A Drawback | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 10.

A Drawback.

AMONG the minor drawbacks to the work of a missionary in Asia, must be reckoned his dress. It is true that as the preacher stands in the city gate or at the foot of a stone bridge, the strange garb helps to draw a crowd of listeners; but it often turns away attention from the theme of the discourse; and then, in the eyes of the Oriental, the close-fitting, short coat is neither dignified nor comely. With his people, the scholar and gentleman wears a loose robe that reaches nearly to the feet. Only the laboring man has a short blouse. When the Presbytery of Ningpo once met in that city, some of the Chinese thought that the missionaries who wore sack coats were an inferior order of the clergy; the dignitaries of the church were the men who had the frock coats of full length.

We heard a lively account recently from the Rev. A. H. Smith of a reception which he and his colleague in North China gave to an immense deputation of Chinamen. The missionaries had been very active in bestowing relief during the terrible famine which prevailed in that region. The Chinese wished to testify their gratitude by presenting an honorary tablet to their benefactors. A day was appointed for the ceremony. For miles around delegates were to gather from the towns and villages with banners and music; a procession was to form, and all were to march to the missionaries' house, where the presentation of the tablet would take place. The native Christians were solicitous that the missionaries should make an appearance worthy of the occasion. They intimated to their foreign friends

that it might be well to get ready some special dress—to wear clothes of more than usual dignity. So the missionaries looked through their trunks. Mr. Smith put on a long linen duster; his colleague chose a loose morning wrapper. The eyes of the native brethren sparkled; that would do; and in this stately apparel the missionaries received the procession and returned thanks for the honorary gift.—Missionary Herald.