This is an exceedingly difficult task. When we think of how much labor and how many precious lives our own Christian literature has cost us, we begin to have some conception of the immensity of the task of creating a Christian {262} literature in a heathen land. In the first place, the missionary must have a complete mastery of the language,--in Japan an appalling task,--and then he must create the terms to express so many ideas. Many of our Christian ideas have no counterpart in non-Christian lands, and the very words to express them must be coined. A common device is to take words of kindred meaning and to make them serve the purpose, endeavoring to attach our own meaning to them by gradual processes of instruction and use. Thus with the words for God and sin in use by most missions in Japan. These words are _kami_ and _tsumi_. Now _kami_ is the word used for numerous mythological divinities, with natures very different from our God, and is also applied to the ancient heroes of Japan. As it expresses the idea better than any other word we have, we use it for God; but we must be careful always to explain the sense in which we use it. The word _tsumi_ means crime, or offense against the laws of the land. Our idea of sin is lacking in the Japanese mind, and hence there is no word that exactly expresses it. We take the word _tsumi_ as being nearest it, and endeavor to impart to it our own meaning. In this way we have not only to translate the ideas, but also to coin or modify the words to express them. This work of the missionary is very different {263} from that of translating English books into a European language which has a circle of ideas similar to our own, for there the words are found ready-made to express the ideas. Generally the first literary work to be done by missionaries is the translation and publication of portions of Scripture and of tracts. As soon as their knowledge of the language is sufficiently advanced, they translate the whole Bible and some good hymns. Then follow apologetical and evidential works, and treatises on theology and morality. Afterward biographical and devotional books, magazines, and Christian newspapers are published. We cannot overestimate the value of a good Christian newspaper. It will carry gospel truth to people whom the missionary and the native evangelist cannot reach, and it will help much to nourish and strengthen the life of the native converts. In such a paper the latter will probably see their religion set forth in all its relations to the questions of practical life in a way they seldom hear it done in sermons. I think parish papers, which are becoming so common at home, would also exert a splendid influence in Japan.