Ill « 
 lill " 
 
 lillllii. 
 
 lf.l liillli 
 ■'lllilif 
 
 III!" 
 
 [I! Hi 
 
 iji ij 
 
SL.//. b5~. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. *^ 
 
 Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund. 
 
 BV 3457 .N4 D38 1894 
 Davis, J. D. 1838-1910. 
 A maker of new Japan Rev. 
 Joseph Hardy Neesima, LL.D 
 
JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA 
 
JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA AND HIS WIFE 
 
A MAKER OF NEIV JAPAN 
 
 Rev. JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA 
 
 LL.D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF DOSHISHA UNIVERSITY, KYOTO 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. J. D. DAVIS, D. D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN DOSHISHA UNIVERSITY 
 
 **3For me to live ie Cbrfst, to ^fe is gafn" 
 
 PHIL, i, 21 
 
 ^fQV none of us livetb to bimselft anb none Metb to bimself '* 
 
 ROM. xiv, 7 
 
 IVUb many lUusfrations 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
Copyriglit, 1894, 
 Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 The life, character, and work of our brother who was so 
 recently " called up higher" were remarkable and unique ; 
 much of his life was spent in our midst here in Kyoto. 
 For over fourteen years it was my privilege to be very 
 intimately associated with him, and I have been asked to 
 prepare a brief sketch of his life which may perhaps serve 
 as an introduction to larger works which will doubtless be 
 published later both in Japan and in the United States. 
 
 In preparing this sketch I have consulted Dr. Neesima's 
 diary, written before he left his home for Hakodate, while 
 on the voyage thither, and in Hakodate, up to the day he 
 sailed from that place on his great quest for truth, and 
 also a copy of the brief sketch of his life written by the 
 late Miss Phebe Fuller McKeen, one of his Sabbath-school 
 teachers ; this sketch was written after Dr. Neesima had 
 been in Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., about a year. 
 I have quoted freely from the latter in the first chapter 
 and the beginning of the second, using Dr. Neesima's own 
 words in broken English which he wrote out, or which 
 his teacher above referred to copied from his hps before 
 he had had an opportunity to master the English lan- 
 guage. I have also quoted from his journal written on 
 his trip around the world in 1884-85 ; I also quote freely 
 from letters received from our brother during the last 
 fifteen years, and I give in some detail the history of the 
 
 5 
 
6 Freface to the First Fdition 
 
 founding of the Doshisha schools, the great work of Dr. 
 Neesima's Hf e. 
 
 His presence with us has been a blessing, and his mem- 
 ory is a benediction to us all. My hope and prayer is that 
 God may use this sketch for his own glory in the advance- 
 ment of his Kingdom in Japan. 
 
 J. D. Davis. 
 
 DosEisHA, Kyoto, February, 1890. 
 
Preface to the Third Edition 
 
 The ten years which have elapsed since the first American 
 edition appeared have been eventful ones in Japan and in the 
 institution to which Dr. Neesima gave his life. 
 
 The nationalistic and materialistic waves which were rising 
 ten years ago, and which, for a time, threatened to change the 
 character and the fundamental Christian principles of the 
 Constitution of Doshisha, have spent their force, and the school 
 is established on a permanent basis, in accordance with the 
 new Civil Code of Japan. The new Board of Directors, five 
 years ago, unanimously adopted a resolution stating that : 
 " While it is invested with the title to the property of the 
 institution and charged with its management, it holds all the 
 properties of the Company in trust to carry out the wishes and 
 purposes of its founder, in accordance with the unchangeable 
 provisions of the Constitution." The members of the Board 
 also stated that their understanding of the Christianity " which 
 is to form the basis of the moral teaching in all the departments 
 of the Doshisha school, under the unchangeable principles of 
 the Constitution, is that body of living and fundamental Chris- 
 tian principles believed and accepted by the great Christian 
 Churches of the world." 
 
 Nearly five hundred and fifty students were enrolled in the 
 school during the last school year, and its Christian spirit, its 
 discipline and its esprit de corps are constantly improving. 
 The school is loyal to the memory and the principles of its 
 founder. 
 
 A glance, taken a year ago, at the outcome of the school 
 shows that it has had, and is having no small part in the 
 moulding and regeneration of this nation, which is astonishing 
 
 7 
 
8 Preface to the Third Edition 
 
 the world by her progress along all material lines of advance- 
 ment, and especially by her success in the mighty struggle in 
 which she is now engaged with Russia. More than five thou- 
 sand students have entered the school since its beginning. Of 
 these, nearly one thousand have been graduated. In March, 
 1903, it was found that, of these graduates, over eighty were 
 preaching the Gospel, one hundred and sixty-one were teach- 
 ing, two hundred and twenty-one were engaged in business, one 
 hundred and fifty-six were studying, twenty-seven were officials, 
 sixteen were editors, etc. 
 
 Over one hundred graduates of the Girls' Department were 
 in homes of their own, most of them centres of Christian homes, 
 while more than seventy graduates of the Training School for 
 Nurses were engaged as nurses. 
 
 About four thousand have left the school before graduation, 
 and very many of these are engaged in useful work as preachers, 
 teachers, etc. 
 
 The school looks forward into the future with great hope and 
 courage. The rapidly increasing Christian constituency of the 
 school, and the fact that the higher schools in Japan cannot 
 receive more than one-third of the graduates of the Govern- 
 ment Middle Schools, open a great field for the Doshisha, for 
 it can furnish courses of study for young men to fit them for prac- 
 tical work along the lines which are most needed now in Japan, 
 and at the same time give them the Christian teaching and the 
 moral influence they need to make them men of character and 
 ability. 
 
 The school greatly needs a larger endowment. It is crippled 
 for lack of funds to do the work which is opening before it. 
 May the time be hastened when some of those who are able to 
 endow the educational institutions of America with their mil- 
 lions, shall have their vision and their love so broadened that 
 they will gladly give to such institutions as Doshisha, in Japan 
 and in China, their much needed endowment ! 
 
 With many hundreds of Chinese and Corean young men and 
 
Preface to the Third Edition 9 
 
 young women sent to Japan for education, with China and 
 Corea looking to Japan to guide and help them up to civiliza- 
 tion, to say nothing of the needs of the forty-five millions of the 
 Japanese people, before us, is there any place in the wide world 
 where money used to endow and equip such a school as the 
 Doshisha will bring a larger return for time and for eternity, 
 for the money invested ? 
 
 It would seem to be due to the memory of the noble soul 
 who devoted his life to the founding of this institution that it 
 should be helped in this substantial way and thus realize Dr. 
 Neesima's hopes for it, and shine with an ever-increasing lustre 
 like that which surrounds the name of its lamented founder. 
 
 J. D. Davis. 
 
 January, igo^* 
 
OOI^TEIfTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Birth, Early Education, and Start from Japan 15 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 Trials and Preparation 29 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 Laying Foundations 47 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Marriage, Trials, and Work 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Broadening Plans, Tour Abroad 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Last Days, Death, and Burial 109 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 Tributes and Lessons 119 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 Joseph Hardy Neesima and His Wipe Frontispiece 
 
 The Sacred Mountain Facing page 16 
 
 Neesima in Hakodate, 1864 
 
 Neesima Dressed as a Servant 
 
 Hon. Alpheus Hardy 
 
 Neesima's Wife and Mother 
 
 First Theological Hall, Doshisha University . 
 
 Recitation Hall, Doshisha University 
 
 Library Hall, Doshisha University 
 
 Science Hall, Doshisha University 
 
 Clark Theological Hall, Doshisha University. 
 
 New Chapel 
 
 Neesima's Eesidence 
 
 Neesima's Study 
 
 First Class in Doshisha 
 
 Last Resting-place 
 
 22 
 
 24 
 
 32 
 
 62 
 
 67 
 
 74 
 
 86 
 
 92 
 
 100 
 
 110 
 
 124 
 
 136 
 
 148 
 
 154 
 
Neesima's Coat of Arms. 
 
I 
 
 BIRTH, EARLY EDUCATION, AND START 
 FROM JAPAN 
 
 13 
 
"Now the Lord said unto Ahram, Get thee out of thy country, and 
 from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will 
 show thee." — Genesis xii. 1. 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious icay 
 His wonders to xjerform." 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 "Faith is nothing else hut the soul's venture." 
 
 W. Bridge. 
 
 " Bashly, 
 And praised he rashness for it — let us Tcnow, 
 Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well. 
 When our deep plots do pall; and that should teach us, 
 There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Bough-hew them how tve tvill." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 U 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 BIRTH, EARLY EDUCATION, AND START FROM JAPAN 
 
 The long sleep of the island empire was broken. The 
 fleet of " barbarian " ships which cast anchor in the Bay 
 of Yedo on that Sabbath morning, July 7, 1853, under 
 command of Commodore Perry, finally caused the nation 
 which had been closed for two hundred and fifty years 
 to open its gates to the world. There followed a develop- 
 ment along lines of material progress more rapid than the 
 world had ever before witnessed. Japan sent her keenest 
 statesmen to search through the enhghtened nations of 
 the world for the best they could find, and tried to advance 
 as far in thirty years as the nations of the West had done 
 in as many decades. God touched the heart of one young 
 man among the many thousands in the Eastern capital, 
 and fitted him to bear a conspicuous part in that moral 
 revolution which is needed as the counterpart of the ex- 
 ternal revolution, and without which the rapid material 
 progress cannot be lasting. 
 
 Mr. Neesima was born in Yedo, January 14, 1843, Jap- 
 anese old style. According to the Western mode of reck- 
 oning it was February 12, 1843. He was a samurai, one 
 of the retainers of a daimio of the province of Kod- 
 zuke, the castle town of which was Annaka, about seventy 
 miles from Tokyo. He was born in Tokyo, in the house 
 of Itakura, a prince of this province. His father (Neesima 
 
 15 
 
16 Joseph Hardy N'eesima 
 
 Tamaharu) was writing-master of the prince's house, and 
 served also as steward, having charge of the private ser- 
 vants and attendants of the prince. 
 
 The family consisted, besides himself, of a younger 
 brother, who died while he was in America, and four sis- 
 ters, only one of whom survives. Mr. Neesima's father 
 died in 1886, but his mother still survives (1894), at the 
 advanced age of eighty-eight years. 
 
 In later years he wrote as follows of his mother : " She 
 was a very kind-hearted woman, always ready to assist 
 her neighbors, although she found so much to do in her 
 own family. One day she was sick in bed ; I was very 
 anxious for her, and wished to procure some remedy, 
 though she had something from the doctor. So I went 
 to the temple and prayed to the god that he would cure 
 my mother ; I bought a httle bit of cake, which was a 
 portion of the morning offering, and gave it to her for a 
 remedy, hoping earnestly that it might do some good to 
 her. I knew not, indeed, whether nature cured her, or 
 whether her will or faith in the god made her whole, but 
 she became better soon after she received that cake. She 
 truly believed that the god had granted my earnest request 
 for her, and restored her health so soon. I had done the 
 same thing for my neighbors, and was often successful in 
 curing them." 
 
 The above extract and the one which follows show the 
 religious nature of the boy, and his faithfulness, although 
 he early learned to distrust the gods of his fathers. " I was 
 obedient to my parents, and, as they early taught me to do, 
 served gods made by hand with great reverence. I strictly 
 observed the days of my ancestors and departed friends, 
 and we went to the graveyards to worship their spirits. 
 I often rose up early in the morning, went to a temple 
 which was at least three and a half miles from home, 
 
%. 
 
Birth J Early Uducationj and Start from Japan 17 
 
 "where I worshiped the gods, and returned promptly, reach- 
 ing home before breakfast. I did that not only because 
 I expected some blessing from the gods, but that I might 
 receive praise from my parents and neighbors." 
 
 The coming of Commodore Perry when he was ten 
 years old quite stirred young Neesima's heart. Of this 
 he wrote : "Although I was then quite young, yet I desired 
 to be a brave soldier or a man of honor, like those whom I 
 found so often in our ancient history. I frequently went 
 to the temple of the god of war, prayed sincerely that he 
 would give me strength, and often performed very foolish 
 ceremonies for his service. Once, when I was reading a 
 life of a Chinese hero, I came across a famous phrase 
 which he proclaimed when he quitted the sword-exer- 
 cise : '■ A sword is only designed to slay a single man, but 
 I am going to learn to kill ten thousand enemies.' That is, 
 he was inclined to study some work of strategy. Though 
 I was not able to measure my own quality, yet I desired 
 to follow his example, and wished to kill many thousands 
 of enemies, not by a sword, but by strategy. This thought 
 helped me to quit sword-exercise and to confine myself 
 entirely to study. I studied very diligently, and often 
 went to hed after cock-crow^ 
 
 The quotations in the sketch which foUows on the next 
 few pages were written in imperfect EngHsh before he had 
 been in America a year, and are taken from " The Story 
 of Neesima," written by Miss Phebe F. McKeen. About 
 the time he was sixteen years old he was engaging in 
 the study of the Chinese language with great enthusiasm 
 when his prince " picked up me to write his daily book ; 
 although it would not had been my desire, I was obliged 
 to go up his office." A new light dawned upon him about 
 this time. "A day my comrade sent me a Atlas of United 
 States, which was written in Chinese letter by some 
 
18 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 American minister. I read it many times, and I was 
 wondered so much as my brain would melted out of my 
 head, because I liked it very much j picking one presi- 
 dent, building free schools, poor-houses, house of correc- 
 tion, and machine-working, and so forth, and I thought 
 that a government of every country must be as President 
 of United States. And I murmured myself that, O gover- 
 nor of Japan ! why you keep down us, as a dog or a pig ? 
 We are people of Japan 5 if you govern us, you must love 
 us as your children. From that time I wished to learn 
 American knowledge, but, alas! I could not got any 
 teacher to learn it. Although I would not like to learn 
 Holland, I was obliged to learn it, because so many of my 
 countrymen understood to read it." 
 
 But it was difficult for him to find time for the study of 
 Dutch. Once when his prince had, for the second time, 
 caught him running away from the office to go to his 
 Dutch teacher, and had given him a flogging for it, he 
 asked : '^ ^ Why you run out from here ? ' Then I answered 
 him that ^I wish to learn foreign knowledge, because 
 foreigners have got best knowledge, and I hope to under- 
 stand very quickly ; therefore, though I know I must stay 
 here and reverence your law, my soul went to my master's 
 house to learn it, and my body was obhged to go thither 
 too.' Then he said to me very kindly, 'You can write 
 Japan very well, and you can learn yourself enough with 
 it ; if you don't run away from here any more, I will give 
 you more wages. With what reason will you like foreign 
 knowledge ? Perhaps it will mistake yourself.' I said to 
 him sooner, ' Why will it mistake myself ? I guess every 
 one must take some knowledge. If a man has not any 
 knowledge, I will worth him as a dog or a pig.' Then he 
 laughed and said me, ' You are a stable boy.' " 
 
 This was not the only time that thirst for knowledge 
 
Birihj Early Education, and Start from Japan 19 
 
 brought liim both ridicule and blows. His family and 
 acquaintances thought him very foolish to be craving 
 needless knowledge, stiU he " never took care to them/' and 
 " held his stableness very fast." His work increased, how- 
 ever, so that he had no time for study, and this cost him 
 " many musings in my head " j and at last he became fairly 
 sick with thwarted purposes and unsatisfied longings. 
 After various efforts to cure him, his physician told him, 
 " Your sickness comes from your mind ; you must try to 
 destroy your warm mind, and must take walk for the 
 healthfulness of your body, and it would be more better 
 than many medicine." " My prince gave me plenty times 
 to feed my weakness, and my father gave me some money 
 to play myself 5 " all of which he devoted to the study of 
 Dutch. "A small ^ Book of Nature,' which fell into his 
 hands, delighted him so much that it proved " more better 
 to my sickness than doctor's medicines." 
 
 So health came back, and with it came the busy days 
 and studious nights. In his " Book of Nature " he met with 
 some things he was unable to understand, because he had 
 never studied arithmetic; so he went to an arithmetic 
 school until he had mastered enough to go through his 
 '^ Book of Nature" intelligently. Here are some reflections 
 of this young seeker after knowledge in his own words : 
 " Some day I went to the seaside of Yedo, hoping to see 
 the view of the sea. I saw largest man-of-war of Dutch 
 lying there, and she seemed to me as a castle or as a bat- 
 tery, and I thought, too, that she would be strong enough 
 to fight with enemy. While I look upon her, one reflec- 
 tion came upon my head, that we must open navy, because 
 my country is surrounded by water, and if foreigners fight 
 to my country, we must fight with them at sea. But I 
 made other reflection, too : that, since foreigners trade, 
 price of everything get high, the country get poor 5 there- 
 
20 Joseph Hardy N'eesima 
 
 fore, because the countrymen don't understand to do trade 
 with foreigners, therefore we must know to do trade, and 
 we must learn foreign knowledge. But the government's 
 law neglected all my thoughts, and I cried out myself, 
 Why government ? why not let us be free ? why let us be 
 as a bird in a cage or as a rat in a bag ? '^ 
 
 So he set to work in a government marine school 
 whenever he could get away from his work, seeking in- 
 formation which he might tui-n to account for his country 
 in the future. He had just made a good beginning in 
 navigation when night study injiu'ed his eyes so that he 
 was obliged to leave books entirely for a year and a half, 
 " which would not come again in my life." He had hardly 
 recovered from this trouble so as to resume his place in 
 his prince's office when he was beset with measles, and 
 his eyes, in consequence, " began to spoil again," so that he 
 was obliged to '' spend many times very vainly." When 
 he did begin to use his eyes again, however, it was to 
 some purpose. " A day I visited my friend, and I found 
 out small Holy Bible in his library, that was written 
 by some American minister in China language and had 
 shown only the most remarkable events of it. I lend it 
 from him and read it at night. I was afraid the savage 
 country's law, which if I read the Bible will cross," i.e., 
 crucify, " my whole family." 
 
 This abridgement of the Bible contained httle but the 
 grand facts of creation and redemption, and these were 
 entirely new to this earnest young soul who pored over 
 its pages. The opening sentence of this book was : " In 
 the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 
 He says : " I put down the book and look around me, say- 
 ing, Who made me ? my parents 1 No, my God. God 
 made my parents and let them make me. Who made my 
 table ? a carpenter ? No, my God. God let trees grow 
 
Birth, Early Education, and Start from Japan 21 
 
 upon the earth ; although a carpenter made up this table, 
 it indeed came from trees; then I must be thankful to 
 God, I must believe him, and I must be upright against 
 him." He at once recognized his Maker's claim to love 
 and obedience, and began to yield them ; he prayed, " Oh, 
 if you have eyes, look upon me ; if you have ears, listen 
 for me." It was a long time after this, however, that he 
 first learned to pray as a man talketh with his friend. 
 
 From this time his " mind was fulfilled to read English 
 Bible," and he ^^ burned to find some teacher or mission- 
 ary " who could teach him. 
 
 His father was distui-bed by his boy's new notions, and 
 certain that he would get the whole family into trouble j 
 and on asking permission of his prince and his parents to 
 go to Hakodate, where he hoped to meet some English- 
 man or American, he got not only a refusal, but a flog- 
 ging. Still " my stableness did not destroy by their ex- 
 postulations." He next applied to a relative of his prince, 
 a noble higher in authority and rank than he, and got 
 leave from him to go in one of his vessels to Hakodate. 
 Now he had gained his point, neither his father nor his 
 prince could prevent him. 
 
 This was in March, 1864, and when he heard this news 
 he exclaimed, ^^ Oh, heaven does not cast me off ; the great 
 point of my business is in this one thing," and he leaped 
 for joy. He went to his room, packed such of his belong- 
 ings as he desired to take with him, but he could not sleep 
 at all till morning; and on March 11th (O. S.), with great 
 pain, but with a resolute heart, he left his family in tears 
 and started on his search for truth, "not thinking that 
 when money was gone, how would I eat and dress myseK, 
 but only casting myself on the providence of God." 
 
 On the 13th the ship sailed away from the harbor, and 
 he was on the great ocean. He had told his mother that 
 
22 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 he would be gone a year, lie thought, but he little sus- 
 pected then that it would be more than ten years before 
 he would again see his native city, and look into the faces 
 of those he loved. His diary for the next seven weeks is 
 intensely interesting. The sailing-junk in which he went 
 stopped at many of the principal towns along the coast, as 
 Uraga, Sendai, Kumagasaki, etc., to survey the harbors or 
 to escape storms. Our young voyager was now twenty- 
 one years old, and he made good use of his time in seek- 
 ing for all the information possible about each of these 
 places. His diary contains a minute description of each 
 one of them, a map of the harbor, the governor's name, 
 the number of counties into which the province is divided, 
 and, if a castle town, the condition of the castle, and the 
 history of the province; also the size of the town, its 
 taxes, whether light or heavy, the productions of the place, 
 what kinds of woods are produced, what kinds of fish are 
 exported, etc. 
 
 He is sui'prised at the great abundance of the rice- 
 whisky, or sake, which was retailed at three cents a quart. 
 There was one other item which he recorded in this diary 
 concerning these places which I wish those foreigners who, 
 after a brief residence in Japan, go home and report that 
 its morality is superior to that of Christian lands, could 
 read or see for themselves. His picture of the number 
 of prostitutes in these trading- towns is a fearful one, too 
 fearful, some of it, to reproduce here. In one of these 
 towns he says there were from two to four of these women 
 in each house in the town ; he was greatly astonished and 
 shocked at it himself, although he freely indulged in sake- 
 drinking with his comrades while in these harbors. 
 
 April 21st (O. S.) he reached Hakodate, then an open 
 port, with English, American, and Russian consulates in 
 it. Young Neesima was, however, doomed to disappoint- 
 
Birth, Early Ediicatiorij and Start from Japan 23 
 
 ment at first, as he sought in vain for any teacher of Eng- 
 lish ; and his small funds melted away very fast, and he 
 was obliged to look about him for means to feed the outer 
 man as well as the inner. In this he was successful, as 
 he fell in with P^re Nikolai, the Russian priest who has 
 since so successfully taught the religion of the Greek 
 Church in Japan. Nikolai was glad to secure his services 
 as a teacher of Japanese, so he removed to Nikolai's house 
 and began his work. 
 
 He found a few wide-awake young Japanese among the 
 acquaintances he made, and among them Mr. Munokite, a / 
 clerk in an English store, who could speak English toler- 
 ably well, and who played a most important part in the 
 next great act in the drama of Neesima's life. Meeting 
 with these young friends from time to time, he told them 
 of his intense desire to learn foreign knowledge, and they 
 encouraged him. But on account of the great difficulties 
 connected with learning it in Japan, he conceived the idea 
 of leaving the country altogether. The more he saw of. 
 his native land the more he longed to be able to "bring a 
 light into the darkness " 5 but it was a very serious ques- 
 tion. If he left the country death would be his only wel- 
 come back. To go was to adventure himself, a penniless 
 wanderer with an unknown tongue, into a vast, mysterious 
 world of which he only knew that truth was there. Worst 
 of aU, it would bring grief and fear, possibly danger and 
 death, into the home he loved. He spent much time in 
 thinking over this momentous question; he discharged 
 his duty as a teacher to P^re Nikolai faithfuUy, and as his 
 employer went every day to the Russian hospital to have 
 his eyes treated, young Neesima went with him, and in 
 his diary he describes in minute detail all the appoint- 
 ments of this hospital, its buildings, its beds, its diet, its 
 medicines, and most of all, the fact that the poor were 
 
24 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 treated without money and without price. All this made 
 a deep impression upon his mind ; and the more he studied 
 ^ over the great question the more he felt impelled to leave 
 his country. He even gradually found reasons to justify 
 him in going, notwithstanding the strong filial ties which 
 bound him to his parents and friends. He says: "One 
 reflection came upon my head, that, although my parents 
 made and fed me, I belong indeed to Heavenly Father j 
 therefore I must believe him and I must run in his way 5 
 then I began to search some vessel to get out from the 
 country." 
 
 If every soul was as loyal to truth as was this one, as 
 earnestly seeking it, as loyally obeying and following it, 
 this world would soon become the very gate of heaven. 
 His young English-speaking friend finally secured for him 
 a passage in an American schooner, the " Berhn," Captain 
 Savory, bound for Shanghai. It was necessary to get 
 away with the utmost secrecy. He made all his arrange- 
 ments, picked out a smaU bundle of his clothes which he 
 could carry on his back ; he had a letter wi'itten, purport- 
 ing to come from his brother in Tokyo, saying that his 
 father was very sick, and that he must hurry home. Prov- 
 identially, Pere Nikolai had gone away out of town, but 
 he showed the letter to his servants and to some others, 
 and removed aU his goods to a friend's house. Toward 
 evening he took his little bundle of clothes and met his 
 three friends for the last time. They had a supper to- 
 gether, and passed around the sake-cup in token of friend- 
 ship. Neesima wrote a short poem, aU wished him well, 
 expressed a desire to accompany him, and bade him good- 
 by. About midnight our young hero, dressed as a servant, 
 with his bundle on his back, sallied out into the darkness, 
 following one of his friends, who was dressed as a samurai, 
 with his two swords in plain sight. They wended their 
 
NEESIMA DRESSED AS A SERVANT 
 
Birthj Early Education^ and Start from Japan 25 
 
 way by back streets down to the water^s edge, where his 
 friends had a small boat waiting for him ; he was placed 
 in the bottom of the boat and covered up, with orders to 
 appear as a woman who was being taken out to the ship, 
 if they were hailed. A whispered word of parting, hushed 
 footsteps, the muffled dip of an oar, and the true-hearted 
 young patriot who went to seek light and blessing for his 
 country had stolen away from her shores like a culprit, 
 and was soon on board the American schooner, the date 
 of his embarkation being July 18, 1864. 
 
II 
 
 TRIALS AND PREPARATION 
 
 PJ 
 
** Wlierein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need he, 
 ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations, that the proof of your 
 faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved 
 hy fire, might be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation 
 of Jesus Christ." — 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. 
 
 "A raveled rainbow overhead 
 Lets doivn to life its varying thread — 
 Lovers blue, joy's gold, and, fair between, 
 Mope's shifting light of emerald-green ; 
 While either side, in deep relief, 
 A crimson pain, a violet grief! 
 Wouldst thou amid their gleaming hues 
 Clutch after those and these refuse ? 
 Believe ! as thy beseeching eyes 
 Follow their lines and sound the shies, 
 TJiere, where the fadeless glories shine, 
 An unseen angel twists the twine ; 
 And be thou sure, tvhat tint soe'er 
 The sunbeam's broken rays may ivear. 
 It needs them all, that, broad and white, 
 God's love may weave the perfect light." 
 
 Mrs. a. D. T. Whitney. 
 
 " Through blach tvaves and stormy blast. 
 And out of the fog-wreath dense and dun, 
 Guided and held shall the vessel run, 
 Gain the fair haven, night being past, 
 And anchor in the sun." 
 
 Susan Coolidge. 
 
 ^8 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 TRIALS AND PREPARATION 
 
 Our young friend was cordially received on board the 
 schooner by the kind-hearted captain, but he could not 
 sleep any that night, and in the early morning Japanese 
 officials were seen coming to search the ship, to make sure 
 that no Japanese was secreted on board. The captain hid 
 Mr. Neesima in his own private room and locked the door. 
 The search was completed, but our hero was not discov- 
 ered, and the ship weighed anchor, spread her sails, and 
 moved out to sea. 
 
 And now our young exile began to think what he had 
 done. He had written a long letter to his prince, telling 
 him of his decision ; he had written another to his home 
 friends, urging them not to mourn ; but as he passed out 
 to sea, and saw the mountains of his native land fade 
 from his vision and disappear, very sad thoughts filled 
 his heart. To add to his anguish, he was expected to do 
 servile work on the ship, and as he had never done any 
 such work, his samurai blood rebelled. Once or twice, 
 when he was rudely ordered by the sailors to perform 
 some menial task, he thought of seizing his sword and 
 cutting down the men who seemed to be insulting him ; 
 but as he reflected that he could not thus realize his great 
 pui^pose, he calmed his passions and meekly submitted to 
 the indignity. Again, he had less than four dollars in 
 
 29 
 
30 Joseph Hardy Keesima 
 
 money when lie came on board, and this ship would only 
 go as far as Shanghai. What should he do then ? 
 
