With Father Sergius, I looked at the metrics; and he does not know at all where to get many Christians; refers to the fact that he received them in this way from his predecessor, Father John, Ono. And in many weakened houses he had not been here at all; he knows about some that they are here, but does not know their place of residence (9 people); all known 190 people; Of these, 99 did not confess this year. I asked: how can this be explained? Do catechists talk about the need for confession and generally instruct on the path of piety? He replies that they do, but you can't drag them by force. And I: there are no Gentile listeners, at least they would watch their own sheep. Father Sergius says that Christians here are cold, not like in the north, which he often points to as a model. I said with some heart that we didn't care about the north yet, we were in Osaka.

At 6 o'clock I went with the catechist to the Christians. At first, they did not find Anna in Juvase; She is a masseuse and goes to the sick all day long. Then they went to Kitajima, Stephen, an old carpenter; now his wife, an old woman, listens to the teachings of Father Sergius, and on Trinity Day she will probably receive baptism. Very poor, but pious. I told them about the salvific nature of Christ's teaching for us, about how it is really salvific for us: this happens through prayer, by which we gradually draw closer to God, and in our hearts we put all the good things and only gradually begin to live by it. He asked them also to talk about Christian teaching in conversations with neighbors; he advised them to come to church at least in turn; Stephen sometimes comes; And he certainly accepts confession and communion. They have very good humble hearts. Then they went to see Mori Peter, his wife Vera and little child Alexander, who would be baptized on Trinity Day. They go to church very zealously, almost constantly. I asked them to go and encourage others to be jealous, and thus to do the work of Christ (I also told Kitajima that children should also be told about Christ: if they desire salvation for themselves, then they should also wish for others, but children live in other cities and are pagans). In Mori Petra I spoke about the weakened family of Asadzuma Akila: this one, as if ashamed of his poverty and poor kimono, does not go to church, because the Osaka people pay great attention to the kimono; I said that this is not an excuse for God; the apostles were terrible poor people, and it was they who proclaimed the teaching of Christ to all people; perhaps at first there was truth in this excuse on Aquila's mind, but he gradually and completely lost the habit of the church and everything related to the faith, and only then gradually began laziness and passed into complete coldness of heart to the work of faith. Just as an evil person does not understand the goodness of the good, for he is accustomed to live and care only for himself, so a person who does not work in the matter of faith gradually cools down completely and loses all faith, so that it is difficult for him even to think about God and about all that is holy. I advised Peter Mori to see Asazuma sometime and persuade him to cheer up.

From there I went to Asazuma; he has a wife Maria and a son Kirik (7 years old), and another, Nikon, lives with his grandmother in Tokyo. Asazuma moved from Tokyo here. Maria studied at our girls' school in Tokyo.

Akila makes combs for a girls' school in Tokyo. I asked directly: why don't they go to church? It is justified by the weakness of health. I said that ill health does not always happen, and that it is so, is only a simple reservation. He spoke about the necessity, importance and the only essential benefit of prayer for our faith and, consequently, for the entire spiritual life, for salvation. There are innumerable treasures everywhere in the Church, and we run away from them. And running, we gradually and completely move away from God, and faith fades away. He confessed to it. And then everything that has to do with faith and salvation seems completely incomprehensible and inaccessible to us, how can an evil man not understand what is good. For our salvation alone, the Son of God Himself came and endured the cross, but we despise and push away from us this ineffable love of His, which surpasses all things. And if children despised the love of their parents, did not come to them, did not fulfill their will, then how sad and painful it would be for parents. All the more sorrowful are our sins and separation from Him for God, so we make a cross to Him for the second time with our sins and coldness. They did not even make confession; wherefore I said: it is finished, we may not have any gross sins, but in life we constantly distance ourselves from God and forget Him; it is in this that we need to constantly and sincerely repent, in order to return to God and rely only on His strength. It turns out that while living in Tokyo, he was very zealous in various ways for the Church; I advised them to remember all these good old things and cheer up, and to mutually encourage each other to do so. He spoke of the approaching feast of the Holy Spirit and called upon us to come to this great triumph of the Church; By the way, on this day, three or four will be baptized. And during the Apostolic Fast he advised both confession and communion, and spoke from the words of Christ about the importance and indispensable obligation of this sacrament for us, if we wish to enter into eternal life. He briefly told about how Pascha was celebrated in Tokyo today, how many people there were, about the pagans who had gathered for this celebration of ours, and about the general joy on this holiday. He said that the seminarians preached sermons all evening, and Inspector Kawamoto showed pictures of Palestinian life and nature with stories about it; the people listened diligently and attentively to all this. Since Asadzum does not have a prayer book and a church calendar, I advised the catechist to take it to them tomorrow. I returned home at twenty minutes past ten. After the whole day and only in the evening the rain stopped, we had to walk in the mud; Although in the extreme part of the city there was no rain at all and there was no mud.

