came an organized body when, in 1887, the foreign missionaries of the American Episcopal Church and those of the English S. P. G. and C. M. S., with their baptized Japanese converts, were organized into one body. There are seven bishops, all of whom are foreigners, and about eighty Japanese and an equal number of foreign clergy. Just as soon as it is possible to replace the foreigners, this church will become entirely Japanese automatically. The present law is that when twelve self-supporting churches in a district desire it, a Japanese will be consecrated bishop for them.

The Japan Methodist Church was formed by the union of the evangelistic work in Japan representing the missions of the Methodist Church in Canada, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It was after the Russo-Japanese War that the Japanese members of these three churches petitioned for a union of Methodists. The several General Conferences of the home churches consented and sent two commissioners to Japan from each denomination. A General Conference was held in Tokyo, in 1907, which organized and set in motion the new church. A discipline was prepared and all the necessary boards and commissions were established.*

The Congregational Church is one of the largest and most influential in Japan. From the first, the spirit of independence and self-support has been strong. By 1890, out of sixty churches, forty-two were self-supporting. A home missionary society was founded in 1878. The large contributions and church membership of this body is partly due to the eminent leaders which came out of the "Kumamoto Band" and partly due to the policy of the American Board, enriched by a century of experience.

* At this conference, by an almost unanimous choice, Yoitsu Honda was consecrated the first bishop. After his death, Yoshiyasu Hiraiwa was chosen as his successor.

The Church of Christ in Japan (Nihon Christo Kyokwai) was organized in 1877. From the beginning it has been ecclesiastically entirely independent of any foreign church. It is Presbyterian in its polity and has a Synod comprising seven presbyteries, extending from the Hokaido to Manchuria and Formosa. The Church has a Board of Missions, which carries on evangelistic work and helps congregations to become self-supporting. The Church has a simple evangelical Confession of Faith, and it is a member of the Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. The Church leads in contributions for evangelistic work and the Church membership is the largest of any Protestant body.

X

SOME PROMINENT JAPANESE

CHRISTIANS

We are hated by magistrates and priests, but we have planted the standard of truth here and will never more retreat.-JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA.

Each man is born a hero and an oracle to somebody, and to that person whatever he says has an enhanced value.-EMERSON.

The greatest need of present Japan is said to be an economic development, but the basis of economic development is confidence and confidence will only come as the fruit of moral and religious education, based upon Christianity.-SOROKU EBARA, a Member of the House of Peers.

If a man will climb higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the air more biting than in the lower altitude.-JOHN M. TYLER, "The Whence and Whither of Man," p. 200.

I have a Japanese friend and brother-minister who shames me every time I met him by the books he reads and the mental progress he is making. He gets only thirty-five yen a month from his church, and he does not get that. His library is only a small fraction of mine, but in quality it is superior.-J. G. DUNLOP, The Christian Movement, 1910, p. 355.

Every great personality reveals a part of what it is only when seen in those it influences. The more powerful a personality a man possesses and the more he takes hold of the inner life of others, the less can the sum total of what he is be known by what he says himself and does.-PROFESSOR HARNACK, quoted in "Modern Discipleship and What It Means," p. 42.

It may be easy to show the reasonableness of Christianity, but to instil true Christian spirit into the heart of the people is not an easy task. We can show them more easily the folly of other religions, but to build up a true Christian church requires a long time. As it was in the time of the apostles and prophets, so it will be in Japan, that except a certain grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abideth by itself alone. Unless a great many precious lives shall be spent in this difficult and great work, we cannot hope much for its results.-HIROMICHI KOZAKI, "The World's Congress of Religions," p. 237.

X

SOME PROMINENT JAPANESE CHRISTIANS

T

HE first women who left Japan for a foreign. country were five girls who reached the United States in 1872. They were sent in company with the Iwakura Embassy; their ages ranging from seven. to sixteen years. Miss Ume Tsuda, who was the youngest,* took a special course at Bryn Mawr College. For some years after returning to her native land she taught in the School for Noble Girls. But she felt that she had a larger mission, and so she borrowed $250, rented a little house, and started an English school for girls. She opened with twelve day scholars and three boarders, and used her bedroom, parlour, and dining-room for recitation rooms. Miss Tsuda's success is the old story of vision, faith, and audacity. Her school to-day, known as the Women's English Institute, is crowded to its utmost capacity and has a plant valued at sixty thousand dollars.† Her graduates who teach English in governmental Normal Schools are accepted without examination. Miss Tsuda was born in Tokyo and is a member of the Episcopalian Church. As she has spent about fifteen years of her life in the United States, her English is faultless. She is cheerful, enthusiastic, and energetic. But the secret of her life is her willingness to sacrifice, as all

*The other girls were, Ryo Yoshimasu, Tei Ueda, Stemazu Yamakawa, who studied at Vassar, became a Christian and is now Princess Oyama, the wife of the noted general; Shige Nagai, who took the musical course at Vassar, became a Christian and is now Baroness Uryu.

From the first, Miss Tsuda had a friend, Miss Alice Bacon, author of "Japanese Girls and Women," who believed in her, encouraged her, and helped in her school.