Class . 
 Book. 
 
 
 Copyrights 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 
 
Campaigning for 
 Christ in Japan 
 
 By 
 
 REV. S. H. ^AINRIGHT, M.D., D.D. 
 
 Missionary of the Methodist Episeopat Church, South 
 General Secretary of the Christian Lit- 
 erature SoeietiQ of Japan 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Dallas, Tex.; Richmond, Va. 
 
 Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South 
 
 Smith & Lamar, Agents 
 
 1915 
 
.W3 
 
 Copyright, 1915 
 
 BY 
 
 Smith & Lamar 
 
 o?. 
 
 I 24 016 
 
 ©CU420473 
 ^ f , 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Fresh Stores of Spiritual Force Claimed by 
 
 Corporate Action 9 
 
 Campaign in Okayama Prefecture. 
 
 I. The Stone of Persecution at Takahashi 20 
 
 II. Breakdown of Bushido Morality Proclaimed. 25 
 
 III. A Merciful Physician at Kasaoka 29 
 
 IV. A Night with the Mayor of Kurashiki 33 
 
 V. A Young Man's Prayer Answered after His 
 
 Death 37 
 
 VI. The Close of the Campaign at Okayama 42 
 
 Campaign on the Northwest Coast of Japan. 
 
 I. A Fervent Meeting for "Ethical Culture". . . 47 
 
 II. A Second Visit to the Northwest Coast 59 
 
 III. All Things Lost and the Best Thing Gained. 64 
 
 IV. The Church in the Country Town 68 
 
 V. Conservative Niigata Beginning to Change. 71 
 
 Campaign at Shidzuoka, Hamamatsu, and Kega. 
 
 I. On the Shores of the Great Ocean 77 
 
 II. The Sabbath the Corner Stone of Civiliza- 
 tion 85 
 
 (3) 
 
4 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 Campaign in Three Prefectures. 
 
 HirosJiima. n 
 
 Page. 
 
 I. Tribal Consciousness and Consciousness of 
 
 Sonship g9 
 
 II. The Fall of the Devil's Castle 94 
 
 III. Coming Again with Rejoicing 99 
 
 IV. An Oregon Ward in a Japanese Hospital. . . 106 
 V. A Converted Publican in the Pastorate 110 
 
 VI. Preaching in a Railway Station 115 
 
 VII. "No Pleasure in Ambiguity" 119 
 
 VIII. Enthusiasm for Christ among Students 123 
 
 Yokohama. 
 "Apart from Christ, No True Individual". . . 126 
 
 Tokyo. 
 
 I. A Preparatory Meeting in Tokyo 133 
 
 II. Preaching at Vanity Fair 139 
 
 III. The Quaker Testimony in Tokyo 145 
 
 IV. From a Buddhist Carnival to a Christian 
 
 Rally 148 
 
 V. A Lopsided State of Society 155 
 
 71. A Buddhist Priest Converted Because a 
 
 Christian Scrubbed His Back 158 
 
 VII. The Mayor of Tokyo on the Need of Spir- 
 itual Civilization 162 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Dr. Wainright has done for the Church 
 a good and timely service in this book. Japan 
 has not held the place in the imagination of the 
 Church at home for the last fifteen years that 
 she held before or that some other great mis- 
 sion fields have held. After the first wild surge 
 of interest in Western life, there had come the 
 slack, maybe the ebb; and some have even 
 thought and said that the Church's opportu- 
 nity in Japan was lost for a generation, for a 
 century, if not for all time. But missionaries 
 have insisted that this was not true and that 
 perhaps the heart of the nation never was wider 
 open to the gospel than now. Missionary sec- 
 retaries and other leaders traveling through 
 the East have come back to remind us and 
 earnestly to insist that Japan still holds the 
 key to the Orient; that as Japan goes, so goes 
 the East; and if we hope to win Korea and 
 China and to hold them for Christ, it is neces- 
 sary that we advance at once upon Japan. 
 
 This conviction is shared by the Japanese 
 leaders themselves and moved them to definite 
 action when in the meeting in Tokyo, held by 
 
 (5) 
 
6 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 Dr. Mott in April of 1913 under the auspices 
 of the Continuation Committee of the Edin- 
 burgh Conference, some of these leaders offered 
 a resolution calling for "a great forward move- 
 ment among the Churches with a view to a na- 
 tion-wide preaching of the gospel." One of the 
 objects of this forward movement was to be a 
 "widespread presentation of gospel truth to the 
 whole non-Christian community." A great evan- 
 gelistic campaign was planned and carried out 
 with remarkable efficiency; and while it was 
 not characterized by the spectacular features 
 throughout that characterized a somewhat simi- 
 lar movement in China, it was not without real 
 Pentecostal tokens ; and the meetings were ev- 
 erywhere attended with such interest, such 
 depth of concern and thoughtfulness on the 
 part of the people as certainly foretoken yet 
 greater manifestations in the immediate future. 
 Dr. Wainright, who for many years was one 
 of our very best missionaries to Japan, who 
 knows the language and people as few mission- 
 aries ever come to know them, and who, after 
 a few years' stay in the homeland, now returns 
 to Japan as the Secretary of the Christian 
 Literature Society of Japan, wrought in that 
 campaign throughout and tells the story in 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 7 
 
 this book with such naturalness, such detail, 
 and jet such vividness of interest as will at- 
 tract the reader and communicate to him the 
 conviction of the author, who in a recent private 
 note said : "It is our profound conviction that it 
 is about time Japan should have an inning as 
 regards the interest the Church has in the fields 
 where its missions are enterprised." It is time, 
 and this interesting story of Dr. Wainright's 
 should hasten that consummation in the hearts 
 of thousands of our people in every part of the 
 Church. E. H. Rawlings. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., October 12, 1915. 
 
FRESH STORES OF SPIRITUAL FORCE 
 CLAIMED BY CORPORATE ACTION. 
 
 A conference was held in Tokyo, Japan, 
 April 3-11, 1913, under the direction of Dr. 
 John R. Mott. It was one of a series of con- 
 ferences conducted by him in various mission 
 fields under the auspices of the Continuation 
 Committee of the Edinburgh Missionary Con- 
 ference. There were present at the conference 
 in Tokyo representatives of the Japanese 
 Churches and of the various Protestant mis- 
 sionary bodies working in Japan. Rev. Bish- 
 op Serge, of the Russian Orthodox Mission in 
 Japan, also attended the sessions and took some 
 part in the discussions. 
 
 The conference had only advisory powers 
 and included in the program outlined nothing 
 more than the adoption of findings concerning 
 various mission problems, after deliberation in 
 conference and discussion in committees. An 
 unexpected resolution, however, was brought 
 forward by the Japanese members present, call- 
 ing for a great forward movement among the 
 Churches with a view to a nation-wide preach- 
 
 (9) 
 
10 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 ing of the gospel. The resolution called for 
 (1) a deeper and more exultant experience of 
 the life of Christ in the individual soul, result- 
 ing in more earnest efforts to lead others to 
 the Saviour; (2) a widespread presentation of 
 gospel truth to the whole non-Christian com- 
 munity. 
 
 The conference heartily approved of the pro- 
 posal, though all who had taken part in the 
 deliberations at Tokyo did not unite in the 
 campaign when it was inaugurated. Still, the 
 movement embraced the great majority of Prot- 
 estant bodies, both Japanese Churches and mis- 
 sion organizations, and was undertaken as a 
 united effort. The Edinburgh Conference, in 
 denning one of the purposes for creating the 
 Continuation Committee, declared that it was 
 hoped "by corporate action to claim fresh 
 stores of spiritual force for the evangelization 
 of the world." The movement in Japan was in 
 accord with the spirit of the action thus taken. 
 The original Continuation Committee, it was 
 thought furthermore, would be a means of 
 "keeping alive the vision and of spreading the 
 spirit and atmosphere of the Edinburgh gath- 
 ering." At Tokyo the Japanese members of 
 the conference were not content with the vision 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 11 
 
 and the atmosphere of the mountain top, as ex- 
 perienced in days of conference and prayer, but 
 were concerned as to the welfare of the multi- 
 tudes of their own people upon the plain, vexed 
 with the evils from which Christ came to deliver 
 men. Consequently, though not embraced with- 
 in the scope of the conference as one of its ob- 
 jects, the national evangelistic campaign is the 
 one outstanding result of the gathering in 
 Tokyo, held on the occasion of Dr. Mott's visit. 
 There seems to be cooperation between grace 
 and providence. The nation-wide plan, formu- 
 lated and adopted in the atmosphere of prayer 
 and under the gracious guidance of the Holy 
 Spirit, was found afterwards to correspond, by 
 an adaptation that could not have been acci- 
 dental, to the need of the nation as brought to 
 light under the working of providence in the 
 larger field lying outside the Christian Church. 
 About the time the conference was held in 
 Tokyo a young German, formerly employed in 
 that city, was being tried in a court of justice 
 in Germany. It came out during the trial that 
 papers stolen by him in Tokyo contained in- 
 formation pointing to bribery practiced on a 
 great scale in Japanese naval circles. The mat- 
 ter was taken up by the Japanese press and be- 
 
12 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 came a national scandal. Rev. M. Uemura, 
 pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Tokyo and 
 one of the foremost Christians of the empire, 
 speaking at the preparatory meeting held at 
 Tokyo for the National Evangelistic Campaign, 
 lamented that everywhere could be discerned the 
 existence of an unwholesome atmosphere. The 
 recent scandals in naval circles and at the head 
 temple of one of the leading Buddhist sects 
 had the effect of proclaiming the moral bank- 
 ruptcy of the Japanese people. Over against 
 these unhappy conditions, said Mr. Uemura, 
 there stood the National Evangelistic Cam- 
 paign, enterprised by the Christians at a most 
 timely moment — a movement in which the mis- 
 sionaries from abroad and the Japanese pas- 
 tors and workers representing various denomi- 
 national bodies were leagued together for an 
 earnest effort. The influence of this movement 
 could not but be felt in the whole Far East and 
 even in wider circles. For their own encourage- 
 ment they might well call to mind the unshak- 
 able conviction and abounding hope of the 
 prophets of Israel at the time of the nation's 
 captivity. Though their visions of a coming 
 daydawn were like castles built in the air, yet 
 their faith was such that their dreams were as 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 13 
 
 real to them as tangible realities within their 
 reach. What the prophets achieved could not 
 be exhibited in statistical tables. Their victo- 
 ries were spiritual. What was needed in Japan 
 was something more than committee organiza- 
 tions. Faith was essential, and a seriousness of 
 purpose founded upon spiritual experience and 
 awakening. 
 
 The method of conducting the campaign was 
 unlike the evangelism with which we are fa- 
 miliar in the American Churches. Campaigns 
 were laid out for different parts of the country, 
 usually by provinces, and to follow one another 
 in succession. The local committees chose the 
 speakers they desired to have visit their district, 
 and, if possible, the services of these speakers 
 were engaged for them by the central commit- 
 tees. Meetings were held for two and three 
 days at each place, with a change of speakers 
 each day, or rather with an exchange of speak- 
 ers; for while two speakers were in one place 
 other speakers were addressing audiences in 
 a neighboring place, and every day there was 
 a general swapping of places. It was thus 
 that the campaign was carried on — a plan which 
 enabled the committee to throw the leading 
 Christians of the empire into a certain locality, 
 
14 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 where they delivered addresses in homes, school- 
 houses, theaters, public halls, and churches. 
 Among the speakers were pastors, educators, 
 members of Parliament, and business men. The 
 messages were not always as directly evangel- 
 istic as those we hear in revival meetings. The 
 utterances were conditioned by the audiences to 
 which they were addressed. Often the greater 
 number of those present had their first experi- 
 ence in listening to a public presentation of 
 Christian truth. 
 
 The results of the work were very encourag- 
 ing. The leading people of the communities 
 visited were drawn out to the meetings and lis- 
 tened with interest to the addresses. Women's 
 meetings were everywhere held as a part of 
 the program and were well attended. Hundreds 
 and even thousands of students in the schools 
 heard Christian preaching at students' meet- 
 ings, which were in many places held in the pub- 
 lic school buildings. At certain places working- 
 men were assembled — at Moji, for example — 
 and as many as two thousand attended the 
 Christian services held especially for them. 
 
 Though many names were enrolled as inquir- 
 ers, the principal good achieved during the first 
 year of the campaign has been the quickening 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 15 
 
 of the Churches and the creation of a larger 
 opportunity for them. At places where public 
 services were held the Christian cause almost 
 invariably gained favor with the local commu- 
 nity, and a desire was awakened in the souls of 
 many for a fuller knowledge of the truths of 
 the Christian religion. The direct appeal, ei- 
 ther to the deeper emotions or practical activi- 
 ties of those present in the audience, is absent 
 in Japanese preaching. The traditional sense 
 of propriety is against the use of the second 
 personal pronoun ; and it has not been the cus- 
 tom among the teachers of the past — Shintoist, 
 Buddhist, or Confucian — to aim their discourse 
 at the will, much less to press with the urgency 
 of evangelistic zeal for an immediate decision. 
 Moreover, the audiences were made up of per- 
 sons many of whom were strangers to Christian 
 truth, to whom an apologetic message had often 
 to be delivered. 
 
 Various themes were discussed by the speak- 
 ers in their approach to the minds of their 
 hearers. Sometimes it was the secular policy 
 of national education and the moral barrenness 
 of this policy; sometimes it was the one-sided 
 development of the new Japan in material civi- 
 lization ; often it was the gigantic evils growing 
 
16 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 up under the prevalent materialism and the 
 need of searching moral reforms. Frequently 
 the speakers confined themselves to a presenta- 
 tion of the Christian gospel or to an exposition 
 of Christian truth. Always the Christian reli- 
 gion was defended, usually with earnest and 
 deep conviction, as the only hope for the solu- 
 tion of Japan's great problem — namely, the 
 promotion of a "spiritual civilization," to use 
 a term current in Japan. In this present cam- 
 paign preaching has been more direct than 
 usual, and, as never before, Christianity has 
 been set forth as a religion of redemption. In- 
 deed, the Japanese are beginning to see that a 
 religion of redemption is not necessarily hostile 
 to education and culture, but may be the only 
 enduring foundation on which education and 
 culture can be established. 
 
 The writer of the following pages had some 
 part in the campaign, though not an important 
 part, as a member of the various committees 
 and as one of the speakers. He has not under- 
 taken here a comprehensive account of the 
 campaign, though such an account, if prepared, 
 would be of interest outside of Japan. What 
 one will find in the chapters which follow is 
 merely a sketch of the movement as seen in its 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 17 
 
 working on various occasions and in different 
 parts of the country. It is believed that good 
 will come to the Church in the homelands 
 through an acquaintance with this nation-wide 
 movement and with the leaders who are promi- 
 nent in the native Churches and who are mani- 
 festing that zeal in Japan which has charac- 
 terized the labor and energy of the faithful in 
 Christ Jesus in all ages, from the time the first 
 witnesses went forth from Jerusalem in obedi- 
 ence to our Lord's great commission. The ex- 
 perience of Christian history has been greatly 
 enriched in our day through new and diverse 
 unfoldings of the spirit of Christ in many 
 lands. The diversities of gifts, ministrations, 
 and workings are but further disclosures of the 
 dispensation of the mystery hid for ages in 
 God. 
 
 And if there be diversities of operations and 
 the same spirit, there are also diversities of 
 operations within the same body of Christ. 
 The campaign is a witness to the non-Chris- 
 tian population of the unity in variety among 
 the different denominational bodies working in 
 Japan. The weakening effect of denomination- 
 alism on the mission field is often exaggerated. 
 The friendly relations existing among Prot- 
 2 
 
18 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 estant denominations and the various forms of 
 cooperation undertaken by them serve to dis- 
 arm criticism and to give evidence of a true 
 conception of unity, a unity which presupposes 
 variety and is not at the expense of variety. 
 A most healthy condition exists among Prot- 
 estant bodies in Japan as regards the question 
 of unity. There is a great variety of friend- 
 ly relations maintained among diverse organi- 
 zations, but comity is not pressed to the point 
 of impracticability. 
 
 One remark further may not be out of place, 
 inasmuch as the account may be disappoint- 
 ing to some not very familiar with conditions 
 on the mission field by the circumstance that a 
 great united movement for the preaching of 
 the gospel is under way, and yet the number 
 of conversions reported at places where serv- 
 ices were held is small. But it should be kept 
 in mind by those who wait and pray with faith 
 and hope for the Christian transformation of 
 Japan that a gradual and even a slow growth 
 may be a surer evidence of conversion than a 
 mass movement in which the turning in is by 
 multitudes or by villages and provinces. The 
 end sought, let it be understood, is the trans- 
 formation, not of Christianity, but of the peo- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 19 
 
 pie. The former is the broad and easy way, 
 the latter the straight and difficult path. Im- 
 patience would counsel compromise between the 
 demands of Christ and the habits of the past, 
 a certain understanding or concord between 
 Christ and Belial. But the missionary aim is 
 to connect the old life with the new religion. It 
 is not the purpose of true evangelism to win an 
 easy victory by allowing old customs to survive 
 with the new life. 
 
CAMPAIGN IN OKAYAMA PREFEC- 
 TURE. 
 
 I. Stone of Persecution at Takahashi. 
 
 On May 15 1 left Tokyo by express train for 
 the Okayama Prefecture, a district rich in ag- 
 riculture and manufacture in Central West Ja- 
 pan. A week had been set apart by the Com- 
 mittee of the Western Section for meetings in 
 Okayama and auxiliary cities as a part of the 
 National Evangelistic Campaign. A number 
 of speakers, lay and clerical, had been drafted 
 into the service, two of whom were assigned to 
 each public meeting. 
 
 My first service was at Takahashi. Leaving 
 the main line at Okayama, I reached Tatai in 
 one hour by light railway, passing through 
 Inari, an important center of superstitious 
 worship. From Tatai I took a jinrikisha and 
 followed the winding course of the Takahashi 
 River along a picturesque road, between high 
 mountains and by the side of a clear stream 
 flowing over a bed of gray pebbles. It was 
 one of the most beautiful valleys I had ever 
 seen. As evening drew on, the valley a distance 
 ahead became lustrous with a silver mist, and 
 the crest of the mountains glowed with a fringe 
 of light from the rays of the declining sun. It 
 (20) 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 21 
 
 seemed that I was traveling, not toward the 
 old military castle at Takahashi, on the top 
 of the highest summit there, but to some en- 
 chanted region with golden castles of which the 
 Japanese dream. Stone slabs along the way- 
 side bearing the inscription, "Gods of the 
 Land," monuments to the noteworthy dead, 
 shrines and temples, and thatched cottages, in 
 which could be heard and seen the domestic 
 loom weaving matting for the export trade, 
 added quaintness to the scenes through which 
 I passed. 
 
 About three miles this side of Takahashi, ac- 
 cording to Japanese custom, the pastor and 
 one of the official members were waiting to 
 meet us, Professor Koyama and myself; and a 
 little farther on six or seven members were sta- 
 tioned to give us a welcome to their commu- 
 nity. No sooner were we seated on the floor 
 in a good Japanese home, the hospitality of 
 which we were to enjoy, than other members of 
 the Church (Congregational) called and ex- 
 tended to us a cordial greeting. We found our- 
 selves warmed to the task by this hearty re- 
 ception, assured, as we were, of that sympa- 
 thetic hearing which, next to grace, has the 
 effect of unlocking the preacher's soul. The 
 
22 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 bustle at the church when we entered made all 
 the more certain to us the favorablcness of our 
 opportunity. Indeed, the church building was 
 filled by eight o'clock. About seventy-five boys 
 sat in front on the floor. Every seat was occu- 
 pied below and in the gallery, while men were 
 standing at the back of the room and outside 
 every window. When the second message had 
 been delivered, it was a quarter to eleven 
 o'clock, and all had remained. In fact, no one 
 seemed to be wearied or inclined to hurry away. 
 
 I slept with comfort on the floor between 
 padded quilts, though the sawdust pillow, in 
 the form of a cylinder, was not particularly 
 restful. From the numerous kinds of fish and 
 delicacies and from the rice bowl I partook 
 with chopsticks of those things suited to my 
 taste, provided by a generous hospitality. The 
 host was an intelligent man, and as a pastime 
 he cultivated in the inclosed area, or court, two 
 or three hundred pots of the Rhodea Japonica. 
 Some of these were highly valued — such, for 
 example, as defied artificial manipulation and 
 expressed the unyielding energies of nature; 
 forms deviating from the normal type, or, in 
 other words, sports. 
 
 I remained over for the service the next 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 23 
 
 morning at eleven o'clock, it being the Sabbath. 
 To a good-sized congregation I spoke on the 
 theme of the cross. On the platform behind 
 me there lay a rough stone the size of a man's 
 head, into which had been chiseled, in Japanese, 
 "Stone of Persecution." In the foundation of 
 the building similar stones had been laid, gath- 
 ered up after an attack on the first preaching 
 place in that community, which had been de- 
 molished with these stones. Now, leading men 
 in the community were members of the Church 
 and enjoyed in peace the word which at first 
 they received in much affliction. A theme like 
 that of the cross of Christ would have a pecul- 
 iar significance to a congregation with a his- 
 tory like this, dating its first beginnings from 
 a time of persecution. 
 
 There were other reasons for speaking in ex- 
 altation of the cross on the present occasion. 
 In the Okayama Prefecture, where the cam- 
 paign we were in had been laid, various reli- 
 gious movements in recent years had sprung 
 up, like weeds from neglected soil. One of 
 these movements is ruled by very worldly mo- 
 tives. It is called Konkokyo, or "Religion of 
 Shining Gold." It seeks, as has so often been 
 done, to beguile the religious instincts of man 
 
24 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 by relying upon the satisfactions of this world. 
 No religion, not even Buddhism, strikes so deep 
 a chord as did Christ when he said : "Whosoever 
 will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
 take up his cross, and follow me." Asceticism is 
 not cross-bearing. It shuns the conflict, while 
 Christian self-denial sets its "face steadfastly 
 to go to Jerusalem." No wonder that it was 
 far from Paul to glory, "save in the cross of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." Through the cross 
 the world was crucified unto him and he unto 
 the world. He had determined to know noth- 
 ing among the Corinthians "save Jesus Christ, 
 and him crucified." No sage or philosopher, 
 no "founder" of a religion, had ever faced hu- 
 man woe or the world's opposition and gone 
 into the depths of human sorrow, even into the 
 bitterness of death, as Christ had done. He 
 was the suffering Servant, who made atonement 
 for sins by the sacrifice of himself. The path 
 of the cross is not that of the worldling nor 
 that of the recluse. Jesus accepted a mission, 
 the fulfillment of which required that he give 
 himself over "to the great game of life." But 
 not for self-assertion or self-pleasure; he 
 pleased not himself, and he came not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 25 
 
 Even in the mountain districts in Japan one 
 finds everywhere peaceful and lawful occupa- 
 tions of farms and villages. Wild life has long 
 passed away. The next day, on the return 
 journey, I met boatmen walking by the river 
 marge pulling their boats upstream by means 
 of long ropes, the longest I had ever seen. In 
 their flat-bottomed craft they had transported 
 the products of village and farm from the 
 mountain districts to the lowlands, where there 
 was connection with steamships and railway 
 trains. I met carts heavily loaded with an 
 artificial fertilizer, each drawn by a single 
 horse. The animals, covered with perspiration, 
 were cruelly goaded to their excessive tasks. 
 The Buddhists are fond of reminding us that 
 Christianity does not contain among its pre- 
 cepts mercy toward the lower animals. As a 
 matter of fact, dumb brutes fare far better at 
 the hands of Christians than the treatment re- 
 ceived by them on the part of Buddhists. 
 
