Part 2 (2/2)
May G.o.d grant us the seeing eye and the hearing ear!
”Oh, they're terribly strict at that Bible school!” someone remarks.
”There are rules about how long your dresses must be, and how you must wear your hair. I wouldn't stand for it! Why, it's things like that that give Christianity a bad name!”
Perhaps. At the same time, one who has shown that he is willing to give up his own standards and conform to someone else's, even though he may not see the reason for those standards, has shown an att.i.tude that will take him a long way on the mission field. The ”how I do my hair and what kind of clothes I wear is my own business!” att.i.tude so frequently met with, both at home and on the field, is not a promising one. If we have fully given ourselves to Christ, nothing is our own business--it is all His.
CHAPTER 5
_The Right to Privacy_
_”There were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.”_--Mark 6:31
_”But when he saw the mult.i.tudes, he was moved with compa.s.sion for them.”_--Matthew 9:36
I had just come back from a strenuous month in the country. Mr. and Mrs. Sprightly, the young married couple who were in charge of the mission station, and I were relaxing around the tea table. I told about the work I had been doing, and answered interested questions.
Finally the talk drifted into lighter channels, and Mrs. Sprightly told a funny incident she had witnessed the previous day in a courtyard down the street when she had been out for a walk with her little boy.
”I always like to have Sonny with me when I go out,” she concluded, philosophically. ”When he's along I can stick my nose in anywhere I like. All I have to do is to say, 'My little boy wants to see what that is,' and I can wander into their courtyards, or even into their houses, and n.o.body thinks anything about it!”
Curiosity is a common trait, and especially so among those who are uneducated and unsophisticated. Missionaries often find those to whom they go frankly curious. But, strangely enough, there is something in many of us that rebels against having one's private life a matter of common knowledge! The one who has grown up without becoming acquainted with the meaning of the word _privacy_, on the other hand, may find it impossible to understand why the missionary desires to be alone once in awhile!
The young missionary hears the sound of Chinese music from somewhere up the street. To her ears it is weird and unintelligible, but the children at their play instantly recognize the tune, and raise their voices in a shout.
”The new daughter-in-law[2] is coming! The new daughter-in-law is coming!”
A friendly youngster pokes his head in at the missionary's door.
”Wouldn't you like to come and see the new daughter-in-law?” he asks politely. ”The sedan chair is just arriving. Hurry!”
”But--dear me!” protests the missionary. ”Whose home is this new daughter-in-law coming to? Is it a family we are acquainted with?”
”Oh, _that_ doesn't matter!” the boy a.s.sures her. ”Why, everybody goes to see a new daughter-in-law!”
The missionary, reluctantly allowing herself to be pulled along by the hand, finds it even as the child has said. Crowds of children, and older people too, are swarming in at the open gateway through which has just pa.s.sed the gaily decorated sedan chair. Though the courtyard is fairly commodious, it is packed with people, talking, gesticulating, pus.h.i.+ng to get a better vantage point from which to view the bride when she alights. The groom and his parents are graciously welcoming invited guests, entirely unconcerned about all the hubbub. The bridal chair is set down to a great popping of firecrackers, the appointed welcome committee of several girls and one older woman draws the curtain and a.s.sists the bride to her place in the yard, and the ceremony proceeds. After it is completed, the bride is escorted with much formality into the house, and to the bedroom prepared for her, where she is seated upon a bed resplendent with red satin quilts. Then the guests, invited and uninvited, pour into the room. They subject the bride and her clothes to an interested and careful scrutiny, commenting upon everything, with much joking and laughter. As soon as one group gets tired and takes its leave, another is ready to push in and view the ”new daughter-in-law.”
”The poor girl!” says the missionary. ”She looks ready to drop! When will they ever leave her to herself?”
Not until late that night--and the same performance will start again early the next morning. Why, if there were not a continuous stream of visitors for three days, the wedding would be thought rather a flop!
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