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Top row: Foxes; symbol of Shinto worship; wine vase; god of good luck.
Bottom row: God of wealth; goddess of mercy; shrine and image of Kobo Daishi; idol of Buddha.
Christ
THE
Lights* the World
Ten Lectures Delivered at Foster Street Church of Christ, Nashville, Tenn., September 5-14, 1910
4/'
By J. M. McCALEB
cAuthor if
“ From Idols to God ” and “ Social Life in America ”
( _ J
Nashville, Tenn. McQuiddy Printing Company 1911
3V
Copyrighted, 1911
BY
McQuiddy Printing Company.
t * •
©CI.A283212
CONTENTS
Page.
1. The Great Commission in the Light of History 1-19
2. Present-Day Missions in All Lands - 20-45
3. The Natural Religions of Japan - 46-73
4. The Temples of Japan - 74-100
5. The Gospel in Japan in the Last Fifty Years — 101-131
6. Schools and School Life in Japan - 132-159
7. Mission Work of the Churches of Christ - 160-187
8. The Grace of Giving - 188-211
9. Reflex Influence of Missions on the Home
Churches - 212-236
10. The Church and the Missionary Problem - 237-262
PREFACE.
These lectures are the result of a growing de¬ mand. Many are asking for further informa¬ tion on the various features of missionary work among the unevangelized nations. The time should not he far distant when there shall he no such thing as a heathen nation. The chief end of the church on earth is to impart the knowledge of life to a perishing world.
Man is a creature of conquest. If his ener¬ gies are not turned into one channel, they will flow in another. The acquisition of wealth with some has no limit, for they would own all the world and make the rest of mankind their vas¬ sals. The spirit of conquest is also what has made the cruel practice of war so popular through the ages. This spirit, common in all the races, must he sanctified by the gospel and turned to a worthier purpose. The conquest of the world for Christ is a cause of sufficient mag¬ nitude and grandeur to engage the activities of the greatest minds. Instead of going forth in armies equipped with weapons of death, man must learn that his mission in the world is that
VI.
Preface.
of a benefactor, and that his own happiness de¬ pends chiefly on imparting happiness to others. That saying of our Lord, “With what measure ye mete, it shall he measured unto you,” is as true of the blessings we impart as the injuries we inflict. Henceforth we must seek riches by giving them to others, and must wage war to make alive rather than to kill.
It is hoped that the reader may catch the spirit here suggested, and by the time he has read the last page will rise from his seat with the feeling and determination that his mission in this world shall be to bless with the message of hope. J. M. McCALEB.
Christ the Light of the World,
THE GREAT COMMISSION IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY.
The commission is as long as time and as wide as the human race. Its primary purpose is the purity and redemption of man; hut indirectly it has proved the basis of union and the terms of friendship through which the nations have reached conclusions of peace and good will.
Rapid Progress of Early Christianity.
Let us place ourselves back at the source of the gospel and trace its stream down to the present time. The gospel began in Asia, as the word is now used, at the eastern end of the Med¬ iterranean Sea, in the land now called “Pales¬ tine,” and in the capital of that little country, the city of Jerusalem. It was about twenty years after Pentecost that the gospel reached Eu¬ rope. Paul and Barnabas had made their first 2
o
Christ the Light of the World.
missionary journey through the island of Cy¬ prus and into Asia Minor. The second journey of Paul and Silas was through Syria, Cilicia, Phrygia, Galatia, and “Asia,” down to Troas. Here Paul saw a man in a vision summoning him over into Europe. From the time the gos¬ pel first entered Europe, at Philippi, its spread throughout the Roman Empire — “the whole world” in Paul’s day — was very rapid. I read from “A Hundred Years of Missions,” by Leon¬ ard : 4 ' The attempt will not be made to follow in detail the spread of Christianity during the early centuries. Suffice it to say that before two hun¬ dred years had passed the name of Jesus was known and revered in regions as distant as Ara¬ bia and Abyssinia, in Armenia, Persia, Media, Parthia, and Bactria. Also along the whole southern coast of the Mediterranean, past Car¬ thage to the 'Pillars of Hercules’ [modern Gi¬ braltar]. By this time, too, missionaries had gathered harvests for the gospel in Spain, Gaul [France], and Britain. Britain and Bactria then constituted the western and eastern bound¬ ary of the church. It is not surprising, there¬ fore, that we find Origen, who died in 258 A.D., expressing the confident belief that Christian¬ ity, 'by its inherent power and without help of
Christ the Light of the World.
3
miracle, would supplant the religions of the heathen. ’ ”
Progress Checked.
Had the Christian religion continued as it be¬ gan and had it made such strides throughout the succeeding centuries as it did the first few, there would be to-day no such thing as heathen nations. But at the close of the fourth century this progress was checked. Several things op¬ erated to check it. One was the centralization of power. There were five great centers — Jeru¬ salem; Antioch, in Syria; Alexandria, in Egypt; Home, in Italy; and Constantinople, in Turkey. These five centers exercised authority over the churches and began to legislate for the church as a whole. Another thing that was fatal to the missionary spirit was the forbidding of “lay preaching/ ’ as it was called. They said the common people did not know enough to present the truth; that preaching should be confined to the theologians, who were prepared for such work. This was death to the missionary spirit; and, beloved friends, we have not fully recov¬ ered from that mistake even unto this day. We can see traces of it now in our own churches. Too much dependence is placed on the pulpit. Everything is referred to the preacher. Ad-
4
Christ the Light of the World.
justment of church troubles is deferred till the preacher comes around. This is a relic of the mistake made by our fathers in the fourth cen¬ tury.
Nevertheless, with all the obstacles thrown in its way, the Christian religion continued to make some progress, and by the tenth century it had spread east and west from Ireland to China, and, from north to south, from Greenland to India.
Eight Centuries of Inactivity.
During the next five centuries the gospel was at a dead standstill — that is, during the period from the tenth to the fifteenth century. These Avere the darkest of the Dark Ages. But there were two things that happened at the close of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth that were far-reaching in their influ¬ ence. The first was the discovery of this great Western Continent that we now occupy and en¬ joy. Columbus discovered America in 1492. The other event was the rise of Protestantism in the person of Martin Luther, in 1517. Protest¬ antism, hoAvever, did not take on at once an ac¬ tive, vigorous missionary spirit. There were still about three hundred years to pass by be-
Christ the Light of the World.
5
fore wha/t is commonly known as “Protestant¬ ism” should wake up to this, the greatest of all religious questions.
During this time the Catholics, having lost ground at home, regained their losses by push¬ ing out into foreign fields. Early in the six¬ teenth century Spain and Portugal pushed west¬ ward and overran Mexico and all of South America. They were also found in China and in J apan and other countries of the East. Cath¬ olics were in Japan more than three hundred years before Protestantism ever reached her shores.
There were various reasons why Protestant¬ ism lingered so long.
One reason was, they had little faith in what are commonly known as “foreign missions,” and it is somewhat singular that they made ex¬ actly the same arguments against them that are made at the present day.
In the second place, others made this objec¬ tion: they said they opposed foreign missions “on the ground that missions to the heathen were neither necessary nor proper.” Gentiles themselves assumed the attitude of Jews, and looked upon these people across the sea, these barbarians, as dogs. Even to this day, across in
6
Christ the Light of the World.
South Africa, where the Boers have had rule, they have placed over the church doors : ‘ ‘ Dogs and Hottentots not admitted. ’ ’
Others said, in the third place: “The time is waxing late.” They made the mistake that was made in the time of Paul of believing that the end was near at hand, and it was useless to begin such a great work as the Christianizing of the heathen.
Others made the excuse that the commission had already been fulfilled, and I suppose you have heard in our day that same excuse. This is one of the most peculiar objections a man can raise to preaching to those who have never heard the gospel. If the commission was ful¬ filled in the days of the apostles, how is it that we happen to have come into possession of the gospel! Have we not taken to ourselves that which does not properly belong to us! If we admit that it was the proper thing for us to re¬ ceive it, does that not point as clearly to the fact that we ought to pass it on to some one else! It is just as plain as a question can be that every argument we make that the gospel should have been given to us could be made with equal force as to why it should be given to those who have not received it. This objec-
Christ the Light of the World.
7
lion is one of those peculiar cases in which hu¬ man nature manifests its selfishness, which is illustrated in the old saying about the dog in the manger.
In the fifth place, Protestantism, during these three centuries, spent its strength and time in combating the errors of Rome; and also, un¬ fortunately, failing to agree among themselves and borrowing from the “mother church,, the spirit of persecution, the various forms of Prot¬ estantism practiced the same against each other. Thus we have as great and good a man as Cal¬ vin giving his voice in favor of burning Ser- vetus at the stake.
Now there is a peculiar similarity between this particular phase of Protestantism and pres¬ ent conditions in the religious world. Take, for example, the Restoration of the nineteenth cen¬ tury, when men began to step out and say: “Let us stand upon the word of the Lord as our plea, and let us be one, as the Bible makes us one.” I fear those great men and those of us who have followed after have spent too much of our strength combating the errors of the people around us, so that we have almost lost sight of the great commission. While we have been op¬ posing their errors, they, like the Catholics,
8
Christ the Light of the World.
have been pushing out into these great mission fields in the regions beyond; and now, when we go as missionaries to a new people, there they have been established a century or two already. Questions of how missionary work should be done have sprung up, and we have spent too much of our strength in showing the folly of doing it the wrong way. It would have been better during all this time to have been present¬ ing the right way by a practical demonstration.
There are two distinct elements among those who oppose the various missionary boards. Many have risen up against them because they believe them to be wrong; they oppose them be¬ cause they believe them to be a violation both of the spirit and letter of the word of God. Again, others, it seems to me, have fallen in with the opposition to the hoards, not because they were so in love with the scriptural way of doing it, but rather because they did not want to do it either way. They believe in “home missions’ ’ because this means to send every dol¬ lar home — right down into their own pockets — and keep it there. They do not think much about missions of any kind, because their thoughts are given to increasing their bank ac¬ counts and to extending the boundary of their
Christ the Light of the World.
9
farms. When they see an article that opposes the boards, they say: “That’s right; I always said boards are wrong, and I’ll just keep my money.” Opposition to societies is no excuse for keeping back our means, staying at home ourselves, and discouraging those that do go. The unquestionable way is wide open to all.
Nowt we that believe in doing it the Lord’s way will find it profitable to give less attention to the errors of those around us in doing mis¬ sionary work and more attention to the Lord’s way of doing it; let us push out in the right line and give the people an affirmative argu¬ ment. This will be effective in two ways: it will be carrying out the Lord ’s will in the evan¬ gelization of the world, and it will present the Lord ’s plan by practical demonstration, and will disarm those who say they do not do the work because they object to doing it in the wrong way. If we push out in the right way, that not even the most scrupulous can question, they will be left with not even a shadow of excuse for neglect. I believe the brighter day is dawn¬ ing when the churches are beginning to see that the most effective argument for missions is to do the work.
10
Christ the Light or the World.
The Awakening of the Nineteenth Century.
Now we come to the end of the eighteenth cen¬ tury and the beginning of the nineteenth. Here we find another marked change in regard to mis¬ sion work. During the three centuries of which I spoke, missionary work, both of the Protest¬ ants and the Roman Catholics, partook some¬ what of a commercial enterprise, or for the pur¬ pose of national conquest, to obtain new terri¬ tory, as Spain and Portugal, for instance, ex¬ tended their dominions. They were not purely religious enterprises. There were chaplains who went with the government ships, and they taught the people of the new lands something of religion; hut it was to bring them into subjec¬ tion politically, rather than to Christ. Then there was the East India, Company. They, to some extent, favored religious teachers, but it was mainly for the purpose of extending their business. If in any way the business seemed to be imperiled by missionary effort, then the company was against it. “The East India Company was prejudiced against missionary ef¬ fort, believing it would tend to make the natives discontented and rebellious. ’ ’ But at the be¬ ginning of the nineteenth century there was a
Christ the Light of the World.
11
step in advance. Those most interested in mis¬ sionary questions began to get together and study how they could proceed purely for the purpose of Christian evangelization.
The first society was formed in England in 1792 — the “Particular Baptist Society for Prop¬ agating the Gospel Among the Heath en.” William Carey was their first missionary. He was preaching for a small church in Leicester, England, when he decided to go himself to the foreign field. His brethren said: “We have been praying for the spread of Christ’s king¬ dom among the heathen, and now God requires us to make the first sacrifice.” It acted like that crooked stick used as a weapon by the na¬ tives of Australia, called the “boomerang.” Sometimes when it is thrown it will come hack and strike the person who throws it. Those people had been praying for God to enlighten the heathen, and their prayers came hack with, a blow upon themselves in their having to give up their own beloved minister.
It is interesting to trace the life of that man ; to see how persevering and consecrated he was, and to see how reluctantly his brethren took hold of the work. They raised, to begin with, the great sum of twelve pounds, two shillings,
12
Christ the Light of the World.
and six pence, or about sixty dollars, and that was tlie great missionary fund with which Carey started off to India,
Adoniram Judson is considered the apostle of foreign missions from the United States. He was sent by the Congregationalists under what was called “The American Board of Commis¬ sioners for Foreign Missions.’ ’ He was con¬ vinced on the way, however, that immersion was the proper baptism, and he and his wife were baptized by the Baptist missionaries on their arrival at Calcutta.
Now let ns consider the various enterprises that have contributed to the Christianizing of the heathen. First, there were those political enterprises mixed with religion, but not purely for the conversion of the heathen. Next, those of a commercial nature. Then came purely re¬ ligious organizations in the form of missionary societies. The latter was a marked step in ad¬ vance in giving the gospel to the heathen world. I do not know why it is; but if we study the gos¬ pel, we learn that the lower forms of religion usually precede higher forms. Roman Catholi¬ cism. and corrupter forms of Protestantism have preceded the purer and higher forms of Chris¬ tianity, and I believe there is still a higher and
Christ the Light of the World.
13
purer form that is more scriptural now being propagated than in former times. I am unable to explain why these things are so, but they seem to be true nevertheless.
Hopeful Signs of Our Times.
At the present time there is a tendency to go back, back beyond that time when the mistake was made, at the end of the fourth century, of forbidding lay preaching. Let us mention some of the indications. You are all acquainted with the custom among the various denominations, first started by the Methodists, of establishing what are called “Living Links,” or, in other words, encouraging a particular church to sup¬ port some particular missionary. I have before referred to the fact that among the Southern Methodists are seventy-seven churches each one of which supports a missionary. Many others are working in the same way. This is pointing back in the right direction to the time and or¬ der when Paul and Barnabas started out as “living links” from the church at Antioch. There are some things about it that are not cor¬ rect, but, nevertheless, these are steps in the right direction.
Also, that great movement that is sweeping
14
Christ the Light of the World.
over nearly all the world, “The Laymen’s Mis¬ sionary Movement,” is a very distinct effort to get back to the apostolic methods. Their motto is, “Each one save one” — to get each man and woman actively engaged in the missionary cause. This is encouraging; it is the same spirit as that abbreviated form of the commis¬ sion in Revelation, which says: “And he that heareth, let him say, Come.”
In the third place, you will find all over the world what are called “independent missiona¬ ries.” We find them in China, in India, in Af¬ rica, and in Japan — -missionaries who do not affiliate with foreign missionary societies. Some fifty years ago there was a missionary who sev¬ ered his connection with the London Society and started what is known as the ‘ ‘ China Inland Mission.” To-day there are connected with that mission not less than nine hundred mission¬ aries. This great company of workers are sup¬ ported by freewill offerings. Other instances might be given.
The churches of Christ here in America have been laboring in a similar manner, endeavoring to get back to apostolic Christianity. I believe that as people prove by the folly of their own experiments the wisdom of God’s plan in mis-
Christ the Light of the World.
15
sions, there will be yet many more who will fall in with it. But this is new to people in this twentieth century of organizations; we are not very well acquainted with it, and the work is not going forward as rapidly as it will in years to come.
Nevertheless, we have much to be encouraged over, and the signs of the times are that we are getting ready for greater things in the future. I believe, beloved friends, our attitude should be just what T have indicated. Rather than be spending our time and strength in fighting the errors we see around us, we should he pushing out doing the work in the way it should be. Of course we must point out error; but instead of allowing that to be our chief object, we should make it our chief purpose to study and follow the right way. Admitting and accepting all the good others do, let us rather say: “Yet show I unto you a more excellent way. ’ ’
Our Peculiar Advantages.