May 20/June 1. I did not go to the Christians last night, as I was taking a bath, and the Christians are now mostly busy with the accounts with the masters or the workers, on the occasion of the end of the month. Today, at 6 o'clock, together with Paul Sakuma, I went first to Isis Paul. He found only his wife Marina. They are very religious Christians, but they almost do not go to church at all, and this year they have not even confessed yet. I said that you would gradually become unaccustomed to the Church and to God: if I seldom read a book, I would completely forget how to understand it; so is prayer, and our whole Christian life; we are called Christians, and therefore we must try in every possible way to stand as close as possible to Christ, in order to be in His Kingdom. If an illiterate person goes to school, he will not understand anything from all the lessons there; so we, having gradually lost the habit of praying to God and rejoicing in His joy, the joy of faith, and then after death we will not understand anything in the Kingdom of God, since we have not thought about it properly, and therefore we will not live in its light, but in sorrow and suffering.

I advised them to go to church at least in turn, and especially called them to Trinity Day, since this is a great holiday, with which the preaching about Christ began; and during Lent he advised to confess and take communion in order to live one life together with other Christians; for how pleasant it is to spend time in the intimate company of dear friends: here all sorrows are forgotten in heart-to-heart conversations, the soul only rejoices; So it is in the Church: if all Christians gathered in harmony and amicably gathered in church for prayer, and in general did all the things of the Church together, then what a power it would be and how much joy there would be in it for all. I asked her to tell all this to her husband Paul, and to her relatives – the family of Chrysanthos Isis, and I also asked her to dispose them to go to church at least in turn. Marina, during a conversation about the fact that she did not take communion and did not go to church, somehow blushed and then said: now I will try to go to church somehow. And in general, I was very emotional. I refused the offer to take udon (Japanese fish soup) and went to the house of Kinoshita Simon; but he and his family live in Wakayama, and here is only his wife Varvara with a small, not yet baptized, child.

She doesn't go to church either, and maybe it's hard for her to be alone; but he lives very poorly, in a house with pagans. She frankly confessed that even at home sometimes she did not pray at all because of vanity; I said that God does not need our many words, but only one heartfelt contrition before Him, even a brief, but really heartfelt prayer; And if we really pray in this way, then we will really understand the power of prayer for us and the joy of this prayer. And more and more often, carelessly doing this work and more and more often moving away from the church, we gradually and completely forget the church and everything of God, and then faith completely cools in our hearts, and at the same time we ourselves completely grow cold for God and become very far from Him; then we do not understand any joy in God at all. Then he spoke about the feast of the Spirit of the Day as the beginning of Christian preaching, which the Japanese now accept; he called upon us to preserve in our hearts and to warm this highest treasure: after all, Christ endured the cross only for our salvation. He advised me to come to church on this feast, and in general to go to the service to the best of my ability; he advised to baptize a child on this feast, for fear of death for him, who had not yet been baptized; Moreover, on this holiday, four or five people are baptized, both big and small. From here I went to Sato Kirill; But he did not find him, and his son (9 years old), a pagan, asked: "Are we not from the church?" We explained to him and asked him to convey this to his father, as well as that he come to church on Sunday, since then there would be a very great church feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles; The boy replied to our question about baptism that he would be baptized next month; therefore we told him briefly about this feast; They advised me to come to Sunday school and generally attend divine services.

He agreed and even seemed to be happy, especially since now he does not go to school. The pagan children of the master were also standing there, and they listened to our story; I caressed them, which they liked very much.

From here we went to Mikami George; he has a wife Varvara, a daughter Athanasia and another (4 years old), unbaptized, and a father - old man Philaret. They go to church very diligently, and George constantly sings on the kliros; everything in the house is arranged in a completely Christian way: in front of the shrine there is a lectern with various books for prayer; only Varvara does not go to church at all and has not yet confessed, referring to her lack of leisure. I spoke about the benefits for us of prayer and the danger of completely forgetting God without prayer and living away from Him after death. She confessed that indeed through prayer we gradually become accustomed to doing everything before God. I added that this is especially true in confession, when we stand exclusively before God, confessing our sins to Him. If we tried to think about God more often, then gradually our whole life would be under God and in God's way. I called upon them all to assist in the common church cause and to mutually encourage Christians to zeal for the Church; spoke of the power that is in the common concordant cause of believers. In the very first times, the faith and prayer of believers overcame all the obstacles and persecutions that Jews and Gentiles imposed on the apostles, which is why they kept the faith strong and pure in the midst of all these troubles and persecutions, and now we have received it. We are now beginning the work of Christianity here, laying the foundation on which the whole edifice of the Church is gradually erected; And therefore we must try to build this foundation perfectly. I advised the girl to be baptized on Trinity Day together with others who were to be baptized. About half past nine o'clock I returned home.

