Sabbath Reflections

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

Sabbath Reflections

AMAZING KAGAWA * . x \ FORTY YEAR'S CHRIST’S FOOL. • \ ' . NOTABLE- LEADER OF JAPAN. Rev. J. D. McL. WilsOn.) It' is a familiar phrase in our modern yitiated Christianity that the age of miracles is past. This is a tale of a mdderh miracle, about a man who has stepped, clean put. flf the; pa-ges.of the New Testament; a man who has done more with hii .life than any of the. twelve apostles as far. as we know of them.. This ■niari; h still alive... He ■ was lately in ou.r midst. Fdr'many,. years he has lived in th?'full blaze ‘of . publicity, of '70,000,000 people; and that irreproachably. ,We refer to one ,of the ’ notable figures .in Japanese life to-day, Tdyohika Kagawa, a mystic son of'the East who has-per-soWfied in herioc living the very breath of Chid. '' ' ” '•" ' '• We have said his life is a miracle, and

it is, and that in no sentimental use of the term. Our human' life is deter- / mined in profound measure by heredity and environment. In Kagawa’s case uncontrolled passion brought forth purity, and gross materialism stainless and fervent idealism. Though afterwards legitimatised, Kagawa was born out of wedlock, the son of an unregenerate father, . and the unsought and undesired offspring of a light dancing girl. He was

reared in an atmosphere where sensuousness, ' selfishness and self-indulgence held undisputed sway; and from earliest years, by precept and, example, he was taught that wealth, position, power, were life’s greatest goals. But for forty years of his adult life he has been a flaming apostle of goodness, a humble and ardent slave of the strong Son of God, or as he likes to put it “Christ’s Fool.” His father was a man of standing, with ancestral estates, and later a seat upon the Emperor’s Privy Council. He was also very much a man of his times in his mental outlook and in his numerous concubines and immoral liasons. His degenerate life brought him to an gra.Vfe',?and: at : the- agfe. 'of four Kagawa wdsbereftofboth father and mother. He :was-. taken ,to the ancestral; village to stay with, the neglected though real wife, and with a foster grandmother. . Df-the-innumerable beatings and generally -harsh treatment the.unwanted child received we need not speak; the memory of tliose bitter years-ever remained with Mm. His only ’pleasures and comforts were'-thd'Sky, the Open fields, the birds, ‘ treeiSi sea, a ' certain ‘bamboo ' grove'■ and th£ Secret family storehouse, full of old pictures,.-, books, suits of mail, costumes, ancestral curious and, historic relics from his. Sunierai , ancestors in the long ago ■.past.' In those days, though the legally adopted child of the wealthiest , and ndblebt -family in'the district,' he was treated-as'a felon or an outcast, and eyjeir smallest coin was a fortune tp' him.’; At ’l2 -tragedy befel him—he was' urijustly- accused -of /injuring a /xeighpours’:child to the point of death arid was sent in disgrace, and with the loathing of the whole village, to a distant boys’ school at Tokushima, a large city on the island of Shikoku. Here his prematurity made him the contemptuous butt of his older associates. The moral corruption . of this place fairly appalled him. It was here, however, he made his first contact, through one of his teachers, with Christiariity, though the crucial influences were through two missionaries, Drs. Myers and Logan. Their homes ; Were always open tp'* Japanese youth, and .many,entered to learn something of the great Western world which they re-, presented. ' It was there Kagawa learned of a I'fippk which told of,a God who,, cares. 'The portion which moved him pro-, foundly was the latter* part of the 6th chapter ,of St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that evep Splomon in all his glory was not arrayed . like one of these. Wherefore. if God so clothe the grass of the field,.which today is, and to-morrow, is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” / . He read those verses'again and yet again. He learned them, by heart. At length the pent ,up yearnings of. his heart burst into a passionate cry, “0 God, iriake ihe like Christ!” At that prayer and dedication the dawn broke, his spirit was flooded with light and life, his depression and melancholy melted away like mist before the rising sup—he was born again. Life immediately took on a new meaning, and he felt within him a divirre mandate to serve the poor. Reading of Canon Barnett, an Oxford graduate living in the ■ slums, he eagerly dedicated himself to a life .of poverty and set his feet in the stormy paths of Christian service. Hearing that the poor in the cities lived ■> in hovels Bft square, he decided that he must live in no larger quarters. Bitter opposition arose from his aristocratic and proud relations, and he was disinherited and driven forth with nothing but the garments he wore,' At 17, in 1905, he entered the Presbyterian College at Tokio, where he became a keen student and developed a perfct mania for books. He •gave away his garments and his money and shared his room with any in need, though when it came to housing a ver-min-infested beggar from the streets his fellow students showed him in pretty rough fashion what they thought about, it.

