"WE CANNOT BUT ADMIRE THE TOLERANT FORBEARANCE AND COMPASSION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE CIVILIZED WEST. YOU ARE THE PIONEERS IN HUMAN HISTORY. YOU HAVE ACHIEVED AN ASSEMBLY OF THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS, AND WE BELIEVE YOUR NEXT STEP WILL BE TOWARD THE IDEAL GOAL OF THIS PARLIAMENT, THE REALIZATION OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE."

human good. While I admire this placing of so much importance on these topics, I ao not understand why the Christian lands have ignored the rights and advantages of forty million souls of Japan for forty years since the stipulation of the treaty.

One of the excuses offered by foreign nations is that our country is not yet civilized. Is it the principle of civilized law that the rights and profits of the so-called uncivilized, or the weaker, should be sacrificed? As I understand it, the spirit and the necessity of law is to protect the rights and profits of the weaker against the aggression of the stronger; but I have never learned in my shallow study of law that the weaker should be sacrificed for the stronger.

Another kind of apology comes from the religious source, and the claim is made that the Japanese are idolaters and heathen. Whether our people are idolaters or not you will know at once if you investigate our religious view without prejudice from the authentic Japanese source. But admitting for the sake of argument that we are idolaters and heathen, is it Christian morality to trample upon the rights and advantages of a non-Christian nation, coloring all their natural happiness with the dark stain of injustice? I read in the Bible, "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also ;" but I cannot discover there any passage which says: "Whosoever shall demand justice of thee smite his right cheek, and when he turns smite the other also." Again, I read in the Bible: "If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also;" but I cannot discover there any passage which says: "If thou shalt sue any man at the law, and take away his coat, let him give thee his cloak also." You send your missionaries to Japan and they advise us to be moral and believe Christianity. We like to be moral, we know that Christianity is good; and we are very thankful for this kindness. But at the same time our people are rather perplexed and very much in doubt about their advice. For when we think that the treaty stipulated in the time of feudalism, when we were yet in our youth, is still clung to by the powerful nations of Christendom; when we find that every year a good many western vessels of seal fishery are smuggled into our seas; when legal cases are always decided by the foreign authorities in Japan unfavorably to us; when some years ago a Japanese was not allowed to enter a university on the Pacific coast of America because of his being of a different race; when a few months ago the school board in San Francisco enacted a regulation that no Japanese should be allowed to enter the public school there; when last year the Japanese were driven out in wholesale from one of the territories of the United States; when our business men in San Francisco were compelled by some union not to employ the Japanese assistants or laborers, but the Americans; when there are some in the same city who speak on the platform against those of us who are already here; when there are many men who go in procession hoisting lanterns marked "Japs must go;" when the Japanese in the

Hawaiian Islands were deprived of their suffrage; when we see some western people in Japan who erect before the entrance of their houses a special post upon which is the notice, "No Japanese is allowed to enter here"just like a board upon which is written, "No dogs allowed;" when we are in such a situation, notwithstanding the kindness of the western nations from one point of view, who send their missionaries to us, that we unintelligent heathens are embarrassed and hesitate to swallow the sweet and warm liquid of the heaven of Christianity, will not be unreasonable. If such be✔ the Christian ethics-well, we are perfectly satisfied to be heathen. If any person should claim that there are many people in Japan who speak and write against Christianity, I am not a hypocrite, and I will frankly state that I was the first in my country who ever publicly attacked Christianity; no, not real Christianity, but false Christianity-the wrongs done toward us by the people of Christendom. If any reprove the Japanese because they have had strong anti-Christian societies, I will honestly declare that I was the first in Japan who ever organized a society against Christianity-no, not against real Christianity, but to protect ourselves from false Christianity and the injustice which we received from the people of Christendom. Do not think that I took such a stand on account of my being a Buddhist, for this was my position many years before I entered the Buddhist Temple. But at the same time I will proudly state that if any one discussed the affinity of all religions before the public under the title of Synthetic Religion; it was I. I say this to you because I do not wish to be understood as a bigoted Buddhist sectarian. Really there is no sectarian in my country. Our people well know what abstract truth is in Christianity, and we, or at least 1, do not care about the names if I speak from the point of teaching. Whether Buddhism is called Christianity or Christianity is named Buddhism, whether we are called Confucianists or Shintoists, we are not particular; but we are very particular about the truth taught and its consistent application. Whether Christ saves us or drives us into hell, or whether Gautama Buddha was a real person or there was never such a man, is not a matter of consideration to us; but the consistency of doctrine and conduct is the point on which we put the greatest importance. Therefore, unless the inconsistency which we observe is removed, and especially the unjust treaty by which we are curtailed is revised upon an equitable basis, our people will never cast away their prejudice about Christianity in spite of the eloquent orator who speaks its truth from the pulpit. We are very often called barbarians, and I have heard and read that the Japanese are stubborn and cannot understand the truth of the Bible. I will admit that this is true in some sense, for though they admire the eloquence of the orator and wonder at his courage, though they approve his logical argument, yet they are very stubborn, and will not join Christianity as long as they think that it is western morality to preach one thing and practice another.

