Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1885 — From a Japanese Sermon. [ARTICLE]

From a Japanese Sermon.

Miss Bird, a traveler in Japan, prepared a sermon preached in that country by a priest of the country, for an English paper, that shows how similar the domestic life of the Mongolian, in its mental phases at least, is to the home of the Caucasian. The text, taken from the Chinese classics, was; “That which is evil, be it but small, do it not, that which is good, be it but small, fail not to do.” The preacher, very much in the same strain as a Christian clergyman would if on the same subject, showed how much evil can result from very small beginnings. “Take as an example," said he," the way a husband calls his wife. Should he summon her with a pleasant ‘Here, good wife,’ she will reply with a soft “Ay, ay.’ “Now take the opposite case. “Husband—What are you pottering about there ? Just stir about will you ? These short days, too! “Wife—l know the days are short, and that is just it. If any one comes to ,the door I have to answer, and the washing to do besides, and I havent five or six hands to do it, have I ? “Husband—Are you going to give your husband any of your ill chat? “Wife—Well, what are you doing hugging that fire box all, instead of lending me a helping hand now and then? “Husband—What’s that ? Now, look here. . I’m not an ox, I’ll have you know. You are not going to put your rope through my nose and lead me all over the place.” And so they go on. He, a fine strapping young fellow, and she a sweet-looking young girl, now red, now green with passion. “Such a hubbub,” the preacher says, “all for want of a litt e care over the small politeness of daily life.” Human nature seems very like the world over, and one feels as if this quarreling was a sarlly faithful copy of what one might hear in an American cottage where things had gone wrong, and the Christian maxim bad been forgotten : “Bear ye one another’s burdens.”—Phrenological Journal.