To sum up the desired intellectual qualifications: a missionary to Japan should have a good mind, well disciplined by thorough training; an abundant supply of common sense; linguistic ability, and the power of self-control. {206} There is one other qualification, that can hardly be classed under any of the above heads, i.e., _the missionary should be a married man_. The vast majority of missionaries in the field to-day are unanimous in this judgment. The experience of the various mission boards and societies also confirms it, and they are sending out fewer single men each year. Married men make more efficient workers for many reasons. They enjoy better health and are better satisfied. They have a home to which they can go for rest and sympathy, and in which they can find agreeable companionship. They have the loving ministrations of a wife in times of sickness and despondency, and they also have the cheer and relaxation of children's society. All of these things tend to make the missionary healthier and happier, and enable him to do better work. Again, he should be married because a man of mature years who is single is regarded with more or less suspicion. To the Japanese celibacy is an unnatural state, and it is seldom found. Most unmarried men here are immoral, and therefore the unmarried missionary is naturally suspected of leading an immoral life, which cripples his influence. But the strongest argument in favor of married as against single missionaries is that the former {207} alone are able to build Christian homes. The homes of single men are very poor things at best, and certainly cannot be pointed to as models. But the married man establishes a Christian home in the midst of his people, and sets them a concrete example of what Christian family life should be. This example is one of the most potent influences for good operating on the mission field. In home life perhaps more than in any other respect Japanese society is wanting. The renovation of the home is one of the crying needs of the hour. An open Christian home, exhibiting the proper relations between husband and wife, parents and children, will do much toward bringing this about. This argument is not intended to apply against single women who come out to teach in the girls' schools. Their work is entirely different, and is such as can be done best by single women. The argument applies only to the missionary engaged in evangelistic work. Such I believe to be the qualifications essential to successful mission work in Japan. To many the requirements may seem too strict. But the work to which the missionary is called is a high and noble one, and the ideal for a worker should be correspondingly high. The extreme difficulty of the work, and its great expense, make it imperative that only men adapted to it be sent out. {208}