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they did not seem sufficiently instructed), administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, ordained two elders and one deacon, and superintended the re-election of another elder whose term of office had expired. This church has had no evangelist for some time, but it is likely that Mr. Sakurai, who recently has been in Osaka, will hereafter work there. The work at Ouzu is largely due to Mr. Sakurai's labors several years ago. There is hope, therefore, that the Ouzu church will be more prosperous hereafter.

On Monday the 18th we crossed over to the island of Kinshu, reaching Usuki on the afternoon of the 19th. The Christians soon learned of our arrival, and we preached that night. Next day I preached three times, baptized ten persons and administered the Lord's Supper. It was my intention to go from Usuki to Hiroshima, but there being no boat we passed on round to Kokura, opposite to Shimonoseki, where we found a steamer bound for Hiroshima. On the way to Kokura I preached three times and baptized six persons. We stopped over night at a farming village, with a man who we learned was a Christian. He told me there were several Christians in his village and six persons desirous of being baptized, and earnestly requested me to stop long enough to attend to it. I stopped half a day, preached to a good audience, and after examining the candidates thoroughly, in which they showed a sufficient knowledge of the truth, baptized the six persons. At Kokura I preached twice. Here the young preacher is sick with fever. His work seems to be prospering. At the same place a great many Buddhists were collecting to welcome the American Buddhist, Mr. Olcott.

POLITICAL BUDDHISM IN JAPAN.

REV. THEODORE M. M'NAIR, TOKYO. There are more than five hundred thousand Buddhist priests in Japan. They live for the most part on the charity of Buddhist devotees. To one who sees them in their homes it is evident that not many are leading lives of luxury. Few temple enclosures bespeak a devoted following for their care-takers. There are cases of enthusiastic lay attachment, it is

[September,

true. Stories are told, for example, of women sacrificing their hair to make ropes for use in temple building; but on the whole Buddhism cannot be said to live in the heart of new Japan, and the prospect ahead for this half million of the creatures of privilege is anything but a gratifying one. Still we do not find them despairing. "The interests created by privilege," says De Laveleye, "coalesce in opposing all reform." It is not to be expected, therefore, that the priestly classes in Japan will sit quietly by and see their inherited prestige, and with it their living, pass from them before the onset of a foreign religious cult that is so different in its method and motive as to make friendship with it impossible. It is again, as in old Roman days, the exclusive claim of Christianity that gains for it the active enmity of other forms of belief, and occasions the attempts that are made to fuse these in opposition.

The ingenuity of the priests in the devising of means to oppose Christianity successfully and their vigor in using them are worthy of some other cause than this dying one to which they adhere.

Among their earlier efforts was an inciting of the people to take pledges sealed in their own blood that neither they nor their children would become Christians-heroic measures truly, which for a time served the purpose intended. Appeal was made also to the power that is latent in youthful lungs, and many a gathering for the explanation of Christianity was interrupted or broken up entirely by noisy students determined not even to hear. This method failing, there sprang up an active Buddhist propagandism, which strove through lectures widely delivered to expose the 66 errors of Christianity," and at the same time rationally to expound the Buddhist law. It assumed a larger intelligence in the masses than formerly. The practical agreement, as alleged, of esoteric Buddhism with the philosophic principles of such exponents of western thought as Mill, Huxley and Spencer, was divulged to men who before had heard only sermons of an esoteric type, with all their "unscientific" paraphernalia of a positive heaven and hell, etc. But men did not take kindly to preach

1889.]

ing of this nature, and no very large success attended the exploiting of this Neo-Buddhism. Then came the Yaso-taiji, or Christianityexpelling society. Its methods were less violent than its name. The efforts it put forth amounted to little more than bluster, and the schemes to seriously hinder the spread of Christianity naturally came to nothing. Thereupon appeared an imitating of the practices of the Christians themselves. Girls' schools were organized, and women's societies and associations for young men attempted for Buddhism what similar organizations were accomplishing under the influence and inspiration of Christian teaching. The results might have been foreseen. Such attempts, instead of antagonizing Christianity, operate in its favor by lifting the Buddhists influenced by them above the reach of Buddhism itself. A dilemma arises which well explains this process. The Buddhist says, "If we are to keep alive, we must have schools, etc., on European models [i. e., Christian models]; but if we have such schools, they will diffuse such light as our hierarchical and religious system will not endure."

