48. Q. For more than two centuries previous to 1868 what laws prevailed in Japan which made it a hermit nation? A. Japanese were forbidden to leave the country, boats had to be built on an unseaworthy model, and all foreigners, with a few exceptions, were banished.
49. Q. What have the recent revolutions in Japan effected? A. A profound change in the national policy toward foreigners; the restoration of the ancient centralized imperialism; and the abolition of the feudal system.
50. Q. When did protestant Christianity, founded upon the Bible and the preaching of Christ crucified, begin in Japan, and with what results has it been attended? A. It began in 1859, and in 1881 there were about seventy churches and over four thousand members in Japan.
The Summer Assembly of the Pacific branch of the C. L. S. C. will open on the evening of July 4, and continue nine days. This Assembly is held annually at Pacific Grove, two miles from the old historic town of Monterey, California. A very large attendance is expected, and all members of the C. L. S. C. are urgently invited to come to the richest intellectual feast yet spread for them at this western C. L. S. C. table. An able corps of lecturers and instructors has been secured for the session, and the exercises of the first graduating class of the Pacific Branch, which occur on Friday, July 13, will be the crowning feature of this Assembly. All members of this branch who hope to attend, will do well to notify the secretary, Miss M. E. Norton, and also J. O. Johnson, the manager of Pacific Grove, in time to secure good accommodations. The Assembly circular will soon be forwarded to all members of this branch.
[OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. STUDIES.]
JUNE.
For the month of June the required C. L. S. C. reading is Chautauqua Text-Book, No. 34, Asiatic History, by Rev. William Elliot Griffis, and the designated parts of The Chautauquan. The division according to weeks is as follows: