Earlier text: Controversy on the SabbathChristian Progress in Japan
ONLY thirteen years ago the following official bulletin was publicly posted up in the capital of Japan : "The evil sect called Christian is strictly prohibited. Suspicious persons should be reported to the proper officers, and rewards will be given." Now there are eighteen Protestant missionary societies at work in Japan, besides three Bible societies ; 176 missionaries and missionaries' wives; 182 native preachers and helpers ; 2,912 communicants, and 31 Christian schools with 1,525 scholars. In many of the public schools the Bible is the prescribed text-book on morals, and the students often say to the teacher : "Sir, these are golden truths, and we thank you for them;" or, "Sir, please teach us to pray by ourselves." A young man saw in a native paper the advertisement of a mission school, and walked 150 miles to join the school. Some of the Japanese Christians have organized a foreign missionary society, and have set apart two men of their own number as missionaries to Corea.—Ex. Governor St. John, in his speech at Osage said: "If there is one of you here to-night who should catch your wife loafing around a saloon you would apply for a divorce inside of twenty-four hours; you would think that if she were guilty of so infamous a thing she would be unworthy of such a specimen of manhood as yourself, and yet for all this you can linger about these places week after week. There are men who loaf about saloons for days together, who, when they go upon the witness-stand, under oath, are so demented that they do not know cider from whisky, or beer from 'sea-foam.'" — Exchange. One of the best temperance sermons ever delivered is this sentence by the late Rev. Samuel J. May: "If it is a small sacrifice for you to give up drinking wine, do it for the sake of others; if it is a great sacrifice, do it for your own sake." Tom's Copy.
By Margaret Finley
It was writing hour in the home school-room of the Dalton children: The governess had been called out, and they were left on honor. Jack Dalton had not written a stroke since the summons came, and by the time his teacher was beyond the door, had drawn from his pockets treasures in the shape of marbles, alleys, fish-lines and a knife. "Tom," he called to his cousin, and added emphasis with a well-aimed paper ball, "what'll you give in cash for this stock?" "Don't want it at any price," answered Tom without looking up. "But I'm hard up and will sell at a sacrifice," continued Jack; "besides I want to get something else." "I want to get something too," Tom replied, "but not trash." Jack looked over at his cousin curiously, but he was intent upon his copy. He had been laboring steadily at the letters, and was half-way down the page when the thought dawned in his mind that they might mean something. "Industry need not wish." Ah! what did not Tom wish? That very morning he had been wishing to buy a story paper and some fruit for his invalid sister. Then he had heard his mother wish their little garden could be cultivated, and he felt sure he could do it if he had only the tools to work with. And when it came to his own wants they were really without number, and here right before his eyes, if there were truth in this copy, was a remedy. "Jack," he said, "listen and tell me what you think of this—Industry need not wish." "Oh, bother!" returned Jack, "I think nothing of it. It's good practice on the lettering, but as for sentiment it means no more than if it said 'Jack and Gill went up the hill'!" "But Benjamin Franklin said it," argued Tom. "It must mean something." "Oh, it don't follow," returned his cousin. "He gained a great reputation, and after that everything he said was accounted wise. My own private opinion is that he said a great many stupid things." "But if this should be true, Jack, just think of all the things we could have without wishing." "I thought something was up," replied Jack impatiently. "You've been sitting like a deacon ever since Miss Ray went out. Your copy-book has struck in, I suppose. For my own part I'm not so stupid as to pin my faith on old proverbs." But to Tom, who was poor and being educated by his uncle, it seemed worth trying. "I will begin this very afternoon," he thought. "I wish most for the papers for Amy, and will see if I can earn them." His enthusiasm almost overcame his appetite, and, his hastily-eaten dinner over, he set off in quest of work. Right near his own home, and on one of the main thoroughfares of the town, was the quaint old residence of Eben Underhill. He was so old an inhabitant that everybody called him uncle. For sixty years he had lived in the same substantial farm-house. Modern improvements had branched out round him, and stately store-houses reared their French roofs far above the lowly dwelling; but they only seemed to make a protection, shutting out the busy world, while the quiet, old-time life within kept its monotonous course. The place always had a charm for Tom, and many rides had he enjoyed in Uncle Eben's spring-cart as he took his daily journey to the distant pasture and wood lot. To-day he paused at the gate, wondering if he might not find work there; but how he hated to ask when it came to the point. Uncle Eben was coming from the barn with a basket of corn cobs. In another minute he would be in the house, and Tom was sure he would never have courage enough to knock at the door and make known his wish to the women of the house. His resolution carried him forward and he reached the porch as Uncle Eben had his hand on the door-latch. "Have you any work for a boy to do?" he inquired eagerly. "Well, I don't know," the old man replied. "If the right boy happened along I might give him a job." "Your clothes don't look much like it," said Uncle Eben doubtingly. "It's