Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 61

38

Letter from B. J. Bettelheim.

JAN.

period deserves to be called the golden age of the mission, compared with the days of dross, of iron mixed with miry clay, the hard toils met with disdain, that awaited us afterwards. Be it curiosity to hear what the foreign babbler had to say, and the strange gods he set forth; be it that a higher invisible power had decreed that Javan (Japan) and the isles afar off, which had not heard his fame, nor seen his glory, should now for a season hear the marvelous works of God; a fact it is, that crowds gathered, and were permitted to gathera round me wherever I raised my humble pulpit upon a stone, in the corner of a street, in the market, in the roads or lanes, in Shui, or in Napa, no matter where I halted, there all the passers-by stopped, the inhabitants of the neighbor- hood opened their houses and slipped out, all of them, men, women and children; the stalls were idle, sellers and buyers forgot their trade, while apparently engaged in a higher business. I have seen coolies lay down their burdens and quietly listen; laborers lean their heads on the handle of their rural tools and rest in pensive attention; thorough- fares were obstructed, and roads and open places rendered impassible from the masses of people crowded in the space around me; none for- bidding, none driving them away, much less preventing their assem- bling as has long since been, and up to this time is, our sad case.

At the same time I presented the king with ointments, and did multi- ply his perfumes; I sent message after message to one magistrate and another, to try if possible to come in personal contact with our myste- rious rulers; and though I did not succeed in this, yet I succeeded in getting them to accept of the presents, however specious their com- plimentary refusals occasionally sounded. They even confessed them- selves more than once to be in our debt, and were persuaded that we did not come to seek our own, seeing we had much and to spare. It was this feeling I desired to see established in them, and wished to spread it abroad among the nation, lest they should at any time be teinpted to think we had a trading speculation in view. Besides, we know "a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise," and has certainly its commensurate weight even with a cunning Japanese magistrate, while I counted all things as stubble and chaff, provided I could purchase with my liberality a drop of spiritual freedom for a nation given over blindfolded to the caprices of a few rulers. The kings of the Gen- tiles exercise lordship over them, but here they tyrannize over them, and yet are called benefactors. Pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, as in Sodom, characterize the supine and haughty ruler; neither does he strengthen the hands of the poor and needy, though styling himself, and styled by an enslaved nation, the father of all.