 II. Breakdown of Bushido Morality 
 Proclaimed. 
 
 On May 18 I returned to Okayama and took 
 a light railway to Tsuyama, a castle town in 
 the hills on a high plateau, at a distance of two 
 
26 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 hours by rail. Madam Hirooka, with her valet, 
 was on the same train and was to be my co- 
 worker in the meetings at Tsuyama. She is a 
 daughter of the Mitsui family, one of the 
 wealthiest in Japan* and best known in indus- 
 trial circles. She herself is very wealthy and 
 has large investments. She was converted two 
 and a half years ago at the age of sixty-two. 
 She wore foreign attire, including a foreign 
 hat, spoke a little broken English, and proved 
 to be a most interesting companion. Six hun- 
 dred women gathered in the church for an 
 afternoon meeting and listened with profound 
 interest and attention to the addresses, espe- 
 cially to that of Madam Hirooka. At night 
 she told the mixed audience, which filled the 
 church to the utmost capacity, the story of her 
 conversion. It was a beautiful testimony to 
 Christ, related with great simplicity, the thank- 
 ful expression of one who felt that she had 
 trifled away time and come near losing heaven 
 and her own soul. In truth, I have heard no 
 Japanese Christian speak who had a truer per- 
 ception of the significance of the word "grace," 
 the strictest test of one's understanding of the 
 genius of the Christian religion. 
 
 Fortunately, I had chosen for my theme the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 27 
 
 Christian salvation. In the meetings in Japan 
 they insist upon having a subject for one's 
 sermon, and this, as well as the name of the 
 speaker, is written on a long strip of paper in 
 perpendicular writing and suspended in the 
 front of the room where all can read it. At 
 the close of the meeting the pastor asked all 
 to retire who wished to do so during the sing- 
 ing of a hymn and others to remain for prayer. 
 The solemnity of the moment was impressive. 
 Scarcely more than ten persons left the room. 
 All remained seated. The sobs of women could 
 be heard in the audience, and the men sat with 
 bowed heads as prayer after prayer, such as 
 are fashioned by the Spirit, went up to God for 
 those present, for the community, and for the 
 nation. 
 
 Madam Hirooka had a message on her heart 
 born of deep convictions. She proclaimed the 
 failure of the Bushido morality. The corrup- 
 tions exposed recently were most scandalous in 
 naval circles where Bushido was strongest. I 
 recalled while she was speaking a stupid arti- 
 cle written by the editor of the Hibbert Journal 
 in praise of Bushido at the close of the Russo- 
 Japanese War, entitled "Is the Moral Suprem- 
 acy of Christendom Threatened?" Another 
 
28 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 striking point in her address at Tsuyama was 
 the warning she sounded that the Japanese peo- 
 ple were in danger of committing the error that 
 brought destruction upon the Jewish nation. 
 "If we," said Madam Hirooka, "continue to 
 regard ourselves as a peculiar people and fail 
 to embrace God's world religion, the nation can- 
 not escape its doom." 
 
 With Rev. S. S. White, in whose quiet home 
 I received generous hospitality and who is liv- 
 ing at this outpost alone, his wife and chil- 
 dren being absent in America, I climbed to the 
 top of the castle hill the next morning before 
 our train left for Okayama. We passed by 
 walls of solid masonry, along a winding course 
 through numerous gateways, until we reached 
 the highest and innermost defenses of the old 
 fortress. What passions and struggles in the 
 internal history of feudal Japan these castles 
 throughout the country bear witness to ! Not 
 only so; the patient toil of a subject popula- 
 tion has left here a monument to itself. What 
 a gigantic task to bring such massive stones 
 from a distance and chisel them into suitable 
 forms and raise them to their place in the cas- 
 tle walls on the tops of high mountains ! At 
 Takahashi the castle was on the crest of a 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 29 
 
 mountain three thousand feet above the level 
 of the sea — a castle in the air, an impregnable 
 fortress — reached only through the winding ap- 
 proach along the Takahashi Valley. Here also 
 at Tsuyama, before the days of machinery, a 
 mighty defense had been built, from the walls 
 of which the entire plateau around Tsuyama 
 could be seen. Made obsolete by modern meth- 
 ods of warfare, these massive structures now 
 remain simply as relics of the past. 
 
 III. A Merciful Physician at Kasaoka. 
 
 From Okayama, on May 17, I went to Ka- 
 saoka, an important city by the seashore, the 
 shore of the Inland Sea, and on the trunk line 
 of the Imperial Government Railway. The of- 
 ficial members of the Churches were at the sta- 
 tion to show the usual courtesies. We re- 
 mained for a while at the hotel where we were 
 to be entertained. Professor Hino, of the 
 Doshisha, was with me to speak that night. 
 Nothing was left undone for our comfort. 
 That night again the church was filled. Again 
 all listened without show of weariness until 
 eleven o'clock. Many of the prominent people 
 of the community, we were told afterwards, 
 were in the audience. Here and there in the 
 
30 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 crowded house the characteristic robes of the 
 Buddhist priesthood indicated the presence of 
 priests. Some persons came up afterwards 
 from the audience who could speak good Eng- 
 lish and who had spent many years in the 
 United States. One of these spoke of having 
 met Dwight L. Moody and Lyman Abbott. 
 
 It is remarkable how, with the entrance of 
 the gospel, the spirit of humanity begins to 
 manifest itself. Doors of hope are opened to 
 all classes of discouraged souls. There is some- 
 thing as spontaneous as it is beautiful in Chris- 
 tian charity. In this prefecture, for example, 
 a Japanese Christian became widely know T n in 
 connection with an orphan asylum, of which he 
 was the head until his death recently. I refer 
 to the late Mr. Ishii, of Okayama. Here at 
 Kasaoka Dr. Sasai expressed the wish that I 
 would take an interest in his scheme for estab- 
 lishing a great sanitarium for those who were 
 suffering from the white plague, a disease which 
 is making ravages with the population of Japan. 
 
 I went with Dr. Sasai to the shore of the 
 Inland Sea, a body of water remarkable every- 
 where for delicate charm and beauty and for 
 the quaintness of its numerous islands. We 
 climbed to an elevated position on the shore. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 31 
 
 There seemed to be healing in a look at the 
 calm, untroubled waters stretching out before 
 us. In their clear depths, as in a dream, there 
 appeared a reflection of sails, hills, clouds, and 
 overbending sky. A sampan passed along just 
 below us, lazily propelled by a man standing 
 at the great oar, the blade of which sweeps back 
 and forth on a pivot at the stern and plows 
 deep into the water. From where we stood the 
 craft seemed to move along on the surface with- 
 out causing the faintest ripple in the quiet sea. 
 Dr. Sasai pointed to an island not far away, 
 set like a gem in the midst of the scene, and re- 
 marked that it was his desire to acquire the 
 entire island for the purpose he had in mind 
 of developing a great sanitarium. He added 
 that the project was the outcome of a purely 
 Christian motive on his part. 
 
 In nothing is the Far East more at one with 
 itself than in the worship paid to the departed 
 dead. On the top of the hill from which we 
 were looking the ground had been leveled down. 
 At one end of the space thus cleared there were 
 three monuments, raised in memory of soldiers 
 who had gone forth from Kasaoka and had been 
 slain during the Saigo rebellion or the war 
 with China or with Russia. Once a year a 
 
32 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 service is held here, common throughout Japan, 
 called "shokonsai." Intelligent Japanese de- 
 clare that the service now is nothing more than 
 a memorial occasion, but to the people it is 
 still worship of the departed dead. At the 
 Shinto shrines throughout the country the wor- 
 ship continues ; yet the State has declared that 
 its own observance of the Shinto cultus is not 
 to be looked upon as being religious in sig- 
 nificance, it is a State ceremony. 
 
 The Salvation Army, the Methodists, and the 
 Congregationalists had united at Kasaoka for 
 the local campaign. Enjoying a good degree 
 of popularity among the Japanese, the Salva- 
 tion Army is extending its work into the in- 
 terior and, without the ordinances, is assum- 
 ing the form of an ecclesiastical body, or 
 Church. I asked the young officer (a Japa- 
 nese) if the ordinances were administered to 
 those who united with their organization. He 
 replied that they had nothing but a "swearing 
 in" ceremony. The preaching service was very 
 effective. There was much enthusiasm among 
 the local Christians for the cause. The results 
 of the meetings could not be fully known, as 
 the net was not cast. Their plan was to follow 
 up the public work with personal visitations. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 33 
 
 Along this line of railway, which extends 
 from Osaka to Shimonoseki along the shores of 
 the Inland Sea, numerous industries are spring- 
 ing up — commercial enterprises, factories, and 
 mining industries. The most formidable obsta- 
 cle with which we meet is the secularity of 
 mind everywhere prevalent. The industrial 
 movement has rendered more difficult the task 
 of awakening spiritual interest and that zeal 
 in the flame of which "life is doubly life." A 
 transition to a new environment produces a 
 new type of man. In the olden days prosper- 
 ity scarcely entered into the minds of men, even 
 as a Utopian dream. Now the wakeful hours are 
 filled with thoughts of gain, toward the acquisi- 
 tion of which one's best energies are exerted. 
 
 IV. A Night with the Mayor of Kurashiki. 
 
 From Tsuyama we returned to Okayama on 
 May 19 and thence took a train on the main 
 line to Kurashiki, two stations below Okayama. 
 Here there are modern factories and wealth. 
 Some of the leading business men and officials 
 are Christians. Rev. T. Miyagawa, Chairman 
 of the Evangelistic Committee of the Western 
 Section and one of the foremost pastors of the 
 nation, was with me. His preaching was ear- 
 3 
 
34 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 nest and courageous. He did not spare the 
 nation's sins, the corruption recently exposed 
 in the navy, in one of the greatest Buddhist 
 sects, and in the household department. In 
 fact, Japanese preaching has undergone a 
 change recently in the presence of national 
 evils. Hitherto the preachers have not been 
 inclined, as Bunyan would say, "to roar 
 against sin." Now, like Savonarola to Italy, 
 their cry to the nation is: "Your sins have 
 made us prophets." The inclination among 
 Japanese preachers has been rather to inform 
 the intellect. Now they seek to grip the con- 
 science by relating particular evils to the moral 
 law. One preacher, however, speaking with me 
 at a certain place in this campaign, discoursed 
 abstractly on "Truth." To discourse in an 
 evangelistic campaign in a philosophical man- 
 ner on truth was as awkward as the attempt 
 of Porphyry, for example, to improve the three 
 Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love by 
 adding truth as a fourth virtue. 
 
 Mr. Miyagawa's vigorous sermon was, for 
 the time being at least, a refutation of the crit- 
 icism voiced by some of the younger ministers 
 in the Japanese Churches. It has been said by 
 some of them that the Christianity of the pio- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 35 
 
 neers in the Japanese ministry smacks unduly 
 of Confucianism. The early converts who en- 
 tered the ministry were, almost without ex- 
 ception, sons of Samurai houses and were 
 trained according to the Confucian and Bushi- 
 do (military) ideals. The evangelistic note is, 
 therefore, lacking in their preaching. The 
 moral nobility of the Christian life has ap- 
 pealed to them; but they have not entered into 
 the true spirit of Christianity as a gospel of 
 repentance, faith, and reconciliation as a 
 means to eternal life. The Christianity of 
 these pioneers has leaned too far in the direc- 
 tion of ethical and practical ideals, to the neg- 
 lect of the true evangelistic note. Whether 
 the criticism be well founded or not, there is 
 no question as to the truly evangelistic ring 
 of the sermon preached at Kurashiki by Mr. 
 Miyagawa, who belongs to the group of pio- 
 neer preachers in the Japanese Churches. 
 
 After service I accepted an invitation to 
 spend the night with the mayor of the cit}^, Mr. 
 Kimura. His residence was an elegant Japan- 
 ese yasliiki, laid out in the style prevailing in 
 feudal days; but within we found the atmos- 
 phere of Christian devotion. The family was 
 large, with not less than ten children, an ex- 
 
36 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 traordinary number in Japan. The next 
 morning I found poached eggs on the table 
 for breakfast, besides other dishes that gave 
 evidence of some knowledge of American cook- 
 ing. Mrs. Kimura's younger brother, she told 
 me, had been a student at Yale University. 
 After breakfast, which I ate alone in the pres- 
 ence of my host, the Bible was brought by Mrs. 
 Kimura for family prayers, and also a booklet, 
 printed by the Scripture Readers' Union, the 
 plan of which they had been following in their 
 daily worship. The mayor I found to be a 
 man of strength and Christian faith. He was 
 a director in local cotton-spinning companies. 
 He remarked that the time had come in Japan 
 when theories and speculations were no longer 
 acceptable from the pulpit; they needed the 
 gospel of Christ, which he hoped would be 
 preached everywhere. In fact, as a result of 
 the new industrial awakening, materialism has 
 permeated Japanese society and institutions. 
 The prevailing worldliness gave no alarm un- 
 til men saw specific forms of evil of which it 
 had become the fruitful source. The question 
 now is, What will give ascendancy to the spir- 
 itual over the material? Buddhism, like some 
 forms of Christianity, finds itself too negative 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 37 
 
 as to primal truths to become courageous, 
 positive, or vital. The Christian religion is 
 confronted with an opportunity parallel to 
 that of the eighties, but it is a changed op- 
 portunity. Then Christianity was sought as 
 a good thing. Now its acceptance is felt by 
 many to be a necessity to save the nation. 
 Then the acceptance of the Christian religion 
 was too often looked upon as a part of the 
 general advantage to be obtained by an adop- 
 tion of Western civilization. Now there is a 
 clearer and more general recognition of the 
 unique character of the Christian religion as a 
 religion of redemption. Now there is greater 
 enthusiasm for the work of saving men by the 
 preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 V. A Young Man's Prayer Answered after 
 His Death. 
 
 Once more, on May 20, I left the main line 
 of railway and by a lighter line traveled into 
 the mountains to one of the remoter districts. 
 Takaya is what the Japanese call a noson — 
 namely, an agricultural village. Farmers in 
 Japan do not live on their several pieces of 
 land, but in village communities. After leav- 
 ing the branch line at Nanukaichi, Takaya was 
 
38 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 reached after half an hour's ride by jinrikisha. 
 The rain was coming down in torrents. I was 
 hoping for a clear night and a good attend- 
 ance, for I had not yet seen an empty seat in 
 any of the campaign meetings. The post- 
 master, in whose home we were to be enter- 
 tained, received us kindly. The official members 
 soon called and extended a cordial welcome. 
 Our fellow worker for this occasion was Mr. 
 Kuwata, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in 
 Osaka. Takaya is extremely interesting, be- 
 cause the leading men of the village are Chris- 
 tians, as well as many of the villagers. A church 
 costing two thousand yen has recently been 
 built with local funds. There is a bell in the 
 cupola which was rung at the church hour, 
 after the manner of the temple bells. Though 
 the rain was pouring down, about a hundred 
 people gathered and listened until after eleven 
 o'clock to the gospel messages. 
 
 The story of the founding of this remark- 
 able work is one of the most beautiful in the 
 annals of Japanese Christianity. A young 
 man named Okamoto went from the village to 
 Kobe and was baptized there in the Tamon 
 Church (Congregational). At the baptismal 
 service he fainted, no one knowing why. He 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 39 
 
 returned to his village, prompted by a burn- 
 ing desire to bring the knowledge of Christ to 
 the valley of which Takaya was the agricultural 
 center. He met with stubborn intolerance and 
 could gather to himself only the children of 
 the street, whom he loved into loyal obedience 
 to his own leadership. To the top of a hill 
 near the village he resorted daily for prayer. 
 Looking over the fields and cottages below, he 
 poured out his soul to God for the conversion 
 of his people. He attended the Kwansei Ga- 
 kuin, where he sat in my classroom and that 
 of the other members of the faculty; but little 
 did we know of the mighty passion ruling his 
 soul. He fell ill and died, and his body was 
 carried back to the village and buried in the 
 cemetery. His life seemed to take hold of the 
 leaders of the village in a peculiar manner. 
 First one and then another among those who 
 had come in contact with him became a Chris- 
 tian, until now Takaya promises to be the first 
 Christian village in the empire of Japan. I 
 had been seated in the home of the postmas- 
 ter but a few minutes when the story of this 
 young man's life was related to me bj the offi- 
 cial members of the Church. They took a 
 pride in the fact that a village lad had sue- 
 
40 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 cecded in breaking down the traditional preju- 
 dices against Christianity and in bringing into 
 existence a Christian Church. A surprising 
 proportion of the members were persons of ma- 
 ture age. Among those who called on us were 
 four or five aged women. I asked them how 
 old they were when they were converted to 
 Christianity. One replied that she was fifty- 
 five, another was sixty-one, and a third was 
 sixty-two. In the congregation a dozen or 
 more women of this age had their Bibles and 
 hymn books and were recent recruits to the 
 cause of Christ. 
 
 The next morning at five o'clock a kindly 
 hospitality provided an early breakfast for us. 
 The official members were again there to show 
 their appreciation and kindness as the jinriki- 
 sha started off for the station. All bowed 
 gracefully as our jinrikisha started and 
 shouted, "Sayonara!" the Japanese parting 
 word, which literally means, "If it must be so." 
 As our men ran through the barley fields we 
 caught glimpses between the clouds, like visions 
 of the eternal, of the blue, unchanging sky. 
 But the clouds soon began to beat a retreat; 
 patches of light eastward grew in brightness, 
 and the sky began to clear overhead. By the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 41 
 
 time we reached the station the valley, with its 
 green fields and clusters of cottages, was radi- 
 ant in the morning light. The fresh green and 
 glints of spring were delightful to our senses; 
 but far more bright and cheering were the 
 prospects of faith for the Takaya village, long 
 under the shadows of a spiritual night. It 
 was easy, in truth, under the elation of the 
 moment, to imagine the clouds were everywhere 
 passing all around the world. 
 
 What a splendid vision stirred the soul of 
 young Okamoto — the conversion of the entire 
 village to Christ! There are twenty-five thou- 
 sand country towns or villages in Japan with 
 public schools. The denomination which forms 
 these into circuits and establishes among them 
 regular preaching services will gain the as- 
 cendancy in Japanese national life. Some say: 
 "As go the cities, so goes the country." But, 
 under modern conditions, the country towns 
 have gained in relative importance. It is from 
 these that the cities are recruited. My visit to 
 this country community only served to deepen 
 the conviction I already had that the conquest 
 of rural and agricultural Japan for Christ and 
 the Church is the supreme obligation of the 
 hour in this country. 
 
42 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 VI. The Close of the Campaign at Okayama. 
 
 Our last appointment was at Okayama on 
 May 21, this time at the Methodist preaching 
 place. Meetings had been held in this city, 
 first in the public hall and afterwards in the 
 various denominational preaching places. We 
 found rest in the hospitable home of Rev. W. 
 A. and Mrs. Wilson, resident missionaries of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. We 
 enjoyed a meal with Rev. J. II. and Mrs. Pet- 
 tec, of the American Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, who have resided in Okayama for thirty- 
 five years. 
 
 At the night services preaching continued 
 until eleven o'clock. Rev. T. Kugimiya, now 
 preacher in charge of the West Osaka Meth- 
 odist Church and one of the group of young 
 men years ago in Oita on whom the Holy Spir- 
 it was poured out in such great power, was the 
 first to speak. The spirit of evangelism is 
 strong in him and has been for years. He 
 does not believe that true evangelism can be 
 realized by forced effort. "If so, it would be 
 simply like the campaigns conducted by po- 
 litical parties." The last speaker, Rev. G. 
 Akazawa, who is in charge of the Methodist 
 Church at Kobe, gave a most earnest exhorta- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 43 
 
 tion, after which many made request for 
 prayer and signified their intention of becom- 
 ing Christians. In my sermon I spoke of the 
 instantaneous work of grace so needed now in 
 Japan and so lost sight of by our age, the rul- 
 ing concept of which is evolution. 
 
 It had been a strenuous week which was now 
 brought to a close. Speakers had crossed and 
 recrossed one another's paths, following each 
 other at the various places where the campaign 
 was conducted. By means of posters, hung 
 along the highways throughout the prefecture, 
 by newspaper reports and notices, and by 
 public discourses, the Christian religion had 
 been brought to the attention of thousands of 
 souls living in that part of Japan. It was a 
 time of general sowing of the seed, and the 
 harvest will come in due season. The oppor- 
 tunity for preaching, especially in the country 
 towns, was never so great. The Japanese are 
 good listeners, giving to the speakers not only 
 respectful but intelligent attention. In fact, 
 scarcely in any country can audiences be found 
 which have a greater appreciation of a dis- 
 cussion of the weighty concerns of life than 
 these audiences in Japan, gathered together in 
 various places to hear Christian preaching. It 
 
44 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 is a delight to speak to them. A good point 
 made by the speaker will always evoke hearty 
 applause, manifested by the clapping of hands. 
 One is rarely interrupted, and better protec- 
 tion is given to the missionaries in their pub- 
 lic discourses by the Japanese authorities than 
 was given the early apostles and evangelists 
 under the Roman Empire. 
 
 While in Okayama I walked with friends to 
 the Koraku-cn, a Celebrated garden near the 
 castle of a former da'unio. It was a superb 
 specimen of the Japanese landscape gardener's 
 art. There were numerous mounds and ever- 
 green shrubs rounded into spherical forms. 
 Rocks and stones, slabs and lanterns of stones, 
 ponds and bridges, walks and summer houses 
 were arranged according to conventional de- 
 signs. 
 
 At the entrance to the park, among the 
 booths and stalls where souvenirs of various de- 
 scriptions were sold, a woman was keeping a 
 porcelain shop. She showed us vessels ready 
 for brush and kiln. She urged us to write on 
 these with paints she would supply, promising 
 to glaze them for us in the fires. I purchased 
 a plate for a few pennies, on which I wrote 
 the names of the towns visited, the campaign, 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 45 
 
 and the date. I asked the woman if she could 
 burn these into the plate. She declared she 
 would do so if we had the patience to wait a lit- 
 tle while. She put the vessel into a hot char- 
 coal fire, contained in a crude earthen pot, 
 then fanned the fire into an intense flame of 
 heat and redness. After a while our plate 
 was removed. The writing and the cross I had 
 drawn had been burned into the very substance 
 of the vessel, while the surface had become cov- 
 ered over with a vitreous glaze. It was a fit- 
 ting little memento to be carried away, a sou- 
 venir of the days of intense activity, the im- 
 pressions of which had entered too deeply into 
 the minds of those who took part in the cam- 
 paign ever to fade from their memories in the 
 years to come. 
 
 After returning home, numerous letters came 
 from the Churches visited expressing in due 
 Japanese style appreciation of the services ren- 
 dered. One of these may be of general inter- 
 est. It bears the signature of Hon. Chimata 
 Tateishi, a descendant of Shinran, the founder 
 of the largest Buddhist sect in Japan. Mr. 
 Tateishi was a member of Parliament for many 
 years. Though his reelection would have been 
 easy, he chose to take the field as a lay preach- 
 
46 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 .d now devotes his time to the spread of 
 the gospel among his people. As the words of 
 appreciation apply to all who visited Tsuyama, 
 there is no impropriety in quoting them here: 
 
 vama, May 25, 1914. 
 