Tolstoi’s attitude to social questions and towards non-violence influenced him greatly, and you can easily imagine how he fared during the perfervid period of patriotism at the time of the RussoJapanese war. His Christian witness and influence' during this distressing season were astonishing, and teachers and scholars reluctantly confessed that he outprayed, out-loved, out-sacrificed and outlived them all. ‘ . . In this second year he was stricken with tuberculosis, the disease which devastates and destroys so many Japanese youths. For a : year with haemorrhage upon him he-was at rendezvous with death, and on his partial recovery he entered the Theological Seminary at Kobe. ’■ We might add that during this period he wrote, the fir.st draft of a novel, one ~ which eventually singled him out as of Japan s mighty men with the pen. ' ' / He was so desperately poor when he wrote this that he could not buy paper to write on, and all was 'written with Japanese brush upon the printed pages

of cast-away magazines. We might add that apart from periodicals and Press articles he has written more than’so books and several others are under way. Some of these ..are upon technical subjects, and some have had a'sale of over a quarter of a million copies. On Christmas Day, 1909, at 21, Kagawa surprised his friends and associates by plunging into the depths of the Shinkawa slums, where he laboured for 15 years with the exception of. a break when he studied at Princeton for two years. This particular slum was beyond even our-imagining. Here 10,000 were sardined into houses 6ft square, often 9 or 10 people/living in that space. These cubicles, as they might be more truly described, ■ faced into alley-ways from ?> to 6ft wide; and the whole, reeked with filth,' vermin and lecheries indescribable. It was. the haunt of scavengers, beggars, gamblers, thieves, prostitutes, murderers - and all the lost and the damned. Disease’ in its most awful and loathsome repulsiveness was manifest everywhere, and 'one out of every two children died or ’ was put to death. In the midst of it this theological student,' still at his studies, lived, persecuted, threatened, but fearing not- man, filth, vermin or disease but living out the Sermon on the Mount in a most remarkable manner. The 6ft square abandoned hutch where he took up his abode was said to be - haunted. Its walls fairly screamed blood and violence. Murder had been done in it for sd, and in a few months seven other murders were committed in a small area round about. His first applicant for help was suffering a serious contagious itch. Kagawa looked at him, covered from head to foot with itch blotches. “This is God testing you,” he thought, and gladly made him his bed-fel-low. Murderers, prostitutes, the drinksodden made his place their own, sometimes even to thrusting him out for longer or shorter periods. For biany nights a murderer slept clinging to Kagawa s hands, that the ghost of the murdered man which haunted him might be driven away. His total income at this period was a scholarship of 22s 6d a month, though he afterwards secured work..as .a chimney sweep, which made up the sum to 42s a month. At one-, time 10. down-and-outs were under his 6ft square. roof —- On; of them in the last stages of tuberculosis, whose soiled,., germ-infested garments Kagawa washed with - his own hands —one mentally deranged, another a sick prostitute, rotten ~ with disease, and so on. It-was through sharing his bed with a beggar that Kagawa contracted trachoma, the dread eye disease which almost robbed him of sight. How many times he has-been ’physically assaulted, threatened with, pistol and knife, and been compelled- to flee; for his life, none can tell, but he always dame back, and be-, gan. again as if nothing had happened. It is impossible -to: follow this man in his amazing life, especially after the entry of the factories' arid western industrialism. He began to see that those social evils like drunkenness, immorality, vice had a cause,’ and was forced to the conclusion that poverty and - exploitation were the. chief foes. He began a social crusade and became, the champion of the poor. Gradually he was hailed by the masses as their, saviour, and by government, police as a dangerous Nihilist. ‘ Through his books, papers, propaganda and speeches he aroused the whole nation to the slums and the shameful social iniquities which everywhere in city and countryside cried to heaven and stunk in the nostrils of honour and decency. He refused, however, to associate himself with anything savouring of vidlence and sabotage, arid through growing Communist influence ihe tide of public favour was so turned'against him that tens of thousands of peasants and labourers would gladly "have tom his., heart out and trampled.it in the streets.. ... . Sb great, however, became his influence and that of the public opinion he had instructed and stirred up.-that in six of the largest cities of Japan the slums were entirely demolished and housing and building schemes costing'.millions of pounds were carried through. Kagawa was one of the chief advisers and directors of these national enterprises, refusing all remuneration for his services. Time would fail to‘tell’bf his great and successful work as a social engineer; of his teaching, 1 preaching arid religious work, especially his Kingdom of God movement, which is sweeping through Japan to-day and bringing several thousands into the Kingdom of God; ot his literary work; from which he receives in royalties £2OOO a year, every, penny of which goes to the support of three great social institutions which he personally es-. tablished and up.

Time would fail to tell of his three children and wife, a noble woman of the, same spirit and Christly ambition as himself. Her character you ■ zould appreciate from the'fact that the. couple went straight from the wedding service tp the 6ft by 6ft hutch at' Shinkawa to fjpd it occupied by eight. others, none of which was turned out.. ... The motivation of it all was this. We ourselves are Christian misers, hoarding and spending for our own family and friends, with but slightest thought for Christ or His needs and wishes. Kagawa, however, determined to be a spendthrift of Christ’s; so everything was poured out for God; he and his family lived happily on a few shillings a week. His own words about it are, “Christ’s fool! A public laughing stock! Truly that is myself. Forty years—half my allotted life—l have passed as Christ’s fool! The worldly pleasures have all slipped by me. Tied up securely to life’s rubbish heap, I have passed half my days. As one narrow of mind, stubborn of will, a fit subject of ridicule, I have ticked, off in tears half my life. I have been numbered among those, who are labelled hypocrites and anti-nationalists—ostracised as a heretic and worse than a heathen. But these things move me not. I am Christ s captive, a slave of the Cross, the worlds fool. I am determined to abandon everything that bears the mark of this world, and naked, sally forth along the road which leads upward to the path of the sanctified. If to others this seems foolish there is- no help for it. I can. do no other.”

Kagawa. is, as you know, still alive, an ardent patriot, for Christ, with consciousness that God is arming him for yet greater things, and with a wonderful peace in his heart. Would to God that such another rose up to lead us in our own land!