The Christian, a Japanese journal, in criticising these attempts to bolster up a waning cause, remarked, as quoted in the Japan Mail of March 1, 1889, that "Buddhism imagines Christianity to be its greatest enemy, whereas its real enemy is the light of the nineteenth century and the incoming of western science. There would be something manly," it urged, "in Buddhism standing firmly by its own principles, like the Brahmanism of India, defying the innovations that are contrary to its spirit; but the holding of old superstitions with the one hand, while grasping science with the other, is self-destructive. The strength of Buddhism in Japan is simply in the uneducated remnant of a former generation," i. e., in darkness. Such an utterance coming from a source that is altogether Japanese and thoroughly Christian indicates the dimensions of this problem that the Buddhist has to solve. Here is an enemy to be dislodged who is pretty thoroughly intrenched and who, if the wide circulation of a newspaper supported by it may serve as proof, has come to stay.

But not disheartened by repeated failures,

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the Buddhist tries his hand in a new direction, and with undiminished enthusiasm. It is an attempt to "harness the surging political interests of the country into partnership with religious defence, or is it," asks the Japan Mail, "that certain political leaders are trying to gain the solid support of the masses by working upon their religious zeal?"

Whatever the incentive-no doubt a joint one-the fact is that an association has been formed with a grand enough name and an aim that is so comprehensive and patriotic as surely to predispose every loyal Japanese in its favor! This "Son Ko Ho Butsu Dai Dodan" (Revered Emperor preserve Buddha great similarity continuation) has the following prospectus, as outlined in the Japan Mail:

This association is formed for the purpose of maintaining the majesty of our emperor and the truth of the doctrine of Buddha-a union of all those who wish to protect our land and religion from the contempt of the foreigner. Those who unite with us are expected to avoid everything that would lessen the honor and reverence due to his imperial majesty or the influence of the Buddhist doctrine. For instance, in selecting our representatives to the national parliament, to provincial assemblies, to town councils or local offices, in the distribution of all honors, in appointing schoolteachers, officials of societies and business companies, etc., we pledge ourselves carefully to exclude all who are disloyal to our emperor or untrue to Buddhism by believing in the foreign religion called Christianity. If these points are kept well in mind and carried out in practice, we, 39,000,000 of brethren united in one, will so protect our country that, although many a difficulty and many an internal social and political problem may arise, still our emperor's position shall stand secure and the doctrine of Buddha shall remain unshaken. Yes, if we but stand together on this solid foundation of truth, the result will be that no foreign land will point at us with the finger of scorn. Now, brothers, if you can see the truth as here stated, do not hesitate to come up and join our band. Give us your hand; we shall then all stand together and add to the strength and life of our Yamatodamashii.

So the boycott idea has reached Japan! Christian shopkeepers have from early days been shunned by unchristian neighbors, and have suffered accordingly; but an attempt to use the

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boycott on so magnificent a scale and in such a politico-religious connection as this is certainly a unique incident in Japanese history, and calls for more than a passing word of comment.

A few years ago certain of the missionaries in Japan were approached by a secretary of one of the government ministers on the subject of a union of the state with one or other of the more prominent forms of Protestant Christianity. History, it was feared, was about to begin a repeating process, in spite of the lessons of which it is full. But, fortunately, the question has not been pushed to the proposed issue, and the recent appearance in the national constitution of a clause proclaiming religious liberty commits the government to the policy of noninterference in religious affairs. This attempt of the Buddhists, therefore, or of those who would use them for political ends, is contrary to the spirit of the times, and is plainly so regarded by a part at least of the Japanese press, secular as well as religious. This "blow aimed at the best interests of our nation under the guise of helping to preserve our ancient religion" is held up for popular censure. It is agreed that "the union of religion with politics cannot be too severely reprimanded;" that "this attempt of a Buddhist devotee to introduce here one of the worst features of the West is hateful in the extreme." "There is no doubt," says the Japanese writer, "about the help afforded by religion in its own field; but unite religion and politics, and the question ceasing to be one of truth and error, of right and wrong, becomes simply one of sustaining ecclesiastical power, and political eagerness is perverted into religious strife."

And then a word of rather scornful commiseration: "If Buddhism can hold its own by the fair teaching of doctrine and by winning the hearts of the people, well and good; but if it needs political power to preserve its life, it must be in a pitiable condition indeed!"

The proposition of the Dai Dodan people is not without its comical side. To suppose that the imperial dignity is endangered equally with Buddhism by the incoming of Christianity is to be absurdly blind to the real regard that is had throughout Japan for the emperor. "His

[September,

majesty," says the Tokyo Daily News (the Nichi Nichi Shimbun), "is like the lofty mountain. Buddhism is as the clouds around his brow. They may come or go, while he stands unmoved." "Where," asks the Christian, "is there a Japanese who does not honor the emperor?"

