The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-05-18
The Cause or Christianity In Japan
Imperial Decree AbOlishing the Edicts
Against Foreign Churches.

The Cause OF Christianity in Japan
Imperial Decree Abolishing the Edicts
Against Foreign Churches.
The members of the Japanese Embassy in
America are in receipt of government
dispatches which announce the most
important news which has been communicated
to the Christian churches from the East since
the days of the travel of Marco Polo and the
receipt of his first letters from Asia. An
imperial Japanese Decree issued in the month
of April last, abolished all the national edicts
against Christianity which have been in force
for more than three centuries. The decree
was made public by the Cabinet of the
Tenno, speaking in the name of the youthful
emperor 1t was accepted with respect by the
people. The Buddhist priests, acting in the
spirit Of their professional ecclesiastical corpo-
rate exclusiveism, attempted to resist it. They
endeavored to force its repeal With this view
body Of clerics tried to make their way into
the palace, moved by the resolve of overawing
the civil ruler and his advisers. They were
resisted by the military guards and cut down
by the sword of the law. The fact of this oc-
currence gave rise to the exciting report of
an attempted assassination of the sovereign
of Japan, which reached us some short
time since in our news dispatches from
Yokohama. 1t was the men who attempted to
strangle the returning aspiration of liberty of
conscience who were put to death, not those
who defended the act of toleration. Christen-
dom will breathe more freely on account of
the news and the star of Faith which illu-
mines the Christian affairs be made to glisten
still more brightly by the sparkle Of Hope and
Charity.
The first progress of Christianity in Japan
was almost miraculous its repulse, reverses
and sufferings under the application of lay
penal code, mournful yet of attractive in
terest After Europe had been told of the vast
empire of Japan and its people by
Marco Polo and by the Portuguese,
who travelled towards Asia in the
path of Vasco de CANA, Christian
Church missionaries followed rapidly on the
footsteps of the men of commerce. In the
year 1549 Japan was visited by the celebrated
Apostle of the Indies, Francis Xavier.
He was well received at first and converted
vast numbers of the natives to Christianity.
Three of the most powerful of the no.
bles-the Princes Of Bungo Avima and
Omura-were among the converts. In 1882
the japanese Christians despatched an en-
bassy bearing letters and presents, to Rome,
to do honor to the Pope and assure
l.; - <1,os~
the ten years following, 1922 it is
said that twelve thousand Japanese were
baptized. After some time Taiko-Sama,
jealous Of foreign influence, asked the Portu-
guese Ambassador, GLOW is it that your king
possesses himself of half the world 2" The
Portuguese, in his vanity and indiscretion,
replied, "He sends priests to win the peoples
his troops then are sent to join the native
Christians, and the conquest is easy.' This
reply made deep impression on the Japanese
government. In the year 1857 Taiko issued
an edict for the Punishment Of the mission
aries; it was renewed by his successor, and
in 1897 twenty-three priests We're executed at
Nagasaki. The native Christians retaliated
against the idol temples. This induced a
terrible persecution, and in the years 1912
and 1614 thousands of Japanese converts
were put to death, their churches and schools
destroyed, and the Christian faith declared
Infamous and rebellious." This system has
been maintained with more or less intensity
against every form of Christianity since, al
though the records of the Vatican 90 to show
that there have always existed Roman Catholic
congregations, numbering thousands of wor.
shippers in. the interior Of Japan. English
and American missionaries have been very
successful in forwarding the work of the
Gospel in Japan during many years
past They have also suffered much
for the faith. The japanese have
recently alleged against some few of our Amer
lean preachers that they adulterated the Gospel
by the pursuit of gain to very considerable
extent. II has appeared, indeed in the HERALD
news reports just lately to hand as if the
system OF money changing in the Temple had
been renewed away out in the Far East by men
in surplice and cassock, and practised in a
form just as repulsive TO q true Christian heart
as it was eighteen hundred years SINCE before
its rebuke by the Great High Priest himself.
II Is to be hoped that the present effort of the
japanese government will be received in be-
coming spirit by the outside Christian world,
and that the fold Of the Church in Asia will be
purged of the black sheep and restored to the
simple form and sanity routine of its pristine
management.
THE PALMER New YORK Cry CHARTER Nor
APPROVED. Governor Hoffman has decided
not to give his approval to the charter for the
city of New York passed at the end Of the