Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-12-11

LlreQ OF the SORT OF IOlK, DOM mdle anu
female, the mission boards are sending
out to teach them humility, patience
and self-sacrifice, and to oversee gen.
orally all matters pertaining to their
spiritual welfare. If there is not an
improvement speedily in the brand,
these radicals declare they will have
done altogether with foreign mission
aries, will ignore them and will work
out their salvation on their own lines
independently and in accordance with
Yamato Damashji, the Spirit of Japan.
Tomato Damashii, they assert, is some
thing the missionaries now flocking to
the Land of the Rising Sun know little
nagas-no-ak-nom izu ko-no-kuni, as
they sometimes call their country, is,
they belive, as near to paradise as Am
erica or any other foreign country is,
and II the Japanese appeal in the true
spirit to the Source of knowledge, they
will be heard without the aid of human
intercessors from abroad.
These assertions have called forth
statements from at least one of the
great mission boards fully as emphatic,
and it is rumored that from one of the
million-dollar Office buildings on Fifth
avenue threat has reached Japan that
II "ungrateful words do not cease at
once "it will be useless to look for fur
Their financial aid" That is, the boy
colt will be mutual. Neither side will
play with the other, but will make faces
at one another across the calm Pacific.
ONE SOLUTION.
Among the Japanese Christians and
among the missionaries also, there are
\ many that deplore the existence of the
present disagreement. The Rev. DR..
knox,. of the Presbyterian church in
Rye, whose example of Christian man
illness is reverenced by the Japanese,
solved for himself the question in dis
pute by resigning from the mission
field, believing that the time had come
for the Japanese to control their own
church affairs.
The Rev. DR.. Naomi Tamura, grad
uate of Princeton and OF Auburn, and
for many years pastor of the largest
native Christian church in Toxic, the
capital Of Japan, is in /merica, where
he has been delivering a series of adj
dresses in various churches. He has
been here twice before. This visit he
has made at the earnest invitation of
some five hundred clergymen, over half
of whom are his personal friends. The
purpose of these addressna- boo t0on W
tell the Americans what the Japanese
think of Christianity, after a contin-
uous trial of it since the first native of
recent time was baptized, in 1864, and,
furthermore, to explain what kind Of
missionary will be most helpful in ia
pan at present. He pays loving tribute
to the pioneers in the mission field,
Bishop Williams, DR.. Verbeck, DR.. Hep
burn-the dictionary maker-Dr. Bal
lar and others, whose self-sacrifice,
earnestness and courage have compell-
ed the admiration among even the most
ardent infidels and Buddhists, but he
is not enthusiastic over the methods
nor the personnel of the missionaries
that have gone over to Japan within
the last ten years.
Mr.. TAMURA'S VIEWS.
Il do not find it easy to express my
idea exactly in the English language"
says Mr.. Tamura, land l am fearful lest
I be misunderstood. l do not dislike
the new missionaries as individuals,
but say they are not the right sort to
do effective work at present. They do
not understand us. We are fond of in
dependence in Japan. We have great
vanity. We are proud. We are ambi-
tious. We wish to stand high among
the nations. Yes, 1 think we have
what you call it?-the big head Not
because we won the Chinese war, how
ever-that was too easy; but because
we have advanced so rapidly and so far
since your Commodore Perry made us
open our doors to foreigners and forced
us to sign treaty We were shut up
then and thought the outside world
was peopled with barbarians. Now we
are so different from what we were
then that We forget we still have much
to learn.
Eve should be glad to see the right
sort of missionaries among us to teach
us what We need to learn. We haven't
that sort now. Why, could count on
the fingers of my two hands the mis-
sionaries in Toxic that know our lam
guage well enough to make a first rate
address in it. The best Christian
speakers in the capital now are natives.
Foreigners do not predominant to-day
among the preachers and lecturers at
the meetings of Christians in Toxic.
The talking part of missionary work is
passing to the japanese l wish that
foreign missionaries would learn our
language thoroughly. 1t seems to me
they ought to do so if they are to teach
us we'll Or hOpa tn euido or IN 1;,oo+ o,,.