Introduction of Christianity, 169 
subject nearest my heart." Speaking afterwards of this 
matter, he said, "I confess that when the feeHng floods 
upon me that these are souls for whom Christ died, and 
mine is the privilege to make the fact known to them, it 
breaks through all bounds of mere expediency, and forces 
me to speak the truth at all risks. There is a solemnity 
beyond expression in the attempt to bring before these 
young men the words of eternal life." Mr. Clarke's faith- 
fulness met, not with dismissal, but with honoured employ- 
ment, first at Shidzuoka, and then in the Imperial College 
at Tokio, where he accustomed himself to hold three Bible 
classes every Sabbath-day, for the benefit of the students. 
In 1872, the first native Japanese Christian Church was 
formed. Dr. Christlieb tells how it came into being. " It 
happened, during the week of prayer in 1872, that some 
Japanese students, who had been receiving instruction from 
missionaries in private classes, took part in the English 
meeting in Yokohama. After portions of the Acts of the 
Apostles had been read and explained, they fell on their 
knees, and were heard to beseech God with tears, that He 
would pour out His Spirit on Japan, as once He did on the 
first assembly of apostles. These prayers were characterized 
by intense earnestness ; captains of men-of-war, English and 
American, who witnessed the scene, remarked, ' the prayers 
of these Japanese take the heart out of us.' Some who 
had decided for Christ, came forward with the confession of 
their faith. Thus the first Japanese congregation of eleven 
converts was constituted." One very remarkable fact in 
connection with the first Church, deserves to be mentioned 
here. Nineteen years previously, some native Christians in 
Hawaii, South Seas, had raised about two hundred pounds 
and sent it to Yokohama, to help the native Christians 
there to build a church. This sum of money had been 
