The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-10-05

Modern Science and Civilization Are Destroying Much Of
Faith in The Old Doctrines

10 the single land or Japan, In winch
it has been my privilege to live and
labor for the coming of Christ's king
dom. From personal experience in the
Land of the Rising Sun, I can testify
that the real relation of Christ to the.
religions of this, the most progressive
and interesting land of all the Orient,
is not primarily that of destruction,
but rather that of fulfilment. The
kingdom of God is being established
today on foundations that have been
already laid. Nor need we hesitate to
admit that these foundations have been
laid by the Lord of Truth himself; for
He is not the God of the Jews alone,
nor of those nations alone that claim
the Christian name. He is also the
God of the Gentiles, of the Chinese
and Japanese, and he has not left him.
self without a witness among these
peoples His providence through the
centuries has been ruling over them
no less truly than over the nations of
the West.
Multitudes of the 10000 Protestant
Christians who are today to be found
In the more than four hundred Chris
tan churches and chapels in Japan
attribute their first preparation for
understanding and approaching and
accepting Christ to the thorough drill
which they had previously received in
the teachings of Confucius.
Repeatedly has this been the testi-
mony given me by those to whom I
had put the question as to the rea-
sons that had brought them tC Christ.
No broad-minded student of the eth
les of Confucius can for a moment
doubt Gods hand is to be seen in those
ancient Chinese classics and in the
work they have been doing for the
, past 1000 years.
It is fact of no little significance
that the ideals held up by Confucius as
the highest have been those suited to
lead thoughtful men and women on
| ward into the Christian life. It was
because these disciples Of Confucius
saw the old ideals lifted up by Christ
to greater perfection, fulfilled, j. e.,
filled to the full, that they left their
former allegiance and accepted new
one. Not that they loved Confucius
less, but Christ more. In Christ they
see Confucian ideas transcribed, ideal
lied, realized. Frequently have been
| told by Christian converts that only
since they became Christians have
they learned really to appreciate and
| love the teachings of Confucius.
Without attempting to specify what
each of the three native faiths of Jap
an, Shintoism, Confucianism and
! Buddhism, has contributed by way OF
preparation for the coming of the
Kingdom Of God in it's fullness through
Christ, let us seek to gain a definite
| idea as to the main ways in which
Christ and his gospel fulfills these an
cient religions.
| First of all, Christ supplies new
and adequate object of worship. To q
| sympathetic student of the great re-
ligions of the world, no thought is
more pathetic than that of the cease
less quest of the human heart for prop
er objects of worship. There is moth
ing in the heavens above, in the earth
beneath, or in the waters under the
earth, that at some time man, even
| highly civilized man, has not called his
/ God and worshipped with a devotion
strangely sincere, and oftentimes ter
rife with it's bloody rites and human
sacrifices.
| To begin with, remark that wor-
ship of the sun is still common in Jap.
an. Come with me to that sacred vol
canic cone, Mount Fuji, consecrated
from of old to the worship of ANA.
terasu c-mi-kami, the heaven shining
great august goddess. In the early
dawn, while the stars still shine un-
dimmed by the coming goddess of day
LOT ho 10 ctr ga w n
in comparative comfort we have passed
the night on the very crest of this
most lofty peak of Japan, and let us
take our seat behind some rock shell.
tering us from the icy air. In groups
the pilgrims arrive; through the lons
weary night they have been toiling VI
sleeps that form the sacred summit Of
Mt. Full, 10000 feet above the sea, that
they may greet and worship the benign
goddess as she rises from beyond the
billowy deep. Shivering in their scan.
ty white pilgrim dress, slight protec.
ton from the piercing cold, some OF
them perchance overcome by the rarity
| of the air and their strenuous exer-
/ lions, there they wait for the glorious
| advent of the goddess of light an6
warmth. And when at last she ap-
pears, with slant rays peering over the
distant horizon, with one accord these
multitudes of simple-minded men anC
women, all facing the rising goddess
fold their hands and repeat their Gus
] tomary prayers and praises, accom-
panied with the prescribed clapping Of
the hands.
The worship of the sun is not con
fined to this sacred mountain; through
out the land, the toiling millions dc
not fail to offer their daily worship
to the source of. life and health an6
comfort and joy. Whenever l have
travelled by sea or land, at sunrise
have often seen the same significant
sight Incongruous indeed seems this
spectacle of a real worship of the sun
offered by peasant travellers; it may be
on the noisy railway cars, or from the
deck of a modern steamer. Nor is the
alteration of nature confined to solar
worship. The ocean, the rivers, and
even the trees are objects of religious
devotion in all parts of Japan.
But the spirit of worship finds more
formal and systematic expression in
the numberless temples and shrines
that adorn the land. Of these ,00(
are Shinto and $4,000 are Buddhist
Within the Shinto shrines no idols are