arrival; but it took on new and gorgeous form under his master hand.  The airs that he put on, displaying his (fraudulent) Ph.D., and talking about his schemes, are simply amusing to contemplate from this distance.  His studies in the philosophy of religion had so clarified his mind that he was going to reform both Christianity and Buddhism.  His sermons of florid eloquence and vociferous power, never less than an hour in length, were as marked in ambitious thoughts as in pulpit mannerisms.  He threw a spell over all who came in contact with him.  He overawed them by his vehemence and tremendous earnestness and insistence on perfect obedience to his masterful will.  In one of his climactic sermons, after charging missionaries with teaching dangerous errors, he said that while some were urging that the need of the times was to “his back to Luther,” and others were saying, that we must “his back to Christ” (these English words being brought into his Japanese sermon), they were both wrong; we must “hie back to God”; and he prophesied a reformation in religion, beginning there in Kumamoto, in that school, which would be far and away more important in the history of the world than was the Lutheran Reformation.

The recent history of Christianity in Japan supplies many striking instances of visionary plans and visionary enthusiasts.  The confident expectation entertained during the eighties of Christianizing the nation before the close of the century was such a vision.  Another, arising a few years later, was the importance of returning all foreign missionaries to their native lands and of intrusting the entire evangelistic work to native Christians, and committing to them the administration of the immense sums thus set free.  For it was assumed by these brilliant Utopians that the amount of money expended in supporting missionaries would be available for aggressive work should the missionaries be withdrawn, and that the Christians in foreign lands would continue to pour in their contributions for the evangelization of Japan.

Still another instance of utopian idealism is the vision that Japan will give birth to that perfect religion, meeting the demands of both heart and head, for which the world waits.  In January, 1900, Prof.  T. Inouye, of the Imperial University, after showing quite at length, and to his own satisfaction, the inadequacy of all existing religions to meet the ethical and religious situation in Japan, maintained this ambitious view.

Some Japanese Christians are declaring the need of Japonicized Christianity.  “Did not the Greeks transform Christianity before they accepted it?  And did not the Romans, and finally the Germans, do the same?  Before Japan will or can accept the religion of Christ, it must be Japonicized.”  So they argue; “and who so fit to do it as we?” lies in the background of their thought.