 He had a very disagreeable passage to Shanghai, and 
 he was there for ten days in great doubt and fear lest he 
 should be betrayed and taken back to Japan ; but finally 
 he had the joy of finding an American vessel, the "Wild 
 Rover," bound for Boston. By much effort he succeeded 
 in making the captain understand that he would be glad 
 to do anything, and ask no other pay than to be taken to 
 America. His own words are : " I begged him, if I get to 
 America, please let me go to a school, and take good edu- 
 cation." So the captain took him as his own servant, 
 dressed liim in foreign costume, gave him the name Jo, 
 and on the voyage taught him navigation and English. 
 
 The voyage was long and tedious. The "Wild Rover" 
 sailed along the coast of China to Manila and Saigon, 
 trading here and there for eight months, before turning 
 toward home. While they lay in the harbor of Hong 
 Kong, Mr. Neesima found a New Testament in Chinese ; 
 he felt that he must have it, but how should he get it, 
 since he had promised to ask the captain for no money ? 
 He thought of his sword, and he finally sold it and bought 
 the New Testament. 
 
 At last sails were set for the West, and in four months 
 from that time the land of promise dawned upon our 
 wanderer. 
 
 During his life of a year on the " Wild Rover," as Mr. 
 Neesima told the writer, he began to read his New Testa- 
 ment in the Chinese language. He could only speU out 
 the meaning, but he began at Matthew and read on in 
 course through Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and in the 
 midst of the voyage he came to the sixteenth verse of the 
 third chapter of John : " God so loved the world, that he 
 gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beheveth on 
 
Trials and Preparation 3% 
 
 him shall not perish, but have everlasting life," and this 
 made a very deep impression upon him, and he felt that 
 this was just such a Saviour as he needed. 
 
 His faith and patience were sorely tried on the long 
 voyage, and when he reached the harbor of Boston it 
 seemed to him as if he were to be baffled. Directly after 
 coming into port at Boston, the captain hurried away to 
 see his friends, and for ten weeks young Neesima was left, 
 " with rough and godless men who kept the ship," doing 
 hard, heavy work, such as he had never been accustomed 
 to. Besides this, everybody he met on the wharf fright- 
 ened him ; they told him : " Nobody on shore will relieve 
 you, because since the war the price of everything got 
 high ; ah, you must go to sea again." " I thought, too," 
 he says, " that I must work pretty well for my eating and 
 dressing, and I could not get in any schools before I could 
 earn money to pay to a school. When such thoughts 
 pressed my brain I could not work very well ; I could not 
 read book very cheerfully, and I only looked around my- 
 self a long time as a lunatic." 
 
 He made one great discovery, however, during this 
 tedious waiting-time. The captain had given him a little 
 money to amuse himself with on shore, and he had 
 bought a copy of " Robinson Crusoe," which he found in 
 a second-hand book-store on Washington Street, and 
 "Robinson Crusoe" first taught him that he might pray 
 to his Heavenly Father as to a present, personal friend ; 
 and so every night, after he went to bed, he " prayed to the 
 God, Please don't cast me away into miserable condition. 
 Please let me reach my great aim." 
 
 How little we know when we pray how long our Hea- 
 venly Father has been preparing to answer our prayers ! 
 What comfort there is in the thought that both we and 
 our prayers, our needs and their answers, were all present 
 
32 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 with God when he made his plan, and that he has been 
 preparing from all eternity to answer onr prayers in the 
 best way. 
 
 The God who had turned this boy's heart away from 
 idols J who had inspired him to " feel after him, if haply 
 he might find him'^j who had said to him, "Get thee 
 out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy 
 father's house, unto the land that I will show thee " — this 
 same God had not neglected to prepare a place for him 
 in the land of promise to which he had led him. He had 
 brought the young wanderer across the seas in a ship be- 
 longing to one of his own children, straight to the hands 
 of one whose joy it was to spend his strength and his 
 wealth in the service of his Master. 
 
 When the owner of the ship, the Hon. Alpheus Hardy, 
 was finally told, by the captain, of this bright young 
 Japanese who had thus come in search of truth, he at 
 once declared that he would provide some way for his 
 support. " When I first heard these things from my cap- 
 tain," said Mr. Neesima, "I jumped for joy j my eyes was 
 fulfilled with many tears, because I was very thankful 
 to him, and thought, 'God will not forsake me.'" Mr. 
 Hardy met the young Japanese later, and asked him what 
 his name was. " The sailors called me Jo," was the reply. 
 " You are well named," said Mr. Hardy j " God has sent 
 you to be a savior to your people." His benefactor little 
 knew, when he spoke those words, how much of truth 
 there was in them. 
 
 Mr. Hardy's first thought was to employ him as a house 
 servant, but he soon found that he was not fitted for this j 
 and in the meantime Mrs. Hardy had asked him to write 
 out the reasons why he had left his native land and come 
 to America. He did so in his broken English, and when 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hardy read his story they felt that God had 
 

 HON. ALPHEUS HARDY 
 
Trials and Preparation 33 
 
 sent him, and they accepted the sacred trust, and decided 
 to give him a thorough education. 
 
 The following is perhaps the first account which has 
 ever been pubUshed of the struggle through which this 
 benefactor of Mr. Neesima passed when he was obhged to 
 give up his early life-purpose to become a minister. It 
 was wi'itten by one who heard the speech of Mr. Hardy, 
 and was published in the August number of the North 
 Wisconsin Evangel for 1893, and quoted in the Congrega- 
 tionalist for August 31, 1893. 
 
 " This friend of Joseph Neesima and princely benefactor 
 of countless good causes told once the following thrilling 
 story to the Psi Upsilon Society at Amherst College, of 
 which he had just been made an honorary member : 
 
 " I am not a college man, and it was the bitter disappointment of 
 my life that I could not be one. I wanted to go to college and 
 become a minister; went to Phillips Academy to fit. My health 
 broke down, and in spite of my determined hope of being able to go 
 on, at last the truth was forced on me that I could not. To tell my 
 disappointment is impossible. It seemed as if all my hope and pur- 
 pose and interest in life were defeated. ' I cannot be God's minister,' 
 was the sentence that kept rolling through my mind. When that 
 fact at last became certain to me, one evening alone in my room, my 
 distress was so great that I threw myself flat on the floor. The voice- 
 less cry of my soul was, 'O God, I cannot be thy minister.' Then 
 there came to me as I lay a vision, a new hope, a perception that I 
 could serve God in business with the same devotion as in preaching, 
 and that to make money for God might be my sacred calling. The 
 vision of this service, and its nature as a sacred ministry, were so 
 clear and joyous that I rose to my feet and with new hope in my 
 heart exclaimed aloud, 'O God, I can be thy minister! I will go 
 back to Boston. I will make money for God, and that shall be my 
 ministry. From that time,' continued Mr. Hardy, ' I have felt myself 
 to be as much appointed and ordained to make money for God as if 
 I had been permitted to carry out my own plan and been ordained to 
 preach the Gospel. I am God's man, and the ministry to which God 
 has called me is to make and administer money for him, and I con- 
 
34 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 sider myself responsible to discharge this ministry and to give account 
 of it to him.' " 
 
 Mr. Hardy placed young Neesima in Phillips Academy 
 at Andover, where he made the best use of Ms opportu- 
 nities, and where for the first time he fully realized his sins 
 and publicly accepted Christ as his Saviour, uniting with 
 the church of Christ. Who can doubt, however, that he 
 was accepted of God before this, and that he would have 
 been ready to gladly bow before his Saviour and worship 
 him if he had died in the midst of his long voyage in 
 search of truth ? 
 
 The following letter was written by Mr. Neesima, when 
 he had been in America less than a year, to the Japanese 
 friend who helped him get away from Hakodate. 
 
 "Andover, February 23, 1866. 
 " -Mr. MimoJcitej 
 
 '' Dear Sir : 
 
 "I am very well through God's mercy. Since I 
 commenced my hazardous adventure I have spent many 
 valuable days in hard work - oh ! sometimes I had very 
 miserable work : but this work I did not do for money, 
 but for true knowledge. When I called on Him who 
 made heaven and earth and sea, and all that in them is, 
 my sorrow turned into joy, and my misery to success. 
 Oh, I may surely say it is very wonderful and marvelous 
 that such success has fallen on me ! I passed through 
 many thousand miles of water very safely without hurri- 
 cane, tempest, or any trouble. When I came to Boston, 
 the ship's owner, Mr. Alpheus Hardy, and the ship's cap- 
 tain, Horace S. Taylor, relieved me from my miserable 
 condition, and gave me all things which I needed, and 
 sent me to the academy at Andover, Mass., to get an edu- 
 cation, paying my board and all expenses. 
 
Trials and Preparation 35 
 
 " I came to the house of Mr. Hidden — he don't keep 
 any boarder but me only — and he and his sister care for 
 me as much as for one of their own family, and I am very 
 much enjoyed to stay here. Also I find a kind and reli- 
 gious man in Mr. Flint, a neighbor who was a teacher of 
 some higher school for thirteen years. Every evening 
 he hears me recite in arithmetic, that is named Eaton's 
 Higher School Arithmetic, and his wife explains to me 
 the most holy and valuable book in the world, entitled 
 the New Testament, and tells about our Saviour, Jesus 
 Christ, who was sent down from his Father to enlighten 
 the darkness and save sinners. In the academy I am 
 studying reading, spelling, grammar, and the same arith- 
 metic ', also I have a Bible-lesson every Sabbath. All the 
 teachers and scholars, and many who know about me, are 
 interested in me and love me, and some give me things to 
 please me. But these things they don't do for my sake, 
 but for the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Oh, dear friend, think you well who is Christ. The 
 same is the Light which shines on the benighted and 
 wicked world and guides us unto the way of salvation. 
 The light of candle is blown away, but this is the true 
 Light of eternal life, and we can by no wise blow it out, 
 and we may take this life through Jesus Christ. ^For 
 God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believe th on him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into 
 the world to condemn the world, but that the world 
 through him might believe.' 
 
 " Oh, dear friend, I have nothing to repay your kindness, 
 but will send only, study the Bible, and my photograph. 
 Please care for your health, and study the book I have 
 mentioned above. Oh, alas ! it is not the country's law 
 to study the Bible and worship our tender and merciful 
 
36 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 Father wlio made ns, loved us, and gave his only begotten 
 Son, through whom we may be saved. But the law ought 
 to be broken, because it is made by the devil, the king of 
 the world. The world was not made by the devil, but by 
 our true Father, who gave unto us his true law. O friend, 
 whether then is right in the sight of God to hearken unto 
 the devil more than unto God, please judge you. 
 
 "If the fierce devil persecute you for righteousness^ 
 sake, don't trouble yourseK j I am sure God will protect 
 you from all evil, and though your body should be killed, 
 your soul would be received unto him, and you would 
 dwell in the brightest place with eternal life. I would 
 like, indeed, to go there with you. 
 
 " Your truly friend, 
 
 "Neesima Simata." 
 
 In due time he was ready for college, and entered Am- 
 herst College, where he was graduated in 1870. The state- 
 ment of President Seelye, when asked for testimonials for 
 Mr. Neesima, as he was about to return to Japan, will be a 
 sufficient comment upon his faithfulness in college. Said 
 the president : " You cannot gild goldP 
 
 His faithfulness and thoroughness as a student are 
 shown by the fact that he had in his possession a pile of 
 large books'--nearly two feet high, which are filled with 
 lectures and notes which he copied or wrote out while he 
 was in college and in the theological seminary. 
 
 He entered Andover Theological Seminary, and in the 
 fall of 1871, when I was in attendance at the meeting of 
 the American Board at Salem, Mass., just before I sailed 
 to Japan, Mr. Neesima elbowed his way through the great 
 crowd and found me; and when I answered his eager 
 question by stating that I was going to Japan, he seized 
 my hand, and with tears in his eyes, told me how glad he 
 
Trials and Preparation 37 
 
 was to meet me, and he wished me a hearty God-speed, and 
 said he hoped to go back too before long. 
 
 In the winter of 1871-72 the second Japanese embassy, 
 consisting of Messrs. Iwakura, Okiibo, Kido, Ito, Tera- 
 shima, and Tanaka, crossed the Pacific, and, after being 
 snow-bonnd for a week at Salt Lake City, finally reached 
 Washington. The embassy at once felt the need of some 
 one to act as interpreter who could also help them in their 
 examination of the institutions of these foreign lands, 
 especially educational. Hearing of Mr. Neesima, who had 
 then been in America about seven years, they sent him an 
 invitation to come and meet them in Washington. Then 
 the question of how to meet them arose in Mr. Neesima's 
 mind. It had been the custom in Japan from time im- 
 memorial for a man to bow to the earth when meeting a 
 superior, prostrating himself before him. Mr. Neesima 
 finally decided to meet them in the American way, and 
 went on to Washington. He was most cordially received 
 by Mr. Mori, the Japanese minister at Washington. 
 Twelve Japanese students, who were being supported in 
 the United States by the Japanese government, had been 
 summoned at the same time to meet the Japanese com- 
 missioner of education. They aU met in one of the par- 
 lors of the Arlington House. The following are extracts 
 from Mr. Neesima's letters written at this time. 
 
 " Mr. Mori said to the commissioner of education : ' Mr. 
 Neesima came here at my request, not as a bondman, but 
 with his kindness to give you some advice concerning 
 education ; so you must appreciate his kindness and will- 
 ingness to do such a favor for you. . . . He is a lover of 
 Japan, but not a slave.' This speech pleased the com- 
 missioner exceedingly, and made every one in the room 
 look at me. When he noticed me standing erect he asked 
 Mr. Mori whether the corner-stander was Mr. Neesima. 
 
38 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 When he ascertained that it was, he stepped forward from 
 his seat, shook my hand, and made a most graceful yet 
 most dignified bow to me, asking me to be a kind friend 
 to him. He bowed himself sixty degrees from the per- 
 pendicular, so I made a like bow in return. I could not 
 help laughing in my heart that a behind or corner stander 
 was so honored by him. He gave me an order to be an in- 
 terpreter to him when he goes around the country to ex- 
 amine the schools, and to tell him all about your school 
 system. I told him if I am ordered to do this I would 
 rather refuse it, because he should distinguish me from 
 the others who received aid from the government ; but if 
 I am requested to do this for a certain compensation, I 
 would gladly do any favor for him. The commissioner 
 told Mr. Mori to treat and receive me exactly as I re- 
 quested him." 
 
 Three days later he again writes at the close of a letter 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy : " My principal mission is to write 
 an essay on ' The Universal Education of Japan.' I think 
 it is a most important mission. It will be handed to the 
 embassy, and probably may be of some service for opening 
 the country to the light of truth and life. Pray for this 
 untiring soldier of the blessed cross, for I feel my active 
 battle-field has come within my sight. I am ready to 
 march forward, not asking whether my powder is dried 
 or not, but trusting simply and believing only that the 
 Lord of Hosts wiU help me to do my duty." 
 
 Again, two weeks later : ^^ I have been resting to-day, 
 preparing myself for the coming Lord's Day; for if I 
 overdo to-day I shall not be able to enjoy the service of 
 the Sabbath." 
 
 Mr. Neesima now spent a year with the Japanese em- 
 bassy, visiting all the capitals of Europe with them, and 
 devoting all his energies to help them gain the informa- 
 
Trials and Preparation 39 
 
 tion they desired. His " stableness " and firm Christian 
 principle shone out during this visit to Europe. In most 
 European countries the railroad trains run on the Sabbath 
 the same as on any other day, and the embassy often trav- 
 eled on that day ; Mr. Neesima, however, never traveled 
 with them on the Sabbath. He told the writer that he 
 always stopped off Satm^day night, alone, and followed on 
 after them on Monday. He spoke of one of these experi- 
 ences, when he stopped off one Saturday night, in France, 
 among entire strangers, and not knowing French, he ex- 
 pected to have a lonely day ; but he wandered about and 
 succeeded in finding a place where a Christian service was 
 being conducted, and, entering, found it was a communion 
 service. He remained and partook of the communion 
 with them, and although he could understand but very 
 little, he spoke of it as among the most blessed experiences 
 of his life. 
 
 By his faithfulness and his conscientious adherence to 
 principle he gained the confidence of these men, a con- 
 fidence which lasted till the day of his death ; and when 
 he came back to Japan and wished to start his school, 
 these men were at the head of the government, and to his 
 intimacy with them and their firm confidence in him the 
 Doshisha University owes its existence. 
 
 Mr. Neesima's careful habit of looking into all the de- 
 tails of whatever came in his way to examine, and espe- 
 cially his great interest in education, which had led him to 
 make a careful examination of the common-school system 
 of the United States, had prepared him to be of invalua- 
 ble service to the embassy and to his country. He wrote 
 out a carefully prepared paper, which was taken as the 
 basis of the report which the embassy made on education, 
 and which was afterward modified and introduced into 
 Japan, and is the foundation of the system of education 
 in the empire to-day. 
 
40 Joseph Hardy N'eesima 
 
 As the time drew near for tlie departure of the embassy 
 from Europe, to return home by way of India, Mr. Neesima 
 was pressed to accompany them to Japan, and it seemed 
 that it would be almost impossible for him to refuse to do 
 so ; but an attack of rheumatism coming on at this time, 
 and the fear of becoming entangled in an official life, led 
 him to remain behind, among strangers, until long after 
 the embassy had sailed for Japan 5 so that, on his recov- 
 ery, he returned to his studies in Andover. 
 
 He was very retu^ed and studious in his manner, al- 
 though his intense thirst for knowledge would lead him 
 to break over his reserve and seek information from his 
 fellow-students. He was greatly afflicted with rheumatism 
 during his last year in the seminary, and suffered from 
 its effects at times dming the rest of his life. 
 
 Being graduated in the summer of 1874, the questions of 
 his return to Japan, what relation he should sustain to the 
 American Board, his ordination, and his support, all came 
 up for solution. It was finally decided that it was best 
 that he should receive ordination before leaving for Japan, 
 and a council of churches in the State where he had spent 
 ten years was called. He passed a very satisfactory ex- 
 amination, and was ordained as an evangelist — the first 
 of his race to take upon himself this office. He was also 
 appointed a corresponding member of the Japan mission 
 of the American Board. Mr. Hardy also arranged to 
 have sent to Mr. Neesima each year what he needed for 
 his support, so that he was placed above anxiety on that 
 point. 
 
 The following extracts from Mr. Neesima's letter to the 
 secretaries of the Board, formally offering himself as a 
 missionary, and from his replies to the questions pro- 
 pounded to candidates for appointment, will show the 
 spirit of the man, and how his mind stood with reference 
 to theology. 
 
Trials and Preparation 41 
 
 " I date my conversion some time after my arrival in 
 this country 5 but I was seeking God and his light from 
 the hour I read his Word. With my new experience was 
 born a desire to preach the Gospel among my people. 
 The motive in offering myself to this work is my sympa- 
 thy with the need of my country, and love for perishing 
 souls 5 and, above all, the love of Chiist has constrained 
 me to this work." 
 
 " In my view, the leading doctrines of the Scriptures 
 are: the existence of one true God, inspiration of the 
 Scriptures, the Trinity, the decrees of God, the freedom 
 of the will, the total depravity of man, the atonement, re- 
 generation, justification by faith, the resurrection of the 
 dead, the final judgment. I have not the least doubts 
 respecting any of the doctrines commonly held by the 
 churches sustaining the missions under the care of the 
 Board. My confidence in the reality of my conversion is 
 in my growing trust in Christ and increasing sympathy 
 with truth. My views of ministerial duty are to preach 
 the Gospel to the salvation of men. My desire to enter 
 the ministerial work is due to the need of it in Japan, and 
 my hope that I may be of some service in supplying that 
 need. I expect to meet with some difficulties and trials, 
 yet I shall count it aU joy, not only to beUeve in Christ, 
 but also to suffer for his name. It is my purpose to give 
 my Hfe to this work." 
 
 He was now ready to return to his loved land and 
 friends, but there was stiU one thing which weighed upon 
 his heart. He had come to America and seen for himself 
 the light of Christian civilization ; he had drunk deeply at 
 the fountains of knowledge, and he felt an inexpressible 
 longing to see such a fountain of true knowledge opened 
 in his own land ; he had not started on his world-wide 
 quest for truth for himself — ^he came for the good of his 
 
42 Joseph Hardy N'eesima 
 
 people : should lie go back with a full heart but with an 
 empty hand ? The same Hand which had so wonderfully- 
 led him to America, and which had taken care of him 
 there and given him such a preparation for his work, led 
 him farther to make an appeal which other hearts were 
 ready to second, and so begin an enterprise which should 
 be indeed a blessing to his whole people. 
 
 I quote here from Mr. Neesima's own words, written in 
 a letter, the last one in English which his hand ever 
 penned, written only a few days before his death. He 
 says : " Fifteen years ago I had a day-dream to found a 
 Christian college. I used to express my intense desire to 
 found it, especially to raise up Christian workers, to Dr. 
 Clark, secretary of the American Board, and also to some 
 other friends, but none of them gave me any encouraging 
 words. However, I was not discouraged at all. I kept it 
 within myself and prayed over it. 
 
 " In the fall of 1874 I was invited to attend the annual 
 meeting of said Board, which was held in Rutland, Vt., to 
 bid my last farewell to my friends. I was ordered to 
 appear on the platform on the very last day of the meet- 
 ing. In the evening of the previous day I called on Mr. 
 and Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, my benefactors, and consulted 
 with them about the advisability of my bringing out my 
 long-cherished scheme — that is, to found a Christian col- 
 lege in Japan — in my farewell speech. Mr. Hardy was 
 rather doubtful about my attaining any success; how- 
 ever, I rather insisted, because it was my last chance to 
 bring out such a subject to such a grand Christian audi- 
 ence. Then he spoke to me, half smiling, and in a most 
 tender, fatherly manner said, 'Joseph, the matter looks 
 rather dubious, but you might try it.' Eeceiving that 
 consent I went back to the place where I was entertained 
 and tried to make a preparation for the speech. I found 
 
Trials and Preparation 43 
 
 my heart throbbing, and was utterly unable to make a 
 careful preparation. I was then like that poor Jacob, 
 wrestling with God in my prayers. 
 
 ^' On the following day, when I appeared on the stage, 
 I could hardly remember my prepared piece — a poor, 
 untried speaker; but after a minute or two I recovered 
 myself, and my trembling knees became firm and strong ; 
 a new thought flashed into my mind, and I spoke some- 
 thing quite different from my prepared speech. My whole 
 speech must have lasted less than fifteen minutes ; while I 
 was speaking I was moved with the most intense feeUng 
 over my fellow-countrymen, and I shed much tears, in- 
 stead of speaking in their behalf. But before I closed my 
 poor speech about five thousand dollars were subscribed 
 on the spot to found a Christian college in Japan. That 
 generous subscription of our American friends became 
 the nucleus of the present Doshisha, which is now recog- 
 nized as the best and largest Christian college in Japan." 
 
 The writer has heard from many persons who were 
 present at that meeting that it was a scene never to be 
 forgotten ; the intense earnestness of this young Japanese, 
 as he spoke of the great blessings of a Christian educa- 
 tion, and pictured to them, with broken voice and over- 
 flowing eyes, the darkness and need of his own people j 
 the evident nervousness of the secretaries at the manly 
 appeal which was made, for the speaker said : " I cannot 
 go back to Japan without the money to found a Christian 
 college, and I am going to stand here till I get it." Then 
 Governor Page of Vermont arose and said : " Put me down 
 for one thousand dollars." Dr. Parker of Washington 
 followed with five hundred dollars, Mr. Hardy with five 
 hundred, William E. Dodge with five hundred, and others 
 with lesser sums, until nearly five thousand dollars were 
 raised. 
 
Ill 
 
 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 
 
 45 
 
" Behold, I lay in Sion for a Foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a 
 precious Corner-stone of sure Foundation : he that believeth shall not 
 make haste J^ — ISA. xxviii. 16. 
 
 "And not only so, hut let us also rejoice in our tribulations : Jcnowing 
 that tribulation worJceth patience ; and patience, probation ; and pro- 
 bation, hope : and hope putteth not to shame ; because the love of God 
 liath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which was 
 given unto us." — Rom. v. 3-5. 
 
 " The good man does better than he TcnowsJ*^ 
 
 " Fasten your soul so high that constantly 
 TJie smile of your heroic cheer may float 
 Above the floods of earthly agonies." 
 
 E. B. Browning. 
 
 " God's glory is a ivondrous thing, 
 Most strange in all its ways, 
 And, of all things on earth, least like 
 Wliat men agree to praise. 
 
 " Oh, blest is he to ivhom is given 
 The instinct that can tell 
 That God is on the fleld when he 
 Is most invisible ! 
 
 ** And blest is he who can divine 
 Where real right doth lie, 
 And dares to take the side that seems 
 Wrong to man's blindfold eye ! 
 
 " Oh, learn to scorn the praise of msn ! 
 Oh, learn to lose ivith God ! 
 For Jesus won the world through shame. 
 And beckons thee his road. 
 
 "And right is right, since God is God; 
 And right the day must 2vin; 
 To doubt would be disloyalty, 
 To falter would be sin ! " 
 Faber. 
 
 46 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LAYING FOUNDATIONS 
 
 Mr. Neesima reached Japan in December, 1874. Great 
 changes had taken place during his ten years of absence. 
 The mikado was reinstated, his capital was changed from 
 Kyoto — where his ancestors had ruled for a thousand 
 years — to Tokyo ; the daimios had relinquished their feudal 
 rights, and the pensions of their retainers were capitalized j 
 the Julian or Gregorian calendar had been adopted, and 
 the Sabbath was made a holiday ) the post-oflce, with a 
 money-order system, a savings-bank system, and a postal 
 delivery system, was estabhshed ; newspapers were being 
 printed and circulated j an army and a navy on a foreign 
 plan were formed ; a mint was established j the coast was 
 being surrounded with lighthouses; the first raiboads 
 were opened ; and a network of telegraphs was unifying 
 the old feudal kingdom. Most of these changes had taken 
 place one or two years before Mr. Neesima returned. The 
 great question of constitutional hberty was beginning to 
 be agitated, and the men whose confidence and love Mr. 
 Neesima had gained in his intercoui-se with the embassy, 
 three years before, were at the head of the government. 
 Their prejudices had been removed and their minds broad- 
 ened by their intercourse with "Western nations, and they 
 were ready to encourage the adoption of Western civiliza- 
 tion in their own empire. 
 
 47 
 
48 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 Mr. Neesima was offered, again and again, piaees of 
 Mgli position under these men, and urged to accept them, 
 but he steadily declined. He allowed nothing to turn him 
 from the great pui-pose of his life, to estabhsh a Clu-istian 
 college in his native land. 
 
 Soon after Mr. Neesima established the school in Kyoto, 
 a high official sent him a letter, from which I extract the 
 following : " You have knowledge, you have wisdom, and, 
 above all, you are still 3^oung. Why, then, are you retired 
 in Kyoto, and passing your time with young boys and 
 girls in leisure ? It may be because you are so earnest in 
 religion, but why do you not become a great public man, 
 and extend your influence in the world ? " Mr. Neesima 
 replied as follows : " I am very thankful for your kind ad- 
 vice. But suppose I should take a government position, 
 how much benefit could I give to Japan ? Certainly very 
 little. On the contrary, if I educate many young men and 
 women here in this place of beautiful mountains and pure 
 water, and produce hundreds and thousands of Neesimas 
 who can work for this country, it will be of some benefit. 
 This is the aim of my life." 
 
