The Barrier That Was Turned Into a Gateway for the Truth by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 11, 1915

The Barrier That Was Turned Into a Gateway for the Truth

By W. A. S.

IN the early days of this generation, when the time had come for the missionary occupation of the great heathen lands, Japan was determined to keep its doors barred against the gospel, even though it had opened two gateways for commercial exchange with foreign ports. Nagasaki was one of these ports of call for ships; and the Dutch were allowed a trading settlement on the island of Deshima, in Nagasaki harbor. But this concession only made the authorities the more determined to keep out the foreign religion.

How the effort to set up a barrier for this purpose was overruled by Providence for the opening of Japanese eyes to the light is told as follows in Griffis's “Verbeck of Japan:” —

To guard the coast and keep up both the policy of exclusion and inclusion, the daimio, or baron, of Hizen was given charge of the work of defense and surveillance. He appointed one of his karo, or ministers, named Murata, a brave and trusty officer whose title was Wakasa no Kami, that is, the honorary lord of Wakasa. In those days titles did not mean necessarily either rank, revenue, or office. Murata posted his troops at advantageous points, and set a cordon of boats around the harbor, so that no hungry scholar eager for knowledge, or student hoping to slip out from Japan to see the world, could break the blockade and get aboard the English ships. . . .

Wakasa frequently went out by night and day in a boat to inspect personally the means of defense and of guard. On one of these excursions he saw floating on the water a little book, which, in type, binding, and language, was different from anything he had ever seen. Curiosity at once seized him to know what it contained. After much inquiry, conducted with wariness, one of the interpreters, able to talk Dutch and read words printed in European letters, told him that it was about the Creator of the universe, and Jesus, who taught his mind and truth, and that there was much also between its pages about morals and religion. All this only whetted the governor’s desire to know the whole contents. He sent one of his men named Eguchi Baitei, to Nagasaki, professedly to study medicine, but in reality to find out from the Dutch more of the book, and they told him much. When he heard there was a translation of this book into Chinese, he sent a man over to China and secured a copy. Murata’s home was in Saga, the castle city and capital of Hizen, and there with the Chinese translation he began the study of the New Testament.

It was in 1854 that Wakasa found the floating book as he patrolled the harbor to keep out foreign ideas. A few years later, in 1862, Verbeck began his great educational work for that land by a class of two young men, one of whom was Wakasa’s younger brother. Two years later Verbeck received a call from Wakasa himself, a tall, dignified man of fifty. He was already an intelligent believer in Christ, and related this story of “the Moses of his deliverance,—the book drawn out of the water twelve years before.” He said to Verbeck:—

Sir, I cannot tell you my feelings when for the first time I read the account of the character and work of Jesus Christ. I had never seen, or heard, or imagined such a person. I was filled with admiration, overwhelmed with emotion, and taken captive by the record of his nature and life.

The government heard of his conversion, and ordered him punished, but the only thing done was to burn some of his books. He died a believer in 1874. To us this oft-told story has now added interest in view of the fact that the daughter of Wakasa no Kami is a member of our church in Japan. W. A. S.