We are living under peculiar conditions, con¬ ditions of peculiar advantage. There never has been a time in all the history of the world when the nations were so thrown together as they are now, when the nations were on such friendly
16
Christ the Light op the World.
terms as they are now, when the nations had snch facilities for communication as they have now. Both by land and sea there is a complete network of communications joining every prin¬ cipal country with every other country on the face of the earth. Not a day passes hut the great steamers, those “palaces of the sea,” leave our shores, both east and west, and every one that leaves takes upon its decks our people. Ships also continually come to our shores, and every one brings other peoples to this land. It is interesting to go to one of our great seaports, like San Francisco, or Yokohama, in Japan, and watch the passengers as they come ashore; and scarcely a ship comes or goes that does not bear some messenger of the cross of Christ. I have gone down to Yokohama and watched the peo¬ ple come ashore from vessels just from the home land, and in almost every instance there were among them men and women in the missionary work. I have often felt sad, though, and dis¬ appointed, because I could go down to that great landing and watch the various missionaries be¬ longing to the various denominational enter¬ prises coming ashore and passing on to take their places; but one might watch year in and year out and not see a single man or a single
Christ the Light of the World. . 17
woman from the churches of Christ. We criti¬ cise others, and justly, for leaving off the last half of the commission ; but I fear we have com¬ mitted the same mistake as they by leaving off the first half, the very first word of which is “Go.”
Now, what we need is to get the churches aroused — every man and every woman in the church up and doing for the spread of the gos¬ pel, both at home and abroad, and get them so full of this spirit that they must do something. Out in California they do things on a large scale. When I was there in July, 1909, a brother took me out to see one of those great harvesting ma¬ chines. We got into a buggy and rode and rode, till it seemed we would never get there. When we finally reached the place, something had hap¬ pened and they had stopped to mend it. But in a little while everything was all right, and they were ready to move on. The brother ex¬ plained that I had come out to watch the ma¬ chine, and they said: “If you don’t mind the dust, you may come up on the platform where you can see.” The driver was ready, the men at their places, with a team of twenty-eight horses, and they said it was not a full team, either. Thirty-two is a full team. When the 3
18
Christ the Light of the World.
time came, the driver gave the signal, and the horses were so well trained that it was marvel¬ ous to see how they started out. First, those six all abreast back at the machine began to pull on the traces, then those in front of them, and so on till, like a wave, as it were, passing over their backs, I saw that great team get itself into position; and when the last ones began to lean against their traces, that old machine moved. The blade, which was twenty feet long, began to rattle back and forth, the wheat began to fall before the blade, was caught up on the revolv¬ ing canvas and carried into the thrashing ma¬ chine, thrashed and poured into sacks, and those sacks dumped out, three in a place, across the field, in a row as far as one could see.
When I saw that, I said to myself: 4 4 That is the church at work.” Whenever we get every man and every woman to leaning against the traces, something must happen. The trouble is, but few are leaning against the traces, while some are even trying to kick out. We must get every man and every woman to leaning against the traces. When we get in line with this move¬ ment and feel and experience the delights of it, we will say: “I had no idea we could accom¬ plish so much. ’ * Let us make an earnest effort
Christ the Light of the World.
19
to get ourselves into line, and never cease tlie effort until the everlasting gospel is preached throughout the whole world. I believe there is upon us at the present time one of the most thrilling and one of the grandest opportunities that has ever come to a people. I verily believe we are in the midst of that age predicted by John, when he saw an “angel flying in mid heaven, having eternal good tidings to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto ev¬ ery nation and tribe and tongue and people.’ ’ That angel, with his outstretched wings, repre¬ sents the messengers of the cross who are to-day flying with the message of life to every nook and corner of the inhabited earth.
20
Christ the Light of the World.
PRESENT-DAY MISSIONS IN ALL LANDS.
4 ‘ Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white already unto harvest.” (John 4: 35.)
In order to understand what is in the Bible, we must also, to a certain degree, understand what is outside of the Bible. The Bible applies to man and the world in which he lives. In or¬ der to understand the language of the Bible, we must understand the human race to which it refers and the world in which he lives.
For instance, in what is commonly called the “ great commission,” Jesus says: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’ ’ Before we can grasp the import of the expression, ‘ ‘ all the world, ’ ’ we must study geography. Before we can thoroughly under¬ stand what is meant by “every creature,” we must study the human race.
An Explanation of the Map.
Now this great map hanging before you rep¬ resents the world and the entire human race.
Christ the Light of the World.
21
Very properly it puts all men under some form of religion. You see, it is colored to indicate the different kinds of religion that now exist on the face of the earth. There is a set of squares between the two hemispheres also, correspond¬ ing in color to the colors about over the map. The first we notice is the dark, slate color, across which is written the word “Heathen.” As you notice from the proportion of the squares, each of which represents 10,000,000 of people, the slate-colored ones include a little more than half of the world ’s population, or about 800,000,000.
Next comes the green, representing Moham¬ medanism, a peculiar corruption of Judaism, which had its rise in the country of Arabia in the fifth century after Christ. This peculiar form of religion includes about 200,000,000 of the world ’s population, or 40,000,000 more than all Protestantism put together.
Next, we have the brown color, representing the Greek Church. Away back in the early his¬ tory of the Christian religion there arose a con¬ tention between Constantinople, in the East, and Rome, in the West, as to which should have the rule— which should have the greatest reli¬ gious authority. They could not settle it, and, as a result, there was a divide, making the first
22
Christ the Light of the World.
two sects of the Christian religion — the W estem section, or the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern section, or the Greek Catholic Church. The Greek Catholics represent about 120,000,000 of the world ’s population.
Then comes the yellow, including a large por¬ tion of Europe — Portugal, Spain, France, Aus¬ tria, and Italy — representing also most of South America and a part of Eastern Canada. The Roman Catholics claim about 230,000,000 of the world’s population.
The last to consider is the white, representing Protestantism, or those who protested. Some of these little people may not understand that word “Protestant.” A long time ago, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, there were men who rose up and strongly opposed the corrupt teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and strong opposition to a thing is sometimes called a “protest;” and hence they were called “protestants,” or “Protestants.” Protestant¬ ism to-day represents about 160,000,000 of the world’s population.
Now this is not a very pleasing picture, hut we have to deal with things as they are, not as we would have them to be. It is encouraging for us to know that the colorings of the map
Christ the Light of the World.
23
are gradually being changed, and the world’s condition is not to-day what it was a century ago. There is at the present time scarcely a country on all the face of the earth that is closed to the Christian religion; and if the map were marked more minutely, little white spots would be found dotted all over heathendom.
Spanish America.
I desire briefly to pass over the main heathen, or pagan, countries that are attracting most at¬ tention at the present time. First, we will be¬ gin with our nearest neighbor, Spanish America, including Mexico, Central America, and South America. There are about twenty different in¬ dependent States included in this territory. The population is about 47,500,000. The con¬ quest of Spanish America was early in the six¬ teenth century, carried on by Spain, and, as a result, you see it is yellow, or of the same reli¬ gion as Spain. Until the beginning of the nine¬ teenth century all this vast territory south of us was subject to that little European country; but about the year 1809 there was a restlessness and revolution that took place in those South Ameri¬ can countries, and in about twelve years every one of them broke away from Spain and became
24
Christ the Light of the World.
independent republics. Later on they also broke away from Roman Catholic authority, un¬ til, at the present time, there is not a republic in all South America or Mexico but what is open to the proclamation of the gospel. But modern missions have had their martyrs.
There was a man by the name of Allen Gard¬ ner, for a long time an officer in the British Navy, and by being thus associated he was per¬ mitted to travel over the different parts of the world, and, seeing the worship at a heathen tem¬ ple in China, his heart was stirred within him to do something for the benighted. His first attempts were in Africa, but circumstances finally led him, in the year 1850, to go to South America, away down to the island of Terra Del Fuego. He and a company of six landed there, and navigation across the sea being very lim¬ ited in those days, another ship was not ex¬ pected for six months. As a result, before he was reached the second time, he and his entire party starved to death. He left behind him, written and found near where he died, a portion of the sixty-second Psalm (verses 5-7): “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expecta¬ tion is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be
Christ the Light of the World.
25
moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.”
In 1859 there was another company sent out, a company of nine this time. While they were engaged in worship, the natives, like so many ferocious beasts, rushed in upon them all unsus¬ pected and murdered the last one of them.
Still the work was not given up. They con¬ ceived the idea of starting work out a little to the east, on one of the Falkland Islands, a Brit¬ ish colony, and taking certain of those wild sav¬ ages and training them and Christianizing them, so that when they had prepared them for na¬ tive workers they might send them back among their fellow-countrymen as missionaries. This is the method that is followed at the present time.
Without going further into detail in regard to the beginnings in South America, let us mention something of the results. For forty- eight years there were only fifty converts. Now there are 383 male missionaries and 299 female missionaries, or a total of 682. There are 237 native workers, 37,840 believers, and 6,000 stu¬ dents in the mission schools.
In regard to Mexico, it has a population of
26
Christ the Light of the World.
13,650,000. The inhabitants consist of the na¬ tive Indians, Spaniards, and a mixture of the two. General Scott, early in the past century, opened the way for the Bible in Mexico. Miss Malinda Rankin was the first missionary there. At present there are 210 missionaries in Mexico, 546 native workers, 469 congregations, and 20,- 000 believers. Missionary work is about forty years old in Mexico.
Africa.
Let us pass on now across the sea, and we will consider first that great and dark conti¬ nent, the continent of Africa. To give some idea of the magnitude of that great country, it contains 12,000,000 square miles of territory. All South America and North America com¬ bined contain only about 17,000,000. Africa is three times as large as all Europe. It con¬ tains a population of about 175,000,000. All around the coast is low. The central part of Africa consists of highlands and mountains. Some portions are almost fatal to health; but it has been found in late years that Africa is like almost every other country — like our own, for instance — it has its dangerous places in
Christ the Light of the World.
27
which to live, and also places that are more healthful.
Remember, now, we are on scriptural ground — I mean a territory concerning which we read in the Bible. In Northern Africa, or Egypt, the Bible has had some of its most fruitful results. That eloquent man, Apollos, whom Priscilla and Aquila took aside and taught the way more per¬ fectly, was an African Jew. His native place was Alexandria, in Egypt. Alexandria was also one of the greatest centers of learning in the early history of the church, and had the largest library in the world. It was in North¬ east Africa that another Bible character, the Ethiopian, lived. To he more explicit, the pres¬ ent Abyssinia occupies about the same place as that of Ethiopia. Tradition has it that the Ethiopian whom Philip baptized went hack to that country, and there established the worship of the true God. However that may be, from a very early date down to this present time, in Abyssinia they have had the Bible, and are hold ¬ ing on to the Christian religion even to this very day, though in a very corrupted manner.
There is also in Africa the greatest desert on the earth. It stretches all the way from the River Nile clear to the Atlantic Ocean, and cov-
28
Christ the Light of the World.
ers a territory equal to all Europe, or 4,000,000 square miles.
The religions of Africa are mostly as follows : There are about 1,000,000 Jews; and, using the word in its accommodated sense, there are about 8,000,000 Christians in Africa. About one-third of these are Roman Catholics. Mohammedan¬ ism has about 60,000,000 people in Africa. You can see from the green color on the map that all the Northern portion of Africa is Moham¬ medan. I read an article by a returned mis¬ sionary from Africa a short time ago in which the writer said that this great and corrupted form of religion was spreading itself from the north southward over Africa like a great cloud, and if something was not done to arrest its prog¬ ress, the time would come when all Africa would be under the dominion of the false prophet.
There are also about 100,000,000 pagans in Africa holding to all kinds of foolish supersti¬ tions, under the most abject slavery to their superstitious ideas and pagan practices. It was on this great continent that for about four hun¬ dred years that awful slave trade was carried on. During that time it is said that about 40,- 000,000 of the black people were sold into slavery. I am glad that we have gotten beyond
Christ the Light of the World.
29
that at the present time; but still Africa is not free. It is said that from one ship there was landed a single missionary, and at the same time there were landed fifty thousand barrels of whisky. So Africa is still in a state of slavery of the worst kind. I am glad to know that strenuous efforts are being made in order to break up this form of slavery also.
The Moravians began work in Africa in 1737. They go to the hardest places they can find, and it is said that they have one missionary in the foreign field for every sixty members. In 1817 Robert MofFat also entered the great and dark continent as a missionary. In 1840 the great explorer, David Livingstone, entered Africa.
Without going further into detail as to the early work in that great and dark continent, let us look at some of the results. There are some great lakes up in Central East Africa. These lakes correspond somewhat to the Great Lakes on the Northern border of our own coun¬ try. Travel in Africa is exceedingly difficult — no public highways to speak of. Everything is in the wilds, only a footpath here and there, and, being a tropical country, the undergrowth is such that it is almost impossible to get through, so that these lakes are indispensable,
30
Christ the Light of the World.
as, together with the rivers, they furnish the highways. There are seven steamers now ply¬ ing these lakes; there are also nineteen other steamers that go up and down the great Congo, a rival of the Nile, or the Mississippi of our own country. These are all mission steamers used solely for the purpose of conveying missiona¬ ries, with mission supplies, to their various places of labor.
There are nearly 3,000 English and American missionaries in Africa, some 6,400 native work¬ ers, 170,000 students in mission schools, and 240,000 believers.
It seems that the most promising place in all Africa for Christian work is the section called the ‘ ‘Uganda. ” It is very encouraging to know some of the facts connected with Uganda. Now, in order to give you some idea of the work be¬ ing carried on there, I desire to read a para¬ graph or two from this volume, called the “New Horoscope of Missions,’ ’ by Dennis: “In those pioneer times from three to four months of toil¬ some, dangerous travel were required to reach Uganda from the coast, while to-day steam fa¬ cilities are at our command, and the journey is only a matter of three or four days. If we look about us in what might be called the ‘land of
Christ the Light of the World.
31
missionary magic/ we shall find there a self- supporting church of over 60,000 baptized Chris¬ tians ; and of this number at least 56,000, or five- sixths, have been added within the last ten years. The number of baptisms, according to a late report, now exceeds 9,000 annually. The Protestant Church organization of the kingdom of Uganda receives no financial help whatever from England, except the salaries of the Brit¬ ish foreign missionaries. It builds its own churches, which already number nearly 800, and also supports its own Christian schools, num¬ bering over fifty, paying the salaries of the na¬ tive teachers. On the heights of Mengo an im¬ mense cathedral has been reared, which will ac¬ commodate between three and four thousand worshipers, and is usually crowded at special services. The social life of the country has been greatly purified and uplifted, even to the extent of placing polygamy under the ban of public opinion and securing the voluntary aban¬ donment of slavery. The young king is a Chris¬ tian, and many of the highest officials of the government are men of evangelical faith, while liberty of conscience is recognized as a religious privilege and a social law. Uganda will soon be a radiating center of evangelistic effort, from
32
Christ the Light of the World.
which an effort will be made from the south into the Sudan along paths which foreign mis¬ sionaries would find it difficult to tread in con¬ ducting on a permanent basis ordinary mission¬ ary operations. ’ ’
In view of the rapid strides the gospel is now making in Africa, how fitting becomes the lan¬ guage of the psalmist: “Ethiopia shall haste to stretch out her hands unto God ! ’ ’
Now, passing on to the work in North Africa, or Egypt, I make this quotation from the July, 1910, number of the Missionary Review of the World: “The total amount paid by the people in Egypt in 1907, including book sales, and in connection with educational and medical work, was $157,498, while the amount sent from America was $114,523. For every dollar sent by America, Egypt gave $1.37. ’ ’ This is inter¬ esting for us to know, because the impression is made on the minds of some that these con¬ verts in heathen lands will not give to the Chris¬ tian cause, and that their conversion reaches no further than the loaves and fishes.
Turkey.
Let us turn now to Turkey, that difficult coun¬ try to reach. Although Turkey has been so1 an-
Christ the Light of the World. 33
tagonistic to the gospel, yet we are again in a Bible land, or in territory where the Bible early made its way and where the Christian religion was planted. There has been a remnant of Christian believers in the empire of Turkey from apostolic days, and it is estimated that there are to-day of the “Armenian Christians, ’ 9 as they are commonly called, from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000.
For a long, long time, and until quite recently, a Christian missionary was an enemy in Tur¬ key; but the impossible has happened, and we are all more or less acquainted with the won¬ derful revolution or change that has taken place there within a very few years — how Turkey de¬ posed her ruler, and the young Sultan took the reins of government and gave the people a con¬ stitution and freedom in religion. Last year the American Bible Society sold in Turkey 10,- 000 copies of the Bible.
The first of February I heard a missionary in Louisville, lately returned from Turkey, and he said that the Turkish government, like Japan some forty years ago, was now working out a system of public schools, and, being short of teachers qualified to fill the various situations opened by this new enterprise, they were apply- 4
34
Christ the Light of the World.
ing to the mission schools for teachers. Think of Turkey doing this !
There is a little Mohammedan country north of Turkey called “Bokhara.” I came across a very interesting little extract the other day in regard to a certain convert there who was once a Mohammedan. He is now a teacher in one of the high schools. He gave utterance to the fol¬ lowing words: “I am convinced that Jesus Christ will conquer Mohammed. There is no doubt about it, because Christ is King in heaven and on earth, and his kingdom fills heaven now, and will soon fill the earth.” It is truly re¬ freshing to know that away over there in that cruelly antagonistic country which has so long opposed the Christian religion we find one of their own people giving utterance to an expres¬ sion like this.
