The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-08-18
OBJECTIONS TO
THE CRITICISM.
A Japanese Christian Says Re-
Iigion is Growing.
NO DECLINE IN MISSIONARY WORK
Percentage of Christians Increasing.
Students Educated AbrOad-Its In
fiuence Has Benefited the Nation.
Many Japanese in High Life, Etc.

published in the Bulletin of August /
18th, entitled Religion in Japan" It !
is based on a communication received
from one of the most influential Jap
anese business men of Honolulu. |
Everyone who read this article knows
that the statements are false, but in
justice to my race, | deem it advisable |
to write a few lines.
He commences by stating that the
prcentage of Christians in Japan is so
small as to be insignificant, and winds
up by claiming that commercial inter
ests, etc, caused by the knowledge
gained from the foreign mercantile
class, are the causes of Japan's forward
movement. Religion has nothing what
ever to do with it.
l read the article over severtl times,
and it made me feel as if L was looking
all day for a seed in two bushels of
chaff, and when did find it, the thing
was not worth the search. So far as 1
can see with my naked eye, his seed is
Prejudice"
He may be a successful business man.
but l doubt whether he can tackle RE
ligion," a small but a very difficult
word to digest.
1t is true that the percentage of
Christians is small, but Rome was not
built in day. Small may the percen-
tage be but that it is growing larger
and larger yearly shows what an in
f1uence Christianity has. Statistics
prove that it is not limited only to the
coolie class, hut great many of them
are from the middle and higher classes.
To what facts "one-think-he-is-a-p phi
losopher'' has based his statements up
on, 1 do not know, perhaps to the
wheels" that are or have keen run
ming in his head.
Rev D. G. Greene, who is the leader
of the Toxic mission under the Amer
lean Board and who has lived in Japan
for the last % or 80 years, has contrib
uted a valuable article entitled "The
Christian Movement in Japan" in the
English edition of the Far East of
Feb. goth, 1896. 1t would do well for
our mislead Satanic philosopher to read
it.
1 quote here a few lines of Rev. D. c.
Greone's article:
'.The progress of Christianity in jap
an since 1873 has been very rapid, far
beyond the most sanguine hopes of the
missionaries and their constituents.
The total number of enrolled Christians
including the adherentS of the Roman
Catholic, Greek and Protestant church
es. is not far from 112 900, representing
a Christian population of not less than
1000 nere are no organized con-
gregations and probably more than
that number of unOrganlZed Christian
communities. These are cared for by
1900 native ministers, ordained and I'M
ordained The children in Protestant
Sunday schools number 10000, while
those in day and boarding schools are
over $4,000 These communities and
schools are found all over the Empire
and everywhere erect an influence out
of all proportion to their numbers.
Whether we take the Imperial diet, the
civil service, the officers and students
of the Imperial University as the field
of our investigation, the number or
Christians will be found several times
larger than the normal proportion
Even in the army and navy, CHRISTIAN
ity has obtained a firm hold, and the
Christian soldiers and sailors have re-
ceiyed the hearty commentator OF the
highest officers In literature also,
while no Christian writer can be said
to have gained great eminence, an in
sDection of the lists of contributors to
the goodly number of Christians whose
opinions always receive respectful at
tention.
perhaps no better illustration need
be given of the high intellectual level
to which the Christian community as
pires than the large number Of its
young men who have studied abroad.
What the aggregate for the whole
Christian community may be, 1t is
impossible to say with any definite
ness: but more than eighty such stu
dents are to be found in connection
with a single ecclesiastical organiza-
ton The aggregate is considerably
over two hundred. Some of these men
have won distinction in the best uni
versities of Europe and America. They
are not it is true, all of them engaged
in distinctively Christian work, and
some have disappointed the hopes OF
their friends; but making every reason
able allowance, we yet have large
body of educated Christian men who
are in their different ways contributing
to the growth of a Christian public
sentiment That such sentiment is
spreading far outside the Christian
churches will be admitted by all care
full observers
s.The numerous societies working in
the interest of social reform are I'M
ouestionably due to Christian sugges-
tion Buddhist magazine has lately
stated that there are not less than two
hundred such societies, some under