To the remaining Missions at work in Japan we can only very briefly refer. The American Methodist Episcopal Church has eighteen missionaries and twenty-nine native ministers; fifty-eight churches; and a total following of nearly 4,000, exclusive of children in Sunday Schools. The Canadian Methodists number over 1,800 adults; and the Baptist Missionary Union (U.S.A.) about 1,300. Two other American sects place their total at 500 each. The German Swiss Protestants number 240; the "Universalists" seventy-eight; and the Society of Friends (U.S.A.) forty-three. The Scandinavian Church, whose mission has only recently commenced its work, has seven clergy engaged; and the Unitarians are represented by two ministers--my only reason for mentioning these last-named bodies together being that no further particulars of either are to hand.
But it is time to be bringing these remarks to a conclusion. We may, then, declare the total number in Japan of those professing Christianity in any form--[I should, by the way, have mentioned that the number of male converts would appear to exceed by about one-third the number of women,]--to be not more than 100,000; while the entire population of the country is estimated at from thirty-eight to forty millions. In other words, not more than one person in every 400 can be said to be, in any sense, a Christian. I emphasize this fact, not because I think it discouraging, but because it seems becoming the fashion for the cause of Christianity in Japan to be spoken of as already won. That Japan has still great changes and developments to undergo in the near future scarcely admits of question. "The nation is working out its spiritual redemption;" and, as Mr. Loomis well says in his letter to _The Christian_ before referred to, "As Japanese society advances, there will be all the more a place for Christian influence. _The social problems of the people can only find solution through religion._" We may well believe and hope that, as time goes on, the true faith of Jesus Christ and of His Church will more and more prevail. So, too, we may rejoice that the foundations have been laid, and that some real and steady progress has been effected; we may hope that more is, even now, being accomplished by the leaven of influence than can at present find place in tables and statistics. And yet, as we look the position boldly in the face, we must see that elements to occasion anxiety are by no means lacking; and especially must we see how much more remains to be done that has already been achieved. The possibility of some form of Christianity being adopted as the national religion, is a matter as to the desirability of which it is extremely difficult to express an opinion, until the proposition assumes a more definite shape than is likely for some time to be the case.