from our insolated positi<?n in the midst of the waters and our relations to the great powers. Then our pppulation consisting of specimens of nearly every race and kingdom, christianized -and united in the bonds of eanctified love, might form a new race of unknown vigor and virtue. So the pious dreamer built the edifice of our future glory in the bright sunshine of his imagination. Only say ü boo !" at it, and it vanishefg. First as to our climate: it ig wonderfully efficacious in metamorphosis, 'tis true. Opium changes itself into brick all spontaneously in the hands of a Christian official. Miseionaries are changed in one short generation from devout men •f God to money-lenders, \isurers, oppressing the poor and wcrking every sort of iniquity in the name of business, wearing their fathers' religion as a eloak to hide their lttst for gold and the plea«ures of the flesh. In our eliiaaie even the chaste and modest maiden of away down east in puritan New England soon arrays herself in the flowing holoku and studies the mysteries of the hula. In our eiimate every sort of weed, vermin. disease, and vice imported from foreign land'a takes r©ot, spreads, runs wild, riots; rats, lantāna, eentipeds, mosquitoes, copsumption lepK»sy, prostituUon, gip, are notably foreign importations whieh, besides the missionary, areat home in this onee idylic paradise.

As to wor|: and healtbful exercise our position is lamentable. Labor ig dishonored; to work is a disgrace. Honest labor is ahunned as degrading. None of our young men think of earning their living by honorable toil; even foreignere who have worked all their lives feel the general sentimtnt of people that manual labor is disgracefal. The cause of this is the fact that manual laborputs a man on a level with the asiatic who ie as the beast of the field. It is a» if a selfrespectiag man was asked to put hia neek under the c«llar, draw )oads alongeide the despiced ass. Men will not so debaee themselves. The coosequence is that our society ig divided int« idlers and peone or serf«. We fail U see the dawn of the in this oondition 01 things, About peaee we are not so hepeful. The nti*sionsnes have introdueed the rifie a» an el&ment in politicle strife and it ean scarcely bo nntieipHted that neeesBarj reforros ean be Aco*nsplished withont overcoming the opposition of lel *

gilized piracy b} r force of arms. Already we have seen blood flow and the situation is beComing inore ctitical. Foreign arms wili not intimidate men so that they will unresiBtingly give up property } life and Bacred honor. That our Ohinese and Asiaic coolie-slaves shouid be mentioned as elements of civilization and prosperity, conducive U the return of the golden age, ean only be eonsidered as a caustic kind of a joke. We really do not think the r©sy dawn of heaVen on earth yet glows on the eastcrn honzon, though it may appear different to a miniater of the g«spel with a good salary, the luxuries of leisure and weaith, out of hearing of the clash and groans of the grim battle for existenee thatwages ceaslessly abound about us in our sun-let green ? girt archipelego.