 Soon after landing in Yokohama he visited his aged 
 parents, who had gone back to their native province, and 
 were living in Annaka. There were at this time small 
 churches in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and Kobe, but it 
 was hardly safe to profess Christianity even in the open 
 ports. Away from the open ports there was very Httle, if 
 any, effort on the part of any Japanese to teach the for- 
 bidden doctrines. But no sooner did Mr. Neesima reach 
 Annaka, seventy-five miles from Tokyo, than the people 
 began to beg him to tell all about foreign countries, and 
 he took that opportunity to openly tell them about Chris- 
 tianity ; he did this so boldly for several days that the 
 governor of that province became troubled. Mr. Neesima 
 
Laying Foundations 49 
 
 was plainly violating tlie old law, but yet lie was no or- 
 dinary person • lie had been attached to the Iwakura em- 
 bass}^, and was already a widely known man. To arrest 
 or even caution him might have some unknown results ; 
 so the governor went hastily in person to Tokyo, and laid 
 the matter before some of the men who were at the head 
 of the government. They replied : " If it is Neesima, it is 
 all right -, let him alone ; " so the governor retui'ned satis- 
 fied, and a work was begun which resulted in the organi- 
 zation of the Annaka church a few years later under the 
 labors of Mr. Yebina. The Annaka church, with the five 
 other churches within a very few miles which have sprung 
 from it, make it probably the most thoroughly evangelized 
 community in Japan. Several of the members of the first 
 provincial assembly and a majority of the standing com- 
 mittee were Christian men, and two thirds of the members 
 of the first Imperial Diet elected from that province were 
 Christians. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Hardy, Mr. Neesima recites the ex- 
 periences of this period as follows : 
 
 " It was my intention to remain in Yokohama for tliree 
 days when I arrived there ; but when once I stepped on 
 the dry land — my dear native soil — I could not wait even 
 for three days. Hence I hurried home without stopping 
 in Tokyo. When I came here it was midnight ; therefore 
 I disliked to distm^b my parents' sleep, and slept in an inn. 
 In the morning I sent word to my father. Then I came 
 home, and was welcomed by my aged parents, sisters, 
 neighbors, and old acquaintances. My father had been ill 
 for three days, and could not move himself, on account of 
 rheumatism ; but when he heard of my safe arrival he rose 
 up and welcomed me with fatherly tenderness. When I 
 hailed him he stooped down without a word. I noticed 
 his tears dropping on the floor. My old acquaintances 
 
50 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 gathered at our home, and requested me to tell them all 
 my experiences in the United States. The people came 
 here from the suiTOunding towns, even seven or eight 
 miles away. They have kept me busy all the time. They 
 look as sheep without a shepherd. I found it almost im- 
 possible to send them back without giving them some 
 spiritual food. 
 
 ''Soon after my arrival home I presented your kind 
 letter to my father, but for a long time I could not trans- 
 late it for him, because when I tried to read it I could 
 not help thinking of the scene of my last departure 
 from you. 
 
 " Another day I gathered my parents and sisters, and 
 succeeded in reading your letter to them. Before I got 
 half through all of them began to weep, being much af- 
 fected by your parental kindness to me. My father told 
 me you were our saviors and our gods. Then I told him 
 he must not make our American friends gods. If he feels 
 grateful for their deeds he must worship that God, the 
 only one God, the Creator of the universe, the Saviour of 
 mankind, the God of his American friends. I mentioned, 
 still further, that these friends became so good and kind, 
 even to a wandering stranger, because they are true wor- 
 shipers of God and the followers of Christ, who is, indeed, 
 the Saviour of mankind. He came to this sinful world to 
 save the poor and lost. These friends saved me from a 
 miserable condition, and gave me necessary education, so 
 that I might become a teacher of the glad tidings of sal- 
 vation to our benighted people. Since that time my poor 
 father has discontinued to worship the Japanese gods and 
 his ancestors. By his consent I took down all the paper, 
 wooden, earthen, and brass gods from shelves where they 
 were kept, and burned them up. I send a few paper gods 
 for you, which my mother threw into the fireplace. '^ lere 
 
NEESIMA IN HAKODATE. 1864 
 
 .A* 
 
Laying Foundations 51 
 
 are no gods or images in this house now. I trust they 
 will be worshipers of the true God hereafter. 
 
 ^^ Besides my home friends, my humble labors with- 
 in three weeks have been wonderfully blessed. I have 
 preached several times in the school-house, and also 
 preached to small audiences in families. A week ago I 
 preached to a large audience in a Buddhist temple. All 
 the priests in this community came and Hstened to the 
 preaching of the new reUgion. There were over two 
 hundred present, consisting of priests, laymen, and a few 
 women and children. At my preaching in the school- 
 house the whole body of magistrates from the city of 
 Takasaki came to hear me preach. One of my hearers 
 went home and took down all his gods, and has ceased to 
 worship them. Thirty men in this town, and a few men 
 out of the town, took up a collection to buy some Chris- 
 tian books. One gave six dollars ; the whole was $17.35. 
 They requested me to buy the books. They are hungry 
 and thirsty for the Christian truth. I find here everything 
 ready for the Gospel." 
 
 On Mr. Neesima's visit to Annaka dates the entrance of 
 Christianity into the heart of Japan, and that was the be- 
 ginning of the fearless preaching of the Gospel in the in- 
 terior. 
 
 After a few weeks spent with his friends in Annaka, 
 preaching the Gospel, Mr. Neesima came on to Kobe and 
 Osaka to confer in regard to the estabhshment of the 
 Christian college. 
 
 A short time before Mr. Neesima's return our mission 
 received a letter from Secretary Clark telling us that five 
 thousand dollars were waiting to found a collegiate and 
 theological training-school to train Christian workers for 
 Japan. We had not yet begun to think of such a school, 
 or at least we felt that it was far in the future. Our first 
 
52 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 two churches had been organized that year, one in Kobe 
 with eleven members, and one in Osaka with seven mem- 
 bers ; a few young men were found ready to listen to the 
 truth, also, in Sanda, twenty miles from Kobe j but the 
 villages about Kobe and between Kobe and Osaka were so 
 much opposed to Christianity that it was impossible to 
 even teach a few men in an hotel, or tea-house. 
 
 Mr. Neesima tried for several months to secure permis- 
 sion from the governor of the Osaka-Fu to estabhsh the 
 college in that city. The governor told him he would ap- 
 prove the estabhshment of the school there, but that no 
 missionary should teach in it 5 so Mr. Neesima reluctantly 
 gave up hope in Osaka, and then our thoughts were turne'd 
 to Kyoto. But Kyoto was an interior city, where foreigners 
 had never been allowed to reside ; it had been the cen- 
 ter of Buddliism and Shintoism in Japan for a thousand 
 years; and, moreover, it was away from the centers of 
 work which our mission had opened. 
 
 The mission, however, gave a reluctant consent to the 
 location of the school in Kyoto, if permission could be se- 
 cured; and in the summer of 1875 Mr. Neesima went to 
 Kyoto to see what could be done. The Lord had prepared 
 the way before him; the city had been opened for one 
 hundred days during the three previous years, while the 
 exhibition was held there. Rev. 0. H. Gulick had spent 
 three months in the city during the summer of 1872, and 
 had made the acquaintance of Mr. Yamamoto Kakuma, a 
 blind man who was then a private counselor to the Kyoto- 
 Fu. Others of our mission had met him during the next 
 two summers, and he had become greatly interested in 
 Christianity. When Mr. Neesima presented his plan for 
 the establishment of a Christian college in Kyoto to Mr. 
 Yamamoto, he was ready to give it his warm approval 
 from the first, and he used his strong influence with the 
 
Laying Foundations 53 
 
 governor of the Kyoto-Fu in the same direction, so that 
 the governor also gave his approval to the scheme. 
 
 The wi'iter made a hasty visit to Kyoto in June of 1875, 
 and, with Mr. Neesima, looked at a lot of land containing 
 five and a half acres, 6500 tsubo, situated in the northern 
 part of the city, just above the old palace grounds, and 
 with a large temple grove of one hundred acres on the 
 north side of it. This land was the former site of the 
 palace of the Satsuma daimio, the last resident being 
 Shimadzu Saburo. It was now in the possession of the 
 blind Yamamoto, and he gladly sold it to us for the school 
 for the sum of five hundred and fifty dollars.* 
 
 Thus the site for the school was secured. What should 
 be its name ? Many were thought of, but finally the name 
 ''Ppshisha" was decided upon; this means one endeavor, 
 or one purpose company. Mr. Neesima was in Kyoto all 
 the summer of that year except during a hm-ried visit to 
 Tokyo. Although the approval of the local government 
 had been secured for the location of the school in Kyoto, 
 the approval of the central government was necessary. A 
 building must also be secm-ed for the school, and permis- 
 sion for a missionary to reside in Kyoto and teach in the 
 school. Mr. Neesima was busy with all these plans, and 
 his heart was stirred also to find some way by which the 
 Gospel could be freely taught in the school and in the city, 
 and all over the empii-e. 
 
 He writes August 2d : ^^ I had a most interesting inter- 
 view with Mr. , a young man who is connected with 
 
 the educational department at Tokyo. He told me that 
 he would do his best to allow missionaries to be hired in 
 
 * It is an interesting fact that Mr. Yamamoto was confined a 
 prisoner in a low room on this very ground for two years during the 
 war of the restoration, and was there attacked with that rheumatism 
 which made him a cripple till the day of his death. 
 
54 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 our Kyoto school 5 but for teaching Christianity in it, he 
 has no power to say much, because as Christian rehgion 
 it comes under Dai-kyo-in, or department of religion. I 
 think it would not do for us to present this matter to Dai- 
 kyo-in, because they will never do us any favor. So I 
 think a best way will be to try to get religious freedom in 
 the empire. I will write to our influential men in the 
 cabinet and induce them to work for it. Mr. prom- 
 ised me to work for it privately among the radical states- 
 men. He rather asked me to come to Tokyo to see them 
 myself. In the fii-st place I must get a letter from my 
 native province which wiU assure the Kyoto government 
 that I belong to that ken, and will henceforth become a 
 citizen of Kyoto. Then I can make my religious faith 
 known to the Kyoto government ; it will be the very first 
 thing ever done in Kyoto. I think the Kyoto government 
 will present the matter to the central government. If case 
 requires, I will present myself to the central government j 
 then, as I said above, in the mean time I will work privately 
 for religious freedom among the radical statesmen. I 
 think this is the only way to get Kyoto open for our 
 Christian institution." 
 
 August 24th he writes : " I have already presented the 
 petition for our school, and especially for hiring a mis- 
 sionary 5 and in order to gain the governor's favor I 
 made a friendly call on him last night. He strongly ad- 
 vised me to go to Tokyo as soon as possible, or not any 
 later than our petition reaches the central government. I 
 am deliberately following the advice of the governor, who 
 so recently came back from Tokyo and knows exactly the 
 present state of things in the central government." 
 
 Mr. Neesima hurried off by jinrikisha overland to To- 
 kyo, and reached there as soon as the petition did. He 
 saw Mr. Tanaka, who was at the head of the department 
 
Laying Foundations 55 
 
 of education. Mr. Tanaka was Mr. Neesima's special 
 friend, having become such while they were in Europe to- 
 gether. He told him, however, at first, that it would be 
 impossible to gi-ant permission for a Chi'istian school to 
 be opened in the city of Kyoto ; it was regarded as the 
 sacred city of the empire, and he feared great opposition 
 and prejudice on the part of the people. Mr. Neesima saw 
 him repeatedly during three days, and Mr. Tanaka finally 
 told him that if he would be very careful not to do any- 
 thing to arouse the opposition of the people he would grant 
 the permission. Thus the permission was finally granted 
 to open the school in Kyoto. Mr. Neesima also formed a 
 company, consisting of himself and Mr. Yamamoto, to open 
 the school, hii-e teachers, etc. ; this company of two was 
 the Doshisha for several years. 
 
 The writer having been engaged as the first foreign 
 teacher in the school, Mr. Neesima wrote, October 11th, 
 in regard to a house for my family and one for the school. 
 In this letter he says : ^' I hope his reply will come within 
 to-day. I think it is pretty early for me to say to-day — it 
 is now 3.30 a.m. I awoke at a quarter before two o'clock, 
 and could not sleep again, so I got up some time after two 
 
 o'clock and wrote a pretty long letter to Mr. to get 
 
 permission to rent his house. Can you do anything for 
 this sleepless old fellow ? I am exceedingly tired, but can't 
 sleep." Again, October 16th, five days later, he writes : 
 " I have been sleepless these past five nights, but I slept 
 first-rate last night. I hope I shall do so again to-night. 
 My hope for Kyoto was quite brightened up." The reason 
 for his brighter hopes was that the permission for my resi- 
 dence in Kyoto, which had been pending so long, and for 
 which he had been writing and telegraphing to Tokyo, had 
 come, and the way was open for him to commence the 
 school. He had had a long and anxious summer. 
 
56 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 I entered Kyoto with my family October 19th, and set- 
 tled down in a part of the old Yanagiwara yashiki on the 
 east side of the imperial palace, and Mr. Neesima had a 
 little house on Shin Karasmnaru, above Maruta Machi. 
 Mr. Neesima had a small company to whom he preached 
 and taught the Bible in his own house each Sabbath all 
 summer 5 I began a similar service in my house the fii'st 
 Sabbath we were in the city, and only six were present ; 
 but both audiences increased so that in a few weeks they 
 numbered from thirty to sixty. 
 ■ We had hardly entered the city, however, before the 
 Buddhist priests held manj^ meetings and finally sent a 
 strong petition to the central government asking to have 
 us expelled. I find written in my diary of November 
 19th : " The opposition of the priests is having its effect 
 upon the ofiicials of the city : they are less friendly. The 
 acorn is in the bottle, however, and it will, in time, with 
 
 / God's blessing, split the bottle." 
 
 Mr. Neesima made applications about this time for 
 
 Dr. Taylor and Dr. Learned to teach in the school, and he 
 was very greatly tried for five months before they were 
 granted. I will quote from my diary of Monday, Novem- 
 ber 22d, to show how he was tried : " Mr. Neesima has 
 called several times dui'ing the last week or two to see the 
 governor, but always found him not at home. Friday 
 evening last he called again, and was told that he was too 
 busy to see him ; he went early Saturday morning, and was 
 told that it was too early ; he went a little later, and was 
 told that the governor was about starting for the ofiice ; 
 he inquired through the servant if he could see him in the 
 evening, and was told that he could not promise j he went 
 home, and yesterday he received notice to appear at the 
 office this morning and explain what he meant by Seisho, 
 Bible, in the list of studies as put forth in the program of 
 
Laying Foundations 57 
 
 the school." The only result of the sending of the strong 
 petition of the priests to Tokyo, so far as we know, was 
 that Mr. Tanaka, the head of the department of education, 
 sent a request to the governor of Kyoto, asking that, for 
 the present, we would not teach the Bible in the school. 
 Mr. Neesima gave him a written promise to that effect on 
 the 22d of November. The governor told him that we 
 could teach Christianity in the school under the name of \/ 
 moral science, and teach everything there except Bible 
 exegesis, and that we could teach that and preach in our 
 homes. This request was made by Mr. Tanaka for fear 
 of trouble in the city, as there was great excitement about 
 our coming to open a Christian school. The owner of the 
 building we had rented for the school had given Mr. Nee- 
 sima notice that he wanted his house for himself, and that 
 we could not have it ; but after this Bible-teaching was 
 arranged with the governor the owner concluded to let us 
 have it. 
 
 From my diary, November 29, 1875 : '^ We began our 
 school this morning in Mr. Neesima's house at eight 
 o'clock, with a prayer-meeting, in which all the scholars 
 took part; then, going to the school-house, two others 
 were received, making seven boarding scholars and one 
 day-scholar." I never shall forget Mr. Neesima's tender, 
 tearful, earnest prayer in his house that morning as we 
 began the school ; all prayed from the heart. December 
 4th we had twelve scholars. We worked on through the 
 winter, the school growing gradually, until we had about 
 forty scholars, the attendance at the Sabbath services in- 
 creasing, until sixty or seventy were present. The passes 
 for Drs. Taylor and Learned, which gave Mr. Neesima 
 trouble all winter, were finally sent on to Tokyo, and 
 granted in March, 1876. 
 
IV 
 
 MARRIAGE, TRIALS, AND WORK 
 
 59 
 
" In love of tlie brethren le tenderly affectioned one to another ; in 
 honor preferring one another ; in diligence not slothful; fervent in 
 spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribidation; 
 continui7ig steadfastly in praijer." — Rom. xii. 10-12. 
 
 "For marriage is a matter of more ivorth 
 Than to he dealt in hy attorneyship ; 
 For what is wedlock forced hut a hell, 
 An age of discord and continual strife ; 
 Whereas the contrary hringeth forth happiness, 
 And is a pattern of celestial Miss." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 " Sorrow and silence are strong, 
 And patient endurance is godlike." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 "Leave God to order all thy ways. 
 And hope in him, whate'er hetide; 
 TJiouHt find him in the evil days 
 
 An all-sufficient strength and guide; 
 Who trusts in God^s unchanging love 
 Builds on a rock that naught can move." 
 
 Georg Neumark. 
 
 "Life is real, life is earnest, 
 
 And the grave is not its goal; 
 *Dust thou art, to dust returnest/ 
 Was not spoken of the soul. 
 
 "Let us then he up and doing, 
 With a heart for any fate: 
 Still achieving, still pursuing. 
 Learn to lahor and to wait." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 "Blind unheliefis sure to err, 
 And scan his work in vain; 
 God is his own interpreter^ 
 And he will make it plain." 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 60 
 
CHAPTER lY 
 
 MAERIAGE, TRIALS, AND WORK 
 
 Soon after Mr. Neesima came to Kyoto he became ac- 
 quainted with Yamamoto Yaye, a sister of the blind coun- 
 selor of the Kyoto-Fu ; and, meeting her repeatedly at her 
 brother's house, acquaintance ripened into affection, and 
 in the autumn of that year they were engaged. 
 
 On Sabbath, January 2, 1876, the Lord's Supper and 
 also the ordinance of baptism were celebrated for the first 
 time in the city, at the regular service at my house. Ya- 
 mamoto O Yaye received baptism at that time, and the 
 next day, January 3d, in the presence of all the members 
 of our school, of the ex-daimio of Tango and his daughter, 
 of several friends whom we had made in the city, and of 
 Mr. Yamamoto's family, Mr. Neesima and O Yaye were 
 united in marriage. This proved a very happy union, 
 and Mr. Neesima had a faithful, loving wife during all the 
 years until God called him up higher. 
 
 In the letters he wrote us from America, while there in 
 1885, it was very touching to see how much he felt the 
 separation from Mrs. Neesima, and how he also remem- 
 bered to ask us to help her bear her loneliness. 
 
 Mr. Sears, a wealthy Boston gentleman, whose acquain- 
 tance Mr. Neesima made while in the United States, sent 
 out a sum of money for Mr. Neesima to use to build him a 
 comfortable home, and also another sum to build a chapel. 
 
 61 
 
^^ Joseph Eardtj Neesima 
 
 He secured a large lot on Teramachi, above Maruta Machi 
 and there built a home for himself. It was several years 
 before we could secure any places in the city for preach- 
 ing, and a service was held at Mr. Neesima's house, and 
 the school met at my house each Sabbath afternoon for 
 more than two years. At this latter preaching service 
 more than two hundred people often gathered to hear the 
 Gospel, and, as the house became too smaU, the money 
 given by Mr. Sears was used to build a chapel near by. 
 Mr. Neesima used often to preach in those days, and his 
 sermons were intensely earnest and impressive. 
 
 To show the difficulty we encountered in trying to teach 
 Christianity at this time one example may be given. A 
 physician in Fushimi, a southern suburb of Kyoto, asked 
 us to come down to his house and teach the Gospel,- the 
 writer went down one Sabbath and gave him and a few of 
 his friends who had assembled in his house a talk about 
 the true God 5 the next Sabbath Mr. Neesima went down 
 and talked to the five or six people who assembled; for 
 this the physician was summoned to appear at the Kyoto- 
 Fu, and told that he must not aUow such meetings at his 
 house. All who had Hstened or who had received any 
 tracts were also summoned to appear at the office, and 
 very closely questioned and frightened. The physician 
 was thus summoned on three separate occasions. 
 
 The following is a part of the conversation which oc- 
 curred between the Fu officials and this physician on the 
 last day, when he was discharged: '^This Davis came up 
 here to teach an English school, did he not?'^ ^'Yes.'^ 
 "Then he is like a man who has a license to seU deer 
 meat, but who seUs dog meat ? '' " WeU, is it dog meat ? 
 I used to think so, but on tasting of it I find it is a great 
 deal better than deer meat; and I would Hke to ask you 
 one question : this way is allowed to be taught publicly in 
 
NEESIMA'S WIFE AND MOTHER 
 
Marriage, Trials, and Work 63 
 
 Kobe, in Osaka, and in twenty or thirty places in Tokyo ; 
 how is it that here, in the Kyoto-Fu, a man is not allowed 
 to hear it in his own house ? Are we not all under the 
 same government? I do not understand it." "Well," 
 says the official, " I do not say that way is either good or 
 bad, and I do not say that you and your friends cannot 
 hear it in your house ; but you let in the common people, 
 the lower classes, who cannot understand it ; we cannot 
 allow this. We have good and sufficient rehgions here in 
 Japan — we do not want any more ; we have Confucianism 
 for the scholars like you, and Buddhism for the masses." 
 The doctor replied : " I would like to ask you one thing : If 
 Confucianism is an all-sufficient religion, why is it, since 
 its founder lived hundreds of years before Christ, and 
 taught during a long hfe, that this way has not spread 
 beyond China and Japan? So if Buddhism is an all- 
 sufficient religion, started by Buddha hundreds of years 
 before Christ, and taught by him through a long life, how 
 is it that it has not spread beyond India, China, and 
 Japan ? And if Christianity is a bad way, how is it, since 
 its founder only taught three years, and was put to death 
 when he was thirty-three years old, that it has spread aU 
 over Europe and America, and is spreading aU over Africa 
 and Asia and all the islands of the sea ? " " WeU, we do 
 not say that it is either good or bad, but you must not 
 allow people to meet at your house, and you are dis- 
 charged," replied the official. The physician came from 
 the Fu right to my house and told me this, and I copied 
 it into my diary. He borrowed a quantity of books and 
 tracts, took them home, and lent them to his neighbors j 
 but his practice gradually feU off, and he came near to 
 starvation, so prejudiced did the people become against 
 him ; and he finally lost his interest in Christianity. 
 This opposition on the part of officials, and the fact 
 
64 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 that the Bible was not allowed to be taught in the school, 
 caused much dissatisfaction in the mission, so that after 
 the permission for Drs. Taylor and Learned had been 
 granted, and before they moved into the city, about the 
 middle of March, a special meeting of the mission was 
 called in Osaka, and half a day was spent over the ques- 
 tion of abandoning Kyoto, and locating the school where 
 the missionaries could be free to live and to teach the 
 Bible. Although one of the mission afterward said it was 
 " the most reluctant vote the mission ever gave," the vote 
 was given to remain, none dissenting. A few months 
 later, the last of June, a vote was given by the mission to 
 approve of the erection of two buildings on the ground 
 bought for the school. It was a very reluctant vote, but 
 the fact that most thought it very doubtful if the erection 
 of the buildings would be allowed by the government 
 helped the doubtful ones, and the vote was given, none 
 dissenting; one brother said, however, "Brethren, you 
 may just as well try to fly to Mars as to try to put up 
 those buildings; it will not be allowed." In Just thi'ee 
 months and twenty days from that time this brother sang 
 in the new buildings, " We'U hold the fort," etc., and took 
 part in the exercises of dedication. 
 
 As the buildings stood completed, and the day ap- 
 pointed to open the school in them drew near, the tempo- 
 rary restriction in regard to the Bible still held. Many 
 of the members of the mission were greatly exercised 
 about opening the training-school of the mission in the 
 new buildings ; some were in favor of demanding the re- 
 moval of the restriction, and, in case it was refused, then 
 of abandoning everything — ^buildings, work, and all — and 
 of leaving the city. One brother wrote : " We have no 
 training-school ; the school that wiH begin next week wiU 
 not be the training-school," etc. Another brother wrote 
 
Marriage, Trials, and Worli 65 
 
 that he did not believe that we would be allowed to teach 
 the Bible and pray in the school for three or five years, 
 perhaps not for fifteen or twenty years yet. 
 
 Within one of a majority of the members of the mission 
 signed a call for a special meeting to reconsider the whole 
 question of the location of the school in Kyoto, and decide 
 whether we should open the school in the new buildings. 
 One member of the mission had just started overland to 
 Tokyo, and was at this very time weather-bound by a 
 three days' storm of wind and rain, and wondering why 
 he was permitted to start. Had he been within reach the 
 meeting would have been called, and no one can predict 
 what would have been the result. But the meeting was 
 not called, and after consultation with Mr. Yamamoto it 
 was decided, since the excitement in the city had com- 
 pletely subsided, to dedicate the new buildings with relig- 
 ious exercises, to have morning prayers in the chapel, to 
 open all the recitations of the theological department with 
 prayer, and to teach all the studies and give all the lec- 
 tures of the theological department, except Bible exegesis, 
 in the new building, and to secure a third building in Mr. 
 Neesima's name for the exegesis. The new buildings were 
 dedicated on the morning of September 18, 1876 ; they 
 consisted of what are now known as dormitories No. 1 and 
 No. 2. The exercises consisted of a prayer of invocation, 
 reading the Scriptures, sketch of the founding of the 
 school, prayer of dedication, addresses in Japanese and 
 English, and the singing of two hymns in Japanese and 
 three in English. 
 
 At this time Mr. Neesima wrote as follows to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hardy : " I must express my heartfelt thanks to you 
 for your having led and educated me in such a way that I 
 might found a Christian institution on my dearly beloved 
 soil. As you know we started our school in a hired house. 
 
66 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 but, having found this very inconvenient, we began the 
 process of building two months ago. The buildings are 
 three in number, two of which contain recitation-rooms 
 and twenty-four rooms for students, while the other is a 
 small structure and is used for a dining-room and kitchen. 
 They are simple but solid, and look very pretty in the 
 open space about them. We were permitted to dedicate 
 them to the Lord the day before yesterday. . . . All but 
 two of our Kyoto mission were present, and about seventy 
 students, besides others from outside. Mr. Yamamoto's 
 remarks were wonderfully appropriate. He is regarded 
 as one of our best thinkers, although bodily feeble and 
 helpless. The existence of the Kyoto mission is largely 
 due to him. He was convinced that an immoral country 
 like Japan could not be purified by any other means than 
 Christianity, and by his influence and labor the proud and 
 dignified governor listened to us, and at last smiled upon 
 oui' efforts. In the dark and trying hours of last winter 
 he stood up for us and did his best to persuade the gov- 
 ernor. The latter made no interference with our dedi- 
 cation exercises. You will be glad to know that of our 
 forty-seven boarding students more than haK are Chris- 
 tians. They have come to us with the purpose of study- 
 ing the Bible and fitting themselves for the ministry. We 
 are very fortunate to get such pupils at the outset. I pray 
 that this school may be the nucleus of a future college 
 and university for Japan. Our mission work has also 
 bright prospects, the work being chiefly carried on by our 
 students. A third church will soon be formed. My aged 
 parents now worship God instead of idols, and my invalid 
 sister, who grasps spiritual things faster than these aged 
 ones, takes part in the prayer-meetings for women held at 
 my house. My wife attends the biblical exercises in the 
 school. We are perfectly happy together, and I am try- 
 
I— t 
 
 > 
 
 U2 
 
 I— f 
 
 O 
 P 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 3 
 o 
 h:} 
 a 
 
 K 
 C4 
 
Marriage, Trials, and Work 67 
 
 ing to make my home like the Christian home I found in 
 America." 
 
 Earlier than this Mr. Neesima had written to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hardy: "We are hated by the magistrates and 
 priests, but we have planted the standard of truth here, 
 and will never more retreat. To no one else but you will 
 I say that this Christian school could have no existence 
 here if God had not brought this poor runaway boy to 
 your kind hands. The only way to get along in this 
 country is to work courageously, even under many diffi- 
 culties." 
 
 The first theological haU, shown in the engraving, 
 was used for Bible-teaching for several years, until this 
 could be taught in the regular school-buildings. This old 
 "No. 30," as it was called, was a great contrast to the 
 present beautiful theological haU, the gift of Mrs. Clarke 
 of Brooklyn, in memory of her son. (See p. 100.) 
 
