chapter to chapter, and from section to section. I shall not give a romanized Japanese text, nor even necessarily a literal translation. My missionary readers (to whom alone such an original would be important) ought to be able to read the Japanese text for themselves in the popular style in which Mr. Nishimoto's book is written. Facilities for checking my statement will be easily obtained by comparing them with the Japanese from which I take them.

I hope none of my Christian readers will suspect me of advocating any form of Christian doctrine at variance with that sound Nicene Faith which the Catholic Church formulated for herself at the end of that long struggle which was, in fact, if not in name, a struggle against the Orientalism of invaders from Asia. I hope also that no Buddhist (if any Buddhist condescends to read me) will think that I want to score a cheap victory, and to degrade his Amida, by identifying him, however tentatively, with God as revealed in Christ. It is with no controversial aim that I take up my pen. Rather, I feel that the quarrel between Eastern Buddhism and Western Christianity is one to be best solved by the path of meditation and prayer. For, if, through the exercise of Faith, we could, even for a few weeks only, realize that the Lord whom we variously worship is One and the Same, the Source of Life and Light, and if, with that Faith, we could come just as we are, Christians and Buddhists, and ask for Light, are we to doubt Christ, or are we to doubt Amida, by supposing that Light would be withheld from his children by One whom Christians and

[paragraph continues] Buddhists alike delight in calling a Loving Father?

My Lectures will therefore be a first step in a new and perhaps dangerous missionary experiment--the homoeopathic treatment of Shinshu Theology. I am fully aware of the dangers that attend my experiment,--what beleaguered city was ever yet taken without danger to the besiegers? Still, I venture to ask for a sympathetic hearing till I have said my say. I ask for no endorsement, though I trust the reasonableness of my propositions will commend them in time to the thoughtful reader's Christian or Buddhist conscience. In the old days of Japan, when a samurai was about to undertake some doubtful enterprise which his clan could not be expected readily to endorse, he would cut himself off from his kinsmen, and become a ronin. Then, if he failed, he failed, and the clan took no harm: if he succeeded, he returned in triumph to his feudal lord, bringing with him the fruits of his victory. It is quite good to be a ronin for Christ's sake. If I fail, I fail, and the faithful will disown me, though I myself shall hope to be saved "so as by fire." If I succeed, my work will bear its fruit, and the result will be ad majorem Dei gloriam.

A. LLOYD.

Tokyo, Oct. 1909.

Footnotes