The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-03-17
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY MORNING. MARCH l7 1s72
China and Japan.

China and Japan.
On Sunday morning, February 10, says
the Albany Argus, the Rev. F. Vasseur, for
many years missionary at Nankin, preached
tosa large congregation on the subject of
Catholic Missions in China, in which he set
forth very eloquentIy the vast field open in
China for missionary work, and also gave
some very interesting particulars of tho
work already accomplished, In the even.
ing his subject was: "What can we do
with the Chinese"
This morning gave you some particu:
forgot to mention to you the number of
Christians in Japan. It lie only six years
ago that we found out there were Chris
tiaDs In japan. was in my own room, in
Japan, with one of the bishops, who told
me the way he had discovered the Chris
tians In Japan. He said he did not know
any Christians in all japan, and on one
prsying for Japan, when some one came
su whaspered in his ear: Your heart 10
like my heart, and we are in the habit Of
saying that" He turned to the speaker
and said, I" What is that Z" when the
other replied, 81 saw you praying before
the altar, before the image Of that blessed
every day." He discovered from that that
there were great number of those men
who were Christians, and more that in that
village alone there were 1000 Christians.
By and by he discovered there were at
least eighteen Thousand Christians in
Japan, and he was told that in all proba-
thousand there, all of them confessors of
the faith. All of them, however, were
either prisoners or slaves, and some of them
came to his house by night, and he spent
the whole of his time in both teaching
them and learning the Japanese language
thoroughly. He would write letters to the
prisoners and give them to those who came
to see him, and they in turn would deliver
them to the other prisoners. 1t is very
interesting to watch this. The bishop was
very anxious to know how they continued
in the faith, and he asked them how they
gave the form of baptism. He found when
they explained to him, that the formulary
was somewhat altered, but in the aggregate
1t was the same, the alteration in no way
being material. forgot also to mention
this morning that they had martyrs to the
faith there, and that in forty years tn ere
was no less than Is 600 of those martyrs,
many of these being religious men, priests,
religious women, old men, young men and
women, and children. You know such q
DdClOQ COmucuuS tISCil " Jul pEdScESs 1
also forgot to mention to you the number
of children baptized. in China. About
25O, 900 little children were baptized. Now
what a number of little children is that to
he brought up in the faith and rescued
from death eternal. In our institutions in
Nankin we have 1000 of these children, and
in one Attle island of Tonyn, where they
are SD poor that they do not grow enough
to keep them, and the Emperor sends
them every year rice, we lave 1900 little
children brought up by this people. Some
times q father, who has just finished his
evening devotions, will see woman weav
ing cotton and silk, and will say to her
=" Why do you not cease work at this late
hour 2" when abe will answer. 81 have
adopted three or four little children, and
have to work great part of the night to
feed them" Their first books were written
before Moses, and the book of the trans
formation is now one of the canOnlcai
books explained in the schools. There
were twenty three dynasties CT the king
dom, and you find there great respect for
authority. Last year it was great ques-
ton for the missionaries how to make the
pagans understand the great feast that we
made after the proclamation of the infalll-
bility of the Pope. They have no idea that
authority can fail. Again the filial piety
is the basis of education in China, and ac-
cordipg to that their son, during his lone
me- IL suoJeSI " paIoEuallnnuenc anu cNou
to corporal punishment, even if be is sixty |
years old. heard of an instance which will
relate to exemplify that: A man, and
very celebrated cage, more than fifty years |
old, was chastised by his mother, and
during the chastisement he began to cry. |
She asked him why he cried, as formerly
he did not cry when she chastised him,
when lie said "Ah my mother, when
you chastised me felt the power |
of the blows, but now they are weak, and
know by that you are growing old, and
will not long remain with me, and how can
help crying" Now son must not cit
down before his father and mother, but in
the morning any well-bred son must make
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