Many years ago in Kyoto, Japan, the question was asked me, “Are
there many Christians in America?” You can imagine how pathetic
it was. I said, “Why do you ask that question?” My questioner
was a fine, handsome, educated man, one of the finest of the
Japanese type. He said, “Some years ago I became a Christian. I
kept the finest store in Kyoto, as the tourists thought. I had
gathered a great quantity of old relics from the temples and the
homes that are so scarce now in Japan. I always used to keep my
store closed on Sunday, but many Americans and Englishmen and
Germans came through here and said, ‘If you can not open your
store for us on Sunday, we will not trade with you, as we have
to leave on Monday.’ By and by I had to keep my store open.” He
has kept it open ever since, and he added, “My neighbor, the
shoemaker, is a Christian, and keeps his store shut all the time
on Sunday.” I suppose the reason was that there was not a large
demand for Japanese shoes on the part of American and English
travelers. That is a genuine touch of human nature.--EDWARD
B. STURGES, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.
(3108)
See SABBATH, OBSERVING THE.
=Sunday Habit, A Bad=--See LYING AROUND.