Monday, August 8, 2016

Missionary Bio's - John Hardy Neesima (Part 3)

Part 3

 

    In October, after an absence of ten years, Neesima left New York for his native land. The changes that had taken place there seemed to him almost incredible. He found a national line of steamers, lighthouses at all important coast points, a general telegraphic system, a postal service, an organized navy, and a railway between Yokohama and the capital. In the treaty ports small Protestant churches had been established ; but in visiting his parents at Annoka, directly after his arrival in Japan, Neesima was the first to carry the gospel to the interior, and here he founded one of the most genuinely Christian communities in Japan.

     Neesima arrived at Osaka, the home of the American Board Mission, Jan. 22, and here he planned to establish a Christian school with a broad collegiate course ; but meeting with opposition, he gave up the project, and turned his steps towards Kyoto. Here he met with many and varied difficulties, but by persistent effort opened, Nov. 25, 1875, the Doshisha, with eight pupils. The winter of 1875 was one of hardship and discouragement; but assisted by the Rev. J. D. Davis, D.D., he maintained the school, which constantly increased in numbers.

      On Jan. 2, 1876, Neesima was married to the sister of the counsellor to the Kyoto Fu. She had been a teacher in the government school for girls, but her engagement to a Christian caused her discharge. After her marriage she entered fully into her husband's life-work ; and in their house, provided by Mr. J. M. Sears of Boston, services were constantly held, and Christian teaching promulgated.

    From 1876 to 1884 Mr. Neesima's life was filled with trials, and obstacles of every kind threatened the very existence of the Doshisha. The fact that the school, while nominally a Japanese company, was in reality supported from foreign means, caused an attack which compelled Mr. Neesima to write to the Prudential Committee for a permanent endowment ; and in November, 1879, he received the joyful tidings that the year's appropriation of eight thousand dollars would soon be placed under his direction for the educational work in Kyoto. The keynote of true teaching was struck by Mr. Neesima's effort to disseminate Christianity through an educated ministry. In 1880 he writes: "Try to send out choice men, Christians must not be charged with being ignoramuses, or we shall be ridiculed for our lack of learning as well as for our faith. We need the broadest culture and Christian spirit to counteract the downward tendency of our educated youth."

     Through all his work Mr. Neesima entertained the hope born at Andover of a Christian university at Japan, and determined to raise endowments for history, philosophy, political economy, law, and
medicine. His personal activity in this direction was incessant ; but, his health failing, he accepted in 1884 an invitation for rest and change from the Board, and visited Europe and America. During this trip he everywhere inspected schools and colleges, and noted in detail methods and results, and made plans of buildings and apparatus.

    He arrived in Boston, Sept. 27, 1884; but even there he was not freed from care and responsibilities. The outlook in Japan was broadening, and the demand great to place the Doshisha upon a university basis ; and he was looked upon as the medium between Japan and the source of its supply.

     In December it became necessary for him to go to Clifton Springs, N.Y., for rest at the Sanitarium. He left there in March, 1885, somewhat better in health, and cheered by the news that fifty thousand dollars had been appropriated for the Japan mission. He arrived at Yokohama Dec. 12, 1885, "and found five hundred friends, students, teachers, relatives, and prominent citizens," assembled there to meet him. The day after this the tenth anniversary of the Doshisha was celebrated, and the corner-stone of two new buildings laid. The school was in a flourishing condition ; and the Japanese boy of long ago was now, by acclamation of its faculty, president of the college.

   Two years later Amherst College conferred upon Neesima the degree of doctor of laws. May 17, 1887, an income of not less than twenty-five hundred dollars per annum was assured to the Doshisha by the American Board. In April, 1888, a meeting was held in the great Buddhist temple of Chionin in Kyoto, to consider the question of a university endowment. In July a dinner was given to Mr. Neesima by the late minister of foreign affairs, that he might present this question to distinguished Japanese guests. At this dinner Mr. Neesima fainted, worn out by his efforts. The result of the meeting was a pledge of thirty thousand dollars to the university. In the summer of 1888 he was told by his physicians that he had not long to live, and by their advice was taken to a mountain resort (Ikao) ; here he was cheered by the gift to the Doshisha of a hundred thousand dollars from Mr. J. N. Harris of New London, Conn. Writing to Mr. Harris, Mr. Neesima says, " A donation like this is unknown and unprecedented in our country."

    During the summer months of 1889 Neesima's health seemed to improve ; and after seeing the foundation for the new science building laid, he went to Tokyo to work for the endowment fund ; but rest was again advised by his physicians, and he went to Oiso ; and here, Jan. 23, 1890, he died. On the news of Mr. Neesima's dangerous illness, the students of Doshisha were with difficulty restrained from proceeding in a body to his bedside. On Jan. 24 the body was taken to Kyoto, where the funeral services took place, Jan. 27, in presence of the school, graduates from all parts of the empire, city authorities, and representatives of foreign missions. In the procession (a mile and a half in length) was seen a delegation of priests bearing the inscription, " From the Buddhists of Osaka." Truly no private citizen ever died in Japan whose loss was so widely and so deeply felt as that of Mr. Neesima.
    On the plain below Kyoto stands his outward monument, the Doshisha, from whose walls have come the most powerful factors in the civilization of new Japan ; but in the lives of the men about him is written the endurance of his influence, the divinity of his soul.

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