 We wish to extend to you our greatest thanks for 
 your valuable help at the time cf the religious cam- 
 paign throughout the empire. Despite the great dis- 
 tance, you were pleased to come to such a remote 
 place and help us in the great evangelical movement, 
 ore able to see larger audiences in the different 
 places than we had expected. We are, therefore, ex- 
 pecting to reap a great harvest in the future. We 
 ran assure you that every person in this district is 
 very much rejoiced to att/ribute all this happy pros- 
 pect for the future to the earnest efforts of the preach- 
 ers who came here to help us in the great attempt. 
 We shall be much obliged if you will spare some of 
 your thoughts for us and remember us in the time of 
 your prayer. 
 
 Just a line to express to you our sincere apprecia- 
 tion of your help. 
 
CAMPAIGN ON THE NORTHWEST 
 COAST OF JAPAN. 
 
 I. A Fervent Meeting for "Ethical 
 Culture." 
 
 At the beginning of the National Evangelistic 
 Campaign preparatory meetings were held, to 
 which the Japanese gave the name of shuyo- 
 kwai. Now, the traditional sense of shuyo, a 
 term Confucian in origin, is "ethical culture." 
 Such a usage scarcely accords with the concep- 
 tion of a religious revival in the Christian sense ; 
 but the term was not used in the Confucian sense 
 by the Japanese Christians. The name was old, 
 yet the reality it represented to them was new. 
 No persons anywhere are more truly aware of 
 the dryness and barrenness of mere ethical cul- 
 ture than the Japanese. Nowhere can there be 
 found a heartier recognition of the gain to mo- 
 rality itself to be derived from a religious re- 
 vival nor a better appreciation of the heighten- 
 ing of the moral sense with the emotions proper 
 to it to be achieved in the fervent experience of 
 a vital relation to the true and living God than 
 among these Christians formerly trained in Con- 
 fucian platitudes. 
 
 (47) 
 
48 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 Among the shuyokwai which I attended, the 
 most inspiring and successful was the meeting 
 of pastors and workers held at Takata, in the 
 province of Echigo, on the north coast of Ja- 
 pan, July 10-12, 1914. It was necessary to 
 get out early in the morning in order to catch 
 the train leaving Uyeno Park Station, in 
 Tokyo. On the street cars in Tokyo tickets 
 are sold. I was surprised when the conductor 
 handed me a brown ticket instead of a blue 
 one, the ordinary color, and charged me only 
 half the regular fare. The reason for the half 
 charge reflected credit upon the traction com- 
 pany responsible for the regulation. Until 
 seven o'clock in the morning during the sum- 
 mer and eight o'clock in the winter this reduc- 
 tion is made for the sake of the poor, for stu- 
 dents, and for laborers. 
 
 In the surging crowd at the Uyeno Station, 
 amid the confusion of voices and clatter of geta 
 (sandals), I noticed the Canadian Methodist 
 missionary ladies, in charge of a school in 
 Tokyo, preparing to take the train. They 
 had accompanying them a good number of stu- 
 dents whom they were taking to Karuizawa, a 
 summering place in the mountains. In the rush 
 of people, like the waves of the sea, each think- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 49 
 
 ing only of himself and his own comfort, these 
 ladies were considering their girl students. To 
 accommodate themselves to the latter's purses, 
 they purchased third-class tickets and rode a 
 good part of the day on hard, straight-backed 
 
 A level stretch of country about seventy-five 
 miles in length is crossed after leaving Tokyo. 
 A most pleasing sight observed along the way 
 were the smokestacks of factories rising out of 
 green fields in the country districts. Not that 
 these added to the charm or interest of the 
 landscape. Far from it. The attractive fea- 
 tures were the sunshine, the fresh air, and cheer- 
 ful prospect enjoyed by the operatives, most 
 of whom are women and girls. The location 
 of factories in the country districts does not 
 solve all problems arising out of factory con- 
 ditions ; yet it relieves the operatives of that 
 constant moral strain to which they are sub- 
 jected in the city and escape from which we 
 seek when we pray, "Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion." 
 
 Climbing into the mountains through nu- 
 merous tunnels, our train passed the watershed 
 and thundered down toward the sea on the 
 northwest coast. Near Nagano we crossed a 
 4 
 
50 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 beautiful valley in which farmers were at work 
 transplanting their rice. The rural scene was 
 unlike anything visible in America — first, in 
 the almost complete absence of domestic ani- 
 mals; secondly, in the presence of women in 
 the fields, as many, indeed, as men; and, third- 
 ly, in the number of farmers to be seen at one 
 glance (about five hundred) from the train 
 window — an evidence of the overcrowded con- 
 dition of the peasant population. 
 
 I put into my valise an old Puritan writing, 
 by John Goodwin, entitled "Pleroma to Pneu- 
 matikon; or, A Being Filled with the Spirit." 
 Though long-drawn-out and difficult to read, 
 like most of the Puritan writings, it was ex- 
 ceedingly refreshing in its "opening" of the 
 Scripture and even startling in some of its 
 affirmations. What has our humanitarian age 
 to say of a statement like this : "We are never 
 likely to be any great benefactors to the world, 
 which we yet stand bound in duty to be, unless 
 we be filled with the Holy Spirit?" Who can 
 withhold hearty assent when he continues 
 as follows : "For there is nothing lies within 
 the sphere of human activity of more worthy 
 or higher accommodation or concernment unto 
 the world than to present it with a clear vision 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 51 
 
 of the sight of a man believing with his whole 
 heart in Jesus Christ, or else to show unto men 
 the sight of the world itself conquered and 
 overcome by a man. With both these sights 
 every such man or woman presenteth the world 
 who telleth the world with authority and power 
 — that is, by a manifest contempt of the world 
 in all that it can do for him or against him — 
 that he believeth in Jesus Christ. There is not 
 a greater sight to be shown or seen in the 
 world than to show it plainly and cause it to 
 see distinctly the heart of a throughout be- 
 liever in Christ, or to show it in like manner 
 the world overcome by a weak and mortal man." 
 It would be well to hang this statement upon 
 the walls of every social settlement in Christen- 
 dom, so prone are we in social work to drift 
 into mere humanitarianism. Other striking 
 statements are sprinkled through the pages of 
 this interesting volume. For example, the fol- 
 lowing : "The damnation of the gospel is a thou- 
 sand times more dreadful than that of the law ;" 
 "Excellent things for God no one can do unless 
 he be filled with the Spirit ;" "Forsaking God is 
 the most monstrous thing in the universe;" 
 "The ministry of the gospel in the world is like 
 the sun in the firmament ;" "A mark of being 
 
52 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 filled with the Spirit is when a man's spirit rises 
 and falls according to the true exigency of the 
 
 affairs of Jesus Christ and of the real benefit of 
 man." Or take this opening sentence of the ded- 
 ication: "There is a great ambition in the sons 
 of men after fullness, and so there is in the sons 
 of God also; but the fullness which the sons of 
 the latter and better denomination do most 
 mind and of another nature and kind 
 
 than that which the sons of the other and lower 
 denomination are ambitious of." This should 
 be coupled with his statement that "if men be 
 not filled, or in a way of being filled, with the 
 Spirit of God, tiny will be filled with some evil 
 spirit, one or the other." 
 
 Goodwin was profitable reading as a prep- 
 aration for the shuyokzeai, the meeting togeth- 
 er of pastors and workers ; for the discussion 
 of work too often receives such emphasis as to 
 throw into the background the primary mat- 
 ter, the "greater sight" of showing to the 
 world plainly and causing it to see distinctly a 
 "throughout" belief in Christ, to show it the 
 "world overcome by weak and mortal men." 
 
 Takata is near the northwest coast on the 
 Sea of Japan. It is the first city in this coun- 
 try I have seen with sidewalks, and these are 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 53 
 
 roofed over. Snow falls in great quantities, 
 filling the streets to a level with the second- 
 story windows. It is not driven into hollows 
 by the wind, but accumulates. One can easily 
 imagine that he sees at work here the processes 
 by which the glacial age was brought about. 
 Rev. D. Norman, who is so efficient as to be 
 invited to serve as presiding elder in the Japan 
 Methodist Church, conducted me to a hotel, 
 where I found as my roommate Rev. E. C. Hen- 
 nigar, of the Canadian Methodist Mission, who 
 is stationed at Toyama. In conversation with 
 him I learned that the population of Toyama 
 was sixty thousand and of the prefecture eight 
 hundred thousand. In Toyama there are 
 street cars, electric lights, and modern facto- 
 ries. With the exception of two ladies in the 
 city in which he lives, he is the only mission- 
 ary in the province. Light railways, now be- 
 ing constructed everywhere in Japan, run into 
 the interior of the prefecture, rendering many 
 places easy of access. There are thirty-two 
 towns with mayoralties in Toyama Prefecture 
 having a population of from four thousand to 
 forty thousand. The working out of mission 
 comity may be seen by the division of this field 
 between the Canadian Methodists and Presby- 
 
54 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 terians, the former having five of the counties 
 as their field and the latter three. 
 
 These preparatory meetings, for the most 
 part, have been interdenominational. This par- 
 ticular one wa8 under the direction of Meth- 
 odist pastors on the west and north coast of 
 Japan. Mr. B. F. Buxton, of the Church of 
 England, had been invited as a speaker. He 
 is a Layman of Quaker descent and is connected 
 with one of the leading families of England. 
 He has inaugurated a work in Japan somewhat 
 on Keswick lines, to which lie has contributed 
 his energies and considerable sums of money. 
 The Japan Evangelistic Band, of the Executive 
 Council of which he is chairman and of which 
 Mr. Paget Wilkes is the most active leader, is 
 interdenominational and announces as its teach- 
 ing: "(1) A new birth from above of the Holy 
 Ghost, received through the forgiveness of sins 
 on the ground of atonement by faith; (2) that 
 the Bible is the inspired Word of God from 
 cover to cover; (3) a full salvation and sepa- 
 ration unto God, a true union with him through 
 faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
 (4) the unity of all true believers in Christ." 
 
 "We emphasize," the statement goes on to 
 say, "heart-cleansing, the baptism of the Holy 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 55 
 
 Ghost, and a life of continuous victory over 
 sin through the indwelling Christ in the heart." 
 Further, "the work being interdenominational, 
 the mission does not establish a Church or sect 
 of its own." 
 
 Thus at Takata divergent streams strangely 
 met, all of which had their source in the Wes- 
 leyan revival in the eighteenth century — the 
 evangelical movement within the Church of 
 England, represented by Mr. Buxton, besides 
 Canadian Methodism, American Methodism, 
 and Japanese Methodism. No one who wit- 
 nessed during the successive services the one- 
 ness of spirit and aim, the superior accent 
 placed on subjective experience, the conviction 
 expressed that attainment now was possible 
 of a living consciousness of possessing God 
 through faith in Christ could question the reali- 
 ty of the common inheritance. Men were moved 
 in their inmost souls, especially the Japanese 
 preachers, as they prayed earnestly and affec- 
 tionately for the conversion of their own peo- 
 ple. No one would deny that by means of prac- 
 tical instruction, by the slow and patient proc- 
 ess of ethical discipline (shuyo) 9 by the grad- 
 ual contemplation of the ideal, a certain meas- 
 ure of progress can be obtained. A love for 
 
56 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 souls might thus be awakened, yet scarcely an 
 
 ardent lo se of the importance of truth, 
 
 though not of its unutterable importance; a 
 
 re for moral excellency and heavenly pu- 
 
 though not a g after it; a dislike 
 
 in, but not a loathing of it; a recognition 
 
 of the goodness of God, I a knowledge of 
 
 intense hours under 
 
 ' and in prayer and 
 
 by means of a realizing faith attainments are 
 
 sible which no Confucian or stoic discipline 
 
 can 
 
 In the shuyokwai at Takata the lines met, as 
 we have said, representing Christian history pri- 
 marily as an experience. There was a resident 
 
 -nary at that place, however, whose cour- 
 teous hospitality we enjoyed, the Rev. C. H. 
 Shortt, of the Episcopal Church in Canada, 
 who stood for a different tradition. Refined 
 and scholarly in his tastes, living all alone in 
 consecration to his task, possessing a choice 
 library, Mr. Shortt belongs to that school to 
 the adherents of which Christian history is also 
 vastly important as an ecclesiastical institu- 
 tion. Looking down upon him from the walls 
 of the rooms in which he spends his hours in 
 solitude, I noticed portraits of the Pope of 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 57 
 
 Rome, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
 Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, 
 Bishop Nicolai, late of the Russian Holy Ortho- 
 dox Church, of Tokyo, Bishop Cecil, of the 
 Church of England, Tokyo, and Bishop An- 
 drews, of the Canadian Episcopal Church, Na- 
 goya. Ignatius said in the second century: 
 "Do nothing without the bishop." This view 
 has become deeply imbedded in Christian tra- 
 dition. 
 
 At the last service of the shuyoJcwai many 
 tender and parting words were exchanged as 
 the workers were taking leave for their several 
 stations. When Bibles were presented to the 
 speakers for their autographs, I felt a sense 
 of restraint ; but the insistence was earnest and 
 genuine, so I wrote my name, as did others, in 
 a number of Bibles, always adding these words : 
 "Present salvation." 
 
 Sunday night an appointment was arranged 
 for me at Arai, the first station this side of 
 Takata. A good supper had been prepared at 
 the pastor's home, in the front room of which 
 meetings were held. An aged farmer, who was 
 also a Shinto priest, had been invited in, and 
 he sat with me and the pastor, Brother Hase- 
 gawa, at the table, while the wife served the 
 
58 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 dinner. The oki man had a hedgerow of beard 
 reaching under his chin from one side of his 
 face to the other. His hair was roached back 
 on his forehead. Out of his eyes there seemed 
 to look the mysteries of the past in Japan, its 
 superstitions, fox ; is, and phantoms of 
 
 a clouded spiritual night. When I asked him 
 about the gods of Shintoism, he replied: ''From 
 the time of Jinmiu Tenno ((HH) B.C.) the new 
 gods have all been men." lie might have added 
 that General Nogi was the last in the list. The 
 national consciousness in Japan is as favorable 
 to deification as it was averse to the exaltation 
 of the creature among the Jews. 
 
 After supper the front room began to fill 
 for the service, which had been advertised. The 
 pastor was very tactful in handling the noisy 
 children who had flocked in from the street, 
 excited by their curiosity to see a foreigner. A 
 stand was brought in, on which were laid a Bible 
 and a hymn book. To my astonishment, when 
 I stood up to preach here in this wayside place, 
 I saw before me a reporter sitting on the floor 
 with his arms spread out on a low table, such 
 as is used in Japanese houses. He was, with 
 pen in hand, ready to take down my sermon ! 
 Leaving by a night train, I found myself the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 59 
 
 next day at my desk in Tokyo, thankful for the 
 days of blessing and opportunities spent on this 
 trip. 
 
 II. A Second Visit to the Northwest Coast. 
 
 On October 16 I rose at 4:30 a.m. and 
 started in a jinrikisha across the city of Tokyo 
 for Uyeno Station. The sky was flushed with 
 a promise of the morning, though the people 
 had not begun to move in the street. I was 
 starting upon a journey to the Province of 
 Echigo, where a number of appointments had 
 been made in connection with the campaign. 
 
 I had put in my valise two or three volumes 
 to read on the way, among which was an old 
 book, entitled "The Great Awakening," in 
 which there was an account, written more than 
 half a century ago, of the great revival in Amer- 
 ica, which began with Whitefield and Edwards. 
 
 In New England the distinction between 
 nominal and real Christianity had been lost. 
 Needless to say, we could make nothing of such 
 a distinction in our preaching in Japan. Those 
 who listened to us had lost the form and what- 
 ever power these had over their lives of the 
 religions they once professed. Our task was 
 a twofold one. We were seeking to restore re- 
 
60 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 ligion to its legitimate place in heart and life 
 
 and at the same time to convince the people 
 that a better religion was within their reach 
 than the faiths they onee held. 
 
 Nevertheless, the reading of "The Great 
 Awakening" was very profitable. This forgot- 
 ten volume contains much that we of to-day 
 might well take to heart. The Nottingham 
 sermon was a notable utterance, and the preach- 
 ing of it became the occasion of intense con- 
 troversy. Tennant, the preacher, who was a 
 friend of Whitefield, sought to show that there 
 was great harm to the cause in an "uncon- 
 verted ministry." He thought the temptation 
 was ea^v to preachers to be satisfied with them- 
 selves if they wire neither heretical in their 
 preaching of doctrine nor openly immoral in 
 their practical life. 
 
 What room is there, indeed, between these two 
 extremes for such unholy tempers as worldliness, 
 pride, envy, hypocrisy, censoriousness, deceit, 
 ingratitude, levity, ambition, idleness, indiffer- 
 ence, and like tempers, not one of which is of 
 such a nature as to arrest public attention or 
 to bring upon the man of God the reproach that 
 either scandalous conduct or heretical teach- 
 ing would draw upon his head ; yet these un- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 61 
 
 holy tempers tend to limit his influence for 
 good, lower his spiritual efficiency, and defeat 
 the very purpose for which the ministry was 
 chosen by him. Such tempers have the effect 
 of interfering with communion with Christ and 
 of smothering spiritual desires and aspirations 
 which are vital to a successful Christian life 
 and ministry. 
 
 The journey across the mountain ranges 
 which form the backbone of the Japanese 
 Islands was delightful. On the hills, now be- 
 ginning to turn to golden, brown, and russet 
 tints, the maple, the lacquer, and the azalea 
 glowed in patches of bright color, as crimson 
 as the flush on the sky when I left home that 
 morning. One pleasing, though unusual, sight 
 in Japan was the presence of a herd of cattle 
 grazing on the side of a mountain. Vast 
 stretches of pasture land, it would seem, could 
 be developed in the hill districts of this coun- 
 try. The train passed around the base of the 
 great Asama, the Vesuvius of Japan. A col- 
 umn of white steam came out of the grim and 
 forbidding crater and rose high into the 
 heavens, forming a magnificent spectacle. In 
 the late spring, when I passed this way, the 
 farmers in the great valley adjacent to Nagano 
 
62 Campaigning for Japan* 
 
 planting their rice. Now the fields were 
 golden, and the harvest was just beginning. 
 
 My first appointment was at Nagaoka, at 
 which place I arrived at 8:10 p.m., after an all- 
 day journey. Miss Kawai, who had preceded 
 ns. made the first address, and I followed, be- 
 ginning at nine o'clock. After service I was 
 entertained in an elegant hotel, the proprietor 
 of which was a Christian (Episcopalian). The 
 church was mar by, and he manifested interest 
 in its progri ss. Besides the Church of which 
 he was a member, there were other Christian 
 organizations in the place — a Presbyterian con- 
 it ion and a preaching place conducted by 
 the Oriental Mission (Holiness). 
 
 The register is brought to your room in a 
 Japanese hotel, and you are supposed to put 
 down the following facts, for which blank col- 
 umns have been made: (1) Where you lodged 
 the night before. (2) Where you intend to go 
 on the following day. (3) Your rank (lord, 
 retainer, or commoner). (4) Your occupation. 
 (5) Your place of residence. (6) Your age. 
 
 Mr. Kaibo, my host, said that the Shinshiu 
 Buddhists were strong throughout that region, 
 though very superstitious. They did not seem 
 to mind the corruption at the head temple in 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 63 
 
 Kyoto, the exposure of which had recently 
 filled the Japanese newspapers and shocked the 
 public. When leading priests came to that 
 city and rode through the streets, the people 
 threw paper money into their laps. I re- 
 marked that this was probably due to their 
 superstitious ideas. "Not superstition," he re- 
 plied, "but selfishness." They think the dol- 
 lars thus bestowed will return to them a hun- 
 dredfold in the form of dollars. Shinshiu is 
 the Buddhist sect which teaches the doctrine 
 of salvation by faith. According to traditional 
 Buddhism, salvation is by works, by the ob- 
 servance of moral precepts, and the practice 
 of self-mastery. But the so-called "difficult 
 path," the path of ascetic austerities, was set 
 aside by the Shinshiuists, who adopted an "easy 
 path," the path of salvation by faith. It is not 
 improbable that Shinshiu Buddhism is an aber- 
 rant form of Christian teaching, just as is the 
 Mohammedan religion. But the Shinshiu sect 
 is antinomian. Salvation in Buddhism is sal- 
 vation from passion; but the Shinshiuists give 
 place for the indulgence of the passions. They 
 have taken up the worship of Amitabha, the 
 meaning of which term is "infinite light," as 
 explained by them. It was a teaching similar 
 
64 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 to that of the Shinshiuists and probably em- 
 anating from the same source that John had 
 in mind when he said: "God is light, and in him 
 is no darkness at all. If we say that we have 
 fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, 
 and do not the truth." Commanding a third 
 of the Buddhists of Japan as its own follow- 
 the Shinshiu sect, with the prestige of his- 
 tory and of great temples of national fame to 
 its advantage, is now a reproach to religion, 
 owing to the corruption of the leaders and the 
 neglect of the people adhering to the sect, 
 Lightfoot, in his celebrated essay on the Oolos- 
 sian heresy, remarks that a religion which de- 
 preciates the flesh as being evil in itself will 
 swing back and forth in practical life from the 
 extreme of rigorous asceticism to the extreme 
 of sensual indulgence. His remark finds an il- 
 lustration in the sects of Buddhism, which have 
 adopted now a '"difficult" and now an "easy" 
 path of salvation. 
 
 III. All Things Lost and the Best Thing 
 
 Gained. 
 
 Early the next morning Miss Kawai, who is 
 Secretary of the Young Women's Christian As- 
 sociation in Tokyo, joined me on the train, and 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 65 
 
 we proceeded toward Niigata. Her conversion 
 to Christianity is as interesting as any romance 
 ever written. Her father was a Shinto priest 
 at the Sacred Shrines of Ise, the ancestral 
 shrines of the Imperial House of Japan, the 
 Mecca to which loyal Japanese for centuries 
 have made pilgrimages. The family in which 
 she was born was one of the four original 
 priestly families of the Japanese Empire, be- 
 longing to a line reaching back to the very 
 dawn of Japanese history. 
 
 Her father committed his business affairs to 
 a steward, who proved to be an unjust steward 
 who "wasted his gains." The troubles of the 
 family increased as a consequence. "My fa- 
 ther," said Miss Kawai, "when I was a small 
 girl, went to the shrines and prayed at twi- 
 light." He chose that hour in order to avoid 
 the crowd which came daily to offer worship. 
 Alone before his gods, before Ameterasu, in the 
 twilight of his religious faith, he poured out his 
 soul and sought relief from his troubles. The 
 family finally decided to go to some distant 
 place, where their shame and humiliation could 
 be hidden. Her father held the shosi rank, and 
 it was a great reproach, he felt, thus to be re- 
 duced to poverty. 
 5 
 
66 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 They decided upon Hokkaido; and the family 
 migrated northward and settled in the wilder- 
 ness, enduring thereby still greater hardships, 
 for they had do experience in the work of mak- 
 ing a living. But here they came into contact 
 with Christians, in consequence of which .Miss 
 Kawai was led into the faith. "It was a mar- 
 velous work of God," she said to me on the 
 train, "how we came to know Jesus." These 
 wire the very words .she used. She continued 
 to tell the story of her conversion and re- 
 
 marked: "Mother says it is good to lose all 
 things if we gain thereby the best tiling." By 
 her conversation it was perfectly apparent that 
 
 she counted all things loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Christ she had gained. She 
 firmly believed that they were extricated from 
 the age-long and sacred traditions entwined 
 about their lives by the kindly hand of a guid- 
 ing Providence. Indeed, a miracle of grace 
 was wrought here as truly as in the conversion 
 of the young Pharisee on the road to Damascus, 
 whose life was encompassed about at Jerusalem 
 by family and ecclesiastical relations from 
 which nothing short of a divine interference 
 could have set him free. 
 
