Japan

Christianity in the Eastern Conflicts by William Paton

William Paton [1886-1943], Christianity in the Eastern ConflictsIn preparation for the 1938 Oxford Conference on Christian Missions, William Paton the Secretary of International Missionary Council, embarked on a tour of Asia and the Near East. This volume represents a summary of his tour and its findings. My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for providing a copy of this book for digitisation.

William Paton [1886-1943], Christianity in the Eastern Conflicts. A Study of Christianity, Nationalism and Communism in Asia. London: Edinburgh House Press, 1937. Hbk. pp.224. [Click to visit the download page]

Contents

  • Author’s Preface
  • Introduction
  1. Japan
  2. China
  3. India
  4. The Near East
  5. The Gospel and the New Age
  6. Church, Community and State
  7. The Life and Witness of the Church
  8. The Church and the Social Order
  9. Conclusion
  • Book List
  • Index

Introduction

This book is based chiefly upon the experiences of a journey which it was my good fortune and privilege to undertake during the autumn, winter and spring of 1935-6. Travelling from England through America and Canada, during seven months I visited Japan, Korea, Manchuria, China, the Straits Settlements, Java, India, Egypt and Palestine. The principal object with which this journey was undertaken was to discuss with representative Christians of the indigenous Churches and with missionaries in the different countries the plans that had been outlined for holding in the Far East, in the autumn of 1938, a world meeting of the International Missionary Council, in succession to those held in 1910 at Edinburgh and in 1928 at Jerusalem. These plans were made in outline at the meeting of the Committee of the Council in Northfield, Massachusetts, and I left the meeting to go directly to Japan, there to begin an intensely interesting process of testing, in innumerable discussions, whether the themes which the Council had chosen as the subject-matter of its proposed World meeting were in fact the most important…

Missions and Modern History by Robert E. Speer

Robert E. Speer, Missions and Modern HistoryRobert E. Speer sets out his threefold purpose in writing this history of 19th Century missions:

  • To correct distortions of the facts;
  • To demonstrate the significance of missions in world events;
  • To inform the reading public of important recent events.

My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for making these volumes available for digitisation. These books are in the public domain.

Robert E. Speer, Missions and Modern History. A Study of the Missionary Aspects of Some Great Movements of the Nineteenth Century, 2 Vols. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1904. Hbk. pp. 714. [Click here to visit the download page]

Contents

  • Preface
  1. The Tai-Ping Rebellion
  2. The Indian Mutiny
  3. The Religion of the Bab
  4. The Emancipation of Latin America
  5. The Development of Africa
  6. The Reform Movement in Hinduism 

    Second Volume 

  7. The Tong Hak Insurrection
  8. The Transformation of Japan
  9. The Armenian Massacres
  10. The Going of the Spaniard
  11. The Boxer Uprising
  12. The Coming of the Slav
  13. Missions and the World Movement
  • Index

Chapter 13: Missions and the World-Movement

Of the twelve great movements which have been considered, all but two have been related to Asia. We are often told that Asia is the immovable continent, that she is what she has been and that she will remain what she is, that “some strange fiat of arrest, probably due to mental exhaustion has condemned the brown men and the yellow men to eternal reproduction of old ideas,” that there notion and institution have hardened into permanency and that the continent must be regarded as alien to great moral or intellectual movements and separate from the stirrings of life that work ceaseless change in the West. How is it possible to reconcile such a view with the facts which have passed before us? These Asiatic nations are alive. The stock is not exhausted. “The theory that China’s dependence is due to the fact that she has long since reached maturity and has outlived the natural term of national existence does not hold good….

First 100 Years of Protestant Missions in Japan

Dorothy Pape, Captives of the Mighty. Christ and the Japanese Enigma

Protestant Christianity did not reach Japan until 1859, and during these 100 years the progress of the church has been comparatively slow. These are even now only about a quarter of a million converts in a population of over 90 million. This book seeks to explain many of the peculiar difficulties created by a unique and mystifying culture, which face the missionary and Japanese Christian there. It is written out of a burning desire to further the cause of Christ in a nation which is of the greatest strategic importance in the Far East and which aspires to be the bridge between nations of the East and the West.

To divide this book into two parts is logical. One part deals with the general culture and religious background of Japan, while the second tells the story of the outworking of the Christian faith in the lives of the Japanese. All readers will not necessarily want to commence with the first half; some readers may prefer to read the second half first.

From the dust jacket.

This title is copyright OMF International UK and is reproduced here by permission. You can download this book for free educational purposes. It must not be reublished for profir without explicit written permission from the copyright holder. My thanks to Book Aid for providing a copy of this book for digitisation.

