tianity is simply a unique system of ethics which sparkles, embedded in Jewish superstition. The new life, the allsupreme Lord, the surrender to Him, they have missed, and thousands miss them who yearly visit our churches and preaching halls. Socially, Japan is organized on the Confucian model of high and low. There are steps and grades which are indicated in everyday speech, and the attitude which those of rank hold toward those below them. In Christ we are placed on the same level. In the Kingdom of God "one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." But Japanese custom that forbids the intermingling of high and low is so strong that the Church has lost the active participation of many from higher circles, and others who have come to faith dread publicity and contact with the crowd, and hence never enter the church, nor obey its ordinances. The average church audience in Japan is small. The assembling for weekly or tri-weekly worship is a new thing in Japan. The native religions were content with a few yearly or monthly festivals, and an occasional visit to a temple, according to the mood of the worshipper. The Japanese mind is serious, and for contemplation, instead of a crowd, they prefer isolation and solitude. Again, punctuality is an irksome and imported thing which a Japanese thoroughly dislikes. There are few people of leisure anyhow, and their home is seldom left without some one who remains as a caretaker. Farmers do not leave their fields till the sun sets, and merchants and artisans, who know no Sabbath, seldom shut their doors until ten or eleven at night. The struggle for existence is most intense. The glamour of new riches and the interest and the glory of a wide, wide world, which has just opened for Japan, has obscured the vision of God and stilled the voice of the soul. Another difficulty is the proneness of a Japanese to reason thus: Westerners have their faults and do evil. Christianity is the religion of Westerners, and, therefore, Christianity is at fault. I went into one country district where Christianity had a bad name because it was the religion of Russia, and because of the persecution of Japanese on our Pacific Coast. Any indignity amounting to violence upon the person of any Japanese abroad would do more harm in the creation of prejudice than many missionaries could undo. The fact would be cabled or spread in Japanese papers by correspondence within a month. The lives of some residents in port cities, of some foreign sailors ashore, and of some tourists who visit Japan, so far from recommending Christianity, are a disgrace to the nations of their birth. In the grand total, these pleasure lovers and social derelicts of the West count powerfully toward pulling down the very temples we are striving to erect. Charging the sin of foreigners against Christianity seems an unwarranted conclusion. Especially do the heavy armaments of Western nations seem to the Oriental mind wholly inconsistent with the religion which is supposed to dominate Western countries. The Oriental does not pause to consider that the majority in so-called Christian lands never enter a church or cathedral. Nor does he reason that war, like slavery and intemperance, antedated Christianity and therefore cannot be called a fruit thereof. The ignorance that does not know and the immorality that prefers darkness, must ever be the two chief hindrances to the Cross in every land. There are sins and immoralities in Japan which keep many away from Christ because of the sweeping surrender required of every Cross-bearer. John said: "And the light shineth in the darkness; the darkness apprehended it not." If missionaries and Japanese evangelists, tracts and Bibles were immediately furnished in such numbers that every one in the land could have a chance to know the Gospel, multitudes would surely reject it. They did in Christ's day. John says again: "Men love the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil." Count Okuma said: "The evil I wish to speak of is that our people from ancient time thought so much of the duty of obedience that they forgot to respect individual rights, and this must be classed among our shortcomings." The power of the family over the individual in Japan is little understood in the West. If there were the same liberty of action in Japan that there is in the United States, it is probable that our converts would be double or treble what they are. Especially school teachers and officials of all sorts have a great influence over all who look up to them, either for instruction or orders. A wife rarely joins the church without the consent of her husband. One lady wrote to England and obtained her husband's consent before she would receive baptism. Another waited till she heard from her husband, who was abroad, and as his letter forbade her joining the church, she obeyed him. Even a grown man dreads to break with the family traditions and go against the wish of father or elder brother. A bright young man, who has a family, recently turned to Christ. His father's family was founded three hundred years ago, and in all the years, he was the first to confess Christ. He has held out against considerable ridicule and constant opposition. "The trolley wire attached to loaded cars would soon be snapped if an attempt was made to haul the cars by direct traction; but the same trolley wire can be charged with an invisible force that will move all the cars of a great city, loaded to their utmost capacity."* And so with the conversion of Japan. The task is so great and the problems are so numerous, that the work is beyond our strength and wisdom. But God can charge His church, His Gospel, and commission His Spirit with an *Seth Low, Hudson-Fulton celebration speech. anthority and power that will move all Japan ZionwardHeavenward. The traveller in Japan sees the exposed sides of many precipitous mountains worn by floods and tilted by upheavals. These mountains have been shaken by earthquakes until the massive granite has been cut and chopped like mincemeat under the butcher's cleaver. There are problems confronting the Church in Japan to-day which seemingly may block the way of the Cross and hinder multitudes who should travel in the King's highway. But so surely as God reigns, these bold and threatening peaks shall be broken. They shall crumble into débris. "The hills shall be levelled. The valleys shall be exalted." The King shall come in His beauty and Japan's millions shall cry: "Hossana, blessed be the King of Israel who cometh in the name of the Lord." |