Russia,
Passing on northward, let us go to that great country called “Russia,” the state religion of which is the Greek Catholic Church, called by themselves the ‘ ‘ Holy Orthodox Church. ’ ’ Rus¬ sia, like Africa, is a country of great territory, and it is about two-thirds as large, including about 8,000,000 square miles. It has a popula¬ tion of some 150,000,000, Christianity in a
Christ the Light of the World.
35
crude form entered Russia in the tenth century, but they established a state religion, and, until very recently, no one was allowed to believe and think for himself. Every one had to conform to the state religion or else suffer the conse¬ quences, which was sometimes to be sent across the great Siberian plains over to the island of Sakhalin and remain in banishment. To-day, though, there are about thirty different Protes¬ tant denominations in Russia.
I heard a missionary, returned from Russia the first of February, 1910, in the city of Louis¬ ville, and he said since Russia had given a con¬ stitution and freedom of religion there were at least 15,000,000 of the people of Russia who had broken away from the “ orthodox’ ’ church and were studying the Bible for themselves. Just as the Protestants, in the beginning of the six¬ teenth century, were considered by the Western section, or the Catholic Church, heretics, even so now Russia is repeating history, and these fifteen millions of people who have declined to subscribe to the Russian Church are called “heretics.”
Also, I heard a Methodist missionary, speak¬ ing in regard to Russia, say that they have one missionary in Russia, and these people who
36
Christ the Light of the World.
have broken away from the state religion are trying to work out a basis of belief for them¬ selves, and for seven nights in succession they invited their missionary to come and explain to them the doctrines of Methodism. When I heard him say that, I felt within myself what a great pity God ’s people do not have their repre¬ sentatives there simply to go to those people with God’s basis of belief and, in a straightfor¬ ward, plain, simple way, without any denomina¬ tional incumbrances whatever, present to them the divine basis of belief; and I wondered why it was that we were not on the ground, for, to my mind, there is not a richer field on the face of the earth to-day for the propagation of the gospel — the pure, simple gospel — than Russia. If others have split the commission, neglecting the last half of it, we have also split it at the same place, and have neglected the first half.
Now, when you go to Russia, you do not go to a pagan people. While, of course, their religion is very crude and is not much above paganism, yet you do not go to people who are to be in¬ cluded among those commonly known as “pa¬ gans.” Neither do you go to a nation that is away back in civilization and education. Now, of course, Russia has much yet to learn in that
Christ the Light of the World. 37
regard; but tbe Russian nation is a brainy na¬ tion, and they are up in many things. Not only so, but they are a similar nation to ourselves. I have seen many of them in Japan. For in¬ stance, I have seen the Russian sailors march¬ ing the streets, and unless you should stop and attempt to talk with them and find that they did not talk “American,” you would not know but what they were a company of broad-shouldered, strong-armed Americans.
In Bowling Green there is a student who pointed out to me on the map where he lived in Russia, and said his father and mother were living there still, and his desire is to go back to Russia when he finishes school and engage in missionary work. I hope and pray that this young brother will not get such a taste of Amer¬ ica that he will be turned aside from his pur¬ pose.
India.
Let us pass on to this great field south of Rus¬ sia, India. Some two hundred years ago there were two missionaries that went out from Den¬ mark to India. It is said they stood all day on the shore before they could find a place to lodge. They were now in a heathen country consisting of some 300,000,000 people. Later
38
Christ the Light of the World.
on, in the year 1793, there was a Baptist who went out from England, from the town of Lei¬ cester, and also landed, after a long and tedious voyage by an old-fashioned sailing ship, on the shores of India. He, too, met with his difficul¬ ties. The natives were unfriendly, and then the great East India Company, composed of Eng¬ lishmen, were opposed to missionary effort. They were afraid that, if the people were en¬ lightened and came to know their rights in busi¬ ness, the company would lose something, and they considered Carey an ‘ ‘ interloper. ’ ’ Carey and Thomas, his coworker, labored seven years in India with only one convert.
Also, the American Baptists worked twenty years in South India, at the end of which time they could only report one native preacher and a little church of nine believers. One of their missionaries, Mr. Jewett, returned home in 1863 broken down in health, and the general outlook was so unpromising that his brethren were thinking seriously of closing out the work and retiring from the field. He was asked for his opinion, and his reply has become historic: “ Well, brethren, I do not know what your mind is; but if the Lord restores my health, I am go¬ ing back to live, and, if need be, to die, among
Christ the Light of the World.
39
the Telugus.” “Then,” they said, “we must send a man over to give you a Christian burial. ’ ’ They labored on in India, and in 1878 the Bap¬ tist people in one day baptized 2,222 people, and in about six weeks they had baptized 8,691.
George Sherwood Eddy, whom also I heard in Louisville the first of February, said that in South India there were three other denomina¬ tions operating — the Congregationalists, the Church of England, and the Methodists — and that they had about 150,000 converts. He said, further, that these denominations all cooper¬ ated as one, and were not known in India by those different names, “but we have only the church of Christ in South India.” He added: “We are miles ahead of you.” One member of the audience did not like that much, and called out : 1 ‘ Here, here ! W e are together over here. ’ ’ Now, of course, there is a great deal yet to be accomplished before people are together reli¬ giously, but there is this to be said: The effort of the people in what are called “Christian lands” to convert the pagan nations has been one of the most powerful factors to open their eyes to the fact that a divided state in religion is not according to the Holy Spirit, and it is
40
Christ the Light of the World.
perhaps doing more to-day to bring people to¬ gether than any other one thing.
As to results, generally speaking, there are to-day in India some 4,346 missionaries, 25,000 native workers, 500,000 believers, and some 2,- 923,000 under Christian influence.
China.
Let us pass on to the neighbor of India, the great empire of China, with her 400,000,000 peo¬ ple. Missionary work in India is some two hun¬ dred years old, but in China it is just a little over a hundred years old. The first missionary to China was Robert Morrison, in the year 1807. When Morrison landed in China — well, he did not land in China, but on the island of Macao. Such was the antagonism of the Catholics that he had to keep himself in secret. He had to clothe himself in Chinese style and go out at night for exercise. On the mainland his life would be equally in peril by the natives. Mor¬ rison labored twenty-seven years in China, translated the Bible, made a grammar, a dic¬ tionary, and one convert ! Twenty-seven years ’ work and one convert! Forty-six years after Morrison arrived in China there were only 5 churches and 351 members. Now, or in 1907,
Christ the Light of the World.
41
which was the completion of the first hundred years ’ work, there were 632 great religious cen¬ ters, 5,102 out stations, 3,900 missionaries, 9,000 native helpers, 200,000 converts, 5,000 students in the mission schools, and, at the great centen¬ nial at Shanghai, celebrating their hundred years’ work, by the native believers and mis¬ sionaries, there were five of the provincial gov¬ ernors who sent representatives to congratulate them. See what a change has come over the en¬ tire nation ! The native believers of the China Inland Mission gave in one year at the rate of $2.37 per member. That, perhaps, would go be¬ yond the average amount of the churches of Christ in the United States.
In Pekin, the capital of the country, there is a college called the ‘ ‘ Union Medical College and Hospital. 9 9 It cost $44,000. The Chinese them¬ selves gave over $16,000 of this amount.
Japan.
Passing on to that little 6 1 Land of the Rising Sun,” the empire of Japan, we have a few re¬ marks before we close. While missionary work in India is two hundred years old, in China about one hundred years old, in Japan it is about fifty. The fifth day of October, 1909, in
42 Christ the Light of the World.
Tokyo, they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of missionary work in Japan. The first mis¬ sionary entered that little island empire in 1859. It was seven years before they had a single con¬ vert. Now there are 839 missionaries, 1,391 Christian workers, 153 mission schools with 12,- 588 students, 74,560 believers, and 199 self-sup¬ porting churches. Now, in regard to those self- supporting churches, I mean by “self-support” that they do not call on outside help. Some of the Japanese churches help others, but there are 199 churches in Japan that support themselves. Most of these are independent entirely, but there are some that have to have help from other Japanese churches. The Japanese gave in one year 134,941 yen, equal to $67,470.50. In the same year there was given by the various missions 267,080 yen, equaling about $133,540 — That is, for every dollar given by the various missions to the work in Japan, the Japanese people give over fifty cents.
Now some general statements in regard to the work as a whole. I have here a little pamphlet, called “Around the World,” and below the title also is written: “A composite view of mission¬ ary enterprise as seen by sixty-six representa¬ tive business men.” These business men went
Christ the Light of the World. 43
out from America around the world and exam¬ ined for themselves what was being done by the various missions. It is interesting to read the whole pamphlet, but I will read only a short extract: “The results in the way of new con¬ verts and contributions of converts are most en¬ couraging. The number of new converts re¬ ceived into full membership last year was 164,- 674, or an average of over 450 per day through the entire year. This is a far larger propor¬ tionate gain than we had in the United States. The membership at home increased last year one and one-half per cent, while the membership of the native Christian churches increased twelve per cent. For every ordained minister at home an average of two converts were added last year. For every ordained American mis¬ sionary abroad the average number of converts were forty-one. Even more striking was the gain in contributions in the various foreign mis¬ sion fields. They increased last year by $1,360,- 000. The total gifts on the various foreign fields last year were $4,844,000. This is forty- eight per cent of the total amount contributed to this object by the Protestant churches of North America.”
Summing up briefly, there are to-day scat-
44
Christ the Light of the World.
tered throughout heathen lands some 22,000 men and women who have gone out as mission¬ aries from Europe and America, The Bible has been translated into about 500 different living languages and dialects, and it has been printed to the extent of 350,000,000 copies and distrib¬ uted among heathen people. That does not in¬ clude the Bibles of Christian lands. There are to-day gathered out of heathenism some 2,000,- 000 converts who have been won from idols to a belief in the true God.
‘ 4 Well,” says one, “if there are 22,000 mis¬ sionaries already in heathen lands, and 350,000,- 000 copies of the Bible already distributed, that ought to be enough.” Now I want to say to you, my dear friends, especially you young peo¬ ple, that if you had thought of going as a mis¬ sionary, and are now getting nervous lest all the work be accomplished before you get there, that if every Bible which had been given or dis¬ tributed had been given to a Chinaman, there would still be 50,000,000 of the Chinese without a Bible. There would be all Africa, with her 175,000,000 people, and not a Bible; there would be India, with her 300,000,000 people, and not a Bible to give them; there would be Japan, with her 50,000,000 people, and not a single copy of
Christ the Light of the World.
45
the Scriptures for them, to say nothing of all of those living in South America and Mexico. Do not get nervous, young friend; there will be plenty for you to do, even if you do not get into the mission field in twenty years from now. What has been done is only a drop in the bucket. There will be plenty of territory for you to oc¬ cupy when you reach the mission field.
Some one has said:
“ Behold the fall of ocean’s wall.
Space mocked and time outrun,
While round the world the thought of all Is as the thought of one.”
Now we have already beheld the fall of ocean’s wall, space mocked and time outrun, and let us hope that the day is near when round the world the thought of all shall be as the thought of one, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.
46
Christ the Light of the World.
THE NATURAL RELIGIONS OF JAPAN.
Down in the State of Florida I was one day in the home of a friend, and while there my atten¬ tion was drawn to a picture hanging on the wall. The picture represented a little boy dressed for the night, kneeling down by the bed¬ side in the attitude of prayer. Also, just beside the little boy was his favorite dog kneeling down, with his head over on the bed, in the at¬ titude of prayer. Looking at these two ani¬ mals, the thought occurred to me that while out¬ wardly they seemed to be going through the same ceremony, yet the promptings of the one were very different from those of the other. Now the dog was going through that perform¬ ance, I doubt not, with the same feeling that a dog is taught to stand on its hind feet, or to lie down and roll over, or to jump through a hoop. It was a mere trick with the dog, because a dog has no religious nature. What is true of the dog is true of every animal on the face of the earth except one, and that is man. But wher-
Christ the Light of the World.
47
ever you find man, you find a religious being; on the other hand, wherever you find a religious being, you find a human being. There is some¬ thing in his nature different from other animals that is capable of receiving religious teaching.
Very properly, this map is gotten up with the idea of placing all of the nations under some form of religion, and this little island empire in the extreme east here, called the “Empire of Japan,” is no exception to the statement that all men are religious. The Japanese people are a very religious people. They claim to have eight hundred million gods, a great number — so many that they do not know how many. They have two main systems of religion. I do not re¬ fer to Confucianism, which hardly would be con¬ sidered a religion, it being more of a moral code than a religious code; but the two prevailing systems in Japan are known as “Shinto” and “Bukkyo,” or, putting the English ending to these words, “Shintoism” and “Buddhism.” The word “Shinto” literally means “the way of the gods,” or the “true way;” but when we come to examine into it, Shinto is simply the worship of the spirits of the dead.
48 Christ the Light of the World.
Shintoism.
I have here on the table a symbol of Shinto worship. As yon see, this looks like a tomb¬ stone on which is written the name of the an¬ cestor, who is said to have lived about a hun¬ dred years ago. They have these little wooden tablets placed sometimes up in their homes on the god-shelf, called the “kami-dana,” or in the temple, and they go before them to worship, in this way doing homage to the spirits of the dead.
This is one of the stubborn things that mis¬ sionaries have to deal with in turning the peo¬ ple away from darkness to light. The worship of the spirits of the dead has a strong hold on the nation. I remember very well that not long before I left Japan a young man had been at¬ tending our meetings pretty regularly for some time. After one of the services one Sunday evening T went back and sat down beside the young man, and in order to see what progress he was making in the Christian religion I began to ask him some questions. I said to him : ‘ ‘ You believe in God, I suppose, don ’t you ? 9 y He said he did. “And you believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior of men?” He said he believed in
Christ the Light of the World. 49
Christ as the Savior of men. “And yon don’t worship idols any more, I suppose?” He said he did not. “Nor go to the graves of the dead to worship ? ’ 9 There he hesitated. Finally he said, “Well, my parents go, and I am expected to go with them;” and he meant more by the word “expected” than is commonly meant by that word. He meant that he was almost com¬ pelled to go. It is one of those things that have become ingrained into the nature of the Jap¬ anese people. Having almost lost sight of the true and living God, they have turned aside to the worship of themselves, and you know as a man recedes in the distance and the further hack in the line of one’s ancestry he has hap¬ pened to he, the more sacred his memory be¬ comes.
Buddhism.
The other common form of religion in Japan is known as “Buddhism.” This is not native to Japan. The native home of Buddhism is In¬ dia. There was a prince who lived in India about six centuries before Christ. He is known in Western literature as “Gautama,” or “Prince Siddartha,” the former being his fam¬ ily name, and the latter his personal name. The Japanese people call him ‘ ‘ Shaka San, ’ ’ a name 5
50
Christ the Light of the World.
derived from the tribe to which he belonged. “San” means “Mr.” — Mr. Shaka. It was said of this prince that, seeing the corruptions of his people, he became very much concerned about them, gave up his right to the throne, went out into solitude and for a long, long time medi¬ tated and meditated and meditated until he thought he had found enlightenment; and, hence, you see in this image of him a ring back of his head indicating light, spiritual light, into which he claims to have entered. The word “Buddha,” while applied especially to the founder of this religion, may also be applied to any one who is fortunate enough to reach the state of Buddhahood. It stands to them some¬ what in the same sense as the word “immortal” does to us. The word “Buddha” means the “enlightened.” There are nearly as many ad¬ herents to the Buddhist faith to-day as all Prot¬ estantism put together; the former claims 147,- 900,000 followers, while the Protestants number about 160,000,000.
Now the nature of the Buddhist teaching is
based on what they call “genin, kekkwa” _
cause and effect. According to Buddhist teach¬ ing, if one does well, he rises; if he does evil, he goes down. Of course, there is some truth in
Christ the Light of the World.
51
that. We are not going to deny it as being true to some extent; but the weakness of Buddhism is that when one goes down, or gets down, there is no help. Buddhism is a sort of hopeless teaching, and those who follow the teachings of Buddha really face the future as a blank.
I remember several years ago there was a Hindoo by the name of “ Dharmapala, ’ ’ who came through Tokyo on his way to this country. Certain friends there invited him to give a lec¬ ture on Buddhism. Doubtless some of you have seen his name, for he attended the World’s Con¬ gress of Religions at Chicago in 1893 during the World’s Columbian Exposition, and is, perhaps, the greatest scholar in India to-day as a repre¬ sentative of Buddhism. After the lecture some one asked him how, according to the Buddhist teaching, we are to account for this world. His reply was that, according to Buddhist teaching, that was not a legitimate question. All that we know about this world, according to the doc¬ trines of Buddhism, he said, was that we do not know anything about it, nor need it concern us. Dharmapala is also credited with these lines:
52 Christ the Light of the World.
“ Through hirth and rebirth’s endless round I ran, and sought but never found Who formed and built this home of clay.
What misery! birth for ay and ay.”
The three points in Buddhism wherein it is defective are: First, there is no Creator; second, no Bedeemer; third, no resurrection.
One of the most convenient words that is found in the Japanese language is the word ‘ ‘ shikataganai ’ ’ — “no help for it.” They are fatalistic. When things go well, they rejoice; when things go ill, they simply resign them¬ selves to their fate, and say: “No help for it.”
