PAM. 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 ^pi^e Hoige of ttje 
 JapTalii Mission 
 
 Resting upon the beautiful slope of a 
 range of mountains in the rear and front- 
 ing a lovely bay, sixteen miles wide, is the 
 cradle and home of our Japan Mission. In 
 the year 1887 R^v. James W. Lambuth 
 and wife, who went from the bounds of 
 the Mississippi Conference to China and 
 then to Japan, rented a two-story house 
 for missionary, work. For years that work 
 went on in almost every room of the house. 
 It was in the dining room that the first 
 Church and Sunday school were organized. 
 It was here that a Missionary and Church 
 Extension Board was established, with 
 Mrs. J. W. Lambuth as Secretary, wliich, 
 through her efficient service and that of 
 her husband, led to the building of many a 
 little chapel around the shores of the In- 
 land Sea. It was in this very room, which 
 has become a sacred spot, that some of 
 
the early converts to Christianity were bap- 
 tized — among them Rev. Y. Yoshioka, 
 President of our College in Kobe, and later 
 on his mother. The latter, an ardent Bud- 
 dhist, came to the baptism of her son in- 
 tending to object publicly. Shrinking al- 
 most out of sight in a corner, she heard 
 the service, saw the laying on of hands by 
 the venerable missionary, and caught some- 
 thing of the significance of the rite per- 
 formed in the name of the Father and of 
 the Son and of the Holy Ghost. She was 
 unnerved and disarmed. Returning to her 
 home, she removed the household god's 
 from oflf the shelf, placed them in a box, 
 and set them in the back yard, resolving she 
 would nevermore bow down to these dumb 
 images. Her devoted son, beginning to 
 hold family prayer, soon drew his mother 
 into the circle of his intercessions, and she 
 in turn gave her heart to Jesus and was 
 baptized by the same missionary who 
 had so impressed her in that first service. 
 She is to-day the happiest Christian in all 
 Japan, and has literally prayed up the 
 church upon the college campus, having 
 besought God for years that some one 
 would give a sum sufficient to erect a 
 building. When God answered her prayer, 
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she declared that she could now die happy. 
 It was in that same dining room that the 
 school for Bible women was organized, 
 which has been styled the Lambuth Me- 
 morial Training School, in which a score 
 and more of Japanese women are being 
 qualified for a ministry of the Word and 
 of a helping hand among their own people. 
 It was in this home, in an upper room, that 
 Rev. James W. Lambuth breathed his last, 
 uttering the words which still ring through 
 our Southern Methodist Church : “I die at 
 my post. The work to be done is great. 
 Send more men.” Fitting words were 
 these with which to close a life of thirty- 
 two years spent in missionary service in 
 China and eight years in Japan. He had 
 a passion for souls, because he had a pas- 
 sion for Christ, and those last hours of suf- 
 fering were also hours of prayer for the 
 redemption of the millions who sit in 
 darkness and in the “valley of the shadow 
 of death.” 
 
 The property which also includes what is 
 called the Palmore Institute or Night 
 School for Young Men, and which has 
 been a constant feeder to our Kobe Church, 
 passed out of the hands of the mission, as 
 it was only rented. During Bi,shop Cand- 
 [ 3 ] 
 
ler’s visit to Japan it was possible to secure 
 this property by purchase, and the Board 
 gave its consent. The sum of $6,000 is re- 
 quired to complete the purchase. When 
 this amount has been raised, the entire site 
 and building, including residence and splen- 
 did night school, will be ours without in- 
 debtedness. At the recent session of the 
 Mississippi Conference the laymen present 
 agreed to undertake to raise the foregoing 
 amount. It is to be hoped that under their 
 leadership, by voluntary contributions 
 through personal effort of Conference, 
 District and Church and Lay Leaders, one- 
 half of this amount will be raised by March 
 31, the end of the fiscal year of the Board 
 of Missions, and the other half paid in by 
 the ensuing Annual Conference. What 
 more beautiful tribute can Mississippi 
 Methodism pay to the memory of its own 
 heroic and trusted missionaries? What 
 greater service can it render than the re- 
 establishment of this pivotal point upon 
 which so much of the past has turned, and 
 from which many forces shall go forth for 
 the uplift of the nations? 
 
 Board of Missions, M. E. Church, South, Nashville, Tenn. 
 
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