Dorothy Pape, Captives of the Mighty. Christ and the Japanese Enigma. London: China Inland Mission, 1959. Hbk. pp.303. [Click to visit the download page]

Contents

Preface

Part I: The Enviroment – Cultural Background

1. A People Unveiled
2. The Imprisoning Web
3. The Spirit of Japan (1) Its Origin
4. The Spirit of Japan (2) Its Modrn Guise
5. Other Gods of Shinto
6. Pale Moonlight of Buddhism
7. A Pseudo Salvation-ny-Faith
8. The Sense of Sin
9. The Fer of Death
10. The Japanese Language – The Art of Concealing Thought
11. A Blunted Sword
12. Black Lily of Resentment
13. Meeting of East and West

Part II. The Preaching of Release

14. With Long Patience
15. Tent Evangelism
16. The Northern Island
17. North Glory Church
18. Hidaka Coast
19. Samani – By-path Meadow
20. Aomori – The Gospel in the Capital
21. In Cities Old and New
22. In Quiet Country Towns
23. Thirst for Knowledge
24. Bruised Reeds
25. Hope For the Future

Glossary
Bibliography

History of the Church Missionary Society by Eugene Stock – 4 Vols

Eugene Stock [1836-1928], The History of the Church Missionary Society. Its Environment, Its Men and Its Work, 4 Vols. Eugene Stock’s comprehensive History of the Church Missionary Society runs to 2,740 pages and 4 Volumes. My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for providing a set of these volumes to scan. These titles are in the pubic domain.

Eugene Stock [1836-1928], The History of the Church Missionary Society. Its Environment, Its Men and Its Work, 4 Vols. London: Church Missionary Society, 1899-1916. Hbk. pp.504 + 659 + 912 + 665. [Click to visit the download page for this set]

Table of Contents, Volumes 1-3

  • Preface
  • Author’s Preface
  • Outline of the Work
  1. The Great Commission
  2. Missions Before the Reformation
  3. Missions After the Reformation
  4. The Eighteenth Century and the Evangelical Revival
  5. Africa and the East – Waiting
  6. The Missionary Awakening
  7. The New Society and its Early Struggles
  8. The First Missionaries
  9. Africa and India: Struggle and Victory
  10. Forward Steps
  11. Rousing the Country: The Associations
  12. C.M.S. and Other Societies
  13. Sierra Leone: The White Man’s Grave; The Black Man’s Life
  14. The Finished Course
  15. India: Entering the Opened Door
  16. Insular Missions: New Zealand, Ceylon, West India, Malta
  17. The Eastern Churches: Reports for their Revival
  18. The Outlook After Twenty-Five Years
  19. The Personnel of the Period
  20. The Environment of the Period
  21. India: Changes and Development
  22. India: Progress of the Missions
  23. The Negro on Both SIdes the Atlantic, Enslaved and Free
  24. Greek, Copt, Abyssinian, Zulu, Maori, Australian, Cree
  25. Henry Venn; And Survey of Men and Things
  26. The Society and the Church
  27. The Colonial and Missionary Episcopate
  28. New Zealand: The Bishop, the Colony, and the Mission
  29. New Enterprises in Africa: Niger Expedition, Yoruba Mission East Coast
  30. The Opening of China
  31. The Society’s Finances
  32. The Jubilee
  33. The Environment: Church Developments – Anglican
  34. The Environment: Church Developments – Evangelical
  35. The Society at Home
  36. Some Recruits from the Universities
  37. Islington College and its Men
  38. Church Organization: The Church of New Zealand
  39. West Africa: Three Missions and Three Bishops
  40. East Africa: The Missionaries and the Explorers
  41. Jerusalem and Constantinople: Jew, Turk, Christian
  42. India Under Dalhouse; and the Missions in the North
  43. India: The Missions in the South
  44. India: The Punjab – For England and For Christ
  45. India: The Mutiny – Its Victims and its Lessons
  46. India: The Great Controversy – Neutrality or Christianity?
  47. India: Missions After the Mutiny
  48. Ceylon’s Isle
  49. China: In Time of War and Tumults
  50. The Great Lone Land
  51. An Anxious Period: In the Society, and in the Church
  52. The Period: More Church Developments
  53. Salisbury Square
  54. Candidates of the Period
  55. The Native Churches: Self-supporting, Self-governing, Self-extending
  56. Ebb-Tide in Africa
  57. The Niger and its Black Bishop
  58. The Islands: Mauritius and Madagascar
  59. India: Rulers and Bishops of the Period
  60. India: Babus, Brahmos, Borderers
  61. India: Agencies Evangelistic and Pastoral
  62. India: Death and Life
  63. India: A Flag for Christ in the Punjab
  64. China: New Mission and Old
  65. The Land of the Rising Sun
  66. Lands of the Utmost West: Manitoba; Metlakahtla
  67. New Zealand: War, Apostasy, Fidelity
  68. Henry Venn’s Latter Days
  69. The Environment: Church Movements
  70. The Environment: Evangelistic and Spiritual Movements
  71. The Society: Missions, Men, Money
  72. The Society: Home Influence and Organization
  73. Africa: The Flowing Tide Again: Ilala – and After
  74. Uganda: The Call and the Response
  75. The Crescent and the Cross: Missions in Mohammedan Lands
  76. India: Dioceses of Calcutta and Bombay
  77. India: Diocese of Lahore
  78. India: Diocese of Madras
  79. India: The Hill Tribes
  80. India and Ceylon: The Bishops and the Society
  81. The Far East: Advance in China and Japan
  82. The Far West: The Church among the Red Indians
  83. The Epoch of 1880-82
  84. The Environment: Ecclesiastical, Controversial, Spiritual
  85. The Society A New Era of Progress
  86. Three Memorable Years. 1885, 1886, 1887
  87. Controversies Within and Attack from Without
  88. Recruits of the Period: Men and Women
  89. High Hopes and Sore Sorrows: West Africa and the Niger
  90. High Hopes and Sore Sorrows: East Africa and Uganda
  91. British East India; The Company, The Government, and the Missions
  92. India: The Men and their Work
  93. India: Some Features, Episodes, Incidents, and Controversies of the Period
  94. Lands of Islam: Egypt, Palestine, Arabia, Persia
  95. In the Indian and Southern Oceans: Ceylon, Mauritius, New Zealand
  96. China: Onward, Inward, – and Upward
  97. Japan: The Nation, the Mission, the Church
  98. The Red Indian Missions: Patterns of Zeal and Triumphs of Grace
  99. Missions at Congresses and Conferences
  100. Seven Years of the Policy of Faith
  101. The Church, the Society and the Cause
  102. The Society: Candidates, Controbutions, and the Three Years’ Enterprise
  103. The Four Years Abroad: Africa
  104. The Four Years Abroad: Asia
  105. In Memoriam
  106. Repice, Circumspice, Prospice

