Jfolin ^ ^ .JAPAN Successes and Opportunities in Evangelizing the World Japan Rev. DAVID S . SPEN CER Tokyo, Japan THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OP THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH RINDGE LITERATURE DEPARTMENT 150 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY Successes and Opportunities in Japan REV. DAVID S. SPENCER The first Protestant missionaries entered Japan in 1859. Their first convert received baptism in October, 1864, but so hostile was the government to the foreigner and his hated yasu-kyo that up to 1873 but eleven J ap- anese had received baptism into the Protestant faith. These were times of suspicion and dark deeds. Notice boards prohibiting faith in Christianity and offering re- wards for exposing native believers were posted by the government in public places. For the missionary to leave his home at night was positively unsafe. While policemen guarded his person and property, because of the government’s treaty obligations, her secret detec- tives dogged his footsteps. If the common people were inclined to receive the foreigner, his religion, his schools, the attitude of their leaders forbade it. It needed a dozen years to allay suspicion, to show the difference between Protestantism and Romanism, and to prepare the way for any direct work. These are briefly the conditions our heroic pioneer missionaries met when they organized our Methodist Episcopal Mission, August 8, 1873. Without a dwelling house, a church, or a native convert ; with no knowledge of the language, no Christian literature, no helps of any kind ; but with God above, the love of Christ in their hearts, a praying Church behind them, and a handful of sympathetic missionaries like themselves about them, barehanded they began to lay the foundations of our Church in that land. 2 Successes of Thirty Years What are the successes of thirty years of toil ? We now have 60 native ordained ministers, trained in our schools, loyal to our cause, earnest, intelligent, self-sac- rificing, able to double or quadruple their income any day by taking secular work or government positions, as preachers and evangelists second to none in any Church. We have 34 undergraduate men coming on to help them. We have 53 Bible women who labor for the sav- ing of the women of Japan. There are 77 church build- ings which invite our people to worship, and we regu- larly preach the Gospel in 132 places. God has given us 7,000 Church members. We gather 7,000 children in 145 Sunday schools, and those children are the hope of the Church. Our boarding schools number 11, with 1,700 young men and women in them, about 80 per cent of whom become Christians before they leave our halls, and already the children of our graduates are coming back to our schools. Our Publishing House last year sent out 700,000 volumes of books and tracts, or 10,000,000 pages of Christian literature all over the land. We have seven self-supporting churches, and last year our people gave 4.30 yen [|2.15] a member on self-support, which, considering the circumstances of the givers, is not ex- celled by the Methodists of these United States. While Methodism entered the field the last of the five largest families of Protestantism, it leads them all in self-sup- port and in membership. The Broader Influence of Christianity This is a very statistical putting of our success as a Church, but it by no means tells all the truth. The broader infiuences of Christian civilization upon the Japanese nation, in which the Methodist Episcopal Church has borne a worthy part, must never be forgot- ten. Instead of the notice boards which in the begin- ning forbade the Japanese to believe in Christianity, the 3 28th article of the national constitution now guarantees to every J apanese subject the enjoyment of freedom of religious belief. Then the Christian religion was a hated and condemned foreign creed, an alien, and illegal ; now Christianity has the same legal status as Buddhism, and is protecteil by the highest law of the empire. Church Property and Mission Schools For long years the question of the Church’s property in Japan was one of serious concern, as there were no provisions by which a satisfactory title to such property could be had in the name of the Church, or of a foreign person, company, or corporation ; now the Church prop- erty may be held under legal provisions as safe aa the empire itself. Our mission schools have long labored under great embarrassment, partly because they were Christian, partly because they were private schools rather than a part of the government school system ; but recently the chief hindrances have been removed and our schools cannot now provide for all who seek admission. Confidence Restored Suspicion has given place to confidence, and it has come to pass that the men most largely trusted are the Christian men. The President in the lower house in the Diet, thrice chosen, is a Christian man, and a dozen or fifteen of its most influential members are well-known followers of Christ. This is about fifty times the due representation of the Christians proportionate to num- bers. But we now have Christian ministers in the Cab- inet, Christian admirals in the navy, Christian generals in the army, Christian justices upon the Supreme bench, Christian men heading important commercial enter- prises, and we ought to thank God that the profession of Christianity is no longer a bar to a man’s attainment of the highest positions in the empire. 4 Humanitarian Institutions The followers of Buddha and Confucius mumbled pretty ethical phrases about kindness and charity and left the suffering to bear their sorrows as best they might ; but the Christians are dotting the land with hos- pitals, orphanages, asylums, homes for the friendless and for ex-convicts, and the tears of joy and gratitude that flow from the relieved are as incense wafted to heaven. Perhaps in nothing has Christianity manifested its power over the fiery Japanese spirit more completely than when it has tamed the samurai and sent him out as a good Samaritan to establish humanitarian institutions. Elevation of "Woman Woman, too, has felt mightily the touch of Christian uplift. Confucius had no place for her. From many Buddhist temples and sacred mountains she is excluded. She could claim no legal standing, and was a mere chat- tel to be disposed of as caprice might dictate. But Christianity has made concubinage a disgrace ; the civil code, based upon the Code Napoleon, or Christian law, gives to woman her legal