Good, if It Is the Real Kind
Jesus often saves despite error, but never because of it. Neither Abraham nor Jacob was saved because of his polygamy, but in spite of it. Polygamy is wrong in God's sight, and was then, but His servants then served Him with full purpose of heart, tho they saw not all things clearly. A faithless blunder seemed to force Abraham into polygamy in order that he might have an heir. Laban's dishonesty in dealing with the scheming supplanter compelled Jacob to take two wives in order to get the one he bargained for. The sins, the blunders, were the results of faithlessness. They were not objects in life. They were incidents doubtless bitterly repented of. But in Mormonism polygamy is an object, not an incident. No one is saved by Sunday keeping, but in spite of it. It never is helpful or useful to believe a lie, and whatever is contrary to God's truth is a lie. But there are many Sunday keepers saved, not because of Sunday keeping, but in spite of it. They are saved because the heart is true, and even in the doing of error it is true still, for it is the loyal, faithful heart that God wants. “For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” Good, if It Is the Real Kind.
Prof. Masumi Hino, Kioto, Japan, dean of the theological department at Doshisha University, asks the question in an article in the Missionary Review of the World, “Ought Japan to become a Christian nation?” And he draws a comparison between Christianity and the three other great religions of Japan,—Shintoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Shintoism he likens to an infantile religion, with its eight million or more gods, and tells us that “a baby's dress, however handsome and useful it might have been in its day, can and shall no longer be used for a full-grown man.” Patriotism is not sufficient religion. Confucianism has trained the Japanese people in moral life, and they owe it much, but it does not meet the people's yearning after the eternal values. Beautiful as this world may be, the people long for something beyond it, and Confucianism as an institution has already gone out of the life of the Japanese people, and many look upon it as a sort of philosophy, rather than a form of religion. Buddhism, he holds, next to Christianity, is the most developed religion of the world, but it is too negative, contemplative, static, and deeply pessimistic. It does not insist enough on the ethical life of man. The individual has no reality except as a model, accidental being. There is a lack of vitality in Buddhism. Even its view of immortality is based upon the pessimistic view of life, and stands at present in the popular mind for death rather than life. He compares it to a disappointed poet creating an ideal world in religion, but lacking in vitality and tact; and then he concludes that the only religion there is that can meet the Japanese longing is Christianity. Japan wants a religion that is good all round, and Christianity meets it. It has proved itself to be life and power. It is not in its dotage, as Buddhism seems to be. It recognizes the individual. It is not a shallow religion with a cheap gospel and a skin-deep theology. It is an aggressive, a missionary religion, and the only religion that seems to have vitality enough to meet the spiritual needs of the present and coming generations. Ultimate victory is sure. There ought to be hope for Christian missionaries in this world, if the Christian missionaries are not looking for a state religion or for mere ethics. Christianity meets the need of the world everywhere, but it will fail to meet it if it is considered simply in its form. The power of Christianity is in its divine life, in its God-bestowed righteousness,