Not a great while ago I received a letter from one of the young men in our dormitory, and in that letter he was telling of the various things that had happened round about in the commu¬ nity during the time I had been absent. Among other things, he said: “Do you remember the man that lived just across the street, on the corner — that young man and his wife who had not been married very long? Well, a very sad thing happened. In the middle of the night not long ago the wife of this man got up and went out and jumped into the well. Some said she was not quite right. Others said it was because some one had been talking about her, saying
Christ the Light of the World.
53
things that they ought not to say, and in order to get out of the trouble and to vindicate her innocence she decided to go out and jump into the well.”
The Two Religions Mixed.
About the eighth century there was a famous man who flourished in Japan, known as “Kobo Daishi,” whose image is here in this little shrine. He was the inventor of the Japanese alphabet. It is said that he was bom miracu¬ lously and died sitting up. At any rate, he doubtless was a learned man for that time, and he succeeded in uniting the two religions to some extent. For when Buddhism entered Japan from Korea in the sixth century, it met with opposition, and for two or three centuries there was sharp contention between the two re¬ ligions; but Kobo Daishi said he had dis¬ covered that the spirits in Buddhism, which transmigrate, or pass from one body to another, and are reborn into this world an indefinite number of times, are the same as the spirits of their ancestors, and while the outward forms might be a little different, nevertheless, at bottom the two religions were practically the same. By and by the discussion between the
54
Christ the Light of the World.
two systems of religion ceased, and to-day they are practically at peace. Yon may see a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple' located on the same grounds, and you may watch the people as they come and go, and you will see the same people worship at both the shrine and the tem¬ ple.
But there is nothing of a very hopeful nature in these religions. They are the product of the imagination, and it is simply impossible for the human mind to imagine something higher than itself.
There is a sort of folklore song in India which has been rendered into English, and runs some¬ thing like this :
“ Haw many births are passed I cannot tell,
How many yet to come I cannot say;
But this I know, and know full well,
That pain and grief embitter all the way.”
Not very hopeful, is it? In departing from this world, Buddha could only say: “All alone we must go to the world of darkness, accom¬ panied only by our good and evil actions. ’ ’ Not very good company for most of us. But, ah, how different from the hope of the Christian— “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
Christ the Light of the World.
55
shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me. 9 9
Some Idols Described.
Here are also some other idols on the stand representing other of their gods. Not that this is anything like a full representation of the va¬ rious gods of Japan, either in variety or in size.
DAI BUTSU AT KAMAKURA.
56
Christ the Light of the World.
Now, some of the largest images are some fifty or sixty feet in height. This one stands on the seashore down at a little village called ‘ ‘ Kama¬ kura,” and is about fifty feet high. There is another a little larger than this at a town called “Nana.” They are made of bronze. A long time ago a great sea wave broke the temple away and left the image at Kamakura out in the open air, and it has been standing thus ever since. Also, they have a great variety of im¬ ages in shape as well' as in size.
Here is a little wooden image that was given me by the same priest that gave me this wooden tablet. He said it was the god of good luck, and that it was a thousand years old. Here is the god of wealth, Daikoku. He is one of a group of seven. They are a jolly set of gods, not very pious, and are not exactly worshiped in that sense that some others are. Still they like to have them around, because it will bring bless¬ ings some way. He has a great bag of gold on his back and a hammer in his right hand, and he also sits on two bags of rice. In ancient days a citizen of J apan reckoned his wealth in terms of so many rice bags, and a man was a wealthy man in proportion to the number of bags of rice that he owned. It is said that Daikoku has the
Christ the Light of the World.
57
magic power of turning into gold everything he strikes with his hammer, and this is why he has such a broad smile on his face, because wealth is supposed to bring happiness.
The Fox Temple.
Here, also, is a little image, the goddess of mercy, known as “Kwannon.” She is espe¬ cially the woman ’s friend. There you notice also two little foxes. Now, I should apologize for these little animals, because all orthodox foxes ought to have tails, and these foxes, by rights, should have each a tail; but I have found that traveling does not agree very well with foxes, and as they have come some distance, both by land and sea, one of them has suffered the loss of his tail. If he had a tail, it would stand right up there about an inch high in a perpen¬ dicular position the same as the other one.
Now it is strange that sensible people would worship a fox. Not very far from the capital of Japan, the great city of Tokyo, a city con¬ sisting of some two millions of people, there is a very famous temple, called the “Anamori Temple.’ 9 “Ana-mori” means “den keeper.” This temple is dedicated to the fox, and all sorts of contrivances may be seen about that temple
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Christ the Light of the World.
which are supposed to be pleasing to the fox. There is an artificial mountain as tall as this house and a great deal larger, costing several thousand dollars. On that mountain are little cedar forests and dens and cliffs and other places that the fox is supposed to he pleased with. There are, also, other places round about that mountain where the fox has his den, and everything about the temple generally is so pre¬ pared as to please the fox.
I remember that, in March, 1909, two young men and myself went to see this temple. As we approached it, at one of these dens, made, of course, by human hands, and in which there never had been a fox doubtless, there was a woman kneeling down on the ground facing the fox den, with her hands, according to their cus¬ tom, clasped together and her head bowed; she was mumbling her prayer in the most earnest manner. When she left, she took a little sand from there, wrapped it up, and carried it home, and then scattered it about in front of her own home for good luck.
They have, also, a superstitious practice of driving out evil spirits from the home at a cer¬ tain season of the year. Some member of the household will go around in the house scatter-
Christ the Light of the World.
59
ing cooked beans and at the same time repeat¬ ing: “Oni wa soto, fukn wa uchi” — ‘ ‘ Demons get out, blessings within.” We are inclined to smile at such performances, for indeed they do seem strange and foolish, and the people are full of them.
Are We as Foolish as They?
‘ 6 Well/ ’ says one, “I never have believed much in foreign missions, for it has always oc¬ curred to me that the heathen were beyond the reach of the gospel. Now I am just about con¬ vinced that if they worship such things as that and are as full of superstition as you say they are, that I was right in my conclusion, and I am afraid it is only a waste of time and means and men and women for the people of Christian lands to undertake to do anything for their en¬ lightenment.”
I am frank to say, dear friends, that the wor¬ ship of objects like this is a very irrational thing. So far as I am able to discover, there is absolutely no good, hard common sense in it, and one is really tempted to conclude that peo¬ ple who have so little sense in regard to religion as to place such things as this before them, bow before them, and worship them as gods — I say
60 Christ the Light of the World.
people are tempted to say that they are beyond the reach of a sensible story. However, it is the duty of every man and every woman to think according to the facts, and to get all the facts possible. Of course, we are more or less influenced by our training, our national preju¬ dices, and according to the environment in which we are placed, but it is the duty of every man and woman to rise above anything that will turn aside his mind from getting at the facts. Now, while I admit that these people do act very irrationally in bowing down before im¬ ages of this sort, in being filled with supersti¬ tion, and in worshiping the spirits of the dead, yet, at the same time, let us not be hasty. It is a very serious thing to cast away, as being in a hopeless condition, more than half the popu¬ lation of the human race.
Let us look on all sides of this question, or at least two sides, and that means let us look at it from an American point of view as well as a Japanese; and when we come to examine our¬ selves carefully, is it not also a fact that we are more or less wedded to the spirits of the dead! Right here in the city of Nashville not long ago there was a military rally, and during that rally the soldiers went out to the Hermitage and went
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through a ceremony at the grave of Andrew Jackson, firing off the cannon. Why did they go to the grave of this hero and do such a thing? I do not suppose any one could give a clear-cut explanation, but there was something that prompted it connected with the spirits of the heroes of the past.
Away down in Florida I attended a memorial service, common in all the States, I believe, and during that service prayer was offered, and in the prayer it was said: “We have met together here on this occasion to show our profoundest respect for the heroes of our country.” Right down here in Hickman County, where I was bom and reared, there was a proposition before one of the congregations to move the church building, and the very first objection against that move was that the graves of our ancestors would be neglected. The graveyard was there, and they preferred to inconvenience the living rather than forsake the graves of the dead.
I am persuaded, dear friends, that were it not that we have been enlightened somewhat by the light that has come from above, we to-day would be doing exactly the same things that the Jap¬ anese people are doing across the sea. We
62
Christ the Light of the World.
would be worshiping the spirits of the dead, and we do not miss it very far as it is.
What about our superstitions ? ‘ * Well, ’ 9 says one, “you needn't tell me that we are as full of superstition as those people are over there, who go around scattering beans to drive out demons, and things like that." We may not have ex¬ actly the same performances as they have, but, nevertheless, dear friends, I think that we have a plenty of superstition, even in America, to get along with. Did you ever hear of the man who would not plant his potatoes until the dark of the moon? Why? Because, according to the superstition of our own country, if a person plants his potatoes on the light of the moon, they will all go to vine. One of my brothers the other day when I was visiting him brought in a potato vine and put his foot on one end and held up the other, and it went up at least a foot above his head; then we measured it with a tape line, and it was six feet and five inches long. He said he planted this potato patch on the dark of the moon. He had another patch planted on the light of the moon that went no more to vine, but made just as good potatoes as these. This year it seems that most people have struck the dark of the moon, because it is a great potato
Christ the Light of the World. 63
year. The fact is, you do not plant your pota¬ toes in the moon. I know of a friend of mine, also, who will not kill his hogs until the dark of the moon, and a year or two ago he let sev¬ eral seasons go by and almost failed to get to kill his hogs because he did not want to kill them on the light of the moon. I was in con¬ versation with a friend a while hack, and he told me there was certainly something in the light-of-th e-moon theory. He said he knew a certain tree that was cut down and made into boards on the same day, and part of these boards were nailed on the roof in the light of the moon and the rest were nailed on in the dark of the moon, and you could tell just to the row where they were nailed on in the light of the moon, because they all turned up at the end. How many of us want to see the new moon through the brush? You do not want to see it through the brush, do you? There are some people in America who, if a rabbit should hap¬ pen to cross the road in front of them, will actu¬ ally turn around and go back home. And what about that practice of carrying an Irish potato in the pocket to keep off rheumatism? Some one was making a speech out in California, and he said to the audience: “If there is a Ken-
64
Christ the Light of the Worid.
tuckian in the audience, I venture to say he has a buckeye in his pocket. ’ ’ I went into the home of a friend in California, and as we reached the threshold I saw on the steps five horseshoes tacked up all in a row, and I said: “Brother, what do you have all those horseshoes tacked up there for?” And he said: “Good luck.” Here is the Japanese god of good luck [holds it up to view] ; a little different in form, but the nature of it is exactly the same. Up in Ken¬ tucky I met a brother, and he said: “My mother always keeps flint rock in the fire to keep the hawks from catching the chickens. ’ ’ Some peo¬ ple will not sweep the house at night, lest they sweep their riches away. Never under any cir¬ cumstances must you sweep under the bed of a sick person. You start out from home and get a few rods away, when you find you forgot some¬ thing. You cannot go on without it, for you must have it, and you cannot turn back, for it is bad luck ; so there you are. The only way out of the predicament is to make a cross on the ground and spit in it; then it is all right. And I might go on and spend the whole hour telling you of these superstitious practices that we have in America that have just as much ration¬ ality back of them as the superstitions of the
Christ the Light of the World. 65
Japanese people — just as much, and not one bit more. The fact is, after we come carefully to examine into our own practices and ideas, we have a great deal more of superstition than, per¬ haps, we are willing to admit.
“Well,” says one, “we may have some super¬ stitions, and we may have more respect for the spirits of the dead sometimes than for the liv¬ ing, but you need not tell me that we worship idols. We are a civilized people; we do not worship things like that.” It may strike you with some surprise if I tell you that there are twelve million of the American people, some of whom are our own neighbors and associates, who are idolaters, and yet it is a fact. Go with me, right here in the city of Nashville, to some of the finest church buildings in it, when the people go to worship, and let us stand there in one of those magnificent buildings and watch the people as they came and go. You will ob¬ serve that at the entrance they come to the holy water, and dipping their finger in it they make the sign of the cross. And you will see inside of these buildings various kinds of images — St. Thomas, and St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Bartholomew, and St. Andrew, and a great many other saints standing around in the niches of 6
66
Christ the Light of the World.
the walls of this church building; and if you will notice the people, you will notice that they go and worship before the images of the saints. Not only so, hut they worship the image of the mother of Jesus and even of Jesus himself. It does not change the nature of the case to say that this is called “ Christianity. ’ ’ In its na¬ ture it is just as essentially the worship of idols as the worship of these various idols and im¬ ages of the Japanese people across the sea. It is just as pleasing in God’s sight to make an image of Kwannon, the goddess of mercy, and worship before it as to make an image of the Virgin and worship before that ; and it is just as essentially idolatry to make an image of our Lord and how before it as to make one of Buddha and bow before that.
The Lesson of it All.
Now what is the point in all this? The point I make is that we are very much the same as they, the difference being that we ought to know better. We have had a much better opportu¬ nity than they have. We do not go to the full extent that they do, hut, nevertheless, we have enough respect for the dead, enough supersti¬ tion and idolatry, to identify us very closely
Christ the Light of the World. 67
with our neighbors across the sea; and instead of these things being an evidence that these peo¬ ple are separated from the rest of the race, they rather go to show that we are all very much alike, and to serve rather as so many links con¬ necting the whole human race together as one. Now if we, with our enlightenment and our good common sense, are compassed about by these foolish ideas and practices, and yet the Bible has had power to lift us up, is it not rea¬ sonable to suppose that the people across the sea who practice things of a similar nature could also he reached with the same sensible story? I say this is reasonable.
What Makes a Heathen?
I remember just across the street from where we used to live there was an old man with his family, who lived in a little Japanese house. Every morning that old man would go out to the well that stood near by his door, and with a bucket, to which was attached a bamboo rod, he would draw a bucket of water, pour it out into the little basin, wash his hands and face, dry them with a little towel; and when he had gone through this part of the morning service, he would turn and face eastward, clap his hands
68
Christ the Light of the World.
three times, bow his head, and pray to the rising snn. There are a great many snn worshipers in Japan.
Once there was an old woman going through the same performance in the city of Tokyo, and a student passing by said : ‘ ‘ Grandmother, what are you doing V9 She said: “ Don’t you know the sun rises every morning, gives us light and warmth and blesses us in many ways, and is it not proper for us to give thanks to him 1 ’ Now, that old woman was partly correct. That feel¬ ing of gratitude for the light of the morning was not an improper feeling, but it was directed toward the wrong object. It was something like if I should borrow a lantern from you on a dark night, and, the next morning, returning the lantern, instead of turning to you and say¬ ing, “Thank you, my dear friend, for the lan¬ tern,” I should hold up the lantern and say: “Well, Mr. Lantern, I am much obliged for the light you gave me. 9 9 That would not be a very sensible thing to do. You would think I was joking or something was wrong somewhere.
Now these millions of people in pagan lands have lost sight of the great Lantern Giver, and, not knowing any better and still feeling that
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prompting of gratitude, they turn and thank God’s great lantern.
Suppose some one should go to that old man with this little Testament — a Japanese Testa¬ ment — and say to him : ‘ ‘ I see you worship every morning. That is all right. I think that is a good thing to do; but I want to read to you a little from this book. This is a book that is from God. I want to read to you something about him.” You would turn to 2 Cor. 5 or the first chapter of the Gospel of John, and you would begin and read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “Hajime ni Kotoba ari, Ko¬ toba wa Kami to tomoni ari, Kotoba wa suna- wachi Kami nari.” You would then begin and explain to the old man about that word “Kami,” the word for “God” in the Japanese New Testament. You would say to him: “Now this Kami that this book teaches about is not the kami that you worship every morning, the sun that rises yonder; but the Kami which I speak of is more like that mysterious power within you, the mysterious something we call 1 spirit/ which causes the whole body to move and to have life. This Kami is the maker of all things and the author of life.” Little by
70
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little get the old man’s attention, and he will begin to think about it, and by and by he ac¬ cepts it, maybe, as many of them have done. The next morning the old man goes out to the same well, and, with his bucket and bamboo rod attached, he draws water from the well, pours it into the basin and washes his hands and face, dries them with the little towel, and, just as he has been accustomed to do, except he does not turn to the sun, he stands and lifts up his hands with gratitude to the one great God who made the heavens and the earth. Now, I say, get the old man to that point, and no longer would he be a pagan. He would be worshiping God in the beauty of holiness. Why, it is the proper thing for all men to give thanks to God, and I would that all people professing to be Chris¬ tians would not neglect this most important and helpful duty of beginning the day with thanks¬ giving and prayer.
My children have been taught by their mother a little thanksgiving prayer in verse, the first of which runs like this :
“ Father, we thank thee for the night And for the pleasant morning light,
For rest and food and loving care,
And all that makes the day so dear.”
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Then it is not the feeling of thanksgiving in the hearts of those heathen people that makes them seem so irrational, but it is the object to¬ ward which these religions practices are di¬ rected.
