They worked very hard for the ideal that was yet at a far distance. Kanzo Uchimura, who was active as a missionary during the Meiji, Taisho, and early Showa eras, was a Japanese Christian, who emphasized the concept of experiment. He started his career as a Zoologist, researching in the fishery industry. Uchimura valued the importance of learning the truth from being in touch with nature. He compared the human life to an experiment.
Experiment means to check certain theories or views of the world.
Through experience, knowledge of human beings are overthrown and new views are sought. In order to learn the truth, we need to conduct experiments on ourselves. We can say that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is a record of various people's lives. Whenever I read the story of Jacob, the ancestor of our faith, my strong conviction that faith is deepen by one's life experiments is reassured. As you know, half of the Book of Genesis is about Jacob.