THEIR IDEA OF CHRISTIANITY.
By Editor
IN writing enthusiastically of the results of the Parliament of Religions in the September Forum, Dr. J. H. Barrows quotes "that eloquent Buddhist, Mr. Hirai," as saying to him on leaving for Japan:— I go back a Christian, by which I mean that Christianity is a religion which I shall be glad to see established in Japan. Only let the Christian missionaries not interfere with our national usages and patriotic holidays. I have been delighted with America and especially with its tolerance. I expected that, before I finished my address, criticising false Christianity in Japan, I should be torn from the platform. But I was received with enthusiasm. And that is about the idea of Christianity which one not knowing Christ would receive from the Parliament,—a religion which could fellowship all other religions, and meet all other religions on a common footing. Already the Japanese believe that they are the nation of destiny to Christianize the East. They feel that now they know Christianity, and with the best things in that religion, the best in Buddhism, and other religions, there is no people so well fitted to regenerate China and India as they are. Christianity is to them a political and social force and nothing more, and this is all that it is to many professed Christians. But to the true believer it is the wisdom of God and the power of God, the one only religion able to save.