Opis: California Men, Vol. 1 - Associations Young Men's Christian

Excerpt from California Men, Vol. 1: June, 1910

Niwa in Korea and Hibbard in Dalny, with responsibility both for Manchuria and Korea, are the Association's concrete response to the call of this modern Macedonia.

The loss of Mr. Niwa from the Bible Study Movement in Japan will be a real one, but fortunately we are able to call upon a number of Christian professors and secretaries in different parts of the country to assist. For example, in January, I spent a week in the Island of Kyushu in company with local professors and secretaries, holding three excellent Bible Institutes which resulted in rooting the group idea more firmly. Three new groups were formed.

The progress made in Bible Study by Osaka under the guidance of Secretaries Sajima and Gleason has been one of the most encouraging features of the last few months. They now have some 329 men in average attendance in 27 Bible Classes each week, and they have worked out an interesting English Course in the Life of Christ.

The visit of the Japanese Commercial Commission to America has already told helpfully on the movement here. At a banquet tendered to Baron Shibusawa and several others of the commission, the Baron spoke emphatically of the service rendered by the Associations in America and expressed the hope that the Associations in Japan would soon be able to expand their equipment and activity so as to become an equally effective factor for character and efficiency.

The completion of the Kobe Building Lot Fund by a short term campaign was a unique event in Japanese Association history. The sum, for America, was not large - $15,000 in all - but no like amount had ever been raised for any Christian object in a single city in Japan. To be sure, three fifths of the amount had been secured by patient work during the past two and a half years, but the quick spurt at the end was due to the skilful guidance of H. A. Wilbur, the new secretary. Compared with raising $500,000 for Dayton's great building, $15,000 sounds like a bagatelle, but I venture to say that it cost Mr. Wilbur almost as much nerve force as the Dayton campaign; and it meant as much to the Kingdom.

For some time the tide has been setting in the direction of more effective co-operation between all the churches and missions for the reaching of the unevangelized masses, and it has seemed to the Association men that we should do everything in our power to further it. Consequently at the annual meeting of the Standing Committee of all the missions in Japan, in January, after a splendid address on the subject by Dr. Howard (former president of the Association at Otterbein University) I moved that a Committee of Missionaries and Japanese undertake a study of the whole Empire in order to determine what still remained to be done and what forces and institutions would be needed if the Empire were to be measurably Christianized within the next fifty years.

Then, in February, I was unexpectedly asked to write a paper on that very subject for the Edinburgh World's Missionary Conference, so that I had to make a hurried but comprehensive study of the question. This involved numerous interviews with Christian leaders, and gave some stimulus to the trend toward co-operation and toward grappling with the needs of the whole Empire.

In Osaka, Sajima and Gleason have been instrumental in getting all the churches lined up for a city-wide and county-wide campaign of evangelism and Bible Study that has already brought in hundreds of converts and inquirers and gives promise of bigger things to follow.

Mr. Hibbard's temporary stay in Tokyo prior to beginning work in Dalny has incidentally helped the Tokyo Directors to raise $1300 in a few days, making possible a new student hostel just behind the city building, for the Commercial College men. It has also been a great delight to me to have him as neighbor and daily counsellor. If it were not for the great work that beckons

Szczegóły: California Men, Vol. 1 - Associations Young Men's Christian

Nazwa: California Men, Vol. 1 June, 1910 (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Associations Young Men's Christian
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781332156603
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 58
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: California Men, Vol. 1 - Associations Young Men's Christian