Buddhists of Japan to the Peace Conference, calling it to lay the foundations of a peace which should be impartial and lasting, and showing the contribution which Buddhism may make to such a peace, and to mutual respect and good-will among the nations. How little did men at Paris heed the saying of the Buddha, "Hatred is never cured by hatred: only by love is it cast out"-and we still may learn much from this great teacher if we will.

Within Japan itself the Socialist party has grown steadily stronger and extremists are not wanting, as the authorities are well aware; chauvinists and imperialists realize that there is a steadily rising tide of liberalism, and especially amongst students and merchants is this true. Unorganized at present they are not lacking in courage and initiative, as is shown by the recent exploit of a boy of seventeen, who without a cent in his pocket walked through Korea, and then reported to the government that the people were ready to be friendly and challenged the present system of terrorization. Compare this sturdy courage with another boy who some years ago stirred the country deeply by killing himself as a protest against a world that was not worth living in; and with the feeble and decadent aestheticism of some of the students of Japan, who ape the worst of our Western decadents and show a hankering for the perverted and the bizarre, and a restless seeking after new sensations.

Of peculiar interest is the attitude of Buddhists to political questions. Their admirable letter to the Peace Conference is only one side of the story; they are also engaging in a PanAsiatic propaganda natural enough in the circumstances, of which the slogan "Back to Buddhism" means to many who use it “Asia for the Asiatics"—an Asia united by the ancient faith which once drew all its lands within its friendly net. Just so in India "Back to the Vedas" is the slogan of the Nationalist movement. It is a reasonable plea in either case, if it aims at resisting the exploitation of Asia by Western powers; I

personally wonder at the amazing patience of China and at the great courtesy of Japan in face of affronts and despoliation. But the cry is not altogether sincere, and it is significant that as soon as the Buddhists of Tokyo started the movement two years ago those of Peking set on foot a counter-move! And while in Korea Buddhism has apparently made no attempt to rebuke militarism and autocracy, but is rather helping the government in its ruthless policy of assimilation, the Buddhists of China are offering their religion as the best basis for the new democracy. Christians will remember with shame that they too have sometimes taken their religion less seriously than their patriotism; Jingo was an empress of Japan, but she reappears in other lands! And I was reminded of a saying of Dr. Orchard in England during the war, that he could blaspheme God in his pulpit and no one took offence, but that if he attacked the British Navy his mailbag was full to bursting the next morning.

III

It is only great souls in any land who really know with Edith Cavell that "patriotism is not enough," and we can hardly wonder that Buddhists in Japan are conservatives. Still less can we expect Shintoists to do anything "unwise," for devoted lip-service of the Imperial House is both of their "bene esse" and of their "esse," and they are sure that Heaven is on the side of Japan. Meantime chauvinism and imperialism are linking themselves with the revival of the old Shinto cult in ways that are well-nigh incredible, and that deserve close study as symptomatic of the present spiritual unrest. The death of the great Emperor Meiji Tenno led to a wave of religious enthusiasm, and the shrine recently opened in his honor is already a rallying-center for the national sentiment. Movements like Tenri-kyō and Omoto-kyō have gathered round them an amazing multitude of adherents of all classes, "patrioteers," megalomaniacs, earnest seekers, and many of the weakminded. Especially in the ranks of retired officers of

army and navy does Omoto-kyō recruit its most ardent supporters. "These men," says Dr. Anesaki, "whose only religion is their patriotism, could not escape the influence of the present spiritual uneasiness. They are readily attracted to any mystery, such as divination or god-possession, and find in these beliefs sanction for military enthusiasms." For these sects depict a new world with Japan at its head, they claim to work spiritual and mental cures, and they seem to pander especially to those who have much leisure and limited intelligence.

