Show old and new faith blended in japan when you understand japan heathendom will never have quite ih the old significance again the future of christianity there ile lies not above other faiths but beside them intricately entwined when japan takes on the new she never utterly neglects theold anil and just as christianity made her own the ineradicable superstitions of ancient countries so buddhism and christianity alike incorporate vas customs and beliefs held too ten tenaciously 9 to 0 be rooted out A friend has told me out of long ions and intimate experience with the japanese the story of a young manof noble blood who very early became a christian he married the daughter of a samurai and she embraced her husbands faith years tears followed of happiness then of deep anxiety and death their eldest child a beautiful girl not seven years old died af after ter a devastating illness my friend bound to the young couple by bonds of old and close affection went to the house of death the stricken fabber met olm at the door the smile of welcome as ever on his bis lips while in silence he drew back the of the inner room there was the mother kneeling and be beside ide her the dead child white as the pear blossoms without in the childs right hand the mother had bad placed her bible and across her breast lay her fathers sword naked and shining the word of god was there to guide her to a better world but while her spirit groped through mortal confines the blade of the samurai made everything of evil keep its terrified distance ellery sedgwick in the atlantic monthly |