sage from the one
system of thought to the other has been effected, and the significance
of the Christian system and life has been appreciated,--in other
words, when the Japanese Buddhist or Shintoist or Confucianist has
become a Christian,--he is as truly a Christian and as faithful as is
the Englishman or American.

Of course I do not mean to say that he looks at every doctrine and at
every ceremony in exactly the same way as an Englishman or American.
But I do say that the different point of view is due to the differing
social and religious history of the past and the differing
surroundings of the present, rather than to inherent racial character
or brain structure. The Japanese are human beings before they are
Japanese.

For these reasons have I absolute confidence in the final acceptance
of Christianity by the Japanese. There is no race characteristic in
true Christianity that bars the way. Furthermore, the very growth of
the Japanese in recent years, intellectually and in the reorganization
of the social order, points to their final acceptance of Christianity
and renders it necessary. The old religious forms are not satisfying
the religious needs of to-day. And if history proves anything, it
proves that only the religion of Jesus can do this permanently.
Religion is a matter of humanity, not of nationality. It is for this
reason that the world over, religions, though of so many forms, are
still so much alike. And it is because the religion of Jesus is
pre-eminently the religion of humanity and has not a trace of
exclusive nationality about it, that it is the true religion, and is
fitted to satisfy the deepest religious wants of the most highly
developed as well as the least developed man of any and every race and
nation. In proportion as man develops, he grows out of his narrow
surroundings, both physical and mental and even moral; he enters a
larger and larger world. The religious expressions of his nature in
the local provincial and even national stages of his life cannot
satisfy his larger potential life. Only the religion of humanity can
do this. And this is the religion of Jesus. The white light of
religion, no less than that of scientific truth, has no local or
national coloring. Perfect truth is universal, eternal, unchangeable.
Occidental or Oriental colorations are in reality defects,
discolorations.

XXIX

SOME PRINCIPLES OF NATIONAL EVOLUTION

And now, having studied somewhat in detail v