sorting potatoes." "I can do that," said Tom, "if you'll just start me." "I've a mind to try you, and will pay thirty cents for the rest of the afternoon, but you'll have to put on my overalls, and 'kiver up your fine clothes." Uncle Eben was stout and tall, and little of Tom was visible when encased in them. They were turned up six inches at the bottom, and when they reached his arm-pits, Uncle Eben tied them with a piece of clothes-line while the remaining length fell over in a ruffle. When new, they had been brown in color, but frequent washings had turned them a slight yellow, and they were ornamented with patches of lime and plaster. "Now," said Uncle Eben, "with something to save your coat-sleeves you'll be ready for work." And he brought out a pair of blue and white butcher's sleeves. When these were drawn on, Tom would have laughed, had the gift been given him to see himself as others saw him, but happily, he was thinking about the work, and to Uncle Eben the outward appearance was nothing. The cellar was large and quite light, and, being floored with brick, was quite comfortable. In one corner was an old-fashioned, wide-mouthed oven, where the weekly baking of the family was done. Near it was the long, hanging shelf with a cloth covering it and reaching over the sides, and Tom imagined the bumps in the cloth represented the cakes, puddings, and pies underneath. "Here's the potatoes," said Uncle Eben as they came to a part of the cellar devoted to vegetables. "The little and specked ones put in the basket and carry to the feed-bin in the barn. The good-sized and fair ones put in the barrels." Then he fell to sorting with great energy; and Tom, watching his movements a few minutes, was able to take up the work. All went well until he was returning from the barn for the third time, when he heard a derisive shout from the store on the opposite side of the street. Looking up he saw his Cousin Jack coming as fast as paroxysms of laughter would allow. This was unexpected and Tom felt suddenly ashamed and frightened. His first thought was to drop the basket, take to his heels, and find a hiding-place in the barn. But it was too late. Jack was in the yard and so overcome with the ludicrous appearance of his cousin that he sat down on the chopping-log in the wood-pile and laughed so long and loud that it brought Uncle Eben half-way up the cellar steps to see what was happening. "Oh, my eyes!" exclaimed Jack. "What a figure! I knew your old yellow copy-book took root this noon, but to think you should bloom out in it so soon, is a little too much for me!" and fresh laughter shook him until he rolled off the block and down the slanting wood-pile. "Charity!" called Uncle Eben to his wife, "get ready a kettle of water, and have it reasonably hot. Here's a boy in a fit!" Jack picked himself up at this, and walked off a little distance. "'Industry need not wish,'" he quoted, "and certainly it need not," he continued, "if it rigs its followers in that style. Good-day, my sunflower!" and with a taunting bow he left the yard. Tom turned back to the cellar. The work was left, but the pleasure he had felt in it was all gone. For the first time he was comprehending what a joke may be from the victim's stand-point. "Has he been so long?" inquired the old man. "Been? been how?" asked Tom not understanding. "Why, foolish-like—lacking in sense." "It was not that," answered Tom, unwilling to accept the doubtful comfort of leaving a false impression about Jack. "He was laughing at my looks. He is very smart." "A poor way of showing it then, is all I can say; but I'd rather be on your side the joke than his." "But I never thought it hurt so to be on the wrong side," said Tom. "Not the wrong side at all, my boy," said Uncle Eben, "and you'll find, as you go along through life, you'll have to take many a hurt and carry many a sore spot if you hold to the right. Why I'm way past eighty, and the other evening I went down to the meeting of the Common Council—all those city fellows, you know, who are ruining the place with their extravagance. I tried to remonstrate with them as a Christian and a citizen, and what do you think they did but laugh and hiss, and ask for a pattern of my hat." "Yes," said Tom, "I read about it in the paper, and Uncle Dalton said you were right, and the people would see it some day." "Well, I hope so; and my advice is, never be ashamed when you know you are right." "But what if you can't help it?" asked Tom, who was in just this trying position, and had experienced shame, anger, and many conflicting emotions, in which he knew the evil outbalanced the good. "Of course," continued Uncle Eben, "bad thoughts will spring up powerful fast when you're in a tight place, but don't let 'em keep you from doing the square thing. Just hold on, I say, and let the scorner laugh, and after a while the joke turns over of itself, and it comes your turn to laugh." Under the sting of Jack's ridicule, Tom had concluded never to be found in such a job again, but he changed his mind as he talked with Uncle Eben, and resolved to test the truth of his copy, though raillery met him at every step of the way. This resolution was so strengthened when he received payment for his work that he promised to come every afternoon that week. When he reached home the remnant of wounded pride sank out of sight at Amy's pleasure over the papers and dainties half his earnings had brought her. The remaining half was laid away as a foundation toward the garden tools. All this was many years ago. Tom is a wealthy man now, and the owner of a far-western ranch, but he dates the beginning of his business life from that afternoon's work, and attributes his success to the truth of the copy, "Industry need not wish."—Margaret Finley, in Golden Days. A Boy's Last Hymn in a Garret.