 I thought I could discover in Miss Kawai's 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 67 
 
 account of their conversion as a result of their 
 strange migration to Hokkaido, where they 
 were thrown with Dr. and Mrs. Nitobe and oth- 
 er Christians, a truer insight into the ways of 
 Providence than is found among the converts 
 who were, prior to becoming Christians, either 
 Buddhists or Confucianists. Shintoism does 
 not possess a comprehensive view of the uni- 
 verse, as do Buddhism and Confucianism. It is 
 a rudimentary religion holding to a primitive 
 mythology and polytheism and confused with 
 various and sometimes degrading superstitions ; 
 yet the simple instincts of religion have been 
 preserved by Shintoism — faith, prayer, and 
 worship, for example — in greater vitality than 
 under the systems more developed in the intel- 
 lectual expression of religion and philosophy. 
 In Buddhism — that is, of the intelligent few — 
 prayer is mental concentration, while in Con- 
 fucianism prayer is the soul's sincere desire. 
 In both alike the true conception of prayer has 
 been lost. Miss Kawai, now a member of the 
 Presbyterian Church and a leader among the 
 Christian women of Japan, interprets her de- 
 liverance from primitive traditions into the lib- 
 erty of the gospel as a particular manifesta- 
 tion of the gracious providence of God. Who 
 
68 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 knows but that the twilight prayer, ottered by 
 her father at the shrin< . tiered by Him 
 
 before whom all hearts are open and no dc 
 are hid. I like to think that we find in these 
 promptings of a childhood and instinctive faith, 
 in these faint . of religious truth, signs 
 
 of t! verywhere present, immanent in 
 
 law and custom, language, and impulse, the 
 Light that lighteth every man that cometh into 
 the world. I like to think of Him as being the 
 Source of every impulse toward the truth, 
 of every inclination toward philosophy, though 
 philosophic t 'linking may often be beside the 
 mark and fail to r bhe truth of God — 
 
 fail not only through Incapacity to use the 
 mind aright, like a man who cannot guide the 
 motions of his limbs as he wishes, but also 
 through moral disability, through the evil per- 
 vading society and affecting the heart of man, 
 against which the wrath of heaven has been re- 
 vealed, against all who hold down the truth in 
 unrighteousness. 
 
 IV. The Church in the Country Town. 
 
 I left the main line at Niitsu for Shibata, 
 where an afternoon appointment had been ar- 
 ranged for me on short notice. The great oil 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 69 
 
 wells were visible from Niitsu ; and between this 
 place and Shibata I passed through level fields 
 of rice, the most of which had been harvested 
 and hung up on a framework constructed of 
 poles and tied together with ropes. It is curi- 
 ous that so many different reasons will be given 
 to one in explanation of local customs. One 
 said that the rice, put up in shocks elsewhere, 
 was suspended on poles, head downward, in this 
 vicinity, owing to the dampness of the soil. An- 
 other said that it was due to the dampness in 
 the atmosphere, while another explained that 
 this enabled the farmers to cut their rice earlier. 
 It ripened after it was suspended in the sun- 
 light. 
 
 Shibata is a quiet country town, with a num- 
 ber of schools and a military garrison. The 
 pastor, Rev. K. Kokita (Congregationalist), 
 was in the famous battle of the Japan Sea when 
 Togo destroyed the Russian squadron. His 
 wife is a graduate of the Uyeno Conservatory 
 of Music and is the organist of the church. 
 Though the notice was only given out in the 
 morning, a good congregation gathered at one 
 o'clock in the afternoon, and I spoke to them 
 of the wonderful beginning and future history 
 and influence of the Church at Thessalonica. I 
 
TO Campai in Japan, 
 
 sought to encourage them by showing the in- 
 fluence of congregations in remote places in the 
 nenil kingdom of Christ. I 
 , the fact that, from Thessalonica north- 
 ward, the gospel was spread into regions in 
 Central Europe, from which Russian Chris- 
 tianity took its rise among the Slavonic people, 
 and from which the fires of the Reformation 
 were kindled, and from which the Methodist 
 movement lit its torch. Consequently the influ- 
 ence of a tion was not to be measured 
 by its geographical location, but by whether or 
 not it was a Church "in God the Father and in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 I walked with the pastor through the streets 
 of the town. He was visiting members, inviting 
 them and others to the preaching. While wait- 
 ing for him on one of the streets I entered a 
 curio store. There were coats of mail, hal- 
 berds, swords, porcelain and lacquer wares, and 
 numerous other relics of the old Japan. What 
 interested me was a Buddhist rosary, a string of 
 beads which the dealer claimed was two hundred 
 years old. The heads were carved of milk-white 
 and tawny agate and had been worn smooth 
 through long use by the priests in mumbling 
 their "vain repetitions." I held them up to the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 71 
 
 light, and their glow in the rajs of the sun was 
 like the fires of the eternal city. In fact, the 
 stones mentioned by John were, I believe, va- 
 rieties of the agate such as we find here in 
 Japan. The curio dealer asked a ridiculously 
 small price for the beads. He had another 
 rosary, made of the brown Nepaul nut, and 
 these went well with the agates. John said that 
 such stones adorned the bride, the new Jerusa- 
 lem, the Church, coming down out of heaven 
 from God. What better souvenir, then, than 
 these to take with me to Tokyo as a gift for 
 the golden birthday, just two days off, of the 
 one who at my side for more than a quarter of 
 a century of missionary service had borne with 
 me the burdens and shared the hopes and joys 
 of the vocation to which we had been called? 
 
 V. Conservative Niigata Beginning to 
 Change. 
 
 Returning to Niitsu, I took a train on the 
 main line in time to reach Niigata for the eve- 
 ning services. The local pastors were kind 
 enough to meet us at the train and show us the 
 way to the residence of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. 
 Olds. The two mission residences here are in 
 adjoining yards, one of which is occupied by 
 
72 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 Miss Edith Curtiss and the other by Mr. and 
 
 Mrs. Olds. The service was held in the evening 
 at the Presbyterian church, the Episcopalian, 
 Congregationalist, and Presbyterian pastors 
 joining together in the service. Miss Kawai 
 the first and her talk was deeply 
 
 spiritual practical. The building was 
 
 crowded to the utmost capacity. Mats were 
 brought in and spread on the floor before the 
 pulpit, on which those were seated who could 
 not find room in the pews. The gallery was 
 filled, and the stairway to the gallery, and faces 
 were at the windows on the outside. No such 
 gathering as this had been witnessed before in 
 Lta, so conservative was the city. The at- 
 tention was good, and there was much power 
 and assurance in the preaching of the Word. 
 
 After the service four young men came for- 
 ward who Mere in attendance upon the lectures 
 at the medical college at that place. Two of 
 them had chosen the name of Paul, in addition 
 to their own names, and two of them the name 
 of Luke. I learned from them that a thousand 
 3-oung men applied for admission into the medi- 
 cal college, and only two hundred had been ac- 
 cepted. Two 3'oung men, also students, sat at 
 a table, taking down our addresses, which, the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 73 
 
 pastor said, were to be printed and distributed 
 in the community in order to reach those who 
 would not attend the public services. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon a theater, rented for 
 the purpose, was the place at which the Chris- 
 tians rallied, together with those who came in 
 to hear the sermons. Beginning at one o'clock, 
 Dr. H. Kosaki, pastor of the Reinansaka Con- 
 gregational Church, of Tokyo, was the first 
 speaker. He related the story of his conver- 
 sion to Christianity at Kumamoto. He was one 
 of the noted Kumamoto band, led to Christ by 
 Captain Janes. A school at Kumamoto in the 
 early days requested Dr. Verbeck to send them 
 a teacher, and they preferred a Samurai. Dr. 
 Verbeck informed them that there was no Samu- 
 rai class in America, but that he would do the 
 best he could. He sent them an American army 
 officer, who led to Christ a number of young 
 men whose names afterwards became familiar 
 to the nation as leaders of the Christian cause. 
 
 I followed Dr. Kosaki and spoke for forty 
 minutes. The last address was given by Bishop 
 Y. Hiraiwa, the present Bishop of the Japan 
 Methodist Church, a powerful preacher who 
 presents with great clearness the truths of the 
 Christian religion, of which he has a firm grasp. 
 
~ -h Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 op Hiraiwa dwelt upon the significance of 
 the ( in the educational 
 
 policy ol the government — a change which im- 
 
 I that the officials \ b to assume a 
 
 different attitude toward religion. The origi- 
 nal policy, adopted by Japan in imitation of 
 . involved neutrality to- 
 ward all religions. Education was secularized; 
 but recently the Bureau of Religions had been 
 changed from the Home Department to the 
 Departmi lucation. The Bishop's in- 
 
 terpretation of this chan that it implied 
 
 a recognition on the part of the government 
 that educ - seriously deficient if it did 
 
 not take into consideration the strengthening 
 and purifying of the religious nature. 
 
 A short time ago I was journeying with Bish- 
 op Hiraiwa through the Kofu Valley, a central 
 mountain district through which a railroad had 
 been constructed at great cost. After leaving 
 Tokyo we passed through forty-nine tunnels, 
 one of which had been blasted two miles and a 
 half in length through a granite mountain. 
 Bishop Hiraiwa related to me the story of the 
 opening of Christian work in that remote region. 
 He walked from Tokyo to Kofu, a journey of 
 four days, and preached the gospel in that city. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 75 
 
 Now, there were three self-supporting Churches 
 in and about Kofu, a prosperous girls' school 
 under Methodist auspices, and a preaching place 
 in every village in the province. We were now 
 riding through on a good railway train.- When 
 preachers went on foot — not, as now, in palace 
 cars — the saying was very fitting: "How beau- 
 tiful upon the mountains are the feet of him 
 who bringeth good tidings !" 
 
 At night, meetings were held in three 
 churches. Bishop Hiraiwa preached in the 
 Presbyterian church, Dr. Kosaki preached in 
 the Episcopalian church, and I was assigned to 
 preach in the Congregational church. The 
 rain was coming down, and the congregations 
 were small. 
 
 On Monday I returned to Tokyo and had as 
 my traveling companions Miss Kawai and Dr. 
 Sasao, the latter Dean of the Theological De- 
 partment of the Tohoku Gakuin (Reformed 
 Church of the United States). At Takasaki 
 we purchased lunch boxes, and I was compelled 
 to eat with chopsticks, somewhat to the amuse- 
 ment of the other passengers. The lunch, 
 which cost twenty-five sen, was put up in two 
 boxes, one of which contained rice and the oth- 
 er of which was supplied with the following: 
 
76 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 Eggs and bean curd (mixed) ; small pieces of 
 heel" (stewed); fried eel; mushrooms ; bamboo 
 root; burdock rout; lotus root; ginger root; 
 caladium root ; daikon, or "great roof (a large 
 radish). 
 
 It will be Been that the greater part of the 
 foods supplied grew underground. With the 
 lunch bos napkin, bamboo toothpicks, 
 
 and chopsticks were supplied. We also bought 
 a pot of tea, with the cup thrown in, for four 
 sen, or two cents in American money. We 
 reached home at 9:40 P.M., wearied from the 
 long journev. 
 
CAMPAIGN AT SHIDZUOKA, HAMA- 
 MATSU, AND KEGA. 
 
 I. On the Shores of the Great Ocean. 
 
 Besides the shuyokwai which I attended at 
 Shidzuoka, a great tea-shipping port and one 
 of the most successful fields of the Canadian 
 Methodist Mission, I took part in campaigns 
 along this coast at Hamamatsu and Kega. On 
 September 28 I left the Shimbashi station in 
 Tokyo at 7 :40 a.m. for the Mamamatsu cam- 
 paign. The equinoctial storms were over. Ap- 
 parently the autumn weather, so delightful in 
 Japan, had set in. It is at this time of the 
 year, during these days of flawless purity, that 
 much touring is done by Christian missionaries 
 and pastors. 
 
 On the train I met Rev. Dr. Ebina, pas- 
 tor of the Hongo Congregational Church in 
 Tokyo, and the Honorable S. Ebara, member 
 of the House of Lords and Methodist layman, 
 who were to be fellow workers in the campaign 
 at Hamamatsu. Dr. Ebina has been in the 
 pastorate for thirty years and is also the edi- 
 tor of a monthly magazine. He is looked upon 
 as the most eloquent and forceful speaker 
 
 (77) 
 
78 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 among the Japanese Christians. Mr. Ebara is 
 a venerable sti . now Beventy-three years 
 
 of age, and is one of the most highly respected 
 and honored men of the empire. After a long 
 service in the Lower House, lie was made a peer 
 
 and Is still active in polities and in many other 
 spheres of national life. 
 
 On this journey our train passed around the 
 base of Mount Fuji. Hokusai, the celebrated 
 artist of Japan, executed a picture book, the 
 title of which is "Fuji Hyakkei; or, A Hun- 
 dred Views of Fuji." The mountain is depicted 
 by him from various points of view. We were 
 favored on this particular day with one of the 
 numerous superb views that may be had of this 
 peerless mountain. It would be more correct 
 to portray a thousand views than a hundred 
 views of Fuji. One of the marvels of nature is 
 its versatility. Nature to the poet, says the 
 Buddhist, is many and to the philosopher is 
 one. Hence, he concludes, the poetic view is 
 false. But the fact that "one star differeth 
 from another star in glory" is an intimation of 
 the wealth of the fundamental Reality. God is 
 not a blank, such as the pantheists would make 
 him out to be by their abstractions. Better, 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 79 
 
 with Thomson, to see in the changing seasons 
 manifestations of the "varied God." 
 
 I had seen Mount Fuji on many occasions, 
 once as a phantom in the night, blanketed with 
 snow, as vague and spectral and solitary as a 
 landscape in the moon; once at sunset from 
 our home in Tokyo, when the sun dropped 
 down directly behind the mountain, giving Fuji 
 once more the appearance of a volcano, down 
 the slopes of which could be seen running mol- 
 ten lava, like a torrent of fire. Now from the 
 train window the great peak stood out clearly 
 marked against the sky. A single wreath of 
 white, fluffy, silken cloud lay about the moun- 
 tain like a sash hung loosely around the body 
 of a young girl. The picture was one of deli- 
 cate and exquisite beauty. Above the cloud the 
 summit rose proudly in the surrounding atmos- 
 phere; while the lower part of the mountain 
 seemed draped with a gorgeous skirt, orna- 
 mented with figures of forests and green fields 
 just beginning to be tinged with gold. It was 
 a new view of Fuji, possibly one of the hyakkei, 
 or "hundred views." 
 
 After a rest at Hamamatsu, which we reached 
 at two in the afternoon, at the home of Rev. H. 
 E. Walker, of the Canadian Methodist Mission, 
 
80 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 I started for Kega by jinrikisha, a ride of two 
 
 hours through fields of rice, tea, tobacco, mul- 
 berry trees (the leaves of which are for silk- 
 worms), and other products of the farm. We 
 passed a military garrison and schoolhouses, 
 public schools and technical schools. On the 
 wav the scarlet equinoctial flower (higanbana) 
 attracted attention by its contrast with the au- 
 tumn brown-. The Japanese dislike this flow- 
 er. They condemn it because it grows in ceme- 
 teries, a point which would seem to be in its 
 favor, suggesting the resurrection. 
 
 Dr. Ebina went immediately by boat from 
 Hamamatsu and reached Kega before my ar- 
 rival. We were entertained together at a quiet 
 Japanese Christian home. The meeting was 
 held in the public theater, and at night we found 
 about five hundred gathered to hear the Chris- 
 tian addresses, most of the number, as in Jap- 
 anese audiences usually, being men. In spite of 
 our surroundings, the impressions made seemed 
 to be solemn and effective. I spoke of the "Per- 
 fect Life" and pointed out that the Christian 
 religion sought to produce sound, healthful, ro- 
 bust men, qualified by the spiritual life for all 
 legitimate callings here, as well as for citizen- 
 ship in the kingdom of the future world. In a 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 81 
 
 land long influenced by Buddhism, a religion 
 "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," 
 such a message, I believed, would be pertinent. 
 It was, in truth, a reaction from the monastic 
 ideal that gave point to the Wesleyan doctrine 
 of Christian perfection. Any one reading 
 Law's "Serious Call," the book that influenced 
 Wesley, will find Christian perfection in every- 
 day life set over against the Roman Catholic 
 ideal of perfection, characterized by voluntary 
 poverty, celibacy, and obedience. In other 
 words, the Roman Catholics, like the Buddhists, 
 thought that the perfect life could not be lived 
 except by those who had surrendered the ordi- 
 nary life. This phase of Wesley's teaching was 
 never taken into consideration by later genera- 
 tions. Christian perfection, seen from this 
 point of view, was very practical and was a re- 
 covery of the Church's true teaching as regards 
 the possibility of spiritual living in the present 
 life and under ordinary social conditions. 
 
 Dr. Ebina's views have undergone a change in 
 the course of years since he entered the Chris- 
 tian ministry. He at one time appeared on the 
 platform always in Japanese garb. He was an 
 intense nationalist. He thought that he was 
 able to find Christianity implicit in the national 
 6 
 
82 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 mythology of Shintoism. Now he wears Eu- 
 ropean dress. He is an eloquent exponent of 
 the universalism in Christianity. He sees that 
 the mythology and polytheism of Japan are not 
 only no longer useful, but have become injuri- 
 ous to the nation. They are an impediment, 
 interfering with the free intercourse of Japan 
 with enlightened nations. The tribal conscious- 
 ness and local affections of the Japanese 
 people must yield to the spiritual universal- 
 ism in the religion of Christ before Japan can 
 hope to reach the highest plane of national 
 living. 
 
 In Dr. Ebina's address at Kega there was 
 one point full of dramatic power. It was when 
 he touched upon the loyalty of Christians to 
 their God, which to many in the audience was 
 an unjustifiable renunciation of their duty to 
 Japan, and especially to their ancestors. "I 
 would stand by the grave of my ancestors," 
 said Dr. Ebina, "and declare to them that I no 
 longer worshiped the deities they worshiped, 
 but that my devotion was to the true and living 
 God, who made the heavens and the earth ; and 
 I believe that if they could speak to me from 
 beyond the grave their words would be full of 
 commendation and approval and that they 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 83 
 
 would declare, from the point of view they oc- 
 cupy with the fuller knowledge which they no 
 doubt enjoy, that we in our devotion to the 
 true and living God were right !" 
 
 The solemnity and impressiveness of Dr. 
 Ebina's address was somewhat marred at the 
 close by the appearance on the platform of a 
 crazy man, who began to utter incoherent sen- 
 tences in an attempt to make a speech. The 
 crowd soon retired from the building, and only 
 a few remained to hear what the self-commis- 
 sioned speaker had to say. 
 
 After returning to the Japanese home where 
 we were being entertained, a bowl of rice, with 
 fried eels dipped in slioyu (sauce) and laid on 
 the rice, was brought to me. I had eaten an 
 early supper before leaving Hamamatsu. Be- 
 fore going to the night meeting the discussion 
 had turned on the kabayake in Tokyo, a dish 
 mentioned by Dr. Ebina as being relished by 
 the Tokyo people. I remarked that I was very 
 fond of the Tokyo Jcabayake. I did not know 
 then that Kega was famous for its eels. After 
 the meeting, this delicious feast was brought 
 in as an expression of the genuine hospitality 
 the Japanese Christians desired to show to 
 us. 
 
8-i Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 The next morning, before leaving, autograph 
 albums were brought in, beautiful volumes 
 bound in stiff board binding, covered with bro- 
 caded silk. I declined to write in these beauti- 
 ful books with an instrument so mechanical as 
 our steel pen. The J write with a brush, 
 
 and calligraphy with them is a fine art. It 
 seemed out of all propriety to put clown in a 
 book filled with classic passages, written with a 
 Japanese brush, the scrawling sentences which 
 I write with a foreign pen. The friends, how- 
 
 . insisted thai it would be all right, so I de- 
 cided to leave a testimony for those who looked 
 
 . upon the great Pacific Ocean. In one 
 album I wrote: 
 
 "There's a wideness in God's mercy- 
 Like the wideness of the sea." 
 
 In another I wrote this sentence: "My heart's 
 desire and prayer to God is that Japan might be 
 saved." In a third album (some of these were 
 brought in by the neighbors) I left Augustine's 
 great statement as a testimony : "The human 
 heart was made for God, and God alone can 
 satisfy it." 
 
 After kind and hearty words of parting, we 
 returned by jinrikisha to Hamamatsu. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 85 
 
 II. The Sabbath the Corner Stone of 
 Civilization. 
 
 At two o'clock in the afternoon we addressed 
 a meeting of women. A Japanese audience is, 
 under all circumstances, very formal. The 
 women, if anything, are more formal than the: 
 men. Dr. H. Hosald, of Tokyo, gave the first 
 address. When he appeared, on being intro- 
 duced, the entire audience bowed, the heads of 
 the women moving like grain swayed by the 
 wind. Dr. Kosaki had to* hurry on to Kega, 
 where he was to speak that night. There is 
 much discussion in Japan of the question of the 
 larger life of womanhood. The old ideals have 
 become too narrow for the women of to-day, 
 trained in the schools and influenced by Chris- 
 tian civilization. But there is much confusion 
 of mind as to just what is the nature of the 
 larger life a woman should seek to live. In my 
 address I chose Frances Willard as a classical 
 example of what a woman could do beyond the 
 circle of the home. 
 
 At night the meeting was held, as was the 
 afternoon meeting for women, within the pre- 
 cincts of a Shinto temple, in a public hall used 
 for fencing. There was a good turnout of men, 
 
86 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 and the attention was good. Dr. Ebina was 
 again my fellow laborer, and he grew eloquent 
 as he spoke of the failure of science in Germany 
 and Japan and of the need of spiritual efficiency 
 
 and moral power in these two nations. Ger- 
 many and Japan both alike seemed to be found- 
 ing their national hopes upon modern science. 
 Now both nations were seen to be lacking in the 
 
 spiritual elements which form the higher civili- 
 zation. 
 
 It was not without embarrassment that I 
 stood before this audience to commend to those 
 present a religion professed by nations now en- 
 gaged in deadly strife. I made a frank confes- 
 sion that those of us who had been called to the 
 ministry had not been as faithful in giving our 
 testimony to the truth as we should have been. 
 I had to acknowledge also that a spirit of 
 worldlincss had gained undue prevalence among 
 Christian nations. The need, however, was not 
 for less of Christianity, but for more of it. I 
 believed that the cause of the w T ar in Europe 
 was the awakening of the Teutonic and Slavonic 
 peoples. The world was witnessing a gigantic 
 struggle between vigorous races. In the his- 
 tory of the Church, Christianity had gained 
 spiritual supremacy over various forms of secu- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 87 
 
 lar power. In the industrial era in modern 
 times we had witnessed the conquest of wealth 
 by the Christian religion, resulting in the sub- 
 ordination of capital to the service of human- 
 ity. We might with reasonable faith seek to 
 bring racial movements under the dominion of 
 Christ. It was a great task, but the tasks un- 
 dertaken by faith w T ere never too great for hope. 
 The next night the rain was coming down in 
 torrents. Mr. Ebara was the honored fellow 
 worker with me for this service. The attend- 
 ance was cut down owing to the rain. This was 
 a matter of regret, for Mr. Ebara gave a most 
 practical discourse on the relation between Sab- 
 bath observance and the prosperity of a nation. 
 This distinguished Christian is noted for his 
 simplicity of manner and plainness of living. 
 He has declined all titles and has remained satis- 
 fied with a modest income. His probity has 
 never been doubted, and he is the trusted coun- 
 selor of the leading statesmen of the empire. 
 His Christian devotion is a matter of great en- 
 couragement to those interested in the progress 
 of the gospel in Japan.- At ten o'clock that 
 evening we boarded the train. Mr. Ebara took 
 for his bed the long seat at the side of Japa- 
 nese trains and covered himself with a blanket 
 
88 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 In order to catch a little sleep between this 
 ion and tl where lie intended to 
 
 two o'clock that morning. His \ 
 More than threescore and ten, and yet ho is 
 strenuous in his efforts for the Christian cause. 
 luld be found than 
 that of Mr. Ebara. He has passed from the 
 attainable under the old order to the best 
 attainable under Christianity, The prevailing 
 ition has not affected him in spir- 
 it or in life. His life has been cast in the midst 
 of the affairs of the nation. His Christian in- 
 bood out in noticeable contrast to 
 the skepticism, luxury, corruption, and greed 
 for gain characteristic of the period. Such 
 men are a light — and there are not a few of 
 them — over against a background on which 
 many heavy .shadows have fallen. 
 
