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[Letter from T. H. Yun to Young John Allen, December 28, 1889]

Vanderbilt Dec 28 / 89
Rev. Dr Allen.
My dear Sir;

Did you ever see a winter within this latitude, as mild as this? The thermometer stands 70 degrees high F. and this at the north side of the Hall. Trees, flowers, grass show every sign of a spring. To us at least, such a winter is very remarkable.

We have had a week of Christmas recess.

During the week I have visited a Catholic Church and a Jewish Temple. The former looked more like a Buddist temple than a Christian Church. On the other hand, the synagogue with its Rabbi in common

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dress, its quire its prayer and instruction in popular language all this simplicity and common sense displayed in the synagogue made me doubt at first sight, if I were not worshiping in a Protestant Sanctuary.

Among some details in the Jewish service that attracted my attention was the allusions to some of the N. T. expressions. The Rabbi, in prayer, said, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” He also exhorted the people “to do good not hoping to receive again” as “it is more blessed to give than to receive”. We must improve,

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the Rabbi said, our talents for “God has given to some 5 talents, to others 2, and to others, one.” Maybe what I think to be the N. T. expressions might have been derived from Jewish writers older that the N. T. itself.

At any rate, the modes of worship in the Synagogue presented a favorable contrast to the heathen rites baptized in a Catholic Church. The candles, pictures, images, rosary, holdy water, ringing of bells, chanting in an unknown tongue–all these mummeries which are so conspicuous in a Catholic service interest me chiefly from the fact

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that they give me some idea of the way in which the Greeks and Romans worshiped their gods.

This afternoon, I am going to take a walk with Jacob, an Armenian. He is poor in purse, but rich in zeal. Men laugh at him as a crank, but his honesty and moral strength make him as good a companion as many who are not cranks.

My best wishes to Mrs. Allen.
Believe me
Yours Sincerely,

T. H. Yun