ant social order, rather than of inherent
race character. By a single transformation of the social order, Japan
passed from a state of perfect religious intolerance to one just the
reverse, so far as individual belief was concerned.

Taking a comprehensive review of our study thus far, we see that the
forms of Japanese religious life have been determined by the history,
rather than by any inherent racial character of the people. Although
they had a religion prior to the coming of any external influence,
yet they have proved ready disciples of the religions of other lands.
The religion of India, its esoteric, and especially its exoteric
forms, has found wide acceptance and long-continued popularity. The
higher life of the nation readily took on in later times the religious
characteristics of the Chinese, predominantly ethical, it is true, and
only slightly religious as to forms of worship. When Roman Catholic
Christianity came to Japan in the sixteenth century, it, too, found
ready acceptance. It is true that it presented a view of the nature of
religion not very different from that held by Buddhism in many
respects, yet in others there was a marked divergence, as for
instance, in the doctrine of God, of individual sin, and of the nature
and method of salvation. The Japanese have thus shown themselves ready
assimilators of all these diverse systems of religious expression.
Just at present a new presentation of Christianity is being made to
the Japanese; some are urging upon them the acceptance of the Roman
Catholic form of it; others are urging the Greek; and still others are
presenting the Protestant point of view. Each of these groups of
missionaries seems to be reaping good harvests. Speaking from my own
experience, I may say, that many of the Japanese show as great an
appreciation of the essence of the religious life, and find the ideas
and ideals, doctrines and ceremonies, of Christianity as fitted to
their heart's deepest needs, as do any in the most enlightened parts
of Christendom. It is true that the Christian system is so opposed to
the Buddhistic and Shinto, and in some respects to the Confucian, that
it is an exceedingly difficult matter at the beginning to give the
Buddhist or Shintoist any idea of what Christianity is. Yet the
difficulty arises not from the structure of the brain, nor from the
inherent race character, but solely from the diversity of hitherto
prevailing systems of thought. When once the pas