CAMPAIGN IN THREE PREFECTURES. 
 
 Hiroshima. 
 
 I. Tribal Consciousness and Consciousness of 
 
 Sonship. 
 
 I was asked by the Committee of the Western 
 Section — that is, of the division of Japan 
 known as the Kwansei — to take part in the 
 campaign planned for three prefectures — name- 
 ly, the Hiroshima and Yamaguchi Prefectures, 
 on the mainland, and the Ehime Prefecture, on 
 the island of Shikoku. The campaign was to 
 extend from November 7 to 15. 
 
 Before the time came for me to depart for 
 the campaign, letters began to reach me from 
 different points at which I was assigned to 
 speak asking me to send on in advance the sub- 
 ject of the sermon I was to preach at each 
 particular place. It is needless to say that such 
 a request could not reasonably be complied 
 with, inasmuch as plans had been made for me 
 to speak two and three times a day to audi- 
 ences of various kinds — some in churches, some 
 in theater buildings, some in schools and hos- 
 pitals, and others in private houses. 
 
 On November 6, in the afternoon, I boarded 
 the fast mail train at the Shimbashi station, in 
 
 (89) 
 
90 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 Tokyo. Little men dressed in uniform stood 
 at the gates to punch the tickets. The throng 
 poured through the gates, making a great clat- 
 tering noise walking over the granitoid plat- 
 form with their wooden sandals as they hurried 
 to the train. Armies nowadays are mobilizing, 
 but the people have already mobilized. Wher- 
 ever one goes now the population is in motion. 
 The railway trains are crowded with men and 
 women who are moving from place to place and 
 who are in pursuit of various ends. 
 
 The journey was broken at Hiroshima, where 
 \\\(j first meeting was to take place. This city 
 was reached after a run of twenty-four hours, 
 after the train had passed through many im- 
 portant cities — Yokohama, Shizuoka, Xagoya, 
 Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Okayama. 
 
 Three hundred women had gathered for the 
 afternoon preaching service in the public hall 
 at Hiroshima. Many of the prominent women 
 of the city were present, including, it was said, 
 the wife of the governor of the prefecture. 
 Madam Hirooka and Rev. T. Makino, pastor 
 of a Congregational Church in Kyoto, were to 
 speak at this meeting, at which I was also ex- 
 pected to make an address. Madam Hirooka 
 was speaking when I arrived. I have already 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 91 
 
 mentioned that she is very outspoken and di- 
 rect in her appeals to the audiences addressed 
 by her. When I entered the hall, the first word 
 I heard in her address was ippu ipptt, a fa- 
 miliar expression in the Japanese language, 
 meaning "One husband, one wife." Mr. Makino 
 followed, and in his address he had much to say 
 of the ryosai-kembo theory of a woman's place 
 in life. This term translated literally means, 
 "Good wife, wise mother." It sums up wom- 
 an's purpose in the world according to the tra- 
 ditional view. 
 
 When it came my turn to speak, it was a 
 quarter to five in the afternoon. It was hope- 
 less to battle against fate, for the duties of a 
 Japanese wife at that hour of the day were too 
 exacting to be set aside in a moment. I re- 
 marked that, according to the ideal of a ryosai- 
 kembo, five o'clock in the afternoon was a most 
 important hour in the household for the wife or 
 mother. I would, therefore, not undertake to 
 encroach on their duties as thus interpreted. I 
 asked the ladies present to consider the signifi- 
 cance of Christ for womanhood, for the home, 
 and for the nation and took my seat. It was 
 perhaps fortunate that the speakers who had 
 preceded me had filled up the time with earnest 
 
( .)*J Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 addresses, it Is extremely unwise to give no 
 
 place for an interval between a long railway 
 journey and a public address. 
 
 At night a large audience of men and a few 
 women came to the same place, where the three 
 Bpeakers of tin- afternoon were again announced 
 to make addresses. Small flags of many na- 
 
 tion8, hung in diagonal rows across just be- 
 neath the ceiling, formed a pretty festoon over 
 the heads of the people. When Madam Hi- 
 
 rooka came on the platform and announced 
 that .she would speak on "The Sonship of 
 Believers," ju^t at that moment the noise 
 could be heard from the streets outside made 
 by the crowds shouting over the fall of Tsing- 
 tau. The flags of the struggling nations were 
 there before our eyes, symbols of the tribal 
 consciousness. The surrounding noises, the 
 flags, the state of war, all gave to Madam Hi- 
 rooka's interpretation of sonship as the deep- 
 est reality in life a peculiar significance. Paul's 
 words were echoing and reechoing in my mind 
 as I looked at the flags and listened to the 
 speaker: "For I reckon that the sufferings of 
 the present time are not to be compared with 
 the glory which shall be revealed in us. For 
 the earnest expectation of the creature wait- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 93 
 
 eth for the manifestation of the sons of God." 
 The task of giving universal reality to the 
 consciousness of sonship never seemed more 
 stupendous nor more glorious than at that 
 hour. 
 
 No one can understand the New Testament 
 who does not see in the deep struggles reflected 
 in its pages between Judaism and the early 
 Christian movement a clash between tribal an- 
 cestry and sonship based on the new birth. To 
 the Jews who declared, "We are Abraham's 
 seed," Jesus replied: "My word hath no place 
 in you." "We be Abraham's seed, and were 
 never in bondage to any man," the Jews proud- 
 ly declared. And to this the Saviour re- 
 sponded: "If the Son shall make you free, ye 
 shall be free indeed." It was to those who re- 
 lied upon descent in Israel that John opposed 
 the new Israel when speaking of those who would 
 achieve citizenship by moral character: "He 
 that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I 
 will be his God, and he shall be my son." The 
 tribal consciousness is as strong among the 
 present-day Japanese as it was among the Jews 
 in the time of Christ. The Japanese regard 
 their lineage as autochthonous. The emperor 
 is the father of the people. All trace their de- 
 
• ( 'hrist in Ji 
 
 it, directly or indirectly, to the imperial 
 line. 
 
 On our way to the home of Rev. J. T. ]\1< j 
 • here we were being entertained, I observed 
 changes in the city of Hiroshima marking prog- 
 •• idened, train cars were 
 running, and, in place of the frame building in 
 which our people had worshiped for many 
 years, there stood a new brick structure soon 
 to be dedicated. On our left as we walked 
 along we passi d a great group of buildings cov- 
 ering an entire block. This was the Hiroshima 
 Girls 9 School, begun a quarter of a century 
 by Miss X. B. Gaines, whose monumental 
 work is a testimony to her consecration and 
 genius. It was here that "Frances Little" 
 (Mrs. Fannie McCauley) wrote the letters 
 which gave her world fame when she afterwards 
 published them under the title "Lady of the 
 Decoration." 
 
 //. The Fall of the Devil's Castle. 
 
 The next morning, November 8, I was out 
 early in order to catch the train to Yanai. The 
 run was short and along the coast of the Inland 
 Sea. Miyajima was passed on the left, one of 
 the three great views of Japan, an island not 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 95 
 
 far from shore and on this occasion glowing 
 with peculiar beauty in the morning light. 
 Formed of a range of hills not more than two 
 thousand feet in height, indented with valleys 
 and covered with foliage, Miyajima, or Temple 
 Island, is a spot which has attracted visitors 
 from many lands. Though sacred to Shinto, it 
 is rather a symbol of Buddhism. On the island 
 no birth or death, it is said, has ever taken 
 place. It is, therefore, a symbol of the abso- 
 lute; for to the Buddhists the finite world is 
 the realm of birth and death. To those who 
 contemplate with a sense of dread eternal 
 change the unbroken calm of Miyajima must 
 be attractive. 
 
 Our train wheeled around curves, along the 
 seashore, bringing into view picturesque scenes 
 — islands in the dim distance and islands as near 
 and as distinct in outline as an experience of 
 yesterday. There were white sails hovering 
 over the tranquil sea. There were small steam- 
 ers plowing the quiet waters, carrying bur- 
 dens of peaceful commerce. There were also 
 torpedo destroyers, monstrous-looking vessels, 
 harshly discordant with the charm and undis- 
 turbed peace of the surrounding scene. 
 
 At the station at Yanai I was pleasantly sur- 
 
96 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 prised to find one of the first converts after I 
 took up missionary work in Japan, Rev. S. 
 Kudo, in charge of the Methodist Church at 
 that place. The Methodists and Presbyterians 
 met together in the morning, the i!ions 
 
 combined numbering not more than a score of 
 persons present. Their nui mall, vet 
 
 they had the courage of true faith. They had 
 been bold enough to rent a theater building for 
 the night meeting. Still their courage sank 
 within them when it was announced that the fall 
 of Tsing-tau would be celebrated with a street 
 parade that night. The Christians, when they 
 called at the hotel during the afternoon, were 
 very nervous, lest the parade should interfere 
 with the attendance at the meeting. Rev. N. 
 Fukada arrived in time for the night meeting 
 and was to be one of the speakers. 
 
 It was useless to try to escape giving a sub- 
 ject for the evening meeting. In view of the 
 celebration announced, I gave them as the sub- 
 ject of my discourse "Yokujo no KanraJcu." 
 Translated, it means, "Downfall of the Lust 
 (or Devil's) Castle." The supper was brought 
 and consisted of crab, raw red snapper, a shell- 
 fish something like a clam, seaweed, mushrooms, 
 and rice. There was a chill in the atmosphere, 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 97 
 
 so the brazier was brought in, a bronze vessel 
 the size of a water bucket. It was filled with 
 ashes, in the middle of which a few lumps of 
 charcoal burned with a red glow, before which 
 we warmed our bodies through the palms of our 
 hands. 
 
 When we left the hotel after supper for the 
 theater meeting, the lantern procession had be- 
 gun. Through a narrow street winding toward 
 us down the mountain side the procession 
 passed, moving in our direction like a current 
 of glowing fire, for all the people carried 
 lighted paper lanterns, red in color. There 
 were many young children in the procession, 
 schoolboys and girls, and their voices rang out 
 above the rest into the night as they cried: 
 "Nippon katta; Doitsu maketa" (Japan victo- 
 rious; Germany defeated). 
 
 To our surprise and satisfaction, the theater 
 building was soon filled. For two hours the 
 gospel was preached, first by myself and then 
 by Mr. Fukada. It is always interesting to 
 listen to Japanese preachers interpreting from 
 their point of view the gospel of Christ. Many 
 quaint illustrations find a place in their dis- 
 course. Some of these — in fact, many of them 
 — are more in accord with Biblical usage than 
 7 
 
98 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 the figures and terms used by us. For example, 
 
 the contrast between head and heart is never 
 heard in their discourse. Mr. Fukada in his 
 sermon remarked that "Japanese young men 
 were filling their heads with knowledge, but 
 their Kara were empty." Now, hara does not 
 mean the heart, but the cavity of the body be- 
 low the diaphragm! It is almost equivalent, in 
 Japanese psychological usage, to the Greek 
 word t planch noi in the New Testament and 
 used by Paul when lie said to the Corinthians: 
 "Ye are Btraitened in your own borccls." 
 Orientals locate the passions in the viscera 
 ("bowels of mercies"). I heard another Jap- 
 anese speaker, putting his right hand on his 
 right side and his left hand on his left side and 
 both just below the stomach, exclaim: "We 
 Japanese need more personality." On the way 
 to the hotel from the meeting that night an- 
 other Scriptural figure was used by a layman 
 in the church at Yanai. He said: "We were 
 uneasy after we had engaged the theater build- 
 ing when it was given out that a lantern pro- 
 cession would be held. We feared our Christian 
 project would fall through; but it was wrong 
 for us to think that God's hand was thus short- 
 ened." In Isaiah it is said: "Is my hand 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 99 
 
 shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?" The 
 Christians were elated over the outcome of the 
 meeting. Their faith had been rewarded. It 
 goes a long way toward securing permanent re~ 
 suits when local leaders, not depending alto- 
 gether upon the visiting speakers, enter thus 
 heartily in the campaign. Before I left Yanai 
 I heard the Presbyterians discussing the ques- 
 tion of erecting a church building. 
 
 HI. Coming Again with Rejoicing. 
 
 On November 9, in crossing the Inland Sea 
 from Hiroshima to Matsuyama, I retraced a 
 journey taken twenty-six years ago, when I 
 was on the way to Oita, my first mission sta- 
 tion. At that time we changed at Matsuyama 
 from the small steamer plying between Hiro- 
 shima and Matsuyama to a larger vessel run- 
 ning from Osaka to points on the island of 
 Kyushiu. 
 
 The Inland Sea at any time is an interesting 
 body of water. If nature dreams, this sea 
 must be one of its dreams, so fantastic are its 
 island forms, so wandering are its shore lines, 
 so subtle and even ethereal are the gradations of 
 shade and color on its ever-changing surface. 
 But on this occasion, as we approached the har- 
 
100 Japan. 
 
 bor at Matsuyama, there was a mist everywhere. 
 Sky and sea were watery and gray, and n< 
 line or color was observable anywhere. Yet the 
 light of the midday sun was sufficiently diffused 
 through the mist to impart to the surface of 
 the sea a sheen of light peculiarly soft and me- 
 tallic in appearance. There was an indescrib- 
 able mellowness in sea and sky as the ship gen- 
 tly glided along, a tenderness like the mei 
 of the Lord, which arc over all his works. 
 
 A large theater building had been secured 
 for the meeting at Matsuyama, about the only 
 public building available, and a successful galh- 
 ering the night In ','■■ eported to us. On 
 
 the platform there was an organ played by 
 Miss Bates, a local missionary; and from a vio- 
 lin Mr. Bennett, also a missionary, drew sweet 
 music to the delight of the audience. As is 
 their custom, the Christians had brought flow- 
 ers with which to ornament the platform. Usu- 
 ally these are in a single vase and consist of a 
 branch of a tree or a bunch of flowers placed 
 within. This time there was a great vase on 
 the platform containing fiery red coxcombs 
 and a branch of the Japanese yatsude, or 
 "eight-handed" fatsia, an evergreen shrub of 
 the ginseng family. Around the ceiling there 
 
Campaigning for Christ m Japan. 101 
 
 hung in rows more than a hundred Japanese 
 lanterns cylindrical in form and large in size. 
 These were not lighted, for the room was illumi- 
 nated with a cluster of electric burners on a 
 chandelier pendent from the center of the ceil- 
 ing and with numerous individual burners glow- 
 ing everywhere in the auditorium. The dimness 
 of these burners only served to add a touch of 
 mystery to the scene. Back of the platform, 
 where the stage curtains were operated, strips 
 of paper ten feet in length and a foot in width, 
 attached at the top and hanging loose at the 
 ends, swayed gently in the breeze coming in 
 from the open windows. On each of these was 
 written the name of one speaker and the subject 
 of his discourse. The people sat on the floor 
 in the pit and in the galleries in Japanese fash- 
 ion. Frames partitioned off the seats into 
 squares, in each of which two persons sat, the 
 arrangement reminding one of the racks placed 
 on the table on board ship when the sea is 
 rough. Here and there a puff of smoke would 
 rise into the air, it being the custom of Jap- 
 anese to take occasional whiffs of tobacco in a 
 public gathering. A little group of Christians, 
 the pastors of the different Churches, Bible 
 women, and others, were behind the curtains, 
 
102 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 and some of them were Berving tea to those 
 who had part in the program of the evening. 
 ng these was Mrs. Yanagiwara, advanced 
 in years, feeble in body, hut strong in the 
 Christian faith. Then there was her daughter- 
 in-law, a very active Christian, whose husband, 
 Rev, N'ainio Yanagiwara, was the presiding of- 
 ficer of the evening. He is the preacher in 
 charge of the Methodist Church at Matsuyama 
 
 and the presiding elder of the Matsuyama Dis- 
 triet. In opening the .service he made an ear- 
 and powerful appeal, speaking for thir- 
 ty minutes. lie and his wife talked much 
 to me about their children — for they have a 
 family now, the oldest of which has completed 
 the high school course at Kwansci Gakuin — and 
 they earnestly sought my counsel and help, 
 looking to the sending of their eldest son to 
 Central College, Missouri, where he might re- 
 ceive a college education under Christian influ- 
 ence. 
 
 There are exultant moments in human expe- 
 rience, times of elation as well as of depression. 
 This occasion at Matsuyama was one of those 
 times when the sense of joy and power is pe- 
 culiarly strong, the feeling of an upward spring 
 of the spirit within. I was braced, first of all, 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 103 
 
 by spending the afternoon with Brother T. W. 
 B. Demaree, who is toiling on all alone at his 
 station, while his family is in Kentucky, where 
 the children are going to school. I felt that 
 tonic effect which one experiences in the pres- 
 ence of sacrifice. Then, though the rain was 
 pouring down and there was some anxiety as to 
 the attendance, there was a distinct relief and a 
 feeling of encouragement when it was found 
 that the theater building was well filled, there 
 being between six and seven hundred people 
 present. But greater inspiration came from a 
 sense of the unfolding providence during the 
 intervening years. There is a song of ascent 
 in human experience like that of the return 
 from exile. In fact, the Psalms marked songs 
 of degrees; or, more correctly, "ascents" (cxx.- 
 cxxxiv.) may be descriptive of progressions 
 either in providence or in human experience. 
 The words of Psalm cxxvi. come to us on occa- 
 sions like this at Matsuyama as sweet music, as 
 a song of throbbing gratitude and of the har- 
 vest joy experienced in all pioneer work in the 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 It had been twenty-six years since I first met 
 the one who presided at this important gather- 
 ing in Matsuyama, where all the Churches were 
 
mere 
 
 104 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 united for a great campaign. While a 
 y° utn ] ' ' my home and stood by the 
 
 nda while he talked to me. He .said that he 
 to study the Bible and to become a 
 Mian. He and his brother were soon en- 
 rolled as pro! . But that was the begin- 
 ning of trouble. If the harvest was with joy, 
 tIh " - with tears. Persecution began, 
 Their father was an official in the pivfectural 
 Offices and a stern Samurai of the olden type. 
 It was his duty, before (he country was opened, 
 to see that everv one in that province placed 
 his foot upon th( of Christ upon the 
 I repudiated the Christian religion. It 
 was in thi. vay that th a k en . He 
 told me after his conversion that frequently he 
 had taken the tiny foot of a babe, brought in its 
 mot! . and placed it upon the fwmiye, 
 or "trodden image of Jesus," while the parent 
 took the oath of abjuration. The old Samurai 
 was thrown into a paroxysm of rage when his 
 sons became Christians. But eventually he 
 called on me and frankly acknowledged that a 
 change had become apparent in his boys, both 
 in character and conduct. When I urged him 
 to seek for the good that had come into the 
 lives of his sons, he replied that his social con- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 105 
 
 nections, his advanced years, and his long use 
 of intoxicating drinks precluded him from en- 
 tering the Christian life. Yet these were over- 
 come, and he and his wife followed their sons 
 into the Church. The old man became one of 
 our most stalwart laymen. He died a trium- 
 phant death, and his body now rests on the hill- 
 side in the outskirts of Oita in the little plat 
 of ground which he himself by his own exertions 
 secured from the government as a Christian 
 burial place. 
 
 When going upon the platform before an au- 
 dience the greater part of whom are people who 
 know little of the Christian religion and to 
 whom one must speak in a foreign tongue, the 
 first impulse is to breathe a silent prayer for 
 gracious assistance in the use of language as 
 well as in the presentation of Christian truth. 
 But at Matsuyama, when I went before the peo- 
 ple, the presence of Namio Yanagiwara was 
 reassuring. It was the pledge to me of the 
 nearness of One whose silent and invisible work 
 had brought to maturity the early beginnings 
 in Oita and had given a reality to the prayers 
 and hopes of our first days of service in Japan. 
 A whole family, with its connections, had been 
 lifted out of darkness and had become a bless- 
 
106 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 ing to many others in an ever-widening exten- 
 
 gospe] by which their own lives were 
 
 emed. No wonder that moments in Matsu- 
 
 1a were precious. One cannot but acquire 
 
 new strength for the coming task when K 
 
 the promise fulfilled: k 'IL that goeth forth and 
 
 Mi, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
 
 come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
 
 with him." 
 
 IV. An Oregon Ward in a Japanese Hospital. 
 
 Our small steamer reached Kure about noon 
 the following day. In among the hills clad in 
 pine forests and on the shore of a picturesque 
 bay is located the great naval yard of Japan, 
 with its di aals, and hospitals. On my 
 
 first trip across the Inland Sea, twenty-six v 
 
 - an unimportant village. Now 
 population of one hundred and twen- 
 ty thousai The growth is due largely 
 to connection with the navy. 
 
 Kindly hospitality was extended to us by 
 Rev. and Mrs. Harvey S. Brokaw, of the Pres- 
 byterian Mission. There was one child at 
 home, little Frances, twelve years of age. She 
 was going to school to her father and mother, 
 reciting her lessons first to one and then to the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 107 
 
 other. Mr. Brokaw was making good use of a 
 motor car in evangelizing the adjacent dis- 
 tricts. It was amazing how many villages he 
 reached and the number of tracts he distribu- 
 ted on a single tour. 
 
 Our first appointment was at a local hospital. 
 Arrangements had been made for us, myself and 
 Mr. Makino, to address the staff, consisting of 
 about sixty doctors and nurses. We were ac- 
 companied by Miss Gillespie, of the Church 
 Missionary Society, who seemed to be held in 
 high honor at the hospital, and by Mr. Kosaka, 
 who is in charge of the Methodist Church at 
 Kure. The visit was most satisfactory. Re- 
 spectful attention was given to our addresses. 
 Courtesies were shown us by the head of the 
 hospital, and we were surprised to find among 
 the wards one named for our battleship Oregon. 
 It was provided with eight beds. The United 
 States government had sent the Oregon on one 
 occasion to Kure for repairs. The men on the 
 Oregon, greatly to their credit, on taking their 
 departure contributed funds for the equipment 
 of this ward. The superintendent, physicians, 
 and nurses connected with the hospital seemed 
 to be pleased when I expressed the wish and 
 hope that such friendly intercourse would ever- 
 
108 Campaigning for Christ in Jt 
 
 pan. 
 
 more be maintained between Japan and the 
 
 United States. 
 
