p. 13 | SEED SOWING IN JAPAN

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1904

SEED SOWING IN JAPAN.

THE following extract from the letter of a correspondent of the Christian Advocate in Japan will be of interest to those interested in the evangelization of the Japanese people. The correspondent tells of his visit to a temple of Buddha—and to a Japanese Christian church:—

In the great Temple of the Thousand Gods I went with a missionary to the rear of the room, behind the scenes, as it were. Here were a number of gods under repair, and strewn about were legs, arms, and heads of dismembered divinities. At the Temple of the Great Buddha, which has twice been destroyed by fire, and which was at one time the pride of the city, there is a bust of Buddha. The face is probably twenty feet long. We went behind the scenes again, and, behold, it was but a huge mask. While the old men and women worshiped in front, this scaffold-brained god stared into vacancy. But could those painted eyes have looked into the future they would have seen their doom.

The patient seed sowing of the past generation of missionaries is already bearing fruit. At Sendai I attended morning service at a Japanese church. During the long sermon I could understand but one word—the name of our Lord—which recurred frequently. Much of the time I was watching a weaver next door ply his trade. But not so with the audience. They were intently listening throughout. And strange as it may seem; two-thirds of the audience were men, chiefly young men. I was afterward repeatedly told that this predominance of young men in the churches holds throughout the empire.

The missionaries who have brought this about are not numerous, but they have been patient, self-denying, and full of faith. A city which has, counting men and women, including wives, a missionary force of one for twenty thousand of the people, is fortunate indeed.