t
is a prisoners' home in T[=o]ky[=o], where one man, aided by his capable
and devoted wife, receives into his own family and gives aid and succor
to hundreds of society's outcasts. To this place came one day an
ex-convict who told a remarkable story of his conversion, and of his
desire to lead a new life. He had received a Bible from a little girl
one night in a house that he was robbing, but was too full of
professional engagements at the time to follow her advice and read it.
Later, however, as he was resting from his labors in the enforced
seclusion of a prison, he began to read, and spelled out enough to make
up his mind that he did not want to steal any more. Accordingly, as soon
as his term was ended, he made his way to the prisoners' refuge, and by
the aid of its founder and head, and his good wife, settled down to
steady habits of industry. Later, when the prison look had worn off from
his face and the prison gait from his walk, he returned to his family
and friends, where he is now a respectable member of the society upon
which he formerly preyed.

There are other stories showing as deep impressions made on men of
culture and respectability, not so striking and amusing as this one, but
meaning as much, or even more, for the future of Japan. Such things are
hardly possible in Christian countries to-day, for there is little or no
novelty in the message that the old book brings to us; but to the
Japanese mind the thoughts are absolutely new in many ways, and the
reading alone will often change the whole life, because it lifts up the
nature to a higher set of ideals.

As a direct effect of Christian thought upon the thought of the
Japanese nation, it is interesting to notice the change in meaning of
one word. In the teachings of Confucius the highest virtue is
benevolence, rendered into Japanese by the word _jin_; in the teachings
of Buddhism the highest virtue is mercy, or _jishi_. When the Christian
missionaries first came to Japan, there was no term in the language that
covered the thought of love as it is taught by Christ. For lack of
anything better, the word _ai_, which indicated the love of a superior
for an inferior, was made to do duty for the greater thought; and now
the old word _ai_, throughout the length and breadth of Japan, is
accepted and understood in its new meaning, a continual witness to the
effect of Christianity upon the national mind. Is this a little thing in
the education of a race that