There is a little animal in this country known as the “beaver.” Now the habit of the heaver is to build dams across the streams. That little animal will go on the bank of the stream, cut down trees of considerable size, cut them into lengths, and drag these sections of the trees across the stream, and with mud will build a dam; and when you see it, you say: “It is won¬ derful.’ ? But they tell me you may take that same little animal and put it in a dry room, and when the time comes and that mysterious some¬ thing we call “instinct” prompts the animal, it will hustle around and gather up sticks and rubbish and paper and anything else it may find and drag them across the dry room, making its dam; and as you see it doing that you say: “Old fellow, I take it all back; you haven’t as much sense as I thought you had.” Yet the beaver in the dry room is just as wise as the beaver in the pond, the difference being that in the one place he is out of his element; in the other, he is just where God wants him. Now, we are all
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very much like the beaver. Place man where God designed him to be, and he fulfills God’s purpose in him, and thus glorifies God. Let him get out of that proper place where God in¬ tends him to be, then he is like the beaver; there is something in him that prompts him to pour out his soul in some religious way, hut it is just about as sensible as the beaver building his dam in the dry room.
The Nature of the Missionary’s Work.
In our work among the heathen there should be no attempt to destroy their religious feelings and promptings, but, rather, we should do just as Paul did at Lystra,, when he and Silas sprang in among the multitude and said: “Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a, living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is.” This is also the nature of our work among the heathen. Were it not for this religious nature in mankind, our work would be impossible. It would be like trying to teach the ox to sing or the dog to pray.
Now, I have shown, I think, that there is no
Christ the Light of the World. 73
very great difference between the different sec¬ tions of the human race — not so much as a great many of us are inclined to suppose. When we come to look at the matter just as it is, we find that our observation of human nature and its tendencies and practices leads us to the same conclusion that we are led to when we open God’s book. Peter said: 4 ‘Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons : but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh right¬ eousness, is acceptable to him. ’ ’
Then there must be an obligation on the part of those who have the light to take it to those who have it not. 0, let us not allow our little national prejudices and our contracted views of the great commission, nor our own personal feelings, nor anything else, to come in between us and a full service in being used of God for the enlightenment of the nations.
74
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THE TEMPLES OF JAPAN.
Wherever you find man, you find him with his sacred places, and you find him going there to worship. Paul said concerning those people in Athens, “I perceive that ye are very religious,’ ’ or demon-fearing, or, as it is rendered again, “somewhat superstitious. ’ ’ . It seems that the translators had some difficulty with that word, and did not know just how to render it. I am inclined to think that the word Paul used in¬ cluded all three ideas — that they were religious, demon-fearing, superstitious. However that may he, it is a fact that people who worship false gods and have superstition mixed with their religion are filled with these three ideas. They are afraid of demons, they are very relh gious in a manner, and in all they are full ot superstition.
A Comparison of Figures.
In Japan there are more than 288,000 shrines and temples, or a temple for every 170 people.
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This is the latest authentic report. There are 1,675 Protestant church buildings, or a place of Christian worship for every 29,552 people. There are 216,000 priests that serve in these temples, or a priest for every 229 people. As to Christian workers, there are 1,391, or one Christian worker to every 35,000 people. This includes the native workers, about 500 in num¬ ber; but if we include the missionaries alone, there is only one missionary for every 61,000 people; or, if we refer to our own work alone, we have one missionary from the churches of Christ in America for about every 7,000,000 people.
In the city of Tokyo alone there are 150,000 shrines and temples. Many of these are very small, insignificant places; but, nevertheless, they are sacred places where the people go to worship. The government has ordered 50,000 to he destroyed, as being unnecessary. Before this there were 200,000 sacred places of worship in the city of Tokyo alone. As to places of Christian worship, we have 150, or, at present, one place of Christian worship for every 1,000 places of heathen worship. Many of the tem¬ ples in Japan are very expensive; and in a coun¬ try poverty-stricken like Japan, one wonders
76
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how they ever got together enough money to build such temples. Their temples far exceed their dwellings, on an average, in regard to splendor and expense.
How the Temples are Sustained.
I have in mind just at this time a temple which was built the year I went to Japan. It stands almost opposite a Christian place of wor- ship. When the time came to build this tem¬ ple, I was one day passing in that part of the city, and I saw in the street a number of young women nicely dressed up in their ‘ ‘ Sunday clothes,’ ’ as we would call it, with their white tabi on (a kind of stocking that comes up to the ankle), and yet these young women were draw¬ ing the carts on which were the timbers for that temple, and the street was muddy. It was such a striking instance of the unfitness of things, it seemed to me — young women dressed up in their best clothes going through the muddy streets drawing the carts — that I asked what it meant, and they said that the timbers were for the tem¬ ple, and this was a sign of their devotion to their religion.
These temples are sustained largely by the freewill offerings of the people. Of course, in
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special emergencies, they will take up subscrip¬ tions, but usually the offerings that sustain these temples are freewill offerings.
On almost any day you may pass around any of the cities of Japan, one of the most familiar sights will be the priests. They have on a sort of yellow surplice, and they go around from house to house with a howl, and have a little bell. They ring the little hell and mumble a sort of prayer that they do not understand nor any one else understands; but the people take this as meaning something about religion, and they are all accustomed to go out to the door and drop in a little offering — maybe it will not he as much as a penny. That is one way.
Another way is for the people to go to the temples and worship, and, when they go, take an offering. They do not assemble in great au¬ diences, as a rule; sometimes this is the case; but usually they go one by one, and each wor¬ ships by himself. Whenever a person goes to the temple to worship, he is always sure to take with him an offering. Some of the contribution boxes in these temples are ten, fifteen, or possi¬ bly twenty feet long. They come together in¬ side “V” shape, and there is a slit between the planks. They throw in their little gift, and
78 Christ the Light of the World.
down it goes into the contribution box. After they have done this, they kneel and pray.
San-ju-San Gendo.
In the city of Kyoto there is a temple called the ‘ ‘ San-ju-San Gendo. ’ ’ In this temple there are 33,333 images of the goddess Kwannon. It is dedicated to this particular deity, the goddess of mercy. Besides a great many smaller ones, there are 33 principal temples erected to her honor.
Fudo.
There is also another very famous temple in Japan called “Fudo,” named after the god it contains. I have a very vivid recollection of the first visit I ever made to this temple. I went in company with a student. We got off at a little station, then walked through the vil¬ lage and along the way leading down to the temple. Here my mind was attracted to some jimson weeds that were growing by the road¬ side — just common jimson. Now, you know when a person is in a strange land, he is always looking out for something that has to do with home; though we pay no attention to it in our own land, in a distant country like that you are sure to notice everything that resembles any-
A BUDDHIST TEMPLE
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thing at home. Here I noticed a bunch of jim¬ son, and it looked so familiar that I stopped and looked at it and examined it to make sure that it was jimson. I rolled a leaf in my fingers and smelled it and convinced myself that it was genuine jimson, and felt like I had almost met an old friend. We went on across the valley and through the gate, and finally came to a flight of steps that led up to the temple; but as we came to the gate, the main entrance, there were two objects of interest, one on either side.
Now, a temple gate is quite a large structure ; one would almost take it to be the temple itself. On either side there were some large images — images of men, giants, monsters — standing, each facing toward the entrance, some two or three times as large as life size. They were called the “gate keepers,” or the Ni-O, “the two kings.” Those who go to the temple al¬ ways pay their respects to Ni-O. They some¬ times hang up a pair of street sandals by the images, thus showing their gratitude that they have been permitted to make a successful pil¬ grimage to the temple. Also, you may see lit¬ tle paper wads sticking against the wire netting that shields these two great gate keepers. Those little wads of paper represent prayers.
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They write a prayer on a piece of paper and roll it np and chew it and then throw it; if it sticks on the netting, this is evidence that the prayer is heard.
We went np the flight of steps and came to the temple proper. The temples of Japan are built mostly of large posts. In many instances the walls are movable, but the temples are sus¬ tained on very heavy timbers in the shape of posts. Around this particular temple there is an open porch some nine feet wide. We walked around back of the temple, and there we found dug in the hill a tunnel, or hole. At the en¬ trance was a gate. The gate was locked. We went up and looked through the doors, and away back at the end of that hole there burned a dim candle. Now this was the abode of one of the deities that lived at the temple. One of the things that impressed me most was the pray¬ ing of two women. They were side by side walking around on the porch of the temple. One of them had a bundle of cords, or strings, in her hand, about a foot long, I judge. There were just one hundred cords, and I noticed that every time she went around she would take one and lav it over in front. Every step they were making they were repeating prayers.
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There are two main forms of prayer in Japan. The one they were repeating was the shorter one — Namu-amida-butsu. They were keeping step just as regularly as two soldiers and praying to the time. Now it was very important that they go around on this porch of the temple one hundred times in order for their prayers to be effectual. Hence that kind of prayer is called the “ hundred -times-go-round prayer,’ ’ or the ‘ ‘ hyaku-do-maeri. ’ ’ This is one of the most flourishing temples in all Japan. The people visit it regularly every month; and when the time comes to visit the temple, it is a very pros¬ perous time with the little railroad that runs by where it is located.
“Well,” one may ask, “what do they pray for?” They pray according to the circum¬ stances to some degree, or it depends on the con¬ dition a person is in. It may be that some mem¬ ber of the family is sick, the mother or the fa¬ ther, or brother or sister, and they go and pray for the sick person. It may be that there is some calamity that has befallen the family or some friend. It may be that the rain has not come in a long time, so they pray for rain. And they think that their prayers will be effectual, not by the variety in speech, but by the frequent 7
Christ the Light of the World.
repetition of the same thing. Now these two women to which I refer had just the one little prayer, Namu-amida-butsu, which, in English, means, The great and immortal Buddha, That is all they said.
I have often been reminded of that circum¬ stance which took place at Ephesus when Paul stirred up the shrine makers there, and they all came out, not knowing what they had come out for. At any rate, they knew that Diana was a great goddess, and for two whole hours they cried out: “ Great is Diana of the Ephe¬ sians.’ ’ Now the very same idea seems to pre¬ vail in the minds of the heathen to-day. If Je¬ sus were standing in the midst of the idolaters of our time and should witness just what is go¬ ing on now, he could not more accurately de¬ scribe the prayers of the heathen than he did when he said: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall he heard for their much speak¬ ing.” What was true in his day is true now. The people of Japan will repeat prayers for hours at a time, and what is true of Japan is true of other pagan nations.
Christ the Light of the World.
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Suitengu.
In the city of Tokyo there is another very famous temple called the ‘ ‘ Suitengu. ’ ’ We have a very good system of electric cars in Tokyo now, and one line runs right around in front of this temple. One of the stopping places is here. Our custom in Japan is a little differ¬ ent from what it is in America, because the con¬ ductor will always call out the stations — that is, the stopping places along the street. Here each one must usually look out for himself. I remem¬ ber very well hearing the conductor call out this particular stopping place many a time. It is called “Suitengu-mai,,, and means “Before Suitengu. ’ ’
A long time ago there was war in the impe¬ rial household. There were two aspirants to the throne, and one party contended for one prince and one for the other ; but they could not settle it, so they decided to fight it out. The battle took place at sea, and the infant prince that was one of the aspirants to the throne was in the possession of the mother. It went hard with this side of the house, and the mother jumped into the sea with her babe and they were drowned. He has since been deified, and hence
84 Christ the Light of the World.
the name Suitengu, the water nymph. There is one principal temple in Japan erected to his honor, and a branch temple, the one in Tokyo. This is especially a temple of the student class, because they believe that the spirit of the de¬ parted prince will assist them in their educa¬ tion. It is said that in one year this temple took in 10,000 yen, or $5,000, all of which was gained by these little freewill offerings the peo¬ ple brought when they came to worship. This has constituted a fund, and that fund is used to assist poor students in getting an education. So even in idolatry we sometimes find good re¬ sults.
Kishimojin.
Just a few steps from where our school is lo¬ cated there is another very famous temple, dedi¬ cated to a female god, called “Kishimojin.” Now, Kishimojin is a cannibal. It is said that a long time ago she had a great family, a fam¬ ily of one thousand children, and she fed her children on the infants of the mothers of Japan, causing great weeping and lamentation. Bud¬ dha, it is said, being merciful, wanted to break up this bad habit, so he stole one of the children. She was greatly troubled over the loss of one child', so he finally restored it, and said: “Now
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you realize how greatly you are troubled over the loss of one, then think how much trouble you have caused by taking so many thousand children from their mothers. You must stop this awful practice. ’ ’ Having forbidden her to take children any more to feed her family on, he pointed her, so the story goes, to a pomegran¬ ate tree, and said: “Now the fruit of this tree will serve instead of the fare you have been giving them.” Ever since that she has been feeding her children on pomegranates. I am not responsible for the truthfulness of this story. Nevertheless, the fact remains that near our school there is a temple dedicated to Kishimo- jin, and thousands of people go to this temple to worship every year. They have their annual festival. The last they had was a great one, be¬ cause last year was a very prosperous year in Japan, and they had the largest rice crop they had raised for a long time. In order to show their gratitude, they had a great festival at the temples, and Kishimojin had a great festival at her temple. Brother Klingman wrote me in re¬ gard to it, and said that during the week of the festival the students could not possibly study of evenings on account of the noise. They did not try, but would get up at four o’clock in the
86 Christ the Light of the World.
morning and study their lessons. Now, the young people and old alike come out and join in the festival. This particular sect is called the “Hokekyo” sect. Their form of worship is a little different from the others. Their prayer is a different prayer from the one I have mentioned. They repeat the longer form. That longer form is like this: Namuyoho-ren- gekyo. During this festival you can hear the procession that comes round about the temple, marching up one street and down the other, all the time heating their little drums and crying out every once in a while in chorus: “Namu- yoho-rengekyo. ’ ’ I asked a priest once what that meant, and he said: “The law and the lotus plant.” But even in English I do not know just what it means. The fact is, they do not un¬ derstand much about the significance of the prayers they pray; and when we come down to the real meaning, there is not much to under¬ stand. It is something like trying to explain the good luck of a horseshoe or something like that.
We can see from the worship at this temple how idolatry has an evil effect on the people. David says : 6 ‘ They that make them shall be like unto them.” (Ps. 115: 8.) Now, here are peo-
Christ the Light of the World. 87
pie around this particular temple worshiping a monster, a cannibal; so we cannot expect their character to be of the highest, or their ideals the most exalted, while the god whom they wor¬ ship is of such a nature as that.
There is another god in Japan that is a thief, and he is honored as a thief. The people go to worship this god also. He is called “Jizo.” Whenever people worship gods that are thieves and cannibals, or that are represented by the cunning of the fox, you cannot expect them to be of the highest character, because people be¬ come like what they worship. You may select some person that is your ideal, your model. You admire that man, and, inadvertently, you are following him to some extent. Now, to the very extent that you follow that man you ad¬ mire, whether he be a good man or a bad man, you are becoming like him. When the James brothers, those outlaws, flourished in our land, and their story was written and the youth read the story, we had a great many Jesse Jameses throughout the country trying to do just like their ideal.
88
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Asakusa.
There is another very famous temple in the city of Tokyo known as the Asakusa Temple. Perhaps more people go to this temple than any other in all Japan, As you enter the temple grounds through the great gate, with the two gate keepers that I referred to in regard to the other temple, on the right hand is a sort of re¬ volving library. Sometimes when students go to the temple in order to get an education cheap and quickly, they go out there and turn the library round a time or two, supposing that to be a means of helping them become wise.
I remember once about ten years ago, just be¬ fore we came home the first time, I went out to the temple and took my oldest little girl. She was then six years old. We went up into the temple. Any one can go inside the temples of Japan — that is, to a certain point. They usu¬ ally have two apartments, somewhat like Solo¬ mon’s temple. They have what might be called a ‘ ‘ holy place” and a ‘ 4 most holy place. ’ ’ Any one can go into the holy place. I remember we went out to that temple one day. There were people coming and going and bringing their offerings and saying prayers. Just over
Christ the Light of the World. 89
there on one side was the god of health. He sat on a stand about as tall as a common table, and was about two-thirds life size — a little black image, where the people went to get cured. While we were standing there, a mother came up with a little baby in her arms. She went over to that motley thing and rubbed its face — where its face used to be — and then rubbed her own face, and then rubbed it again and rubbed the child. They have rubbed that image so much that they have actually rubbed every bit of its face away, and it is just as flat as a board. Now, instead of being a means of curing disease, you can readily see how a practice like this is one of the most fruitful means of spreading it, for all kinds of diseased hands come on that motley idol, and it is no wonder that eye dis¬ ease is one of the most prevalent complaints in all Japan. When we came home, our little girl ran to her mother and said: “Well, I am a woman, but I must be a preacher.” The rea¬ son why she said this was, when she saw the people going up and rubbing that image, she knew enough of what was right and what was not right to have her little heart stirred within her, and she determined when she got grown she would be a “preacher” and teach these peo-
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pie the better way. And I do hope and pray that not only my oldest daughter may be a preacher in the scriptural sense, but that all three of my children, when the time comes, will be found in Japan proclaiming unto that per¬ ishing people the way of light and salvation. Some one says: “Why, do you really want your children to go back to J apan ? ’ ’ I can conceive of nothing that would be more profitable to them or give more pleasure to me than to go to Japan and engage in just such work as we are engaged in now. I know of no nobler calling on the face of the earth.
