GREAT JAPANESE REFORMER.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20909, 17 July 1933, Page 9

GREAT JAPANESE REFORMER.

TEE WORK OF TOYOHIKO KAGAWA. REV. ALAN WATSON'S ADDRESS. The life and work of Toyohiko Kagawa, and his influence in the church militant in Japan, were discussed by the Rev. Alan Watson when he continued his series of addresses on "Significant Men and Movements of To-day" at St. Paul's Church last evening. "When a Hebrew prophet wanted to drive home some religious truth his favourite phrase was 'See what the Lord hath done,"' began Mr Watson. 'This method of witnessing to truth is not out of date. 'Come, let us see what God is doing,' General Gordon used to say as he opened his newspaper. If God was ever at work in the world He is at work to-day." A Great Personality. There was no more amazing or significant a personality in the whole world than Toyohiko Kagawa, scholar, author, social reformer, labour leader, teacher, Christian minister, evangelist, and mystic. He was a force to be reckoned with in East and West. After an unhappy boyhood he entered a mission college in Japan He took Bible lessons for the one purpose of improving his English, but the contents of the Book laid hold of him, especially the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He became a Christian and decided to give his life to the poor. At the age of 21 he went to live in the slums of Kobe, amid the ten thousand degraded and depressed slum-dwellers. His living quarters were of the most primitive nature, six feet square. There he remained for 15 years, as friend of the poor, evangelist, teacher, labour organiser. For it soon became apparent to Kagawa that the method of putting an ambulance at the foot 'of the cliff was not enough. He organised the first labour union in Japan, and had continued to be one of the outstanding leaders of the industrial workers. As in similar movements in other.lands, the first move for better labour omtditkswi came from a man who beneied intensely in a personal God, and therefore in the value of human personality. Not content with his work in the cities, Kagawa had also organised a farmers' union, whose aim was the improvement of agricultural methods and raising the standard of living. After the terrible 1923 earthquake, when 100,000 lost their lives, Kagawa was a member of the National Commission of Reconstruction, and

carried through an immense programme Again, in 1931, his assistance was called in by the mayor of Tokyo, and he became head of the large social welfare bureau, with Ms 800 employees. He refused the salary of £IBOO, but devoted himself to the task of relieving Timnuufcijuaent. Within five months he had revised and carried through a scheme of" insurance which guaranteed work or r-tistenance to the unemployed. His chief work, however, was in connexion with the "Kingdom of God" movement, whose aim was to evangelise, educate, and permeate the whole of Japanese life. It was probably the boldest venture is Christian history. Significant Work. "This challenging Christian leader of 45 is significant from many posits of view," continued Mr Watson. "He asserts the power of love over against all forms of violence:—"Love alone can subdue the world. Conquest by the sword is but for the moment. It has no real validity. I protest against every church which preaches faith and fails to love. I oppose the politicians who rely on force. But love cannot be born in a day. Therefore the mob chooses the jeasy way of the sword.' He be- , lieves, and practises his belief, that the Cross is not an historical event merely, but a present reality.' He has lived out his faith in the slums where he has been terribly maltreated by drunken bullies, and the agents of vested interests in crime and immorality. He has been imprisoned on several occasions for his fearless championing of the rights of the people He is bitterly opposed by the communist leaders of labour, who want quick results and short-cut methods to reform. But probably what is most significant is the fact that there is in Japan an indigenous Christian movement, and that from this movement there are emerging new forms of Christian expression, and possibly a new recognition of the Truth as it is in Christ."