But not all of the foreigners in the open ports {284} of Japan are of this character. There are some good Christian men and women among the business classes, who are interested in all kinds of Christian work. And yet the prevailing tendency of the foreign business communities is against Christian work. (8) The last but not the least hindrance I will mention is the _language_. It has been said of both Chinese and Japanese that they were invented by the devil to keep Christian missionaries from speaking freely with the natives. Whether that be true or not, it certainly is true that Japanese is one of the most difficult languages on the globe. To know it well, three different languages must be acquired: spoken Japanese, written Japanese, and Chinese. The colloquial and the book language are quite different, the literary being partly Chinese. The latter is written by ideographs, and you must have a sign for each idea. About five thousand of these characters will enable one to get along, although there are probably fifty thousand in all. By a sheer act of memory to learn five thousand hideous characters is no little task. The colloquial itself is exceedingly difficult to use aright. My readers may be surprised to learn that of the missionaries laboring in Japan one third cannot speak the language intelligibly to the natives. It seems that many Occidentals, laboring never so hard, really cannot {285} acquire the language. One never feels sure in this language that he is saying just what he wants to say. If it were less difficult, so that missionaries could acquire complete command of it and use it as readily as they do their mother tongue, the work of evangelization would go on more rapidly. These, as I understand them, are the principal things which at present hinder the progress of Christianity in Japan. Some of them are inherent in the very nature of the work, and will be encountered to the end. Others, I believe, are transient, and will by and by pass away. {286} XV SPECIAL PROBLEMS In the broad sphere of labor which the missionary must fill he daily meets most difficult problems, whose solution requires the exercise of consummate judgment, skill, and patience. Although these problems are not given a prominent place in mission reports, and are not therefore very well known at home, they loom up mountain-high before every missionary. They have a practical importance in the field surpassed by none other. Men differ so widely in regard to their solution that they not infrequently work division in a mission. A brief presentation of some of these problems will enable the home churches better to understand our work and to sympathize with us, and will be of practical worth to those who contemplate coming to work in this field. The first problem to meet the missionary is, _how to deal with inquirers_. {287}