Reformed Christianity in Japan does not
begin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of Christian
missionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and interior history, as
we have hinted; while that of the Roman form and order is a story of
unbroken continuity, though the life of the tunnel is now that of the
sunny road. The parable of the leaven is first illustrated and then that
of the mustard-seed. Before Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent.
Let us now look from the interior to the outside.

On Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a sermon was
preached, and the hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne" was sung, waking
the echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day of rest was honored on
this American squadron. In the treaty signed in 1854, though it was
made, indeed, with use of the name of God and terms of Christian
chronology, there was nothing upon which to base, either by right or
privilege, the residence of missionaries in the country. Townsend
Harris, the American Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his
hermit life at Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a
Dutch secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated
by ronins.

Without ship or soldier, overcoming craft and guile, and winning his way
by simple honesty and perseverance, Mr. Harris obtained audience[23] of
"the Tycoon" in Yedo, and later from the Sh[=o]gun's daring minister Ii,
the signature to a treaty which guaranteed to Americans the rights of
residence, trade and commerce. Thus Americans were enabled to land as
citizens, and pursue their avocation as religious teachers. As the
government of the United States of America knows nothing of the religion
of American citizens abroad, it protects all missionaries who are
law-abiding citizens, without regard to creed.[24]

Japan Once More Missionary Soil.

The first missionaries were on the ground as soon as the ports were
open. Though surrounded by spies and always in danger of assassination
and incendiarism, they began their work of mastering the language. To do
this without trained teachers or apparatus of dictionary and grammar,
was then an appalling task. The medical missionary began healing the
swarms of human sufferers, syphilitic, consumptive, and those scourged
by small-pox, cholera and hereditary and acute diseases of all sorts.
The patience, kindness and persistency of these Christian men literally
turned the e