The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-05-24


Can we not say. then. that half the pop
Ulace must be intelligent? ?
% They say we bow down to stock and
stone. Yes, many of our people do,
exactly as the Christians do l saw a
very intelligent Roman Catholic gentle
man praying for half an hour in front Of
a crucifix, and when he got up / asked
him if that was his god. He said no, it
was an emblem. We use emblems also,
but we do not consider them gods.
Does any Christian suppose that the
bread and wine you use il really the
body and blood of Christ It is only
humbugging way Of representing them.
. / want to make two points: First.
that a form of religion is given by the
Creator to every nation which Is suited
to II second, that missionaries going
from one nation to another only confuses
matters in general. The American and
Chinese people are exactly opposite in
almost everything. With you, gentle
men remove their hats in society. With
us, if Il gentleman should do this he
would be thought a savage. You shake
each others hands till YOU give one an
other the rheumatism. We shake our
own hands when we greet our friends,
and the tighter we squeeze the more we
honor our friends, but we only hurt our
selves. You take your soup first, we
take ours last. You have your wine iced,
we have it steaming hot, but we don't
get so hot after drinking it. You ask
about the health of one another's wives.
If one should be guilty of asking a Chi
nese gentleman about his wife he would
well, he would reply politely, but he
would say: She is altogether too signi-
tiCant a person to engage your attention
for moment. 1t Is of no consequence
about her health. What would happen
if an American gentleman should say
this | imagine be would have more
trouble than Brigham Young And YOU
show your affection in public. ] re-
member how amazed | was when ! first
saw a gentleman kiss and embrace his
wife in a depot. [ thought the Ameri-
cans must have 50 much affection that
they could not control themselves. But
| found cut afterward that these people
who embraced each other in public quar-
relied with themselves in private. In
China we keep our affection for private
life, and we are more careful about mar
Tying, for we have no system of divorces
Perhaps the reason Is that we have
no lawyers to show us how to get rid Of
our husbands and wives All our pleas
ures are different. / remember | went
to hear very famous pianO-pIayer soon
after ] came to America, and I sat for
half an hour waiting for her to begin.
And when she went out / asked WHY she
did not play, for ! thought she had been
tuning the instrument, anu ! was aston
ished that so beautiful an instrument
should make such terrible noises. And
I have seen Chinese musicians move
D 4 4. Il
without affecting in the slightest degree
two or three European gentlemen who
were present. But because ! did not
| enjoy it, was there no harmony III the
piano playing? And because the Euro
! peans were not affected, does it follow
that the music of the Chinese was not
good ?
. 1t is 50 with our religion? 1t differs
! from yours, but is that any reason for sup
posing that God has forgotten three hun
! dred millions of his creatures? If God
50 loved the world that he gave his only
| begOtten son to die for it. does it seem
| reasonable that he leaves the largest part
| of that world without the benefit of that
sacrifice If the particular denOmina-
! ton that passed a resolution lately that
! all adult heather would he damned be
| lieved it, they would all go at once to
| heather countries, or else they would be
! in danger OF being damned themselves.
| If it is true, we need forty million of
missionaries at once. But why should
| they talk of adult heather when one oi
/ the Presbyterian denomination has said,
with equal reason, that hell is full of
/ children five or ten inches long? But
YOU all know this is not true better than
/ | can tell you. The great religiOnist,
/ Buddha, was our Christ, and he taught
us our religion four hundred years before
! Christ. It has all the essential principles
! of christianity. l don't sec that this
/ christian religion is anything wonderful
| that il should be advertised everywhere
! like Mrs. WiDsIOw's soothing syrup.
/ What is this christian religion What
is it to become a christian take it to
! be becoming a christman. Well, BUddha
taught how to become one
The lecturer then quoted at consider
| able length from the doctrines Of Buddha,
which are taught in different Ian
guages, he said, in the new Testament,
| and continued: Christians say that
| Buddha did not lteach the mortality of
/ the soul that the nearest he ever came
TO it was in teaching the tTaDsmigTatiOn
of souls. Well, the e-Buddhists don't un-
| derstand it so. We think he taught the
/ Immortality of the soul a. clearly as pos
| sible. And if we did not believe it, why
should our religionists practice their ter
rible austeritieS, and torture themselves,
and travel thousands Of miles to learn
more Of religion, as they do?"
COnfucius, he explained, was not a
religious but a mortal teacher, and had
given China all her education. he said
that there bad never been any persecu-
- l. II. L. g..
and that Buddha explicitly taught tolcra-
tiOn for the religion of others. Under
| Christianity thousand of men, women
and children had been slain for their
religious belief " All this Is kept up
now. Even am persecuted.
They have followed me with
all sorts Of glanders and blOOdy-shirt
business wherever | have leCtured, and
the papers have been full of stories about
nv beating hotels and getting into all
manner Of disreputable sCrapes. But, "
he continued excitedly. "wbv don't they
prosecute me legally, if it Is all true. |
defy all of the malicious christians and
editors who have circulated these stories
to prove them. But, pray pardon me,
for talking about myself This perSecu-
tiuu always excites me-
With a few graceful words of cOmplI-
mCnt to his audience, which ne -aid was
the greatest in criticism, and the small
est in numbers, that he had ever adj
dressed, the gentleman, the little end o.
whose name Is Wong Chin Foo, closed
his lecture, and was warmly yapplauded--
" J. W5yH
GIVE no entertainment to the begin
nings, the first emotions and secret whis
perings of Ohe spirit of impunity. For
If you suppress it, j. dies; if you PeTmi