 At night I preached at the Baptist chapel, 
 
 where about twenty wire present. The forces 
 had been mass< vening at the Methodist 
 
 preaching place, where about one hundred and 
 twenty were In attendance. One of the Jap- 
 *e speakers at the latter place was inter- 
 rupted while lead,'. one-time 
 follower of Miyazaki, the prophet. "Don't be 
 a hypocrite while praj man shouted 
 from the and- p silent." The intruder 
 liacI been of Miyazaki, in Tokyo, who 
 claims he- is a nd is the incarnation of 
 Christ and Buddha and Confucius. Upon hear- 
 ing that Miyazaki was not correct in his pri- 
 vate life, the Kure man had abandoned his 
 cau-e and was now in a Christian meeting. In 
 spite of the interruption, the service went on 
 and with good results. 
 
 At two o'clock in the afternoon the pastors 
 and workers met together at the Baptist head- 
 quarters for a Hhuyolcwai, and at night the 
 preaching services were held at the Episcopal 
 church. Mr. Kuzoku, a Presbyterian evangel- 
 ist, was my fellow laborer in this service. His 
 sermon was remarkable for its genuine evangel- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 109 
 
 istic note. The speaker had thoroughly at- 
 tained in heart and head the truth of the gos- 
 pel. The net was cast by the pastor, and many 
 indicated their desire to become enrolled as pro- 
 bationers. Though this service was held in an 
 Episcopalian church, the attitude of Episco- 
 palians throughout the country toward united 
 undertakings among Protestant bodies is not 
 uniform. Representatives of the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society enter into cooperation, as a 
 rule, while the missionaries of the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel hold aloof. 
 American Episcopalians are divided on the 
 question. As a rule, however, missionary rela- 
 tions are friendly. Conferences are held in 
 which all participate, even those who will not 
 enter into cooperation. 
 
 In the afternoon the English ladies served tea 
 to a few of us at their cottage on the hill. 
 Near by we found an old student, now well-to- 
 do, who was conducting a store. He had called 
 upon us at the Brokaw residence soon after we 
 arrived and presented us with a wooden deer, 
 carved at Miyajima, not far away. Another 
 former student was assisting Mr. Brokaw as 
 secretary and evangelist. On the table at Mr. 
 Brokaw's, as on the table in missionary homes 
 
110 Campaigning for Christ fa Japan. 
 
 oughout the country, we found the family 
 plied with Utsunomiya butter. The story 
 ad is known throughout 
 J;l ^ man at the point of 
 
 starvatl ' un hl ; ?ed for something to eat 
 
 .•it the house of a fanner. He found in the wife 
 .1 friend. She believed his story and gave him 
 a five-dollar bill. Truly characteristic of a 
 Japanese young man, he at once turned his 
 course to an agricultural college in Iowa, feel- 
 ing that he had sufficient means with which to 
 start in getting an education. He succ< 
 in finishing his course and returned to the 
 Wand of Hokkaido, a sparsely populated 
 island, where Japanese experiment farming is 
 carried on. Here he acquired wealth and is 
 now conducting a great farm. He is a Chris- 
 tian man; and in grateful remembrance, it is 
 said, he sends a box of farm products every 
 year to the generous-hearted friends who helped 
 him at the time of his extremity in Iowa. 
 
 V. A Converted Publican in the Pastorate. 
 
 At Pukuyama I met Dr. Sasao, Dean of the 
 German Reformed School at Sendai. The 
 Christians had engaged rooms in a small but 
 elegant Japanese hotel. From our room we 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 111 
 
 looked down upon a courtyard, decorated with 
 rockeries and pine trees and surrounded by the 
 hotel buildings. A motto hung on the wall in 
 our room, skillfully written, declared that the 
 "Spring wind gives peace." In different parts 
 of the city industries had been established. 
 Smoke was rising into the sky from the cotton- 
 spinning factories. The feudal castle was a con- 
 spicuous landmark which could be seen for miles 
 from any direction. 
 
 The meetings had been held one night in the 
 Episcopal church and the next night in the 
 Presbyterian church. The night we were there 
 the building rented by the Methodists was the 
 place of meeting. Mr. Matsushita, Methodist 
 preacher in charge, was a publican when con- 
 verted. Now he is fifty-seven years of age, with 
 white, flowing beard upon his face, and a man 
 of lovable character and usefulness in the min- 
 istry. He has one son in the ministry, and his 
 family are members of the Church. 
 
 At the night service there were judges, law- 
 yers, school-teachers, officials, and business men 
 in the audience. Among them, sitting near the 
 front, was a kangakusha, or teacher of Chinese, 
 now eighty-four years of age and celebrated in 
 that part of the country. He listened with in- 
 
1 1- ( Japan. 
 
 terest to the sermons. He was taking Bible 
 Lessons before the meeti . He admired 
 
 the Sermon on the Mount, but found difficulty 
 in accepting the mirad nist, 
 
 his religion was similar to the deism of J 
 
 and Franklin — a religion chi al in 
 
 character, without the touch of fervid emotions, 
 A choir i Qg beautifully at I 
 
 ning i . and the c< [ona] -in ir- 
 
 iocL 
 The next morning Brother Mai fter 
 
 a union prayi r lucted me through 
 
 the old feudal castle. We followed the winding 
 ige from floor to floor, until we reached the 
 donjon, from which could be seen the magnifi- 
 cent I . a stretch of fields, beyond which 
 there was a range of hills on one side and a 
 winding seacoast on the other. There was lit- 
 tle harmony between the military castle and the 
 surrounding landscape. The hills were gently 
 rolling and foliage-clad and were not frowning 
 ramparts of rugged stones, such as a military 
 fortress would suggest. 
 
 In certain rooms of the castle there were 
 stored relics of the past. There were pictures 
 dim with age and armor rusty from long dis- 
 use. Calligraphy had left records of Confucian 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 113 
 
 sentiment, penned on scrolls and panels by the 
 scholars of the past. In these the pleasurable 
 sensations derived from reading, from nature, 
 and from social intercourse were praised in ele- 
 gant or felicitous phrases. Confucianism failed 
 to recognize the tragedy of life. Even Bud- 
 dhism taught that the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth together in pain until now, 
 though this religion failed to wait with hopeful 
 outlook for the manifestation of the sons of 
 God. 
 
 The Japanese nationalist never loses an op- 
 portunity to remind us that in the past history 
 of Europe there has been endless strife and con- 
 troversy, while at the same time he boasts of 
 unity and harmony characteristic of the bygone 
 centuries of Japanese history. But these feudal 
 castles dotting the Japanese landscape tell a 
 different story. They are not fortresses raised 
 in defense against the attack of foreign foes; 
 they bear witness to internal struggles, of which 
 there have been as many in Japan as in any 
 other country. Here, as elsewhere, the hand 
 of man has been raised against his brother. 
 Nowhere has militarism been cultivated as an 
 ideal with greater seriousness than in Japan. 
 The clans have dominated the countiy for a 
 8 
 
11 4 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 thousand years and are still dominant. Next 
 to Germany and Russia, Japan devotes more of 
 her national energy to military and naval pro- 
 grams than any other modern nation; more in 
 proportion — that is to say, to her national re- 
 sources, her national strength. The Bu.shido 
 ideal is Dot that of Bcrnhardi, though the one 
 may easily pass into the other. In army organi- 
 zation and imperialism Japan is not unlike Ger- 
 many at the present time, and in certain fields 
 the two empires are rivals. But Bfishido was 
 not a highly thought-out concept of the State. 
 It was a form of life under feudalism cultivat- 
 ing ideals of persona] honor, valor, and self- 
 control similar to those once prevalent in Eu- 
 rope and pictured to us in the novels of Sir 
 Walter Scott. Though fighting efficiency has 
 been developed to a high degree in modern Ja- 
 pan, other lines of national efficiency have been 
 lightened. The Upbuilding forces, however, 
 have been secular. In order to give supremacy 
 to spiritual forces an immense task remains to 
 be performed, the greatness and vital impor- 
 tance of which is felt increasingly by the 
 Church. It requires more than the awakening 
 of the intellectual life to bring to a realization 
 the reign of the Spirit in national affairs. The 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 115 
 
 agencies which evoke and sustain faith must be 
 relied upon. The development of industrial- 
 ism, international trade, and colonial expansion 
 will increase not only in Japan, but in other 
 vigorous nations. It is taking a clutch on time 
 by the forelock to make secure now the domi- 
 nant influence of spiritual ideals. 
 
 VI. Preaching in a Railway Station. 
 
 Leaving Fukuyama, accompanied by Dr. Sa- 
 sao, we journeyed westward on the trunk line 
 of railway that runs from Tokyo to Shimono- 
 seki. As we came to Tokuyama a whirl of the 
 train around a curve brought into view a scene 
 that the imagination itself could not surpass in 
 delicacy and beauty. We had been following 
 the coast line, and now, as we looked out upon 
 the sea, there was an evening stillness like that 
 of a picture. Even the sails seemed fixed as 
 upon a canvas. The gold in the sky, visible be- 
 tween dark clouds, was reflected upon the sur- 
 face of water. Deep indigo islands rose out 
 of the sea, over the surface of which there 
 spread a sheen of gold. The prospect put one 
 under a spell as under an enchantment. The 
 grays had been changed to tints of gold and 
 purple and crimson, as if the Master, who 
 
116 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 turned water into wine, had spoken. The radi- 
 ance of the daylight hours was gone, and on 
 the face of >kv and sea and land there was a 
 filmy haze, rendering all the more agreeable and 
 entrancing the superb and delicate exhibition of 
 nature's hidden beauty. 
 
 Mr. Booth, a young man employed to teach 
 English in a government school, gave us shelter 
 under his roof. He is but one of a considerable 
 number of young men from American colleges 
 i red throughout Japan and occupying po- 
 Bitioi Lish in the Japanese 
 
 -. On the walls of his study 
 the first thing to attracl [r. Booth's 
 
 colleg 'it. on which "Hamilton" (the 
 
 name of his college) was imprinted in large let- 
 iipper about twenty-five students 
 were invited to his study by Mr, Booth before 
 the evening meeting. I sought earnestly to im- 
 press upon the minds of these high-school stu- 
 dents the importance of religion. 
 
 At night, arrangements had been made for two 
 services — one at the Methodist chapel, where I 
 was to speak, and the other at the Presbyterian 
 chapel, where Dr. Sasao was to speak. Both 
 places were crowded to the utmost capacity. 
 As a rule, it is not wise for missionaries to at- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 117 
 
 tack social customs with a view to their reform. 
 It is better for the native speakers to discuss 
 matters looking to the improvement of national 
 customs and social institutions. It seemed so 
 relevant at one point in my address that I could 
 not refrain from speaking of the cruel tyranny 
 of the Japanese hotel proprietors. At Fuku- 
 yama I heard Dr. Sasao conversing with the 
 help employed to wait upon us at the hotel. 
 He was trying to find out what were their hours. 
 He said that he had inquired at other places 
 and had learned that the custom was for the 
 servants to retire at one o'clock in the morning 
 and to arise at five o'clock and begin their work 
 at daybreak. The next morning the preacher 
 in charge of the chapel at which I had spoken 
 received letters from a number of teachers in 
 one of the government schools expressing their 
 profound appreciation of the truths they had 
 heard set forth. I was happy that no offense 
 had been given and happier still that the truth 
 of Christ had been impressed upon the minds of 
 intelligent men in the audience. 
 
 Before leaving for our next appointment, Dr. 
 Sasao went to speak in one of the schools, while 
 I was invited to address the railway employees 
 at the station. Seats were brought in, and I 
 
118 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 permitted to speak more than an hour to 
 about thirty men connected with the railway at 
 that place. As a class the railway men of Ja- 
 pan are open-minded, and there is a fine oppor- 
 tunity among them for presenting the gospel of 
 Christ: an opportunity not only among railway 
 nun, but opportunities everywhere. Gates 
 stand open on every hand. This campaign it- 
 self is creating openings which the force at hand 
 Is not prepared to enter. Rev. II. P. Jones, of 
 our Methodist Mission, and Rev. C. I.. White- 
 ner, of the Presbyterian Mission, are here on 
 this coast and with us in these meetings. But 
 they find themselves too limited in resources to 
 follow with an effort all along- the coast suffi- 
 cient to conserve the results of these meetings. 
 One means of good would be in the erection of 
 church buildings. Thirty years ago J. W. 
 Lambuth visited towns on this coast; yet we 
 still find ourselves without houses of worship at 
 many places. The time is at hand for a re- 
 newal of effort and outlay (all the missions are 
 convinced) for the evangelization of Japan, 
 eighty per cent of the population of which has 
 not yet been reached by the Christian propa- 
 ganda. Another deficiency that should be over- 
 come is in providing the missionaries on the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 119 
 
 field with competent assistant evangelists. It 
 requires more now, since salaries have become 
 higher, to command the services of useful men. 
 
 VII. "No Pleasure in Ambiguity." 
 
 At Mitajiri Madam Hirooka joined us for 
 the services at that place. At the hotel the 
 Christians were waiting for her arrival, in the 
 meantime showing what courtesies they could to 
 Dr. Sasao and myself. The public school build- 
 ing had been secured in the face of much preju- 
 dice for our afternoon meeting. Madam Hi- 
 rooka presently arrived and was given the seat 
 of honor in the large room in the hotel reserved 
 for us — that is, the seat most distant from the 
 door. She inquired at once as to the meetings. 
 When informed that the public school building 
 had been tendered for use in the afternoon meet- 
 ing, she at once asked if she would be free to 
 speak without reserve concerning Christ. The 
 Christians told her that, owing to prejudice and 
 the delicacy of the situation, it might be well 
 to speak with some reserve. She bluntly re- 
 marked that they were only half enlightened in 
 that community and that she would decline to 
 speak. She turned to me and made the remark 
 that "there is no pleasure in ambiguity." 
 
120 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 The Christians finally prevailed upon her to 
 make an add] i Jly as they had gone to 
 
 much trouble to induce the women of the com- 
 munity to attend the meeting. Dinner was 
 served in a hotel. I could not make out all the 
 tllin - fore us. In pn paring a meal the 
 
 can outdo "Hei varieties." 
 
 AltlT dinner I . jinrikishas in single file 
 
 dashed through th carrying us toward 
 
 the public school buildings, some distance away, 
 id (he outskirts of the town. On the hills 
 not far away we could see the famous temple 
 dedicated to the worship of Sugiwara Michi- 
 ■ In the autumn festival thousands of peo- 
 . ither here, some say a million, and move 
 in a greal procession from th< t< mple to the sea. 
 They arc dressed in white garb, and before them 
 two arks are carri third is drawn by 
 
 oxen. These are followed by a priest riding a 
 sacred horse and attended by assistants. 
 
 About three hundred had assembled in the 
 auditorium of the public school. Facing the 
 platform and at the opposite end of the build- 
 ing were two large Chinese characters, meaning 
 "Loyalty and Filial Piety." These two Confu- 
 cian terms sum up the whole duty of man ac- 
 cording to the prevalent teaching of those who 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 121 
 
 are connected with the national system of 
 schools. Everything went off well, and it was 
 felt that good impressions were made in behalf 
 of Christianity. 
 
 After returning to the hotel Madam Hirooka 
 said to me: "It is so strange to me that I do 
 not become fatigued in doing the Lord's work." 
 It was strange indeed ; for she had reached the 
 advanced age of sixty-five years and had been 
 in a strenuous campaign, speaking three and 
 four times a day for about ten days. That 
 night the rain came down in torrents. Still 
 there was a good attendance at the place rented 
 for the meeting. Madam Hirooka spoke first 
 and then took the train for Osaka. It was Sat- 
 urday night, and she desired to reach Osaka, 
 her home, by Sunday morning in order to be 
 present at the baptism and reception into the 
 Church of a personal friend whom she had led 
 to Christ. 
 
 According to the plan of arrangement, I was 
 to remain over at Mitajiri and preach Sunday 
 morning, which I did; while Dr. Sasao was to 
 proceed to Yamaguchi, where I was to join him 
 for an afternoon students' rally in the public 
 theater and for a preaching service at night. 
 It was not surprising that Dr. Sasao was wait- 
 
122 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 ing with deep interest to know what the out- 
 come might be of the campaign at Yamaguchi. 
 
 As we Bat in the hotel he related to me the 
 story of his life. Shimonoseki, not far from 
 Mitajiri, was his native city. His father was 
 
 wealthy, but lost his money in speculation and 
 moved away to the city of Osaka. At this place 
 Dr. S converted to Christianity under 
 
 the influence of two missionaries — Dr. Tyng, of 
 the American Episcopal Mission, ami Dr. Alex- 
 antler, of the American Presbyterian .Mission. 
 Dr. Sasao, while a young man, had been sent to 
 the government college a1 Yamaguchi. lie was 
 the only Christian in the school at that time 
 and suffered much annoyance because of his 
 faith. The students nicknamed him "Yaso," 
 or u Jesus," and would often throw him down 
 and make a cross upon his back with chalk. 
 Xo wonder that he was eager to know what the 
 attitude of mind would prove to be the following 
 da}* at Yamaguchi among the students in the 
 numerous schools at that place. 
 
 After leaving Yamaguchi, Dr. Sasao attended 
 the Meiji Gakuin at a Presbyterian college at 
 Tokyo. Later he attended the Auburn Theo- 
 logical Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, 
 and Columbia University, in the United States. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 123 
 
 In recounting his religious experience he said 
 that he had read at one time Pfleiderer's "Phi- 
 losophy of Religion" and accepted it as final. 
 As a result he lost "his interest in preaching." 
 He said that Mr. Kanamori also lost his faith 
 through reading this book. Dr. Sasao crossed 
 over to Germany in order to hear Pfleiderer 
 lecture in Berlin University ; but he was greatly 
 disappointed. Though he found Professor 
 Pfleiderer to be kind, gentlemanly, and scholar- 
 ly, he did not awaken in him an enthusiasm for 
 building up the kingdom of God in Japan. He 
 left Berlin and went to Halle. There his faith 
 was restored under Kcehler, a disciple of Tho- 
 luck. 
 
 VIII. Enthusiasm for Christ among Students. 
 
 Yamaguchi is the seat of the prefecture of 
 that name and is the home of one of the ruling 
 clans of Japan, the other ruling clan having its 
 home on the island of Kyushiu, in Satsuma. 
 Prince Ito, who wrote the Constitution, came 
 from this locality. Yamaguchi is now a city of 
 schools. As one part of the campaign a rally 
 for students had been advertised to be held in 
 one of the public theaters at two o'clock Sunday 
 afternoon. The meetings for students had been 
 
124 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 disappointing in some parts of the country ; but 
 at Yamaguchi the auditorium was filled. Dr. 
 o in his address spoke with peculiar inspira- 
 tion and power. The memories of the past and 
 the triumphs of the present seemed to fill his 
 soul with joy and rapture. The impression he 
 made upon that audience of students cannot be 
 effaced in years to come. I felt out of place 
 occupying time on the platform when the op- 
 portunity unique for him, and especially 
 as one of the professors from the Kyushiu Uni- 
 versity, a .Japanese Christian, was also to speak. 
 I took sufficient time, however, to lay upon the 
 consciences of those Japanese } T oung men the 
 claim of the hour for the cause of religion in 
 Japan. I told them plainly that if the young 
 men had responded to the call of God in suffi- 
 cient numbers for the dissemination of Chris- 
 tian truth there would have been no necessity 
 for the strenuous labors such as were engaged 
 in by Madam Hirooka, Mr. Ebara, Mr. Mori- 
 mura, and others of advanced age. 
 
 Sunday evening I preached in the Methodist 
 church, followed by Dr. Sasao. Mr. Kondo 
 had an automobile waiting for me, so that I 
 could connect with the fast train at Mitajiri for 
 Tokyo. The distance to be covered was twelve 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 125 
 
 miles, though the road was good. The motor 
 car screamed as it sped along the highway, 
 through villages and fields. The shrill honk, 
 sounding at frequent intervals to warn footmen 
 and jinrikishas, echoed through the hills and was 
 startling enough to disturb in their imagined 
 presence the gods dwelling in shrines by the 
 wayside. What innovations science and inven- 
 tion are making in regions of the earth long the 
 haunts of superstition, terror, and myth! 
 
 All night long the rocking of the train, the 
 noise of the buffers, the voices of the venders at 
 stations selling drinks, fruits, newspapers, and 
 tobacco mingled with the dreams of a half- 
 wakeful sleep. The strenuous campaign of the 
 past ten days had been brought to a close. 
 During its intense hours the gospel had been 
 presented, and living issues had been discussed. 
 Amid the activities of the Churches at different 
 places one seemed to realize in his own soul 
 something of the griefs and sorrows, the de- 
 lusions and thralldoms, the hopes and aspira- 
 tions of the multitudes into whose faces he had 
 looked and to whom he had addressed appeals 
 to heart and mind and will with a view to awak- 
 ening men to the possibilities of a higher and 
 more triumphant life. And strange it all seems 
 
126 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 that one should be Bpeaking in a foreign tongue 
 to communities remote from his own, seeking 
 to change their course of life and action! If 
 this be an apparent intrusion, the answer is 
 that it is one of the incongruities of which life 
 is full. There is no greater consensus of opin- 
 ion on any one point than that the facts about 
 human life are exactly what they ought not to 
 be. "Why do men everywhere cling to shadows 
 when they should know truth as open-faced as 
 the day? Why Is the truth bo falsified by pas- 
 sion and prejudice? Why do the great ma- 
 jority of people remain in a state of mental 
 childhood, while the means are close at hand 
 for their intellectual development? Why is it 
 that, possessing eyes to see, the faces of men 
 are turned away from the light? Answer these 
 questions, and you solve the paradoxes of life as 
 it is here upon earth, and at the same time you 
 bring to light the reasons justifying the foreign 
 missionary enterprise. 
 
 Yokohama. 
 "Apart from Christ, No True Individual." 
 At the shuyokwai held at Yokohama I was 
 much impressed with Dr. Ebina's remarks con- 
 cerning the individual. His address followed 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 127 
 
 mine. Neither of us had knowledge beforehand 
 as to what the theme discussed would be by ei- 
 ther of us. I spoke on "The Social Conscious- 
 ness." I called attention to the great reform 
 brought about in our day as the result of a 
 deepening of the social obligation. I pointed 
 out to the workers and pastors that the Church 
 was the only effective agency by which the so- 
 cial sense could be developed. 
 
 When Dr. Ebina came on the platform, he 
 had a very different message on his mind. He 
 had come to discuss the development of the in- 
 dividual, so long neglected in Oriental society. 
 His speech was characteristic of the general 
 trend in Japan. I had spoken rather from the 
 point of view of the West. The currents at the 
 present time in the East and in the West are 
 moving in opposite directions. In Japan they 
 are seeking to discover the individual ; in West- 
 ern countries the aim in view is to place a new 
 accent on the social life and obligation. 
 
 Dr. Ebina discussed the individual from the 
 point of view of traditional social institutions 
 in Japan. The individual had not been recog- 
 nized except as a member of the family or State. 
 Chu-ko, or "loyalty and filial piety,' 9 summed 
 up the whole duty of man. 
 
