To Which Do You Belong?
By Rev. J. G. G. BOMPAS, Weihwei, Honan
THE Chinese have two ways of expressing
their age. One way is by saying how many
years old they are. or more simply by saying
they are "over thirty." or "over forty." as the case may be. The other way is by telling what animal
they belong to. There are twelve animals in the cycle, and each
animal stands for every twelfth year in rotation;
and a person is said to belong to the animal in whose year he happens to he horn. For instance,
if a man was horn in 18S4. then lie belongs to the
monkey. So when a man tells you he belongs to the monkey, you can pretty well guess his age,
for lie must have been horn either in 1884, or else
twelve or twenty-four years before or after that
date. The twelve animals are: —rat. ox. tiger.
hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, fowl.
dog, pig.
To which do you belong : But thai is not my story. 1 want to tell about
a little girl.
Eight or ten little girls were playing together one afternoon, all from unenlightened homes,
except one, and her parents were Christians. She
CHINA'S MILLIONShad received some Christian teaching at home, andthough she was only nine years old she hadalready learned about Jesus. She knew that lie
was her Savior and that she belonged to Him.
But she was a shy little thing, and had nevertold her playmates, because she was afraid theywould laugh at her.
This afternoon they had played every game theycould think of. and when they had nothing else to do the_\- all sat down in a row and began to tell their ages.
That is. each told what animal she belonged to.
1 belong to the monkey." said the first. "I belong to the rat." said the second.
"! belong to the sheep."
"1 belong to the dog."
And so on, down the line. Our little Christian girl was sitting at the end of
the row, and when her turn came she hesitated a mi iment.
It was on the point of her tongue to follow the
Others and say. "1 belong to tin- pig." But somehow the words would not come out; for she knewin her heart that she belonged to One who loved
her, and not to the pig.
So she s.aid very quietly, but loud enough for
them all to hear: "I belong to Christ!"