Memories of the Mission Field – Christine I. Tinling

Christine Isabel Tinling [1869-1943], Memories of the Mission Field.Christine Isabel Tinling [1869-1943] travelled extensively in Africa and the Far East, serving in at least seven countries. This book is a collection of evangelistic sketches illustrating her work between 1920 and 1924. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of this book to scan. This title is in the public domain.

Christine Isabel Tinling [1869-1943], Memories of the Mission Field. London: Morgan & Scott, [1927]. Hbk. pp.158. [Click to download the complete book in PDF]

Contents

  • Foreword by F.B. Meyer
  • Author’s Note
  1. Snapshots from Syria
  2. The Widows of Brindaban
  3. Some of Calcutta’s Contrasts
  4. Newspaper Evangelism in Japan
  5. Half a Dozen Heroines
  6. The Man from Ping-Liang
  7. China New Year
  8. A Three-fold Cord
  9. A School of the Prophets
  10. A Missionary’s “Extras”
  11. On Shantung’s Shore
  12. Among Chinese Factory Girls
  13. Beauty From Ashes
  14. One of His Jewels
  15. Shipwrecked Souls
  16. Two Typical Groups
  17. Missionary Housekeeping

Chapter 1: Snapshots from Syria

It is a pleasant experience to be thus associated with the daughter of a life-friend, Rev. J. F. B. Tinling, and to realize that she has inherited so large a portion of his passion for the service of humanity in the Name of Christ. Already the books in which she has delineated her specific service for the Womanhood of the Far East have met with wide acceptance; but these pages contain the record of many other phases of life and work which have arrested her interest. We may call them snapshots, which reveal traits and characteristics salient to the vast populations of the Far East.

Slowly and inevitably these populations are awaking from the stagnation of millenniums. For better or worse they are feeling the impact of our civilization. The missionary, the trader, the cinema, the wireless, the interchange of student life, are conveying to these Eastern peoples new conceptions of life. [Continue reading]

Susan Ballard’s Jottings from Japan

Susan Ballard [1863-1909], Jottings From Japan, 2nd ednThis is a collection of Susan Ballard’s [1863-1909] articles previously published in missionary news magazines. It is illustrated for the most part with her own photographs. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy to scan. This title is in the public domain.

