Blue-grass blade., 1899-12-10
MISSIONARIES
IN JAPAN ALARMED.
Japanese Students at Yale Bring
Back Broader Theology.
Japanese Keen and Relent-
less Thinkers.

Most OF the Japanese students at
Yale are taking post graduate
courses and 1t Is noticeable that they
are to be found In many fields OF
study. The love Of the Oriental
mind for the perplexities Of meta
physics gives the greatest number
OF men to the pursuit Of philosophy.
y" Without exception they are wide
readers and kee' and relentless
thinkers; they are the aptest Of stu.
dents and their veracity and delight
full sense OF humor make them warm
hearted and sympathetic company.
They are all-around scholars; even
the Japanese who spend most Of
their time in the psychological lab
oratory Investigating the properties
OF accostic space and the rhythm Of
bodily movement find both time aud
the inclination to attend the lectures
on New Testament literature deliv-
cred by Prof. Porter in the Divinity
school. There is much that is inter
esting about the religious beliefs of
these students. 1t seems impossi-
BILE to hold the Japanese student to a
prescribed. view OF theology; he has
horror of dogmatic religious teach
ing. Firm in his belief In the fun
damental truths of Christianity he
looks for natural law in the spiritual
world; he is thorough. going evolu-
zionist and maintains that there is
progress in religion as in every 9th
er sphere Of thought. Recent liter
ature of missionary authorship la
ments the fact that there has been
a reaction among Japanese Chris
tians that the good old faith which
missionaries introduced has been
tainted with new ideas. The mis-
sionaries charge the students who
return to Japan with preaching
heterodox doctrines and with being
unfaithful to the teachers who
brought them out of the darkness of
heathendom. The days are growing
troublous for the missionaries in
Japan. They are meeting with op-
position both from within and from
without. The intellectual element
in their churches challenges their
conservative views in theology and
the native preachers are not proving
as docile as once they were. 1t was
bad enough to be assailed by clever
(, debaters OF the universities, for hun
@dreds OF Japanese students return
home every year from Europe, sat
urated with materialisJic German
PHILOSOPHY and strongly influenced
by Blsm rckian nationalism, but
students returning from Christian
America take back some hing which
disturbs them even more. The mis-
sionaries of evangelical churches in
Japan have been powerless to shut
out the broader theology which Jap
anese stutents imbibe at Yale aud
other New England seminaries. In
stead of accepting the new freedom
in religious thought, SO characteris-
tic OF the present day, and surren-
dering non essentials, manv OF the
missionaries have held to narrow in
terpretations in Biblical narrative.
1t follows that Japanese students at
Yale are out of sympathy with such
missionaries.
They prize independence pof
Thought, and hope some dav to make
<cne Christian church of Japan en-
tirely independent of foreign con-
troll, or, in other words, to send the
missionaries OF narrow creeds back
to their own lands. The Christian
Japanese student at Yale is singu-
larly free and outspoken on this
urestion. The missionaries of to-
day, TO give his side Of the case, are
not like their predecessors of the
past, who were, all of them, self
sacrificing men. AS rule the mis-
sionaries OF today are intolerant and
cling to antiquated forms OF thought,
these Japanese students say. In
stead of trying to understand phil
osopbical representations OF Chris
tianity, they persist in holding to
old beliefs and doctrines and thus
become the laughing stock OF the
Japanese people who become indif-
ferent or drift into materialism.-
Cincinnati Times-Star.
The actual facts in the above case
are not all told. Only last week, d
cable from Japan informs US that
that government has prohibited re.
ligious exercises and the teaching OF
Christianity in any form in its public
schools. The Japanese government
is on to the Christian racket, that OF
fastening itself to the State. and
thriving at the States expense. So
It ipped in the bud. its first sly en-
croacnment, that Of the attempt to
ins inuate itself into the public
sci ools, and thus slyly grow into the
,dy polite.
From the most reliable reports,
these given by Christian mission
aries who are honest and truthful
enough to admit failure, and by in
telligent Japanese, the Minister from
that country to Washington, espec-
tally, it Is very much to be doubted
II Christianity. in all these years of
work and expense, has made one sim
gle, sincere convert to its teachings,
surely no intelligent, educated one.
Whatever advance they have made
is from the very scum OF the popula-
tion, aud 1t is well known that the
sincaratv M such In eyery case Is to