Kanamori's life-story

Paul M. Kanamori
Told by Himself
How the Higher Criticism wrecked a Japanese Christian—and how he came back
Introduction by J. Ross Stevenson, D.D., LL.D.
Philadelphia The Sunday School Times Company 1921
Copyright, 1921, by The Sunday School Times Company Printed in the United States of America
A LARGE number of Christian students in this and other lands have adopted as their watch-word “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.” They thus express their conviction that the apostolic Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, that it is intended to meet the world’s greatest need, and that the chief business of a Christian disciple is to make this Gospel everywhere known, and thus best serve his day and generation.
Students who have come under the power of a science that is largely materialistic and of a philosophy which has no place for the supernatural regard this evangelistic program as being antiquated and narrow, and, contemplating man as a mere creature of circumstance, they maintain that the great objective of the Church should be to improve external conditions, to uplift the whole social order by education and by every advantage of an improved environment. To such, even though they may commend in a general way a kind of social evangelism, the preaching of the apostolic Gospel is for the most part foolishness, and they show little if any interest in bringing unbelievers to an acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
When one notes the small number of additions to the Church on confession of faith, at home and on the mission field, following the labor of a large number of ministers and Christian workers, he must conclude that very little is being done in the apostolic business of winning souls to a personal allegiance to Jesus Christ. The main reason for this is a lack of conviction as to the Gospel’s incomparable value. Our ministers and our churches need to be reminded in the most forcible way that the living Christ is at work in the world, and that through the power of his Spirit he is abundantly able to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God.