Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-09-03
Miscellany.
Christianity in Japan.

1aSSl0g one OF une larger temples, We
met company of pilgrims. Actual
sight and reasoning from experience III
other lands agree in telling us that they
are women, and most of them old
women. They return our salute, politely
striving to conceal their wonder at the
first to jim they have ever looked upon.
We would wager that these people,
like most of the rustics in Japan, have
always believed the foreigners from
Europe and America to be certainly
ruffians, and most probably beasts
Many of them, without having heard of
Darwin or Monboddo, believe all the
''hairy foreigners" to be descendants of
dogs Their first meeting with for
eigner sweeps away the cobwebs of pre-
judice, and they are ashamed of their
former ignorance. In extorting from
Japanese friends their first ideas about
foreigners, l have been forcibly reminded
of some popular ideas concerning the
people of China and Japan which are
still entertained at home, especially by
the queens of the kitchen and the lords
of the hod.
After the fashion in Japan, we inquire
of the pilgrims whence they came and
whittier they are going. Leaning upon
their slaves and unslinging their huge
round, conical hats, they give us to know
that they have come on foot from Muia,
nearly one hundred and fifty miles dis
tant, and that they will finish their pill
grimage at kominato-where the great
founder of the Nichiren sect Zone of the
last developments of Booddhism in
JAPAN was born-twenty-sev miles
beyond the point at which we met. We
inform them that we have come over
seven thousand miles, and will also visit
Nichiren's birthplace. ".SdgO de goa
rimos! Naru hodo ?" ('Indeed, is it
possible?')
We have reached their hearts through
the gates of surprise. A foreigner visit
ing Nichiren's birthplace ! And coming
seven thousand miles too The old
ladies become loquacious. They pour
ont their questions by dozens. Do we
have Booddhist temples in America +?
Of course the Nichiren sect hourishes
there? When we politely answer No to
both questions, look of disappointed
surprise and pity steals over both the
ruddy and the wrinkled faces. "Then
he is a heather - says the expression
on their faces. How strange that no
Booddhist temples exist in the for
eigner's country All, perhaps, then,
the Shintoo religion is the religion of
the foreigners country? ''No? Naru
hOdo! Then what do you believe in %
1t did not take long to answer that
question. There is no country in the
world in which Christianity has been
a,
tised. For three centuries, in every
city, village, and hamlet, and on every
highway, the names of Christianity and
its Founder have been proclaimed on
the edict-boards and in the public law
books of the empire as belonging to
corrupt and hateful doctrine; which
should a man believe, he would be
punished On earth by fines, imprison-
ment, perhaps death, and in jigOku (helD
by torments eternal. "Whosoever be-
heveth in Christ shall be damned
whosoever believeth not shall be saved, }"
was the formula taught by the priests
for centuries. l pointed TO the board
on which hung the edicts prohibiting
Christianity, and told them believed
in that doctrine, and that Christ was the
one adored and loved by us. A volley
of naru hodos, spoken with bated
breath, greeted this announcement, and
i could only understand the whispered,
"Why, that is the sect whose followers
will go to hell r' The old ladies could
not walk fast, and We soon parted, after
many a strange question concerning
morals, customs, and the details of
civilization in the land of the foreigner.
Be it said, in passing, that the present
liberal and enlightened government of
Japan, in spite of priestly intolerance
and the bigotry of Ignorance, resisting
even to blood, has decided upon the
RECESSION of the slanderous falsehoods
against the faith of Christendom and
Japan, though an Asiatic nation, will
soon grant liberation to all creeds.-
LippiRcOH's Mdgazine.