early all
of the heathen world, <i>is the spirit of stagnation</i>. There is a deadness,
or sort of stupor, over everything. It is as if a blight had spread over
the land, checking all progress. Habits, customs, and institutions remain
apparently as they were a thousand years ago. This stands out in sharp
contrast with the spirit of growth that marks Christian lands.

It seems strange to us because the spirit of growth is the atmosphere of
our western world, breathed in from infancy. The one word that seems
peculiarly to describe China is that word "stagnant." The people
themselves are remarkable both for their mental power and their habits of
industry. The Chinese may well be called the Anglo-Saxons of the Orient,
in latent power and mental character.

In our modesty we think the Anglo-Saxon, the English-speaking, the
greatest of living peoples. Certainly the leadership of the world is in
Anglo-Saxon hands, and has been for centuries. And the marvellous,
unprecedented progress of the world has been under that leadership.

Well, when these Chinese wake up we are very likely to find the race
getting a new leadership, and the history of the world a new chapter
added. What sort of leadership it will be morally, and what sort of a
chapter, will depend on how much statesmanship there is in our praying and
giving and missionary service. But the need is enormously intensified by
the unawakened power of these Chinese.

<u>West by Way of the East.</u>

Still moving east, we come to the newly awakened and very attractive
island-nation of Japan, which, because of its geographical and territorial
situation, has been called the Great Britain of the Orient. Japan stands
at present as the exception to the common stagnation of the heathen world.
It has made a record nothing less than phenomenal as a student of Western
life. It has absorbed, and imitated, and adapted to its own use, the
Western knowledge and spirit with a wonderful power and intelligence.

Japan is both bright and ambitious to an almost abnormal degree, and as
tricky in its dealings, and morally unclean in its life, as it is bright
and ambitious. They have been called the Frenchmen of the Orient, and that
characterization fits remarkably in many respects. Great progress has been
made in giving the Gospel to Japan, but the present moral need is
immensely intensified by the very aggressiveness of the Japanese spirit.

With Japan, the island-kingdom, it is easy