1. The great personality of The General, whose character greatly resembled that of his Divine Master--the Founder of Christianity.
2. Our aggressive spirit--ever marching on, like the Japanese soldiers in the last war with Russia.
3. Our adaptation to the circumstances of every country.
4. Our straightforward and practical way of preaching Salvation.
5. Our principle of self-support. Teaching men and women to help themselves.
6. Our scientific and business-like methods, as distinct from mere sentimentality.
Some day, surely, men equally eminent in other countries will begin to speak as heartily and thoughtfully of The General's life work.
That the great Mikado, to whose wisdom and energy Japan owed so much of its great renewal and entry amongst the "civilised" nations, should have passed into eternity only a few months before the Founder of a wider and grander, because spiritual, Empire, is an interesting fact. The Mikado received our General, in spite of every court usage that might have hindered, because he found that all the greatest leaders and heroes of Japan, like their Press, saw in him the personification of the highest and noblest purpose for every land and every people.
The Japanese Government gave our Officers, women as well as men, a liberty of access to their prisoners greater than we as yet possess in this and most other "Christian" countries, because they saw the value of our love for the victims of sin, and our power, by God's grace, to inspire them with hope for themselves. How many more years, I wonder, will it take other nations to follow this common-sense example?