Umewa-jinja and Ushijima-jinja.
Across from this temple, beyond the river Sumida, there are two others. One is called “Umewa-jinja;” the other, “Ushijima-jinja.” It is said that a long time ago there lived in the country a certain mother and her son, and a man came along and kidnapped the son. He came to the city of Tokyo; and when he reached the river, he forsook the child and left the little fellow there to perish. The mother went out in search of the child, and she, also, came as far as the river Sumida searching for the little one, and found him not. No one gave her any at-
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tention, and she, too, perished. After they were dead the people got mighty sorry, and said they onght to erect some temples in honor of these good people, and they built one in honor of the son and another in honor of the mother. Now, T do not stand responsible for the truthfulness of this story; hut, nevertheless, there stand the two temples to-day. But whether or not the story is true, it illustrates a very important fact in regard to human nature, and that is that it is very much the same in this one particular — namely: While people are living, we are apt to neglect them; after they are dead, we are very sorry. It was true in the days of our Lord. He said to the Pharisees: You say if you had been living in the days of your fathers, you would not have done as others did. Others stoned the prophets, and now you build their tombs. As much as to say you would not have acted like they did, and yet you are just like your ances¬ tors. You are ready to kill those in your midst that are as good as the prophets. We neglect the living and then pay our respects to the dead. Many a man has left his wife without the com¬ mon comforts of life, has neglected to speak a word of comfort or kindness to her, and after she was laid in the coffin has shed tears, paid
92 Christ the Light of the World.
for the flowers to put on the coffin and has placed them on the grave, and shown consider¬ able respect for the remains of that poor woman that he ought to have been loving twenty years ago. At any rate, they built the two temples dedicated to the son and the mother. In 1906 they had their annual festival around these temples.
Now, before I go any further with the story, I want to bring up another one connected with it. One of the gods of Japan is called “Mi- koshi. ’ ’ It seems that a long time ago this god was one of three children, two brothers and a sister. One of the brothers and the sister were very quiet, genteel people, but this particular brother was rough and rude. Once his sister was having a feast with her friends, and he found a dead horse and threw it on the roof. The carcass came down in the midst of the little company, and his sister got angry and went and hid herself in a cave. When she did that, the earth became dark. The brother thought he must hit upon some plan in order to get his sis¬ ter out again, so that it might be light. He went and got some dogs in the neighborhood and some old roosters and brought them to the mouth of the cave, and built some bonfires, and
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got the dogs to barking and the roosters to crowing, and (as the women all have the curi¬ osity) the sister in the cave wanted to know what that was going on out there, so she came and peeped out just a little to see, and while she was peeping out her brother seized her and brought her out and tied a rope across the cave so she could not get back again ; and it has been light ever since. I do not vouch for the truth¬ fulness of this story, but, at any rate, every year the people will put up over the top of their door a large straw rope made of rice straw, celebra¬ ting that event. Now this brother is one of the gods of Japan, and on certain occasions he is brought out on a framework of two parallel beams running one way and two more at right angles to these, and he sits right in the center where they cross. Under these beams that are some fifteen or twenty feet long there will be fifteen, twenty, or thirty young men and boys (the muddier the streets, the better), and as they go through the streets they give a yell that can be understood only when heard.
Now, as to the story of 1906, there was around these two temples, Umewa-jinja and Ushijima- jinja, a festival, and, according to their custom, they went around to every house in this particu-
94
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lar part of the city, asking each one for a do¬ nation to bear the expenses, and they came to a certain man and asked how much he was go¬ ing to give for the festival. He said he could not give anything, because he had become a Christian. Well, it was not long till, away up yonder in the stall where Mikoshi was sitting, there was assembled a company of the rude boys and young men of the neighborhood. Mi¬ koshi came out on their shoulders and took out down the street, and he came right into the very shop that the Christian owned (he was a crock¬ ery merchant), and broke right in with those great, heavy beams and smashed up his wares. By and by the policemen got him out, and no¬ body was particularly responsible, because the idol did the damage, and that settled it. But they were not contented with this. The next night a great mob came out around that fellow’s house and stuck fire to it and burned it up, all because lie refused to give for an idolatrous fes¬ tival. I am sometimes asked by friends whq are a little skeptical as to whether or not a con¬ vert will stick, and I tell this story to answer that question. This man stuck. Whether, like those of ancient times, he took joyfully the spoiling of his goods or not, one thing is certain:
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he saw his house and possessions go up in flames and maintained his Christian integrity.
Anamori.
Referring again to that fox temple I men¬ tioned last night, the Anamori temple, when the two young men and myself were standing there watching the proceedings that were going on about that temple, we saw a woman as she was bowing down to one of the fox dens saying her prayers. Those young men were as much stirred at the sight as I, for, while they were Japanese, they said they had never seen any¬ thing just like that before. One of them was not a believer in the proper sense. He was a believer in God, but he did not believe in the Bible. Nevertheless, he had long since given up idols. The other was a very devout believer. He had not gone to the full in obedience, hut he was a very pious young man, steady and trust¬ worthy. Just as regularly as he ate his meals did he read his little Testament, and just as regularly as he read his Testament he prayed. As we were returning home that evening (for he seemed still to be thinking about that partic¬ ular incident of seeing the woman), he said: “ There are all over this land of ours many
96 Christ the Light of the World.
towns of ten thousand people and under where there is not a single Christian believer nor any work whatever being done. When you go back to America, I want you to tell the American peo¬ ple about this, and ask them to send us more workers. ’ ’ Thus we have given to that song a new meaning — the song that says :
“ There’s a wail from the islands of the sea,
There’s a voice that is calling you and me.”
Now, mission songs are all well enough if they lead us to action; but without it, friends, it is not sufficient for us to sing missions. We must suit the action to the song, and in order to be pleasing to him who said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole cre¬ ation, ” we must be just as willing to go as we are to sing the song that says go, we must be just as willing to heed the call from across the seas as to sing the song concerning the “wail” that we hear.
Ame-No-Naka-Nushi-No O-Mi-Kami.
It seems that in all nations there has ever been the conception of the true God. In the Vedas, or sacred writings of India, they have Dyaus-Pitar, the Heaven Father. From this
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they descended to Brah, or pantheism, the dei¬ fication of all nature. Brahmanism and the an¬ cient religions of Greece and Rome appear to be derived from the same source. The Egyptians held the unity of God. They had the expres¬ sion, “Nuk Pu Nuk” — “I am that I am” — the very name by which Jehovah made himself known to Moses. Their sacred manuscripts say : ‘ 1 He is the one living and true God, . . .
who made all things and was not himself made. ’ ’ Persia believed in Ormazd, the one God of Zoroaster; the savages of North America be¬ lieve in the Great Spirit; China holds to Shotei, the Supreme Ruler; and Japan, with her mul¬ titude of gods and goddesses, still holds to Ame-No-Naka-Nushi-No O-Mi-Kami, the Lord in the midst of heaven, the great God. Right in sight of our school at Tokyo is a shrine dedi¬ cated to him, and it was my privilege to be present at the dedication. It was one beauti¬ ful Sunday afternoon. I happened to be pass¬ ing by in one of my rounds for distributing tracts. Seeing something special going on, I stopped at the gate and asked what it was. ‘ ‘ O-Matsuri, ’ ’ they said — ‘ ‘ a festival. ’ ’ “ What god is this that you are dedicating the shrine to?” I asked, and they said: “ Ame-No-Naka- 8
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Nushi-No O-Mi-Kami.’’ I continued by telling them that I had read something of that God in their literature and I worshiped him myself, and that I had some tracts about him on the True and the Living God. Giving out some of the tracts, I pointed to the sun still shining in an afternoon sky, and continued: “Do you see the sun up there? Now, I am an American and live many thousand miles across the sea, almost on the other side of the world ; but that same sun that shines on us also shines on the people of Amer¬ ica in the same way. He shines on every na¬ tion in the world, and is not the exclusive sun of any. Even so Ame-No-Naka-Nushi-No O-Mi- Kami is the God of all nations alike, and not just of Japan. ’ ’ With these remarks, I walked on, glad of the opportunity of taking part in the dedication of at least one heathen temple in Japan.
It is pitiable and truly pathetic to see earth’s teeming millions groping their way in the dark¬ ness of despair! 0, that God would stir our souls to the depths, that we might be led to see the responsibility that God has laid upon us. We who have the light should feel that it is a very serious thing to hold back the truth in un¬ righteousness. Can we rest contented while
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more than half the population of the world, con¬ sisting of more than eight hundred million peo¬ ple, is in heathen darkness, not so much as once having heard of a Savior? Can we feel that we are carrying out God ’s purpose, beloved friends, so long as we neglect great multitudes who are passing out without hope and without God? It is said that at least one hundred thousand souls perish daily. “Well,” says one, “it seems to me there is no way to get at it; it is a great undertaking.” I do not believe the undertak¬ ing is too great to be accomplished. The very fact that Jesus Christ has given the command carries with it the obligation, and the obligation means the possibility of it. There- is not a fa¬ ther that has common wisdom and loves his children who would say to his little ten-year-old boy: “My son, you go yonder and lift that bar¬ rel of salt and put it in the smokehouse.” He would not say that in all seriousness, because the father knows that a ten-year-old boy can¬ not lift a barrel of salt. And yet a great many of our Father’s children are acting as though he commanded them to do as impossible a task as lifting a barrel of salt. We stand back and look at this great command of God that he has given through his Son to the world, and say:
100 Christ the Light of the World.
“It cannot be done; we are doing all we can do here at home, and that is beyond our ability.” Ah, there is some mistake somewhere! God has not commanded his children to undertake impossible tasks. Jesus is too wise to command such a thing, and I am sure he is too good to do it. Let us then consider it seriously, let us un¬ dertake it in all earnestness; for just so sure as this command has been given to God’s people can it be fulfilled, and it ought to be to-day that every man and woman on all the face of the earth should have an opportunity of hearing the message of life, so that if they remain heathen it may be from choice and not from necessity.
Christ the Light of the World. 101
THE GOSPEL IN JAPAN IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.
Every man should avoid putting himself in a position which will commit him to that which he cannot conscientiously approve. We are en¬ deavoring to keep the churches in Japan as free from denominationalism as possible. It is the duty, however, of every one to accept the truth wherever and with whomsoever he finds it. In speaking of what has been done by the various denominational missions during the last fifty years in Japan, I would not be understood as indorsing all that they do, but there is much ac¬ complished by them which we all can approve. I believe God is using every man as far as that man is willing to be used. How many are will¬ ing to be used to the saving of the soul is im¬ possible to decide; this applies to us as well as to others. We may obey where others fail and fail where others obey. It stands us all in hand to give heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we drift away from them. We may be up to the standard in regard to how to
102 Christ the Light of the World.
become a Christian ; but many of ns, I fear, are sadly lacking in regard to how to live a Chris¬ tian.
Deeds of Heroism.
I read a very touching story concerning a cer¬ tain young woman, Miss Mary Read, who, in 1884, became a missionary to India. Her na¬ tive State was Ohio. After a period of years on the mission field, she returned in 1891 to Cincinnati, broken down in health, and entered Christ’s Hospital. For some time she had dis¬ covered on the tip end of her right forefinger a vexing little sore that no manner of persua¬ sion would induce to heal. Lying in bed one day thinking, and tapping her forefinger on the counterpane to ease the dull pain, the thought came to her: Maybe this is leprosy. When the doctor came, she mentioned it to him. He said that he was not well enough acquainted with leprosy to know whether it was or not, that he would have to read up a little. He read up when he went home; and when he came back, he said that he was afraid it was all too true. She went to an expert in the city of New York who had had some experience with leprous cases there, and he only confirmed the decision of the first doctor — an undoubted case of leprosy.
Christ the Light of the World. 103
When Mary Read learned that she had that dreaded disease, she wrote a letter to her poor old mother, saying that for certain important reasons she had decided to return to India im¬ mediately. But before returning to India she went to see her mother; and when she met her, she stated that she had made a vow that she would never again kiss another person, not even her mother. The mother, thinking she had some religious sentiment connected with it, asked no questions. After she had spent a short while with her mother, she bade her a final, affectionate good-by, without even the lux¬ ury of a kiss, and turned her face again to the great heathen land of India. She went up among the Himalaya Mountains, in one of the worst districts of all India for leprosy, and there established a hospital for that unfortunate class. She is there to-day contented with her lot. There may be some points in the life of this woman that we could criticise, but we can¬ not criticise her heroism and consecration.
Also, in the year 1832, there was a man, Mel¬ ville Cox, who was sent to Liberia, in West Africa, Before leaving America he said to a special companion of his: “If I die in Africa, you must come over and write my epitaph.’ ’
104 Christ the Light of the World.
The friend said: “I will; but what shall I write? ” “Write on my tombstone: ‘Let a thousand fall before Africa is given up.’ ”
In three months that man was in his grave; but others caught the inspiration, and the work has been pushed from that day until the pres¬ ent, and as the result of the pioneer effort of this hero there are to-day in connection with this particular work about three thousand be¬ lievers. Now, we may criticise this man, per¬ haps, in some points, but we cannot criticise his devotion. Especially should we be slow to do this till we are more willing to go with a fuller message. The gospel mixed with some error is better than none.
To what extent God will hold us responsible for neglecting the first part of the commission, I do not know; but, so far as I can see, there is just as much importance attached to that part of it which says, “ Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation/ ’ as the latter part, which says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved/ 9 and be it ob¬ served that the requirement to go comes first.
Christ the Light of the World. 105
Beginnings in Japan.
Now, I am glad to say that there are scores, and even thousands, of men and women who have risen up in various parts of Europe and America during these latter days, and have said : ‘ ‘ Here am I ; send me. ’ ’ We can find them scattered throughout all the pagan lands of the earth — not less than twenty-two thousand men and women.
Speaking more particularly of the little East¬ ern island empire of J apan, just fifty years ago last October the first Protestant missionaries entered that land. When they reached the shores of Japan, they met a hostile people that did not want to receive them. The government had at that early time prohibited two things en¬ tering the country — one was opium, the other was Christianity. I am glad to say that J apan, in regard to the first, has kept her purpose, and unto this day it is next to impossible to intro¬ duce that evil drug into the empire of Japan, the drug that has so greatly cursed China. But Japan has the good sense to know the dif¬ ference between things that really differ, and she was not very long in discovering that there was a difference between opium and the
106 Christ the Light of the World.
Christian religion. She relaxed her opposition against Christianity and allowed people more freedom. Bnt in those early days the govern¬ ment had posted up in public places what are commonly known as “ edicts.’ ’ These edicts against Christianity read like this : ‘ ‘ So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian he so hold as to come to Japan; and let all know that the king of Spain himself, or the Chris¬ tian’s god [supposed to refer to the pope of Rome] , or the great God of all, if he violate this command, shall pay for it with his head. ’ 9 Missionaries when they first entered Japan were not allowed to teach Christianity publicly, nor even privately, except under the most care¬ ful and suspicious watching. However, they were not discouraged. They had trust in the power of God’s word that by and by it would make a way for itself. All this time they were quietly working away at the Japanese language; and it required over twelve years of slavish, hard study before they were prepared to begin a translation. In the year 1872 a translating committee began work on the New Testament. After eight years’ work it was completed, and it is worthy of note that the very next year after they began work on the translation of the
Christ the Light of the World. 107
New Testament those edicts to which I have re^ ferred were taken down by government author¬ ity, and taken down forever. After the New Testament was completed they took up the work of translating the Old Testament; this required eight years more. They completed it in the year 1888 — sixteen years’ hard work in order to get the Bible to the people in their own lan¬ guage. If the twelve years of preparation are added, you see we have twenty-eight years of tedious labor in order to give the word of Grod to the Japanese people.
You ask me if it helps any for those who are laboring under the various denominations to go to a heathen land and teach their doctrines. Take this one consideration. Suppose, for in¬ stance, that when others and myself went to Japan there had been no translation of the Scriptures and we should have had to go through all this. In the first place, this is not the work of one man; it is the work of a com¬ pany of men. Suppose that we should have had to begin at the bottom and study the language and then translate the Scriptures. There would yet be ten years’ work for us before the Jap¬ anese people could even have the Bible. As it was, when we went to J apan eighteen years ago,
108 Christ the Light of the World.
this little book, a Japanese New Testament, was already prepared, just as it is now. Not only so, but the entire Bible was nicely bound up, having been translated into the Japanese lan¬ guage. So when we get to feeling right critical against our denominational neighbors in regard to their errors, it will do us good, my beloved friends, to think a second time. There is not a Bible that has been placed on this stand, nor in any church in this city, nor on the pulpit of any of the churches of Christ in Tennessee or throughout the United States, but what is the work of the sects. We ought not to be too sharp against our neighbors, at least not to the point of forgetting the good that they do.
