The story of nineteenth century Reformed Christianity in Japan does not
begin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of Christian
missionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and interior history, as
we have hinted; while that of the Roman form and order is a story of
unbroken continuity, though the life of the tunnel is now that of the
sunny road. The parable of the leaven is first illustrated and then that
of the mustard-seed. Before Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent.
Let us now look from the interior to the outside.
On Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a sermon was
preached, and the hymn "Before Jehovah's Awful Throne" was sung, waking
the echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day of rest was honored on
this American squadron. In the treaty signed in 1854, though it was
made, indeed, with use of the name of God and terms of Christian
chronology, there was nothing upon which to base, either by right or
privilege, the residence of missionaries in the country. Townsend
Harris, the American Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his
hermit life at Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a
Dutch secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated
by ronins.
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