Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And PsychicGulick, Sidney Lewis
History
Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic
Gulick, Sidney Lewis
Japan -- Civilization; Japan -- Social life and customs; National characteristics, Japanese
In this connection I may refer to an incident that came under my
notice some years ago. A young man applied for membership in the
Kumamoto Church, who at one time had been a student in one of my Bible
classes. I had not known that he had received any special help from
his study with me, until I heard his statement as to how he had
discovered his need of a Saviour, and had found that need satisfied in
Christ. In his statement before the examining committee of the church,
he said that when he first read the thirteenth chapter of 1
Corinthians, he was so impressed with its beauty as a poem that he
wrote it out entire on one of the fusuma (light paper doors) of his
room, and each morning, as he arose, he read it. This practice
continued several weeks. Then, as we continued our study of the Bible,
we took up the third chapter of John, and when he came to the
sixteenth verse, he was so impressed with its statement that he wrote
that beside the poem from Corinthians, and read them together.
Gradually this daily reading, together with the occasional sermons and
other Christian addresses which he heard at the Boys' School, led him
to desire to secure for himself the love described by Paul, and to
know more vitally the love of God described by John. It occurred to
him, that, to secure these ends, he should pray. Upon doing so he said
that, for the first time in his life, his unworthiness and his really
sinful nature overwhelmed him. This was, of course, but the beginning
of his Christian life. He began then to search the Scriptures in
earnest, and with increasing delight. It was not long before he wished
to make public confession of his faith, and thus identify himself with
the Christian community. This brief account of the way in which this
young man was brought to Christ illustrates a good many points, but
that for which I have cited it is the testimony it bears to the fact
that under similar circumstances the human heart undergoes very much
the same religious experience, whatever be the race or nationality of
the individual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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