The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-01-05

| groom IN tohou tnob lucy WcIo W "
bound together for life. Then some
silk strings were wound arount
the couple, now around THU
one and now around that
Then the groom threw handful OF
rice across the curtain on the head Of
the bride, and the bride responded by
throwing handful of rice across the
curtain on the head of the groom.
Thereupon the curtain dropped, and
the brides chair was removed and put
beside that of the groom. Then q
priest of the Parsee religion arose and
faced the couple. Before the priest
was placed a platter Of rice. He began
to address the young man and woman.
We could not hear word. but we un-
derstoood just as well as If we had heard.
Ever and anon he punctuated his
ceremony by handful of rice,
which he picked up from the plat
ter and flung now toward the groom
and now toward the bride. The
ceremony went on unfortunately. We
wanted to hear the conclusion, but
were told that the ceremony would 60
on for long while, indeed that 1t
would not conclude until Q o'clock in
the morning, and this was only be-
! tween and 8 o'clock in the evening.
! There would be recess after awhile
in the ceremony, but it would be taken
up again in earnest at half past 12. Wo
enjoyed what we had seen, but felt in
capacitated for six more hours of we'd
ding ceremony. Silently wishing the
couple happy life in each others COM
panionship, we pressed our way through
the throng of congratulatory Parseea
All of them seemed bright and appre-
ciative of the occasion. The streets
outside joyously sympathized with the
transactions inside.
We rode on toward our hotel wish
ing that marriage in all India might bN
as much honored as in the ceremony
we had that evening witnessed at the
Parsee wedding. The Hindoo women
are not so married. They are simply
cursed into the conjugal relation.
Many of the girls are married at sever,
and ten years of age, and some OF
them are grandmothers at thirty
They can never go forth into the sun.
light with their faces uncovered.
They must stay at home. All
styles of maltrea tment are theirs.
If they become Christians, they become
outcasts. A missionary told me in In.
dia of a Hindoo woman who became Q
Christian. She had nine children. Her
husband was over seventy years of age.
And yet at her Christian baptism he
told her to go, and she went out home.
less. AS long as woman is down India
will be down. No nation was ever ele-
waited except through the elevation of
woman. Parsee marriage is an i'm.
provement on Hindoo marriage, but
Christian marriage is an improvement
on Parsee marriage.
A fellow-traveler in India told me he
had been writing to his home in Eng
land trying to get law passed that no
white woman could be legally married
in India until she had been there six
months. Admirable law would that
be! II a white woman saw what mar
ried life with q Hindoo Is she would
never undertake it. Of with the thick
and ugly veil from woman's facet Of
with the crushing burdens from her
shoulder! Nothing but the gospel of
Jesus Christ will ever make life in
India what 1t ought to be.
But what an afternoon of contrast
In Bombay we experienced! From the
temple of silence to the temple Of
hilarity. From the vultures to the
doves From mourning to laughter.
From gathering shadows to cleaning
lights. From obse1uies to wedding.
But how much of our lives is made up
nf sAI
in the same pocket and read from them
in the same hour the liturgy Of the
dead and the ceremony of espousals.
And so the tear meets the smile, and
the dove meets the vulture.
Thus have set before you the best
of all the religions of the heather
world, and have done SO in order that
you might come to higher appreciation
of the glorious religion which has put
its benediction over us and over Christ
endom.
Compare the absurdities and mum.
mertes of heather marriage with the
plain 81 will" of Christian marriage,
the hands joined in pledge "till death
do you part" Compare the doctrine
that the dead may not be touched with
as sacred and tender and loving kiss
is ever given, the last kiss of lips thu
never again will speak to us Compare
the narrow bridge Chinvat over which
the departing Parsee soul must trem-
blingly cross to the wide open gate OF
Heaven through which the departing
Christian soul may triumphantiy enter.
Compare the 81 books Of the Zend
Avesta of the Parsee which even the
scholars of the earth despair of UNDER
standing with our Bible, so much Of IL
rs is necessary for our salvation in
language so plain that "a ayfaring
man, though fool, need not err there-
in" Compare the "tower Of silence"
with its vultures, at Bombay with tho
Greenwood of Brooklyn, with its
sculptured angels of resurrection.
And bow yourselves in thanksgiving
and prayer as you realize that II at
the battles of Marathon and Salamis
Persia has triumphed over Greece
instead of Greece triumphantinR
over Persia, Parseeism. which
was the national religion of Per.
STA, might have covered the earth, and
you and I Unsteady of sitting In the
MONDAY light Of our glorious Chris.
tianity might have been CROPPING in the
depressing shadows Of Parseeism, Q re.
IL u L. a