Susan Ballard [1863-1909], Jottings From Japan, 2nd edn. Westminster: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1918. Hbk. pp.96. [This title is in the public domain]

Contents

  • Christian kindness
  • In a Japanese village (1)
  • In a Japanese village (2)
  • In a Japanese village (3)
  • A prisoner in Japan
  • The ‘bus boy
  • Praying for the congregation
  • The blind “Ama”
  • “As others see us”
  • A Japanese Sailor
  • Truth
  • A Japanese Easter offering
  • A meeting in a train
  • An aged Christian
  • A tea-party in Japan
  • Japan in the time of war
  • “Give peace in our time, O Lord”
  • By a Buddhist temple in Japan
  • The land of morning calm
  • What I bought with two pounds

Christian Kindness

One day my servant showed in a young man who, she said, was anxious to see me. Instead of making the customary Japanese bow, he advanced with stretched out hand, saying, “How do you do?”

By this I knew that he must have been in England, and I replied in English, but it was soon evident that his knowledge of English was limited to that one sentence.

“Please to excuse my coming to see you,” he said in Japanese. “You do not know me, though we have met once before. Two years ago, when you were visiting your native country of England, you gave an address to a large party of Japanese bluejackets who had been invited to tea at an English Soldiers’ Home. I was one of those sailors. After you spoke, some of us asked where you lived when in Japan, and you wrote down your Tokio number on some pieces of paper and distributed them among us, and I got one of them. [Continue reading]

Story of the Japan Evangelistic Band

Alphaeus Paget Wilkes [1871-1934], "His Glorious Power" or The Story of the Japan Evangelistic Band,A. Paget Wilkes [1871-1934] recalls the story of the Japan Evangelistic Band from its foundation in 1903 until 1933. Wilkes was optimistic that Christianity would continue to spread in Japan. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy of this book to scan. This title is in the public domain. Note that this book was printed in a sepia tone, so the scan is not as clear as usual, but I hope, still legible.

Alphaeus Paget Wilkes [1871-1934], “His Glorious Power” or The Story of the J.E.B. London: Japan Evangelistic Band, [1933]. Pbk. pp.182. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

  1. Introductory
  2. The Early Vision
  3. Instruments Prepared
  4. The Mother of the Mission
  5. Aggressive Evangelism
  6. Ministry to the Churches Training Personnel
  7. Conditions Obtaining or The Need and Opportunity
  8. Wider Issues
  9. A.M.O.S.
  10. Children’s Evangelism or The Giants at Work
  11. Some of Our Leaders
  12. Swanwick and its Message
  13. Finance
  14. Epilogue

Miss Edmeades was one of the founder members of the mission. This account of her later years caught my wife’s eye as she was browsing through the book.

Extract from page 126.

Miss Edmeades, the first missionary of the J.E.B., was unable to return to Japan after her first furlough. It seemed as though her knowledge of Japanese which she had acquired, would be wasted. But the Lord ordained otherwise.

Japanese sailors visit our ports almost in thousands. Little or nothing is done to reach them. Many of the ships come to Liverpool and Birkenhead. Some years Miss Edmeades was much burdened on their behalf. Finding a suitable house in Birkenhead, she began her work. Willing helpers came to her assistance. Ships are visited; captains interviewed; crews are welcomed. Hundreds have availed themselves of her kind hospitality. Meetings are held, lantern talks are given. refreshments provided and at Christmas time gifts are sent home to their wives and children. Literature is distributed, letters are sent continually to those who have come and gone, and above all, convicted souls are pointed to Christ. A great many have professed conversion, of whom not a few are genuinely saved.

Not the least result of such work is that instead of taking back a very cheerless report of their sojourn in a strange land, with no vision whatever of any sort of Christianity that is like Christ, they carry back tidings of a kind and sympathetic welcome, and a fragrant memory of bright and happy hours spent in a Christian home. [Continue reading]

Japan in Transition by Loretta L. Shaw

Loretta L. Shaw, Japan in Transition.Loretta L. Shaw offers a Christian perspective on Post WWI Japan in the hope that this new World Power would be transformed by the Gospel. My thanks Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy to digitise and to the Church Mission Society for their kind permission to place it on-line.