A FRIEND of mine, seeking for objects of charity, got into the upper room of a tenement house. It was vacant. He saw a ladder pushed through the ceiling. Thinking that perhaps some poor creature had crept up there, he climbed the ladder, drew himself through the hole, and found himself under the rafters. There was no light but that which came through a bull's eye in place of a tile. Soon he saw a heap of chips and shavings, and on them a boy about ten years old.335 “Boy, what are you doing here?” “Hush ! don't tell anybody, please, sir.” “What are you doing here?” “Hush ! please don't tell anybody, sir; I'm a-hiding.” “What are you hiding from?” “Don't tell anybody, please, sir.” “Please, sir, mother's dead.” “Hush ! don't tell him, don't tell him ! but look here !” He turned himself on his face, and through the rags of his jacket and shirt my friend saw that the boy's flesh was bruised and his skin broken. “Why, my boy, who beat you like that?” “What did he beat you like that for?” “Father got drunk, sir, and beat me 'cos I wouldn't steal.” “Yes, sir ; I was a street thief once.” “And why don't you steal any more ?” “Please, sir, I went to the mission school, and they told me there of God, and of Heaven, and of Jesus ; and they taught me, 'Thou shalt not steal,' and I'll never steal again if my father kills me for it. But please, sir, don't tell him.” “My boy you must not stay here ; you'll die. Now you wait patiently here for a little time ; I'm going away to see a lady. We will get a better place for you than this.” “Thank you sir ; but please, sir, would you like to hear me sing a little hymn ?” Bruised, battered, forlorn, friendless, motherless, hiding away from an infuriated father, he had a little hymn to sing. “Yes, I will hear you sing your little hymn.” He raised himself on his elbow and then sang :— “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon a little child ;
Pity my simplicity;
Suffer me to come to thee.
Fain I would to thee be brought,
Gracious Lord, forbid it not;
In the kingdom of thy grace,
Give a little child a place.” “That's the little hymn, sir; good-bye.” The gentleman went away, came back again in less than two hours, and climbed the ladder. There were the chips, and there were the shavings, and there was the boy, with one hand by his side and the other tucked into his bosom underneath the little ragged shirt-dead.-London Christian. The Home Circle.
By Ruth Mariner
"Pray, what are you making, mamma,
That you are so long about?"
"A frock for the veriest darling
That ever wore them out.
Is it not, with its puffs and plaitings
And knots of baby blue,
For Mabel's birthday party
The very thing for you?" "But, mamma, little Patty
Is sick and like to die;
I passed their door this morning
And saw her mamma cry.
If you could leave your sewing
For just a little while,
Could you not help poor Patty,
And make her mamma smile?" But I barred the doors of conscience
Against the pleading knock
With, "I cannot, I'm determined
To finish Ellie's frock.
With tiny points and scallops
And dainty satin loop,
I'll make my little darling
The fairy of the group."
In my heart I stifled pity
And sewed with all my might—
I plaited, puffed, and scalloped
All day and half the night.
I sewed and sung together
And stitched in all the seams
A mother's loving fancies,
A mother's happy dreams. But early on the morrow
A passing neighbor said:
"There's mourning in the cottage,
For little Patty's dead."
And now at my selfish folly
Small time to be grieved or vexed,
For of the fever's victims
My Ellie was the next!