128 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 A recent illustration of these virtues is the 
 death of General Nogi, who, with his wife, took 
 his life at the hour when the funeral ceremonies 
 of the late emperor were being conducted. 
 This is known as jtmshi, or "following in 
 death." The suicide was an act of loyalty. 
 The faithful general chose to follow his supe- 
 rior into the other world. If his death was 
 typical of the old order, the adverse public 
 opinion, though expressed with bated breath, 
 was an indication of new ideas at work in the 
 minds of the Japan 
 
 That new ideas are at work is beyond ques- 
 tion. We sec a protest against corporate guilt, 
 in the ancient prophets of Israel, an emphasis 
 placed upon personal responsibility. The time 
 would come, Jeremiah declared, "when they 
 should say no more, The fathers have eaten 
 sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on 
 edge." There would be a sense of personal 
 condemnation: "Every man that eatcth sour 
 grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge." Man ' 
 is dealt with by Jeremiah from the standpoint 
 of his ethical relations. Individualism in Japan, 
 recentl}' awakened, presents many aspects. The 
 movement has similarities to the Renaissance 
 in Europe, and it has points of agreement with 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 129 
 
 the Reformation. It marks the revolt of the 
 individual against social tradition and author- 
 ity. A disharmony is felt between the individ- 
 ual consciousness and ideas, customs, and insti- 
 tutions handed down from the past, but now 
 outworn and superseded by broader and high- 
 er and more rational views of men and society. 
 It shows itself in the spirit of revolt, in the 
 disposition to question and to criticize, in the 
 greater degree of alertness and sensitiveness 
 shown by individuals in matters concerning 
 their rights and interests. 
 
 Dr. Ebina, in his Christian address, pene- 
 trated to the deeper aspects of the question. 
 His discussion was more from the ethical and 
 religious point of view, and yet cogent in the 
 clearness of his reasoning as regards the pri- 
 mary importance of the moral side of the 
 question, even in the solution of the individ- 
 ualism which the present generation is clamor- 
 ing to see realized. It was not with the 
 speaker merely a matter of liberty in the ex- 
 pression of opinion or emancipation from out- 
 worn customs. Dr. Ebina declared that there 
 could be no personal independence having real- 
 ity and power apart from oneness with Christ. 
 It was perfectly evident to any one following 
 9 
 
130 Campaigning for Christ m Japan. 
 
 his discourse that by union with Christ he had 
 in mind more than outward obedience to Christ, 
 more than inward harmony of will or intimacy 
 of fellowship with him, more than an assimila- 
 tion of his spirit. The union he spoke of was 
 organic, mystical, and transcendent. It was 
 
 sueh a union as Paul described when lie said: 
 "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
 The discussion was worthy of the subject and 
 
 was one that touched things fundamental. 
 
 No individual answering in reality to the 
 highest ideals can be wrought out through social 
 conflict and reaction. That social situations, 
 especially in modern society, involve a continu- 
 ous stress and strain which have the effect of 
 sharpening the individual consciousness is a 
 fact no one need call in question. That society 
 produces selfhood was seen by Buddhism, and 
 on that account society was set aside for the 
 monastery. Yet the self built up through so- 
 cial action and reaction is never able to rise 
 superior to society. This is exemplified in the 
 history of Confucianism. There is a self not 
 social, a human relation more fundamental 
 than the relation to society. The Vine of 
 which we are the branches is not society. Hu- 
 man nature, through identification with the di- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 131 
 
 vine in the incarnation, finds the way of escape 
 from all forms of slavery. While in society 
 and social in nature, yet the individual man be- 
 comes greater than society, strengthened by this 
 more fundamental union. The kind of individ- 
 ual produced by society has never been charac- 
 terized by virility or independence. "If a man 
 abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, 
 and is withered." 
 
 It was the "withered" lives produced by Con- 
 fucian society, the supreme virtues of which 
 were loyalty and filial piety, against which Dr. 
 Ebina directed his attack. He was prompted 
 by a sense of need widely felt in Japan, the 
 need of other virtues than these two just men- 
 tioned — the need, for example, of such virtues 
 as the love of truth, justice, purity, individual 
 initiative, and enterprise. Hence, as I have 
 said, the movement is ethical in character as 
 well as political and intellectual. And while the 
 address of which I have been speaking touched 
 the deeper aspects of the problems, there was, 
 nevertheless, a failure to occupy the Christian 
 point of view in one important respect. It is 
 the point in which Japanese Christianity has 
 yet to take up more advanced ground. To Dr. 
 Ebina, speaking with his nation's history be- 
 
L32 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 fore his mind, seas the real burden of 
 
 the individual. The complaint to which he gave 
 earn) inst social tyranny. 
 
 'Hie burden was in the outward >t in 
 
 the inward will. This cry finds expression 
 often, indeed, in the Psalms and even in the New 
 iment. "They have- compassed me about 
 with words of hatred, and fought against 
 When Christ said that his 
 «yok isy, he may have had in mind, in 
 
 of the Pharisees, the burden 
 of tradition, and the Law. But. the cry issuing 
 from the inmost depths of the human soul is 
 the lamentation occasioned by the weight of sin. 
 Paul was not speaking of social bondage, nor 
 was he oppressed by a the burden of 
 
 ty, when he cried: "O wretched man that 
 I am! who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death?" It was the weight of sin he felt. 
 He was not personally free. "That which I do 
 I allow not: for what I would, that I do not; 
 but what I hate, that do I." It was for this 
 reason he called himself a slave, saying: "I am 
 carnal, sold under sin." And it was from this 
 bondage that deliverance came to which he re- 
 ferred when he exclaimed, "I thank God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 133 
 
 Tokyo. 
 /. A Preparatory Meeting in Tokyo. 
 
 On the day the National Evangelistic Cam- 
 paign was inaugurated union prayer meetings 
 were held in every town and city in which a 
 Christian congregation existed. The opening 
 of the campaign was followed by the holding 
 of shuyokwai, or preparatory meetings, for 
 pastors and workers. I was invited to speak at 
 the shuyokwai in Tokyo on "The Intellectual 
 Presentation of Christianity to the Japanese." 
 
 It occurred to me that this was a curious 
 subject on which to speak at the beginning 
 of a great evangelistic campaign; but I had 
 learned to conform to suggestions made by the 
 Japanese and not, at any rate, to put them 
 lightly aside. Usually some good reason lies 
 back of the suggestion. A national campaign 
 for a wider preaching of the gospel in Japan 
 could not take for granted much that would be 
 presupposed in a Christian community. An 
 apologetic defense, for example, would be more 
 necessary in a country like Japan in order to 
 clear away current objections and misunder- 
 standing given circulation to by other religions 
 in the field. Much exposition would also be 
 required in view of the presence of many who 
 
L34 Jajpan. 
 
 possessed no knowledge of the Scriptures. This 
 work lays the foundation for the direct evan- 
 gelistic messa a 
 
 At the 8huyokwai in Tokyo, in discussing tlie 
 subject assigned to me, I saw an opportunity 
 to set up a claim for an appreciation of Christ 
 not to be had through Intellectual speculation. 
 The influence of Hindu philosophy extends 
 throughout the length and breadth of Asia, 
 one evidence of which is the general habit of 
 viewing religion from the standpoint of the 
 intellectual consciousness. This attitude of 
 mind has been strengthened by the educational 
 development in modern Japan. The modern 
 universities established in different parts of the 
 country exert a commanding influence. Even 
 the Christian propaganda lias been most suc- 
 I al among the intellectual classes of the na- 
 tion. No small proportion of the membership 
 of the Churches is made up of students. 
 
 I thought it might be well to call attention to 
 the fact that Christian theolog3 r , the intellec- 
 tual apprehension and expression of the Chris- 
 tian verities, owed much to the pulpit and little 
 to the chair. One needed only to retrace the 
 course of Christian history to find that the 
 great theologians were preachers. The men 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 135 
 
 who had contributed the most enduring theo- 
 logical ideas to the Church were, as a rule, men 
 of large practical experience. They were men 
 who had seen Christian truth put to the test 
 or who had witnessed its effectual working un- 
 der the varied conditions of individual and so- 
 cial life. They were interpreters, not of ab- 
 stract ideas, but of truth in experience. 
 
 I singled out the question of the divinity of 
 Christ, which is the central problem in Japan, 
 in order to give a practical illustration of the 
 importance of experience as a basis of a sound 
 theology. I did not believe that the problem 
 of the divinity of Christ could be solved in the 
 schools. Whether Christ was divine or not was 
 a question to be finally tested on the field of 
 life. When Christ had been presented to the 
 laboring population, the farming class, the 
 mercantile community, and the womanhood of 
 the nation, and his power had been demon- 
 strated in these various social spheres, then ma- 
 terial would be in hand on which to base a true 
 estimate of his person. It was through his 
 presence, not only in the individual, but in the 
 various fields of social life, that his true nature 
 became known. It was not through the forma- 
 tion of abstract ideas wrought out in the clois- 
 
136 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 ter as standards of truth to which the age must 
 be made to conform, but in the interpretation 
 of life am ace as affected by Christ that 
 
 a true theology was to have its source. It was 
 sonable, i! to look forward to the 
 
 ri>e of a sound and fresh theology as a result 
 of tlie nation-wide preaching of the gospel to 
 all ( society which, it was hoped, the 
 
 movement now launched would accomplish. No 
 nation could create its own theology until a very 
 general evangelism had been carried into effect. 
 
 It is only by keeping truth in close contact 
 with life that truth may be preserved. The re- 
 ligion founded upon the Christian Scriptures 
 is the only one which lias succeeded in over- 
 coming the discrepancy existing in other reli- 
 gions between popular religion and the faith 
 of the learned few. Whenever theology has its 
 roots sunk deep in the popular experience, and 
 whenever popular experience has been perme- 
 ated with the higher truths of the Christian re- 
 ligion, there has been vitality in theology, while 
 popular religion has been free from ignoble ele- 
 ments. Those who look upon the struggles of 
 the early Christian centuries as being nothing 
 more than interminable controversies of a sub- 
 tle description look only upon the surface of 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 137 
 
 things. Athanasius was unyielding in his con- 
 tention for the divinity of Christ, not because 
 of metaphysical interests, but owing to his firm 
 conviction that if the Church let go its hold 
 upon the divine in Christ it would relinquish 
 the only ground of hope for the redemption of 
 decaying Roman society. The Arian movement 
 did not have its source in the metaphysics of 
 the schools. A lowered view of the person of 
 Christ came to prevail as a result of the great 
 number of unregenerate men brought into the 
 Church following upon the conversion of Con- 
 stantine. A high view of the person of Christ 
 cannot prevail except in a Christian community 
 permeated with the regenerating influences of 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 As I have already said, I felt that the sub- 
 ject could be dealt with most profitably by 
 challenging the order of knowledge and expe- 
 rience in the traditional thought of the East. 
 The highest experience is not reached through 
 intellection, but the highest attainment of the 
 intellect is conditioned upon experience. The 
 native Church in Japan is one of the great, if 
 not the greatest, creations of modern missions. 
 It has passed through more stages than the 
 Church on any other mission field. Besides con- 
 
I i mpaignvng for Christ m Japan. 
 
 quering its own native environment, it has over- 
 come modernism from the West, the various 
 forms of skepticism prevailing in Western 
 countries. But the native Church has not ar- 
 rived at a full-orbed conception of the person 
 of Christ ; but this problem is on the way to 
 solution. As Christ more fully permeates Jap- 
 • society as a vital force, imbues daily life 
 with his presence, and transforms sentiment 
 and thought and conduct, the glory of his per- 
 son will become more manifest. The signs will 
 be multiplied as he manifests his glory, as at 
 Cana of Galilee. In other words, a construc- 
 tive and adequate theology must rest on foun- 
 dations laid broadly in national life or in the 
 life of the race. By being "fruitful in every 
 good work" we may "increase in the knowledge 
 of God." The Japanese have seen in Christ 
 divine characteristics. There has been great 
 advance in their apprehension of the personal- 
 ity of God. The sense of personality in them- 
 selves, of the worth and dignity of life, has been 
 immeasurably enhanced. The overthrow of 
 pantheism is near at hand. Christians feel that 
 they owe to Christ a distinct .uplift; they have 
 been translated from darkness into light, ele- 
 vated from a low and natural plane to a high- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 139 
 
 er, nobler, and more spiritual plane of living. 
 If there is a lack of appreciation of Christ at 
 any point, it is in an inadequate understanding 
 of his mediatorial and redemptive work. Now 
 that great national evils perplex and trouble 
 the nation, the opportunity is presented for an 
 apprehension of Christ from the point of view 
 of reconciliation and redemption. It will be 
 discovered that in him, and in him alone, the 
 problem of sin has its solution. 
 
 II. Preaching at Vanity Fair. 
 
 On Sunday evening, October 4, my appoint- 
 ment was to preach at a Methodist chapel in 
 that part of the city of Tokyo known as Asa- 
 kusa, which is the name of one of the four most 
 densely populated wards of the city. These 
 four wards constitute the "East End" of this 
 great metropolis. 
 
 The street car landed me at Kaminari Mon, 
 or Thunder and Lightning Gate, within a block 
 and a half of the Methodist chapel. On alight- 
 ing from the street car, I was in the heart of 
 one of the world's greatest pleasure resorts. 
 Night had dropped down around like a curtain ; 
 but there was a glamour to the scene, the elec- 
 tric burners converting its gay sensuality into 
 
"UO Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 a sort of dismal grandeur. The throng moved 
 this way and that, their voices mingling with 
 
 the noise of music and the rolling of wheels. 
 
 The Vanity Fair pictured to us by John 
 Bunyan was imaginary, with ki its merchandise 
 
 and delights and lusts of all sorts''; its "jug- 
 glers, cheats, . knaves, rogues to 
 be seen there at all times.*' But the scene be- 
 fore us v ie drawn by the imagination; 
 it was real, tragically real. A spell was upon 
 the multitudes who, enchanted, moved rapidly 
 toward the various places of amusement, little 
 aware of their exposure to perils, though as 
 much in danger as the night flies which dance 
 about a burning flame. 
 
 Within a short distance there were two 
 world-renowned institutions — one the Asakusa 
 Temple of the Buddhist Tendai sect and the 
 other the Yoshiwara, or, as some one has called 
 it,^ the "Nightless City." In the heart of all 
 this amusement and vice is the great temple of 
 the Tendai sect. This sect is founded upon 
 philosophic Buddhism ; and its criticism of the 
 Xcw Testament, often reiterated and with far 
 greater emphasis than it protests against sin, 
 is that the sacred Book of the Christian religion 
 is superficial. It contains no philosophy. Bud- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 141 
 
 dhism, on the other hand, is "deep." To my 
 mind it is a great mistake to reply to the Bud- 
 dhists by setting up a claim that the New Tes- 
 tament does contain a philosophy. To me there 
 is no philosophy in the Bible. It is a Book, not 
 of abstract ideas, but of life and power. 
 
 Buddhism indeed is "deep." It contains a 
 subtle and in some respects sublime philosophy ; 
 but it has left the masses under the weight of 
 ignorance and in bondage to the world. It has 
 not effected social reforms. The presence of 
 the great temple does not purify the neighbor- 
 hood. The great Asakusa Temple stands in 
 the very heart of Vanity Fair, and it is not only 
 helpless in the presence of the carnality that 
 goes on night and day, but winks at it. 
 
 The other institution which I have mentioned 
 is of such a nature as to forbid a discussion of 
 it. It is the place where vice is segregated and 
 clothed in the form of respectability and where, 
 according to the government statistics, three 
 thousand "white slaves" live in the worst form 
 of human thralldom. It has been called the 
 "Nightless City," yet so dark is it that not the 
 dimmest ray of a single star in the heavens falls 
 upon it. 
 
 When I left the street car I asked some one 
 
142 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 near by where the "Yaso" place was, this being 
 the name for *^JL•^lls ,, among the people. No 
 one seemed to know of any "Yaso" preaching 
 place around (here. But a jinrikisha man said 
 that he could lake me there; so I rode with him 
 I a side street, soon found in 
 a private residence what was to me a bright 
 . an oasis in the desert. A small company 
 already gathered and, under the leadership 
 of the pastor, were beginning the evening wor- 
 ship. I felt a thrill of inspiration as the voices 
 of this little company of redeemed men and 
 »unded out into the night air the mcl- 
 of sacred song, singing a hymn which com- 
 menced with these words: 
 
 Weeping will not save me! 
 Though my face were bathed in tears, 
 That could not allay my fears, 
 Could not wash the sins of years. 
 
 When I thought of the great temple, so in- 
 effectual in the midst of worldly pleasure and 
 sin, and when my thoughts went back to the 
 scene pictured in the seventh chapter of Luke, 
 to the "woman in the city which was the sin- 
 ner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in 
 the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box 
 of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 143 
 
 weeping, and began to wash his feet with her 
 tears" — when my thoughts returned to this 
 great scene, the words of the chorus of the 
 hymn never seemed more precious in the 
 preaching of the gospel, and especially when the 
 congregation returned again and again to the 
 refrain : 
 
 Jesus wept and died for me; 
 
 Jesus suffered on the tree; 
 
 Jesus waits to make me free. 
 
 He alone can save me. 
 
 Mr. Suzuki, a pastor of one of the Tokyo 
 Presbyterian Churches, was my comrade in this 
 service. After he had preached, it came my 
 turn. Over against this scene of vain mirth and 
 wantonness I chose as my theme "The Chris- 
 tian's Joy." (Rom. v. 1-11.) I spoke of the 
 rejoicing of the believer in the hope of the 
 glory of God, of his rejoicing in tribulation, 
 and of his joy in God. I gave particular em- 
 phasis to the fact that this joy, the nature of 
 which was not to burden the pure life nor lead 
 to vanity, had its source in right relation to 
 God and freedom from a life of sin. The con- 
 gregation listened to both sermons with inter- 
 est and attention. They sat on the mats in 
 Japanese fashion, though many stood outside, 
 
144 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 listening from the street. They were too timid 
 to press into a Christian preaching place and 
 probably too prejudiced to take a seat with the 
 
 tian con.. 
 The street on which the chapel was located 
 was called Shoten Street. "Shoten" is the name 
 of a deity worshiped near by, whose image was 
 the head of an elephant and the body of a man. 
 This god is worshiped by merchants as the god 
 
 in. His 
 
 booth and shop, and even 
 the temples thems< . led to have money 
 
 as their object, the fleecing of the crowds that 
 thronged to that part of the city. 
 
 The small congregation of devout and faith- 
 ful men and women seemed nothing over against 
 the vast area occupied by a Buddhist and su- 
 perstitious population; but the Christian has 
 long known what it is to fight with the minor- 
 ity. Our battle is not determined by numbers. 
 "One may chase a thousand, and two put ten 
 thousand to flight." As I returned to the street 
 car I felt a peculiar sense of gratitude, even 
 an elation of spirit, that the Methodist banner 
 had been raised in that part of the city and 
 that the challenge had been thrown down for 
 hand-to-hand conflict with these strongly in- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 145 
 
 trenched forces representing the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. 
 
 III. The Quaker Testimony in Tokyo. 
 
 On October 11 I went in the evening to 
 preach at the Friends' church, located in the 
 Shiba District, in Tokyo. Most of those in 
 attendance were young people. On the premi- 
 ses, besides the building in which the congre- 
 gation met, there were a girls' school and two 
 or three mission residences. 
 
 The room was well filled, though rain was 
 falling. The leader announced that they would 
 bow their heads and be led in prayer by any 
 one whom the Spirit prompted. After a few 
 moments of waiting, the delicate voice of a fe- 
 male could be heard in the part of the church 
 occupied by the women. An earnest prayer 
 was offered which not only gave evidence of the 
 reality of the faith, but also was a witness to 
 the liberty Japanese women enjoy through be- 
 coming Christians. This prayer was followed 
 by that of the leader ; and after singing two or 
 three hymns, the assistant pastor of the Fuji- 
 micho Presbyterian Church preached. After 
 he had gotten through, another hymn was sung, 
 when I took up the theme and spoke for nearly 
 10 
 
140 Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 
 
 an hour. At the close of the service an invita- 
 tion was given, and a good number decided to 
 enter the Way. 
 
 The Quakers in Japan, led by Mr. Gilbert 
 Bowles, are true !<> the traditions of their peo- 
 ple in the testimony they are giving in behalf 
 eace. Militarism in Japan has its roots 
 sunk (hep In Japanese history. For a thousand 
 years the military clans have been predominant 
 in the affairs of the nation. Notwithstanding 
 the Immense growth of industrialism and edu- 
 cation in recent times, the military ideal still 
 holds a foremost place. 
 
 In another respect the spirits of descendants 
 of George Fox might well have a word to say. 
 ''The Life, Trawls, Suffering ;, Christian Expe- 
 rience, and Labor of Love in the Work of the 
 Ministry" is one of the most interesting books 
 to be found in the English language. In this 
 volume George Fox, the author, declares in one 
 place: ''When the Lord sent me into the world, 
 he forbade me to put off my hat to any, high 
 or low." How one would welcome a reformer 
 like Fox, who is under the necessity of lifting 
 his hat many times a day in obedience to a pre- 
 vailing courtesy ! Again George Fox says : "As 
 I traveled up and down I was not to bid peo- 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 147 
 
 pie 'Good morrow' or 'Good evening,' neither 
 might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one. 
 This made the sects and professions rage." If 
 time were not working for the emancipation of 
 the people from the weight of custom, one would 
 be inclined to pray for a modern George Fox 
 to deliver Japan. What bowing and scraping 
 and "good morrowings" are necessary if one 
 observes politeness among the Japanese! But 
 the ceremonials of the ancient Chow dynasty in 
 China, handed down to subsequent generations, 
 are found by men of to-day to be too cumber- 
 some for the prompt and free movements of 
 life in the modern world. The generation of 
 Japanese now coming into power need no in- 
 centive to revolt. They are too ready, if any- 
 thing, to rend the garment of fatal circum- 
 stance and custom, the effect of which in the 
 past, it is now believed, has been to stifle noble 
 aspiration and to condemn life to a meaning- 
 less round of tedious monotonies. Indeed, the 
 fever of negation in Japan has not taken on 
 a political coloring, but shows its antipathies 
 toward social customs, the complex network of 
 which it would set at naught in the interests of 
 a life more replete with impulse, originality, 
 and adventure. 
 
148 Campai r Christ m Japan. 
 
 What a splendid location the Friends' Mis- 
 sion has for its schools, its houses of worship, 
 and its n Not far from the Keio Uni- 
 
 versity, in the vicinity of Shiba Park, and in 
 one of the best residence neighborhoods of 
 Tokyo, the mission headquarters they have es- 
 tablished give to the missionaries responsible 
 for this work a great point of advantage in the 
 capital of the empire. 
 
 IV. From a Buddhist Carnival to a Christian 
 Rally. 
 
 The next appointment in connection with the 
 national c during the meeting of 
 
 a Continuation Committee in Tokyo, under 
 who^e initiative the National Evangelistic Cam- 
 paign was undertaken. The committee, made 
 up of representative Japanese leaders and mis- 
 sionaries, held its session during the day, on 
 October 13, and in the evening there was a rally 
 in the public auditorium of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association. Fifteen speakers had 
 been announced, but only five appeared w T hen 
 the roll was called ! 
 
 A pastor once said that he read nothing but 
 the Bible and the daily newspaper. He read 
 the Bible in order to know what the people 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 149 
 
 should be, and he read the newspapers in order 
 to find out what they really were. Better than 
 reading the newspapers is a close and living 
 touch with the people themselves. The night 
 before I spoke in Tokyo at the Christian rally, 
 at which a thousand Christians were present, I 
 had a thrilling experience in a great Buddhist 
 throng. There is a Buddhist temple, called 
 Hommonji, at Ikegami, about three miles from 
 Omori, a suburban town next to Tokyo. The 
 great Nichiren festival reached its height on 
 that evening. I went with a companion who 
 was interested in seeing the sights at Ikegami. 
 We left the railroad at Omori. There were 
 probably one hundred and fifty thousand peo- 
 ple along the way and within the precincts of 
 the temple. Through the long street, lined with 
 shops and booths, the throng passed, those on 
 one side of the street going to and those on the 
 other side coming from the temple — a current 
 of living beings moving in opposite directions. 
 Bands of devotees, each carrying a great um- 
 brella-shaped float, followed each other at in- 
 tervals and were both coming and going with 
 the moving multitude. Going before each band 
 there was a man advancing who held aloft a 
 pole which formed the center of lighted silk 
 
150 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 lanterns of various shapes. Swinging these 
 lighted lanterns from one side to the other, he 
 leaped and danced as he went along. I was re- 
 minded of David, dancing with all his might 
 when the ark came into the city, and so leaping 
 and dancing as to cause Miclial to despise him 
 in her heart. Every Nichiren Buddhist had a 
 drum, which he pounded while repeating inces- 
 santly the mystic prayer formula of the sect. 
 
