Consequently, it is not Christianity to preserve, under certain obligations, ceremonies or forms of action which, for one or another particular conscience, seem either contrary (with objection) or necessary. Meanwhile, we believe in the existence of God and in everything that is implied by it. We hold in high esteem both the words and the character of Christ. We zealously defend His doctrine of universal love, and we believe that it is quite possible for both men and women to be so perfect as to become godlike. Therefore we believe that we have every right to be enrolled among the disciples of Christ" (The Japan Mail, Friday, January 21, 1898, Section: "Monthly summary of the religions press"). This quote speaks for itself: Protestants, obviously, preach unbelief in Christ as the Son of God. They'll say it's the Congregationalists. But they do not have this strict distinction: at the head of all the Anglican missions in China is Taylor, a Methodist or even a Congregationalist, and even the priest himself, who is under his supervision, did not know this; the same priest on the steamer, while celebrating mass, communed Taylor and his assistants, missionaries, also some sectarians.12 Therefore, it is hardly necessary to distinguish between the teachings of the two sides among them. Therefore, the above is a clear and final expression of the hope of the Anglican Church. And in practice they really preach this: they hang here the topic and points of every sermon near their churches, in which there is almost no hint of their hope in the Divinity of Jesus Christ; on the contrary, they speak "of the Christ of history, of Christ as a righteous man," and so on. And what is this happening in the world in the name of Christ?! It is these same heretics who proclaim in His own name disbelief in Him, the true Son of God. And in this they show such zeal that they seem to abandon everything, devoting themselves only to this work. It is evident that this is a clear fulfillment of the words of Christ Himself: "Men will come who will be called by My name, and they will do great signs on the earth, to deceive even the elect, if possible." This is truly an anti-Christian trend under the name of Christ. And all this is thanks to our carelessness: during the sound sleep of us Orthodox Christians, all kinds of evildoers come and spoil the field of Christ with all kinds of tares. And we sit with the true truth of Christ, with the true light, with truly powerful and saving grace, hiding these gifts in the ground, fearing that it may be defiled by touching a stranger or squandered in some way. And our enemies, or rather our adversaries, as it seems, are not strong and unfounded, and we cannot do anything with them, for we are asleep and lazy.

On January 14/26, His Grace received a letter from Kyoto from Priest Simeon Mia and, delighted with what was reported in it, hastened to bring it to us for reading. Father Simeon describes how they celebrated the feast of the Nativity of Christ, what new members were added to this feast, who moved from other places, and then reports on the baptism of two families. These are still not important people in the public respect: they are mostly artisans. And now, says Father Simeon, a teacher of the gymnasium, a very important and well-known person in the city, is listening to a sermon on Orthodoxy; Fr. Simeon hopes that his conversion can be of great benefit to the conversion of others. Indeed, now our Christians are more and more from a poor and unimportant class of society, so it is rare for more prominent Japanese to accept Orthodoxy: it is obviously the faith of uneducated, simple people; and the Japanese are still accustomed to looking at Russia as a poorly enlightened country.

That is why they are more and more eager for Anglicanism, as a religion of an educated people. Of course, there can be little sense in this for the time being: after all, European civilization is not at all a sign of Christianity, but rather the opposite, and Christians who would accept Orthodoxy only on this basis would be bad; after all, the first Christians of the beginning of Christianity in general were simple fishermen and their followers – the poor, working class, but it was they who conquered the whole world by the power of Christ. Still, Father Simeon's report is a little comforting and excites the spirit with some hopes. And as a case of a new conversion to Orthodoxy, this made Father Simeon and me very happy and added energy.

On January 26/February 7, His Grace told us about a certain Daniel. At first he was a Protestant, and then converted to Orthodoxy and became a very zealous philanthropist. For about a year, he has been caring for orphans who died from flooding on the east coast of Japan. He went there, took all the orphans, brought them to Tokyo and told His Grace about his intention to raise them. It turns out that he really takes care of them: he supports them at his own expense, sends them to school; and in order to maintain them, he bought a horse and was engaged in carting; and he forces and teaches the children to cook various small treats for sale, which they sell themselves, and, in this way, they themselves are already accustomed to earning their bread. He asked to be baptized, and now they have already been baptized and every feast day they go to church with us, after which His Grace arranges a dinner for them together with the disciples. But one day Daniil did not warn our cook why the guys had to go home hungry. This is what Peter Iwasawa wrote a very plaintive article about in our magazine; and this led to the fact that many people learned about Daniel and his work and began to bring large donations, even up to 150 yen. And the fact that Daniil brings up the children well is evidenced by the following. One day the teacher at school, of course a pagan, began to say against Christianity, that it should not be accepted, since it forbade the veneration of emperors; to this one of Daniel's living pupils stood up and boldly objected and said that this was not true, since and so on. The teacher only beat him for this, so the children came to Daniel with tears and a complaint. And Daniel said to them: "Well, you are Christians, so it is good to suffer for Christ, without being offended."

And I told them about it so much that the guys were very touched and really imbued with this mood. At school, the teacher once tells them in conversation that they are probably angry. And the guys answered: no, we are not angry, Christ did not tell us to be angry, such is our faith and so on. All this, of course, had a great effect on all the students and on the teachers themselves, so that the latter came to Daniel himself to ask him for an apology. This is the most Christian preaching about Christ – to attract the lives of Christians to Christianity by their morals. Of course, it would be good to turn this matter into a real shelter, but His Grace is waiting to test Daniel's reliability well, for one can only spoil him by giving him a reason to calm down, and the matter itself is because of it.

And here is another similar thing. In one of the northern cities of Japan, a similar figure recently died. He was formerly in the party of the Sosi, who by various scandals create public disorder in order to destroy every encroachment on the imperial power; I do not have a good idea of this party, I only know that they are very desperate people. This one once learned about Christianity and, having heard it, was baptized Orthodox; after baptism he completely changed his way of life and gave himself entirely to charity; he became a peddler of goods and used the proceeds from this for the poor. One day he went into the workshop of a carpenter; It turned out that the carpenter had died and his wife and children were crying, as they were left completely poor, without a piece of bread, and there was not even money to bury the dead. Then he left his work, went to dig a grave himself, bought a coffin for 1 yen and buried a dead pagan carpenter, and sent the orphans with their mother at his own expense to the house of his parents for care. And many, many similar things were told about him by a catechist from the north who was with His Grace. But recently he died, having fallen ill with typhus. May God grant that we have more such workers for the benefit of the needy, who act not out of a desire to show off their charity, but exclusively out of a kind, unselfish heart.

January 30/February 11. His Grace expressed his thoughts on where to live in order to keep the whole matter in our hands. And the Japanese in this regard do not always have to be relied upon. Here, for example, is what he said. In Hakodate, the priest Peter Yamara. A year ago, representatives of the Hakodate Church came with a statement that they intended to go to Sakhalin for fishing, for which they asked His Grace for some kind of letter or even paper, since they promised, in the event of a good catch, to give a third of the income to the Church, so that this fishing would be partly for the Church. His Grace says that he did not believe these promises, since in general it rarely happens that a Japanese with money in his hands does not deceive; Of course, He gave his blessing for the Providence, since why should not our Christians also benefit, if the pagans make millions on it; but he refused to give a letter or a paper, and promised only to give a certificate that the departing were Orthodox Christians, so that they could turn to the Russian priest. But the representatives started talking to let the Hakodate priest go with them, since there are a lot of our Orthodox Japanese on Sakhalin so that their priest could see and so on.

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.