The American Missionary — Volume 35, No. 6, June, 1881 — John Shaqi
The American Missionary — Volume 35, No. 6, June, 1881Various
History
The American Missionary — Volume 35, No. 6, June, 1881
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
[The sixth anniversary (eighth year) of our Chinese Schools
takes place next Sabbath, April 24th. The following address has
been prepared by Jee Gam to be delivered on that occasion. I
forward it as a sort of first instalment in our plea for the
commencement of a work greatly needed, and capable, if rightly
carried on, of yielding most blessed results.—W. C. P.]
In China proper, exclusive of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, etc., there
are eighteen provinces, among them Kwong Dioung, of which the
well-known city of Canton is the capital. This province embraces
77 districts, and almost all of our Christian Chinese come from
four of these districts, which lie in a cluster about eighty miles
south-west of Canton, and 100 miles west of Hong Kong. To these
districts our young men expect to return, and many of them already
have returned. Their faith has often been tried, but they have
stood firm, and have often come forth victorious, because the Lord
Jehovah has been with them.
I wish I could tell you all about the trials and persecutions of
these converts; but time will not permit, so I will briefly relate
the story of the marriage ceremonies of Lee Fon and Quong Jo. These
two brethren went home some three years ago. Not long after they
had arrived the time for their marriages was undesignedly appointed
on the same day. When they learned of this, and found that the
day for their marriages could not be changed, they were very much
grieved, for they did not wish the ceremony to be performed in a
heathen manner. The principal rites of a Chinese wedding are the
worshiping of ancestors, and of the household gods. The bride and
bridegroom are married separately at their own homes. After the
marriage of the bride, she is taken to the home of the bridegroom.
Then both worship the ancestors together.
Within a distance of eighteen miles there were only two
Christians—one of them a native preacher. The help of these men was
very much needed. There being such a long distance between them,
it would have been impossible for the native missionary and the
convert to attend both ceremonies. So Quong Jo decided to stand
alone, and oppose his brothers and relatives, who were urging him
to worship the ancestors. He would not do this. They reviled him,
and threatened to compel him. He still stood firm, for the Lord
was with him even there, alone in that heathen village. Finally
they left him to himself to worship whatever God he pleased. When
the time came to place the offerings before the ancestral tablets,
Quong Jo turned the opposite way, and prayed aloud to the true God
whom he had learned to worship in America. He was closely watched
by a crowd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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