The Winslow mail. (Winslow, Ariz.) 1893-1926, 1899-12-07
JAPANESE ON OUR THEOLOGY.
Row the Teachings of Christianity
Were Viewed in the
Last Century.

At the beginning of the last century
an Italian priest named Joan Baptista
Sidotti was directed by the then Pope
Clement NJ. to go to Japan and preach
the Gospel. Sidotti reached Japan in
SIX years and landed along the south
shore of Kyushu, the southern island of
the japanese group. He was dressed in
japanese clothes, wore a sword and had
his hair dressed in the japanese man.
ner He had procured the costume
and sword in Manila, where there were
many Japanese. This happened in the
year 1909 A. d. Sidotti was taken to
Toxic, then called Yeddo, and placed in
confinement. but was treated with con-
sideration. He had many interviews
with councillor of the shognu named
Arai Hakuseki. He told Arai the book
of Genesis and of Christ's life, but said
nothing of Christ's teaching nor of the
precepts of Christianity. The following
are portions of Arabs comments upon
what was told him, and they are re-
markable for clearness of thought and
simplicity and directness of statement:
Furthermore, the teaching of the
west (Europe) says that Heaven and
earth and all things could not have
come into existence OF themselves, but
that there necessarily must have been
in existence a being who created them.
If, however, the idea that nothing can
come into existence of itself be correct,
the question naturally arises: Who Gre
ated God? If, however, God came into
existence of Himself, why could not
earth and Heaven have come into exist
ence of themselves?''
at sounds like childish talk when the
followers of the foreign teaching say
that the breaking of Gods command by
Adam and Eve was such great sin that
they themselves could not have expia-
ted it, but that 5000 ye@rs afterward
God was obliged to appear upon earth
in the person of Jesus Christ and ex-
plate the sin Himself. Whoever gives
a command has also the power to for
give the breaking of that command.
What, then, stood in the way of His
pardonirg its infraction, especially as
the whole misdeed consisted merely in
the eating of an apple? Was it neces-
sary for God to become man in con-
nectiOn with so insignificant an affair %
''The teaching of the west also says
that God sent great flood upon the
earth and therein were all mankind
drowned with the exception of Noah
and his family. But if God is the Crea-
tor of all things, and their great prince
and father, what reason had He for de-
stroying His own creations? Why did
He not make man in the beginning
good and obedient to His teaching? If
He did not have the power to do this,
how came it that He had the power to
create the world? And if mankind, on
the other hand, was created so stupid
as not to understand the teaching of
God, was this so great sin on their
part that God, the Creator and Father
of all things, should have destroyed
mankind?"
Sidotti having described to Arai the
European custom of crossing ones self
when meeting another person and hav-
ing explained that the purpose of this
custom was to protect the individual
against lightning, the devil and other
like things, Arai Remarked: ''It is very
wonderful that God, the Christian God:
should first have created lightning, the
devil and similar bad things and then
taught mankind how to protect them
selves against these things. 1t would
have been much simpler and surer not
to have created lightning and the devil
at all. In regard to the supernatural
the Christians appear to be upon the
same low level as the common people
here in Japan"
The above was translated from the
German of an article written by DR.. L.
Lonholm, professor in the University of
Toxic, and published in the Mittheilun-
gen der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Ma
tur und Volkerkunde Ostasiens, "a Heft
Band vi, Settle 1876, August, 1884,
Boston Transcript