MR. J. ISHII, of Okayama, is perhaps the most widely known of living Japanese Christians. So many inquiries have been received in regard to the man and his work that a brief record of the leading events of his life, taken mainly from his lips, will here be given.

Mr. Ishii was born at · Takanabe, on the island of Kiushiu, in April, 1865. His parents were Samurai of good standing, his father having been a highly respected official in the local Public Works Department. His mother embraced Christianity in 1888, his father, though a believer in the Western religion, never having made a confession of public Christ. The boy was early sent to school and his training was carefully watched.

At the age of eleven or twelve young Ishii's attention was first called to the Christian religion. Strange and crude as that experience was, he marks it as the first in a chain of causes bringing about his present religious condition. In

MR. ISHII.

reading a translation of Peter Parley's History of the World, he saw a representation of the cross in a picture of the Crusaders. A school friend told him that if he worshiped the cross unseen by others he could work magic (maho); so he tried it often, saying over when by himself, "Christo Jiuji gun Dono

(O Christ, Lord of the Army of the Cross)." Mr. Ishii dates his first idea of an unseen, all-powerful God, and of prayer, from that crude boyish experience. At the age of fifteen young Ishii was sent to a private school in Tōykō for a year, where he remembers seeing a foreign missionary. Here he became involved in the political excitements of the times, and on his returning home he ventilated his views on politics. One night he dreamed that the police came and seized him. The next morning, to his great astonishment, the dream was fulfilled. Two policemen marching in took him to prison, from which he was only released after forty days' imprisonment. His dream, and what followed it, led to a fuller belief in an invisible God, and this Mr. Ishii regards as the second in the chain of causes resulting in his present faith.

Shortly after this he was married. In 1882 he became a policeman for a while. At this time, on consulting a physician, Dr. Ogiwara, he received, aside from his medicines, some sound advice on morals and religion. He was deeply impressed and decided to study medicine. He had no Bible and had heard but little about Christ, but he had learned from Dr. Ogiwara that faith, hope, and love were the three fundamentals of Christianity. Coming to Okayama in August, 1882, he sought a Bible-seller, who, through some misapprehension, took him to be one of a company of mischievous students who had lately troubled his family. So young Ishii, being repelled, turned to the Roman Catholics and was treated with marked kindness. He studied with them for one year and became an earnest supporter of that faith. But later, on observing that the Catholics had no Bible as the Protestants had, he turned to the latter, purcahsing a New Testament and calling upon Pastor Kanamori. On November 2, 1884, he publicly entered the Protestant communion, being rebaptized at his own request, and against the advice of the pastor. At this time he met Koume Sumiya, whom all would name as the most devoted Christian woman in Okayama. They were kindred spirits. He named her the mother of his faith, and aimed from that time at a spirit and consecration like hers. To this date he goes to her for counsel and sympathy in every experience. We may add here that his wife was baptized in 1886, and has since, quietly but conscientiously, aided her husband in all his philanthropic schemes.

In July, 1884, occurred an event which not only helped him forward in the divine life, but gave him his first impulse toward humanitarian activity. At his home in Takanabe, he read of the gifts to Joseph Neesima, by an old man and an old woman in America, of two dollars each for the establishment of a Christian college in Japan. That these poor old people should give money for use in a distant land was a new idea to him, and from that time he devoted his life to the welfare of others. He opened at once, in an old Shinto shrine on the edge of the town, a night-school for poor children. On his return to Okayama at the end of the summer the school was continued by one of the boys he had saved out of beggary. For four years this enterprise was kept up, Mr. Ishi. furnishing the funds and the faith. He testifies that as often as he forgot to pray in Okayama for the Takanabe school a letter was sure to come from his assistant. saying, “The school is running down." Then more earnest prayer in Bizen was followed by a letter from Hiuga, "All goes well again." This not once, but many times.

The following August (1885), while living in a Japanese house belonging to the missionaries at Okayama, he read a translation by the famous scholar Nakamura, of Smiles's Self-help. He was profoundly impressed by the testimony of Dr. Guthrie," the Apostle of the Ragged School movement," as to the influence exerted upon his lifework by the example of John Pounds, the humble Portsmouth cobbler, who "while earning his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, had rescued from misery and saved to society not less than five hundred of these poor children." Like Dr. Guthrie, Mr. Ishii could say, "I felt ashamed of myself; I felt reproved for the little I had done. I was astonished at this man's

achievements." He wrote in his journal at the time, "I believe myself born for that purpose, and I will follow Guthrie's example in imitating Pounds."

