The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1889, Page 42

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42

The Lutheran Pioneer.

It has often been said, and with great truth,
that China presents the aspect of one vast
cemetery. Go where you will, on the plains,
in the hills, or by the roadside, and in nearly
every field, you find mounds representing the

' The Experiences of a Missionary in China.

Probably the greatest difficulty the mis-
sionary has in presenting the Gospel to the
Chinese, is the universal superstition regarding
ancestral worship. The following instance of
its power made a lasting impression on the
writer's mind before he had been many months
in the country. One afternoon in September
—soon after the great famine in North China
—we were taking our usual walk through the
dusty streets of a city, to the open fields beyond
its wall. Just before reaching the south gate,
we noticed, on the side of the road, three or

_ four women together, one of whom was kneel-|*
ing upon an old grave and crying piteously.
We lvoked earnestly at the troubled woman
and her companions, but being unable to speak
the language well enough to make ourselves
understood, we made no inquiries, and judging
by the composure of the women who stood by,
took it for granted that nothing very serious
had occurred. Outside the city wall we passed
several men, at different times, carrying bundles
of colored paper and crackers under their arms,
and on re-entering the city we observed heaps
of burnt paper before nearly every house.
Men and boys were busily engaged in heaping
up strings of colored paper, and a ring of in-
cense ashes having been made round the heap,
it was set alight, amid great excitement. In
every direction women were weeping and wail-
ing—in houses, streets, and fields, as only the
heathen can do. Indeed; nearly every woman
in the city seemed suddenly overcome with grief.
_ We hastened through the streets to our
home, to ascertain from our native friends the
cause of this sudden outburst. Had the first-
born in every family been suddenly taken from
their midst, as in the days of Pharaoh, or
had some great slaughter of rebels, in some
part of the empire, suddenly bereaved half the
women of the city of a husband or of a brother?
We soon learned that nothing extraordinary
had occurred. It was the feast of the eighth} tricts, unburied coffins. Large sums of money
moon, on which occasion it is the duty of widows | are frequently spent, at the suggestion of the
to bewail the death of their husbands, and to Necromancer, in the vain hope of finding a
pray to their spirits, which are believed to be} suitable spot where the spirit of the departed
present, to hear and to give the desired help. | man may rest in peace. It is no unusual thing
On certain great feast days, so it is believed,| to meet parties of men conveying a corpse to
the spirits of the dead visit the earth to receive| the very ends of the empire. When this is
the worship of their offspring. done the coffin is fixed between two long poles
_ As we sat outside our door, in the cool of |and carried by two-mules. A cock, with a
the evening, with the starry heavens and the| string tied to one leg to prevent his escape, is
serene rising moon above, offering a forcible| attached to the coffin, and, when the body is
contrast to the din of gongs and drums, the/ at Jast interred, the cock is slain and his blood
excited singing of the worshipers in the temples, ‘sprinkled on the coffin. These journeys are
and the noise of the actors in the out-of-door| uften long and-expensive. Certain prepared
theatres about the streets, we could but wonder] paper is burnt at short stages along the road,
what must be the thoughts of the Great and| with the idea that in some strange way the
Holy God, as He looked down on the scene of path of the spirit of the dead man may thus be
confusion. Is it possible; thought we, that] illuminated. Prayers are chanted for the dead
such # wilderness can ever be made to blossom| for days and weeks together; indeed the length
as the rose? It is possible. With God all] of the period required to release its soul from
things are possible, and this thought alone was| its purgatory isoften in proportion to the length
sufficient to stimulate us to increased zeal for] of the purse of the family, by whom the priests

child.

dead in his own field, just as Abraham desired
to do, when he purchased the plot of ground
from the children of Heth.

have no land of their own, bury their dead in
the waste places of the earth.

CHINESE BOY.

‘}even to their shoes.

Almost one of the first things we saw, upon
entering the inland province of Ho nan, was
an early morning funeral.

We had started on our day’s march at dawn.
The surrounding country was flat and uninter-

last resting-place of a father, a mother, or a/esting, and the morning most dismal and cold,
There do not appear to be many public | the sun not having yet risen to dispel the dark-
cemeteries; but, as a rule, each man buries his | ness and to drive away the mists of early dawn.

We had not traveled more than a mile into the
open country, when strange sounds of weeping

Only the very |and wailing, mingled with chanting of prayers,
poorest of the people in the Jarge cities, who} reached our ears. Everything seemed in keep-

ing with the wailing of the mourners and the
hopeless prayers of the priests proceeding from

Everywhere, as we pass through the country, |a clump of Cyprus-trees not far distant from
we see graves, and often, in the famine dis-|/our path. We could distinguish in the dis-

appearing gloom the forms of some dozen per-
sons in deep mourning. They had a strip of
white calico over their heads, and a long white
sash of the same material round their waists,
while one or two were clothed entirely in white,
All stood round a newly-
dug grave. They had just lowered the remains
of a relative to his last resting-place. A more
dismal hour could not have been chosen for
such asad duty. The night had barely gone;
day bad not yet commenced as these mournful
cries ascended to heaven. ‘There was no place
for rejoicing among the mourners, that the de-
parted had gone to be with Christ. The future
of their absent one was darker than the gloom
which now surrounded his grave. No sun of
righteousness had risen upon his soul. He had
died, as he had lived, without the knowledge
of Christ's salvation. The darkness of death
reigns in this vast province of fifteen millions
of souls. The sound of the Gospel is never
heard there. No hope of eternal life lightens
the path of those who die in this country.—

A. G. P. ~

“Thou Shalt Not Kill.” |

Martin Luther, in explanation of the Fifth
Commandment, says: ‘‘The whole sum and
substance of these words, not to kill, should be
expounded ‘to the inexperienced in the most
explicit manner. In the first place, that none
should commit an injury first, with his hands
or by his deeds; ‘second, he should not use his
tongue for the purpose of doing injuries; more-
over, he should not employ or justify any kind
of means or ways by which another may be
injured. In the second place not only he who
perpetrates an evil violates this commandment,
but he who is able to assist, favor, restrain,
control and protect his neighbor so as to pre-
vent him from being molested, or from receiv-
ing injuries in his body, and does not do 80,
also violates this commandment.”

——~+ +0 oe

CaristIAns are sometimes tempted to make
concessions to the world; to try ‘‘to make re-
ligion attractive.’? Christ did not do this. If
the young ruler was living, now, would not
the church desire his wealth? Christ did not

J the spread of the Gospel among the heathen. | are engaged. Purgatory is older than Rome. | want it. és

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