status, guards her rights of person and property, and makes possible her independent existence. The hardest blow yet struck against the damnable system of licensed prostitution, the curse of Japan, was struck by a Christian missionary, a Methodist, and if the Christians be supported in their effort I undertake to say that the day is not distant when they will close every brothel in the land. Developing Qifistian Sentiment But the case does not rest here. The influence of Christian sentiment in society has made a difference in the dealings of man with man. Not a judge upon the bench but has felt his moral backbone stiffen by the 5 presence of Christian sentiment among the people and even in the press. Japan has recently set the world an example by im- prisoning more than one hundred of her leading citi- zens, some of them men occupying high positions in her educational system, because they were found guilty of accepting petty bribes from the publishers of text-books as payment for their favorable opinions on those books. While American cities sit complacently to watch their politicians steal, through the exploiting of more than one franchise, the city of Tokyo tries, convicts, and im- prisons some of her leading ofiScials because they cheated in the quality of iron pipes put into her water system. 1 do not pretend to assert that Japanese civilization is morally equal to that of America at all points, not by any means, nor would I have you lose sight of the fact that the missionaries to that country have not been asleep for thirty years. No statistics can picture to the mind the widespread influence of Christian sentiment already manifest in this land so recently heathen, and this influence is large and out of all proportion to the numbers of those enrolled as Christians. Revision of Treaties and Results The revision of the treaties lifted from Japan a burden which was fast coming to be unbearable. This is the political side of the matter. From the Church’s stand- point it burst from the missionary his traveling pass- port fetters and set him free to roam at will up and down the empire, preaching Jesus and the resurrection, it changed the feelings of the government and people toward the foreigner and his creed ; it stirred the native evangelist with a desire to see the people converted ; it gave the patriot an additional reason for wishing to make his country worthy to march with the Christian nations of the Occident, and thus it threw wide open the doors for Christian propagandism. Then came the Anglo- J apanese 6 Alliance, an event which has imposed upon Japan still greater obligations and inducements to measure up to her best in every way. Failure of the Moral System And this has apparently led to another line of thought. From the early years of the Meiji era Japan had de- pended upon general education to solve her difficulties and lift her iuto a stable national life. In pursuance of this policy she has developed her school system to a state of great efficiency. With vehement determination religion has been divorced from her schools. But it be- came clear “ that education pure and simple had not bettered the morals of Japan” and this “led the em- peror in 1890 to issue his Imperial Rescript on Morals in Education. But as the rescript supplies no power to live the life it recommends, it becomes only a moral- ization.” The young men of the government schools have become skeptical to an alarming extent. Dis- gusted with the general and moral degradation of the priesthood, cut loose from the religion of their fathers and thrust into social, political, industrial, and com- mercial conditions, all new to them, these young men are religiously and morally adrift. The waves of skep- ticism, rationalism, and agnosticism have been rolling over Japan, and by many leading’ men this failure of their moral system is keenly felt anf. deeply lamented. Of the students in Japanese colleges but one in seventy is a Chiistian communicant ; of the colleges of the United States and Canada, one out of every two is a communicant. NctaMc Witnesses Hence Baron Maejima, on ex-Cabinet officer, has re- cently said : “I firmly believe we must have religion as the basis of our national and personal welfare. No matter how large an army or navy we may have, unless we have righteousness at the foundation of our national 7 existence we shall fall short of the highest success. 1 do not hesitate to say that we must rely upon religion for our highest welfare. And when I look about me to see what religion we may best rely upon, I am convinced that the religion of Christ is the most full of strength and promise for the nation.” Count Okuma, ex-Premier, laments the loss of moral fiber and says: “The efforts which the Christians are making to supply to the country a high standard of con- duct are welcomed by all right-thinking people. As you read your Bible you may think it is antiquated, out of date. The words it contains may so appear, but the noble life which it holds up to admiration is something that will never be out of date, however much the world may progress. Live and preach this life and you will supply to the nation just what it needs at the present juncture.” The Churches Opportunity This is the Church’s opportunity in Japan. Now, while her leading men stand favorable to the inculcation of Christian principles, while the minds are open to re- ceive the truth ; now, when God has, through a vic- torious war, through improved international relations, and through the failure of their moral system, flung wide open the doors, this is the Church’s supreme op- portunity. We should seize this opportunity first through in- creased direct evangelistic work. This is the Church’s first and greatest business, to preach the Gospel to the 47,000,000 of Japan, and to this supreme duty all other agencies should be subordinated. To preach that Gos- pel in the language of the people is the missionary’s highest joy. But to do this we must have more men and money. Our present force all over the field is working to the danger point. Our Mission has not been so depleted in ten years as at present. One of our old stations, 8 Nagoya, fourth city in the empire, has stood five years without an American male missionary. The first and greatest need is for young men, the best from the schools, who shall take the field, acquire the language, and be ready for leadership to take the places of the fall- ing pioneers. Then we need money for native preach- ers, not a sudden large increase so as to demoralize self-support, but