ody not have been buried with full
rites as required for the laying of the spirit. Most subtly has the
enemy caused many a man's downfall when his unmarried daughter has died,
and he has found himself confronted with angry relatives and irate
villagers, when he proposed to bury the body with the deceased of his
own family. By the rule of ancient custom a spirit bridegroom should be
found for this girl, or, as an unattached spirit, she will inevitably
return to her neglectful relatives and trouble them in numberless ways
in order to bring her pitiful condition to their remembrance. In one
way, and one way only, can the ghost be pacified. A bridegroom of
suitable age, likewise deceased, must be found, and all marriage
ceremonies be conducted with due pomp, a memorial tablet being placed in
the scarlet chair in which the bride should have sat. Clothes,
furniture, and presents, all made of paper, go with the chair to the
home of the deceased bridegroom, and are there received by living bridal
attendants. A feast is spread, and all make merry until a few hours
later when mourning apparel is donned, and to the sound of wailing two
coffins are placed side by side in the family tomb. The paper clothes,
presents, and marriage-contract are burned, and thus ascend in smoke to
the spirit world. The bodies may have been kept for years before a
suitable match could be made, but from the day of the funereal nuptials
the two families regard themselves as, or even more, intimately related
than they would have been had an actual marriage taken place.[10]

It is easy to say that nothing so frankly heathen need ever raise a
question in the mind of a convert, but severe persecution and the
responsibility of every misfortune that may occur in his village will be
his, if he defy public opinion and introduce an orphan spirit to the
Valhalla where his ancestors, for countless generations, have never
failed to receive the rites of filial service.

The missionary knows the importance of keeping ideals high by precept
and practice, and that his best way to help the young believer is by
emphasising the big claim that Christ makes on a man. That claim once
apprehended will create in the man's heart an everlasting
dissatisfaction with anything lower.

Sad as is the case of a young believer falling into sin, how much more
tragic that of a man who abandons Christ after many years of service,
allowing sins, which he had overcome, once more to have dom