The Portland daily press., 1895-08-10

without passport in any direction Is
miles, and in some directions over 40 A
steamboat ride of few hours enables us
to reach three towns of over 1000 while
smaller towns and villages abound. At
present there are in the city 12 mission
aries, OF whom five are Roman Catholic
and seven Protestant. The only other
foreigner is restaurant keeper.
AS center for missionary work, the
location of Nagaoka is admirable, being
IN easy reach of from Is to 20 large towns
and cities, and it's "sphere of Influence
will be soon greatly extended by the rail
road, which is to pass through it
| AS religious center, Sendais easily
leads every other Japanese city. as may be
seen from the gathering of Catholics and
Greeks, Baptists, Congregationalists,
Methodists and Presbyterians, whose
united membership is over 1000
| kTokio, the capital of Japan, is also a
great missionary center. According to a
late census, there were, including the
wives of missionaries, 175 missionaries re-
siding in the city. Most of these are
engaged in educational work, or at least
are not directly connected with the evan
gelistic movements in the city proper
Their work covers many procedures and
concerns a population of nearly 10, 900, 600
Some of the best missionary schools in
the empire are located in Toxic Those
under the auspices of the Episcopal,
Methodist and the allied Presbyterian
missions are the largest and most fully
equipped.
The encouragements for mission work
in Mabashi, 70 miles north of Toxic, lie
in the comparatively high social status
OF women, in opportunities for gathering
audiences of men during the idle season,
and in their openness to new ideas. The
coming the allurements of wealth, OF
carrying the advancement of women be-
yond a certain point, especially in the
matter of education, and of cultivating
thoroughness and persistency.
AS missionary station Tottori is the
natural center geographically and socially
of the field which includes 800, 600 souls
| in the provinces of Inaba, the eastern
| part of Hoik, and the western part of
Tajima
The Roman Catholic church is the only
Christian society at work there except the
Congregational.
The work was begun by Rev. J. n.
de Forest, who at present is in Guilford,
Conn In 1880 he made his first trip to
Tottori from Osaka, where he was then
stationed. From that time for nine years
occasional visits were made by him and
the missionaries resident in Okayama.
Work was begun in Tsu IA years ago by
a Japanese worker. DR. De Forest soon
followed, and paid periodical visits for a
number of years.
Rev. j. L. Atkinson of Kobe, in re-
porting on his first missionary tours, says
that there were three attempts on his life
during those days, and it is quite prob
able that the unknown attempts were
more than these.
"Shadowing" by detectives or police
men was of regular occurrence and was
done partly for the safety of 'sthe for
eigner," and partly to find out what he
really was about.
Prior to the year 1878, but little direct
missionary work could be done
IN CENTRAL JAPAN.
1t meant death to a japanese to receive
baptism; it was penal offense to sell
even an English Bible, and it. was inn
possible to find a japanese audience
which dared to listen to the preaching of
the gospel The removal of the ediets
against Christianity from the bulletin
boards of the empire, during the first
part of 1878, prepared the way, so tnat in
the autumn of that year, little com
panies of Japanese gathered in Kobe, in
Osaka and in Sanda, who gladly listened
to the gospel and studied the Bible.
In the winter of 1894 the first PRAYER
meeting in the Japanese language was
held in Kobe in the house of DR. Greene
Japanese woman were heard to pray for
the first time
The constitution of the first Fchurches
was very simple. They were called
churches of Christ The creed was sub
stantially that of the Evangelical al
| lance, and assent to this simple creed
was not made a test of church member
ship but rather the acceptance of Christ
and his presence in the heart. Candidates
were simply asked if their own belief was
sufficiently in accord with this creed so
that they could work in harmony with
the church which was organized on that
basis.
Every member, young and old, male
and female, was expected to work direct
ly to lead others to Christ and all were
urged, so far as possible, to preach the
gospel.
Such spirit and such labor brought
forth fruit, Notwithstanding the great
prejudice which existed against Chris
tianity.
There were at the close of the first ten
years of active labor, December. 1882, 19
churches with membership of aboat
1000, and with 13 ordained pastors and
five houses of worship.
Two hundred and four members were
received on profession during the year