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 BV "WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFB'IS, D.D. 
 
 Physicians tell us that the road from sickness to health is never a straight 
 one. Convalescence means crookedness and uncertainty, ups and downs, 
 with ebb and flow of the tides of life. So from pagan to Christian Japan 
 we need not expect a slope of advance as perfect and lovely as the slopes of 
 Fuji San — which all Japanese maidens in neck and shoulders strive to be 
 like. The news items which reach us of advance and retreat, of revival and 
 lassitude, of the success and faiku’e of mission work in Japan, sometimes 
 discourage and often confuse us. Yet, that on the whole there is steady 
 gain, that, despite check and recession, there is sure rising of the ocean flood, 
 seems certain from a contrast between Japan of twenty-five years ago and 
 of 1899. Stretching the vista to 1S50 the contrasts are startling. 
 
 The changes religiously and morally have been as profound as those 
 wnich are social and political. The old world of feudalism has vanished. 
 
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The great forces that were gathering inwardly, as if a volcano were ready 
 to blow off its rocky cap and spread flood and fire for the making of new 
 soil, have prepared the way for the incoming of Christianity and for that 
 renovation of individual and family life which ever inevitably follows in its 
 train. We need not expect, in that land which has had over a thousand 
 years of literature, philosophy and ethical training, a form of Christianitv 
 like that of Germany, France or England. Japan’s twentieth-century 
 Christianity will not be of the American type, yet it may be none the less 
 real, none the less true to the type and spirit of Jesus. 
 
 We inherit Hebrew, Greek and Roman culture, fused in the crucible of 
 Christianity and made a new unity, which is part of our very life, in 
 thought, word, art, architecture, dress and social life. Why need the 
 Japanese accept or assimilate all this.^ Why may not their own culture of 
 Hindu, Chinese, far Oriental and native wisdom, when fused and purified 
 in the fires of Christ’s word and life, suffice for them, without regard to 
 Greece, Rome or medieval Europe.? Why, indeed, may we not expect a 
 type of Christianity even superior to our own.? Is Japan a Nazareth.? Let 
 it be so. We know, despite all prejudice, that a good thing can come out 
 of Nazareth. 
 
Let iis see what has come already. I speak of what I know and testify to 
 what I have seen. Until 1872 the religion of Jesus was publicly outlawed, 
 and the government persecuted and imprisoned Christians. One could see 
 outcasts, perhaps a half a million in number, as low as the pariahs of India 
 (^Eta and hinin')^ not reckoned or treated as human. Beggars abounded on 
 the high roads. In some provinces gamblers, absolutely naked even in cold 
 weather, could be seen. They were so debauched by their vice that before 
 the traveler could hire them even as bearers, he must buy their food and 
 have it cooked, watching them eat it to gain strength for the journey, lest 
 they should gamble it, cooked or uncooked, away, as they had already 
 gambled away, literally, every stitch of their clothing. Abominable and 
 unspeakable diseases disfigured or weakened, not thousands, but millions 
 of the people. Smallpox was so common that pink-capped babies and 
 people with the open sores still on their faces walked freely abroad. In- 
 credible obscenity of action was common in the public ?)iatsuri or pro- 
 cessions to the temples. The public bath houses made no distinction 
 between the sexes. The ordinary literature of romance, song, illustrated 
 jest or storybook was filthy to the last degree. Again and again, as a 
 student who wished to learn colloquial or even ordinary Japanese, have I 
 
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turned away in loathing from the disgustingly coarse and obscene burden 
 that overweighted the native literature. 
 
 Of course there are plenty of rhapsodists over aesthetic Japan and philoso- 
 phers out of sorts with Christian civilization who apologize for these 
 “things Japanese,” and explain them to their own satisfaction. No doubt 
 there are many glass houses on our own continent, so we must throw some 
 bonbons with the stones. Nevertheless, the Japanese man and woman of 
 to-day are no longer “ naked and not ashamed.” They are out of Eden 
 and out of their old life — so near in many respects to that of the animals. 
 They have come to a new consciousness of duty, propriety and aspiration. 
 They realize that the flaming swords of the cherubim guard all retreat into 
 the past, and that they must go forward, even though it be with sweat of 
 brow, in toil and struggle, from which surcease is far off. 
 
