Japan and the Japanese

P/UL OF THE HOLY FAITH. 49
" No sooner," he writes, " had they been cleansed by the waters
of baptism, than the divine goodness shed upon them such delight,
and brought them to such a sense of God's beneficence towards
them, that through pious and spiritual joy they melted into tears.
In all the virtues they made such a progress as to afford us a
pleasant and useful subject of conversation. They also learnt to
read and write, and diligently attended at the appointed seasons
of prayer. When inquired of by me what subject of contemplation
affected them most, they answered, the sufferings of our Lord ; and,
therefore, to this contemplation they chiefly applied themselves.
They studied also the articles of faith, the means of redemption,
and the other Christian mysteries. To my frequent inquiries what
religious rites they found profited them the most, they always an-
swered, confession and communion ; adding, also, that they
did not
see how any reasonable- man could hesitate to assent to and obey
the requirements of Christian discipline. Paul of the Holy Faith,
one of the number, I once heard bursting out, with sighs,
into these
exclamations :
'
0, miserable ! Japanese who adore as deities the
very things which God has made for your
'
service ! And
when I
asked him to what he referred, he answered, ' Because they worship
the sun and the moon, things
made to serve those who know the
Lord Jesus ; for to what other end are they made, except to illu-
minate both day and night, in order that men may employ that
of God and his Son ? ' '
light in the worship and to the glory
He mentions, in the same letter, that the voyage to Japan was so
dangerous, that not more than two vessels out of three were expected
to arrive there in safety. He even seems to have had seme temptations
to abandon the enterprise but in ;
spite of numerous obstacles
of man-
put in his way, as he will have it, by the great adversary
kind, he determined to persevere, especially
as letters from Japan
gave encouraging information of the desire there for Christian instruction,
on the part of a
prince
of the country who had been much
impressed by the efficacy of the sign of the cross, as employed by
certain Portuguese merchants, in driving the evil spirits from a
haunted house.
Another letter of Xavier's, written from Cangoxima, in Japan,
and dated in November, 1549, about three months after his arrival,
gives an account of his voyage thither.
5