 The following extracts from letters written by members 
 of the mission in 1875-76 wiU show how much the mission 
 valued the work and influence of Mr. Neesima at this 
 time : " Your contribution of Mr. Neesima to our mission 
 and the cause of Christ in Japan is one whose value we 
 feel no multiple of the sum you have invested in his edu- 
 cation can represent. We are charmed by his thoroughly 
 Christian spirit. ... I cannot say a tithe of what is in 
 my heart. . . . There seems no doubt but that his whole 
 life, being, and purpose are consecrated to the Master for 
 the redemption of his people. . . . He is profoundly grate- 
 ful to you and to the American Board for what you and 
 it have done for him and his land ; and he accepts the will 
 of the board and of our mission as God's wiU, no matter 
 how it differs from his own. ... If he is guided aright 
 by God's Spirit, and kept fii*m to his purpose and work, if 
 his health is spared, I feel that he is destined to accom- 
 
68 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 plish as much, perhaps, as all our mission put together. 
 . . . We need him for a larger place than a pastorate. 
 We need him as a teacher in the training-school. He is 
 better fitted for some department of teaching than any 
 foreigner ever can be. We also need him as an evangel- 
 ist — not to use his influence always in the same place, but 
 to go about awakening interest. . . . For a long time 
 after his return we feared he would break entirely down. 
 He was able to sleep but very little. He told me several 
 times during those first few months that when he thought 
 about these millions of his people passing into eternity 
 without a knowledge of Christ, it seemed as if he would 
 go crazy. Since the opening of the year he has gradually 
 improved, and is sleeping better. This is partly due to 
 the successful starting of the school, and his steady work 
 there ; but largely, also, to his marriage and settlement in 
 a happy home of his own." 
 
 The constant opposition on the part of the Kyoto-Fu to 
 the school, the fact that the Bible could not be taught in 
 the school-buildings, and that so large a number of the mis- 
 sion were not satisfied to have the school opened and car- 
 ried on in the new buildings, etc., led to continued criticism 
 of the school, and also to criticism of Mr. Neesima as the 
 virtual Japanese head of the school. He felt these most 
 keenly. He loved the members of the Japan mission, and 
 he was ever loyal to it ; and anything which seemed to im- 
 ply the contrary pained him beyond measure. So great did 
 the trial become that in September, 1876, the members of 
 the station sent a letter to the members of the mission to try 
 to remove some of these misunderstandings. I wiU quote 
 a few words from that letter, as they bring out one of Mr. 
 Neesima's remarkable characteristics : " Still fartlier, Mr. 
 Neesima and Mr. Yamamoto, as the nominal proprietors 
 of the school, so far from interfering with our manage- 
 
Marriage^ Trials, and Work 69 
 
 ment of the school, have from the first left everything in 
 our own hands ; the exercises of the dedication, the man- 
 ner of conducting morning prayers, what to teach, when 
 to teach, how to teach, the employment of Japanese teach- 
 ers, the ringing of the bell, the management of the food 
 — all these things, instead of being suggested by them, 
 have been suggested by us, and none of them even re- 
 ferred to Mr. Yamamoto at all, and not half of them to 
 Mr. Neesima; and yet, so far as we know, Mr. Neesima 
 has never hinted or thought a word of complaint, or 
 asked that anything be changed. He even comes to us 
 to consult about all the little details of his own classes. 
 He has not expended a cent of the money which has been 
 sent to him to use as he pleased for the school without 
 first consulting us, and he has then invariably followed 
 out our suggestions. We have been as free to run the 
 school to suit ourselves, from our first connection with it, 
 as if there had been no Japanese proprietors, or as if it 
 had been located in Chicago." This can almost as truly 
 be said after fourteen years as after one year. 
 
 We must now notice at some length another wonderful 
 work — hardly less wonderful than the calling and prepa- 
 ration of Mr. Neesima. In the month of February, 1876, 
 in the darkest days of that first winter, when the opposi- 
 tion was so great that it often seemed as if we must fail 
 of our object of establishing a school in Kyoto, the writer 
 received a large letter by the Japanese post. The hand- 
 writing was strange 5 the name, too, was strange. It was 
 written from the old castle town of Kumamoto, in the 
 middle of the island of Kiushu, by Captain L. L. Janes. 
 In it he asked if we could receive into our school a 
 number of earnest Christian young men, graduates of his 
 school, to fit them for work as preachers of the Gospel. 
 We did not know that such a man was in existence j we 
 
 V 
 
70 Joseph Hardy Weesima 
 
 did not know that such a school was in existence. How 
 did all this happen ? 
 
 The following is a translation (made by a Japanese) of 
 an account of the work of Captaui Janes, prepared by 
 Paul Kanamori, one of his pupils, who was a leading 
 member of the Kumamoto Band: 
 
 " In 1871, Captain L. L. Janes came to Kumamoto upon 
 the invitation of the daimio of Higo, and estabhshed a 
 school where foreign knowledge was to be taught. The 
 daimio was decided in his desire for a military officer, be- 
 cause he feared that if he employed an ordinary scholar 
 the youths of the province would fall into hterary weak- 
 ness, and so the bold spiiit of the province would be lost. 
 So he employed this learned and valorous officer in order 
 to introduce the sciences of the West, and at the same 
 time stimulate the military spirit of the young men. 
 
 " Captain Janes having been employed with this end in 
 view, his cu-cumstances were vqtj different from those of 
 the missionaries. At that time Japan was still unenlight- 
 ened, particularly in the vicinity of Kumamoto. The 
 number of men who were yet opposed to Christianity was 
 very great, so that even the lives of Captain and Mrs. 
 Janes were by no means free from danger. The pupils 
 were largely sons of the rough and turbulent men of the 
 place, and it may be readily seen that to teach Christian- 
 ity to them was a very dehcate and difficult task. No 
 pupil could understand English, and Captain Janes did 
 not understand the Japanese language, so that the diffi- 
 culty of communication was extreme. 
 
 " For the first two or three years Captain Janes said 
 little or nothing about Christianity, but gave his whole 
 strength to teaching English and the sciences; but he 
 was so kind and fatherly in his treatment of his pupils 
 
Marriage, Trials, and WorJc 71 
 
 that they came to forget that he was a foreigner, and they 
 gladly listened to whatever he said to them. 
 
 "As he was a fervent Christian his desire to preach to 
 the pupils mnst have been intense ; but under the circum- 
 stances he wisely contented himself with first seeking to 
 win his pupils' hearts as the best possible preparation for 
 the futui-e sowing of the Gospel seed. After he had been 
 there about three years he one day said to us, ' I shall 
 teach the Bible on Sunday; any one who wishes may 
 come to my house.' We still hated Christianity as though 
 it were a snake, and did not like even to see a Bible ; but 
 we so respected him that we concluded to go to the meet- 
 ing. One of us went to the teacher of Chinese and asked 
 his consent. He replied that we might go to learn about 
 Christianity, not to believe it, but to study its strong and 
 weak points in order to oppose it. And so, of the few 
 who went, some went simply out of curiosity, others for 
 amusement, others that they might oppose — none with a 
 desire to accept it. The portions of the New Testament 
 that we read had no flavor for us, and the time seemed 
 spent in vain. But our teacher was kind and assiduous 
 in his teaching, and fervent in his prayers for us. Dur- 
 ing his prayer, which seemed tedious to us, we sometimes 
 opened our eyes and looked upon his face with its closed 
 and tearful eyes, and then we laughed, saying that '• Amer- 
 icans weep.^ At this time he simply taught the Bible, and 
 never exhorted us to become Christians; and when two 
 of us thought to impose upon him by pretending that we 
 wished to become preachers, he met them sternly, saying, 
 ' You are not yet worthy to become preachers ; go on with 
 your Bible study.' A year later, in 1875, a few were reaUy 
 touched by the Gospel, and this was followed by a divi- 
 sion of the students into two parties, the one favorable to 
 
72 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 Christianity, the other seeking to oppose it by reviving 
 the study of ' The Great Learning ' and ' The Doctrine of 
 the Mean/ as taught by the Chinese sages. In August 
 of the same year, Captain Janes added preaching to his 
 biblical instruction. His sermons were long — sometimes 
 three hours long — but as we had become interested in 
 Christianity they were never tiresome to us. All who 
 attended these meetings were studying the Confucian 
 morahty at the house of the Chinese teacher every Sun- 
 day afternoon, and so, for a while, we were studying 
 Christianity with Captain Janes in the mornings and 
 Confucianism with the Chinese teacher in the afternoons. 
 For about six months we were thus divided in our ad- 
 miration for Christianity and Confucianism, but by the 
 end of the year all except one or two were united in their 
 belief in Christianity. 
 
 " By Captain Janes's advice some of us spent the New 
 Year's vacation in the study of the Gospel of John, and 
 in prayer to God for his blessing upon ourselves and our 
 classmates. [When the new term opened these Christian 
 students had a faith which burned like fire, so that they 
 could not but preach to theii* fellow- students and try to 
 lead them to the gate of salvation. The whole school was 
 like a boiling caldron; the studies were neglected, and 
 groups of five, six, or seven men began to study the Bible 
 2 in the recitation-rooms, the dining-room, or in their pri- 
 t vate rooms. These students had but little knowledge of 
 the Bible or of theology, but they were impelled to preach, 
 even though some of them were not more than twelve 
 years old. The recitations were suspended, and Captain 
 Janes gave himself to the work of preaching the Gospel 
 to the students. We had not even heard of the word 
 'revival,' and knew nothing of the special workings of the 
 Holy Spirit. We wondered why our spirits burned like a 
 
Marriage, TrialSj and Worlv 73 
 
 fire, and why we preached the Gospel like madmen. One 
 said, ' May not this be the work of the Holy Spirit men- 
 tioned in the Bible ? ' And others answered, '■ Yes, it may 
 be/ Our preaching was not confined to the school, but 
 found its way to the servants of the teachers, our kindred 
 in our homes, old men and women in the streets, and so om 
 
 " Now I must speak of one who was secretly praying 
 in her closet, who received an open reward from her 
 Heavenly Father. This was Mrs. Janes. She had no 
 acquaintance with the students, but for many months her 
 mind had been filled with intense desire for the salvation 
 of the students, and she prayed day and night for the 
 Holy Spirit to come upon them. This was the hidden 
 cause of the revival. This revival continued for about a 
 month, and those who confessed faith in Christ numbered 
 over forty, and more than forty others were studying the 
 Bible. On the last Sunday in January (January 30, 1876), 
 a beautiful springlike day, the Christian students went 
 out to a hill, Hana-oka-yama, southwest of Kumamoto — a 
 hill since made famous as the spot where Saigo Takamori 
 placed his cannon to bombard Kumamoto. They went 
 singing hymns as they climbed the hill, and, taking their 
 seats in a circle on its summit, they made a solemn cove- 
 nant together, that as they had been thus blessed by God 
 in advance of all their countrymen, they would labor to 
 enlighten the darkness of the empire by preaching the 
 Gospel, even at the sacrifice of their lives. ' They prayed 
 kneehng, and wrote an oath-paper, on which they signed 
 and sealed their names.' 
 
 " The fact that this covenant had been made became 
 known, and all those connected with the school cried out 
 in dismay, 'Alas! the students have become Christian 
 priests. Captain Janes has made Christians of them. If 
 this be not stopped our hopes for the school will be gone.' 
 
74 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 "At tills time tlie life of Captain Janes was in great 
 danger, and the Christian students were persecuted in a 
 thousand ways, for Christianity was looked upon as a kind 
 of witchcraft. One mother said to her son, ^ If you don't 
 abandon Christianity I must kill myself in order to wipe 
 out the stain which you have cast upon yoin* ancestors.' 
 A father said, ' If you don't give up your faith I will kiU 
 
 ; you immediately.' One student was confined in his room 
 
 I for one hundred days, and was finally driven from home. 
 
 \ There was not one who was not more or less persecuted. 
 On this account the number fell off to less than thirty. 
 But the true believers, although the oldest was under 
 twenty years of age, were immovable in their faith, and 
 
 1 read}^ even to sacrifice their lives. They were constantly 
 encouraged and comforted by Captain Janes, and enabled 
 to stand against the persecutions, which continued for 
 about six months ; so that the believers not only gained 
 the victory, but were made all the stronger by their per- 
 secutions. By the following autumn. Captain Janes left 
 Kumamoto, and the Christians went to the Doshisha 
 school in Kyoto, to prepare themselves more fully for the 
 preaching of the Gospel." 
 
 The following is a translation of the covenant referred 
 to, which was drawn up and signed by the Kumamoto 
 Band at this time : 
 
 " When we first studied the Western religion we were 
 greatly impressed, and as we afterward studied it more 
 we were still more impressed, and were impelled to accept 
 it with great joy; and now we wish to spread this religion 
 in this empire, and thus enlighten the ignorance of the 
 people. The fact, however, that the people do not under- 
 stand the wonderful doctrine of the Western religion, and 
 so obstinately hold to their old opinions, is a great sor- 
 
t— » 
 m 
 
 > 
 < 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 W 
 
 !?; 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
Marriage, Trials, and Work 75 
 
 row. At this time, if any one has patriotism, he ought to 
 rise up with enthusiasm and account his life as dust, and 
 bear witness to the catholicity and greatness of the West- 
 ern rehgion. This is what we ought to do with all our 
 might. Therefore, holding the same principles, we meet 
 together on Hana-oka-yama and affirm our desire to work 
 together for this religion with one accord. 
 
 " 1. Those who have entered this religion must unite 
 together with brotherly love, and mutually watch over 
 and approve each other, separating from evil and cleav- 
 ing to good ; and thus practically show forth our faith by 
 our works. 
 
 " 2. If, after once entering this way, one does not follow 
 it, he hes against God and deceives his own heart ; such 
 an one will certainly receive punishment from God. 
 
 "3. At the present time, since many of the people of 
 this empire deny the Western religion, if one of our num- 
 ber wanders from this way he will not only deserve the 
 public reproach, but we shall finally fail of obtaining our 
 great purpose -, hence how careful should we be to fulfil 
 this pledge ! 
 
 "Hana-oka-yama, January 30, 1876, Sabbath." 
 
 As showing the spirit of the man who was the in- 
 strument in God's hands to do this wonderful work, 
 and also some phases of that work, I will quote from 
 some of Captain Janes's letters received during those 
 trjdng months. _ In his first letter, dated February 7, 
 1876, he says : k My work in the school has been accom- 
 panied, from the time when it was possible to speak of 
 Christianity, by constant and direct religious instruction 
 of my pupils ; in fact, the whole work has been inspired 
 from the first with the one aim, on my part, of making it, 
 under God, subserve the founding and upbuilding here of 
 
76 Joseph Hardy JSfeesima 
 
 the kingdom of Christ, and so the highest welfare of those 
 committed to my instruction and the large community- 
 influenced by them and the school."] Again he wiites, 
 March 4th : ^' Meantime, my boys and I have been passing 
 through unusual events, to say the least ; and the mutter- 
 ings of a sharp, vindictive, and exciting persecution are 
 still in the air around us." " I think the little colony is 
 practically intact ; no lives have been taken, though that 
 was threatened seriously enough ; and there are no cases 
 of Jiara-Mri yet to report, though a mother in one family 
 and a father in another took that method of driving their 
 sons from the faith ; their degradation was declared to be 
 insupportable." '^ I grieve over my imprisoned Christian 
 boys. The physical strength of one is failing, and the 
 unthinking persecutors may kill him. I understand there 
 was an auto da fe of his Bibles a few days since." 
 
 Again, May 25th : " They blame me here, by implica- 
 tion, for educating preachers ; I say nothing, but I have 
 come to see that they need preachers and teachers of the 
 'True Light' more than any other educated workmen. 
 iThe sham civilization they would build of a film of West- 
 ern materialism dignified by the name of science and 
 civilization, leaving the soul and all its needs unprovided 
 for, is a hollow bubble that will bui'st one of these days. 
 It is easy enough to kick a hole through it now ; and un- 
 less the successive accretions are made to crystallize around 
 the central principles of truth, justice, and liberty, and a 
 wisdom large enough to satisfy the soul — Christ, the soul's 
 want ; God, the soul's author ; and immortality, the soul's 
 destiny — why, I don't know but the old nursery style were 
 better than the violent ruptures and fearful reaction that 
 must occur till the higher plane of progress is reached." 
 
 Here are also a few words from a letter Captain Janes 
 sent up by the first one of his graduates who started for 
 
Marriage, Trials, and Work 77 
 
 I 
 Kyoto, dated June 25, 1876 : " He was one of the first to • 
 
 see the light, to be convinced of the saving power of 
 Christianity, and to give his heart unalterably to Jesus, 
 ^ all to leave and follow him ; ' and as a consequence he 
 has been subjected to the most cruel and outrageous 
 treatment at the hands of his brother, and has endured 
 an imprisonment of some one hundred and twenty days. 
 He was made the slave of the servants of his family, who 
 were instructed to treat him as devil-possessed, without 
 human rights. He is now practically an outcast. He is 
 as a shorn lamb ; he is leaving all." 
 
 In September fifteen graduates of Captain Janes's 
 school, and as many more under-graduates, entered our 
 school. These graduates were most of them virtually 
 cast off by their friends for their faith in Christ, and they 
 came to us with the clothes they wore and an Enghsh 
 Bible as their sole earthly possessions. They found the 
 school poorly organized, and were at first much dissatis- 
 fied. Captain Janes, however, encouraged them to stay, 
 and they remained, and spent three years in theological 
 study, supporting themselves by teaching the younger 
 classes in the school, and graduating from the theological 
 department in June, 1879. Three of them were retained 
 as teachers in the school, and the others went out as 
 teachers and preachers, and have been among the best 
 Christian workers in Japan for the last ten years 5 Mr. 
 Kosaki in Tokyo, Mr. Yebina in Joshu, Mr. Miyagawa in 
 Osaka, Mr. Kanamori in Okayama, and Mr. Ise in Shikoku, 
 have done work which has changed the history of Japan 
 already. Five of these men are now connected with the 
 school as teachers. Their coming into the school at that 
 early day gave a Christian tone to the school, and their in- 
 fluence was felt in molding the Doshisha morally, and in 
 shaping its course of study. They have helped to make 
 
78 Joseph Hardij Neesima 
 
 the scliool what it is, and they came to love Mr. Neesima 
 and to be loved by him as brothers. 
 
 The school gradually increased in numbers, so that 
 during the third school year we had over one hundred 
 students. Such was the feeling of opposition in Kyoto, 
 however, that we had very few students from the city 
 during the first five years ; nearly half of them came from 
 the island of Kiushu, led by the example and influence of 
 the Kumamoto Band. 
 
 The opposition on the part of the officials in Kyoto 
 grew stronger and stronger. December 23, 1877, Mr. 
 Neesima wrote : " I wish to inform you of a recent event 
 which happened in Kyoto. My brother-in-law, the blind 
 Yamamoto, lost his connection with the Kyoto-Fu yester- 
 day ; I believe he lost his connection with the Fu on ac- 
 count of his connection with us." In the winter of 1879 
 Dr. Learned's permission to reside in Kyoto and teach in 
 the school had nearly expired ; if his permission was not 
 renewed it would leave only one foreign teacher in the 
 school ; the requests made by the Doshisha for others to 
 teach in the school had been refused, and Mr. Neesima 
 was very anxious, during those months, about the very 
 existence of the school. It was only after repeated soUci- 
 tation with the Fu authorities here, and a visit to Tokyo 
 and a personal interview with Mr. Mori, then at the head 
 of the foreign department, that Dr. Learned's permit was 
 finally obtained. 
 
 The whole situation during these first years was a great 
 strain upon Mr. Neesima. Some of his best Japanese 
 friends told him he was ruining his influence by receiv- 
 ing the money for his support from his benefactor, Mr. 
 Hardy, and advised him to refuse to receive it and try to 
 support himself. He was at one time inclined to yield 
 to the criticisms of his friends, and refuse to receive Mr. 
 
Marriage, Trials, and WorJc 79 
 
 Hardy's benefaction longer. On one occasion, when all 
 these trials seemed to be crushing him, he said to the 
 writer with strong crying and tears, " Oh, that I could be 
 crucified once for Chi-ist, and be done with it ! " This 
 opposition lasted about six years, and seriously affected 
 his general health. 
 
 The following is an extract from one of his letters to 
 Mr. Hardy : " I must be thankful for the wise manage- 
 ment of the American Board in sustaining our Kyoto in- 
 stitutions. Let the present arrangement continue as long 
 as it may be needful. According to your kind fatherly 
 advice I will be careful, and try to do all things in a per- 
 fect harmony with our missionaries. I shall be careful 
 not to find fault in others. We were terribly attacked by 
 some brethren in other stations. I attempted to defend 
 our position. It is all over now. I shall say nothing 
 about them, of them, or against them. There is now 
 perfect harmony between the different stations of our 
 mission. The last two months were the hardest ones I 
 have ever experienced since my return to Japan. I found 
 myself in the lowest stratum, and received the whole 
 pressure upon myseK. A heavy trial with respect to the 
 government, and grave troubles among our native breth- 
 ren, and also in our school. Oh, heavy burdens ! I bore 
 them chiefly on myseK by His help, but I think I came 
 pretty near to burst up my brains." 
 
 One trouble with the government to which he refers 
 above was that they were exceedingly averse to having a 
 school in Kyoto which was supported with foreign money, 
 unless that fund were given directly to the Doshisha com- 
 pany ; and in November, 1879, on retui-ning from Annaka, 
 Mr. Neesima received the good news that the appropria- 
 tion for the school for the next year had been placed in 
 the hands of the Doshisha company. The joy and relief 
 
80 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 which this brought were inexpressible. He wrote to Mr. 
 Hardy, December 27, 1879 : '^ I found your last letter on 
 my arrival home. When I read it I exclaimed, ' The good 
 Lord has done it ! ' My rejoicing was mingled with run- 
 ning tears. I knelt down before the Lord with my wife, 
 and gave him our heartfelt thanks. Next to the Lord I 
 must express my gratitude to you for your deep interest 
 in us. I must also thank the gentlemen of the Board. 
 Through this action I shall be relieved from grave diffi- 
 culty. Step by step the plots of our enemies are defeated. 
 ' Delight thyself in the Lord j and he shall give thee the 
 desire of thy heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; 
 trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.' Oh, 
 what precious promises they are unto us ! I am wonder- 
 ing why God has chosen a weak instrumentality such as I 
 am, weak both in body and mind, for promoting his king- 
 dom in this empire. I could simply say to him, ^ Here I 
 am ; employ me in thy vineyard if thou findest a pleasure 
 in thy humble servant.' In my later experience I find 
 more than ever nothingness in me." 
 
 In 1876 a school for girls was opened in the house of 
 one of the missionaries, in which Mrs. Neesima and Miss 
 Starkweather taught, and about two years later it was re- 
 moved to its present location in a building erected for that 
 purpose. The care of all this school work as it grew larger 
 and larger, and the great number of outside calls which 
 came upon Mr. Neesima, were a perpetual strain. Then, 
 again, Mr. Neesima's reputation as one of the few men 
 who had been thoroughly educated abroad, and his con- 
 nection with the Iwakura embassj^, brought many callers 
 to his house, and occupied a great deal of his time ; he 
 was also consulted in regard to church work and mission- 
 ary work, and in difficulties which arose in the churches 
 or between individuals. 
 
Marriage, Trials, and Work 81 
 
 His heart was always warmly interested in the rapid 
 spread of the Gospel in Japan, and he made many mission- 
 ary tours himself, and earnestly proclaimed the Gospel. 
 He wrote from Tokyo, February 13, 1879, a letter from 
 which the following is an extract : " I started for Annaka 
 on last Friday morning at three o'clock a.m." This was 
 in the hasha, or wagon, which at that time ran between 
 Tokyo and Annaka. " It was then snowing, and I found 
 myself chilled through. I reached Annaka toward even- 
 ing ; although I found myself rather tired I was obHged 
 to receive quite a number of visitors that evening ; then 
 on Saturday the visitors poured in from the early morn- 
 ing, and there was scarcely a time for me to rest till the 
 evening. We held a prayer-meeting on that evening. 
 There were two candidates for baptism; the meeting 
 lasted more than two hours. Another church meeting was 
 held on Sunday morning. In the afternoon I preached in 
 the usual way and ofliciated at the Lord's Supper. In the 
 evening we held a prayer-meeting ; it was a very warm 
 and lively meeting and lasted more than two hours. I 
 was so excited by the meeting that I could not sleep at aU. 
 At 12.30 A.M. on Monday morning I left Annaka on a coach, 
 and reached Tokyo at 1.30 p.m. I am glad to say that the 
 Annaka church is growing, and before the summer there 
 may be half a dozen candidates for baptism. I have taken 
 cold ever since I went to Annaka." He took this ride of 
 nearly a hundi*ed miles, and thus hurried back, because 
 he had had a weighty case of arbitration put into his 
 hands in Tokyo, which he must attend to that Monday 
 afternoon. 
 
 Mr. Neesima, during those years, usually attended the 
 business meetings of the mission, and also the prayer- 
 meeting in Enghsh of the station, it being held once a 
 week in turn at our houses, his house having its turn with 
 
82 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 the rest. We shall never forget his simple, earnest prayers 
 in English at those meetings. He taught classes in the 
 school in the early years, and he always gained the deep 
 love of his pupils and of all who came in close contact with 
 him 5 his silent influence in the school was very strong and 
 pervasive. He also took an active part in the formation 
 of the Japanese Home Missionary Society, connected with 
 the Congregational churches, w^as its first president, and 
 had a large part in superintending its work for many 
 years. 
 
V 
 
 BROADENING PLANS— TOUR ABROAD 
 
" Commit thy way unto the Lord ; trust also in him ; and he shall 
 bring it to pass."—Ts. xxxvii. 5. 
 
 "Best is not quitting the husy career ; 
 j Best is the fitting of self to one^s sphere." 
 
 '^ Build thee more stately mansions, my soul, 
 As the sivift seasons roll ! 
 Leave thy loic-vauUed past ! 
 Let each new teynple, nobler than the last, 
 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
 TiU thou at length art free, 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by lifers unresting sea." 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
 "In the worWs broad field of battle. 
 In the bivouac of life. 
 Be not like dumb, driven cattle — 
 Be a hero in the strife. 
 
 ** Trust no future, hoive'er pleasant! 
 Let the dead past bury its dead! 
 Act — act in the living present, 
 Heart within and God overhead ! " 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 84 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BROADENING PLANS — TOUR ABROAD 
 
 In the year 1883 Mr. Neesima began to think and plan 
 actively to enlist interest among Japanese friends in the 
 establishment of a university, or in the broadening out of 
 the Doshisha into a Christian university. Up to this time 
 the school had only been known in Japan as a Christian 
 school, and the general idea among the leading men in the 
 empire was that it was a school simpty for training Chris- 
 tian preachers and evangelists ; this was the very natural 
 conclusion from the fact that most of the graduates up to 
 that time had engaged in active Christian work. For this 
 reason it was a very difficult matter to appeal for help for 
 the school ; but Mr. Neesima never swerved from his great 
 purpose of a Christian school, nor from stating that pub- 
 licly in his appeals. It was important to show the public 
 that something besides the Bible and theology was taught 
 in the school, and that its aim was a broader one than sim- 
 ply the training of evangelists 5 but it was always made 
 very clear that the foundation of the school was Christian, 
 and that Christianity was the foundation of the morality 
 taught in it. 
 
 The writer was present at the first public meeting held 
 for the purpose of awakening an interest in the university 
 among the Japanese ; it was held in a large haU in Kyoto, 
 in the spring of 1884. About fifty of the officials and 
 leading business men of the city were present, and Mr. 
 
 85 
 
S6 Joseph Hardy Neemma 
 
 Neesiioa, Professor Ichihara, and the writer each ad- 
 dressed the meeting. Professor Ichihara's speech was 
 one of the most ringing appeals for Christianity as the 
 necessary foundation of all education to which I ever lis- 
 tened. The printed appeals which were made later speak 
 for themselves. 
 
 The following is a free translation of the first general 
 appeal for the university. It was prepared by Mr. Neesima 
 and Mr. Yamamoto, and issued in May, 1884. 
 
 u T^^Q recent political changes in Japan have swept away 
 feudalism, which has been the basis of society for many 
 hundred years; and the influence of these changes has 
 grown stronger and stronger until the society of Japan 
 is very greatly changed. It appears Hke a new Japan. 
 There are many who say that the government, the educa- 
 tion, the commerce, and the industries which have existed 
 in Japan must be improved. We heartily agree with their 
 purpose as right and important to our civilization ; but at 
 the present time, when we look carefully at the condition 
 of the country, there is one thing which gives us great sor- 
 row. What is that? It is that there does not exist in 
 Japan a university which is founded upon the most pure 
 morality, and which teaches the new science. This is a 
 necessary foundation of our civilization. In natural beau- 
 ty and natural advantages Japan is not inferior to Europe 
 and America. Why, then, is its civilization so different 
 from theirs ? It is also certain that there are in Japan but 
 few noted men of earnest purpose. Hence we need uni- 
 versities in Japan. 
 