 To-day the signs are cheering. The very difficulties, when analyzed, 
 show that those who are striving most strenuously to rear obstacles to 
 Christianity and to bar it out, cower under the fear that its victory is not 
 distant. It is not only that Japanese Chauvinism cannot in the long run 
 stand against the ocean tide of cosmopolitanism, but it is the knowledge 
 that “a greater than Solomon” or Confucius or Buddha is among them. 
 
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He has come to stay, and He will be wounded nowhei'e but in the house of his 
 friends. His armor is impenetrable, and His might invincible against those 
 who oppose him, by philosophy that is vain and by religion that is inadequate. 
 
 For what do we see? Gone are the obscene spectacles, processions, 
 temple gifts and shrines which belong to the wreck of the ancient world. 
 Exposure of the person brings shame, as in civilized lands. Popular liter- 
 ature, though still foul to an extent known only to those who are familiar 
 with it, is vastly purer than of yore. The open licentiousness and debauch- 
 ery of former days is vastly less. Though one divorce for every three mar- 
 riages is still the rule, yet with restrictions removed that were in themselves 
 immoral, that single statistical fact which in itself means unspeakable im- 
 purity — the standing still of population during a century or two — has given 
 way to a steady and a normal increase, which means moi'ality. Polygamy 
 and the social crimes connected with it are no longer normal. 
 
 In order to discern and appreciate the coming of Christ’s kingdom in 
 Japan, we must sympathize with the Japanese and know their difficulties. 
 Certainly the patriotic Christian in Japan has vexed questions to answer and 
 tough problems to master. It will not do to tamper with the foundations of 
 law and order. In the Japanese social vehicle, even of progress, the Em- 
 
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peror is the kingbolt. In theory he owns the whole soil. He is the sun 
 in whose light all bask. From him comes all law. The very Constitution 
 (of 1S89) is his gift. His ministers govern, his soldiers and sailors act by 
 the power which he confers. Everything that is good in Japan has come 
 from his “ divine ancestors.” 
 
 How shall the patriot and Christian Japanese reconcile this ancient 
 theory with the claims of Christianity, or even of God, with whom the 
 Emperor’s ancestors were, professedly at least, not acquainted? In Turkey 
 the Sultan, as the head of the world of Islam, has a high officer called the 
 Grand Mufti to explain or interpret the Koran in relation to the acts, events 
 and public policy of the modern state. In Japan the language of theology 
 is still gravely employed in state documents. It is not yet safe for a critical 
 student to handle freely the sacred books and the long accepted systems of 
 chronology, which carry the foundation of the Imperial line a thousand 
 years before the dawn of history as known from records. We may make 
 merry over “ The Alikado ” and enjoy the fun of Sullivan’s music, amid the 
 quaintness of ancient costumes on the operatic stage ; but to the native of 
 Japan it is a vital, a heart-searching and often heart-rending question how 
 to act when the old and the new conflict. 
 
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Monogamy and the rule of one man to one wife in holy wedlock, securing 
 the purity of the home, are with us fundamental ethics ; but in Japan it is 
 gravely argued that the Emperor must have a harem, else the Imperial line 
 might, through a childless wife, come to an end. This would mean calam- 
 ity, anarchy, and horrors unimaginable. Hence, say the orthodox after their 
 sort, polygamy is a necessity in the palace. Yet while the Imperial example 
 is what it is, there is slight hope that Japanese life will be fully purified. 
 Again, to us, the idea that loyalty to the Emperor can in any way come into 
 collision with loyalty to Christ seems to saver of the bathos of Chauvinism. 
 Yet this is an argument used by many conservatives with terrific force agai 
 Christianity, which they brand as treason, calling Christians traitors/ We 
 can see how of late the Department of Education has been made the strong- 
 hold of anti-Christian reactionaries, who have tried to uproot ever) thing that 
 shows Christian leaf or bud, and to brand the Christian schools as nurseries 
 of deadly hostility to the State. In a word, it seems to be the purpose of 
 militant paganism in Japan to build a wall against what they know too well 
 is an incoming and aggressive faith. 
 
 It is needless to say that, as the Chinese wall availed not to keep out the 
 Tartars, and Mrs. Partington’s broom failed to restrain the Atlantic Ocean, 
 
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so is it true that the Emperor’s foolish advisers and silly worshipers are only 
 making a Canute of him. Let us hope that he will have and display the 
 wisdom of the royal Dane. Nevertheless, till he shows this wisdom and 
 until Japanese Chauvinism passes away, the native Christian will have a 
 hard time of it, and the love of many will wax cold. 
 
