THE PROGRESS OF THE ENEMY.
WERE it not for the glaring evidence everywhere in sight, the wonderful missionary zeal and success of the adversary of souls would be utterly incredible. His subtle cunning and intense energy are manifest in every land, not only in propagating error but in pulling down truth. But when we reflect that there is One stronger and wiser and more resourceful than he, it must be that the masses who profess the name of Christ do not appreciate the power at their command for overcoming the common enemy. Christ has all power in heaven and in earth (Matt. 28:18-20), and this power is promised to those who go forth in His name. It must be, therefore, that there is so little reliance on this promise, too much confidence in the flesh to cope successfully with this wily foe against whom, without the power of Christ, the disciple and even the ordained missionary can not prevail. The sturdy resistance of heathenism, and the growing apostasy of professed Christians at home and abroad, stand out as a warning to all who have professed allegiance to the almighty King. The writings of the enemy in some foreign lands—mere samples of what may be found in all—are set forth by Rev. Edward A. Wicher, a pastor of Kobe, Japan, in the Missionary Review. We subjoin some extracts:— There has been one great deficiency in the missionary enterprises of the evangelical churches, especially of the American evangelical churches operating in Asia—they have utterly neglected to provide for the spiritual needs of the large English-speaking communities which have sprung up in the ports. These communities apparently are not embraced within the sphere of operation of any missionary society. They are beyond the scope of the home mission boards, because they are not in a Christian country, and they are beyond the scope of the foreign mission boards, because they are not heathen. Yet there they are—numbering tens of thousands of people of our own kindred, who speak our own language. Neglected in a religious way they are rapidly becoming de-Christianized and denationalized. It is more than time that the home churches should seek to understand the conditions of religious life in the East and consider what ought to be done. Chief among the influences which operate towards the disintegration of the Christian character of13foreigners in the East, is the constant and unvarying action of heathenism, which has no Ten Commandments, and, in some places, nothing to correspond with them. There are gods many and lords many, intended for all purposes, even to protecting the thief from detection in his crime, none of them expressing any high moral aspiration: there is no Sabbath, and even commercial morality is still in a rudimentary state; and the feelings of repulsion with which the Christian conscience regards the sin of adultery are incomprehensible to the heathen mind. Divorce is common, and may be procured practically at the will of the husband. The wife is at the mercy of the husband. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the Japanese woman should prefer living with the foreign man on any terms whatsoever to having a husband of her own race, and should even feel herself honored by being chosen as the object of the attentions of the foreign man.