 " We can learn from the examples which Europe gives 
 us. In the sixteenth century the great leader, Luther, 
 said, ^If parents or brothers refuse to send children to 
 school they are enemies of the state, and they ought to be 
 punished.' The learned German, Fichte, said, ^ The reason 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 87 
 
 that our nation stands first in civilization among the coun- 
 tries of Europe is in the power which comes from our uni- 
 versities/ The twelfth century was the dawning period 
 of European civilization. At that time Greek philosophy 
 was studied in the Paris University. In Italy the ancient 
 Roman laws were studied in the University of Bologna. 
 Between that time and the year 1600 the universities of 
 Oxford and Cambridge were founded in England, Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow in Scotland, Prague, Heidelberg, Leip- 
 sic, Tubingen, and Jena in Germany, and Dubhn Univer- 
 sity was founded in Ireland. Besides these, universities 
 have been founded in HoUand, Spain, Portugal, and Aus- 
 tria. 
 
 "Abelard, Roger Bacon, Kepler, Gahleo, Lord Bacon, 
 Locke, Newton, Milton, Leibnitz, Kant, Reid, and Hamil- 
 ton were famous in those countries as great scholars. As 
 reformers of politics and religion, Pym, Hampden, Pitt, 
 Fox, Burke, Johnson, WycMe, Luther, Calvin, and John 
 Knox were noted. By these universities alL science and 
 philosophy have been improved and advanced ; by them 
 feudalism and despotism have been destroyed ; by them 
 the social ranks and the powers of the nobles and priests 
 have been resisted ; by them the desire for liberty and the 
 demand for self-government have been awakened. The 
 English Revolution and the religious Reformation have 
 occurred, which have completely changed the condition of 
 Europe. In the year 1800 there were over 100 universi- 
 ties in Europe. That the civilization of Europe has been 
 rapidly advanced by the universities is a most patent fact. 
 
 ''Now look at the American universities and colleges, 
 which number over 300, and of wliich only 8 have been 
 built by the government. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Am- 
 herst, WiUiams, Dartmouth, and Oberlin are noted, espe- 
 cially the first, which is the most famous one ; in it are 
 
88 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 now 110 professors and a librarj^ containing 134,000 vol- 
 umes, and its endowment amounts to $14,854,372. In 
 1872 thero were in tlie United States 298 colleges and 
 universities, but during the seven years to 1879, Q>Q> were 
 added. This great growth of higher education in the 
 United States is a very wonderful thing in the world. 
 
 " In the year 1620 the Pilgrim fathers landed in Plym- 
 outh ; they came that they might enjoy freedom to wor- 
 ship God. They established a school which was founded 
 upon Christian morality. Since that time, during two 
 hundred and sixty years, their descendants have inherited 
 the spirit and carried out the purpose of the fathers j they 
 have believed that such schools would diminish the num- 
 ber of evil-doers and increase the number of those who do 
 good J that they would encourage the spirit of libertj^ and 
 become the foundation of the state; they have believed 
 that in order to become a nation with the best free gov- 
 ernment they must have universities which are founded 
 upon Christian morality, where the sciences will be taught. 
 We cannot doubt but that their free institutions have 
 been the result of this spirit. 
 
 " As soon as our government saw the importance of the 
 university it established one in Tokyo, and it has also 
 built several academies. From these we shall see some 
 intellectual development and external advancement, but 
 not moral development and internal improvement. 
 
 " Some are trying to improve the morality of the people ; 
 but they demand that the old morality of China shall be 
 used with the people, and hence we cannot rejoice at their 
 efforts, for the Chinese morality has not influence upon 
 the mind of men generally. All Oriental states are almost 
 destitute of liberty and Christian morality ; they cannot, 
 therefore, rapidly advance in civilization. The growth of 
 liberty, the development of science, the advancement of 
 
Broadening Flans — Tour Abroad 89 
 
 politics, and the power of morality have brought forth the 
 European civilization. These four important effects have 
 come from the study of the advancing sciences upon the 
 foundation of Christian morality. 
 
 '^ We cannot believe, then, that without morality and 
 science civilization can come in Japan. To put the foun- 
 dation of our state upon this foundation is just like put- 
 ting the foundation of a building upon a rock. No sword 
 can conquer it ; no tempest can break it ; no waves can 
 overcome it. If it is put upon the old Chinese morality it 
 will be just like putting it upon a sandy beach of the sea ; 
 when the rough waves beat against it it falls into ruin. 
 We are, therefore, hoping for a university which is founded 
 upon pure morality, and which teaches modern advanced 
 science. We have been very earnest in this matter. In 
 the eighth year of Meiji we established the Doshisha 
 school in Kyoto, and its purpose was to teach European 
 science and to give also moral education. Its students 
 have increased year by year. But our aim has ever been 
 to build a university. 
 
 '^ In April of the sixteenth year of Meiji we publicly ex- 
 pressed our purpose and received much encouragement j 
 at this time we met our friends in Kyoto and named it 
 the Meiji University. We have determined to raise an 
 endowment first for a department of history, philosophy, 
 poHtics, and economics, and gradually to found one also 
 of law and of medicine. But it is not easy to establish 
 this, for we must, as a first step, get a large amount of 
 money with which we can erect some buildings and call 
 some professors. We, being so few in nimiber, cannot 
 furnish this money, but we cannot give up our purpose to 
 establish this university now. We must work for new 
 Japan. All true patriots should do this. Please help us, 
 as far as you are able, to accomplish our purpose and do 
 
90 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 this work. Unless we receive your help we cannot suc- 
 ceed in this great purpose." 
 
 In the early part of 1884 it became evident that the 
 strain of the last nine years had so exhausted Mr. Neesima 
 that he must have a complete change. He had tried in 
 vain to rest in Japan 5 he could not escape from the many 
 calls which pressed upon him everywhere ; he could not 
 forget the great work he had undertaken 5 it was always 
 before his eyes and upon his heart. He at last yielded to 
 the earnest solicitations of his friends, and accepted Mr. 
 Hardy's generous invitation to go to the United States by 
 way of Europe, and on the 6th of April, 1884, he started 
 from Kobe on his long journey. He landed in Italy at 
 Naples. 
 
 His daily journals, from the time of leaving Japan until 
 he left Switzerland, are very full ; they are little encyclo- 
 pedias of information on every subject ; it is wonderful to 
 see how much information he gathered, and especially are 
 they very full on the educational side. He visited aU the 
 schools and colleges he could, and minutely inspected their 
 whole plan of teaching, studies, and buildings, and wrote 
 out all the details. He secured letters of introduction to 
 the men who were at the head of the Cathohc colleges in 
 Italy, and inspected them very caref uUy 5 also the Walden- 
 sian theological school in Florence. He spent several 
 weeks in the Waldensian valley, and carefully studied the 
 history, the persecutions, the school system, and the ways 
 of working of that church. From there he went by the St. 
 Gotthard route into Switzerland ; his note-books are f uU 
 of his pencil-drawings to illustrate the architecture and the 
 processes of grape-raising, cheese-making, etc. 
 
 On the 6th of August he started with a German traveler 
 to go up the St. Gotthard Pass. It was a gentle climb of 
 about two thousand feet. He says in his note-book ; " One 
 
Broadening Plans — Toicr Abroad 91 
 
 and a haK miles this side of the pass I began to breathe 
 hard 5 I could not go ; I was left behind ; I stopped every 
 ten rods ; finally I reached the pass ; I ate dinner, but after 
 that I found myself worse and worse ; I could not go any 
 farther. I stayed at the Hotel Prosa until the next day ; 
 that afternoon I found myself very miserable. I thought 
 it might possibly be the end of my life in this world. 
 While I had a most distressed feeling in my chest I wrote 
 my will, as follows : first paper : ^ I am a native of Japan, 
 and am a missionary to my native land. On account of 
 my ill health I was obhged to leave my country for health. 
 I came from Milan to Andermatt yesterday, and took a 
 room at the Hotel Oberalp. I took a trip to the St. Gott- 
 hard Pass with a German gentleman this morning ; as I 
 found myself too unwell to go on he left me here and went 
 on to Airolo. I found myself hard of breathing — it must 
 be some trouble in my heart. My goods are left in the 
 Hotel Oberalp with some money. If I die here please send 
 a telegram to Pastor Jurino, 51 Via Torino, Milan, and ask 
 him to take charge of my body. May the kind Heavenly 
 Father receive my soul to his bosom. August 6, 1884. J. 
 H. Neesima. Whoever reads this wi'iting, pray for Japan, 
 my dear native land.' 
 
 " Second paper : ' I would ask Pastor Jurino to bury me 
 in Milan and send this writing to Hon. Alpheus Hardy, 
 4 Joy Street, Boston, Mass., U. S. A., as he and his wife 
 have been my benefactors these twenty years. May the 
 Lord give them ample rewards ! Send a telegram to him 
 at once. Please cut a little portion of my hair and send 
 to my dear wife in Kyoto, Japan, as a token of the insep- 
 arable bond of union in Christ. My plan for Japan will 
 be defeated ; but thanks be to the Lord that he has already 
 done so much for us ! I trust he will yet do a wonderful 
 work there. May the Lord raise up many true Christians 
 
i-- 
 
 92 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 and noble patriots for my dear fatherland ! Amen and 
 amen.' 
 
 ^' At tliis moment all sorts of tlionghts came up them- 
 selves at once. I reviewed the past as well as the future. 
 My plan for our school 5 my plan for a medical school ; my 
 hope to get something for these plans ; my filial feeling 
 toward my aged parents ; my tender sympathy with my 
 wife 5 disappointments of my intimate friends in Japan ; 
 my most grateful feeling toward Mr. and Mrs. Hardy — all 
 these feelings and thoughts came up within me, and I 
 struggled with them 5 but I can safely state here that I 
 overcame all these feelings, and prayed to God to let his 
 will be done in me j asked for his forgiving grace through 
 Christ Jesus." 
 
 He gradually rallied, so that the next day he was moved 
 in a carriage back to Andermatt ; and when he was able 
 he went on to Lucerne and consulted a physician, who told 
 him that his heart was affected, and that he must avoid all 
 violent exercise. 
 
 He writes from Lucerne : " Since then I feel more and 
 more my life is not for me. Whether I live or die I must 
 live or die for Christ. May the Lord ever keep this sin- 
 wounded soul under his protecting hand, and count me as 
 a least one in his kingdom, through the righteousness of 
 Jesus Christ.'' 
 
 Mr. Neesima traveled leisurely down the Rhine, through 
 Holland, and across to England, and reached the United 
 States in the early autumn. 
 
 He attended the meeting of the Board at Columbus, 
 Ohio, a month later, but he was unable to speak, except a 
 few words. He rested through the winter, passing some 
 time at the health-retreat at Clifton Springs, N. Y. He 
 wrote a long letter from that retreat in January, 1885, 
 urging upon us the consideration of plans for a medical 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 93 
 
 school, and for enlarging the evangelistic work from Kiu- 
 shu and Kochi to Sendai and the Hokkaido. He says in 
 this letter, speaking of plans for the improvement of the 
 school : ^' Will you try to get choice library on all subjects ? 
 Please get up a tolerably good astronomical observatory, 
 also good chemical laboratory ; get a good supply of phys- 
 ical apparatus. Try to get specimens of natural history, 
 of mineralogy, geology, etc. ; try to get hold of students 
 and. hold them." At the close he says : " I am improving 
 now ) still I am sleepless and nervous too. But I can't be 
 free from thoughts of Japan. I am a prisoner of Japan." 
 He wrote from Boston in March, 1885 : " Since February 
 3d I have been obhged to lay aside aU my reading and 
 writing." This brief letter was written with a trembling 
 hand. He says: "I am still troubled with a burning 
 headache, and have been obliged to keep myself quiet so 
 far as I can." "I came through this winter without a 
 serious attack of rheumatism, and the only trouble I have 
 now is a burning, heavy headache, with occasional repeti- 
 tions of pain in my forehead. I can't do much yet, but I 
 am not discouraged j I am cheerful and hopeful." 
 
 In April and May he made a visit to Washington, stop- 
 ping in Delaware and other places ; but as his health loa- 
 proved a httle his soul was wholly absorbed in thoughts 
 and plans for his beloved land. He tried to work for the 
 best interests of the Christian paper in Tokyo ; he sug- 
 gested a revision of the theological course of study in the 
 Doshisha, to make it more scholarly ; he writes from Bos- 
 ton, March 25, 1885 : '• The Board are thinking to send a 
 graduate of Ann Arbor University to teach philosophy, 
 etc., to make the theological department more attractive 
 to our ambitious students. I hope your mission wiU 
 heartily respond to this new movement on this side of 
 the Pacific. 
 
94 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 " I am glad to learn that tlie work in the Annaka region 
 is so hopeful. They have recentty built two more houses 
 of worship." " It may be desirable to occupy a few im- 
 portant centers in Kiushu and in northern Japan, but the 
 most important work to carry out Christ's kingdom is to 
 raise men after QocVs own heart. If yon raise np strong and 
 truly pious men to ivorh for Christ, Japan will he ours in his 
 name. Let us unite ourselves in this case, and push it through. 
 I will soon ask a lady in Louisville, Ky., to send me sixty 
 dollars to help our needy students." 
 
 He was also working to secure a way by which Profes- 
 sor Shimomura could go to the United States to study, 
 and still further to find some plan by which other men 
 could have the foreign training they needed to fit them to 
 teach in the Doshisha. He says in the same letter, May 
 26th : '' With regard to founding special scholarship chairs 
 in our school, it may be hard to raise fund enough here 
 to secure a few American professorships, so I will work 
 to secure the fund in Japan and raise up the native pro- 
 fessorships. In order to do that, a few best students out 
 of our graduates ought to be sent here to pursue the spe- 
 cial studies to fit themselves for this new enterprise. I am 
 strongly convinced that we can't keep up our reputation 
 in future unless we provide a few professional studies be- 
 sides theology, so I am hoping to secure a few scholar- 
 ships to help our students to attain the high education in 
 :< this country. We may meet many objections here and at 
 - home, but I feel we are rather compelled to take this bold 
 step. If we could get a few scholarships here to educate 
 and fit our students to be professors, we could start a few 
 new chairs on political science, philosophy, history, etc., 
 without a great expense to us. The government is doing 
 this in the Tokyo University ; why cannot we do the same 
 in our school? I hope our friends in Japan will raise 
 money enough for us to start this new enterprise. 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 95 
 
 " To sum up my view, let me briefly state as follows : 1. 
 Give our students a thorough English course. 2. Make 
 the theological course more attractive to out- ambitious 
 students. Let the foreign professors devote their time 
 and strength for instructing this important class. 3. Pro- 
 vide for other professional studies to keep those boys who 
 will not become preachers within the sacred walls of our 
 school. 4. If I secure a few scholarships I should like to 
 use them exclusively for the best students, intellectually 
 and spiritually, among the theological graduates. This 
 provision will certainly make the theological class honor- 
 able and attractive in our school. Under this fourth head- 
 ing I should say still further : I called on President Porter 
 the other day, and asked him of his view on my new plan 
 to secure a few scholarships here. He favors this idea 
 very much. I have been working quite hard to secure 
 some favor for our students, very few in number, in the 
 Johns Hopkins University, and also at Yale and Amherst. 
 I hope they will show some special favor to our students 
 if we send them our best specimens. 
 
 " Before I close my letter allow me to state to you that 
 in all these my attempts I forget myself ; I still suffer in 
 my head ; I feel that I am moving onward in our battle- 
 field just as you do, though I am sent here to rest. I can- 
 not write such a letter without shedding many tears. My 
 heart is constantly burning like a volcanic fire for my 
 dearly beloved Japan. Pray for me that I may rest in 
 the Lord." 
 
 Before he returned to Japan, Mr. Neesima wrote '• An 
 Appeal for Advanced Christian Education in Japan," 
 which was circulated in the United States, extracts from 
 which are here given : 
 
 " Old Japan is defeated. New Japan has won its vic- 
 tory. The old Asiatic system is silently passing away, 
 and the new European ideas so recently transplanted there 
 
96 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 are growing vigorously and luxuriantly. Within the past 
 twenty years Japan has undergone a vast change^ and is 
 now so advanced that it will be impossible for her to fall 
 back to her former position. She has shaken off her old 
 robe. She is ready to adopt something better. The daily 
 press, so copiously scattered throughout the empire, is 
 constantly creating among its readers some fresh desire 
 and appetite for the new change. Her leading minds will 
 no longer bear with the old form of despotic feudalism, 
 neither be contented with the worn-out doctrines of Asi- 
 atic morals and religions. They cried out for a constitu- 
 tion a few years ago, and have already obtained a promise 
 from the emperor to have it given them in the year 1890. 
 The pagan religions seem to their inquiring mind mere 
 reUcs of the old superstition. 
 
 "The compulsory education lately carried out in the 
 common schools, amounting in number to almost thirty 
 thousand, is proved to be a mighty factor to quicken and 
 elevate the intelligence of the masses. The Imperial Uni- 
 versity at Tokyo is sending out men of high culture by 
 the hundred every year, to take some responsible posi- 
 tions either in the governmental service or private capaci- 
 ties. Another university will soon be founded by the gov- 
 ernment at Osaka, the second important commercial city 
 of the empire, to accommodate the youths so anxiously 
 craving the higher education. It will be out of the way 
 for me to dwell here upon the material progress Japan 
 has so recently made. But let it suffice to state that the 
 waters of her coasts are busily plowed by her own steam- 
 ers. Public roads are constantly improved. Tunnels are 
 being cut here and there, and railways are being laid to 
 connect important commercial points. Telegraph-wires 
 are stretched throughout the whole length and breadth of 
 the empire. Surveying what she has accomplished within 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 97 
 
 so sliort a period^ we cannot help thinking that she is 
 bound to adopt the form of European civilization, and 
 will never cease until she be crowned with success in ac- 
 complishing her national aim. 
 
 '^In order to bring about the recent change and pro- 
 gress she has painfully sacrificed her precious blood as 
 well as her vast treasure. Indeed, her victory has been 
 dearly purchased. It was a quick work and was well done. 
 It was a sudden movement, but to our great wonder very 
 few mistakes have been made in her past course. She 
 has tried her best as far as her capacity would allow. The 
 most serious period of our political revolution is nearly 
 passed, and society as well as the government will soon 
 precipitate into some new shape. But what shape ? To 
 the writer of this article our immediate future seems a 
 more serious problem than the past. It will be a grand 
 achievement if a free constitution and higher education 
 be secured to her people. But these two factors may be 
 proved to be the very elements apt to bring out freedom 
 of opinions, and hence the terrible battles of free opinions. 
 A fearful national chaos might be her fate if nothing in- 
 tervene to prevent it. If the nation be allowed to take 
 her own coui'se as she does now, hope for her regenera- 
 tion might forever be gone. But in the time of need, 
 Providence, which rules the nations with infinite wisdom, 
 has stepped in to save us from this national calamity and 
 despair. It was neither too soon nor too late when the 
 missionaries of the cross from America landed on our 
 shore to proclaim the soul-saving Gospel to the people. 
 Through their earnest labor and constant prayers the 
 foundation of the Christian church was soon laid. 
 
 " We believe Christianity is intended to benefit man- 
 kind at large. Why should we not undertake to extend 
 our influence toward the higher sphere as well as toward 
 
98 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 the lower, that we might win all men to Christ? Why- 
 should we seriously object to raise up Christian states- 
 men, Christian lawyers. Christian editors, and Christian 
 merchants, as well as Christian preachers and teachers, 
 within the walls of our Christian institutions ? It is our 
 humble purpose to save Japan through Christianity. 
 
 " There might be some undue fear that such a provision 
 of those higher studies would naturally draw away :ambi- 
 tious students from the theological course. It may be, 
 but we trust we shall receive a larger supply of students 
 in the academical course, so that some could be spared for 
 other studies without much loss to the theological depart- 
 ment. On the contrary, we may possibly attract some 
 students to it from the other courses. Some evil may 
 arise in such an undertaking, but it may be overbalanced 
 by the good accomplished by it. Now allow us to state a 
 few reasons for this undertaking : 
 
 "1. Such a provision will detain the youths for further 
 studies in the school after finishing the academical coui'se. 
 It will help them to develop and strengthen their Christian 
 character. 
 
 " 2. Such a provision wiU accommodate some thought- 
 ful parents, who may naturally desu*e to send their boys to 
 a school where their moral character is carefully fostered 
 and will be likely to be so developed as to be a safeguard 
 against youthful vices and corruption. 
 
 " 3. The youths who have thus received a broad culture 
 will certainly have a grand opportunity to influence soci- 
 ety for good. Words and deeds of well-educated, earnest 
 Christians in different spheres of society will help the 
 cause very much either dii-ectly or indirectly. Sometimes 
 indirect efforts produce more speedy results than direct. 
 
 " 4. This provision will surely benefit and tone up the 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 99 
 
 theological course, instead of causing any serious harm 
 to it. 
 
 " 5. We desire to lay down a broad basis for Christian 
 education by encouraging post-graduate studies. 
 
 " The time is just ripening for us to take this step so 
 as to attract thereto the best and most talented youths in 
 the country, and foster and fit them for the highest good 
 and noblest purpose. We are thus compelled to attempt 
 this broad sweep to reach and win thirty-seven million 
 precious souls to Christ. Seeds of truth must be sown 
 now. Undue delay will give a grand chance to unbeliev- 
 ing hands to make thorough mischief and render that 
 beautiful island empire hopelessly barren and fruitless. 
 O Japan, thou the fairest of Asia ! ^ If I forget thee, let 
 my right hand forget her cunning, and let my tongue 
 cleave to the roof of my mouth.^ 
 
 " But our friends are very few. The people are pressed 
 hard on account of the business stagnation, and a most 
 destructive flood has lately visited the country. So we 
 cannot expect to receive from them any large donation. 
 When we met a number of the eminent citizens of Kyoto 
 last year for this specific purpose, we urged them to give 
 us a fund before the year 1890, so that when the emperor 
 gives us a constitution we might found a university to 
 commemorate the most extraordinary period of our polit- 
 ical history. This appeal created among them a great 
 enthusiasm. Some of them gave us their hearty pledge 
 to do their share. So we may possibly realize some gift 
 just sufficient to support a few native professors. But it 
 is beyond our expectation to receive a fund large enough 
 to sustain even a few American professors. So if a few 
 professorships should be given by some American friends 
 to found chairs of political science, history, literature, 
 
100 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 philosopliy, etc., it will help the cause grandly. Some 
 people in this country may hardly realize how danger- 
 ously our shores are visited and washed by the strong tide 
 of modern Eiu'opean unbelief. But to a native of the 
 country who has been seriously watching and observing 
 the course recently taken by the people, the present time 
 seems grave. The future battle in Japan may not be with 
 any foreign invaders; but it will certainly be between 
 Christianity and unbehef. 
 
 " It is the time for us to make an extraordinary effort 
 to push evangelical work as well as Christian education in 
 Japan, in order to save her from corruption and unbelief. 
 The American Board has done for us in the educational 
 line as much as it can wisely do. Yet there remains much 
 to be done in order to carry out our work more efficiently. 
 The Lord's army must not be hampered while the battle 
 is fairly commencing. Large means must be provided 
 in order to furnish to the field strong men from time to 
 time. 
 
 ^^Now who will step forth in this grand republic of 
 America to render us timely help to save us from this im- 
 pending national calamity ? Here may be some friends 
 seriously considering how their property might be best 
 disposed of for benefiting poor humanity. With such we 
 would earnestly plead and loudly cry, '• Remember us ! ' 
 Would that God might touch the hearts of some individ- 
 uals to give us a portion of their blessings, and establish 
 chairs for advanced Christian education there as a per- 
 petual monument of peace between the United States of 
 America and Japan, through which the millions of our 
 people and their posterity might be blessed ! " 
 
 In the autumn of 1885 Mr. Neesima returned to Japan, 
 somewhat improved in health, but still suffering from 
 weakness and headache. He at once began to work 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 101 
 
 quietly here for the establishment of the university. He 
 made many earnest friends for the enterprise, and many 
 sums of money were promised toward its endowment. 
 This quiet work, and the issue and cii'culation of small 
 circulars in regard to the university, continued during 
 two or thi-ee years, but it was not until 1888 that a public 
 and determined effort was made for the endowment of the 
 university. About six hundi^ed and fifty of the of&cials, 
 scholars, and leading business men of Kyoto assembled in 
 one of the large temples in Kyoto, and were addressed by 
 Mr. Neesima and others ; and much interest was aroused 
 in behalf of the Doshisha University. 
 
 In the summer of that year Mr. Neesima weut to Tokyo 
 and worked in the interest of the university. But so 
 great was his weakness that one evening, as he met a few 
 friends to present his plan of the university, he fainted 
 quite away. In July of that year, however. Count Inouye, 
 late Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave a dinner to men of 
 rank and wealth, inviting Mr. Neesima to be present ; and 
 after dinner he introduced the subject and asked Mr. Nee- 
 sima to speak of the university, and the result was that 
 Count Inouye subscribed one thousand yen. Count Oku- 
 ma, one thousand yen. Viscount Aoki, then Vice-minister 
 of State, five hundred yen, a prominent banker six thou- 
 sand yen, and others enough to bring the amount up to 
 thii'ty-one thousand yen. This gave great enthusiasm to 
 the movement. 
 
 When the tenth anniversary of the founding of the 
 school was celebrated, in 1885, the governor of the Kyoto- 
 Fu, the governor of the Shiga Ken, and many other offi- 
 cials were present, and were greatly interested. Count 
 Inouye had also visited the school and addressed the 
 teachers and scholars, assembled in the chapel. It was 
 not from any blind impulse that this money was given ; 
 
102 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 the school had proved its right to be, and that it was a 
 needed power in Japan. 
 
 In the last English letter which Mr. Neesima wrote, 
 only a few days before his death, from which a long 
 quotation has already been made, he says : " Since 1884 I 
 began to hope for founding a Christian university j the 
 matter seemed to myself and also to my friends here that 
 I was hoping for something altogether beyond hope ; how- 
 ever, 1 had a strong conviction that God would help us to 
 found it in his own name's sake. In order to engage in 
 such an undertaking one shall need a strong physique; 
 alas ! my health has been poor for some years. When I 
 made a speech before a select audience of six hundred and 
 fifty at Kyoto, in a large Buddhist temple, in behalf of 
 the new university, I had hardly strength enough to do 
 it. The chief trouble was in my heart — a heart-disease. I 
 was obliged to confine myself for some time. As soon as 
 I became comfortable enough I attempted to move around 
 again. In a single evening thirty-one thousand yen were 
 subscribed, a most memorable evening to us ; it took place 
 in the latter part of July, 1888. Since then subscriptions 
 came from the different parts of the country. At present 
 we have raised over sixty thousand yen. We are now 
 attempting to raise it to one hundred thousand yen before 
 this coming summer. Since October I have been away 
 from home, moving round here and there, though I make 
 Tokyo the headquarters of my present movement. 
 
 '^ In the latter part of November I became seriously iU ; 
 I have not yet fully recovered my strength, and am now 
 obliged to rest at a quiet country town to regain certain 
 strength to attempt further beggings. It is a faith work. 
 I have a full hope that my vague day-dream for a Chris- 
 tian university will sooner or later be realized, and that 
 in some future we shall find a grand occasion to give 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 103 
 
 thanks to Him who has led us and blessed us beyond our 
 expectation. Please remember me to your Sabbath-school 
 friends, and ask them to pray for our country." 
 
 In this connection we should speak of an appeal for the 
 university which Mr. Neesima prepared in the autumn of 
 1888, and which was published simultaneously^ on the 10th 
 of November of that year, in twenty of the leading papers 
 of Japan. 
 
