VII. 
Introduction of Christianity. 
Speaking of mission work in Japan, a recent traveller well 
says, *' Our Lord's command, * Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the Gospel to every creature,' was never better 
defined than by the Duke of Wellington in the famous 
phrase in which he called it ' the marching orders ' of the 
Church. Widely as we may differ in theory respecting the 
ultimate destiny of the heathen, all who profess and call 
themselves Christians agree that it is the Church's duty 
to fulfil Christ's injunction with unquestioning obedience, 
leaving the issue to Him. It is one thing, however, to take 
a conventional interest in foreign missions at home, and 
another to consider them in the presence of thirty-four 
millions of heathen. In the latter case, one is haunted by 
a perpetual sense of shame, first, for one's own selfishness 
and apathy, and then for the selfishness and apathy of others, 
thousands of times multiplied, who are content to enjoy 
the temporal blessings by which Christianity has been 
accompanied, and the hope of life and immortality, un- 
embittered by the thought of the hundreds of millions who 
are living and dying without these blessings and this hope. 
In travelling among the Japanese, I have often felt the 
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