The Three Hour Sermon on God, Sin and Salvation

Now, this is what is meant by salvation through Christ. So you see we are not saved by the teachings of Christ but by His blood shed upon the cross. Of course, after we are saved by the blood of Christ we need the teachings of Christ also. Just as a sick man needs nourishing food after he has been cured by medicine.

Now as this is the most important of all the doctrines of Christianity, I hope you will understand it. Christ did not save us by His mere preaching and teaching. He was not a mere preacher of righteousness. He did not simply say: " Do good and abstain from evil and you shall be saved." No, He saved us in spite of our evil doings and sinful acts. And He did it, not by words but by deeds, even by the shedding of His blood upon the cross.

Indeed, the very secret of the power of Christianity lies here. It does not lie in His wise sayings but in His shedding of blood.

As you know, blood is' the symbol in some countries of the power to make a man sacrifice his life. It is the drop of red blood which binds a man to keep his covenant, even at the risk of his own life.

You remember when the forty-seven retainers of the prince of Ako took that solemn oath to revenge their master's death by taking the life of his enemy, after they had signed their names to this covenant they sealed it with their own blood, thus making the covenant a blood-covenant (shi wo kisseru) even unto death. Each one of the forty-seven pledged himself to give his life for the accomplishment of this great purpose. And all actually did give their lives in remaining true to their pledge.

Now Christ made a covenant with us for the salvation of our souls. The covenant is this: Whosoever believes on Him shall be saved from sin and its penalty, no matter how great a sinner he may be. And this covenant He sealed with His blood.

Now you see that the religion of Christ is a blood-covenant religion, and such a religion can make its believers willing to risk life itself.

Christians do not simply profess their belief with their mouths, but they defend their faith with their lives.

Every one who becomes a Christian pledges himself to sacrifice his life if necessary for the Christ he follows. Christ required his followers to do this. He said, "If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.'* That is, be ready to die for Him, even upon the cross.

The disciple must follow the example of his teacher. If the teacher has laid down his life for others the disciple must be ready to do the same. Christians must be ready to lay down their lives, not for the Master's sake alone, but for the sake of those whom their master loves, even the sinners of the world. In a word, the true Christian is a man of sacrifice, willing even to die upon the cross in the service of God and man.

I desire that our nation, as a nation, should be filled with this spirit of sacrifice. Our people are noted for their spirit of sacrifice in times of great emergency. When our country is in danger every man is ready to take up arms and fight till death if need be. Such a spirit is worthy of high praise.

But nowadays everybody knows the importance of such public spirit. Everywhere people are showing their public spirit in their country's emergency. Such a spirit of patriotism is not peculiar to our country. The last great world war has conclusively proved that almost every nation of the civilized world has this spirit of patriotism when any great emergency calls for it.

But what I am saying here is not of the spirit of patriotism, however great it may be. The true spirit of sacrifice makes people willing to give up their lives for a righteous cause at any time, whether in time of war or in time of peace, whether in high public positions or in ordinary life.

Every statesman should be ready to sacrifice his life for the welfare of the state at any time. Every educator should be ready to stake his life for the sake of education. Every religious teacher should be ready to die for the spiritual welfare of his countrymen. Parents should be ready to sacrifice their lives for the children, and children should be ready to sacrifice their lives for the parents. Husbands for wives and wives for husbands. What would we say if a husband should save his own life leaving his wife at the mercy of a murderer? And we all expect that the captain of a ship shall be always ready to sacrifice his life for the safety of his passengers. If in time of shipwreck the captain should leave the boat before the passengers, what would be said of such a man?

I believe there is nothing in this world so noble and so beautiful as this spirit of sacrifice. I wish that our countrymen could be filled with this spirit, and that not for our country alone but for the benefit of all mankind. Japan today must not live for herself alone, nor for the Far East alone, but for the whole world.

But to make a people capable of such sacrifice we need the religion of sacrifice. We need a religion sealed with the blood of its founder. Formal religions are of no avail.

You know that for many years I have been lecturing on various subjects throughout the empire. I have been lecturing on politics, on economy, on education, on social reform, and so on. But now I have laid aside all other subjects and am only preaching this bloodsealed religion of Christ throughout the length and breadth of the country. I have determined not to know anything among my countrymen but this Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because I believe there is nothing else in heaven or on earth that can save a man from sin and its penalty. And there is nothing on earth that can change a man from a creature of selfishness into an angel of sacrifice. The only way of making our people a people of sacrifice for the benefit of all mankind, is this blood-sealed religion of Christianity.

But here one might ask, " Does Christianity really produce such a people? Is there really such power in the religion of Christ? Do Christians show this spirit of sacrifice any more than heathens? "

Yes, Christianity has proved its power by its history during nineteen hundred years. Among all the religions of the world none has suffered such severe persecution at the hands of its enemies as Christianity. No other religion has ever produced so many martyrs as the religion of Christ.

When Christianity was first introduced into the Roman Empire how cruelly those Roman people treated the followers of that religion! For many centuries they persecuted all Christians in the most cruel manner. They were burned alive, thrown into dens of lions and crucified. The Romans tried in every way to extinguish Christianity, but they could not accomplish their purpose. The more they persecuted the more it spread and the more its followers increased. The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church in the Roman Empire.

