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.

I went with him to Akashi; There are Christians there, but they do not gather in church, and now they live almost like pagans, without faith.

But on the other hand, the only true Christian is very good – Nikolai Shikata. The family is large and very Christian; everything in the house is arranged in a Christian way; he knows the metric like his own family, God grant that catechists know their Christians so well. And here there is no catechist. He is very zealous for the Church and often talks about faith with pagans. Now there are up to 30 or more people who want to listen to the teaching; but since Nicholas himself does not know how to explain well, and there is no time (photographer), all such people do not know the teaching and do not accept baptism. He asks a catechist here. I decided to see all these people who wanted to listen, to talk to them with the help of Shimizu, and on the way back I promised to be here, and in the meantime Nikolai would inform everyone.

At about 6 p.m., Kakogawa was met by the catechist Adatsi and the Christians. It turns out that there are only 9 real Christians here, and the rest have left the faith (3 houses). But even of the true Christians, only 9 people will come to church for worship. In a conversation with Christians, I asked: why have some weakened? Because they often did not come to church, and then completely lost the habit. Does the catechist visit Christians here (after all, he lives in Himeiji)? "No, very rarely; the former was very zealous, and things went well, but this one is not particularly zealous. "Maybe that's why some have become weaker?" The Christian only smiled at this. When Adatsi came, I said to him: do you come here to see Christians? – I do, but lately rarely. "I made a corresponding remark to him: you are here only to know your Christians and to help them maintain the faith well and firmly; Christians in general gladly listen to every word about faith, but you do not observe it. And anyway, what are you doing? The pagans do not listen to your teaching, their Christians lose their faith. If you really want to work for the Church, then work; and if not, then it is not necessary: God does not need lazy workers. The Church has brought you up for this work, and you, like an ungrateful son, do not respond to it, but despise her work; it is not good in ordinary life to show ingratitude, and even more so in the Church. In this way, all your Christians will gradually leave the Church, and you will not want to help them stay. Meanwhile, Christ bore the cross for every Christian; and you again destroy them and lose them to Christ. "The Christian who used to talk about Adatsi's laziness now interpreted something in his defense, but I only realized that Adatsi knows and works well for Christians in Himeiji.

The service was sung quite decently. After that, Adatsi gave a sermon that we must maintain faith in ourselves and ask the grace of the Holy Spirit to lift us up, since this is the only point. Afterwards I advised him to put all this to his heart and take care of it. After that, I began to talk about something with Christians and call upon them to return to the Church by joint efforts those who were weakened, since they are Christ's children, and our brothers, and all of us in Christ, are one body, in which all are bound together by the unity of life; and gradually attract pagans to the Church. And the owner of the house in which the church, Paul Atsumi, invited two pagans who wanted to listen to the teaching, and asked me to talk; I have expressed my difficulty, since my speech is not yet quite understandable even for Christians, and even more so for pagans. But I had to interpret it. I said approximately the following. If we look closely at the world, we will see that everything here has its creator; there would be no thing if it were not made by a craftsman for our use; And if so, how does the world exist at all? Undoubtedly, it also has its beginning and its Creator. This Creator is God. Then, if we turn to our heart, we will notice that it usually either approves or disapproves of our actions, and that we like only the good in others; and we will not silence this voice in any way, therefore, it is not essentially ours, but is given from somewhere above; this is indeed the voice of God in us; it forces us in our vanity not to be satisfied with this vanity and to seek something higher and different from this – in a word, it demands a different life; This is the life of the soul. In ourselves we see something that invisibly governs our entire life and cannot be destroyed in any way; During sleep, for example, the body does not feel anything, does not understand anything, but the soul lives here too, which is why we have different dreams. Obviously, the soul will not be destroyed even after death, like the body, which decays. All this is true: the soul will be freed from the body with death and will live a truly spiritual life with God, Who alone has true life. But, obviously, only that which is worthy of Him in its purity can be near God; and the rest must remain far from God, where there is undoubtedly darkness and torment. Just as it is difficult for an illiterate person to understand a book, so it is impossible for someone who is far from God in his soul to be close to Him in life. These are the basic questions that lead us to believe in God. All this I have said in detail, and have tried to present it as simply and clearly as possible; but it seems that he did not succeed, at least Varnava says that it is difficult for the pagans. I made him talk about various religious subjects and, among other things, for Christians, about the Eucharist and its meaning for us, according to the words of Christ. Only at the end of the 12th hour did the pagans leave, and the Christians wanted to confess.

Those here are more self-collected in confession than in Kobe. All 8 people.

At Mass, Adatsi gave a sermon; after dinner I talked a little, gave a few edifications, and called for joint efforts to help the catechist in the work of preaching; At home, it is imperative to pray, and on holidays to gather in church, so that there would be a truly church life.

Then I went to the reitan (weakened in faith) Luka Matsumoto; but I did not find him, but only talked a little with his pagan father and went to the station to go to Himeiji. On the way, he also called on Christians; they all live not far from each other; They are very kind Christians, and in their mood they are really Christians. Some came to see off the train. In the carriage with me was Adatsi; I gave him instructions, stirring up his spirit to preach with the joy of Christians today on the occasion of the feast, and in conclusion I said: Do you give your word to really work for the Church? He promised. Concerning yesterday's Gentile listeners, he said that there are many such people here, and he will listen, and so he will remain with the same, for he has no faith.