Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/342

268 In the churches and chapels, or in other buildings, or even in the private houses of foreigners and Japanese, are about 1,000 Sunday-schools, where the children are being instructed in the simplest truths of the Bible. They may not understand at once much of what they hear; but they gradually come to better and better ideas, and when they reach years of understanding, many of them fully accept the truths learned in Sunday-school.

But the duty of the Christian propagandist is not completed by the conversion of unbelievers; it extends also to the training of these converts into a useful body of Christian citizens. It is unwise to rely entirely upon public education by a system so well organized even as that of Japan. If private schools under Christian auspices are useful, in America, they are an absolute necessity in Japan. It is dangerous to leave Christian boys and girls under the irreligious and often immoral influences of public institutions. As "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," it is supremely important to keep Christian Japanese youth under positive Christian instruction and influences during their impressible period. And it is also necessary to train up a strong body of Christian