This translation is to the Japanese people what the King James Version is to us. It is the recognized standard, and is used through¬ out Japan like the King James in America. It has its defects, and there has been serious thought about revising it; but, nevertheless, with all its defects, it is God's word and has the power to uplift and to give light to the soul.
Long before the New Testament had been completed the Bible had filtered into Japan in one way or another, and in various remarkable ways was having its fruit. To give one illustra-
Christ the Light of the World. 109
tion: Away down at the south of Japan, at the port of Nagasaki, there was a Japanese, “Wak- asa” by name, who was one day out in his boat, and he saw something that looked like a hook floating on the water. Out of curiosity, per¬ haps, he picked it up, opened it, and discovered that it was a Dutch New Testament. He could not read Dutch ; and as he could not find a trans¬ lation of this book in his own country, and becoming keenly interested in it, he sent all the way over to China to get a Chinese trans¬ lation, for missionary work by this time had been going on fifty years in China. Although the Chinese and Japanese cannot talk with one another, the scholars of either country can read the literature of the other. So he sent and got a Chinese Testament. He read it and was con¬ verted — turned away from heathenism. I do not know whether he was baptized or not. It may be that he received a substitute; hut rather than be inclined to criticise those who did it, I think that we ought to feel a sting of conscience that some of us were not there to teach him the way more perfectly.
110 Christ the Light of the World.
Christian Influence in High Places.
Now, the giving of the Bible to the Japanese people in their own language marks an epoch in Japan. It was the beginning of a new order of things. It set the people to thinking along new lines; it set the people to acting on differ¬ ent principles. For a long time after I went to Japan their conduct was a puzzle, and I have sometimes been so uncharitable as to say that Japan had no moral standard. It seemed so to me; but I found by and by that I was mis¬ taken, that the people did have a moral stand¬ ard, but the trouble with me was that it was not the Christian standard. What they thought to be right was from a Bible point of view for¬ bidden, and what we consider to be forbidden they would accept as a privilege. But when the Bible began to have an influence among the people, their ideas of what was right and what was wrong began to change; and it had its in¬ fluence, not on the common people alone, but on all classes in Japan. Now, in Japan things work from the top downward. The rapid ad¬ vancement, the marvelous progress that Japan has made during the last half century, began at the top and worked downward. The govern-
Christ the Light of the World. Ill
ment has always been in the lead, and it had to lead the people and sometimes force them into measures. The Christian religion has had its influence even with the throne. Shortly after the war with Russia, the Emperor of Ja¬ pan, so pleased with the work done by Chris¬ tian workers, and seeing that Christianity was a power for good among his people, volun¬ teered to give ten thousand yen ($5,000) to Christian work. Not only so, but in the House of Commons, consisting of three hundred and eighty members, there are to-day fourteen of the three hundred and eighty who are Chris- , tian believers. The late Prince Ito, the great¬ est statesman that Japan has ever had, for a long time stood out against the Christian reli¬ gion and said that he had no use for Chris¬ tianity, that all religion was mere superstition. It is a little like this: Japanese nature is human nature. If you understand human nature, you understand Japanese nature; and you know it is human nature for a person who is uprooted in his own faith to say: “Now, mine was as good as anybody else’s, and I don’t believe in any of it.” That is the way some of the Japanese people feel about it. By force of circumstances light from the West entered in among them, and
112 Christ the Light of the World.
the Japanese people were forced to give up their false gods. They concede it is a superstition — they have to acknowledge that; hut, being a proud people like they are, they say that the re¬ ligion of the West is no better than theirs, hut it is all superstition. That is the position that Prince Ito took ; but here is what was said con¬ cerning him shortly before he was assassinated : “ Twenty years ago he publicly announced that he had no use for any form of religion, that Buddhism and all religions were only so many divers forms of superstition. At the dedication of the Young Men’s Christian Association build¬ ing in Soul he said he had always believed that morality was essential to a national life, and that he now believed that religion was essential as an adequate basis for morality.”
Perhaps the greatest living statesman to-day in Japan is Count Okuma. He is, also, perhaps, the greatest philanthropist in Japan. It is through his instrumentality that the University of Waseda, one of the largest schools of Japan, has been established. In lecturing to the stu¬ dents of the school on one occasion, he gave ut¬ terance to the following language: “It is a ques¬ tion whether we have not lost moral fiber as the result of the many new influences which we
Christ the Light of the World. 113
have been subjected to. The development has been intellectual, and not moral. The efforts which Christians are making to supply the coun¬ try a high standard of conduct are welcomed by all right-thinking people. As you read the Bible, you may think it is inadequate, out of date. The words it contains may so appear, but the noble life which it holds up to admira¬ tion is something that will never be out of date, however much the world may progress. Live and preach this life, and you will supply the country with just what it needs at this junc¬ ture. ’ ’
Remarkable words coming from a man whom we would consider a heathen, and it is pecul¬ iarly interesting to know how the Bible im¬ presses itself upon a man who comes to it as a new book. Now, you and I, dear friends, have been brought up on the Bible. I learned my letters from the New Testament, and I never had the shadow of a doubt from the time that I could believe anything hut what the Bible was true. My mother said so, and that settled it. But it is interesting for us to place ourselves in the position of a man who comes to the Book as a stranger, and opens it as a brand-new book, and looks at it, not from any feeling of preju-
9
114 Christ the Light of the World.
dice or from any traditions that have come down to him from his fathers, hut looks at it simply as a hook and reads it for just what it is worth ; and here is the impression it has made upon such a man, and he could set a pretty good example for those who think they are wiser than He who gave the Bible. Now, you know some people in this country are getting a little wiser than the Bible. They are saying it is out of date; yet over across the sea yonder the great¬ est living statesman in Japan says the noble life it holds up for our admiration will never be out of date, however much the world may progress.
Last year, you know, there was a delegation of business men who came over to the United States from Japan, among them being the rich¬ est man in Japan, Baron Shihusawa. The busi¬ ness men in New York City gave them a ban¬ quet, and during that dinner Shihusawa gave utterance to the following words: “Japan in the future must base her morality on religion. It must be a religion that does not rest on empty or superstitious faith, like that of some of the Buddhist sects in our land, hut must be like the one that prevails in your own country, which manifests its power over men by filling them
Christ the Light of the World. 115
with good works/ ’ (Missionary Review of the World, July, 1910.)
Now, these examples will serve to illustrate how the Bible has influenced those in the very highest positions in Japan, from the emperor down.
Change of Customs and Morals.
This is not all. As already suggested, the Bible has set the people to thinking and acting along new lines. Now, for instance, old Japan puts woman down in a subordinate place, and says: “You are the inferior, I am the master; you help me on with my clothes, and you stay behind. I go in the street car first; you carry the baby and come after. If there is one seat, you stand up and I sit down.” That is what old Japan says to woman. I remember seeing old Japan very well illustrated. They were having an O-matsuri, or festival, at the place where the spirits of the heroes are enshrined, and a great many people had come up from the country to attend this three-days ’ celebration. Among them was a young man who had been a soldier and who had come up to the capital with his uniform on. They were walking along the street, he and his wife, and she had a little
116 Christ the Light of the World.
baby and a bundle in her arms, and was walk¬ ing just a little behind the master. He was walking in front, and had nothing whatever save a little fan. He was gravely walking along fanning himself, while his wife carried the bundle and the baby. That was old Japan. It is not that way in new Japan. Things are changing. I have seen new Japan get up and give the mother a seat in the street car. I have seen new Japan take the baby and let the mother go free, and I have seen new J apan treat his wife as an equal and as a companion. New Japan says the girls should be educated and taught to have high ideals in life the same as the boys. Just across the street from our work at Zoshigaya is one of the largest schools in Ja¬ pan, consisting of over fifteen hundred students, and this is a school for girls — the Woman’s Uni¬ versity.
The Christian religion has changed and is changing the customs of Japan along other lines. During the New-Year holidays, for ex¬ ample, it is the custom of the young people to play shuttlecock and battledoor by knocking back and forth with light paddles a little gum ball with feathers stuck in it. This is one time when Confucius, who taught that girls and boys
Christ the Light of the World. 117
should separate at six and should no more asso¬ ciate in common, is disobeyed and the girls and hoys play together. Old Japan said every time one lets the shuttlecock fall to the ground, that one must receive a broad black streak of ink across the face. I have seen an unskilled player with his face (or hers) almost solid with black streaks. Now such a punishment on the de¬ feated party is prohibited by the police on the ground that it is displeasing to foreigners, be¬ ing considered of low taste. In ancient times the jinrikisha man ran the streets with his cart, almost nude. Now it is the rule that every one shall be clothed. I have seen a policeman suddenly stop a man as he flew along the road with his little man-cart for no other reason than that he had his shirt stripped off down to his waist. In ancient times the public baths were used in common by both sexes. When I first went to Japan, I witnessed this. Now the law requires every bath house to have two distinct and separate apartments — one for men and one for women. At first they separated the pool only by a straw rope stretched across the mid¬ dle; but as their ideas of propriety grew, the bona-fide partition took the place of the straw rope.
118 Christ the Light of the World.
These things show how Christianity has made itself felt even down to minor matters. I be¬ lieve it can be truly said that there is not a man, woman, or child in Japan to-day hut who is in some way or other touched and benefited by the blessings of the gospel. Many of them, and likely most of them, do not know whence these blessings came, yet, though it be in igno¬ rance, they are reaping their benefits.
Japan has erected a different moral standard to-day from what she had years ago. Perhaps I cannot do better just here than to give the testimony of another prominent Japanese, who is distinguished as an educator in Japan and who is also a Christian believer. He says :
“In the policy followed in recent years by the government in matters of diplomacy and poli¬ tics, in times both of war and peace, the spirit of Christianity can be recognized. Old-fashioned Japan is apparently indifferent toward Chris¬ tianity, if not opposed to it, but in fact she is reaping its fruits. As far as diplomacy and politics are concerned, Japan may rightly be called an ‘ anomalous Christian, 7 or an un¬ baptized Christian country. This transforma¬ tion has been wrought through Christianity, but under the name of ‘ modern civilization.’
Christ the Light of the World. 119
In adopting Western civilization, Japan is really adopting Christian principles and ideals. Foreign missionaries brought ns the gospel di¬ rectly; Western civilization propagated Chris¬ tian principles indirectly. This indirect influ¬ ence has spread wide its branches over all the land; this direct influence lias sunk deep its roots into the nation’s heart. The life-giving and life-sustaining sap will flow from the roots into the branches, vivifying and strengthening them. There will then be nothing anomalous; Japan will be Christian.
“Let us state it concretely:
“1. The guarantee by the Japanese Consti¬ tution of the freedom of faith is the most Chris¬ tian principle that can be adopted by the State. The declaration of such freedom is far more Christian in principle than to make Christianity the State religion. To force a religion by the power of State is as bad as to prohibit and pre¬ vent it. In Japan, Christianity can act freely and can grow freely — a free church in a free State!
“2. The Japan of to-day better understands the true meaning of Christianity. In former times love and affection were found among rel¬ atives, friends, and families, but not outside of
120 Christ the Light of the World.
them. People looked upon society around them as an enemy. Still more did they have this at¬ titude toward foreigners. The old proverb that every one you meet is a thief will illustrate the attitude of old Japanese toward one another. To love your neighbor is the spirit of these lat¬ ter days. The relief work in time of famine, earthquake, and other disasters; the rescue work for exprisoners and fallen women; the caring for defectives and delinquents; the ac¬ tivities of the Red Cross Society in war; the con¬ sideration shown to the Russian prisoners in the late war, and such things, are all the embodi¬ ment of Christ’s teachings, ‘Love your neigh¬ bor, ’ ‘ Love your enemies. ’
“3. The value of the individual life is an¬ other expression of the Christian spirit through Western civilization. Formerly suicide was considered to be an honorable act ; now it is re¬ garded as a sin. The State law then encour¬ aged it; the State law now forbids it. If Japan were not in touch with Christian civilization, it would still be to the Japanese an honorable method of ending one’s life.
“4. Japanese have begun to admit the equal¬ ity of all men. Before the present era the peo¬ ple of the Eta class [originally slaves imported
Christ the Light of the World. 121
from Korea] were looked down upon as being beyond the pale of decency, as beneath the low¬ est class of society. But now they are allowed to rank among the common people. They are not distinguishable from others in outward ap¬ pearance, and in point of knowledge they show no inferiority. The distinction between the Heimin (common people) and the Shizoku (gen¬ try) nominally exists, but in reality there is none. Between nobility and common people there still exists a certain feeling of distinction, but it is not much greater than that found in certain European countries.
4 4 5. The ideas of the worth and place of woman have been changed. ‘Women and chil¬ dren are creatures unteachable, ’ says an old Japanese proverb. Now to women are given the same privileges and respect which they en¬ joy in Christendom. Most of our organized charities are in their hands. In institutions of lower and middle grade for the education of women they make efficient teachers. Both pub¬ lic and private professions are gradually being opened to them. They enjoy greater freedom than their sisters of any other country of the East.
4 ‘ 6. The idea of justice has also been changed.
122 Christ the Light of the World.
The old idea was, ‘ An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. 9 Vengeance was considered quite moral. In order to attain this object, all sorts of means were resorted to. In the stories of old morality, revenge forms the central topic. Now the idea is changed. Not only does the law forbid it, but people have begun to see the folly of it.
“ Western civilization has brought to Japan the ethical fruit of Christianity, while the Chris¬ tian propagandists have given us the seed and the stem. The time will come when the people will realize the fact that there are not two dif¬ ferent vines, but one and the same vine, of which our Father is the husbandman. ’ 7 ( Saku-
noshin Motoda, in the Christian Movement for 1909.)
These statements, coming from a Japanese, are full of thrilling interest.
Has Enriched the Literature.
The Christian religion has also imprinted it¬ self upon the literature of Japan. There is not a child at school in that land to-day who is not reaping the fruits of Christianity. It is the in¬ fluence of the Bible that has established the present system of public schools in Japan. Pre-
Christ the Light of the World. 123
vious to modern missions no snch system ex¬ isted. The text-books in these schools show manifest marks of Christian thought. Every child who recites a lesson imbibes now and then a thought from the Bible. It is said that the Bible itself is more widely read there to-day than any other hook, unless it is such of the Chinese classics as have been incorporated into the text-books of the government schools. Many of the words and expressions of the Scrip¬ tures are becoming familiar to the Japanese public. Old words also have taken on new meaning. For example, such words as “reli¬ gion,” “salvation,” “devotion,” “blessing,” and “God” (Kami). Take, also, such expres¬ sions as these: “Gospel of peace;” “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men;” “the widow’s mite;” “a grain of mustard seed;” “a house built upon the sand;” “the glory of Solomon;” “the poor in spirit;” “the gospel of the kingdom of heaven;” “Except ye become as little chil¬ dren;” “Man shall not live by bread alone;” “new wine in old bottles;” “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;” “Our Father which art in heaven. . . . For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and
124 Christ the Light of the World.
the glory, forever.” (See the Christian Move¬ ment in Japan for 1909.) Such quotations and references as these are found in the daily news¬ papers, weekly and monthly periodicals, and the general literature. As one Japanese writer is reported as saying: ‘ ‘ Most of the noted lit¬ erary men of Japan appear to write with the Bible at their elbow. ’ ’
Influence on the Home.
The influence of Christianity is manifest in the home life of Japan. In all non-Cliristian countries the law of marriage has been greatly disregarded. This breaks up the home, and the home is the unit of human society. The two pillars on which rests the home are the father and mother, the husband and wife. Without these two pillars there can be no proper home. The family relations in Japan are greatly con¬ fused. Polygamy, divorce and remarriage, and the unlawful mingling of the sexes in various ways have been common, and have wrought great confusion. This has greatly destroyed filial and parental affection and tlie dignity and sacredness of the home. The Christian religion is doing much to correct these evils. That which was once looked upon as honorable and
Christ the Light of the World. 125
concerning which no effort was made at con¬ cealment has now fallen into disrepute. Even the heathen custom of the marriage ceremony is being abandoned for the Christian ceremony. This change has been brought about, perhaps, more through the example of the missionaries than the direct teachings of the Scriptures. Whatever else may be said in criticism of the missionaries, they have, as a rule, set a good ex¬ ample in the home life. In the missionary’s home the native sees the husband giving honor unto the wife as the weaker and more delicate vessel; she is treated as a companion, not as a subordinate, and there are no other mysterious women around, about which too many questions need not he asked. All of his children have the proper parentage and are clearly defined. They all wear the father’s name. As the peo¬ ple go in and out in their visits to the mission¬ ary’s home, they are not slow to observe these things and to note that there is a difference be¬ tween the home life of the foreigner and that of themselves, and the average man can he ap¬ pealed to for better things. One of the hopeful signs of the times in Japan to-day is the restora¬ tion of the home. This word “home,” by the way, is another one of those words into which
126 Christ the Light of the World.
a new meaning had to be injected, for there was no corresponding Japanese word that meant what the word means to us. Their word for “home” was rather vague and indefinite, re¬ ferring more to a tribe than a clearly defined family with only one father and one mother, with the children all in proper order and dis¬ tinctly located.