But that is by no means the whole story. Let us look more closely at Omoto-kyō which is attracting great numbers, and which has its magazines and even its daily paper a thing which the entire Protestant Christian church is apparently unable to achieve in any part of Asia, a thing which it ought to do at once. The founder of this sect was an old lady born in 1836, uneducated, and claiming to be the incarnation of a Shinto deity, who will shortly reconstruct the world with Japan as its leader, for so only can the human race be prevented from exterminating itself in slaughter. Her O Fudesaki"honorable writings"-are said to fill from five to ten thousand volumes, and to have been written in ecstasy, and are scribbled in an almost illegible hand; yet they have captured the allegiance of men of real scholarship like Mr. Asano Wasaburo, who has translated Shakespeare for the Japanese, and of many shrewd business men. Here is a specimen of them as translated in the Kobe Chronicle:

The world has passed under the sway of the Country of the Gods, which is as fine as the plum-blossoms, and whose rule is strong as the pine-tree. Japan must be governed by Shinto, for it is a country which cannot do without the help of the gods. Foreign countries are under the reign of brutes, the strong have the upper hand and devils abound. Japan has also come under the sway of brutes; but this will not do, and the god has appeared in order to rebuild three thousand worlds. This world is going to be turned into a new one. Three thousand worlds are to be subjected to a great cleansing, so that the Country of the Gods may hold rule in the world in peace forever. . . . . The minds of men are now perverted, and the world turned upside down; the upper and governing class are doing nothing good.

And there follows a prophecy that a good time is coming for the under dog, and that Japan as the Country of the Gods must cleanse herself from evil spirits, that she may be of service to a needy world.

Is there not something in it? We can get a glimpse from these few words of its appeal to world-weary folk, of its power over the retired officer, who in all countries likes to growl that the world is going to the dogs, and to criticize his own land while yet he plans her supremacy, and of its hold on young reformers, of whom Japan is full. The headquarters of Omoto-kyō are thronged too with those who desire to have their evil spirits exorcised; it is a religion that claims to work, and such are in great demand! But unfortunately it seems to encourage the belief in animal and demon-possession and has driven eccentric and weak-minded folk mad, until in the island of Formosa it has been necessary to forbid its practice of this art. Its adherents seem to dislike barbers and toothbrushes, and Japanese visitors to the headquarters at Ayabe near Kyōto are often alienated by this rather unprepossessing trait; "everything that meets your eyes and ears is unprepossessing, not to say odious. . You feel yourself oppressed and menaced. This is particularly the case in the evening when . . . . amidst the semi-darkness pervading the precinct you see long-haired people going the round of the temples by twos or threes, muttering and clapping their hands, while from a distant temple you hear a dreary voice slowly recounting that the world is inhabited by nothing but demons, serpents and four-legged brutes. . .. You feel as if you were no longer in a human world."

How different all this is from the exquisite orderliness, the splendid intoned services, the gorgeous vestments, and the dignity of a great Buddhist temple such as that at Chionji. I visited it with an experienced missionary, and she was deeply stirred by the beauty and the sincerity of it all; as Mr. Cram has said, it is worthy to rank with St. Mark's, Venice, and its worship is paid to Amitabha, a being of compassion

and goodness far more appealing one would think than the deity incarnate in an illiterate old woman. Yet Omoto-kyō has ten thousand preachers, and its adherents are said to be increasing steadily, for like the vigorous and noisy Nichiren sect of Buddhism it panders to the chauvinist; like Christianity it aims at rebuilding a shaken world; like Christian Science it promises physical healing; and like Theosophy it is eclectic. Perhaps more significant still it is shrewd in its use of the press, and in its appeal to the mysterious. There are some things in it from which we need not be too proud to learn, above all this wise statesmanship in devoting a daily paper to its propaganda; and this leads on.

IV

What of the Christian church in Japan? So much has been written on this subject by those better qualified than I that I shall be very brief, and merely state my conviction as to the kind of Christianity that may be expected to win her allegiance. I take for granted that it must be sincere and earnest; but it must also be fearless alike in its theological thinking and in its social application of the teachings of Jesus. Already the Japanese are thinking more liberally than many of their teachers, and already the Japanese church is producing some fearless opponents of chauvinism and imperialism; it may need its martyrs yet. Next it must get alongside the Buddhists in much more cordial and sympathetic relationships, and its followers must study more closely and fair-mindedly this amazing religion which has done so much for Asia as to be a veritable Praeparatio Evangelica. Whilst some wise missionaries and many younger Japanese leaders accept this position, many, perhaps the majority, are too ready to condemn without study and to compare the best in their own religion with the worst in Buddhism; this is unscientific as well as grossly unfair.

Next I would emphasize the need for enabling Japanese scholars to secure the leisure and the atmosphere needed for constructive thinking; the need of Christian literature of the