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.

On May 22/3, at 6 o'clock in the evening, I went from Sakuma to Suzuki Nicholas; He is a very rich craftsman of glassware, zealous for the church. In conversation, he said that during the time of Archimandrite Anatolius, the church here was in a very flourishing state, and after him it completely collapsed, since the stewards were weak; and besides, these latter, as their own, the Japanese, did not have any special authority for Christians. I asked him to help us in the matter of attracting Christians to church life, as he had previously helped very zealously. Regarding Savada Marina and his family, he said that since her second husband was a zealous pagan, she had now completely abandoned the faith and did not want to listen. It's a pity. From here we went to Ueda Peter; his wife Mary had recently given birth to a girl, who was named Silas; although he talks about church affairs, it seems that he confines himself only to this, since he almost does not go to church at all. I advised him to come from time to time, and to confess during Lent; and talked about the importance of participation in church life and the power that we have for us in it.

From here we went to Kanno Panteleimon, the son of the head of our girls' school in Tokyo, Anna. He's a doctor, he didn't want to see me, I don't know – with some excuses, which he passed on through the servant; I don't know now whether to go or not another time. Finally, they entered the house of Morita John. They seemed to be ready for bed, so I, after talking a little about the subjects of faith, and advising them to go to church and confess during the fast, left and returned home at a quarter to ten. We walked around a lot of places. Today I am very tired; he listened and talked with great tension and difficulty, understanding very little in conversation.

In the altar, the walls were covered with new wallpaper; I entered the altar, and well: the altar was pulled out into the church, and in its place there were various benches and chairs; and Father Sergius immediately stood with folded hands and calmly looked at all this. I made the appropriate explanation and put the throne in his place.

Today during the lesson with Isogai we talked about how Buddhism has taught people to do without faith, since it is a religion without God; That is why faith is incomprehensible to the Japanese.

May 23/4 June. For some reason, I immediately felt bad during the lesson, stopped the lesson, and went to bed until lunch. And it really got a little better, so that at 4 o'clock I could go to Kobe; Some came to meet me in the church. I told how Trinity Day is celebrated in Russia with flowers and trees in church and near houses; meaning: separation from sin to God, as for the Jews this custom resembled the exodus from Egypt and constant guidance from God. From half past eight to 9 o'clock there was a vigil with a litiya. They sang very well; Only 9 Christians gathered, as it rained, and there was no time in the evening. After Mass, 7 people went to confession, including one from Kakogawa who lived here (18 years old); Men are smarter and more self-disciplined than women, they tell everything in detail, but a woman says: she has committed various and numerous sins. But everyone has sincere contrition and humility before God. Joseph Kimura, an old man, spoke especially well. The family of our consul was also at the vigil, but he himself stood quite carelessly, as if ashamed of his mistake in coming to church; This, of course, can be tempting for our Christians. On the feast itself, from 8 o'clock, Barnabas read prayers for the communicants; from 9 o'clock there is mass. Christians gathered up to 30; After Mass, I said: if our invited friends had not come to our feast, it would certainly have been very sad for you. God constantly calls us to Himself; and today for the sake of such a great feast there is a liturgy, and yet many have not even thought of appearing before God; this is sad for me, and even more so for God – His neglect of love for us. In this way we create a second cross for Christ, who has already suffered for us. It is sad for the parents if the son does not listen to them and only does evil; sad for Christ is our separation from Him. And yet this is the only thing that must go towards: God has been concerned about our salvation from all eternity, and in every way He leads and calls us to it. We die and then we only begin the real life, and earthly life is only a temporary preparation for it; there we will have to give an answer in everything, and then either with God, or far away from Him in agony, death. If we desire the first and not the second, then we must prepare ourselves in this way: it is impossible for a bad person to be near God (the example of an illiterate person who went to school). And some of the Christians, obviously, do not realize this, for they have not come to the Liturgy, which has not been celebrated here before, and even on such a feast. All this made a very sad impression that, noticing it, I said: "Still, this feast is an undoubted joy for me and for you, and especially for those who have received Communion," and I advised you to preserve and support this joy through prayer. Still, I was very pleased to see the enthusiasm and cordiality with which those present treated the divine services. Obviously, there is true faith that, despite the most pouring rain, they came from afar to the church. It was under this impression that I told about the life of the first Christians in persecution and in general about the common unanimous life of Christians in the Church; the pagans, both in ancient times and now, would have come to Christ for this purpose, seeing our moral strength, and this work of Christ would have been at our hands; And this, of course, we must cherish, for salvation is for all... And what power and how much joy there is in the unanimous life of Christians! Then Christ is in our midst, according to His true word... The first Christians were strong and invincible in the midst of persecution, but, on the contrary, they were victorious because Christ was really among them. I spoke this vividly and energetically, and I think I made some impression.

Viewed metrics; Shimizu knows everyone well. There was a pagan at the Liturgy; and at Easter there were 20 of them. Some Christian women are very zealous for the Church and constantly come to worship and sing. Every third Sunday there is a women's meeting to explain the Holy Scriptures and handicrafts for the benefit of the church; now they have already accumulated 5 yen; I invested 1 yen. Unfortunately, according to yesterday's promise, I had to go to the consul for breakfast, and at a quarter past one o'clock I went; Christians thanked for the visit; I suggested that they take care to sew vestments for the church, even if they were inexpensive, since they were not very good in Osaka, and it was not convenient to transport them. On the first Sunday after the feast I proposed to come again; then, as usual, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon there will be a women's meeting: they seem to gather very willingly; We must get acquainted with this matter as well. At the consul's I found our consul of Hakodate; He immediately declared that he did not like the Japanese. And Q-c: And yesterday those who were in church all receive 8 yen? "From whom?" – From Nikolai, of course. "Only a catechist gets 10 yen, but of course you won't get very far; and in general this should not be suspected or said; we pull a penny from Christians to the church; so I have just spoken to them about vestments; and for the sake of the feast they willingly abandoned everything and gathered in bad weather, and many took communion. And this is an amazing people: they did not even think of doing anything good for the Japanese, and they are scolded, saying that they do not sincerely accept Christianity and it is not for them, but let them remain in their religion, since everyone has his own faith, although they themselves speak with a smile about religious things and do not know where to put their hands in church – in their pockets or in their waistcoats. After breakfast I hurried to leave: it was stifling to remain in this prejudiced and unwilling to listen and see environment. Here they are our intellectuals: instead of clever and active, or at least financial, assistance to the cause of the mission, they are able and willing, and try in every possible way only to harm it and present it in a bad form.

In church, I packed my things, tried to encourage Barnabas: if you see for yourself how joyfully Christians relate to church work and what a thirst for the word of God is around – work. After today's service, he was somehow especially moved. May God give him zeal and strength.