The American Missionary — Volume 33, No. 10, October, 1879Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 33, No. 10, October, 1879
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
“So his mother said nothing to him till the first day of June; then
she tried to wake him up to burn the incense and offer the tea to
his great-grandfather; but Lee Foun did not get up as early that
morning as usual; and when the time of offering tea and burning
the incense had passed, then he got up. And when he met his mother
she burst into tears. He asked her presently, ‘What is the matter,
mother?’ and his mother gave no answer. Then he asked her the same
thing. His mother said to him: ‘My son, you ought to have got up
early this morning and offered some tea and burned the incense
before your ancestor; but you got up so late, and did not do it,
that makes me feel bad.’ Then Lee Foun said to his mother: ‘If we
go and offer tea and burn the incense before these stones, wood,
clay and paper, do you think they know it? I don’t believe that,
for they, having eyes, cannot see; having ears, cannot hear; having
noses, cannot smell; mouth, cannot speak; hands, cannot handle;
feet they have, but cannot walk; and bodies have they, but cannot
move. All these things are nothing but wood, stone, clay and paper.
What good have they done for men? Moreover, those who serve images,
or serve the dead instead of the living, sin against the living
and true God; for every thing is made by His own hands. And He has
commanded us not to worship images, neither to serve the dead;
but only to worship the true and living God, and to honor father
and mother while they are living. But those who take offerings
of paper to be burned up, and represent money, are foolish, and
deceive themselves; for the paper is nothing but paper, and cannot
represent money.’ Then his mother laughed when she heard that, and
Lee Foun’s brother was angry at him, because his mother was pleased
with his younger brother, Lee Foun. He felt as Joseph’s brethren
felt toward Joseph when they saw Jacob, their father, love him. Do
you think they could injure Joseph, and that Lee Foun’s brother can
injure Lee Foun? No. Why not? Because God is with them. As Paul
said: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Oh, how glorious
and powerful God is!
“After a while some of the Chinese missionaries heard that a
certain Christian brother had come back, so they went and inquired
for Lee Foun, and they entered into his village, to visit him;
and when he saw the missionaries, then he wept, because of the
persecution by his own brother, and because of the ignorance of
his relatives about God. Lee Foun’s mother was glad to receive
them, and invited them to come again to the feast of Lee Foun’s
marriage. After this the marriage of Lee Foun was at hand; so the
Chinese missionaries went to his village again to show him how
the Christian ceremony should be performed. So Lee Foun did as
Christians do. He did not bow his head before the idols, nor before
his ancestors, and neither did he keep the traditions of men, but
the commands of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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