THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST IN JAPAN.
By B. O. Wade
As with men, so with nations. In the working out of that love which was set on men before the mountains were brought forth or ever the Lord had formed the earth and the world, the dealings of God stand out in bold relief, as in the conflict of truth and error the nations have been ensamples unto succeeding generations. That conflict, during the time of Rome, culminated in the grand victory of the “glorious original of the rights of conscience,” in which the finger of God, being as plain as the hand of man, made the papacy “an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” Even in Japan, history has repeated itself in the temporary overthrow of the same error, and the establishment of the Christian idea of the state, and the departure from it, which reveals the working of that science of sin, “the mystery of iniquity;” and which therefore gives to Japan an importance in this “the time of the end.” When the Protestant missionary reached Japan, he met immediate opposition; for the principles of his government were diametrically opposite to those of the Japanese government. And it was through the abandonment of those principles that Japan gained her position of international intercourse and political equality among the nations, and established constitutional right to liberty of conscience. Other nations achieved the same results through centuries of blood. Here it was accomplished with little discussion, no blood, and in the space of a few years. The original idea of Japanese ethics was that the state centers in the emperor, “son of the sun,” the conception and embodiment of divinity. This divinity passed from the emperor over to his actions, and still lingers round his picture, which hangs on every public-school wall, before which great and small are compelled to bow once a year, November 3, which is the emperor’s birthday. The emperor’s voice, being the voice of God, and as such to be accepted by the people, is the answer to the question why, at the command from the throne, Japan has thrice changed her religion. The right of freedom of religious belief is guaranteed to all. This adoption of individualism, a liberal press, and open and easy communications with all parts of the empire, bespeak a rapid spread of the gospel. The existing condition with reference to the separation of religion and state is the same as that enjoyed by the people of the United States, under the Constitution. And as the United States under the Constitution was to all people an example of the Christian idea of civil government, so, in departing from her high privilege, she is no less a guiding spirit to the nations. Since the time when Commodore Perry, with a little gunpowder and a baby’s train of cars, frightened and awed the Japanese government, she has looked, and still continues to look, to the United States as a mother. That the reader may see the approach of this thing in Japan, and know the certainty of those things wherein he has been instructed, we give a few of the statements of the learned and leading men in these circles, who see the need of, and recognize the12demand for, what they call a “new religion.” The Rev. Minami, discussing, “with his usual broad-mindedness, the subject of Christian education,” is “in favor of publishing an expurgated edition of the Japanese Bible for use in families, like that possessed by Germans. Even with such an edition in use, great care would need to be exercised lest the children carry away wrong notions. Modern science has shown the impossibility of giving traditional interpretation to Genesis 1. The belief in dreams so prominent in the story of Joseph’s life, can not be held up as a type of ordinary life without sowing the seeds of silly superstition in the child’s mind. The story of Adam’s fall needs to be very delicately handled by the teacher. In dealing with the New Testament the same amount of care is required. The story of the miraculous birth of Christ can not be explained as a fact in the light of modern science.” In view of that, read the following: “Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent not only in the world, but in the church. Many have come to deny the doctrines which are the very pillars of Christian faith. The great facts of creation as presented by the inspired writers, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God are practically rejected, either wholly or in part, by a large share of the professedly Christian world.” “Another strange error is the doctrine that denies the divinity of Christ, claiming that he had no existence before his advent into this world.”—Great Controversy. The New Man, a monthly journal, which has just made its appearance, under the guidance of Mr. Danjo Ebiva, “one of the best-known leaders of thought among the Japanese Christians,” has for its object the teaching of “those religious and ethical truths which the editor or editors think indispensable for the spiritual guidance of the nation as an active partaker in the drama of human progress, and which, moreover, their countrymen are beginning not only to appreciate the importance of, but to feel a keen appetite for.” Concerning these “spiritual truths,” it speaks thus: “The Japanese have so far succeeded in their efforts to crystallize their religion into a new form as to compel the foreigners to retire to the background;” and “as a result of the new impulse imparted to it by modern science, Christianity has been quite revolutionized.” Again read: “Now that Satan can no longer withhold the Scriptures, he resorts to other means to accomplish the same objects. To destroy faith in the Bible serves his purpose as well as to destroy the Bible itself.” Thus “it will be demonstrated that a day of great intellectual light is equally favorable for the success of popery as one of intellectual darkness,” and “that the science of the nineteenth century, which undermines the Bible, will prove as successful in preparing the way for the acceptance of the papacy as did the withholding of knowledge in opening the way for its aggrandizement in the Dark Ages.”—Great Controversy. Count Okuma sums up his views of the present, thus: “What is desirable now is to get rid of the superstructure, and lay bare the foundation. Benevolence, compassion, and love! can not Buddhists, Christians, and Confucianists come together on these principles, and work in harmony? This union may not be witnessed in my day, but it will be some day.” In a lecture delivered before the Philosophical Society of the Imperial University, Dr. Inoue, who has regarded it his duty as president of the College of Literature, to oppose Christianity, now argues that “a new form of religion is needed,” and that “the best way to obtain this is to determine the points on which the existing religions agree, and construct a new system that shall satisfy all reasonable minds.” In this present state of confessions and concessions, it is safe to predict an immediate council,—and the second one for the Protestant churches is now bulletined,—in which “the discussion of those subjects upon which all are not agreed, however important they may be from a Bible standpoint, must necessarily be waived.” Of the results of such a council but few are better prepared to speak than is the papacy. And thus it speaks of this “unrest” and “desire for union:” “They are ill at ease, and well they may be. It is of the very essence of Protestantism to split up into a hundred sects. This is what the Protestant principle of individual liberty leads to. Protestant converts are allowed to reject what they please, and many of them end by rejecting everything. This is what turning their back on the authority of the church means. Darkness is closing in on such professors of Christianity. We shall soon be summoned to attend their funeral.” Is not this the time, and are not these the scenes, for which we have been looking? And now that these things are present, who that has been seeing lions in Japan will not say, as Ezra said: “I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him”? Let us all seek him.