I barred my doors but vainly
Against Death's warning knock,
And—lying in her coffin,
She wore the finished frock. —Ruth Mariner, in The Congregationalist. -The army worm has appeared near Fall River, Mass. -Shasta, Cal., has been treated to some heavy thunder-showers lately. -The number of deaths in New York City in one day last week was 159. -Key West, Florida, has sixty vessels and 600 men engaged in the sponge business. -It is said that 500 jails are standing empty in Kansas, as the result of prohibition. -The total value of the exports of breadstuffs for the twelve months ending June 30, 1882, is $176,977,496. -The census shows that the value of products manufactured in the city of New York in 1880 was $448,209,248. -The Connecticut Supreme Court of Records has decided that women are elegible to admission as attorneys. -Since the hot season began, forty ship captains have died of yellow fever at different ports on the island of Cuba. -A shock of earthquake was felt at Cairo, Ill., on Thursday, July 20, lasting ten seconds. It passed northwest. -Fifteen persons were drowned by the sinking of the steamboat John Wilson, in the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana, Sunday, July 16. -The Apaches are rampant in Arizona again, and are committing their usual depredations. A number of persons have been massacred. -The Providence Press suggests that as Congress is in the Chinese prohibition business it ought to prohibit the Chinese fire-cracker. We coincide. -The loss on merchandise in New York, in consequence of the delay in handling, caused by the freight-handlers’ strike, is estimated at $1,000,000. -The Darwin Memorial Fund in London now amounts to more than £12,000, which will be expended in the erection of a marble statue of Darwin. -A fire raged for seven hours in Smyrna, Asia Minor, the 19th inst. Fourteen hundred houses were destroyed, and 6,000 persons rendered homeless. Only one life was lost. -The Walker Nail Factory has secured a site for their works at the foot of Market Street, Oakland, and will commence the erection of their buildings early next month. -Golden Gate Academy, Oakland, has been relieved of all embarrassment by the gift of $50,000 from Moses Hopkins, and will henceforth be known as Hopkins Academy. -Bradlaugh and three other defendants connected with the publication of the Free Thinker have been committed for trial on a charge of publishing blasphemous libels. -Mrs. Lincoln died on the 17th inst., and was buried in the vault at the Lincoln Monument, Springfield, Ill. All business in Springfield was suspended on the day of the funeral. -A terrible fire occurred in Fresno, Sunday evening, July 23. About fifty houses were burned, most of them business houses, including five hotels. The loss is about $200,000. -President Barrios, of Guatemala, is now in Washington. It is understood that he wishes the United States aid in bringing about a union of the Central American States. -It is encouraging to learn that a man in Virginia, who lately murdered another man in a duel, has been held for murder, without bail. It is a sign that the “code” is falling into disrepute. -A severe shock of earthquake, lasting two minutes, was felt at Mexico, the 19th inst. Many walls in the city fell. The national and municipal palaces and the chapel of the cathedral were slightly injured. -The complete returns from Iowa show a majority of 29,751 for the prohibition amendment. Of the ninety-nine counties in the State, seventy-four gave majorities for the amendment, twenty-four against it, and one a tie vote. -A deluge of rain has occurred in Bohemia and the destruction of property and crops is incalculable. The bodies of forty-seven persons, who were drowned, have been recovered. A large part of the harvest in Bohemia is destroyed. -The Siamese Government is sending a representative to this country for the first time. This action will be taken on the recommendation of General Grant when he visited Siam, and on receipt of the information that this government had appointed a representative to that country. -An illustration of the slow progress of legislation on private claims occurred last week. Phillip Reich, aged eighty-two, visited Washington and found Congress wrestling with the same bill that it was considering when he was there over sixty years ago, it being a Spanish war claim of R. R. Meade. -A fight between two human brutes in New York, last week, was witnessed by 15,000 people, whose presence was sanctioned by the police who were present to see that the fight was conducted decently. Fully as many more people were unable to gain admittance. And yet we send missionaries to the heathen! -The experiences of the Jeannette party are cited to prove that education makes men able to endure hardships. Of the twelve men in the party after Ninderman and Noros left it, the eight sailors died first, leaving still alive the three men of education, De Long, Amber, and Collins, and the Chinese cook. In the Melville party, all the sailors were first unfitted for duty. -A native Chinese journal informs its readers that the story recently circulated that the Kaiping coal mines had been closed is untrue. It is added that more and more coal is being taken from them daily, and that the prospects are good. It is stated, however, that the copper mines will be closed, as they interfere with the repose of the soul of the mother of the present Emperor, being too near the Imperial mausoleum. -Second Assistant Postmaster-General Elmer reports that the star service in the Pacific section is now in operation at a cost of 94.78 per cent. cheaper than under the former contracts, and also that the per mile is 49.10 per cent. less. These figures represent a saving of over $2,000,000 annually in a contract term of four years. The section of country referred to embraces localities, the