Results.
Speaking more definitely as to results, there are at present 153 mission schools, with 12,588 students in attendance; about 100,000 children in the Sunday schools and some 8,000 in the kindergarten; and nearly 75,000 converts who have been won from idolatry unto the accept¬ ance of the one true God and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Out of a total of about 400, there are 199 churches that are self-supporting. Their faith is more or less defective, it is true, and their obedience imperfect, but this is not through any fault of their own; they have ac¬ cepted what has been taught them. They would have accepted the purer, fuller teaching with less denominational mixture, if the proper teachers had been there to give it to them. If you and I have clearer conceptions of truth than
Christ the Light of the World. 127
our religious neighbors, rather than criticise what they have done in heathen lands, we should feel convicted that we have not gone and done a better work. J apan, like other heathen nations, has been pleading and struggling all these years for an unsectarian New Testament religion, and, in spite of the odds against her, has, to some degree, succeeded in obtaining it. It is espe¬ cially incumbent upon you and me to go over and help them in the struggle. I feel grateful to God, and to the brethren who have had fel¬ lowship with me, that in his providence I and others as well have been led to that land and have been instrumental in leading numbers of these people into a fuller obedience of the faith.
Shortly before leaving Japan I became ac¬ quainted with a family that had for about a year been under the instruction of the Seventh- Day Adventists. While he gratefully acknowl¬ edged much valuable help from them, they had confused his mind on Sabbath keeping. I went to his home and at one sitting with himself and wife I cleared matters up, and the very next day had the pleasure of baptizing both of them. Their oldest child, a daughter of eighteen, has also been baptized. Another family had been taught of God, of Jesus, that the Bible was
128 Christ the Light of the World.
God’s word, and the necessity of a holy life. They attended onr services a few times; I then had a special meeting with them for the read¬ ing of the Scriptures and prayer. Soon after I left Japan, Brother Klingman baptized both the father and mother and the daughter. One of the first whom I immersed in Japan was a man who had already been taught much of Christianity and who had cast away his idols; but he had neglected baptism because he had not been taught its importance. As he came up out of the water he said: “Tadaima yoro- shii” — “Now I know it is all right.” Let us both work and pray that many more may go over there and take part with us in that work, so that scores of others now partly converted may, like this old man, be able to say: 6 ‘ Tadaima yoroshii. ’ ’ The best way to criticise the errors of others is to go ourselves and teach the peo¬ ple the way more perfectly.
On the eve of my leaving J apan the students and friends of Zoshigaya gave a little farewell meeting for my benefit. It partook, however, more of the nature of one of confession and prayer than a farewell meeting. One man,- who was a Methodist, rose and said that about one year ago he had become a Christian. At the
Christ the Light of the World. 129
time lie was guilty of a great sin — the tobacco habit. He tried to quit it for a while, but had fallen into the habit again. His wife had pleaded with him to give it up. “I spend,” he continued, “one yen and a half per month for cigarettes, and,” putting his hand in his coat pocket, “I have some of them here now; but to¬ night I have made up my mind to give it up, and I want you to pray for me that I may have the strength to overcome.” We bowed in spe¬ cial request for him. Some of you have had the idea that the heathen cannot be converted, and that the gospel is only skin deep, or, at most, not deeper than their stomachs. But how many of us in America feel convicted of sin because of the tobacco habit ? There are some, but I have never heard a brother yet get up and make public confession of it. No doubt some have, but it was not my privilege to hear them. I have heard one man in Japan do it. There is much more that might be said on what has been accomplished in J apan during the last fifty years if time would allow, but here I must close; but in doing so permit me to emphasize the fact that what we do must be done now , and that to-day is the day of salvation. It is not a matter we may postpone indefinitely to suit our 10
130 Christ the Light of the World.
convenience or leave to onr children ; but unless the heathen of this generation hear the gospel by ns who are now living , they will never hear the gospel.
Japan to-day is wide open for the reception of the gospel. There is just as much freedom al¬ lowed to those who desire to preach Christ in Japan as there is to those who preach Christ in the United States. Every harrier has been broken down. Not only every door has been opened, but actually every door that was closed to the gospel in ancient times has been taken off the hinges. Japan to-day is probably as ready to receive the gospel as any people on the face of the earth. Shall we enter in and give it to them ?
I need not speak of the other great mission fields that are in a similar condition; but, 0, let us bestir ourselves, beloved friends, and real¬ ize the great possibilities, and not only the pos¬ sibilities, but the privileges , we have in being permitted to live in this present age, in which God has done so much and worked so many won¬ ders for the advancement and the spread of his truth among all the nations! Why, we never have heard or read of such an age as the one in which we live — a time when all the nations
Christ the Light of the World. 131
have become friends, and not only friends, bnt neighbors. The whole world, both land and sea, is a perfect network of railroads and steam¬ ship lines, so that to-day there is no obstacle against any one going to any part of the globe which he desires to “ spread the joyful news wherever man is found. 7 7 0, let ns realize what
a privilege and what a joy it is to enter into such a work as this! I can think of nothing which brings more joy and gladness than break¬ ing the bread of life to a perishing world.
132 Christ the Light of the World.
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL LIFE IN JAPAN.
“I will also give thee for a light to the Gen¬ tiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.’ ’ (Isa. 49: 6.)
Beginning of Education.
Wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ has gone, the general enlightenment of mankind has also gone. I propose to speak to-night concerning schools and school life in Japan. The entrance of Buddhism was the beginning of letters in J apan, for back of that there was no written or authentic history.
Buddhism entered Japan from Korea in the sixth century. Consequently the true history of Japan begins with the sixth century of the Christian era. Now, the Buddhist priests brought with them the learning of China, and, to some degree, they encouraged education, hut in a very meager way. Not until the entrance of the Christian religion a half century ago may we say that there were schools in Japan. The priests taught some of the Chinese classics, and
Christ the Light of the World. 133
also taught Chinese writing to such students as desired to come to the temples and study under them to become priests themselves; but learn¬ ing, as we now have it, was not taught in Japan until the Protestant missionaries went there about fifty years ago.
This was about the time Japan was waking up to the civilization of the West, and soon after the missionaries entered Japan she began to es¬ tablish a system of public schools such as we have in this country. To this end they sent out representative men to America and to Europe to study the schools of the West; also, they called some of the missionaries and asked their assistance in making out a proper system of public schools. At the present time Japan has as thorough a system of education as any coun¬ try in the world. There is not a school district in all Japan but what has its school, and there is not a child of school age but what is provided for. The school age of every child in Japan is six years, and education from six to fourteen is compulsory.
Bearing on this particular point, I desire to read a paragraph from this book, called “The New Horoscope of Missions/ ’ a late work by Dennis. On page 74 he says: “Japanese edu-
134 Christ the Light of the World.
cation bids fair to become practically universal, since over ninety per cent of tbe children of both sexes of school age are under instruction. The educational system of the empire requires compulsory school attendance between the ages of six and fourteen. It is not at all an extrav¬ agant forecast to say that before the end of the present century Japan, if her progress is marked by sanity, wisdom, and self-control, will be one of the most intelligent and powerful nations of the earth. Over ninety per cent of those of school age are attending school.’ ’ That means that over ninety per cent of those from six to fourteen are now in attendance.
The Japanese Course of Study.
As to the curriculum of the Japanese schools, it is very similar to that of our own public schools. The little fellow, when he starts to school at six years of age, has his little satchel, with pencil, slate, paper, and primary books, precisely as the little fellow starts to school here in America,
Now, of course, the little child does not begin in English as our children do. Instead of writ¬ ing English, he writes Japanese, and he is fur¬ nished with a book suitable for that purpose —
Christ the Light of the World. 135
a little blank book of very tough paper, suitable for writing on with what they call a “fude,” a brush. Instead of using a pencil or pen, the little fellow is taught to use a brush in making letters.
He begins first with the Japanese alphabet, the alphabet that was invented by Kobo, the priest whose image is in the shrine there on the table. Then gradually the Chinese characters are brought into his exercises. These are first of the simplest forms. For instance, he is taught to write “man.” That consists of two strokes, a curved line to the left and then an¬ other to the right, very much like the marks in the hand. That stands for the picture of a man, for the Chinese writing simply is picture writ¬ ing. A great man has the two curved lines, one to the right and another one to the left, then a horizontal line across near the top. The hori¬ zontal line represents the great man’s arms stretched out. This character has come to mean, however, not a great man, but simply great in the abstract.
He is taught at first to begin with these sim¬ ple forms. By and by he finishes his picture writing and has completed a course that is suffi¬ cient for him to get along in the world with,
136 Christ the Light of the World.
having learned to write at least five thousand of these Chinese idiographs. It requires the student from eight to ten years to learn how to write.
When he finishes the primary course of eight years, he then enters the middle school, and now he is ready to take up a new branch of study, and that is English. Every student in the J ap- anese schools, from the middle schools on up, is required to take a course in English, and as a result of this thousands of the young people in Japan to-day can read our English books and, in a limited measure, speak English. You could travel all over Japan to-day, and wher¬ ever you might go you would find somebody that knew English. By the way, what is true of Japan is true of the world. You can travel all around the world to-day and know nothing but English.
The Student at School.
Let us follow the student to school to see how he gets along during the day. In the first place, we see him as he leaves home. He never leaves home in the morning without bidding good-by to his father and mother, and the Japanese form of bidding good-by is to bow and say, “Sayo-
Christ the Light of the World. 137
nara ” — “Good-by.” The father and mother also respond to the leave-taking by saying: “Itte irashaimashi” — “Yon are welcome to go.” When the student reaches school, he en¬ ters just about such a schoolroom as you would enter here, because all the school buildings in Japan are built according to> Western style, not according to Japanese style. They are fur¬ nished with desks and seats practically the same as our own school buildings. When the bell rings for study, every student is expected to be in his place. The teachers are in their places, and the whole school rises to make their bow to the teachers, and the teachers make their bow to the school. That is the beginning of the day’s service.
Now, in the Japanese schools there is no sys¬ tem of morals taught. In some of the text¬ books there have been incorporated some of the moral teachings of Confucius; but a system of ethics, such as we teach in the West, is not taught in the Japanese schools, and that is one of the serious defects of their educational sys¬ tem, and one that is now concerning the Depart¬ ment of Education in Japan.
I read of one principal of a certain school who hit upon this device in order to instill into
138 Christ the Light of the World.
the students high ideals and good morals: He made out a course of ten lectures on great men, and at the unveiling of their likenesses as they hung on the wall all the students were required to make a bow to the unveiled hero. Certain ones were invited to come and lecture to the school on these great men. To complete the list, he included Socrates, Newton, and Christ, and invited a missionary to come and lecture on Jesus Christ, whose likeness also was unveiled, not as a divine person, but setting forth the high moral character of J esus as a man.
The peril of the young people of J apan to-day is that, owing to the enlightenment that is com¬ ing to them from the West, they have broken away from their superstitions, such as we have been speaking about; but as yet they have not been wedded to any adequate system of moral conduct, and, as a result, they are somewhat at sea. The present condition is not very flatter¬ ing, and is causing deep concern on the part of the school authorities and others. For exam¬ ple, take this note that I clipped from the Japan Times, a daily paper published in Japan, in re¬ gard to the students of Tokyo. In the city of Tokyo alone there are a hundred thousand stu¬ dents. Here is what the clipping says : ‘ ‘ Recent
Christ the Light of the World. 139
statistics disclose the fact that nine-tenths of the students of Tokyo two years ago were lead¬ ing lives of immorality. Hardly one college boarding house in twenty was not located in an atmosphere of dissipation. ’ ’
Now, such men as the late Prince Ito, Count Okuma, and Baron Shibusawa, leaders in Japan in commerce, in philanthropy, and in statesman¬ ship, have come to the one conclusion that the proper or adequate basis for the morals of the country is religion, and they all seem to refer to the Christian religion. 1 believe that when Japan reaches a proper basis for the morals of her schools, she will reach the Bible; and when America becomes as sound in mind as she ought to he, she will cease her attempts to exclude the Bible from the public schools. I do not know of anything that is more detrimental to our pub¬ lic schools to-day than the sentiment that the Bible ought not to be taught in them; it ought to be taught daily.
The student has gone over his regular study for the day. School closes in the afternoon at the usual hour and he returns home. When he reaches the entrance, he meets his mother or his father, and he says: ‘ ‘ Tada-ima. ’ ’ That is a sort of fragmentary expression for “Tada-ima
140 Christ the Light of the World.
watakushiwa kaerimashita” — “Now I have re¬ turned.’ 9 The parent says: “Okaeri-nasae” — “Honorably condescend to return.”
You may judge from this that the Japanese people are a very polite people, and that is true. They are called the “French of the East;” and in the household, among the members of the family, they are very careful to observe the lit¬ tle niceties of etiquette. I think it would be a good “thing for us if we would practice more of it in our homes and teach the brothers and sis¬ ters of a family that there is a certain amount of courtesy and politeness due one to the other. This would help very much toward teaching our children more politeness for their seniors on the streets and in public places.
The schools of Japan are based largely after the schools of Germany, and the entire sys¬ tem centers in the government. The whole Jap¬ anese nation moves as a unit, and everything moves for the government.
Charity Schools.
When the missionaries entered Japan, they started a class of schools that are commonly called “charity schools” — that is, they went to the most poverty-stricken and neglected por-
Christ the Light of the World. 141
tion of the town or city and there rented a building and fitted it up, or built one, and then went around in that community and gathered up every child that they could get and put it in this school. They found some very sorry cases — children wholly neglected, and such as the Japanese people thought were beyond the reach of any worthy effort, for at that time it seems Japan did not pay much attention to the neg¬ lected and the poverty stricken. They gath¬ ered these little folks into schools and started them right along, just as any other child would be started, and along with the common-school branches they would teach them little simple lessons in the Christian religion.
One of the first things they would teach them would be a song. In order to teach them a Christian song, they would have a chart about three feet square, and on that chart they would write in large letters the words of the song, and the little fellow, not yet able to read, would be taught this song simply from memory. The teacher would call over the words of the song and have the school in concert to repeat the words after her (or him, as the case might be) ; and after they had gone over it a few times, so as to have it committed to memory, then they
142 Christ the Light of the World.
would sing it. One of the little simple songs that has been taught to these children I remem¬ ber learning myself when a child. That is the song of —
“Jesus loves me, this I know.
For my Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
They are weak, hut he is strong.”
In Japanese it would be like this:
Yesu ware wo aisu,
Seisho ni zo shimesu,
Tayore waga to mo;
Sono mi-megumi ni.”
I have had my heart stirred many times hear¬ ing the little folks sing this song, and it is just as much to them in Japanese as it is to you and me in English. Well, these are seeds dropped into their hearts that will hear fruit in years to come. Many a missionary has worked along at a mission school like this for years and years and seen very little results, and yet was doing a work that was destined to he very fruitful in the final outcome. For instance, in the town of Yokohama, the greatest seaport of Japan, where all the ships of the world cast anchor, there was a Baptist lady missionary some thirty years or
Christ the Light of the World. 143
more ago teaching just such a school, gathering in these little fellows, and among them she had one little boy that was full of mischief ; he could not be kept still, and sometimes she had to send him out of the class. I doubt not if you had talked to that woman years afterwards about her school and had asked her about the various ones that attended, she might have named over certain ones, and said: “Well, there is Ohana San, who is a very faithful woman now; and there is Nakano San living an upright Christian ]ife; but as to that little Fujimori boy — well, he was certainly a problem. I never could get his attention; and if I ever made an impression on him, I did not know it.” But still she did make an impression on the little Fujimori boy. That little fellow grew up to he a young man, came to this country, was converted in Detroit, Mich., and is to-day one of the most useful and earnest teachers and preachers we have in Japan. Since he and F. A. Wagner started their work out there in Shimosa, they have bap¬ tized one hundred and seventy-eight people, have a good congregation there to-day, a nice chapel paid for, and a school for the children of the community similar to the one he went to when he was back there thirty years ago; for
144 Christ the Light of the World.
Otoshige Fujimori, of the Wagner-Fujimori Mission, was that very little mischievous hoy. In telling me about it, he said he did not remem¬ ber one single thing that woman taught, but that he did remember she was very patient and had a kind face, and that’s the lesson which has remained with him till this day.
We for twelve years had just such a school, consisting of all the way from thirty-five to sixty children. Perhaps, all told, a thousand children passed through that school, and, as to what are commonly called “visible results,” I had the privilege of baptizing but one little girl — a most beautiful character she was. Her name was ‘ ‘ O-Suzu ; ’ ’ that means ‘ 1 a little bell. ’ ’ She lived to be fourteen years old, and took brain fever and died. If there was ever a blemish of any sort in the life of that little girl, I did not find it out. The teacher always praised her, and said that whenever any difficulty came up among the children she was the peacemaker. Now that does not look like very great results for twelve years ’ work ; but so far as I am con¬ cerned, I feel that our labor has been repaid. But I am confident, my friends, that, though we only baptized one child out of that school, there will be fruit in the