LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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164 FIRST VISI1' TO EUROPE. TO MR. HARDY. LoNDON, Attg!lst 27, 1873. I found your letter at Barings' yesterday. I had some thought to go home before next winter, fear­ing to spend it on that windy hill of Andover. But your kind advice gives me a new courage to take up again the plow in my hand. Then I shall go home. The Lord has preserved me thus far so wonderfully, though I have been often troubled by my body, that I will put my confidence boldly into his hand and try to do my best to prepare myself for my future labor among my countrymen. Pray for me that I may give bold and faithful service in his ever-conquering bat­tle-field. Mr. Neesima returned to Andover in September, 1873. During his absence he had laid aside from the salary received from the embassy a sum which he pro­posed to devote to the completion of his theological course, but he was persuaded to invest it and to allow his friends to continue their aid. Anxious to begin at once his active life, he resolved to remain at An­dover but one year and to accomplish as far as possi­ble in that year the seminary work allotted to twice that time. Fortunately his health continued good. His letters of this year are the simple record of per­sistent study. In February, 187 4, he writes: "The young ladies in the Academy have invited our students t1 their private levee this evening. All good-looking 1:1en are invited. A few stupid fellows are exempted. I am one of them. I c>ould not help laughing at it." He adds: "I have received a letter from Mr. Gordon, a missionary in Osaka. He is very anxious to have

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