LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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288 TO EUROPE AND AMERICA AGAIN. have necessarily led us to take this step. It might also be charged by some that we are too ambitious to push the work. To such we would reply that we fear we are left behind the times. If we are destined to be the salt of the earth, we should not allow ourselves to be left behind. "Why should not we attempt to win and foster the rising youths who may lead the nation in the future? What the people in the North have done for elevating the blacks in the South, and what the people in the East have done in rearing up the new people in the West, by planting strong colleges and seminaries, besides sending them missionaries, may point out the true way for lifting up the coming race in Japan. If we confine ourscl ves simply to theo­logical instruction, the sphere of our influence in soci­ety may be limited only to Christian churches. But if we give them some studies other than theology, under thorough Christian instructors, there will Le a grand chance for us to grasp a certain class of the youths, and evangelize them within the school walls, whilst there might be no other ways to reach them. We believe Christianity is intended to benefit man­kind at large. Why should we not undertake to ex­tend our influence toward the l1igher sphere as well as toward the lower, that we might win all men to Christ? Why should we seriously object to raise up Christian statesmen, Christian lawyers, Christian editors, and Christian merchants, as well as Christian preachers and teachers, within the walls of ow· Christian insti­tutions? It is our humble purpose to save Japan through Christianity. The souls and bodies of our Orientals ought to be thoroughly purged, and conse­crated to Christ for establishing his glorious kingdom in the earth as in heaven. H we do not raise up men

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