We have the story of cruel persecution of Christianity by the Tokugawa Shoguns in our own country. For more than two centuries the Tokugawas cruelly persecuted the believers in the Christian religion. In one place we are told that many holes were dug in the ground for the purpose of burying the Christians alive. In these holes they were buried up to their necks. Then the executioners came with their saws in their hands saying, " Now, Christians, will you renounce your faith in this evil religion of Christ and be dug out of this hole and be saved? Or, will you still hold to your faith and have your heads sawed off? Which will you do? "

Thus each one was threatened in turn. To the surprise of the executioners no one was frightened by their threats. They all said they would lose their heads rather than renounce their faith in Christ, because He had died upon the cross for them. So then the Christians lost their lives in this terrible manner. It is said there were many women among these poor Christians who were persecuted in this way. Women are weak by nature, they dread physical pain more than men; but even these timid women faced this terrible death with calmness and faith.

My friends, how do you account for this? Whence came this courage and firmness of these early Christians? I tell you the only source of such courage and firmness is in the cross of Christ. By the cross of Christ the weak become strong, cowards turn into brave men and timid women become fearless.

If you truly understand the real meaning of the cross of Christ you can conquer all things by the power of that cross.

The cross of Christ is really power unto salvation. No matter how wicked a man has been if he really understands the dying love of Jesus upon the cross, his heart will be melted and he will become a new man in Christ.

I know many such cases of reformation in wicked men. In one place there was a man who had determined to kill another man and as he was on his way to do it, he passed by a Christian meeting place. Stepping in for a few minutes he heard the preacher tell of the dying love of Jesus Christ. This touched the man's heart and melted it with the fire of love. He flung away his revolver that he had concealed in his pocket, and confessed his sin and became a follower of Christ that night. From that time on instead of killing men he sought to save them, and died, as I was told, in actual service for others.

" For the preaching of the cross of Christ is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved, it is the power of God."

Yes, there is power in the cross of Christ. The power not only to save sinners from the penalty of sin, but also to save them from the power of sin and make them new men in Christ. And why is it so? Because as you know, the cross of Christ is the perfect revelation of the infinite love of God.

" For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life."

Love, you know, is power. Love can conquer all things. No power on earth can overcome it. It can overcome everything. It can melt the hard hearts of wicked men.

Let me illustrate the power of love to melt the heart of man by an example which I am glad to speak of here tonight. You all know, I suppose, the first president of the Doshisha University in Kyoto was Dr. Joseph Neeshima. He is counted among the three great edu- cators of the era of Meiji (the reign of the late emperor).

Fukuzawa Ukichi, Nakamura Keinu and Joseph Neeshima, were the three: I am glad to say that I personally knew all these great teachers. But of these three I was most intimately connected with Dr. Neeshima. I was a student in his school in those early days of Doshisha. But afterward I was called back by him to teach in the school and to be his assistant. I worked with him many years until the very day he left us for the better land. So you see I ought to know him pretty well. Yes, I can say I knew him best of all.

Dr. Neeshima was a great man, but his greatness did not lie in his knowledge nor in his intellectual power. He was not an especially eloquent man. He was not a fine writer. He left no book behind him. His greatness lay in his lofty character. His was a great personality. Indeed, he had a big heart, full of love. He loved his students as his own children. He was in truth a loving teacher. And his greatness lay indeed in his great love for his students.

I think every educator ought to have this qualification. Without this kind of love he can not become a successful teacher of young people. Of course, to become a teacher one must have knowledge to impart, and mental power to lead and guide his pupils. In a word, he must be a man of learning and of mental ability. Without these qualifications he can not become a real teacher. But even with these essential qualifications if he has not real love for his pupils he can not become an efficient teacher. If a teacher shows that he has no such true love for his students I think he had better give up the profession of teaching and engage in some other work.

You know when we send our children to school to get an education, we commit them entirely into the hands of their teachers. We ask these teachers to make useful men and women out of these crude untaught children for the country's sake. Perhaps it might be better if we could keep our children in our own homes and teach them ourselves, thus training them according to our own wishes and desires. But that is impossible. We parents can not undertake such a task ourselves. So we ask the teachers to do it for us. And they are undertaking this difficult task of making men and women and good citizens of our children.

If therefore teachers are really doing the work of the parents they should have the same parental affection for the children. Without this affection how can they take such a difficult task upon themselves and accomplish it to the satisfaction of the state?

But, if you say, " Oh, no, no, the work of a teacher is not such a great task as you think. The work of a teacher is to impart some of the special knowledge which he himself has acquired to the young people who come under his care. It is nothing more. Man-making and character building are hot the essential work of a teacher. To expect anything beyond this passing on of knowledge is to expect too much from the teacher of the present day."

Well, if educators simply content themselves with selling their knowledge for wages of course I have nothing more to say. I am sorry to see that some of them do, though they do not openly confess such thoughts. There are at the present day many teachers among us who are simply selling their knowledge for their own profit, and for the sake of our country I am sorry to see this.

But if on the contrary our educators undertake, for the parents, the difficult task of making good men and women and good citizens out of their children, they must first of all prepare themselves for their work with true parental affection.

I know that President Neeshima was truly such a loving teacher. I know several instances in his life which revealed this love. When we were dissatisfied or discouraged with anything in the school, we used to go to our president to complain of such troubles. He was always glad to receive us. And while we were talking with him all our dissatisfaction and discontent seemed to melt away in his sunny kindly presence, just as ice melts under the warmth of the sun's rays. There was some mysterious power in our president which no man could resist.