 All along the way traveled by the great mul- 
 titude were all kinds of intoxicating liquors for 
 sale and things to eat of every sort. If I may 
 be indulged the use of American slang, I would 
 say that there was as great evidence of "booze" 
 as of Buddhism. We pressed our way along to- 
 ward the temple and were sometimes so closely 
 pressed in the crowded thoroughfare that we 
 could scarcely get our breath. The noise in- 
 creased as we got nearer to the temple. The 
 bands supporting the floats would stop occa- 
 sionally, and the men would stand in a circle 
 around the banners, beating their drums and 
 dancing. Near the foot of the hill, before as- 
 cending the stone steps to the temple, I heard 
 some one calling my name, and on looking 
 around I recognized Bishop Cecil, with two or 
 three of his friends. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 151 
 
 We got together and, with great difficulty, 
 worked our way up the flight of stone steps to 
 the temple. After reaching the top of the hill 
 and the temple grounds, the noise of the drums 
 and the voices of the people repeating their 
 prayer formula were deafening. We felt that 
 we were in the midst of bedlam. Bands would 
 arrive at short intervals ; and when they reached 
 the end of their long journey at the main altar, 
 their dancing and praying and beating of 
 drums reached a state of frenzy. As they 
 leaped up and down I thought that I could al- 
 most hear the ancient priests on Carmel crying, 
 "O Baal, hear us!" It is said that Nichiren 
 was the only prophet in all the past history of 
 Japan. He was intensely earnest, if not fanati- 
 cal. Here in this multitudinous noise, amid the 
 dancing, praying, and frenzied beating of 
 drums, one could witness the influence of the 
 man whose zeal had reached across eight cen- 
 turies of history. 
 
 Standing on the temple grounds and looking 
 down the flight of steps and along the crowded 
 thoroughfare stretching into the distance, the 
 procession, the floats, and the lanterns formed 
 an impressive spectacle. If religion is a mat- 
 ter of pageantry, the height attained here could 
 
152 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 SCar •'• No one could doubt 
 
 that tlR ' was intensified 
 
 amu Nichiren Buddhists on this occa- 
 
 sion; but all v [itjj ghow 
 
 Parade. A priest, clothed in brocaded silk, 
 
 d stand. I saw 
 llim ! fti0D of the Buddhist scriptures 
 
 rehea ^ b head at the time, 
 
 and the entire con □ bowed their heads 
 
 • But I saw no evi- 
 dence of preaching, Instruction, or exhortation. 
 We descended the flight of steps, moving with 
 iIlc thr aori, our 
 
 Jhausted. We had been 
 in a whirl and excitement, in the press and 
 tide, in the movement of the people go- 
 ad coming, and we felt as if our bodies 
 had been put through a mill. 
 
 When I stood before tlw Christian audience 
 the following evening and remarked that I had 
 been to Ikegami the night before, there was 
 some surprise. Intelligent classes in Japan no 
 longer regard with seriousness these great re- 
 ligious festivals of the past. They connect 
 them with the remaining ignorance and super- 
 stition. It was perfectly evident to us that 
 the Nichiren festival was patronized by the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 153 
 
 plain and unsophisticated population. We 
 were aware that such would be the case before 
 we went. Nevertheless, it is good to mingle in 
 the great mass movements of human life and 
 catch something of the spirit which animates 
 the people. Out of the rank and file the future 
 takes its rise. Jesus was interested in the un- 
 meaning multitudes and loved the poor. In the 
 poor he saw, not an occasion for pity, but a 
 field for rich spiritual harvests. The mad gam- 
 bols of the superstitious throng we had wit- 
 nessed the night before were perversions of in- 
 stincts in which lie hidden the thirst for immor- 
 tality and aspirations for God. 
 
 The Christian rally in the Young Men's 
 Christian Association hall was enterprised by 
 the Continuation Committee. I called attention 
 to the Edinburgh Conference, from which the 
 National Campaign and our Continuation Com- 
 mittee had taken their origin, on the one hand, 
 and to the Eucharistic Congress, which met at 
 Montreal about the same time, on the other. 
 Both were Ecumenical Conferences ; both took 
 as their keynote words from the last conversa- 
 tions our Lord had with the disciples. But, on 
 the one hand, religion was a matter of forms and 
 ceremonies mingled with much superstition; on 
 
154 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 the other, there was a virile Christianity which 
 relied upon the preaching of the Word rather 
 than upon the observance of a rite. I g 
 
 forth my profound conviction that the need of 
 Japan could be m< t only by preaching. By the 
 prophetic utterance alone could the masses be 
 vitalized; and the earnest application of Chris- 
 tian truth to mind and conscience, heart and 
 will, was the sole means to he found for deliv- 
 ering the multitudes from rudimentary forms 
 and gross superstitions. The Church can be 
 kept free from the leaven of Baalism and Ju- 
 daism only by means of the Word. "Ye are 
 clean through the word which I have spoken 
 unto you." The Japanese have no need of 
 ceremony or parade in religion. Their native 
 religions have become a matter of feast days 
 and forms. Under the observance of ceremony 
 the religious and moral consciousness has sunk 
 into abeyance, even as the candlelight swoons 
 in the atmosphere of odorous incense. The 
 writer of tbe Epistle to the Hebrews contended 
 against a religion of shadows and forms. He 
 it was wbo said that "the word of God is quick, 
 and powerful, and sbarper than any two-edged 
 sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of 
 soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 155 
 
 and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
 of the heart." It is of such an instrument that 
 Japan is in need at the present time. 
 
 V, A Lopsided State of Society, 
 
 One Sunday evening my appointment was to 
 preach in that district of Tokyo known as Shi- 
 buya. Besides the four densely populated 
 wards which constitute the "East End" and 
 which are located on the flat ground along the 
 Sumida River, the remaining districts in Tokyo 
 are made up of hills and constitute the resident 
 section such as would be called "West End" in 
 a modern American or European city. It is in 
 these eight or nine wards that most of the mis- 
 sion churches and schools are to be found. The 
 preaching place visited on the present occa- 
 sion was in this part of the city, yet on the 
 outskirts where new developments were taking 
 place in the expansion of the residential dis- 
 tricts of Tokyo. 
 
 We left the street car some distance beyond 
 the Aoyama Gakuin, crossed the suburban rail- 
 way tracks, and passed along the street on 
 which we had been told the preaching place 
 was located. On our right our attention was 
 attracted to a street crowd, gathered around an 
 
1 56 
 
 
 m Japan, 
 
 American missionary who was speaking bare- 
 headed in the night air. It was Rev. W. S. 
 Woodworth, at whose chapel the evening serv- 
 ice was to be held. His beard was white with 
 age; but with youthful spirit and zeal and with 
 freedom in the use of the Japanese Language, 
 he was preaching to the street crowd whose re- 
 spectful attention he was commanding. 
 
 We found our May to a Japan 'nee, 
 
 in a quiet place a little oil' the main street, 
 which had been rented by the American Chris- 
 tian Mission, of which Mr. Woodworth was a 
 
 member, I'm- use in holding their Christian serv- 
 ices. A Japanese dwelling lends itself readily 
 
 to use as a preaching place. The people sit on 
 the mats, so there is no need of chairs. The 
 rooms are separated by sliding paper doors 
 which form partitions. These can be easily re- 
 moved, and the whole dwelling can be converted 
 into a single room. The greater number of the 
 leading congregations in Japan, now housed in 
 church edifices, began their history in private 
 houses. There is a warmth of sociability in a 
 congregation meeting from week to week under 
 such conditions which is too often lost after 
 the assembly occupies a public meeting place 
 set apart for the purpose. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 157 
 
 There was a good attendance at the service 
 of which we are speaking. In fact, the room 
 was crowded, and the people sat close together 
 on the mats. One of the Japanese pastors in 
 Tokyo was my fellow worker on this occasion. 
 He was a unique preacher among the Japanese. 
 He was quite unmindful of the formality so 
 strictly observed by Japanese ministers in the 
 pulpit. Frequently the audience would burst 
 into a laugh at something he said. The theme 
 of his discourse was the one-sided advance 
 characteristic of the times. He arraigned soci- 
 ety for its yielding to materialistic influences, 
 for its worldly interests and short-sighted 
 aims. He deplored the prevailing state of irre- 
 ligion. Somewhat after the manner of Peter 
 Cartwright he sought to give emphasis and 
 point to his utterances by unusual gestures. At 
 one stage in his sermon, for instance, he de- 
 clared that the Japanese society was lopsided. 
 He paused, then began to move the upper part 
 of his body slowly to one side, until it was at 
 right angle with the rest of his body and his 
 head halfway to the floor. It was a curious 
 antic ; and yet how truly expressive of the state 
 of Japanese society ! Scarcely in the history 
 of the race has a nation become so thoroughly 
 
158 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 rbed in secular matters as has Japan dur- 
 ing the past fifty years. Fortunately, there is 
 
 neral recognition at the present time of the 
 importance of bringing up the other side, of 
 developing the spiritual nature of man, in or- 
 der that the nation may regain the true equi- 
 poise of life, 
 
 VI. A Buddhist Priest Converted Because a 
 Christian Scrubbed His Back, 
 
 On Sunday evening, November 1, my ap- 
 pointment in Tokyo was at the Takanawa 
 church, a Presbyterian congregation. It is 
 
 what we would call a college church, it being 
 the place where the faculty and students of the 
 Meji Gakuin worship, where Dr. K. Ibuka, Dr. 
 
 William Imbrie, Dr. T. M. McNair, Mr. J. C. 
 
 Ballagh, and others well known attend Chris- 
 tian service. We found the church well filled, 
 though the weather was not favorable. Rev. 
 K. Imai, of the Baptist Church, was my fellow 
 speaker. 
 
 In his sermon Mr. Imai told the story of his 
 conversion from Buddhism. He had been a 
 priest of the Shingon sect. There is some sig- 
 nificance, therefore, in the passage of Scripture 
 chosen by him for his text reminiscent of the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 159 
 
 past. His text was the verse : "Woe unto you, 
 scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are 
 like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed ap- 
 pear beautiful outward, but are within full of 
 dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." 
 (Matt, xxiii. 27.) He was first attracted, he 
 said, by a group of Christian young men who 
 were praying and singing on the corner of the 
 street and inviting the people to come to the 
 preaching service at a church near by. This 
 was when he was a Buddhist priest, and he con- 
 fessed that he was impressed with the earnest- 
 ness of these Christian young men. The sec- 
 ond manifestation of Christian earnestness 
 about which he told was when he was in the 
 public bath. A young man surprised him by 
 volunteering to scrub his back. He said that 
 the young man could not have known that he 
 was a priest, for his robes were hung up in the 
 lockers. It was the spirit prompting the cup 
 of cold water, or rather the washing of one 
 another's feet, that made an impression on him. 
 Again, he heard Christian preaching, his curios- 
 ity and interest having reached a point suffi- 
 cient to lead him to seek a closer contact with 
 the Christians. He attended a public evangel- 
 istic service at the Shinko Club, in Kobe. There 
 
160 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 he heard Rev. T. Miyagawa on "The Soul of 
 Man" and Dr. J. II. De Forest on "Christian 
 Sacrifice." These discourses were a revelation 
 to him of aspects of Christianity he had not 
 known. He heard others preach the Christian 
 gospel, and soon a struggle came on in his soul, 
 and this in turn led to a break with his religion 
 and his past associations. lie thought at first 
 that he would remain a Buddhist and embody 
 the good teachings he had learned from Chris- 
 tians into his religious life. But it so hap- 
 pened that one of the Christian sermons he had 
 heard was on the text: "Neither do men put 
 new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, 
 and the wine runneth out, and the bottles per- 
 ish ; but they put new wine into new bottles, 
 and both arc preserved." This text made clear 
 to him the way that he should follow. He did 
 not believe that the new wine could be con- 
 tained in the old bottles. He pictured the per- 
 secutions and the sufferings brought on as a 
 consequence of his renunciation of the Buddhist 
 religion. He rejoiced that he had been led out 
 into the light himself and that a number of his 
 relatives had followed him into the faith. 
 
 The Christian Literature Society has pub- 
 lished a small book in which an account of the 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 161 
 
 conversion of this man is told by himself. As 
 the frontispiece, there is a picture of Mr. 
 Imai in his Shingon robes, in a garment of beau- 
 tiful brocaded silk, with a hood and cape at- 
 tached, coming down over the shoulders. By 
 the side of this is a picture of Mr. Imai as a 
 Christian pastor. He appears in a foreign 
 suit, with black Prince Albert coat, and there 
 is a certain humanity in his appearance which 
 one looks for in vain in the vacant face of the 
 former picture. This volume is being widely 
 read and has become the means of turning many 
 to the study of the Christian religion. 
 
 Mr. Imai's sermon was intensely interesting 
 and very effective, but too long-drawn-out. 
 Kipling says, "East is east, and west is west"; 
 but this is not true where it is a matter of en- 
 croaching upon one another's time. The hour 
 was so late when Mr. Imai completed his story 
 that I caught up a sentence from his sermon 
 in which he spoke of his astonishment when he 
 read in the words of Christ: "Blessed are they 
 that mourn." This is a sorrowful world to the 
 Buddhist, a world of fleeting shadows and bit- 
 ter disappointments, a world essentially of suf- 
 fering. Buddhism has seen no blessing in pain 
 and pronounces no beatitude on suffering. 
 11 
 
162 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 This thought, I felt, might well be elaborated. 
 For ten minutes I gave emphasis to the gospel 
 which could say to men: "Rejoice in tribula- 
 tion." Christianity Is a religion of the cross. It 
 more deeply and more correctly the trage- 
 dy of human existence than does Buddhism; but 
 it is the only religion which sings. Under its 
 gracious dispensation, instead of the thorn 
 there comes up the fir tree, and instead of the 
 brier there comes up the myrtle tree. "It is 
 appointed unto them that mourn in Zion to 
 give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy 
 for mourning, the garment of praise for the 
 spirit of heaviness; that they might be called 
 trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
 that he might be glorified." 
 
 At the close of the service the pastor, Mr. 
 Osaka, called for decisions and had blank cards 
 distributed to the audience for the inquirers to 
 sign. There were many responses to his call. 
 
 VII. The Mayor of Tokyo on the Need of 
 "Spiritual Civilization." 
 
 Each reign in Japanese history bears its own 
 title. The long reign of the late Emperor, 
 which began in 1868, was called Meiji, or En- 
 lightened Era. The present reign is called 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 163 
 
 Taisho, or Great Righteousness. The title 
 chosen for the present reign may be said to 
 express national aspiration. During the late 
 reign Western civilization was introduced. It 
 was indeed an era of enlightenment. But the 
 Japanese feel the need of greater ethical ad- 
 vance. They are hoping that the rule under 
 the present Emperor may have righteousness 
 as its outstanding feature. 
 
 In honor of the present Emperor and to cel- 
 ebrate the beginning of his reign a national ex- 
 position was enterprised, to be held in Uyeno 
 Park, Tokyo. Magnificent buildings were 
 erected, and various products of soil and fac- 
 tory were exhibited. It was. indeed a creditable 
 display, considering the short period during 
 which Japan had shared with the West its in- 
 dustrial advance. 
 
 The Christian bodies having churches in 
 Tokyo, under a union committee, sought to 
 take advantage of the occasion for a wider 
 spread of Christian ideas. The National Evan- 
 gelistic Campaign was now in progress, and 
 with the aid given by the Campaign Committee 
 the local committee in Tokyo was able to secure 
 a footing near the entrance to the exposition 
 grounds. Everything was preempted at a high 
 
16-4 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 price; so the Christians, in order to hold meet- 
 ings, were compelled to use a storeroom for 
 their services. On Sunday afternoon the open- 
 ing service was held, and, according to custom, 
 invitations were sent to the officials. The little 
 storeroom was crowded to its capacity. Many 
 present were from the remotest interior of the 
 country. The members of the committee were 
 present) and Rev. II. Hoshino, a Presbyterian 
 pastor, and Colonel Yamamuro, of the Salva- 
 tion Army, were the preachers for the occasion. 
 The usual practice among officials is to send a 
 shuliubun, or letter of congratulation, written 
 in high literary style. When the proper time 
 comes, this is read by an assistant sent from the 
 office of the official who is the author of the 
 congratulatory letter. 
 
 But, to our surprise, Baron Sakatani ap- 
 peared in person and accepted a seat on the 
 platform. He listened with great attention to 
 two very earnest sermons. When called upon 
 for words of congratulation, instead of read- 
 ing a shukubun he gave an earnest address. 
 The mayor, though not a Christian, is a man 
 of fine character, broad sympathies, and ideal- 
 istic tastes. No official in Japan is held in 
 higher esteem by the Euporean community. 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan, 165 
 
 His words on this occasion were listened to with 
 great interest. He pointed to the splendid 
 buildings on the exposition grounds and said 
 that our preaching place presented a very un- 
 favorable contrast to these. The exhibits in 
 the exposition building were the pride of Ja- 
 pan, representing, as they did, remarkable ma- 
 terial advance. But he had no hesitation in 
 saying that what we presented was of far great- 
 er significance and importance than anything 
 else forming a part of the exposition. Spirit- 
 ual realities were the need of the times. In 
 these things the development of Japan had 
 fallen far behind the rate of progress in ma- 
 terial things. His sincere desire was that 
 Christians in their efforts would succeed in 
 awakening an interest in religion among those 
 who came to attend the exposition. He hoped 
 that "spiritual civilization" would be greatly 
 furthered during the Taisho reign. 
 
 By "spiritual civilization" the mayor of 
 Tokyo did not have in mind the pure worship 
 of God, freed from the polytheism and idolatry 
 practiced in the past. He was speaking rather 
 from the standpoint of his Confucian training 
 and as an ethical idealist, with an accent added, 
 truly Christian in spirit, as to the vital impor- 
 
166 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 tance of religion. There is, indeed, a feeling in 
 Japan that the mythology, the polytheism, the 
 
 idolatry long practiced and still in vogue 
 among the masses of the people are a weight 
 upon the nation. But the conviction prevails, 
 a latent conviction, that these anachronisms 
 Will be thrown off by the forces of enlighten- 
 ment, education, and culture at work now in 
 Japanese society. A man occupying a place in 
 national affairs, like that of Baron Sakatani, is 
 more concerned to see spiritual ideals made 
 dominant in the face of the prevailing material- 
 ism and worldliness. 
 
 There is, indeed, a twofold problem confront- 
 ing Japan, the solution of which will go far in 
 determining the future destiny of the nation. 
 There is, first of all, the moral problem. Thir- 
 ty years ago statesmen in Japan had before 
 their minds in vision a great secular State, for 
 the establishment of which they were deter- 
 mined to pursue an enlightened and modern 
 policy. They were going to create a State in 
 which religion would not occupy an indispen- 
 sable place. Western countries, they believed, 
 were gradually eliminating religion in favor of 
 science and secularism ; so why should they rec- 
 ognize the necessity of religion in the program 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 167 
 
 laid out for the new Japan? This was the 
 spirit controlling the minds of national lead- 
 ers until a few years ago. But a marked 
 change of opinion has taken place; a very dif- 
 ferent attitude toward religion as an element in 
 national life now is manifested by responsible 
 statesmen. The prevailing secularism has been 
 productive of social evils, the rise of which was 
 not foreseen, but the menace of which has been 
 the occasion of sober reflection as to national 
 foundations deeper than those laid by science 
 and education. As a cure for current skepti- 
 cism, vice, dishonesty, unrest, and irreverence, 
 it is felt that a heroic remedy alone can be ef- 
 fective. Many are looking hopefully to the 
 Christian religion at this time. The conviction 
 is felt that the vital power of this religion is 
 sufficient to arrest the downward trend and to 
 solve the nation's moral problem. 
 
 But there is a second question. It is the 
 problem of national optimism. The pressure 
 of this question is not felt; it arises only when 
 the final outcome of the present awakening 
 is reflected upon by those who see things in 
 their ultimate issues. It is true that a youth- 
 fulness seems to have returned to this nation, 
 the history of which stretches across many cen- 
 
168 
 
 Campaigning for Christ fa Japan, 
 
 tunes and the fields of which have been plowed 
 
 With innumerable furrows and made- golden 
 With the return of countless harvests. Fifty 
 rears ago the nation was apathetic and inert 
 Charged now with the great work of progress, 
 ng the need of various improvements and 
 reforms, and looking for paths of political and 
 industrial adventure, Japan seems to have 
 thrown off completely the dormant fatalism. 
 
 The sap of life seems to rise and even to over- 
 flow with energy and enthusiasm. The music 
 m the minor key, with the plaintive notes of 
 
 Wh.ch Buddhism brought solace to the old Ja- 
 pan, do longer pleases and „o longer prevails- 
 or, if it still prevails, its strains are dying away 
 ike the last faint and ebbing sobs of the temple 
 bells, rung as day sinks into night. 
 
 But is there ground for hope that this move- 
 ment will become permanent or that optimism 
 will replace the traditional tendency to see life 
 with the shadows upon it? If there be nothing 
 more satisfying than worldly prospects, it is 
 not unreasonable to suppose that Japan will 
 grow weary of the game of life. If the human 
 heart be compelled to seek its consolations in 
 nothing more than increase of wealth and na- 
 tional glory, or even in knowledge, it will not be 
 
Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 169 
 
 long until the soul will seek to beguile the hours 
 away with dreams of some distant Nirvana, in 
 which the delusions of the day fade away as in 
 the darkness of the night. If the world be 
 without significance and life without a goal, 
 what else can be reasonably expected as the 
 outcome of human striving? Without some en- 
 during prospect, the shadows will return as life 
 advances, even as the color of the Japanese 
 morning-glory deepens from day to day. All 
 the striving of the present time may turn out 
 to be a mere unconscious reaching out after 
 something, the working of a blind impulse at 
 the heart of the world, such as Buddhist philos- 
 ophy had already interpreted in its condemna- 
 tion of existence. But once discover that near 
 man's deepest strivings there is the Spirit who 
 helpeth his infirmities and with inarticulate 
 groanings frames mute human impulses and 
 aspirations into a prayer and brings human in- 
 tercessions into accord with the will of God, 
 then the wo rid- will is no longer blind, but is il- 
 luminated with significance and becomes the 
 ground of rejoicing and hope. We are then 
 no longer condemned to a meaningless striving, 
 "not knowing what to pray for as we ought." 
 We are assured that the mysterious impulse at 
 
170 Campaigning for Christ in Japan. 
 
 the heart of the world, guided by the infinite 
 Spirit, issues in sonship and ultimate triumph. 
 To lay this deeper foundation of national hope 
 and optimism by bringing our message of good 
 tidings of faith and hope to the multitudes in 
 Japan is the task to which we as Christians are 
 called 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 
 
 PreservationTechnologies 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
 
 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
 (724)779-2111 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 I 
 
 014 729 858 4