Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/339

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
JAPANESE CHRISTENDOM
265

ciety of Christian Endeavor;—in short, the entire alphabet for a complete vocabulary of Christian activity. And the Mormons, too, have recently sent emissaries to Japan.

The missionaries have been, and are, a mighty force in New Japan, not merely through their preaching of the Gospel, but also through their practising of the Christian virtues; not only by their teaching of all-sided truth and wisdom, but also by their touching, their social contact with the people; not only by their logic, but also by their lives. They are vivid and impressive object-lessons of the ideal Christian life,—"living epistles, known and read of all men." They are, in general, well-*educated men and women, a noble company, respected and loved by the Japanese.

The Japanese Christians are not strong numerically; but they exercise an influence entirely out of proportion to their mere numbers. There are more than 180,000 nominal Christians of all kinds, who may represent a Christian community of at least twice that number. But, in spite of their faults and failings, due to the fact that they are less than fifty years removed from anti-Christian influences of the worst types, and are still surrounded by various hindrances,[1] they are also a noble body of men and women, loved and honored by fellow-Japanese and foreigners.

The Christian literature of Japan is truly volumi-

  1. ↑ See Uchimura's "Diary of a Japanese Convert."
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.