THE OBSTRUCTIONS OF SPEECH.
There are “term” difficulties besides those current among sinologues over the proper name for “God.” The obstacle exhibits itself in most heathen languages where missionaries are obliged to use words that distinctly do not convey the Christian meaning, and educating the people into their new definition, or resort to the other awkward method of introducing a new word, the definition of which must also be taught. No Hindu unaccustomed to missionary meaning would comprehend the theological terms he uses in the sense in which the missionary intends. Neither “sin,” “pardon,” or “heaven,” for instance, would be comprehended. Yet these terms must be used and elevated as Roman words, such as “sacrament,” or new words transferred into the speech, as “baptized” into English. Both these methods are resorted to by missionaries according as circumstances indicate most likely to be helpful. This line of annotation was suggested by the following received from Rev. Dr. J. H. De Forest, November 20, on the eve of his departure for Sendai, Japan, returning to his work in the American Board Mission:— “A note in your December number, 1895, p. 958, tells of Miss Nott’s very natural experience with a Japanese lady—an experience which evidently she entirely misunderstands, as many others of us have done before getting a fair knowledge of the language. I was once at an examination of a schoolteacher for church-membership in Japan, and the question was asked, ‘Are you a sinner?’ He indignantly replied, ‘No.’ He was labored with, but resisted stoutly and with flushed face, until I asked him to please call and talk it over with me later on. At this talk I simply showed him a few of the commandments and of Christ’s precepts, and asked if he had always obeyed them; to which he frankly replied, ‘No.’ On asking if he felt regret at having failed to live up to a high standard, and if he realized his imperfections as something to be sorry for before his heavenly Father, he unhesitatingly said, ‘Yes.’” “Now Miss Nott apparently does not know that in all pantheistic lands—I think all—the words for crime and sin are not differentiated. In other words, there is no word for sin in the Japanese or Chinese language. Miss Nott’s assertion that we are all sinners meant to the Japanese lady’s ear, unaccustomed probably to the Christian vocabulary, that she was a criminal; and the only polite way to take it was for her to laugh and exclaim, ‘I a criminal!’” “So I never use that word ‘crime’ to a non-Christian in Japan. It is only in the churches that it can safely be used, tho of course it is now more widely understood.” —Missionary Review.