star service for which is now under discussion in the star-route trials. -The Chronicle makes a statement of Egypt’s liabilities and assets, showing the former to be $460,490,000, and the revenues at least $10,000,000 short of the expenditures, and steadily declining. From these facts it draws the conclusion that Egypt is a bankrupt power, and that no one can save the foreign bondholders but the substitution of European population and methods in place of Oriental. -Among the arrivals in San Francisco on the steamer Granada were four Arab merchants from Jerusalem, who came with the intention of opening an establishment here for the sale of Turkish goods and curios, under the firm name of Bicharar, Michel & Co. The Arabs not only speak English fluently, but claim to speak all of the principal languages. As they wear their native costume, consisting of a long, bright-colored gown, or kibir, and fir head-dress, a cone-shaped cap of red cloth, they naturally attract a great deal of attention. —Father Gavazzi is now in London, pleading for the Free Church of Italy. —A congregation of Chickasaw Indians lately gave $400 to foreign missions. —There are more than 6,000,000 children in America outside of any direct Sunday-school influence. —Walter C. Jones, an Englishman, has just given $360,000 for the religious missions in Japan and China. —During the preaching of Mr. Barnes, the revivalist, in Frankfort, Ky., 1,249 persons were enrolled as converted. —At the Seventh-day Adventist camp-meeting in Parker, Dakota, July 2, services were held in English, German, and Danish. —The Chinese Sunday-school of Mount Vernon Church, Boston, numbers 110, and is increasing so rapidly that it is difficult to find teachers. —The number of tracts given out by the London Religious Tract Society during the eighty-three years of its corporative existence, is 2,099,210,520. —For the first time in the last quarter of a century, Calvary Presbyterian Church, in San Francisco, is entirely free from debt, with a balance in the treasury. —In the report given at the fortieth anniversary of the Sunday-school of the South Congregational Church, New Britain, Conn., it was stated that four-fifths of those who united with that church on confession of faith had come up from the Sunday-school. —Rev. Geo. O. Barnes, the Kentucky revivalist, closed his work in Frankfort by baptizing thirty-three converts who were convicts in the penitentiary. The men were placed in wagons and taken to the river and baptized, being surrounded all the time by guards armed with rifles. —Rev.(?) Geo. C. Miln, who was too “liberal” even for the most “liberal” Unitarian Church in Chicago, succeeds Prof. Swing as editor of the Alliance. That journal now announces that it “now drops entirely its religious character.” This announcement the Christian at Work thinks was, under the circumstances, entirely superfluous. —The Methodist ministers of Providence, R. I., recently discussed the subject of ordaining women. The presiding elder said that he did not object so much to their preaching, but there were other things involved which they could not do; and one of these was to baptize by immersion. That ought not to be any objection among the Methodists. —A recent report says that the aggregate attendance on the Chinese mission schools in this State was larger during June than ever before. The number of names of pupils on the roll was 908. The average attendance was 437—the largest average ever reached. The total number of pupils who have been enrolled from September 1 to June 30 was not less than 2,152. —A Methodist minister of Toronto, recently preached a sermon on “Life Insurance,” advising every man to secure a policy. The subject of securing life is a good one for a sermon; but in this part of the country people need far less urging to secure the benefits of this life, than they do to secure those of the life to come. That minister should read Matt. 6:23, and then preach again. —At the Connecticut State Sunday-school Convention, Mr. Joseph Tomlinson, Statistical Secretary, reported that there were in Connecticut 1,018 Sunday-schools; officers and teachers, 17,700; whole number of children and adults in Sunday-school, 133,620; average per cent. not attending any Sunday-school, 42.5. The expense of carrying on Sunday-schools was $83,295. The amount given by 385 schools for benevolent purposes was over $45,000, an average of over $116 apiece. —The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, of Brooklyn, N. Y., have succeeded in having a matron attached to the police station-houses. During the past month she has met 210 women and girls in her official capacity. She finds homes for such as can, and visits them in their homes, making them feel that they are objects of friendly oversight. Especial attention is given to young girls who are arrested for the first time, and the success of the movement has proved the wisdom of its originators. —When the Democratic Convention pledged the party in California to work for the repeal of the Sunday Law, it was freely stated that Democrats would not “scratch” their ticket, and therefore no fears were entertained of losing the church vote. But the California Christian Advocate says: “The Pacific Methodist, the Rev. H. W. Featherstun, Presiding Elder of San Francisco district, and all of the preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church South that we have seen or heard from, very positively declare that they will not vote for men who are pledged to repeal our Sunday Law.” Our Publications in England.
By Editor
ANY of the books, pamphlets, and tracts issued at this Office may be obtained of Eld. J. N. Loughborough, Ravenswood, Shirley Road, Southampton, England, who will furnish Catalogues, and give prices in English money. He will also receive subscriptions for our periodicals.