36 



THE EEV. PREBENDARY H. E. FOX, M.A._, ON 



(2) It is also certain that the Christianizing of Japan must 

 depend increasingly on her own sons and daughters and 

 therefore that the efforts of the Missionary should be more and 

 more directed to lead up to this object. That there are weak 

 points in the Japanese character none are more willing to admit 

 than the most thoughtful among them. But that many of them 

 possess high qualities of leadership and loyalty, and that they 

 can appeal to the hearts of their own people in a way that no 

 foreigner can, is beyond question. Nothing can develop these 

 qualities so much as the opportunity of responsibility. 



For her social problems Japan needs similar methods. If the 

 moral condition of her towns is to be purified ; if the standard of 

 her literature is to be raised, if the honour of her business men 

 is to become above suspicion, reforms must be induced by the 

 Christian people of Japan. Non-Christianity can never rise, or 

 raise men, above its own level. Though democratic tendencies 

 have developed in Japan far less than in America or Europe, 

 there are many signs of movement in that direction, and there 

 is therefore the greater need of witnesses to that righteousness, 

 God-given only, which can exalt a nation ; and that witness must 

 be given by the consistent lives and the constant teaching of her 

 own people. 



English Christians have still a duty to fulfil towards a nation 

 allied to their own by political ties, and they can best discharge 

 it by earnestly endeavouring to encourage and strengthen those 

 with whom they are already in Christian fellowship, to bring 

 their Islands which they proudly call the Land of the Eising 

 San, together with their increasing possessions in Formosa and 

 on the main land, into the full light and liberty of the Gospel of 

 Christ. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman, after moving a very hearty vote of thanks to the 

 Lecturer for his valuable paper, declared the Meeting open for 

 discussion. 



Mr. M. L. EousE asked the Lecturer whether the sect of Shin, 

 which as he understood, offered the nearest analogy to the 

 Evangelical School, proved more or less open to accept Christianity 

 than did the other sects. The conception of Amida as having lived 

 a life of beneficence on the Earth was doubtless borrowed from 

 early Christian teachers, but that of a single Creator of men, if it 

 existed, would l)e primeval, if it could be shown that he bore a name 



