models of all the virtues, while there is with many of them
a tendency to modify their Christianity so as to accommodate a
considerable amount of worldly wisdom, it is true, on the other hand,
that the most active workers in the cause of philanthropy are men who
have accepted the Christian faith, and who are striving in all
earnestness to model their lives after the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Christian Church in Japan to-day has its heroes and its
back-sliders, and has between these two extremes a rank and file of
every-day, commonplace men and women, who amidst frequent failures and
in the midst of many temptations are making the name of Christian stand
for a certain kind of life and a certain standard of virtue quite above
and beyond the lives and standards of their countrymen. It is largely
because of them that a Christian public opinion is growing up among
non-Christian Japanese. Men to-day who have no special leanings toward
Christianity shake their heads over vices and sins which a few years ago
were not even thought of as wrong. There is a great deal of talk about
the growth of moral depravity in the country, but as a matter of fact,
the standards of virtue have never been so high since Japan was opened
as they are to-day: it is only that Christian thought has held up a
mirror to an un-Christian society, in which it views all too clearly its
own defects. There is, to my mind, no more hopeful sign of the times
than the growing discouragement over the present condition of morals.
When there is added to this a steadily increasing respect for the
honesty and strength of character of Christian men and women, it must
mean that a great and lasting impression has been made. To-day banks,
business offices, and other places requiring trustworthy clerks and
employees, prefer, other things being equal, Christian young men, for it
is generally known that they are more worthy of confidence than the
majority of applicants for such places.

One instance of this increased moral sensitiveness may be cited in the
recent successful efforts to limit the power of the brothel-keepers over
their victims and virtual slaves, the _j[=o]r[=o]_ or licensed
prostitutes. As I have stated in a previous chapter, the women who carry
on this business in Japan are, many of them, unwilling victims of a
system which allows parents to sell their children to a life of shame;
and they enter upon that life so young that they can hardly be regarded
a