Divine services in our country are not yet performed quite properly, namely in relation to the rule, since only the most necessary things have been translated, and, besides, the Japanese, since they have not heard or seen any model of divine services, do not yet know how to sing well and do not soon get used to singing, since in general they are not quite capable of this. After all, the vigil and liturgy last two or more hours.

After the vigil, a catechist always preaches, and at the Liturgy either a priest, a deacon, or a teacher preaches.

His Grace himself reads and corrects each sermon beforehand. It is a pity that the people do not go to divine services much, especially on feast days, except Sundays; But this, of course, is explained by the fact that the majority of our Christians are all poor people, and for the most part work or trade for the owner, and therefore must work on the feast day, so as not to lose a piece of bread.

On the other hand, they have simbokukwai, or religious meetings, on different days, at which various parish issues are decided, divine services are held, sermons are offered, and a general conversation is held. Such Simbokukwai, of course, are very supportive and can support parish life, if only they are well guided, so that they do not turn into an empty assembly of idle people, and if not idle, then they talk about things that are not at all proper and unimportant. His Grace serves every feast day, and he left the sermon to the Japanese, only guiding them.

On the day after our arrival (the third day of the Nativity of Christ), after Liturgy, he wanted to serve a moleben of thanksgiving to the Lord God for our safe arrival, before which he addressed the standing disciples and worshipers with a brief sermon and briefly introduced them to us as his future helpers. So we were completely settled in a new place.

On the occasion of our arrival, the students asked us to arrange a simbokukwai, to which we were invited, for which, of course, we had to give 5 yen each. A certain treat was prepared for everyone from various fruits, sweets and tea. At first, one of the teachers made a very beautiful speech, explaining the reason for this festive and joyful Simbokukvai, and then the students (up to 4) spoke, one of whom said: now everyone complains and points out that morality in our Fatherland has fallen very much, which is fair, only Christianity can raise the life of the people, but for this to happen, leaders are needed, And now such people have come to us. Everyone spoke very briskly, according to what they had memorized, although in some places they were confused. Of course, I did not understand anything yet, but I enjoyed the amazing external harmony with which Japanese is spoken by those who know how to speak: the speech flows smoothly, separately, as if the speaker plays on the keys, measured in advance, and does not speak with a stagnant tongue. We sat on the simbokukwai for two hours and then left, accompanied by the cordiality of the authorities and students of the school, who were very happy with our visit to them. And the seminary students, as more lively, decided to arrange a simbokukwai on the same occasion not at Christmastide, but already during classes; and so on the very first day of classes they arranged it, and His Grace dispersed and gave permission, not at all susceptible to such abuses of the school. The disciples spoke very much, but not at all well, and most importantly, there was little ecclesiastical spirit, which was closest to the goal of their seminary. As is the Japanese custom, for some reason they got into politics and talked about wars and hearing abuse, and then came over to us. But all this was, as it were, more, and perhaps the only thing, a scratching of the tongue and showing off in front of comrades. One even read an appeal to us in Russian, in which he said that we, of course, would be the bearers of the Christian spirit that we wanted to convey to the Japanese. At the end of the fun, at last, some kind of comic lottery was arranged with riddles and riddles, and the singers sang various church and Japanese folk songs. And there we sat for two hours.

On Monday, January 12/24, the catechists of our other Tokyo church, under the supervision of priests P. and A. Sawabe, expressed a desire to be with us for acquaintance and conversation. There are six of them. They are diligently engaged in preaching, some succeeding for believers, others for pagans, and still others in the work of preaching. On Sundays, they hold meetings of individual parishes in the house of their catechist; There is a simbokukwai, that is, a speaking and preaching meeting. Sometimes meetings are held in other homes. Priest A. Sawabe is pleased with his assistants – catechists.

On the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, Priest Theodore Nitsuma performed the sacrament of baptism over two families of seven souls: two men, two women, one boy and two girls. This is one policeman; he was appointed to guard our church and the mission building from street children, who often smashed the glass in the windows with stones, and then he himself came to listen to the sermon about Christ and was instructed by Father Theodore and was baptized by his entire family; I do not know the fate of the other family of those who were baptized. I was at the sacrament (before the liturgy from 8 o'clock). The faces of all the baptized adults were very reverent. All of them, together with their godparents, read the prescribed prayers and the words of the sacrament from books. At the Liturgy, for the first time, the bishop communed them of the Holy Mysteries, impressively reading with them the prayer "I believe, O Lord"...

