The chief educational institution of this body is the Doshisha University, in Kyoto. This school is largely the result of the labors of Dr. Neesima, easily the first Christian preacher and teacher Japan has yet produced. It is a large school, beautifully located and well housed. Last year only 320 students were in attendance, a great decline from former years. Unfortunately this institution does not now exert the positive influence for Christianity that it formerly did. Higher criticism and speculative philosophy have largely supplanted Christian teaching. The school is now entirely in the hands of the trustees (all natives), and the mission has no control over it whatever. Recently all of the missionaries of the American Board who were serving as professors in the Doshisha have, because of dissatisfaction with the policy of the school authorities, resigned. The trustees affirm that it is their intention to keep the school strictly Christian, but they refuse to define the term "Christian." Such vital matters as the divinity of Christ and the immortality of the soul are not positively affirmed. The rationalism which has emanated from this school has perhaps done as much in recent years to impede the progress of Christianity as any other one cause. It is very sad to see an institution, built up at great expense by bequests of earnest Christian people, intended by its founder to lead the evangelical Christianity of this country, thus turned aside from its original purpose. We trust that a gradual growth of a deeper Christian consciousness and a more positive faith in the hearts of the trustees and professors may yet lead them to make of this school a positive force for evangelical Christianity.
The mission of the American Board has experienced more trouble in recent years than any other, especially in the attempt properly to adjust the relations between the native and foreign workers, and in the matter of mission property. Most of the valuable property of the mission has passed into native hands, and in some instances has been perverted from its original purpose. The missionaries are regarded with jealousy by many in the native church; they are entirely excluded from the church councils, and are being gradually pushed out of the most important positions, and their places filled with Japanese. It is a question just how far the policy adopted by this mission from the beginning is to blame for this unfortunate state of affairs. This policy has been to push the native workers to the front, to give them the important positions, and to allow them perfect freedom in all church matters. As a consequence, that which was at first granted as a concession is now demanded as a right. As a teacher in one of their own schools has comically put it, the mission said in the beginning—in Japanese phraseology—to the native brethren, "Please honorably condescend to take the first place," and they are just doing what they were bidden to do. Other boards, with a different policy, have fared better. The Episcopal Church of Japan, which is one of the most active, vigorous bodies at work here, is governed by foreign bishops, and nearly all the positions of importance are filled by foreign missionaries, and yet the relations between the native and foreign workers are, on the whole, cordial and harmonious. The Methodist Church is governed by foreign bishops, and nearly all the presiding elders are foreign missionaries, yet complete harmony prevails between the native and the foreign ministry. The Presbyterian Church, with a policy somewhat resembling the Congregational, is encountering the same difficulties in a milder form. These facts seem to indicate that, at least in part, the policy of the mission is itself responsible for the position in which it now finds itself.
But in nearly every mission field, as soon as a strong native church is developed, misunderstandings and friction between the native and foreign workers have arisen. Questions regarding the position of the native church and its relation to the foreign boards and missionaries almost inevitably arise. Therefore what the American Board has encountered may be partially encountered by all as soon as a stronger native church is developed. Perhaps the national characteristics of the people are to some extent responsible also for this trouble and friction.
The Church of Christ in Japan
This body represents an attempt at church union on a large scale. It is composed of all the Presbyterian and Reformed churches working in Japan. These are the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, the Reformed Church in America, the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the Reformed Church in the United States, the Presbyterian Church in the United States (South), the Woman's Union Missionary Society, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. All of these bodies are engaged in building up one and the same native church—the Church of Christ in Japan. Yet each has its own field and is doing its own individual work.
The growth and success of this body have been phenomenal. It has 11,100 members, 60 ordained native ministers, 113 unordained catechists, and 146 missionaries. Its leading educational institution is the Meiji Gakuin, in Tokyo, with both an academic and a theological department. This is a large, well-equipped school, with a good faculty.
In connection with this Church of Christ there is a good academic and theological school in Nagasaki, known as Steele College, and supported by the Dutch Reformed and Southern Presbyterian missions. This school is as thoroughly evangelical and positive in its teachings as any to be found in Japan.
There are besides these five boarding-schools for boys, with 376 students, and sixteen boarding-schools for girls, with 795 pupils.
The representatives of the Church of Christ are found throughout the length and breadth of the land and are doing a good work. It is likely that this church will take the lead in the future.
Methodist Churches