LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
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212 MISSIONARY WORK IN JAPAN. coming of these young men at that early day, with their earnest Christian purpose, gave a tone to the school; and their influence was felt in moulding the Doshisha morally and in shaping its course of study from that time. They have helped to make the school what it is, and they came to love Mr. Neesima and to be loved by him as b1·others." The record of the years intervening between 1876 and 1884, when Mr. Neesima revisited America, is one of failing health, constant trial and anxiety, but unfaltering faith in final success. The numbers in the school slowly increased, but for several years the local opposition was so strong that few of the students came from the immediate vicinity. The influence of the Kumamoto Band brought many from the island of Kyushii; many anxious parents sent their boys to be taught in the "new way;" and the moral tone of the students, although they were generally despised as Christians, was very effective in spreading the reputa­tion of the school. In March, 1877, Mr. Neesima writes:-" In the last communion season my dear father was added to our church. It was a most important event to ns all when that aged man received baptism. He has been living in pagan darkness these sixty-nine years, and we had a constant fear that he might go beyond this world without the true light." About this time a misunderstanding arose as to the amount of Mr. Neesima's salary, $500 of which it was arranged should be paid from the treasury of the Board, the remainder being supplied by Mr. Hardy. When the announcement to this effect was made to him he understood that his salary had been reduced to $500, and wrote Mr. Hardy:-

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