ot. This accounts for the astonishing change in the
anti-Christian spirit of the Japanese. This spirit did not cease at
once on the introduction of the new social order, nor indeed is it now
entirely gone. But the change from the Japan of thirty years ago to
the Japan of to-day, in its attitude toward Christianity, is more
marked than that of any great nation in history. A similar change in
the Roman Empire took place, but it required three hundred years. This
change in Japan may accordingly be called truly miraculous, not in the
sense, however, of a result without a cause, for the causes are well
understood.

Among the Christians, especially, the old order is rapidly giving way
to the new. Christianity has brought a new conception of woman and her
place in the home and her relation to her husband. Japanese Christian
girls, and recently non-Christian girls, are seeking an education
which shall fit them for their enlarging life. Many of the more
Christian young men do not want heathen wives, with their low estimate
of themselves and their duties, and they are increasingly unwilling to
marry those of whom they know nothing and for whom they care not at
all. Already the idea that love is the only safe foundation for the
home is beginning to take root in Japan. This changing ideal is
bringing marked social changes. In some churches an introduction
committee is appointed whose special function is to introduce
marriageable persons and to hold social meetings where the young
people may become acquainted. Here an important evolution in the
social order is taking place before our eyes, but not a few of the
world's wise men are too exalted to see it. Love and demonstrative
affection between husband and wife will doubtless become as
characteristic of Japan in the future as their absence has been
characteristic in the past. To recapitulate: these distinctive
characteristics of the emotional life of the Japanese might at first
seem to be so deep-rooted as to be inherent, yet they are really due
to the ideas and customs of the social order, and are liable to change
with any new system of ideas and customs that may arise. The higher
development of the emotional life of the Japanese waits now on the
reorganization of the family life; this rests on a new idea as to the
place and value of woman as such and as a human being; this in turn
rests on the wide acceptance of Christian ideals as to God and their
mutual relations. It involves, l