 Early in August, 1888, after the money mentioned 
 above had been secured for the university, Mr. Neesima 
 became so weak that some physicians in Tokyo told him 
 he had only a short time to live j one other physician told 
 him that if he took complete rest for two years he might 
 possibly Live on several years. He went to Ikao — a health- 
 resort in Joshu, on a mountain-side — rented a small cot- 
 tage, and spent nearly two months there. He was so 
 weak when he went up there that he was unable to ride 
 in a jinrikisha, and was carried up in a kago or bamboo 
 chair. When the writer visited him in that place in Sep- 
 tember, he had just become able to walk out a few rods. 
 His stay there helped him to a little strength, and in Octo- 
 ber he returned home, but soon went to Kobe, where he 
 could have more complete rest. He spent most of the 
 winter in Kobe, in great weakness. 
 
 Early in the year 1887 a plan of union between the 
 Congi-egational and the Presbyterian churches in Japan 
 was proposed. Mr. Neesima was consulted but very little 
 in regard to this plan beforehand, probably on account of 
 his ill health ; but when a copy of the proposed basis of 
 union came into his hands he was greatly troubled. When 
 he came to talk with me about it he was more excited 
 than I had ever seen him before, and more troubled than 
 I had seen him for many years. 
 
 Mr. Neesima had become greatly impressed during his 
 
104: Joseph Sardy Neesima 
 
 residence in America with the value of freedom ; he felt 
 that Japan needed freedom, and that it could come most 
 safely only gradually and among those institutions which, 
 like the Christian churches, were under the influence of 
 men of strong moral convictions. He wanted to retain 
 the leavening influence of the Congregational system. 
 Differing with the experienced pastors, his former pupils, 
 who had assisted in preparing the basis of union, he felt 
 that the plan proposed by the committee sacrificed that 
 principle of freedom too much, and hence he said that 
 he must oppose it ; he feared the effect of his opposition 
 upon the Doshisha, but he said he could not yield this 
 principle, even at the risk of severing his connection with 
 the Doshisha and with the Kumi-ai churches. He even 
 suggested that if the union were perfected on the basis first 
 proposed, he might leave this part of the country and go 
 to the Hokkaido, and work alone. I encouraged him to 
 patiently wait and see if the proposed basis could not be 
 modified. 
 
 In the following months, although some of his best 
 friends told him he would ruin his hopes for a university 
 by his course, he maintained his position, that unless the 
 proposed basis was materially modified he could not favor 
 it. This was a very great strain upon him during many 
 months — a strain which, in his weakness, he could ill 
 afford to bear. 
 
 With the spring of 1889 Mr. Neesima seemed to regain 
 his strength in some measure ; he spent some time during 
 the summer at a seaside resort, quietly resting; and he 
 was there when the news came to him that his alma mater, 
 Amherst College, had conferred upon him the degree of 
 LL.D. He wrote at this time a very characteristic letter 
 to a member of our mission. He said that he was greatly 
 troubled because they had conferred upon him this degree. 
 
Broadening Plans — Tour Abroad 105 
 
 He had always refused any position whicli had been offered 
 him in his own country, and he felt he was not worthy of 
 this title, and he ends by asking, ^' What shall I do with 
 it?" 
 
 The Doshisha had been growing all these years; the 
 gii'ls' school had increased its buildings and more than 
 doubled its numbers ; the training-school for nurses had 
 been established; a preparatory department had been 
 added to the school for young men ; the first two dormi- 
 tories had increased to thirteen ; a large recitation hall, a 
 chapel to seat six hundred, and a large library building 
 had been erected, the three latter all of brick. A gentle- 
 man in New England, Mr. J. Harris, had gradually be- 
 come interested in the work of the Doshisha, and had 
 wi'itten that he was glad to take into consideration a plan 
 to do something for the school ; and this resulted fii'st in 
 his giving fifteen thousand dollars for a science hall, and 
 during 1889 his interest developed into his making his 
 gift one hundred thousand dollars to endow the science 
 department. Mr. Neesima saw the foundations of this 
 new hall laid before he went to Tokyo in October, 1889. 
 The students had also increased, so that during the school 
 year of 1888-89 there were in all departments over nine 
 hundred young men and women. 
 
VI 
 LAST DAYS, DEATH, AND BURIAL 
 
 107 
 
" For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is 
 come. Ihave fotight tlie good fight, I have finished the course, I have 
 kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me the croivn of righteous- 
 ness, tvhich the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day : 
 and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved his appearing." 
 —2 Tim. iv. C-8. 
 
 "So live that ivhen thy summons comes to join 
 Tlie innumerable caravan that moves 
 To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
 His chamber in the siletit halls of death, 
 TJiou go not like the quarry slave at night, 
 Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
 By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
 Like one ivho wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 Bryant. 
 
 *' Having won by toil and pain. 
 
 Who shall regret the pangs of life? 
 Who woidd regret the pas fs long night, 
 With all its fear and chill and blight, 
 Ifnoiv the East, through twilight gray, 
 Were streaked with everlasting day f " 
 
 " nie things o'er ivhich ive grieved, with lashes wet. 
 Will flash before us out of lifers dark night, 
 As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue.'* 
 
 ** So let the eyes that fail on earth 
 On thy eternal hills look forth. 
 And in thy beckoning angels knoio 
 Tlie dear ones whom ive loved below." 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 "He does well who does his best; 
 Is he weary ? Let him 7'est ! 
 Brothers ! I have done my best, 
 I am weary — let me rest." 
 
 "Say 7iot good-night. 
 But in some brighter clime , 
 Bid me good-morning." 
 
 108 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LAST DAYS, DEATH, AND BURIAL 
 
 The autumn of 1889 found Dr. Neesima far from well, 
 but yet able to be doing some work. He expressed a 
 great desire to go to Tokyo and work for the university. 
 His physician told him tha,t he felt it would be better for 
 his health not to go at aU, but if he was not absent more 
 than three weeks it might not do him any harm. He 
 went to Tokyo in October, and saw a great many friends 
 in that vicinity, talking of the university endowment, and 
 receiving many promises of aid. He also visited Joshu, 
 and while there he caught a severe cold, which confined 
 him to his bed for a week, and left him so weak that 
 he finally determined to go to Oiso, a quiet place on the 
 sea-shore near Yokohama, and rest. He went there in 
 December, and took a room in a common Japanese hotel. 
 He was accompanied only by his clerk. Mrs. Neesima 
 had intended to go and spend some time with him there, 
 but his mother was taken ill in Kyoto, and as she was 
 eighty-four years of age it seemed unwise to leave her. 
 
 The new year came, and Dr. Neesima sent out many 
 New Year's letters to his friends, and especially to the 
 leading pastors and workers ; in one of these he said that 
 the greatest need of the church in Japan for the new year 
 was a new baptism, so that we might be prepared to take 
 Japan for Christ. He sent an acting pastor in Niigata a 
 letter nearly three yards long, urging upon him the im- 
 
 109 
 
110 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 portance of planting workers in the important centers of 
 that province ; he sent another long letter to a man in the 
 extreme west end of the empire, ui'ging the planting of 
 the Gospel in that region. 
 
 Professors Kanamori and Shimomnra spent the night 
 of January 10th with him, and they talked over various 
 plans for the university, the school of science, etc., and 
 Mr. Neesima seemed as well as usual. 
 
 January 11th he began to decline, and he grew worse 
 from day to day, so that on the 17th one of the best 
 Japanese physicians in Tokyo was summoned to see him. 
 He pronounced his disease peritonitis, and said that he 
 was in a very dangerous condition. His clerk, who was 
 with him, wanted to telegraph immediately for Mrs. Nee- 
 sima, but Dr. Neesima said, " No, wait a little.'^ On the 
 morning of the 19th Mrs. Neesima was sent for by tele- 
 graph, and she arrived on the evening of the 20th. Mr. 
 Kosaki, Mr. Tokudomi, and other friends had ah-eady 
 reached his side from Tokyo. 
 
 The first word which came to Doshisha was given to 
 the school on Tuesday morning, January 20th, and Mr. 
 Kanamori, the acting principal of the school, started that 
 day for Oiso. The word given to the school was " Kito- 
 ku" — "Very dangerously ill." Little circles of men were 
 praying for the life of him they loved all that day in the 
 school, and in the evening a general prayer-meeting was 
 held in the chapel to pray for him ; the telegrams came, 
 in the same word — " Kitoku." That prayer-meeting was 
 the most touching meeting I ever attended. Such tearful 
 pleading with God I never heard before; some of the 
 prayers were almost demands, but most of them contained 
 the '' If it be thy will." 
 
 The next day no better news came, and the praying 
 went on, and others of the teachers and students started 
 
< 
 
 Q 
 
Last Dmjs, Death, and Burial 111 
 
 for Oisoj Tliursday morning came the telegram^ "No 
 hope," then a little later, " A little hope now j " and at a 
 quarter to 5 p.m., just as the teachers were assembling 
 for their faculty meeting, the word was passed around of 
 his death. No business was done but to appoint a com- 
 mittee to arrange in regard to the funeral, and recitations 
 were suspended until after the funeral. 
 
 Dr. Berry reached his side three hours before the end 
 came. He was conscious to the last, and was able to talk 
 some up to within a few hours of his death. While he 
 was yet able to converse pretty freely he had dictated his 
 last words to his friends in regard to the school and to the 
 missionary society. As he came to the last words about 
 mission work, he had a map of five provinces spread out 
 before him. He called for colors with which to mark, and 
 they brought a saucer with colors on it to his bedside. 
 With these he marked out on the map the strategic points 
 which should be soonest occupied. As he did this he be- 
 came so excited and animated over it that his friends had 
 to check him. He asked that his wife and all his friends 
 might come in, and he bade each one an affectionate fare- 
 well. From that time on he spoke very few words 5 every- 
 thing was done and said that he wished to say j his soul 
 was at rest. 
 
 A mattress and bedding had been secured for him a day 
 or two before his death, but he said that he came into the 
 world in confusion, and he was not worthy to die so com- 
 fortably. The last passage of Scripture which he asked 
 to have read to him a few hours before his death was the 
 third chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. This was 
 read 5 friends prayed with and for him, and he gradually 
 sank J and at about twenty minutes past two o'clock, 
 Thursday afternoon, January 23, 1890, with the words, 
 " Peace, joy, heaven," on his lips, he entered into rest. 
 
112 Joseph Haray Neesima 
 
 Less than a month before, in a mountain village in 
 one of the provinces, a band of children were going about 
 the streets, their cheeks rosy with the cold. To a traveler 
 who asked them what they were doing they answered, 
 with sweet smiles, " We are paying Christmas visits to our 
 friends and relatives, gathering presents ; and when Mr. 
 Neesima comes we shall give them to him for the uni- 
 versity." Dearly beloved children ! he for whom you so 
 eagerly waited wiU come no more. 
 
 The following is a free translation of a poem Dr. 
 Neesima wrote as he entered upon the new year — words 
 almost prophetic of the end which was so near : 
 
 " Seeing the old year go, 
 Do not lament over the sick body ; 
 For the cock's crow is the harbinger 
 Of happy times at handc 
 
 "Although inferior in ability, 
 Poor in plans for the good of my generation, 
 Yet, still cherishing the greatest hope, 
 I welcome the spring.'' 
 
 Among his last words to Mrs. Neesima he said : " Do 
 not erect a monument after my death. It is sufficient to 
 have a wooden post stating on it, '■ The grave of Joseph 
 Neesima.'" In accordance with this request, only an 
 unhewn stone tablet marks his grave, on which are the 
 words, '^ Joseph Hardy Neesima." 
 
 Among the farewell words penned at his side just be- 
 fore he died are the following. To Mrs. Hardy : " I am 
 going away 5 a thousand thanks for youi* love and kind- 
 ness to me during the many years of the past, and also 
 for the fine presents you sent me lately. I cannot write 
 myself ; I leave this world with a heart fuU of gratitude 
 for aU you have done for my happiness." To Dr. Clark : 
 
Last DaySj Death, and Burial 113 
 
 ^' I want to thank you most sincerely for your confidence 
 in me and in all I have undertaken. I have been able to 
 do so little, owing to the delicate condition of my health." 
 The following are free translations of others of his 
 farewell words. In regard to the Doshisha : " The future 
 object of the Doshisha is for the advancement of Chris- 
 tianity, literatui'e, and political science, and for the 
 furtherance of all education. These are all to be pur- 
 sued together as helping each other. The object of the 
 education of the Doshisha is not theology, literature, or 
 political science in themselves alone, but that through 
 this education men of gi*eat and living power who love 
 true freedom may be trained up — men who shall live for 
 their country." "The trustees should deal wisely and 
 kindly with the students. Strong-minded and bold stu- 
 dents should not be hardly dealt with, but dealt with 
 according to their nature, so as to develop them into 
 strong, useful men. There is danger that as the school 
 grows larger it will become more and more mechanical, 
 hence this should be carefully guarded against." " The 
 utmost care should be taken that the foreign and Japan- 
 ese teachers may be united together in love, and work 
 together without friction. I have many times stood be- 
 tween the two, and have had trouble. In future I ask the 
 trustees to do the same as I have done." " I have not 
 desired to make a single enemy, but if there are any who 
 feel inimical toward me I ask such to forgive me, for I 
 have not the least ill feeling in my heart toward any one." 
 " I find no fault with Heaven, and bear no malice toward 
 my feUow-men." "The work which has been accom- 
 plished is not mine but yours ; for I have been enabled to 
 do it only through your earnest cooperation, so that I do 
 not regard it as my work at all ; and I can only most sin- 
 cerely thank aU those who have so zealously worked with 
 
114 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 me." "My feelings in regard to the Doshisha are ever 
 like this poem : ' In time of cherry blossoms in Mount 
 Yoshino, morning by morning, my great anxiety is lest a 
 cloud come and destroy the view.' " 
 
 By a curious coincidence Dr. Neesima was born on the 
 14th day of the 14th year of Tempo, and he died on the 
 23d day of the 23d year of Meiji. The body reached the 
 Kyoto station, by rail from Oiso, at half -past eleven o'clock 
 Friday evening, and the whole school was at the station 
 to meet it. The school was formed in line of march, the 
 preparatory students in front and the classes in order, 
 ending with the theological classes in the rear. The 
 preparatory students began carrying the bier, as many as 
 could take hold of it, and they changed at each corner, so 
 that when we had reached the house all had had a part 
 in bearing the loved body. It was a scene never to be 
 forgotten; a light snow was falling; snow covered the 
 ground, melting into slush ; but there were very few of 
 the nearly seven hundred students who were not in line 
 that night, and when we reached the gate of Dr. Neesima's 
 house, two and a half miles distant from the station, be- 
 fore we entered one of the teachers made a very touching 
 prayer, one of the petitions of which was that in aU the 
 funeral exercises we might do as our departed brother 
 would desire. 
 
 On the Sabbath the casket was open in the house, and 
 all the students and teachers of the Doshisha schools, and 
 hundreds of others, viewed the face they loved. A me- 
 morial service in Japanese, three hours long, was held in 
 the chapel in the forenoon, and one two hours long, in 
 English, in the afternoon. The funeral was on Monday, 
 the 27th. A large tent was extemporized by covering 
 poles with tent-flies, in front of the college chapel ; and all 
 the seats from the chapels and recitation-rooms of the 
 
Last Days, Death, and Burial 115 
 
 school were placed in it, so that three thousand people 
 crowded into the tent, and about one thousand more stood 
 outside. About fifty huge bouquets of flowers, arranged 
 mth branches of evergreen nearly five feet high, stood in 
 line from the gate to the entrance of the chapel. The 
 casket was covered with flowers in beautiful designs, and 
 a large table in front was also covered with wreaths, 
 anchors, etc. The service was simple : hymns ; reading 
 the third chapter of Ephesians, the last passage Dr. Nee- 
 sima had read to him ; two tender prayers ; reading a brief 
 history of his life ; and Mr. Kosaki preached a short and 
 very appropriate sermon from John xii. 24. 
 
 The funeral was attended by all the members of the 
 schools ; by the mercantile school, which marched up in a 
 body; by about seventy graduates of the Doshisha, who 
 had come from all parts of the empire ; by hundreds of 
 Christians from the city and hundreds from outside the 
 city ; as well as by many hundreds of others, including the 
 governor and many officials of the Kj^oto-Fu, the gov- 
 ernor of the Shiga Ken, a delegation of Buddhist priests 
 from Osaka, and by many members of his own and of 
 other missions. 
 
 At half-past two o'clock, in a pouring rain, the proces- 
 sion formed, the students again acting as bearers ; they 
 had insisted from the first that no one outside of the school 
 should touch anything ; they assisted in digging the grave ; 
 they now bore the lov^ed remains to their last resting-place, 
 and carried all the fifty or more large bouquets, the ban- 
 ners, etc. The procession reached nearly from Imadegawa 
 to San Jo Dori — a mile and a half ; it went down Tera- 
 machi to San Jo, east from San Jo to the side of the moun- 
 tain, and through the beautiful Buddhist temple grove 
 where the body of Dr. Neesima's father rests (and where 
 burial was refused for Dr. Neesima's body because he was 
 
116 Josepli Hardy Keesima 
 
 the " very liead-eenter of Christianity in Japan/' as they 
 said), and then wound np the mountain to a most beautiful 
 spot overlooking the city and the mountains and valleys 
 "beyond. Many banners were borne in the procession, in- 
 cluding one from Osaka, inscribed, " From the Buddhists 
 of Osaka f one, also, from Tokyo, on which was inscribed 
 one of the last utterances of Dr. Neesima : " Free educa- 
 tion, self-governing churches; these keeping equal step 
 will bring this nation to honor." Many from the school 
 also ; among the inscriptions in English were : ^^ Remember 
 me," " There is a happy land," " Yet I live," '' The truth 
 shall make you free," etc. At the grave two hymns were 
 sung, a prayer was offered, and the benediction closed the 
 exercises. 
 
 The earnest, tried soul is at rest. He has heard the 
 welcome " Well done, thou good and faithful servant : en- 
 ter thou into the joy of thy Lord." He is in the midst of 
 that joy, while we strive to finish the work which our loved 
 brother began, the foundations of which he laid so well. 
 
 The great company of mourning friends who assembled 
 from all parts of the empire at his funeral, and the hun- 
 dreds of sympathetic telegrams which came from leading 
 men, show how wide was the influence of this great com- 
 moner. Viscount Aoki, Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent 
 a letter, saying, "I have lost a great and good friend." 
 Count Inouye telegraphed to those at his sick-bed, " You 
 must keep him aHve." He stiU lives. Though dead, he 
 still speaks to this whole nation. 
 
VII 
 TRIBUTES AND LESSONS 
 
 ir 
 
"Blessed are tlie dead icMch die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, 
 saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works 
 follow with them."—R^Y. xiv. 13. 
 
 "Except a grain of ivheat fall into the earth and die, it ahideth hy 
 itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." — John xii. 24. 
 
 " Humility is the base of every virtue : 
 God keeps all his pity for the proud." 
 * Bailey. 
 
 , i " Sath any wronged thee ? be bravely revenged : 
 
 Slight it, and the work is begun; forgive it, and His finished." 
 
 " Good must ever live, and walk up and down the earth, like a living 
 spirit, guided by the living God, to convey blessings to the children of 
 men. It lives in humanity, in some form or other, like the subtle sub- 
 stance of material things, which though ever changing never perishes, 
 but adds to the stability, the beauty, and the grandeur of the universe. 
 TJie influence of the holy character also passes beyond the stars, giving 
 joy to our angel brothers ; and to our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, who 
 in seeing his oion love to his and our God, to his neighbor and ours, 
 reflected in his people, beholds the grand residt of the travail of his soul, 
 and is satisfied." — Macleod. 
 
 "Some soul shall reap what we have sown in tears." 
 
 Laura B. Boyce. 
 
 ; " Jliey never quite leave us — the friends who have passed 
 
 \ Through the shadows of death to the sunlight above ; 
 
 A thousand sweet memories are holding them fast 
 
 To the places they blessed with their presence and love." 
 
 M. E. Sangster. 
 
 : "Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime, 
 And, departing, leave behind us 
 Footprints on the sands of time — 
 
 "Footprints that perhaps another, 
 Sailing o^er life's solemn main, 
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 
 Seeing shall take heart again." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 118 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 TRIBUTES AND LESSONS 
 
 The most difficult part of the wi-iting of this sketch of 
 our brother is the right estimate of his character. We are 
 asked in what his greatness consisted. Although he had 
 mental power above the average, that was not the secret 
 of his power. Although he had fair executive ability, this 
 was not the secret of his great success. He went to the 
 United States and had extra advantages given him, so that 
 he came back to Japan when there were very few among 
 his countrymen who had similar advantages ; but neither 
 was this the great secret of his triumph. There was a 
 deeper, a more subtle, and more important secret of his 
 success than all these. 
 
 Before attempting to analyze his character I want to 
 give a few extracts from tributes which were printed in 
 Japan at the time of his death ; also extracts from medi- 
 tations found in his note-books written in Europe and 
 America in 1884-85, and others from letters which he 
 wrote during the last fifteen years of his life. These ex- 
 tracts could be multiplied almost indefinitely. 
 
 Seiran Onchi, a noted priest of the Shinshu sect in To- 
 kyo, sent a telegram first, and afterward the following let- 
 ter, dated Tokyo, January 25, 1890 : 
 
 " To the students and family of the late Mr. Neesima : 
 
 '^ Having been informed in the newspaper of the death 
 
 119 
 
120 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 of Mr. Neesima, president of your school, I am full of 
 heartfelt grief. Since I am a believer in the faith of 
 Buddhism, I stood opposed to him and often attacked his 
 work with pen and mouth. But in regard to his generosity 
 and prudence and great success in spreading the morality 
 which he maintained, and his stirring the rehgious heart 
 of our people with his zeal, I can have no doubt. I was 
 especially impressed with this when I once called on him 
 with my friend, Mr. Hakuju Takatsu. We had a few 
 houi's' talk with one another, and I was deeply impressed 
 with the fact that he treated us with kindness and love, as 
 if we were old friends. It seemed to me at that time that 
 if I was not a believer in Buddhism I should have become 
 his friend and accepted Christianity. All who are minis- 
 ters of any religion must become as he was. This thought 
 is deeply impressed upon my mind, and my respect for 
 him constantly increases when I recollect my interview 
 with him. To-day, when I hear of his death, his gentle 
 countenance and lovely words reappear in my eyes and 
 ears, and cause great sorrow in my heart. Moreover, ac- 
 cording to the newspaper his age is the same as my own, 
 and this fact deepens my feeling. Though I expressed 
 my grief with a telegram, I send this letter to more fully 
 express my feeling.'^ 
 
 Count Katsu sent the following letter : 
 
 " I was surprised and pained at the news of Mr. Neesi- 
 ma's death which you sent me. Since he was too earnest 
 in his plans, and in too great a hurry for the enlargement 
 of his work, I used to advise him to be careful. Now, 
 hearing of his death, I am in great sorrow. Since it must 
 be very difficult to continue the great work he has begun, 
 it is most important to be very careful and to expect that 
 one difficulty after another will arise. To speak from my 
 own experience hitherto in time of great danger, I believe 
 
Tributes and Lessons 121 
 
 that if we are sincere we shall not have our plans over- 
 thrown ; and I have passed through these twenty years as 
 if it were one day. Planning for the futiu-e will be very 
 difficult, and there will occur unexpected difficulties. For 
 the deceased master and for you I give this brief word of 
 advice from an old man." 
 
 The f oui' following selections are copied as published in 
 Professor Hardy's " Life and Letters/' pp. 331 ff . : 
 
 In the Woman^s Magazine (Tokyo) Mrs. T. Sasaki gives 
 the following account of an interview with Mr. Neesima a 
 month before his death : 
 
 " Mr. Joseph Neesima, the pole-star of our religion, the 
 founder of the university in Kyoto, died January 23d, in 
 the 23d year of Meiji, at the age of forty-seven. We sor- 
 row over his death, not only on our own account, but for 
 the education of young Japan. He was overflowing with 
 love, full of virtue and of the spirit of consecration. His 
 departure on the eve of the completion of his great work 
 is especially lamentable. His life is weU known to the 
 world, and any attempt to narrate it on the part of my 
 unworthy pen would but mar the perfect gem. So I let 
 that pass, wisliing only to place before you some words, of 
 his which I wish thus to preserve as an incentive to my 
 own spirit. 
 
 " About fifteen years ago, on his return from America, 
 he preached frequently in Tokyo and Yokohama, and also 
 delivered several lectures. He deeply impressed aU who 
 heard him, causing them to look upon him as the father 
 of our people. I was one of his listeners, and from that 
 time tried to see him as often as I could. Gradually his 
 name became known, and he recently set about his plan 
 to estabhsh a university. I rejoiced in his undertaking, 
 and to show my interest in it, with other sisters, gave a 
 
122 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 musical concert, the proceeds of which, a widow's mite, we 
 forwarded to him. He sent ns a letter of thanks, but we 
 felt unworthy to receive even this from him. 
 
 " Last winter he came to Tokyo. It was on the 23d of 
 December. I had the pleasure of a long talk with him. 
 His face was gentle, but indicative of will. Though a 
 man of few words, yet every one he uttered carried incal- 
 culable weight. He received me as a father receives his 
 child, with overflowing love, yet with a delicate reserve. 
 
 " ' Believing this is the best opportunity,' he said, ^ I 
 wish to ask a favor of you. There is a work to which I 
 desire you to give yourself — an important one at this junc- 
 ture. Among the reasons why there are so few great men 
 among us, why national morality is so low, I believe the 
 greatest to be the existing inequality in the rights of man 
 and woman. Therefore the first thing to impress upon 
 the minds of the young girls in our classes is the fact that 
 they have individual rights and duties, that we may thus 
 enlist their interest in the cause of religion. I have seen 
 many girls who, after four or five years of study at the 
 expense of much money and sacrifice on the part of their 
 parents, enter married hfe to conduct themselves as if 
 they had had no education. They do nothing for society. 
 They are under the rule of their husbands. They have no 
 opportunity to show their abihty, but are condemned to 
 things in which they have had no schooHng — the kitchen 
 and the care of children. This is deplorable. It is sad 
 that their husbands, in the treadmiU of petty conveniences, 
 do not realize it. It may be the result of custom, but it 
 is a hindrance to the progress of civilization. In matters 
 of social reform woman's influence is greater than man's. 
 Her power is indeed great. But in our country we still 
 find conservative and obstinate-minded men who chug to 
 the old order of things. Looking back over my own life 
 
Tributes and Lessons 123 
 
 I find great troubles. A man whom I thought my sincere 
 friend, and to whom I yielded my secret, turned out to be 
 my enemy. For what I undertook, believing it to be for 
 the best, I received sneers and hatred. There are unspeak- 
 able troubles in our path. Equally gi-eat are the trials 
 which the women of to-day must meet. To ask you the 
 favor of doing for this cause may be asking you to shorten 
 your life. But we do not live for selfish ends, and you 
 and I, being the servants of God, do the duties appointed 
 for us. Therefore we must not be surprised at the sneers 
 and evil tongues of the world, for we must not forget that 
 the greater the trials we endure the greater shall be our 
 reward. This that I now say is foolishness in the judg- 
 ment of the majority ; for, looking at the great men of the 
 past, I find that all had to endure the sneers and attacks 
 of then' contemporaries, and even to sacrifice life. No 
 wonder that Christ had to suffer the cross ! He, therefore, 
 who wishes to be a leader must be ready to sacrifice his 
 life. 
 
 ^^ ^ I add one thing more, and that is of the Christians of 
 to-day. Being fed and clothed by God, they are just like 
 dead matter. This is because they do not understand the 
 words of God. Among many sad things this is the most 
 deplorable. Even if thirty-nine millions of people become 
 nominally Chiistian, this will not suffice to purify society. 
 This should not be lightly thought of .^ 
 
 " His words pierced me through. Some time had passed, 
 so I rose to leave, promising to see him again with Miss 
 Ushiwoda. On my going he presented me with his photo- 
 graph, saying, ' I give you this that you may not forget 
 what I have asked you to do.' Two days later I visited 
 him with Miss Ushiwoda. Though very busy he received 
 us, saying many things to us which I cannot speak of here, 
 feeling my inability to express his thought rightly. But 
 
124 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 one sentence I shall not forget so long as I live. 'Let 
 neither of you ever despair. Persevere. Dare to become 
 reformers, yea, the renewers of this generation, and work 
 on.' He seemed to be greatly moved as he uttered these 
 words, and we left him in tears. His last words to us 
 were : ' This may be the last time I shall see you, so please 
 pray for me and for the Doshisha.' We went out of the 
 door looking into his face, and sorrowfully gained our 
 homes. From that time we prayed daily for his recovery, 
 and for the university, when unexpectedly we heard the 
 sad news of the 23d. We did not know even how to la- 
 ment, it was so unexpected. It was the 23d of December 
 when he talked with us — but thirty days between these 
 two 23ds ! Who could di^eam that those words were the 
 last that he should speak to us ? When I look back upon 
 that day I recollect that his face showed traces of suffer- 
 ing, but he spoke to us as if he were unconscious of pain. 
 Oh, his words ! Even now, though I shut my eyes, I see 
 his face clearly, and I can relate but little of what he said, 
 for my feelings overwhelm me." 
 
