74
Letter from B. J. Bettelheim.
FEB.
and again given my orders to this effect, as is on record. And now once more, on getting your dispatch, I have again issued the most stringent injunctions for the people not to disobey, but to preserve the utmost respect.*
"What you further say, 'That the spies and soldiers terrify the rustic people, and drive off those who are wishing to hear the holy doctrine,' is not correct; and still more unjust is it to say that they cause the shopkeepers and people to shut their doors, laborers to cease from their work in midday, and all business to be suspended. For in this country, from the highest officers to the lowest of the people, nobody wants to hear the doctrines of Jesus. I have heard it said that when you, Sir, desire to preach the doctrine of Jesus, you go in the streets, gesticulating, and speaking in a loud voice; but passers- by, even if they run up to gaze at you, do not thereby prove their desire to hear the doctrine of Jesus. The policemen, or the officers, do not hoot at or drive away those who gather to look, and those in the shops are only acting as is their custom. We have no great number of shops, and when the master wishes to go out, the doors and win- dows are closed, but this is not done by command of the officers or police.
"You remark, 'Jesus is almighty, and his power immeasurable and boundless; who can resist his will? For ages, we in this land have rejoiced, with the rulers and statesmen of China, in learning the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius alone. By these, rulers and ruled, according to their several stations, are able to cultivate virtue, and regulate their households; and in the government of the country, we follow the rules left behind by those sage and holy men, which have been to us an everlasting canon of peace and prosperity: but the hearts of men do not at all incline to hear the doctrines of Jesus. You have in days past orally explained, and nobody has received them ; though you still loiter and hang about here for a long time, wish- ing people to hear them, yet nobody will believe and accept them. Hereafter I wish you would cease this preaching, and when a ship
* I never complained against any but the spies. Government declared that it is the children and peasants which molest me; and the drift of this promised injunction to preserve the utmost respect is that the people will be more strictly driven off, should I address them. The context of facts is absolutely necessary to enable you to read aright these official papers.
↑ We have the best reasons for saying that when a Japanese official docu- ment speaks of the nation, it supposes it to be absorbed in the wellbeing of a few rulers.