uld either restore the
expunged words or else resign and give place to men who would restore
them and carry out the will of the donors. This act on the part of a
large majority of the delegates of the churches shows that a standard
of business morality is arising in Japan that promises well for the
future.

Before leaving this question, it is important for us to consider how
widely in lands which have long been both Christian and commercial,
the standards of truthfulness and business morality are transgressed.
I for one do not feel disposed to condemn Japanese failure very
severely, when I think of the failure in Western lands. Then, again,
when we stop to think of it, is it not a pretty fine line that we draw
between legitimate and illegitimate profits? What a relative
distinction this is! Even the Westerner finds difficulty in
discovering and observing it, especially so when the man with whom he
is dealing happens to be ignorant of the real value of the goods in
question. Let us not be too severe, then, in condemning the Japanese,
even though we must judge them to be deficient in ideals and conduct.
The explanation for the present state of Japan in regard to business
morality is neither far to seek nor hard to find. It has nothing
whatever to do with brain structure or inherent race character, but is
wholly a matter of changing social order. Feudal communalism has given
way to individualistic commercialism. The results are inevitable.
Japan has suddenly entered upon that social order where the
individuals of the nation are thrown upon their own choice for
character and life as they have been at no previous time. Old men, as
well as young, are thrown off their feet by the new temptations into
which they fall.

One of the strongest arguments in my mind for the necessity of a rapid
introduction into Japan of the Gospel of Christ, is to be built on
this fact. An individualistic social order demands an individualizing
religion. So far as I know, the older religions, with the lofty moral
teachings which one may freely admit them to have, make no determined
or even distinct effort to secure the activity of the individual will
in the adoption of moral ideals. The place both of "conversion" and of
the public avowal of one's "faith" in the establishment of individual
character, and the peculiar fitness of a religion having such
characteristics to a social order in which "individualism" is the
dominant principle, have not yet