 In the Contemporary Eeview, of which Mr. Fukuzawa, 
 the great educator, is editor, appeared the following edi- 
 torial : 
 
 " It is reported that Mr. J. H. Neesima died of heart- 
 disease on the 23d inst., in a hotel at Oiso. 
 
 "There is nothing more lamentable in human experi- 
 ence. The death of Mr. Neesima is especially to be la- 
 mented as a loss to society. If we examine the state of 
 society we see men attaching too much weight to every- 
 thing official, as if there were no position of fame or honor 
 outside of the government. This is the natural outcome 
 of the feudal system. To be a government official is to be 
 on the road to sure success. And because of this belief 
 the avenues of official patronage are crowded. In educa- 
 
Tributes and Lessons 125 
 
 tion and religion, as well as in politics and commerce, 
 every eye is turned toward the government as the central 
 soiu'ce of prosperity. The existence of this tendency is 
 disgraceful. Many things go to make up society, and 
 of these government is one, but not the only one. In 
 the lower stages of civiHzation extraordinary powers are 
 vested in those who govern. Such a state of things would, 
 however, be a blot upon this enlightened century, and 
 those interested in educational and rehgious movements 
 should aim at independence both for themselves and these 
 enterprises. But is this the fact with us to-day ? How 
 many men are there among us who, free from selfish in- 
 terests, seek the true independence of society ? Now and 
 then we hear a remark on this subject ; but of what avail 
 is it unless accompanied by individual illustration and ex- 
 ample ? It is as if a man who himself drinks to excess 
 should preach temperance to others. Independent men 
 make an independent society. Mr. Neesima, Living in a 
 corrupt age, was not corrupted by it. Working earnestly 
 in the cause of education and religion, his purpose was 
 ever single. He was indeed an example of independence. 
 His body perished, but his name is beyond the reach of 
 oblivion. Many of the coming generations will hear of 
 him, to take heart and follow him. This may, perchance, 
 be a comfort to his spiiit. Learning the sad news of his 
 death, we lament the loss to society of a true freeman, and 
 present herewith our humble condolences." 
 
 Mr. J. Tokutomi wrote in the JS'ation^s Friend, of which 
 he is the editor, as follows : 
 
 " Lamartine tells us that, next to his blood, his tears are 
 the most precious things a man can give. Individually 
 we have lost him to whom we looked, as to a father and 
 teacher, for strength and light and love — Mr. Joseph Nee- 
 sima. As a society we have lost the leader of the cause of 
 
126 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 moral reformation in Japan. We have done our best to 
 keep back our tears, but in vain. It is now no time to 
 express our sorrow, for it cannot to-day be contained in 
 letters and words. Nor is this the time to eulogize him, 
 to analyze his character. . . . Not only brave men, but 
 those soulless waves which wash the shores of Oiso seem 
 to mourn for him. But his spirit of consecration still 
 lives, and shall not we who enjoyed his personal teacliing 
 take courage and work on after him in this spirit ? 
 
 "An elaborate eulogy, a magnificent funeral, a splendid 
 monument — these would not please him. Far better is it 
 for us to do om- daily duty, to help forward little by Httle 
 with our whole heart and life the moral regeneration of 
 society, that our land may be the home of men and women 
 loving liberty, truth, charity, and God. This, indeed, would 
 be pleasing to him ; and let him who admires his charac- 
 ter and deplores his death think of these things. You, 
 preachers, make your churches self-supporting. You, 
 teachers, make your schools training places of character. 
 You, students, seek for the spii'it and energy of those who, 
 loving liberty, can contribute to their country's welfare. 
 You, editors, proclaim the truth fearlessly, to your enemies 
 as to your friends. And you, all men, with all your soul 
 and strength, love God, truth, each other." 
 
 On Februar}^ 21, 1890, a large audience gathered at 
 Koseikan, where the great public meetings of Tokyo are 
 held, in commemoration of Mr. Neesima. The following 
 is an extract from the address delivered on that occasion 
 by Mr. H. Kato, president of the Tokyo University : 
 
 "You have assembled to-day to pay a tribute to the 
 memory of Mr. Neesima. I have been requested to be 
 present and to say something. I declined at first, for I 
 never even met Mr. Neesima, and have had no relations 
 whatever with him. I am not a beUever in Jesus. Those 
 
Tributes and Lessons 1^ 
 
 who have abeady addressed you are all, I believe, his fol- 
 lowers. I alone am not a Christian j neither am I a Bud- 
 dhist. I am a man of no rehgion. . . . Yet, being urged to 
 speak, I would like to make a simple statement. From 
 what I have heard of Mr. Neesima I know very well what 
 kind of a man he was — one greatly to be honored and re- 
 spected. All who have spoken unite in ascribing to him 
 an invincible purpose. It is this unconquerable spirit of 
 his which I honor. I do not praise him because he was a 
 Christian. I care not whether he believed in Jesus or not. 
 I praise him for that steadfast spirit so essential in every 
 sphere of religion, learning, politics, or trade. I believe 
 this spirit a great necessity in this country, although it is, 
 of course, everywhere important. We are a clever people. 
 Western nations commend us in this respect, and they are 
 doubtless right. Within twenty or thu'ty years we have, 
 in virtue of this quality of smartness, appropriated much 
 from the West. It is a good thing to be clever, but to be 
 clever only is to lack strength. Cleverness and steadfast- 
 ness of purpose rarely go hand in hand. The former is 
 apt to taper away into shallowness and fickleness, and the 
 fickle, shallow mind can rarely carry through to its end 
 any great undertaking. While there are undoubted ex- 
 ceptions, yet I think this is our weakness, that we have 
 not the endurance, the indefatigable spirit, of the men of 
 the West. In the case of Mr. Neesima, however, from the 
 very first, when he decided to go to America, to the close 
 of his life, this invincible spirit was conspicuous. Such 
 success as he attained cannot be brought about by mere 
 cleverness. 
 
 "We are praised for the enormous progress we have 
 made during the last thirty years. Many who, not long 
 since, despised foreigners as barbarians, now almost wor- 
 ship them. From regarding them as beasts of the field, 
 
128 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 they have come to consider them as divine. This trans- 
 formation has been wrought by the genius of cleverness, 
 and it is well that it is so ; but a more steadfast spirit 
 would have brought about the change more gradually. . . , 
 Foreigners criticize us for our mobility, and in itself mo- 
 bihty leads to no good results. . . . Without other quali- 
 ties we cannot compete successfully with the West. Even 
 if in actual hand-to-hand conflict we should conquer, in 
 the competitions of peace we should be worsted. For the 
 West is not only clever, but strong. ... I do not say that 
 we are altogether destitute of this element of strength, for 
 if this were so the future would be hopeless. But I do 
 say that for the young Mr. Neesima is in this respect a 
 great example. Not only those who follow him in his re- 
 ligious faith, but all — merchants, statesmen, scholars — 
 should strive to acquire his spirit. It is well to under- 
 stand, in this age of the survival of the fittest, the neces- 
 sity for this capacity to endure, and I earnestly desire 
 that more men of his temper may be raised up among us." 
 
 At the same meeting, Mr. Takegoshi, editor of The 
 Christian^ said : 
 
 " In this large audience of the aged as weU as the young, 
 of men and women sitting shoulder to shoulder, there are 
 doubtless atheists as weU as Christians, theists, Buddhists, 
 and materialists, and certainly many who never knew Mr. 
 Neesima. Why have so many, unacquainted with him, 
 assembled here with those who knew him so weU? To 
 honor his memory. And how shall we do this ? Shall we 
 honor him as president of the Doshisha ? The Doshisha 
 University is so firmly established that we need not grieve 
 on its account. Shall we honor him, then, as a Christian ? 
 But this atheist, this materialist, and yonder Buddhist, 
 how can they honor him for that reason ? Why, then, are 
 we here ? This great assembly has gathered, I think, to 
 
Tributes and Lessons 129 
 
 commemorate Mr. Neesima as one of the great men of this 
 century, whose extraordinary character is the common 
 possession of the people. It is, therefore, more fitting to 
 speak of him on this occasion as a hero than to relate the 
 history of his work or to tell the story of his faith. And 
 there arises first in our mind the question. What is a hero ? 
 Man is a being who worships heroes. The universe is the 
 temple of hero-worship. The history of the thousands of 
 years since man first inhabited the world is the history 
 of this worship. 
 
 " Carlyle asserts that the worship of a false hero is the 
 evidence of weakness, and that the homage paid to the 
 true hero indicates a great people. Yet even great nations 
 often bow down to the false and fail to notice the real hero 
 who lives and dies in their midst. It is a great and glori- 
 ous thing for a nation to recognize and appreciate its true 
 heroes ; and if the character of Mr. Neesima satisfies our 
 ideal of greatness, his fame is the common glory of the 
 nation. If a hero is one who can command an army, who 
 rides among flying bullets and glittering swords, then Mr. 
 Neesima was not one. If a hero is one whose eloquence, 
 like a mighty wind, sweeps away all opposition, or whose 
 fluent speech and practical tact insure success in every 
 undertaking, he was not one. But if he is the hero whose 
 life is a poem, a lesson which can be sung, and which is 
 capable of stirring the enthusiasm of future generations, 
 then Mr. Neesima may well be given that title. Does any 
 one charge me with extravagant praise ? I can say only 
 what I believe. Often the fame of great men is larger 
 than the reality. The shadow is greater than the body 
 itself. So that on drawing near the reality disappoints us. 
 For this reason great men are often compared to a picture 
 which must be observed at a certain distance. But this 
 is not the case with Mr. Neesima. Great as was his fame, 
 
130 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 when we approach nearer, to see and speak with him, he 
 wins a larger respect. Those who knew him personally 
 testify to his gentleness and meekness. But there burned 
 within him a fii-e of mighty power. It is a very rare thing 
 to see these two traits in a single individual. A merely 
 good man is often weak-minded, while ability frequently 
 leads to rashness and imprudence. Gentleness and force 
 existed in Mr. Neesima to a rare degree. 
 '•'' In one of his letters to me he wrote : ^ Young man, 
 fighting once, do not stop there. Fighting the second 
 time, do not stop there. Do not stop even after fighting 
 the third time. Your sword shattered, your arrows all 
 spent, yet do not stop fighting tiU every bone is broken 
 and every drop of blood is shed for the truth. Yes, if we 
 \ do not fight for the truth, is not our life a useless one?' 
 These words rouse me to action. When I read them I sit 
 upright. Within, his spirit raged like the billow}^ sea, but 
 it flowed out calm and peaceful in meek and gentle con- 
 duct. So a mighty river, foaming with a power to move 
 mountains while in its bed, when it reaches the sea spreads 
 tranquilly over the vast surface without a ripple. The 
 secret of this combination of gentleness and strength was 
 his confidence in Heaven. He intrusted all to God. He 
 used to say, ' The grasses do not thank the spring breeze, 
 nor the falling leaves complain of the autumn wind.' 
 Autumn wind and spring zephyr were aUke to him. He 
 neither strove to win fame nor to avoid misfortune. If 
 joy and pleasure came he did not refuse them ; if they 
 passed by he let them go and did not run after them. He 
 left everything to its natural course. And thus on his 
 death-bed he said, ' I do not complain to Heaven, nor find 
 fault with any man.' He began by trusting in Heaven, 
 he ended by enjoying it. What a sublime life ! Nor did 
 he, like an idle preacher, think lightly of his high calling. 
 
Tributes and Lessons 131 
 
 When lie was in Kobe for his health, being in Osaka, I 
 went down to see him. Forgetful of his own illness, he 
 conversed with me for a long time, asserting that the pro- 
 gress and prosperity of a nation at any epoch was to be 
 measured by the number of its great men ; and went on to 
 speak of the scarcity of men devoted to the cause of hu- 
 manity. After an hour's talk he was tired out, and fear- 
 ing that he would injure himself by so long a conversa- 
 tion, I entreated him to stop. But he would not consent, 
 and went on speaking as if perfectly well. The transfor- 
 mation of this self-seeking world into a realm of freedom 
 and righteousness, where the old should help the young 
 and the young care for the aged, in which the rich and 
 the poor should cease to antagonize each other, where la- 
 bor should have its due reward, and peace and prosperity 
 brood over the entire community — in a word, the realiza- 
 tion of the great possibilities of humanity — this was his 
 constant aim. The great enterprise of his life had the 
 same end in view. Riu Gen-Toku said, ^Cho-un is all 
 coui-age.' So it has been said of Mr. Neesima, ' He was 
 all coirrage, fire.' And this fire burned to bring forth a 
 peaceful, prosperous nation. His tears, his prayers, his 
 philanthropy, yea, his sickness even, were all devoted to 
 his country. His was a vocation ordained by Heaven, and 
 to build up on earth the kingdom of heaven he conceived 
 to be his highest duty. We can readily understand now 
 why he believed in himself and assumed so great a re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 " If it be possible to combine truth and humanity, a bold 
 spirit and a meek character, to show practically by one's 
 conduct what Christianity is, without help from the dig- 
 nitaries of the state or the powerful of this world, Mr. 
 Neesima has done so. He was the Puritan of the nine- 
 teenth century. His life is like a poem which has the 
 
132 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 power to thrill and awaken. It is a precept to be fol- 
 lowed. Such a character as his is indeed to be respected, 
 and it is an honor to the nation to possess it. 
 
 ^^ Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Neesima is no more. As 
 a mortal man, as the Puritan of the Orient, the leader of 
 humanity, the man of independence, the lover of children, 
 the teacher of the young, the friend of woman, the com- 
 forter of the old, he is no more. His body is buried, as 
 was the body of the thief. But he still lives. He lives 
 in the memory of his fellow-countrymen, in the cause of 
 truth and humanity, in the grateful thought of the nation. 
 You who commemorate him endeavor to follow in his 
 footsteps ; consecrate your energies to make this nation 
 strong, upright, and noble. This is the best way to honor 
 his memory." 
 
 The following meditations were written in his journal, 
 July 24, 1884, while in the Waldensian Valley, Italy : 
 
 "There is great danger of our forming an opinion of 
 others by looking at them in one case. We should be 
 careful, because some are quite deficient in one thing, 
 though they may be quite efficient in other things. There 
 must be some defect found in a so-called perfect man. 
 In the first place, find his temper ; second, his education j 
 third, his surroundings ; fourth, his circumstances or situ- 
 ation in life j fifth, see how he behaves in some unusual 
 case. 
 
 "Never criticize too soon; surely we shall misjudge 
 him. Judge him with a Christian grace. Never be too 
 harsh or too minute ; love him as our Heavenly Father 
 loves us. If we have love on our side then we may lose 
 aU our petty, criticizing spirit. Oh, it is a most unhappy 
 and unhealthy thing to have too critical eyes for others ! 
 The best way will be not to judge others, as our Lord has 
 
Tributes and Lessons 133 
 
 taught. When we discover some defect in others, take it 
 as if it were upon us, and try never to repeat it again. 
 When we see great success among our brethren wish 
 more success for him. Never look upon our dear brethren 
 with envious eye. If he is good praise him, pray for him, 
 and follow his example. I often observed that when 
 some one heard good news of his friend some one would 
 say, 'But he is so-and-so,' instead of rejoicing over his 
 success. There is a weak human nature prevaihng every- 
 where. There is a great deal of competition among edu- 
 cated people. Note: Be specially patient when we are 
 sick or are feeling unhappy." 
 
 It is wonderful to see this man, who had himself come 
 out of darkness only a few years before, while traveling 
 in dark Italy alone, write down such meditations as fill 
 his journals during those months. Here are others of the 
 same date, July 24th: '' Silence. — Silence is one of 
 the virtues. There is much safety in silence. Wise men 
 never talk much ; as our mouth and tongue were given to 
 use for good purposes, use them for good purposes. Vain 
 and senseless talking often injures our reputation and 
 cause us to lose our manhood. I often noticed uneasi- 
 ness and chaff-like element in some vain, talkative men. 
 There is something noble and secure in silence. Silence 
 is a manly forbearance. A man of silence is a blessing to 
 a family or to a society. Silence ought by no means to 
 be combined with a bitter countenance, but with a cheer- 
 ful countenance. Vain talking often disturbs affairs in a 
 family or in society, but silence heals it. We can easily 
 weigh a man of vain talk, but we could not easily measure 
 the depth of the mind of a wisely silent man. But do not 
 keep silence if we can by talking do much good to others 
 or for the truth. Oh, how large a portion of our talk we 
 
134 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 spend for vain things of the world, and how little for the 
 truth ! When a word goes out of our mouth it is like 
 spilled water on the parched soil — there is no possibility 
 of taking it back again ; what is said is said j it becomes a 
 fact of our lives for which we must give account in the 
 future. But, above all, let us not harbor evil thoughts, 
 for evil thoughts are the mainspring of evil and vain 
 talking." 
 
 Same date: "Poor creatures! we plan much and do 
 very little. Our plans are often defeated by something.'^ 
 Same date : " Receive others patiently. If any one imi- 
 tates a hero, let him be so; receive him well. If any 
 brother do not behave as he ought, let us wait for some 
 occasion to drop a kind word, so as not to offend him. 
 Never send away a brother in Christ when he comes and 
 seeks our friendship. Bear the evils of others for God's 
 sake, for he bears our evils patiently. He does not 
 correct us furiously, at once, but uses many occasions to 
 heal us and takes many years to sanctify us. But let us 
 by no means neglect our duty toward others. Look at 
 the ocean, how beautiful it looks ! Yet it must receive 
 many filthy matters from the shores ; it receives and puri- 
 fies them. We shall be happy men if we can be like it. 
 Be minute for ourselves in everything, but when we come 
 to deal with others let us be careful not to offend them 
 with a close calculation." 
 
 Same date: "Don't be Jack-at-all-trades. In passing 
 through some country towns I notice that there are ever 
 so many things spread and shown in shops, but when I 
 closely examined each article I found that each kind is 
 rather scanty. It is well for us to be widely informed on 
 many subjects, but do not imitate these country shops — 
 many articles, with a scanty supply of each. We ought 
 to be well posted at least in one subject of the profes- 
 
Tributes and Lessons 135 
 
 sional studies. It will be a rich treat to us. Success in 
 our life will chiefly hang upon it. Let this be our offensive 
 or defensive weapon on the battle-field of truth. Though 
 our talent may be small, yet it is solid and weighty. Be 
 single-minded for a single purpose. We shall sooner or later 
 reach our mark. Never shoot our arrows into the air ; 
 aim at an object surely, and then let it go. If we miss, 
 then repeat the process again and again until we can sat- 
 isfy ourselves. I never knew a single case of a talented, 
 puffed-up, yet unsettled-minded man having accomplished 
 anything noteworthy." 
 
 Same date: ^' Never miss a rare occasion to do good. : 
 Let our guns be always loaded. When we meet our game, . 
 aim at it and shoot it instantly, for our game will never j 
 wait for us. When we meet any occasion to do good to 
 others, then don't let it go. Don't wait for to-morrow j . 
 do it at once, for we may never have the occasion again. | 
 To shoot wild game is a mere pleasure, but to shoot men ' 
 for our Master is a grave business. Let our guns be first 
 loaded with living powder and bullets from on high, and 
 be always ready. Many hunters of men carry th(;ir guns 
 unloaded ; this explains the reason why Christ's kingdom 
 among men does not spread faster." 
 
 Same date, July 24th : "At my sick-bed. The Divine 
 Fire. — Many Christian ministers may have highest cul- 
 ture, and may write their sermons with much skiU and 
 thought — beautifully executed work, like a Grecian mar- 
 ble statue. Alas ! there is no heat in it. Heat must be 
 caused by fire ; if there is no fire in the sermon to heat 
 the hearers' hearts it is a serious affair. This fire can 
 only be got by daily seeking. Those who depend very 
 much upon their talent and knowledge are very apt to 
 forget to seek this much-needed divine fire for themselves, 
 as weU as for their hearers. How cold such a heart must 
 
136 Joseph Hardy Neesuna 
 
 be to a congregation ! If each professing Christian has 
 this divine fire Christ's kingdom will come much faster. 
 O Heavenly Father, give us this fire ! However small we 
 may be, if we have genuine fire we shall consume even 
 the whole world. How small a spark of fire burned up a 
 vast forest in Canada ! How small a lamp-hght consumed 
 two thirds of the great city of Chicago ! Sometimes one 
 may make an artificial fire in imitation of the divine fire, 
 but his hearers will sooner or later detect it ; it is a mock 
 fire. God will not bless such. Oh, let the divine fire be 
 burning within us always ! " 
 
 Same date: "Man's Greatness. — Man's greatness is 
 not simply in his learning, but in his disinterestedness 
 in seK. Those with much learning are apt to be more 
 selfish than the unlearned. Let us look at Christ on the 
 cross. He is our example. Oh, how noble, how grand, 
 how gracious he seems to us ! Let us forget self, and 
 offer ourselves freely for the cause of truth and good. Let 
 us also be truly penitent and humble. I caU this man's 
 greatness." 
 
 The above meditations were written in one day, when, 
 after going up on a mountain excursion from Rosa in the 
 "Waldensian Valley, he says : " We passed one night in the 
 mountain house. I sent my thick coat and shawl with 
 a donkey, and the donkey did not come that evening. I 
 had to go without my shawl ; I slept under the hay — un- 
 comfortable." The result was that the next day, July 22d, 
 he had a fever, and it took him two days to get back to 
 Rosa again. His entry for the next day after his return, 
 July 24th, is : "I was quite unweU ; called Dr. Vala ; he 
 gave me quinine once in two hours." Yet on this day, 
 " at my sick-bed," he wrote the meditations above given. 
 
 Here follow other meditations from his journal: "A 
 Thought for Preaching. — Suppose the future Judge 
 
Q 
 
 m 
 
 g 
 
Tributes and Lessons 137 
 
 of the moral world comes down now and summons 
 each of us to appear before him, and uncovers aU our 
 past deeds before the congregation, how many of you 
 will dare to step forward and get all your deeds eternally 
 penned upon the walls of the sacred edifice, to be read by 
 each of you ? " 
 
 "HuiviAN Happiness. — God gave us a sense of happi- 
 ness so that we might be truly happy. It is right for 
 us to feel happy when anything is given us from him. 
 Let us be happy for the daily bread we receive, happy for 
 pleasant circumstances, good home, good friends, pleasant 
 situation, etc. But all the earthly happiness will become 
 as nothing at aU when we are permitted to step through 
 the gate of Paradise and catch the glory of the Lamb of 
 God, who caused the gate of heaven to be opened to us ; 
 let us aim at this happiness j this only is abiding." 
 
 ^^ Promises. — Fulfil your promises promptly; never 
 postpone until to-morrow, for we may not see it, or may 
 be f uUy occupied with something else ; then we shall have 
 no occasion for excusing ourselves for the delay. It is a 
 sort of weakness and sham for a man to make aU. sorts of 
 apologies to another j let yea be yea and nay be nay. Do 
 or not do. Never be sluggish, and never leave business 
 half done." 
 
 "Business Character.— The Italians appear to be 
 polite, but they lack business character. They are easy 
 and like to be easy. They would rather postpone their 
 business if they can. They will not move unless they are 
 pushed by some one. Do your business promptly when 
 it is required to be done. Do not waste your time by 
 talking ; do it at once and it is done. Try to talk what 
 we mean, but never talk anything which we do not really 
 mean in our heart. It is a moral weakness to say what 
 we do not really mean. Straightforwardness can be 
 
138 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 found mostly among tlie Anglo-Saxon races, English and 
 Americans." 
 
 " Roughness and Politeness. — A rough manner with 
 a kind heart is far more preferable than a petty 
 politeness with no least meaning. Japan is one of the 
 politest nations in the world, but, alas ! their heart is far 
 from it. Artificial politeness became the national habit. 
 This is not the result of true sincerity. Politeness ought 
 to be a necessary exponent of true love and kindness, but 
 politeness without a least meaning is a sort of deception. 
 Remember that we are always naked before Him who 
 never slumbers nor sleeps." 
 
 '^Watchfulness. — Watch, pray, and be prepared for 
 the Master's call. We know not when he will come, 
 whether in the fii*st watch, the second watch, the third 
 watch, or the fourth." 
 
 "A Policy for Our Training School. — Let us be 
 like an unpolished diamond ; never mind the outward 
 rough appearance if we have a shining part within. 
 Let these three factors be our perpetual mottos : 1. Christ 
 as our foundation-stone. 2. Well-qualified instructors. 
 3. Well-selected library and thoroughly equipped appara- 
 tus. Those three factors will be true and shining parts 
 of our training-school. Too much of brick and mortar 
 does not suit my humble taste. I am terribly craving 
 for the inner polish that will be a glory of our school ; 
 that will certainly command the respect of the thoughtful 
 Japanese more than brick, stone, and mortar." 
 
 "The True Hero-worshiper. — Most of the Japan- 
 ese will be hero-worshipers ; they are a hard set of peo- 
 ple to be managed, except by a hero to whom they can 
 look up. Yet they are very easy to be led away by a 
 hero. They are moved with the sensational currents of 
 the hero's opinions. There is a lack of individuality in 
 
Tributes and Lessons 139 
 
 them. Most of the hero-worshipers will be always colored 
 by the same tint as the hero himself. The weak point is 
 that they do not rise above their hero. If the hero makes 
 a mistake or failure in his career they will do the same. 
 If the hero falls they wiU fall likewise. The matter has 
 been so with us when we examine our history closely. 
 You wiU also find that there has been no hero in Japan 
 who has done aU for unselfish ends. He is apt to be more 
 selfish than the common mass of the people. If their 
 mind could be directed toward the Hero of heroes, the 
 greatest the world has ever produced, I am sure it would 
 revolutionize the future of Japan. He is far above Soc- 
 rates and Confucius, yet he is a friend of the poor. He 
 is far above Alexander and Napoleon, yet he shed his own 
 blood for the people, instead of shedding the blood of 
 hundreds of thousands of innocents for his own gratifica- 
 tion. He had no selfish aim in his life ; he was perfectly 
 holy and yet perfectly simple ; he had no place to rest his 
 head, yet he sat from eternity on the throne of the uni- 
 verse. If the Japanese are bound to worship heroes, let 
 them worship this Hero, the Hero of heroes."! His wor- 
 shipers will also be tinted with the one best color, that is, 
 the color of godliness. Within this bound there is an 
 ample scope for freedom ; man can choose any professions 
 except bad and harmful ones. In following and worship- 
 ing him we shaU obtain the true human liberty ; we shaU 
 certainly have our individuality. Oh, how I long that 
 our people should turn their attention to this Hero, who 
 is far above weak humanity ! " 
 
 "Questions. — Is there any one in the world who is 
 altogether above selfish ambition? How can he know 
 himself that he is perfectly free from that ? How can we 
 know that such an one is free from it ? Is there also any 
 one who is perfectly free from the slightest deception? 
 
140 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 Could ever deception be eradicated from civilized society ? 
 How many of us could say to God that I have lived my 
 life without the slightest ambition or deception? Has 
 any one ever seen, or could we ever expect to see, such a 
 perfect type of humanity among the race of Adam, except 
 the Son of God? It is too foolish to entertain such a 
 question. But I would like to meet a person of the above 
 description." 
 
 "A Best Method of Teaching. — If I teach again 
 I will pay a special attention to the poorest scholar 
 in the class j then I shall succeed." 
 
 In a letter from Tokyo, March 24, 1878, he closes as 
 follows : " Pray for me, so that I may be directed entirely 
 by His hand." After an absence in Tokyo, on his return 
 he writes : 
 
 "Kyoto, Monday morning, July 21, 1879. 
 