His Grace talked with us a lot and devoted a lot of time to us, usually busy with work (he goes to bed late, but gets up before everyone else and works hard either for translations, or for reading books, magazines and newspapers, or reading and writing letters, and so on. He spoke a lot about how the work of preaching should be carried out here, how one should be inspired and inspire others to this work, how one should delve into everything here and apply one's hand to everything; he said that there was no need to keep in mind any time calculations for the mission, that is, we did not come for Russia, not for Japan, but we are doing the work of Christ, and therefore there is no need to fear anything if we follow the line. Perhaps there will be a war between Russia and Japan; And then there is no need to leave here, for otherwise everything will be destroyed here. He also told his story – how he became a missionary in the Far East. I will tell you approximately in his words.

"It is a great pity that we did not have, and do not yet have, a living organ that acquaints us with the affairs of missionary work, so that now people go to the mission, and good ones, only by accident, having somehow learned about this church work. For me, for example, for the first time this question arose completely in passing. When I was still in the 4th grade of the seminary, one teacher said that his friend Father Avvakum was going to be a priest at our consulate in Beijing. In this regard, I immediately had a question: "Ah, here's another place: I wonder if it's possible to get there somehow, that is, to those countries?" Later, already at the academy, when we were reading Oblomov in the course, I had a swarm of thoughts that all of us Russians are very prone to this Oblomovism, and in ordinary life it seems that you can't get out of it - so it will attack you. Therefore, one thing: either the fulfillment of the ideal of height, in general of everything that seems high to me, in which case I will have to break all ties with the usual hustle and bustle and vacuity of family and economic life, or, on the contrary, to follow the usual track of family life, and then, of course, I will have to forget all ideals. That is how I reasoned then. Such has always been my one-sided nature: one of the two, or many at all. But these thoughts, too, were, of course, forgotten, that is, their relief disappeared when applied to the given circumstances. The third impulse to the same thing came much later: I was in the hospital and read in the Russian Herald an analysis of Golovin's book about Japan. That's when I asked myself the question more clearly: would it be possible to get there somehow?! I thought and thought, but in the midst of the usual later student affairs, I also forgot this. And only in the third year there was the last and decisive push. I was the senior in one of the junior suites; That's where I trained. One day I went from there to my comrade's room, and it was next door; and I walked, as I do now, like everything I do in general, quickly. And then I did it even faster. Our floors are waxed, and therefore I did not walk for quickness, but usually rolled on soles on the floor from room to number; sometimes you run into someone in such and such a way, sit on his shoulders, knock him to the floor, the fallen one swears, and you fly on; Only one student was stronger than me, and so when I ran at him in this way, the roles were usually reversed: he grabbed me and threw me to the floor. And after lunch and dinner, I also left the table very quickly and then rolled to the room. So it was that time: I rolled into my room, leaned on the table, and saw some kind of paper lying on it. I read it, and it turned out that it was a proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: would any of the students of the academy wish to go to Japan in Hakodate to the Russian consulate as a priest or monk? And then I saw the names of three of those who had already registered: Nikolai Blagorazumov – a white priest (former rector of the Moscow Theological Seminary, now a Moscow archpriest), and two more: one Gorchakov (a priest), and the other in whatever rank. I read this and went back to the junior room, but it seemed to be more modest, I did not roll, I passed; I only remember that somehow I could not sit in the room and did not want to do business. It turned out that this paper had been lying in the room for a week, and I, as I rarely visited it, did not even know it. Now I thought again about the question of Japan, and I had already irrevocably decided to go there, if they were sent, and to go as a monk, for otherwise it was impossible for the cause. I went immediately and signed on the same sheet that I wanted to go to Japan as a monk. At this point, I calmed down for now. So, that evening I belonged to Japan by myself. The next morning I went to the Rector, His Grace Nektarios, and told him that I wished to go to Japan as a monk. His Grace Nektarios remarked to me: "Why are you sure to go to Japan? we can give you a good job and a place here too; We can arrange for you to be at the academy." And I remarked to him that I wanted to be a monk only for the sake of mission, and here I would not remain in this rank; and then he submitted to him a petition to be tonsured into monasticism in order to go to Japan. His Grace Nektarios reported this to Metropolitan Gregory, and this to the Holy Synod. In the Synod there was a disagreement: some objected that it was not quite necessary to send a young person to Japan, especially only a student who had not yet completed his course, and some objected: why send a monk without fail? But Metropolitan Gregory defended this case, and my petition was granted.