In order to aid a fellow-student, aside from supporting himself, Ishii, while a student in the medical school, went out at night as a massage shampooer, working at this exhausting profession until nearly or quite midnight, then arising at four to study, that he might hold his high place among the first three of his class.

In December, 1886, George Muller came to Japan. The following February, while boarding in the house of a Christian, Ishii heard a letter read from the son of the household, then a theological student at the Doshisha, describing Mr. Muller and his visit to Kyōto, and dwelling on the "life of faith" of that wonderful man. Again deep thoughts were stirred in his mind. Then first he understood something of what is meant by those words in common use in Japan, "Living heavenly Father and his love." Then first he committed his life and

all to God and his service. Heretofore his purpose had been to serve God in some way after graduation. Now he decided to begin at once and for children. This he numbers third in the list of great causes that led him to his lifework. Though suffering from brain trouble, he went to Kamiachi, some twelve miles east of Okayama, and began practising medicine to support himself. The house adjoining the one where he roomed was a miserable hovel, frequented by the very poor. One day in June a beggar woman with two children stopped there and remained over night. Noticing that the family was very needy Mr. Ish stepped in and gave a bowl of his own rice to the eight-year-old boy. The lad immediately passed it over to his younger sister, who was a cripple. The mother was out begging for a breakfast. Returning later she called on Mr. Ishii and thanked him heartily for his kind act. A little sympathy and persuasion loosed the woman's tongue and she told a pitiful story. Her husband had died; she was now begging her way back to Bingo, her old province, hoping against hope to secure work there. She said, "I could support myself and the crippled gini, but I can't earn enough in addition for the boy." Mr. Ishii, prompt to act upon his newly formed rule of life, at once offered to adopt the boy. The motherlove was strong and the woman hesitated. Mr. Ishii begged her to give him up for the sake of all of them. At last the woman consented on condition that the boy might be returned to her every night. This arrangement was followed for a week, Mr. Ishii caring for the boy through the day only. After a week's trial the mother was convinced of Mr. Ishii's sincerity of purpose and committed the boy entirely to his charge. This was the first child in Mr. Ishii's adopted family. The boy still lives and is frequently shown to audiences as "the original orphan." With such pains was the work begun which speedily grew into an organized asylum for needy children.

In July, 1887, occurred what Mr. Ishii reckons as the fourth and final cause for the opening of the Orphanage. He learned of a poor fisherman and his wife who, though but slightly removed from starvation themselves, adopted a little girl of three and a boy of five, left by parents and two older brothers, all dead from cholera. The heartless neighbors were about to bury the younger child in the coffin with its mother, it being nearly dead from starvation and no one to care for it. Two thoughts came home to the young physician with great force first, the pitiable condition of orphans; and next, that if those who know nothing of the great love of Christ can show such kindness as those poor fishers, what ought not we Christians to do? Dare we do less than they?

He returned to Okayama, conferred with his trusty advisers, and in September. 1887, rented a part of a large temple of the Zen sect (Buddhist), moved in with his family, and quietly opened his Asylum for needy children. He began with the boy whose story I have told above and two other lads whom had he picked up. He had no resources but his own abounding faith and devoted spirit. Since that day of momentous decision, the institution has grown steadily in numbers, influence, and good works. It has passed through many trials, bet they have served only to strengthen its founder's faith in spiritual verities. It has been reduced at times to its last pot of gruel, but the prayer of faith has brought relief and sometimes just at the moment of dire need. Mr. Ishii has never refused shelter to any needy applicant. His home has become so widely known

especially since the earthquake, that he is forced to inquire carefully into the actual needs of each case, so as not to be imposed upon by the shiftless and the lazy. Quietly conferring with the children after the terrible earthquake in November last, he infused his own self-forgetful spirit into them. They were as ready as he to give for those needier than themselves. Subscribing thirteen

dollars out of their own poverty they started out to solicit aid from others. The local Salvation Army took up the work under Mr. Ishii's lead, and has raised from Japanese sources over $1,100 in money and 1,700 articles of clothing. A branch asylum was opened at Nagoya, and seventy-seven earthquake orphans are cared for there and at the main home in Okayama.

Feeling that his Home was imperfect so long as the children were cared for