And they, of course, need Father Peter to talk to Russians, as he knows how to speak Russian. His Grace agreed to release him if the entire Hakodate Church agreed to this. The consent of the Hakodates was soon presented, and therefore His Grace sent Father Peter an instruction that he should visit the Orthodox Japanese scattered on Sakhalin, give them Christian consolation, baptize them, if necessary, give them parting words, and all the rest.

Father Peter, indeed, saw many Christians there.

The Hakodates were given the richest fisheries: they wrote to the governor that they had come to fish in order to give a third of the income to Tokyo for the mission, for the spread of Christianity in Japan, that they had received a blessing for this from the bishop. The governor even gave them places that are not given to anyone except the Russians living along the river, so that they can block the passage of fish upwards with their nets. But it seemed to them that this was not enough. Two of them, having persuaded Father Peter to join the company, secretly acquired some fisheries from other Hakodates only for themselves. Of course, when the rest of the Japanese got wind of this, they expressed dissatisfaction. And when Father Peter had already returned to Hakodate, suddenly a request came from the Hakodates to remove him from them, since he was dishonest and so on. His Grace asked Father Pavel Sawabe to go there for peace. But this one not only did not pacify, but even more quarreled, and quite unexpectedly – because of his hot temper. He achieved only one thing: that the Hakodates would tolerate Father Peter until the council, that is, until the end of June, and then things would change; but now there are two missionaries from Russia, one of whom the bishop will send to Hakodate in place of Father Peter. But His Grace says that isn't it too much for Hakodate to order a priest from Russia on purpose, since missionaries from Russia come for the whole of Japan, and that in general he has other things to do and plans for the missionaries regarding the entire work of the mission.

Now, one way or another, it is necessary to remove Father Peter, and he even sent a petition to his retirement; All the rest of the parishioners love him, and only the people of Hakodate disliked him, and it was for this act of his. But who is there, since in general we have few candidates for the priesthood, for it is absolutely necessary to first pass through all the degrees of the priesthood and be 30 years old? In Osaka, they are also dissatisfied with the priest Father Sergius Suzuki: he is kind of sluggish, unenergetic, so now Christians there are getting out of the habit of the church and asking for another priest. His Grace wants to tell Father Sergius about this directly, and that he ask to go to Hakodate, but in such a way that they do not know about the dissatisfaction with him in Osaka; The Hakodates would probably want him, and perhaps he would settle down there, since the Hakodate himself would take care of the business, and perhaps he would not go fishing, since he was actually some kind of child, innocent. And in Hakodate, there is such discontent that they stop going to church and confession. As for Osaka, His Grace assumes that by the summer I will already speak Japanese and then I can stay in Osaka, and if necessary, I can send a priest to help me temporarily. God willing, of course, I will learn to speak Japanese as soon as possible, but I am not sure of this, although I have been studying all day long without leaving my chair for a month or more. The main trouble is that my teacher, Deacon Stephen Kugimia, is inexperienced in this new work for him; he imagined that I had to preach sermons, and so he began to report the most intricate words of the book, especially since he himself was always sitting on Japanese newspapers; And it turned out that I had memorized up to 900 Japanese words, but I could not talk and listen to conversations, because the words were not colloquial. Now I have bought elementary Japanese books for children and read from them in order to gradually learn the most ordinary words and the real Japanese structure of speech in a natural manner; and besides, in the evening (in the morning with Kugimiya from 8 to 12 o'clock), from 4 to 6 o'clock, I study with Peter Ishikame, who studied at the Moscow Theological Academy; I read a story with him in colloquial language, and in general I try to talk to both of them as much as possible. Sometimes catechists and students come to me to talk, and now I myself am thinking of going to the priests, for in this way I will gradually learn to speak.

His Grace told another very sad incident to confirm that it is dangerous to rely on a Japanese for the time being.

