students from the far East, who, at risk of imprisonment and death had
come to America for the culture of Christendom, I have been deeply
interested in the study of the Japanese people and their thoughts.

To attempt a just and impartial survey of the religions of Japan may
seem a task that might well appall even a life-long Oriental scholar.
Yet it may be that an honest purpose, a deep sympathy and a gladly
avowed desire to help the East and the West, the Japanese and the
English-speaking people, to understand each other, are not wholly
useless in a study of religion, but for our purpose of real value. These
lectures are upon the Morse[1] foundation which has these specifications
written out by the founder:

The general subject of the lectures I desire to be: "The
Relation of the Bible to any of the Sciences, as Geography,
Geology, History, and Ethnology, ... and the relation of the
facts and truths contained in the Word of God, to the
principles, methods, and aims of any of the sciences."

Now, among the sciences which we must call to our aid are those of
geography and geology, by which are conditioned history and ethnology of
which we must largely treat; and, most of all, the science of
Comparative Religion.

This last is Christianity's own child. Other sciences, such as geography
and astronomy, may have been born among lands and nations outside of and
even before Christendom. Other sciences, such as geology, may have had
their rise in Christian time and in Christian lands, their foundation
lines laid and their main processes illustrated by Christian men, which
yet cannot be claimed by Christianity as her children bearing her own