The Cross in Japan

PREFACE

'N writing the chapters of this book, I have kept in mind the ordinary reader at home and have tried to

give him a bird's-eye view of the whole missionary situation in Japan as one missionary sees it. I have also endeavoured to give information for those who are eager to know more of Japan and of the Gospel's conquests in these Islands. The book has been written in the hope that praise may ascend to God for the victories attained, and that intercession may be offered for the final triumph. That it might make some contribution, if ever so little, in stimulating some other life in mission endeavour, has been my chief inspiration in venturing before the public as an author. I have been especially desirous to influence young men and young women who ought to become Student Volunteers and those, also, whom God has blessed with wealth, who feel accountable to Him as stewards. The great world problem of to-day is the problem of the spread of Christianity, that a growth in righteousness and godliness may be rapid and universal enough to overtake and equalize the spread among all nations, of worldly wisdom, material power, discontent, and revolutionary ideas. Every contribution of a life or a fortune to missions is a direct contribution towards the peace, the tranquillity, and the well-being of the entire world.

Our day of Gospel opportunity has never been equalled and no man can say that the day will be forever protracted. Within a few decades, Asia will be covered with a network of railways which will bring to the dwellers of the most remote forest, mountain, or desert oasis all the accessories of our material civilization. The out

come will be that large sections of Asia, now dependent, will become politically independent, with their own schools, their own riches, their own industries, their own armies, all of which will beget a consciousness of power mixed with pride, which may contribute to a revival of idolatry readapted to satisfy Oriental reflections and traditions.

To-day, these millions are teachable, and society, for the most part, is in a plastic condition. The missionary may go almost anywhere; he will be protected and unmolested and he will be given a respectful, if not an enthusiastic, hearing. But, a few years hence, great changes may come! A few decades hence, and a billion in Asia will be thoroughly awakened, and if they awake to look upon the Crucified, the church must hasten to improve her heaven-given mission to exalt her Lord.

Because my lot has been cast in Japan, I have not tried to make the impression that Japan is the only mission field. However, I am deeply convinced that Japan, sentimentally, is just now affecting Asia more than does any other nation, Oriental or Occidental. The Christianizing, therefore, of Japan would be a mighty leverage in the final Christianization of all of Asia.

Though I have not written a book to please my fellowmissionaries, nor the Japanese, I confess that my admiration for both has grown during the reading and correspondence incident to preparing this manuscript. None will notice the defects of my book more than the missionaries, and yet I know that none will be more indulgent. The more I know of the history and environment of the Japanese, the more I love them. The more I mix with them in the city and in the country, the more I see that the fiction of a great divergence between the East and the West is not only a miserable fiction, but it is a mischievous and hurtful fiction.

I had hoped to mention every person who had in any way assisted me in the preparation of this book. I

have preserved the names, but the greater number I can only mention en masse.

My chief debt of gratitude is to B. C. Deweese, of Lexington, Kentucky, for reading the proof sheets. My debt for instruction during college days is thus enlarged by this act of kindness which is very much appreciated. I am not forgetful that it was Stephen J. Corey, a Secretary of the Foreign Christian Missionary Society, and my wife, who persuaded me to write the book. I thank them both, notwithstanding the hours it has taken. I am grateful to J. H. Pettee and J. G. Dunlop for their contributed articles, written by request, which are printed in the Appendix. The map of Japan is the map published by the "Welcome Society of Japan." Special permission to use it was granted by K. Oshida, the Secretary of the Society. I most respectfully acknowledge my obligations to him as well as to Baron E. Shibuzawa, a Vice-President of the Society, for his intervention on my behalf. In soliciting information, perhaps I have taxed no one more than I have Gilbert Bowles. I will long remember his uniform kindness. Some of the pictures are from photographs donated by the Methodist Publishing House of Tokyo, and to them I acknowledge my indebtedness. The files of the Japan Evangelist and the issues of The Christian Movement have furnished much useful information which, for the most part, I have acknowledged in footnotes. I am especially grateful to John L. Dearing, editor of The Christian Movement in Japan, for furnishing the folded table of statistics to be found in the Appendix.

I have left off honorary titles because they do not appeal to the ordinary man. It should be honour enough for any missionary to speak of him as we speak of Wm. Carey, David Livingstone, Alexander Duff, John R. Mott, Robt. E. Speer, or A. McLean.

TOKYO.

FRED E. HAgin.