 ^^ I arrived in Kobe yesterday at 5 p.m., and passed the 
 last night in Nishinomiya. I might have returned home 
 last night, but lest I should break the Sabbath I stayed at 
 the above-mentioned place. I came home this morning a 
 little after nine o'clock. I have not seen Mr. Yamamoto 
 yet, but I don't believe the present difficulty is very serious. 
 We have the strong God to depend upon. I trust he wiU 
 make the matter aU right." 
 
 During the revival at the time of the Dai Shimboku- 
 kwai, or General Conference, in Tokyo, he writes : 
 
 « Tokyo, May 11, 1883. 
 " Dear Brethren in Kyoto : 
 
 " I am anxious to write a few lines to inform you how 
 the Lord blessed us in our Dai Shimbokukwai. We com- 
 menced it on Tuesday, with a one-hour prayer-meeting. 
 It was the most impressive meeting I ever attended in my 
 
Tributes and Lessons 141 
 
 life. A spirit of union was greatly manifested in that 
 meeting ; then followed the busiaess meeting ; Mr. Miya- 
 gawa was elected chairman. In the afternoon we had 
 reports of the delegates ; it was a most enjoyable part of 
 the conference. I can assure you that the Lord blessed 
 us far more than we asked for." 
 
 f When he had heard news affecting the Doshisha which 
 ^eatly troubled him, he writes from Dorchester, Mass., 
 March 22, 1885 : " We shaU be in a hard fix then. I know 
 not what to say, but I can only state to you that I am on 
 my hiees. I hope I shall get a further light upon this 
 serious subject." In the same letter he speaks of the 
 great trials and difficulties of the past, and says, " I often 
 wonder how I ever came through those deep muds of the 
 past ; " but he adds, " I received the sustaining courage and 
 strength from the unseen Hand ; " and again at the close 
 of the same letter : ^^ Recently I learned something from 
 experience : when I meet any serious or alarming case I 
 keep myseK standstill — not to be frightened by themj 
 afterward they pass off all right." Again, when serious 
 misunderstanding had arisen in regard to Mr. Neesima's 
 action, and a letter had been sent to him which he calls 
 " the most insulting letter I ever received in my life," he 
 writes from Milford, Del., in regard to it, April 20, 1885 : 
 " I am sorry to say that his letter is thrown into the waste- 
 basket. When I read it I said within myself, ^What! 
 have I lost a sense of honor ? ' but I knelt right down for 
 God's grace to preserve me in his hand. I am all right 
 now ; please don't mention it to any one." " I thank God 
 for his ever-sustaining grace to me. Each trial and each 
 difficulty draws me nearer to his hand ; he sustains me 
 and helps me far beyond what I can ever know or dis- 
 cover. Pray for me that I may be ever nearer to him." 
 
142 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 May 26, 1885, he closes a long letter of ten pages, written 
 from Boston, which is full of plans for the school and for 
 the spreading of the work in Japan, with, " Pray for me 
 that I may rest in the Lord." When starting for Tokyo 
 in August, 1875, to try and get permission to start the 
 Doshisha, he closes his letter with the words, " Pray for 
 my success." 
 
 By the advice of the mission, Mr. Neesima spent the 
 summer of 1887 in Sapporo, on the island of Yezzo, and 
 while there he heard the news of Mr. Hardy's serious ill- 
 ness, which came by cablegram to him. He writes to 
 Mrs. Hardy: "July 30, 1887. Mr. Hardy's letter inform- 
 ing me of the action of the prudential committee was re- 
 ceived here with a grateful heart. Alas ! the intoxication 
 of this joy was soon dampened by the telegram telling me 
 of his serious illness. I had some fear of it since receiv- 
 ing your last letter. How greatly I am troubled I can 
 scarcely state here. I wish we could have some sort of 
 medium to convey our messages every hour. Oh, how 
 anxiously I feel about him ! He has sown with us, and 
 I earnestly wish he could reap much more fruit here in 
 Japan with us before he departs in peace. Besides, I do 
 own a real affection for him, and think I love both of 
 you more than my own parents. I am begotten of you by 
 your love. Pure love kindles love of the same kind. 
 Noble affection binds us much firmer than some natural 
 ties. I wish I could appear before him even in his dream.'^ 
 
 After hearing of Mr. Hardy's death he writes : " August 
 24th. I am all confused when I attempt to write to you. 
 I have many things to say to you concerning Mr. Hardy's 
 departure for another world. But when I attempt to 
 write, alas ! I find everything chaotic. I sit by my table, 
 I hold my pen — but I can do nothing further. Of course 
 I know that our Heavenly Father wished him to come to 
 
Tributes and Lessons 143 
 
 the blissful heaven. I know we must submit all our 
 affairs to his hand. I know, also, Mr. Hardy may be far 
 better off than in this troublesome world j but I miss him 
 very much — I feel quite lonely. I feel my real father is 
 gone ; yea, he has been to me more than my father. I 
 believe that he knew me more than all my Japanese 
 friends here. I have lost the friend of Japan. My heart 
 is darkened like the total eclipse which so recently hap- 
 pened here. Cheerfulness and brightness are suddenly 
 disappeared. Alas, the total darkness ! The aii' is chilled, 
 the temperature is fallen. This solar eclipse lasted only 
 for a while, but my heart's eclipse may last as long as I 
 live. I cannot finish even these few lines. I am too 
 sensitive just yet. Besides this sensitive feeling I have 
 another — my sympathy with you. You must miss him 
 beyond measure. His cheerful voice cannot be heard any 
 more. My heart aches in your behalf. However, I rejoice 
 with you that when he departed from you he must have 
 commanded you to trust and rely upon another Arm, ever 
 strong and everlasting. I will try and write you much 
 oftener than before, but at present I find it a hard task to 
 write to you.'' 
 
 " September 4th. It is quite rainy this afternoon. I 
 am undisturbed by any visitor ; my heart turns to Boston. 
 My reflection about you and Mr. Hardy is taking hold of 
 my heart very strongly. This is the fifth Sabbath since 
 he left us, but with him it must be the continual Sabbath. 
 We who are left behind weep and mourn, but he rejoices. 
 All the mysteries here may be no longer any mysteries to 
 him. How grand that must be ! While I am sadly miss- 
 ing him, and at the same time cheered by the idea of his 
 most holy, happy, and blessed state, I have a mixture of 
 contrary feelings. We all feel we have lost the father of 
 the Japan mission. Some sent me telegrams to console 
 
IM Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 my sorrow, others wrote me letters to express their own. 
 Now we have got to go on without his advice and sup- 
 port. At this critical hour I simply cry out, ^ God help 
 us ! ^ I would like to write you some things I have ob- 
 served in this island. At present I have no courage to do 
 so. I have received your letter telling me of his most 
 loving memorial to me. Now I must say what a touching 
 thing it is that he should remember me so far away as he 
 did. I shaU never, never forget it. Through God's help 
 I will try to follow his example. Doubtless your letter 
 was written with many tears. So it is with mine. My 
 heart is stiU burning with all sorts of plans for our work. 
 But my wife is a constant guard to check me and take 
 away my control. She works like a pohceman to remove 
 my pens and papers, and requests visitors to cease their 
 conversation. I told her that I cannot hide mj^self any- 
 where in Japan now, and I am thankful for it." 
 
 After the physician had told him of the serious nature 
 of his heart-disease, he wrote Mrs. Hardy from Tokyo, 
 July 4, 1888 : 
 
 " Allow me to send you my compliments for this glori- 
 ous day of your nation. I came here on the 11th. My 
 wife is with me. She is a sort of policeman over me, 
 watching lest I overdo. Though I am slightly gaining, I 
 believe I shall never get well again. My doctor says my 
 heart is enlarged and will never resume its original size, 
 and that at any time my bodily life may cease. Of course 
 I bore it rather bravely, but to my wife it seemed almost 
 unbearable. She was warned to keep it a secret from me. 
 But, poor creature ! she could not keep her secret. I tried 
 to comfort her, and told her all my future expectation. 
 However, I found it a hard work to quiet down my own 
 sensitive feelings. Since then she stays with me, and 
 does not give me a chance to write much. Just now I 
 
Tributes and Lessons 115 
 
 sent her away a few mmutes in order to write this letter. 
 Though I am absolutely prepared to resign my future 
 into the tender hand of the Heavenly Father, yet when I 
 think of you — all my past affaii-s — youi- motherly and un- 
 ceasing love comes at once to my memory, and I weep like 
 a babe. I disUke to pass off suddenly without a good-by 
 to my dear friends. Therefore, though it may be useless 
 to inform you of such a matter beforehand, I should be 
 sorry to leave this world without sending you my last 
 farewell, with my unspeakable thanks for all you have 
 done for me. I owe you all, and have nothing to pay 
 back but my thanks and daily prayers for you. If I fail 
 to send you my last farewell by reason of passing off sud- 
 denly, as my doctor described to me, please regard this as 
 my last word to you. I wish I could write as I feel, but 
 I cannot express myself at all. I trust you can guess at 
 it. What I cannot say I hope I shall say in another world. 
 With regard to my tender feeling to my dear wife and 
 aged mother you may sympathize with me. You know, 
 also, how much I am interested in our Kyoto schools and 
 the Gospel work throughout this island empire. I am 
 willing to leave all these interests behind. I am thankful 
 for what has been done for my beloved country. What 
 now shall I hope or expect to receive ? As you know, I 
 have a desperate plan and will to make our Kyoto school 
 a Christian university. For this cause I came to Tokyo. 
 For this cause I became ill and fainted away. For this 
 cause I am still staying here. However, I am very care- 
 ful. I fear I cannot write you much hereafter. If I pass 
 off I hope you will not feel too sorry. I fear this may 
 not be a very complimentary letter to receive on your 
 Fourth of July. But so long as I am prepared to resign 
 myself to His hand, I like to teU my sympathizing mother 
 and ask for her prayers for my soul. My wife has re- 
 
146 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 turned and warns me to stop. Wliat I write here is not 
 revealed to her. Please keep this secret from other peo- 
 ple. I am still hopeful to live, but am prepared to go 
 also." 
 
 The following are translations of some of the poems 
 which Dr. Neesima wrote on different occasions. The 
 fii'st is one composed two days before he left Japan the 
 first time : 
 
 " One suit of rough clothes and a sword of three feet 
 long I have ; when I turn my head and look at the affairs 
 of the world, I feel rather depressed in my heart. Man 
 has by nature an aspiration for a great journey. Unless 
 I travel through the great cities of the five continents I 
 will not take my rest." 
 
 The next was composed when he reached the China Sea 
 after he left Japan : ^' If man be determined in his mind 
 to run away a thousand miles, he expects to have to en- 
 dure great sufferings, and why can he be anxious about 
 his home? But how strange! In the night, when the 
 spring wind is blowing, in a dream he sees flowers in the 
 garden at home." 
 
 Here follow three poems composed on the journey when 
 he went to America the second time : 
 
 " The feeling aroused by parting duiing life is stronger 
 than that of parting in death. Wlien we are parting from 
 each other how can our hearts be light and jubilant ? A 
 traveler to the Western land in nightly dreams sees a 
 school by the side of the river Kamo " (in Kyoto). 
 
 " Even an iron steamer seems to know the feeling of 
 departure ; for it moves slowly toward the West, breaking 
 the waves. The ferry-boat which conveyed me is dis- 
 appearing in the evening mist. When I look at Mount 
 Rokko in the far north, the scene is gloomy and dark." 
 
 " For ten years I cherished the hope of a foreign trip in 
 
Tributes and Lessons 147 
 
 vain. At length I am, to-day, outside of my native land. 
 Flowers in Paris may be beautiful, the moon in London 
 may be fair, but in my dreams I search after the people 
 by the side of the Shokoku-ji." (The river Kamo is near 
 Doshisha, and Shokoku-ji is the name of a large grove 
 just back of the school.) 
 
 Miscellaneous Poems. 
 
 " The serpent-like criticism of the world I do not mind 
 at all. For thousands of years I will lie patiently in the 
 great marsh. Behold, when there come great winds and 
 clouds I will fly to the top of Mount Fuji." 
 
 "Though I am sickly myseK, how can I be without 
 anxiety in my heart 1 With patience I expect to see suc- 
 cess. Being dihgent we must pohsh our spirit as a gem. 
 The light of God does not yet shine in this land of the 
 mikados." 
 
 "Cease to say that human affairs are all dangerous. 
 "Wherever there is justice there is the will of Heaven. If 
 my faith be as a mustard-seed I can change the mulberry- 
 field to the blue sea and the blue sea to the field." Here 
 follow two poems, one composed as he was about leaving 
 Japan the first time, and the other w^hen he returned to 
 Japan : 
 
 " The aspiration of a knightly man is like a maple-tree 
 on Mount Tatsuta. He will not come back without wear- 
 ing glorious clothes." 
 
 "A glorious cloth to decorate the fatherland is hidden 
 in the box, because it is not time to wear it." 
 
 Dr. Neesima had a deep vein of humor in his nature. 
 In June, 1875, the first time I went to Kyoto with him to 
 look at the land for the Doshisha, we visited the San Jiu 
 San Gen Do, a Buddhist temple, where are a thousand 
 life-size wooden images. As we walked among them, Dr. 
 
148 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 Neesima said with a laugh, " These images are just fit to 
 keep poor students warm in the winter." A missionary 
 once sent a very cheap kakemono, or wall picture, to a 
 friend in America. When Dr. Neesima was in the United 
 States the last time he visited this friend, and was shown 
 this article, over which a great deal more ado was made 
 than the article warranted ; he was asked to explain it, 
 and he told the missionary who sent it, after he returned 
 cO Japan, " I read all the characters except the price-mark ; 
 I thought," said he, with a twinkle of the eye, " you would 
 be willing I should omit that." Only a day or two before 
 he died, when his wife and one or two other friends were 
 changing his clothes, and causing him to groan with the 
 severe pain, ^' Oh, how you hurt," he said with a groan j 
 and then added, "This is the first time I've ever been 
 stripped by good people." 
 
 Dr. Neesima told one of our number the following in- 
 cident of his early boyhood. His father was rather strict 
 with him, and one day whipped him severely on his hand ; 
 this made him very angry, so that he sulked and would 
 not speak to his father ; so after a day or two his f ath .x* 
 called him to the little garden, pointed to a delicate bam- 
 boo, called the sasa, and recited this poem : " Nikunde wa 
 utanu mono nari; sasa no yuki" — "I do not strike in 
 anger; snow on the sasa." As snow bends and almost 
 breaks the delicate sasa, we must tap it gently so that it 
 will rise erect again. By this Dr. Neesima felt touched, 
 knowing his father's love for him, and he ceased his sulks. 
 When Dr. Neesima began the study of the Dutch language 
 in Tokyo he needed a dictionary, but he had no money ; so 
 he opened his father's money-drawer, took out eight yen, 
 and put in its place a paper saying he had taken it and 
 would replace it some time ; when the money was missed 
 and the paper found Dr. Neesima said that he had bor- 
 
Tributes mid Lessons 149 
 
 rowed it, and that he had to run in debt two yen more to 
 get the dictionary J whereupon his father gave him the 
 balance of two yen. 
 
 Miss Isabella Bird describes her visit at Dr. Neesima's 
 home in her " Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," vol. ii., pp. 232- 
 235. She says : '^ Mr. Neesima is a gentleman to begin 
 with, and has quiet, easy, courteous manners. He is a 
 genial, enlightened Christian and an intensely patriotic 
 Japanese. He gives a sad account of the lack of truth 
 and the general corruption of morals among his country- 
 men. I asked him what, in his opinion, are the leading 
 faults of his countrymen, and he replied, without a mo- 
 ment's hesitation, ^ Lying and licentiousness.' " 
 
 Dr. Neesima was present at the opening of a branch 
 Sabbath-school in a large pottery in the southern part of 
 the city of Okayama in the fall of 1880, and was invited 
 to preach the fii'st sermon. In it he emphasized the need 
 of being pure in heart, and told of seeing in America a 
 beautiful and costly Japanese vase which the gentleman 
 had recently purchased. He admired and praised the 
 workmanship to the gentleman's satisfaction, but when 
 asked to explain the designs he hung his head. " There," 
 said he, " were the signs of our country's shame ; the de- 
 signs were too \dle to be told." 
 
 Dr. Neesima's character contained the principle of love 
 to a marked degree. He had strong love for his friends, 
 and it was a love which was broad as well as deep. He 
 deeply loved the students of his school, and this love was 
 universally reciprocated by the students. He loved them 
 so much that it almost broke his heart to have any of 
 them leave the school on account of dissatisfaction, or to 
 have to send any one out of the school as a punishment. 
 He could hardly bear to exercise discipline in the school. 
 On one occasion, during the earlier history of the school, 
 
150 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 some grave offenses had been committed, and yet Dr. Nee- 
 sima felt that the school was partly to blame or such things 
 would not happen, and instead of punishing the offending 
 students he said the Doshisha must be punished j so one 
 morning at prayers in the chapel he stated those convic- 
 tions to the school, and said that he was going to punish 
 the Doshisha and he could do it in no other way than by 
 punishing the head of the school ; and so, taking a stout 
 withe in his right hand, he struck his left hand a succes- 
 sion of blows which brought the tears to every eye in the 
 house before one of the older students could interfere to 
 stop him. In all his connection with the school I never 
 heard a student say anything against him, and I never 
 knew that one did so. 
 
 Dr. Neesima's love for the members of his own mission, 
 and for all the foreign workers in Japan, was very strong, 
 and they loved him in return. His earnest yet simple and 
 unassuming ways won all hearts and begat a love which 
 no discussions or difference of opinion interrupted. He 
 had the love and respect of all the foreign workers in 
 Japan who knew him, and he had no more sincere mourn- 
 ers at his death than the large company of foreign friends 
 of different missions who gathered at the memorial ser- 
 vices in Kyoto and in other places. 
 
 Another trait was peace. He tried as much as in him 
 lay to live in peace with aU men. He was ready to yield 
 his own view ; this was almost a fault with him. He was 
 sometimes too ready to yield to the opinions of others. 
 During all the years of his connection with the school as 
 its president and head, he never once, so far as I know, 
 set up his opinion against that of the teachers ; he always 
 yielded and worked in harmony with them. He was al- 
 ways ready to yield any point which he felt was not con- 
 trary to the great aim of his life ) when that was at stake 
 
Tributes and Lessons 151 
 
 the wliole world could not move him. He was generally 
 a joyful, cheerful man. His strong faith and hope kept 
 him in an atmosphere of joy. So, too, we might speak of 
 his long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness 5 also of his 
 faith ; in the darkest hours his faith in God and in ulti- 
 mate success only seemed to grow stronger. 
 
 His meekness was remarkable. He was from the fii'st 
 the head of the school, and yet, during all those years, he 
 kept himself in the background and never insisted on his 
 rights as president. It was hard work to get him to take 
 the president's seat on the platform in the chapel. 
 
 When, however, we go deeper and seek the mainspring 
 of these graces, we find, as the Apostle tells us in Galatians 
 V. 22, 23, that they were aU the " fruit of the Spirit." The 
 mainspring of Dr. Neesima's character, and the secret of 
 his great success, was in his union to God in Christ 
 through the Spirit. He felt, with Paul, " I can do all 
 things through Christ who strengtheneth me." 
 
 It is difficult to analyze the great secret of his power 
 and success, but we may mention a few points : 
 
 1. Loyalty to duty. As soon as he gained an idea of 
 God he felt Kis obligation to him, and he began to dis- 
 charge it ; and as the months and years went on and his 
 vision of duty broadened, his sense of obligation broad- 
 ened with it, and efforts to discharge that obligation kept 
 pace with his enlarging vision. 
 
 2. He took a great aim and one which was in harmony 
 with God's great aim. He did not take a low aim, he did 
 not take a selfish one ; he took for his aim the establish- 
 ment of a great Christian university, for the sake of lift- 
 ing up, so far as he could, through that, his whole nation 
 toward God and a Christian civilization. The results of 
 that school are abeady changing the history of the empii*e. 
 
 3. He had a holy, absorbing ambition to realize his 
 
152 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 great aim. He counted not his life dear to him if he 
 could accomplish his great object. When, a few years 
 before he died, the question was raised of his going to the 
 United States a third time to try and secure money for 
 the endowment of the university, and his physicians told 
 him it would be almost certain death for him to go, he 
 repHed that that would make no difference with him if he 
 felt that by going he could secure the money. His going 
 to Tokyo and working during the last months of his life 
 were done in a similar spkit. He wanted to die in the 
 harness, and he did. 
 
 4. He committed himself and his great plan and all its 
 details to God, with a firm faith that God would give him 
 success. He never seemed to waver even in the darkest 
 days. In the last English letter which he wrote this faith 
 shines out. After speaking of the gift of $100,000 for the 
 Scientific School, just as Professor Shimomura was ready 
 to return to his work in the school, he says : " Is it not 
 wonderful that when he was about ready to come home 
 the way to make himseK useful was opened before him ? " 
 And then in that letter he teUs of his "day-dream to 
 found a Christian college," and how he received no human 
 encouragement j but he says : " However, I was not dis- 
 couraged at all ; I kept it within myself and prayed over 
 it." Then the night before he made his appeal for money 
 at Rutland he could not sleep, and says : " I was then 
 like that poor Jacob, wrestling with God in my prayers." 
 Then later, when he took up the larger work of founding 
 a university, he says in the same letter : " I have a full 
 hope that my vague day-dream for a Christian university 
 will sooner or later be realized, and in some future we 
 shall find occasion to give thanks to Him who has led us 
 and blessed us beyond our expectation." 
 
 5. His heart was greatly interested in direct mission 
 
Tributes and Lessons 153 
 
 work. Deeper than all other thoughts, more important 
 than all other plans, was the thought and the planning to 
 bring the millions of Japan to Christ. This was funda- 
 mental to his whole plan for a Christian college and uni- 
 versity. 
 
 When the writer visited him for an hour in Ikao, where 
 he rested in great weakness during the summer of 1888, 
 he was no sooner seated than Dr. Neesima said, " I have 
 something I want to show you j " and he went to the ad- 
 joining room and brought out a map of the province of 
 Joshu, and on it he had marked every place where there 
 was a church, every place where the Gospel was regularly 
 preached, and other places for which he was praying and 
 planning to secure evangelists. He had no greater sor- 
 row during the closing years of his life than that which 
 came from the fewness of those from among the graduates 
 of the collegiate department of the Doshisha who prepared 
 themselves to preach the Gospel directly. He was often 
 ready to weep over it as he spoke of it, and he wept as he 
 prayed over it. 
 
 He begins his round-the-world diary in 1885 in the fol- 
 lowing words : " April 6th. Went on board the '■ Khiva ' 
 at Kobe, accompanied by my wife and other friends. I 
 separated from my wife with prayer, committing her to 
 the care of my Father in heaven, upon whom she can rely 
 far better than upon myseK." "April 7th, Monday. Prayer 
 for theological students." " April 8th. Came to Nagasaki 
 6.30 A.M. 5 pray for fifth year • " and so on, day after day, 
 we read, " Pray for vernacular class," " Pray for theolog- 
 ical class." He carried this intense desire for workers to 
 be raised up to reap the waiting fields of Japan around 
 the world with him, and presented this object in earnest 
 prayer to God every day. 
 
 He always let his Christianity be known j as has been 
 
154 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 mentioned on previous pages, his first work when he 
 reached his native land was to preach the Gospel to the 
 people in liis old province of Joshu ; he did it so earnestly 
 that it has brought forth an abundant harvest. His first 
 work when he came to Kyoto, in 1875, was to start a 
 religious service in his house on the Sabbath, where he 
 preached Christ to a little company of men and women. 
 Dr. Neesima was always and everywhere known as an 
 earnest Christian ; the impression of him among his coun- 
 trymen was well voiced by a high official who remarked, 
 when Dr. Neesima had persisted in holding firmly to his 
 Christian principles, "WeU, you are a slave of Jesus 
 Christ, are you not ! " 
 
 Dr. Neesima spent the summer months of 1885, while 
 in the United States and far from well, at West Golds- 
 borough, Me., a retired country place. On July 28th he 
 wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy as follows: "I went to 
 church here last Sunday. After service I asked for the 
 Sunday-school. To my surprise the reply was negative. 
 I thought it too strange and too bad that these young 
 folks should grow up here without it. A thought came to 
 me at once, Why cannot we start a Sunday-school here ? 
 I proposed to a lady here that we should offer oui'selves 
 as teachers. I thought I would not show forth myself as 
 the originator of the idea, and tried to put the preacher 
 forward to execute it. He was most too glad to do so. 
 I took the responsibility of getting the Sabbath-school 
 papers for them, because I had no least doubt you wiU 
 take a share in the work and get others interested in it." 
 
 Professor Hardy says ("Life and Letters"): *'In his 
 subsequent letters from Japan, when burdened with many 
 cares, and feeling the hand of death not far from him, 
 Mr. Neesima asks again and again, ' How is my Sunday- 
 school getting along ? ' " 
 
Tributes and Lessons 155 
 
 What, then, are the lessons of this life to us who re- 
 main? 
 
 1. Let us realize that still 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious way 
 His wonders to perform." 
 
 The age of miracles of physical healing may be past, but 
 we have before us the fulfilment at the present day in 
 the world of the Saviour's promise, " Greater works than 
 these shall he do ; because I go to my Father." The won- 
 derful calling of Dr. Neesima twenty-six years agoj his 
 preparation ; the bringing of Captain Janes to Japan and 
 the training of the band of men who should be associated 
 with Dr. Neesima to make his school and his work a suc- 
 cess ; the bringing to this land of the missionaries who 
 should be associated with him in that work 5 the planting 
 of the school in Kyoto, in the midst of the great prejudice 
 and opposition, and its success as it stands before the 
 world to-day, is as great a miracle as any recorded in the 
 Old Testament or the New, if we except the miracle of our 
 Saviour^s incarnation and atoning work. It is simply in- 
 conceivable that all these improbable things should hap- 
 pen, and that they should come together at just the right 
 time, simply by chance. 
 
 2. Let us aU grasp the fact of the greatness of the 
 work which God used our brother to begin. When God 
 called Abraham out of his native country to go into a 
 strange land, he had a great pm-pose and work to accom- 
 plish through him. God does not work such wonderful 
 deeds as this sketch contains mthout having a great plan 
 and purpose to accomplish through them. We can see 
 already that the Doshisha is changing the history of 
 Japan ; and if the plan of our brother can be carried out 
 this school will be one of the greatest factors in the civil- 
 
156 Joseph Hardy Neesima 
 
 ization and Christianization of Japan. But if this is to 
 be the result then all the friends of the school, foreign 
 and Japanese, must realize the greatness of the sacred 
 trust wliich they have inherited from its beloved presi- 
 dent, and, with a similar love and faith and hope and 
 patience, they must hold the school true to the great pur- 
 pose of its founder : not education for its own sake, but 
 education for the sake of God's glory and the salvation of 
 men. 
 
 3. We may learn that self-denial for Christ is the great- 
 est gain for self j that he " who would be great must be a 
 servant : and that he who would be first must be servant 
 of aU.'^ God takes care of the man who is loyal to him, 
 loyal to his own conscience, loyal to duty, loyal to right. 
 The happiness and final success and glory of that man 
 follow of necessity, because it is a part of the eternal 
 nature of things, and because God will sooner or later 
 put his approving smile upon that man and upon his 
 work. Dr. Neesima's name will be remembered on earth 
 long after the names of many so-called heroes are for- 
 gotten, and his place in heaven Tsdll be above that of every 
 man who has sought his own glory. 
 
 4. Let us remember that just as Dr. Neesima's life was 
 a plan of God, so every man's life may be a plan of God. 
 If we will but put ourselves in God's hands, to be led and 
 used by him, and work with God and let God work with 
 us, we shall work in harmony with God, we shall work 
 with God, and our power and ability will be multiplied 
 by an infinite factor, so that God only can measure, and 
 eternity alone can reveal, the results of our life-work. 
 " The good man does better than he knows ! '^ 
 
 " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Dr. Nee- 
 sima rests from his labors, and his works follow him. 
 

 Date Due 
 
 [ 
 
 
 
 
 
 '~ ,' 
 
 
 
 
 JA / > vj^< 
 
 
 
 
 *^ ■ ^*i* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .7'^' ^' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ ; 
 
 
 
 
 ■A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 ^gMWMipMW 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
ill