The American Missionary Society founded Doshisha University in Kyoto, of course, with the dominant Christian trend and in general with the goals of Christian enlightenment. But recently the professors have completely forgotten these aims and spirits and have begun to preach either unbelief or Buddhism; And once someone from the authorities took the disciples to the tera (Buddhist temple) or to the miya (Shinto) and there, first himself, and then the disciples performed all the Buddhist religious rites. The Americans, of course, found out all this, the rector was replaced and another was installed, but the students revolted and smashed the rector's apartments to the ground. The Americans appointed an audit and directly raised the question that the university was organized for Christian purposes and therefore there could be no Buddhist preaching in it, and so on. And the Japanese replied: if you don't want to, then leave, we don't need you.

And the university was built entirely with American funds, and the land was bought by the Americans, but according to the law, foreigners cannot acquire land, so such purchases are made in the name of one of the Japanese. But this is what dirty tricks they can arrange. The Americans, of course, raised the case, and although with great difficulty, it seems that they have achieved that they will be given some money. And they still had to leave their university completely. And all the land in Tokyo was acquired in the name of the priest Paul Sato; He is a kind and honest man, so he seems to be relied upon. And in general, it seems to me that we cannot have such stories: we have nothing that lures us to Orthodoxy, as the Anglicans do; Often, the Japanese may be attracted to Protestantism either by the fact that Anglicanism is the faith of an enlightened, cultured and industrial nation, or by the number of charitable and educational institutions for which foreigners do not spare money. And those who really believe in Orthodoxy come to us and cannot count on anything else, because we have almost no means compared to foreigners. Therefore, thank God, we have never had a church anywhere and it is gone, because it has forgotten Christianity and turned to Buddhism; We do not have this, although there are few figures: for 25 thousand there are only 24 priests and about 150 catechists.

Orthodoxy is held together by everyday life and is conceived not on enthusiasm, but on a serious acquaintance with the truth. Therefore, we are not afraid when a Catholic or Anglican missionary settles next to our missionary, for then an even better comparison is for those who take Christianity seriously, and there should be no frivolity in this matter. Of course, we have few such nobles as the Anglicans, for example, but this is better: the constant history of true Christianity has been such, but it has overcome all visible power or domination of the human will.

On the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, February 1/13, I served for the first time in Japanese the all-night vigil, of course, writing everything in Russian letters, but the words are almost all well known. They say it's pretty good for the first time. I was a little cowardly, but still the exclamations pronounced to the people I spoke from memory. Lord, bless! And I serve the Liturgy from the very beginning, pronouncing only three exclamations at the conciliar service.

From February 1/13 to 2/14, just at 12 o'clock at night, when I had just fallen asleep with the very first sleep, since I had already gone to bed about 11 and a half o'clock, suddenly I woke up instantly, because I heard a terrible knocking and crashing: the doors were shaking, the washbasin seemed to want to jump out and all that. At first, of course, I thought that someone was knocking on my room, but soon I saw that there was no knocking, but objects as if knocking on their own. Instantly I realized that it was an earthquake. For me, as a novice, of course, it seemed very frightening, and I involuntarily instantly saw myself as if on a silver platter in my entire life, and then I lay comparatively calm in my soul, although my heart was fluttering, as if ready to fly out of my chest. After a minute, perhaps more, everything calmed down, and I hurried to look out of the window to see if any misfortune had happened, but everything seemed to be quiet, only the watchman with a knocker passed under the window, as if calming with his presence. His Eminence, as well as other people here, say that it was a comparatively strong earthquake, although, thank God, no misfortune happened, it seems, in the whole city. And, indeed, everything rumbled very strongly. Yes, indeed, it is only by the mercy of God that we exist on this continuous volcano, such as all the Japanese islands. Today, sailors from the Russian steamer Voronezh of the Volunteer Fleet said that between Nagasaki and Yokohama they saw a small but high island in the sea, which was burning; it is obviously an active volcano; recently in the southwest between Osaka and Kyoto there was an earthquake in three places, but not stronger. But today's earthquake is surprising: now we have snow and it is very cold, very similar to the Russian winter, and, however, everything is obviously hot below.