 What we have intimated ought to throw much light even on the Doshisha 
 affair, especially when we remember, too, that the trustees of that institution 
 were reared as Samurai, more familiar with swords than with ledgers, and 
 better versed in etiquette and polite Chinese literature than in mercantile 
 integrity and the idea of a sacred business trust. 
 
 To-day the problems of the Japanese Christian are mostly practical and 
 largely ethical. They are the eradication of the two national diseases, lying 
 and licentiousness, the securing of a day for rest and worship, the purifying 
 of home, the creation of a Christian literature and Christian art, and the 
 bringing in of the new world of Christian thought. The task of the 
 theologians and teachers is not to unload upon their pupils and children our 
 notions, — the output of our theological speculations and the products of our 
 fancy, imagination, taste and national peculiarities, hardened into dogmas, — 
 but to make Christ’s teaching appear reasonable and lovely, to justify the 
 
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ways of God to the Japanese, to show the essential Christ in the unsatisfied 
 aspirations of Japan’s best men and women of the past. In a word, pure 
 Christianity must appear to them not as an exotic, but as a plant of the 
 Heavenly Father’s own planting in Japan. The Japanese must see that 
 they, equally with us, are the Heavenly Father’s own children and objects 
 of his loving care. 
 
 Yet no less important is the task of the Japanese Christian woman. Her 
 work goes to the roots of the life of the family and the home. The nation is 
 made up of homes. The unit of society in Japan is not the individual but 
 the family. There is no simple word for “brother” or “sister” in the 
 Japanese language, for the. oldest son, even though an infant, is the head of 
 the house. It is always the “older” brother and sister or the “younger” 
 brother and sister. There are also various persons forming integral mem- 
 bers of the family who would not be recognized as such in western homes, 
 where the individual is the unit. With adoption so common one must 
 beware of pitfalls everywhere, who would study individual “heredity” 
 there. 
 
 / To-day the Japanese maiden has different ideas and aspirations from her 
 mother or grandmother. She lives in an age when the old stories of feudal- 
 
 o o 
 
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ism and the heroic exploits of the Samurai men and women, once actual 
 history, are to her what the tales of the medieval knights are to us — material 
 for romance. Stronger in body and mind, with more independence and 
 self-reliance, and a wonderful new world of opportunity before her, in 
 which the avenues to new industries and professions are open, she is the 
 heir of all the ages and the brightest hope of a Christian Japan. 
 
 Yet while her perspective is romantic, her outlook fascinating, and her 
 future so bright, — from our point of view, — her difficulties and dangers are 
 such as few of us can understand. Men are still selfish, as of old. They 
 expect from the woman “ the three obediences,” as child, wife, and mother. 
 Her new ideas of chastity revolt against the old customs, which justify con- 
 cubinage and licentiousness, and which will not only allow a father to sell 
 his daughter to a life of shame to pay a debt, but which may even justify a 
 student in ^ettiny an education abroad at the cost of his sister’s honor. 
 
 Yet sur\ eying the past we ha\'e hope for the future, for God is omnipo- 
 tent, the Gospel irresistible, and we and our fellow Japanese Christians are 
 co-workers with Him. Chauvinism, national conceit, and insular barbar- 
 ism, must melt before cosmopolitan civilization. The abominable beastli- 
 ness which shelters itself under hoary and venerable tradition, the sin and 
 
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infirmity that hide behind the pretended weakness of women or under the 
 age-old prerogative of men, the pride that arrays itself against the purity and 
 the humility of the Son of Man, must all pass away. Christ will reign in 
 the isles of The Land Where the Day Begins. Meanwhile let us pray, not 
 only for the Japanese, but that our own spiritual pride and national conceit 
 and inherited matters of taste and tradition, which we are apt to foist upon 
 the pagans as vital Christianity, may give way to a clearer vision of the 
 divine Christ and before a holier and less selfish zeal in his service. 
 
 'U)oman '0 Q3oavJ> of (WtaBion© 
 
 704 Congregational House 
 Boston 
 
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 FRANK WOOD, PRINTER 
 
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