LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
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220 MISSIONARY WORK IN JAPAN. delivering my first discourse to your people at Show­shia on the 21st. There were twenty hearers. I preached on seven consecutive days, the audience in­creasing to one hundred, all men and mostly of the samurai class. There were many schoolmasters and advanced pupils, most of whom were young and quite sharp. They raised up all sorts of questions, for the new doctrine I preached seemed to them very strange and doubtful. They had never heard of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. They kept me pretty busy while I was there. They were ready to hear and ready to discuss; I was ready to tell. I forgot my strength as well as the time. Although I tried to get hold of these intelligent hearers, I did not neglect the uneducated. In my discourse I spent one hour for the former and another hour for the latter. Thus my discourse lasted two hours every day. To my great satisfaction the former began to read the gospel and "Evidences of Christianity," and found out their Creator and also immaterial soul existing in them­selves, and the latter listened very attentively and some of them already began to reform. You may anx­iout.ly ask me whether one has begun to believe in the crucified Saviour. I cannot give you an affirmative reply yet, but I can simply tell you that through God's grace his humble servant has opened before them a new way to enter, and if I mistake not, some of them have already directed their faces towards it. On the 25th I explained to them my desire to preach to women as well as to men. I told them men are not the only creatures to learn the way of sal va­tion, but women also. While women are kept down like slaves, as in our country, the state of society will never be improved. On the contrary, if women are

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