of these three verses there are at least fifteen words and a number of grammatical inflections and constructions not found in ordinary colloquial and not all clear to an uneducated person. But if the friends are made to use very polite language the result is incongruous. If they are made to speak familiarly, the conversation sounds too much like slang for the Bible. It may be remarked, by the way, that the writer after devoting eight years to the study of the Japanese colloquial finds in himself an alarming predilection for English slang. This may throw some light on missionary perplexities in regard to the language. The translators of the Bible, while they could not adopt a colloquial style, did the next best thing in choosing the "Yamato language," i. e., pure native words. Their work is much admired and will no doubt have an important influence on the future of the language.

The radical evil, as has been said, lies in the divorce of the literary and colloquial forms of speech. Such an abuse is impossible in a truly Christian civilization, where there is regard for the essential dignity of man as man, but is entirely consonant with the Buddhistic doctrine of pure and undefiled religion for the learned only, while the multitude which knows not the law is cheerfully abandoned to a second-class religion of idolatry and superstition. It is this consideration that makes the missionary to Japan feel that he has to deal not only with pagan temples and pagan customs but even with a pagan language.

A few words should be added in regard to the more obvious phase of the matter, the question of the religious vocabulary. The Buddhists have an elaborate terminology derived from India through the Chinese. Their pronunciation of the Chinese elements, being derived originally from the southern provinces of China, is also peculiar. The modern reaction of nationalism against Buddhism has extended even to the question of pronunciation. Many Japanese, for example, pronounce the name Tōkyō (East Capital) Tōkei. Sounds

like kyō, myō, shō, for kei, mei, sei, have Buddhistic associations. The new compounds which now flood the language follow the purer, classical sounds known as Kanon (sounds of Kan or Han).

It is almost needless to say that the distinctive Buddhistic terms are carefully avoided by Christians. Theologians have comparatively little difficulty in forming new compounds free from Buddhistic taint. As compared with the language of a barbarous people, Japanese offers many advantages to the scholar. But in interpreting the Gospel to the common people the preacher is much hampered by the pagan and even antichristian associations of some of the words which he must use.

The word for "God" is kami. Etymologically it means "above." Like the German "Herr" it has been used also of human lords, and in the form o kami san may even denote "the lady of the house." In the sense of "God" kami is represented by a Chinese character commonly applied to any one of the "eight hundred myriads" of deities of the native Shinto cult, as in the phrase so often used by the government, kami hotoke (gods and buddhas). As there is ordinarily no distinction between singular and plural in the colloquial, the reader may imagine how cautious a speaker must be in using the term, usually qualifying it by such adjectives as "one, true, living," etc.

Not to weary the reader too much, only a few more examples may be given. The word for "righteousness" utterly lacks the virility of the English word. The dictionary defines it as "disinterestedness." In the minds of the people it denotes being faithful to an engagement, doing what one's relations to other men demand without regard to selfish considerations. It perplexes the Japanese to be told of the righteousness or love of God. To them "love" is fondness, a weakness of which a man ought to be ashamed. "Sin" is associated with offenses of which the police take cognizance. Liberty "suggests being free from the restrictions of poverty, being able to do as one pleases. "Chastity" is defined as the constancy

We are still groping

or loyalty of a woman to her husband.
about for a word to denote social purity in general.

Finally, a word in regard to the nature of the Chinese characters may be in order; for some of them are indelibly stamped with the spirit of paganism.

The ideograms are of two kinds. The simplest and most common are evidently derived from picture-writing, or originated in the fancy of some ancient scribe. Thus the character made by combining "woman" and "child" is "loveliness " or fondness ; a woman under a roof indicates "tranquility"; but the sign for woman thrice repeated makes the ideogram for "depravity." This last character, so long as it remains in use, will shout from the housetops the doctrine of the essential wickedness of the feminine nature.

The great majority of the characters are composed of two parts, one, the "radical," indicating the kind of object, the other the "phonetic " used in an arbitrary way to indicate the sound. In ancient times "city" was shi and "elder sister" was also shi. Now by combining "woman" and shi (city) we get the feminine thing called shi, i. e., elder sister. A glance over the characters that come under the radical for

woman" is a lesson in the pagan conception of the feminine nature. The feminine thing called mō is "disorder"; the feminine thing called bō is "hindrance," etc. The ancients were evidently misogynists.

A leading native professor in one of our Christian institutions once hazarded the assertion that "a Japanese is not thoroughly converted until he has learned the English language." This startling dictum is intended to be epigrammatic, of course, and is not to be taken literally. English is named not because it is inherently superior to the German or any other language of Christendom. The professor himself is master of both German and English and personally prefers the former. But English happens to be the missionary language in Japan. It would not be right to give the impression that a Japanese who reads and thinks only in his mother-tongue cannot have the

faith that overcomes the world and persevere in his personal Christian life. But, after all proper deductions are made, the saying quoted above does but emphasize a fact abundantly proved by missionary experience. The Christian who breathes no intellectual atmosphere but that afforded by the Japanese language is, humanly speaking, not so able to stand alone and not so fit to be a leader in the Church as the man who has learned to think in English. English not only gives the Japanese student access to a rich Christian literature, but it also helps unconsciously to alter his whole mental habit. Our educational institutions in Japan exist for the sake of the few chosen of the Lord to lead His Church there. They are intended to sift out the spiritually and intellectually elect. These chosen few will in time dominate not only Christian thought but also linguistic development in Japan. For their sake we continue to make English the principal item in our curricula, though this involves exposing ourselves to the reproaches of a Warneck, who says that our American version of the Lord's last command is, "Go and teach all nations English."

V.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JUSTIN MARTYR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

BY CALVIN K. STAUDT, A.M.

Nothing is of greater importance in the history of Christian doctrine than a study of landmarks. As there are epochs and crises in the political and social sphere, so there are epochs and crises in the development of Christian doctrine. Whenever the Christian religion was confronted with a crisis, God had prepared a man to carry out his divine plans. When Roman Catholicism had degenerated and had held the people in ecclesiastical bondage, Luther appeared and led them into the path of grace and freedom. When men were longing for a knowledge of sin and grace in terms of legalism, Augustine came forth and wrought out his theology. Likewise, when Christianity and Greek philosophy were antagonistic to each other, Justin rose and bridged the chasm which existed between these two systems.

The period to which Justin belongs-the first three quarters of the second century—is the most significant, the most interesting, and yet, in a way, the most obscure section in all Church history. Because of its nearness to the Apostolic Age, and because of the sudden and subtle transformation of the religion of Christ at this time, this period has always aroused careful and repeated investigation from students both of the New Testament and of Church history. Justin has become a bone of contention between Catholics and Protestants, between conservatives and radicals. And because of the scantiness of literary remains of the age, his writings are differently interpreted and his place in history variously estimated.

In order to show the significance of Justin in the development of doctrine, it is necessary to assume a point of view.