Today the master began to paint the iconostasis and gild it (for 18 yen); this is on the donations of Christians; the same and much more will be corrected. I am especially pleased with this zeal of Christians, that in this way they will love the church more as their own master, and consequently in general will be more zealous for it; And in general, it is very pleasant to have something, even relatively bad, and your own. Until now, Christians had a church here, built exclusively on Russian donations, as well as all churches here. May God grant that Christians may gradually be brought into possession of the Church as their dearest and only business.

On the morning of May 21/2, during the lesson, Kirill Sato, whom I did not find in the apartment yesterday, came. He is a lawyer; He says that he did not go to church because he lived far away, and now he has moved to another place and intends to go to church. I advised him to confess during Lent, which he had not yet done in the present year; on this question I said that we need to turn often and with contrition to God, from Whom in life we constantly go into vanity. Then I began to talk about the significance for us of prayer and in general of all the blessings that we can receive in the Church, if we seriously fulfill its work; but Sato soon left, as if embarrassed (as he later explained to the catechist) to interfere with me during the lesson. I don't know, maybe so. And I, I confess, wanted to talk to him about what he was losing by withdrawing from the Church; for at another time it may not be seen. In the afternoon Pavel Kavagutsi came; in conversation he said that in Tokyo the deputies were again demanding a change of ministers, since the latter did not care about the benefit of the Fatherland, in view of the present events in China.

In the evening I went from Sakuma first to look for the lost Furubayashi Akila, whose trace was pointed out to us yesterday by Mikami George, who in general tries very hard for the Church and has the cards of almost all the Christians here and who have been here before. After long wanderings, they finally found his apartment, to which he had moved quite recently; But he was not there: he worked in a printing house until midnight. I told the pagan hostess that they had come from church, asked them to convey an invitation to come to church on Sunday, since it was a very great holiday, and in general from time to time I asked him to come to me in their free time. The Christian name of Akila is known and called by the pagan mistress, and in the quarter where Furubayashi used to live, also to our question: is Furubayashi here? – they asked: is this Aquila? Perhaps, after all, a person really has no time to look into the church for extreme lack of time, and he has evidently retained the faith, even if his name is known to pagans, while in general the Japanese call themselves by pagan names and Christian names are almost unknown in general. God grant that I will see him sometime.

From here we went to Sakamoto Titus; jinrikisha is at home only at night; I found his wife Sophia, an old woman, and his son Sergius (12 years old); and his daughter Nadezhda lives in service; I asked Sophia to go to church, I talked about the feast of the Holy Trinity; and above all, he asked him to tell Titus that one day on the feast day he should come to church and confess, for in this way he would gradually leave the church completely, for his faith would weaken; and then what: Christ even bore the cross for us and saved us, and we will again create this cross for Him; for if a bad son is a sorrow for earthly parents, then how sad is it for God to see our return to sin and laziness again? I asked him to tell his daughter Nadezhda the same; somehow he can snatch a day for his soul. Sophia is a good old woman. From here we went to Massui Marina, but did not find her; She does not go to church and has not confessed. Her son Anthony lives in Kobe, and I did not know this, having been to Kobe, and, perhaps, the catechist Shimizu does not know this. I advised the catechist Massoud to go to such Christians whom we cannot find in the evening, in the morning, in order to tell them a word about Christ, at least in fits and starts, to remind them of this, so that far from everything ecclesiastical they would not completely forget their calling. Finally, late in the evening and tired, as we had to go around a lot, we came to Yoshida Paul's. He found his wife Maria, daughter Zinaida and son (10 years old) Tikhon; the rest are in Kobe on commercial business. In their non-attendance at church, they justify themselves by lack of leisure; I spoke about the importance of our confession of faith, to which we came when we were baptized, and in this we will give an answer after death. And therefore it is necessary to try in every possible way to snatch time from work for this holy work, in order to be with God. I asked him to convey the same to the others, who are now absent. Everything in the house is arranged in a very Christian way: in front of the shrine on the analogion there are even various prayer and similar books. I advised my son Tikhon to come to church and Sunday school, where he would hear many good things; and he advised his parents to send him there, since they must take care of the upbringing of their children. At about 9 o'clock we returned.

Today, for some reason, my tongue did not speak well, so that, after several unsuccessful attempts to speak clearly and understandably, I was sometimes completely silent, urging the catechist to speak; He really spoke, and very intelligibly.