money especially for new work. Millions upon millions of the people have never heard of Christ. Their minds are open. They await something new. Of religion they have enough, but the Gospel famine is something awful to behold. O brothers, why may not Japan have the Gospel now ? Is this excessive asking for a land where only one in 1,000 of the population is a Church member, where the heathen temples still out- number the Protestant communicants ? and where the people crowd about us at the rate of 300 per square mile, while the United States has but 26 and China 96 to the square mile ? Christian Schools We should seize this opportunity through Chris- tian schools. These schools from the first have been both the entering wedge and a source of strength. The Japanese are a reading people. Eighty-one and one half per cent of the school population are actually in the schools. The daily papers from the morning press fall like snowfiakes over the land. The selection of books found upon the shelves of book stores in Tokyo compares favorably with those of London, Paris, New York, Philadelphia, or even Boston. The commercial value of the English language is known, and it is a re- quired study in the schools of the country, where the children are learning to think in English. It is now proposed that the children in primary schools shall be taught to Romanize their own language in both Roman and Italic forms. Even the jinrikisha coolies often 9 spend their waiting moments in studying an English reader. But the government schools are non-religious, agnostic, and often anti-Christian. Reason for Christian Schools We must have the Christian schools for our Christian constituency, for the preparation of our ministry, and for the many who choose to commit their sons and daugh- ters to Christian rather than to government schools of skepticism and loose morals. Yet not one of our eleven schools but needs immediate financial help. For years the Church’s gifts have been so meager that we could neither rear new buildings nor repair the old. Our col- lege building, wrecked by the great earthquake of 1894, has never yet been replaced. The Methodist Episcopal Church has put millions into the great Church schools at home, and we are glad. If we had $20,000 for Aoyama we could replace our buildings and make room for students enough to render the school self-sup- porting. And the results justify the expenditure. Our grad- uates hold high positions in Church and State, man- age the great commercial companies, and serve in posi- tions of highest trust at home and abroad. An Aoyama man won honors in English Literature this year at the Chicago University. An Aoyama and later a Syracuse man heads the banking system of Korea. These are Christian men, and with proper support we can con- tinue to fill posts of honor and power with Christian mttti and women who cannot be bought. A Christian Press We must seize this opportunity through a Christian press. Here Methodism has unique opportunities in Japan. Not only does the national thirst for reading urge us on, but other Protestant denominations, recog- nizing us as having a sort of right of way through priority in opening this branch of work, patronize our 10 press and deal largely through our Publishing Bouse. The Sunday school literature for these Churches is fur- nished by us, and we are printing an edition of the Union Hymnal for all Protestantism. Many govern- ment offices and libraries intrust us with large orders. But we are not keeping up with the demand, and can- not. Mr. Cowen, our hard-working Agent, is seriously overtaxed. Our present plant is quite inadequate. We need better workmen, better machinery, better build- ings. One native church, seeing the need, has raised 10,000 yen toward a building for its use and Publishing House combined, a building which shall be to all Jap- anese Methodism what the Methodist Book Concern in New York was to early American Methodism. We need $25,000 at once to enable us to hold the position already won. If we do not enlarge, our co-laborers of other Churches will feel compelled to occupy the ground. Must we lose this golden opportunity, this chance to supply 47,000,000 with Christian literature ? Not unless Methodism has lost her hold on God. Give us a united Methodism for Japan ; not seven sickly theological schools, but one good one; not a half- dozen sickly colleges, but one good one, with feeders thereto; not two or three attempts at publishing doomed to failure from the start, but one powerful press run for Christ and his kingdom. Stop playing with the question of episcopal supervis- ion of our foreign fields, and give us one of our best general superintendents for Japan and Korea, with episcopal residence for four years at a time in Tokyo, and others for China— iarge, princely men, prophets, men of faith, and help us to capture whole empires for Christ. Japan and the Orient In saving Japan you save the Orient. Japan is al- ready in practical control of Korea. She owns strategic railroads, telegraph lines, banks, and large commercial 11 interests. J apan is sending hundreds of her picked men into China. They are reorganizing her army, are advis- ers to her government, are police organizers and teach- ers, are putting her schools into shape, are heads of business enterprises, are drafting her new code of civil law, are managing her Imperial University. Little Japan leading old China ! Why, 2,000 Chinese students are in the schools of Tokyo, and among them are the sons of Chinese nobles; and of these students more than 100 are Chinese girls. Over 100 Chinese non-commissioned mil- itary officers are in Japanese barracks getting their training for war. And if these Chinese students and these Japanese can be Christianized, what does this mean to the Orient? Remember the trumpet call of Bishop Moore ; “ As Japan goes, so goes the Orient.” Japan and Russia I would help Japan save China. I would help her build a wall so high and strong that the Russian bear could neither scale it nor crawl through it, for be it known unto you that wherever that bear places his paw there is an end to Protestant missions and ultimately to American commerce. O, that the Church of God would grasp her oppor- tunity in the Orient ! “ What have I thought of His work so dear? What have I planned for his kingdom here ? What have I given of the wealth he gave ? What have I learned of his power to save ? What have I done that the world may see What Jesus did when he died for me ?” 50 Cents per 100 Copies Series op 1904 12