But I know this is not the morality of the civilized West, and I have

the firm belief in the highest humanity and noblest generosity of the Occidental nations toward us. Especially as to the American nation, I know their sympathy and integrity. I know their sympathy by their emancipation of the colored people from slavery. I know their integrity by the patriotic spirit which established the independence of the United States of America. And I feel sure that the circumstances which made the American people declare independence are in some sense comparable to the present state of my country. I cannot restrain my thrilling emotion and sympathetic tears whenever I read in the Declaration of Independence the passages: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of gov. ernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.”

You, citizens of this glorious free United States, who, when the right time came, struck for "Liberty or Death;" you, who waded through blood that you might fasten to the mast your banner of the stripes and stars upon the land and sea; you, who enjoy the fruition of liberty through your. struggle for it; you, I say, may understand somewhat our position, and as you asked for justice from your mother country, we, too, ask justice from these foreign powers,

If any religion urges the injustice of humanity, I will oppose it, as I ever have opposed it, with my blood and soul. I will be the bitterest dissenter from Christianity or I will be the warmest admirer of its gospels. To the promoters of this Parliament and the ladies and gentlemen of the world who are assembled here, I pronounce that your aim is the realization of the religious union not nominally, but practically. We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and persistently upon the basis of international justice, await still further manifestations as to the morality of Christianity.

SHINTOISM.

BY THE RT. Rev. Reuchi Shibata.

I feel very happy to be able to attend this Congress of Religions as a member of the Advisory Council, and to hear the high reasonings and profound opinions of the gentlemen who come from various countries of the world. As for me it will be my proper task to explain the character of Shintoism, especially of my Zhikkô sect.

The word Shintô, or Kami-no michi, comes from the two words "Shin" or "Kami," each of which means Deity, and "to" or "michi "-(way), and designates the way transmitted to us from our Divine Ancestors, and in which every Japanese is bound to walk. Having its foundation in our old history, conforming to our geographical positions and the disposition of our people, this way, as old as Japan itself, came down to us with its original form, and will last forever, inseparable from the eternal Imperial House and the Japanese nationality.

According to our ancient Scriptures there were a generation of Kami, or Deities, in the beginning, who created the heavens and the earth, together with all things, including human beings, and became the ancestors of the Japanese:

Of these Deities, Izanagi-no-Kami and Izanami-no-Kami, the one a male and the other a female Deity, descending from Heaven "made and consolidated" the land. They begot numerous Deities, among whom was Amaterasu-ohomi-kami, a female Deity (“Heaven-shining-Great-August,") and ruled the "Plain of High Heaven." Having handed the three Divine treasures of Yasakami-no-magatama (gem), Yata-no-kagami (mirror) and Kusahagi-no-tsurugi (sword) to her divine grandson, Ninigi-no-mikoto, the august Deity sent him down to the land of Japan with these words of benediction: "The ever-fruitful land with its reed-covered plains and its luxuriant rice fields (Japan) is the land which our posterity shall govern. Our line shall flourish forever with the heavens and the earth;" and ordered the Deities Amero-koyane-no-mikoto, Ameno-futotama-no-mikoto and others to attend him. Thus originates the inseparable relation between the everunbroken line of Imperial blood, the ever loyal subjects, and the fruitful land of Japan.

Jimmu-tenno, the grandson of Ninigi-no-Mikoto, was the first of the human Emperors. Having brought the whole land under one rule, he performed great services to the Divine Ancestors, cherished his subjects, and thus discharged his great filial duty, as did all the Emperors after him. So Copyright, 1893, by J. H. B.