Loretta L. Shaw, Japan in Transition. London: Church Missionary Society, 1923. Hbk. pp.128. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

  1. The Land and its People
  2. The Rise of Democracy
  3. New Ideas in Commerce
  4. Woman: Her Heritage From the Past
  5. Woman: New Ideals
  6. The Meeting of the Currents
  7. The Spread of Christianity
  8. Methods of Work
  9. The Way of Power
  • Bibliography

Foreword

Japan is in rapid transition. Much has been published recently descriptive of the political and social changes taking place so rapidly in that land, but there is place for a book in which these changes are considered from the standpoint of the Christian missionary. In the past, the fascination of Japan sprang from the picturesqueness of the country and people, and still more from the sudden emergence of an eastern people into the light and ways of western civilization. A change so complete, and apparently so successful, was unique in history. The confusion and chaos attendant on great changes in Russia and elsewhere only serve to increase our wonder at the smoothness with which Japan has in a generation readjusted herself to modem conditions. To-day the fascination is none the less real, but for another reason-Japan, recognized as one of the great Powers, is passing through a spiritual conflict upon the issue of which depends her future greatness. [Continue reading]

Progress of Missions in the Hundred Years After Carey

Delavan L. Leonard [1834-1917], A Hundred Years of Missions or The Story of Progress Since Carey's BeginningAlthough Delavan Leonard’s history of missions covers early church and medieval missions, his primary focus is in “The Great Century” following William Carey. He provides an overview of progress of the Great Commission by Continent as well as a chapter of work still to be done. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of this book to scan. This title is in the public domain.

Delavan L. Leonard [1834-1917], A Hundred Years of Missions or The Story of Progress Since Carey’s Beginning. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1895. Hbk. pp.430.  [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  1. The Christian Idea of Missions
  2. Missions in the Early Centuries
  3. Conversion of Northern and Western Europe
  4. The Non-Missionary Centuries
  5. Reformation ad Discovery of America
  6. Roman Catholic Missions
  7. Preparation For Foreign Missions
  8. Protestant Missions Before Carey
  9. The Carey Epoch
  10. The Great Missionary Revival
  11. Genesis of Missions in America
  12. The Phenomenon of Missionary Expansion
  13. Missions in India
  14. Missions in Africa; Madagascar
  15. The Islands of the Sea
  16. Turkish Empire: Persia
  17. Chinese Empire’ Korea
  18. Missions in Japan
  19. Missions in Spanish America
  20. Missions Among the American Indians
  21. The Land Which Remains to be Possessed

Introduction

It is sometimes a question how far an introduction helps the book it introduces. If the author is well known he needs no such formal entrance into the literary world; if he is as yet unfamiliar to a wide circle of readers, his book itself is his best recommendation.

Dickens used to say that it was an easy thing to ” come out into society, but a difficult thing to prevent going in again.” And so a book or an author that proves unworthy of the introduction to the public, cannot long float, notwithstanding the outside supports intended to give it buoyancy. [Continue reading]

History of Christianity in Japan

Herbert Moore [1863-1943], The Christian Faith in JapanThis book is a history of the growth of the church in Japan, focusing on the work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of the book to scan. This title is in the public domain.

Herbert Moore [1863-1943], The Christian Faith in Japan. Westminster: The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1904. Hbk. pp.151. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

  1. The Country
  2. The People
  3. The Years That Are Past
  4. The Awakening of Japan
  5. Buddhism in Japan
  6. Shinto
  7. The Heritage of the Ages
  8. Re-Laying the Foundations of the Church
  9. S.P.G. Work in Tokyo
  10. S.P.G. Work in Kobe
  11. The Edifying of the Body of Christ
  12. S.P.G. Work in Towns and Villages
  13. The More Distant Work of the Japan Church
  14. Things That Hinder
  15. Things That Help
  16. Looking Forward

Index

Prefatory Note

The aim of this little volume is not to give a complete account of missionary work in Ja pan, still less to provide a general description of the country or the people, but to afford to the general reader a sufficient introduction to both to enable him to appreciate the work which the ‘Holy Catholic Church of Japan’ has already accomplished, and its prospects of development in the immediate future. By far the greater number of professing Christians in Japan at the present time are attached to the Russian or the Roman Missions or to Missions started by various Non-conformist Bodies. It is from no desire to create a false impression of the importance, from a numerical standpoint, of the Japan Church that a detailed account of these other Missions has been omitted. The omission is simply due to exigencies of space. The Rev. Herbert Moore, to whom the Society is indebted for writing this account of its work, was a member of the St. Andrew’s Brotherhood, Tokyo, from 1891 to 1895 and was afterwards a missionary at Kobe for two years. [Continue reading]