On February 5/17, in the evening, at 7 o'clock or more, one of our Christians, Sophia, came to His Grace with a resident of Yokohama, some important official of the General Staff of the Empire. But the bishop, who was now busy with a mass of work, sent them to Father Sergius. This Japanese is very educated, speaks excellent English, German and, probably, French, and knows some Russian and Greek. He came to inquire about faith; he said that in his soul he had the idea of the need to be a believing Christian and that all the best people in Japan were already Christians, but his heart did not agree, there was no faith in all this invisible.

Father A.S. told him to pay attention to the meaning of life with faith in God and without faith in Him. And then I advised Father Sergius to tell him that Christianity has been proven by life itself, that we have a whole host of saints who by faith have conquered all that is hostile to it and have attained the eternal kingdom, while still living in it here; that among us true Christians truly live in the spirit of Christ. The Japanese sat with Father A.S. for a long time and promised to come often for a conversation about these questions. God grant that the seed will fall on good soil. By the way, this Sophia's husband is a doctor and is now a pioneer in Australia, not wasting time, but trying to learn as much as possible about the treasures of the world subject to us and use them. And the Japanese have a lot of such entrepreneurs. That is why their culture is much higher than ours, that no one sleeps over work if it is necessary to do something. A Japanese, being somewhere in service or at work, invariably reprimands himself for a certain time only for himself; and at this time he certainly learns something: either goes to school, or learns some trade, and so on. That is why their social consciousness is more developed, they have more interest in the common, in what is happening around or in the neighborhood, than we have in Russia, where for the most part few people care about the life of the people or the whole of mankind and in general the life of all: if I have done my work for a comfortable or even rich piece of bread, then that's fine – you can be at peace. not to embark on any undertakings – this is what we think for the most part. That is why Siberia became our own for us almost at the same time as America for the British, and yet we have only just noticed it, although little thought has yet been given to it, and even the question of resettlement there is still our purest misfortune. This Sophia is a very zealous Christian: she is now learning English so that she can go to her husband. The Englishman, not knowing that she was a Christian, began to persuade her to convert to Christianity and told her about it at length. But one day he noticed her praying in our church and, having recognized her, he began to look at her very askance, and he had already ceased to talk about Christianity. She herself later passed it on with laughter.

February 8/20. The Christians of our church introduced themselves to us after Mass and called us to them; Tomorrow, accompanied by the elders13, we will go to see how our Christians live, and if necessary, to give us some advice.

After lunch, we went to the same Daniel who brings up orphans. He has 24 of them, 12 of them go to school. There is still one who can walk poorly; Daniel pulled him out of the sand after that pernicious wave of the sea. There is another sick woman; Her arms begin to act a little, but her legs are not yet – this is also after the wave. The guys were well-mannered, respectful, they all immediately accepted our blessing and said their names. Daniel and the old woman who take care of them are called father and mother. In the morning, before dinner, and in the evening, there is a common prayer, at which Daniel gives them a simple short discourse on Christian good behavior, and the like, and sometimes also speaks during the children's dinner. During the prayer, the children sing various hymns. For our sake, Daniel made a prayer; the children sang the Lord's Prayer well, and even all of them by heart, and then in the form of the addition "Bless the Lord, O my soul." After the prayer, Father Sergius asked the children: Do you pray for your father? The children said in the affirmative. And Daniel to them: "It is not I, but God, who gives us everything, who helps us; And now our guests helped (and we really gave them a few yen)"; and he spoke to them much and simply about this, and then called them to prayer for the bishop and for us, so that God would fulfill all our good desires. Only a little Protestant behaves at prayer; he will lie down on the floor in the form of a bow, and remain so for a long, long time; it is a kind of artificial sentimentality; in conversation he has a little boasting; God deliver him from being carried away by himself. It would be good to keep him in the closest leadership and under constant supervision. There is one boy of about 13 years old, the oldest, but he looks the smallest: very poor, sick and stupid, he does not speak; it's some kind of piece of rotten meat. It's a pity to look at him.