In the meantime, in the absence of this, the students and comrades who had signed it were agitated and interested in this matter, occupied with it when it was already in its final decision, and had hardly thought about it before. Everyone, of course, said that they would send me, because I had expressed my desire to become a monk. Of course, when it became known that I was assigned to Japan, various disputes and objections arose about my becoming a monk. Our time was alive: at that time different directions in life were rising; Then various literary talks arose about how to make life better. And we were very carried away by all this and hotly discussed various currents of social thought. But everything was on religious and ecclesiastical grounds. I remember gazing and listening with pleasure and curiosity as my younger students read various Schopenhauers and other philosophers and non-philosophers of deniers, and at the same time carefully broke them down. We had a lively interest in public life, and there was no or little negation. So the question of my becoming a monk was also hotly debated; there were also various objections, but all this was very peaceful and benevolent, nothing low and quarrelsome was expressed. At parting before the tonsure, I arranged a dinner, at which, of course, various speeches and toasts were made, and one of those who had signed up, but who had not been appointed to Japan, probably a little offended, instead of any toast, took a glass and smashed it on the floor as a sign of good wishes; But the students did not approve of his trick: all the dishes were rented, and there was not much to pay for.

During various discussions and disputes about my monasticism, I asked one of my friends about the same (he was from Yaroslavl, I respected him for his calmness and poise; he very rarely spoke himself, but everyone respected him). To my question he replied: "I think that you will soon return from Japan to Russia." And there were such objectors and openly said that I hoped to go through Japan as soon as possible to the episcopate and so on. Of course, this offended me not a little, but still, in the end, everything ended peacefully and benevolently. Immediately after tonsure, it is known what a high mood there is. And then suddenly a crowd of student singers poured into my cell, and they began to sing a song, quite unexpectedly for me: "I'll sit down at the table and think." Here are the robbers! Then soon I was ordained a hierodeacon and a hieromonk. I went to His Grace Nektarios, and he suddenly said to me, contrary to usual, so strictly and rudely: "Well, here's the thing: you have nothing to do in the academy now, you don't need it; get ready at 24 hours and leave, I have nothing to do with you anymore." In general, I have never been such as to lower my head and discourage myself from such an incident, but here I still involuntarily thought about the reason for such a reception, but calmly and not cowardly. Of course, I hurried to get ready and came to His Grace Nektarios to say goodbye. He told me: "You are a young man, life is still ahead of you: so keep your mouth shut." Of course, I was even more puzzled and partly offended by this, which is why I immediately asked him to explain what was the matter. "You go everywhere there and say that it is not worth studying at the academy, that there is nothing good there, that you need to go abroad, and that's why you are going to Japan now." This made me terribly indignant, and in an excited voice I said directly to His Grace: "Call the person who said such a thing to you a liar and a swindler. I have never been ungrateful to the seminary, much less to the academy, never ungrateful, and I do not intend to be, and in general I never seem to be ungrateful, unappreciative, or impolite to anyone. I bring the most gratifying memories, full of gratitude, from the academy, and therefore I will say again that he is not an honest person who said such a slander against me." His Grace must have understood that I was speaking sincerely and justly, and without saying anything more about it, he dismissed me kindly and benevolently, peacefully. That was the last thing I experienced that hurt me about my monasticism at the academy. And it turns out that this was taken from this: one of those who were going to go to Japan really said what has just been said about me, and then all this was transferred from him to me on the occasion of his word that seemed to have come true, but he himself said it on his own behalf and about himself. That is how, quite by chance, I became a preacher of Christianity in Japan. Therefore, it is imperative that we have some kind of institution in the Synod that would be in charge of missions and would acquaint society with them, so that the question of missions would be included in the seminary programs."

We objected to him: the programs, indeed, contain this issue, but it did not bring any benefit, since the teacher-leader himself is not interested in this matter or even worse. And the planned institution can easily turn from a living organ to a chancellery with a multitude of inspectors, sub-inspectors, assistants, and the like, without living management of the business. But His Grace insisted on his own, although not so strongly. This is how he told about his entry into the Japanese Church. This is the kind of one-sidedness that created such a one-sidedness as the twenty-five-thousand-strong Japanese Church, which by the grace of God was raised out of nothing by the hands of this one-sided man alone. God grant that you send us more such and such one-sided people, since we, for the most part, are already very versatile.

Not long ago I read in a Japanese newspaper (in English) the following very characteristic article on the essence of modern Protestantism, so preached in Japan. "In an article entitled 'Our Attitude to Orthodox Christianity,' Shuukyo (Anglican Gazette) points out the following main points: One of the causes of the stagnation in the Christian Church, which is so obviously increasing, is the spirit of compromise which has taken root among us. One can easily enumerate the points in which we, as fighters for the cause of free Christianity, differ from Orthodoxy (he means the orthodox trend in Protestantism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy). Generally speaking, this refers to (1) the character of the Bible, (2) the nature of Christ, and (3) the subject of original sin. We do not think that the Bible is some perfect remedy. We do not believe in the divinity of Christ, nor do we regard the races of men as descended from the action of the sin of Adam and Eve. We have a court of appeal to conclude the entire religious dispute, that there is neither the Bible, nor the Church, nor tradition, but the reason of every Christian.