There are two opinions held amongst Buddhists respecting the way in which Christianity should be dealt with. The hoiders of one regard Buddhism as a sun in whose powerful light all lesser luminaries, Christianity included, must fade into insignificance. The holders of the other opinion believe in a warfare that is aggressive. Their more just appreciation of the influence which Christianity is wielding and their advocacy of extreme measures against it make of them antagonists of a more positive type certainly, though it is perhaps as well to ignore both parties alike.

The Dai Dodan association draws its members largely from this latter party. Most of them are young men-eager experimenters in politics. Their most influential organ is the Nihonjin (The Japanese), a journal that is published weekly in Tokyo. The Buddhists have secured such an influence in the management of this paper that it has veered to their standard in the avowed belief that the best elements of old Japanese life are inseparable from Buddhism. The aim of the paper is to save from decay all that is good in Japan's past. A picture emblem of Mt. Fuji and a blossoming cherry tree depict graphically this purpose. As it is explained, the sacred mountain is the grandest thing of the olden time and the most stately Japanese possession of to-day. The cherry is the loveliest of flowers, but lacks fragrance. So the best fragrance procurable from abroad, that of the rose, is in fancy added to it, and thus the picture is rendered complete. The moral is, let us cling in large part to our old forms-social, religious-adding to them only what is wanting, viz., the essence, the fragrance, of western excellence. It is suggestive of the character of this paper as a guide for Young Japan, that it has urged, even by a recent editorial example, the adoption by the Japanese of the practice of duelling, in the interest, forsooth, of the preservation of

the ancient Japanese spirit-this Yamatodamashii!

This politico-religious movement does not lack the leadership of influential men. Mr. Ouchi, a priest of the Soto sect-the philosophers, the scholastics, of Buddhism-is an active propagandist of the views held by the association. Mr. Tatsumi, editor of the Nihonjin, is a graduate of the Imperial University and an ambitious politician. These two are especially prominent and draw large audiences. whenever they are advertised to speak. Other leaders are Tanaka and Shimaji. Both are priests, the latter representing the active sect of the Hongwanji. The question arises whether these men and others of their party are likely to prove powerful, especially in the elections of the coming year; or is this latest move of Buddhism no more than a forlorn hope, destined to fail as signally as have the measures that preceded it?

Japanese Christians do not appear to be greatly alarmed at the prospect. They are pushing forward along the lines heretofore followed. They preach the truth earnestly. In the Christian schools and through the medium of the Christian press they encourage fullest investigation of the claims of Christianity; and in the practical neutrality of the government and the new light that scientific study is bringing to every part of the land they see the hand of God, with its assurance that the result of the struggle they are engaged in is not even doubtful.

UNION POSTPONED.

The effort to effect a union between the United Church of Christ in Japan and the Congregational churches of that empire has failed, at least for the present. This outcome is disappointing to those who, in the interest of a broad catholicity, consistent with soundness in the faith and fidelity to the fundamental principles of Presbyterian polity, desired to see the unique experiment tried. The end in view was certainly to be commended, namely, the blotting out of division lines, which, however significant or justifiable where they stand as historic landmarks, lose much of their significance, if

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not their right to exist, when transferred to heathen lands. How far the projectors of this movement hoped ultimately to do away with all division in the Christian Church in Japan does not appear. In the light of history it was too much to expect that a people of the keen intellect and progressive spirit which characterize the Japanese would be likely to move forward undisturbed by questions of doctrine or polity. It does seem, however, that the Christian Church in other lands owes it to the Japanese to plant the institutions of Christianity in their midst with as little of historic bias as possible, leaving the lines of cleavage, if division must come, to be determined by the questions springing up on Japanese soil as the years go by. The origin of the present union movement indicates clearly that this is what the Japanese desire, as it came from the Japanese themselves, the foreign missionaries simply directing and controlling as far as possible. The readers of THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD are already somewhat familiar with the history of the movement. It is briefly summarized as follows by Dr. Imbrie :

Two years ago the Synod of the United Church of Christ and the General Conference of the Congregational churches, with hardly a dissentient voice, agreed upon a basis of union; and that basis of union was given to a joint committee, consisting of ten from each body, to work out in detail. The preparation of this report occupied almost a year, and during that time many suggestions were received, notably a list from missionaries of the American Board, nearly all of which was accepted. The joint committee having, after long consultation, come to a unanimous agreement, the report was printed and distributed to all the ministers and churches of both bodies.

In November of last year the synod and the General Conference both assembled in the city of Osaka. The synod, after three days of consideration, with two or three trifling amendments, adopted the report of the committee unanimously. The General Conference was greatly divided in sentiment. The older and

more conservative men-the men who are commonly regarded as the founders of the Congregational churches in Japan-spoke strongly in favor of the union, and the younger and more radical men opposed it violently. As a result,