IV. The Orthodox Russian Church, presided over by Bishop Nicolaï, and served by 37 native priests and deacons, has had a mission in Japan ever since the year 1861. It claims a total following of over 27,000. The Russian cathedral, which was opened for worship in 1891, is the only ecclesiastical edifice in Tōkyō with any pretensions to splendour. From the eminence on which it stands, it seems to dominate the whole city.
V. General Considerations. To those who can look back forty, or even only thirty years, the varying fortunes through which Christianity has passed in Japan are most striking, indeed well nigh incredible. As late as 1870, it was perilous for a Japanese to confess Jesus. Later on, such confession became rather fashionable than otherwise. Then it was hard for a missionary to obtain a native teacher. Now there are hundreds of ordained and unordained native preachers and teachers of Christianity. The old proclamation, which, since A.D. 1638, had prohibited the religion of Jesus as "an evil sect," was still posted on the notice-boards of the public thoroughfares in 1873. The government now openly tolerates the building of churches and the performance of Christian funeral rites, in accordance with Article XXVIII of the new Constitution, which decrees that "Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief." Such were the strides made during the decade from 1878 to 1888 as to suggest the notion that in future the danger might be, no longer from persecution, but from worldly-minded favour. Some of the leaders of Japanese thought, while professing themselves personally indifferent to all religions, used then cold-bloodedly to advocate the adoption of Christianity as a school of morals and music, and as likely to be advantageous in political negotiations with the powers of the West! To make all Japan Christian by edict some fine morning, might not have been on the programme of the Japanese statesmen of the hour; but that something of the kind should happen before the end of the century, appeared far less unlikely than many things that have
