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CHAPTER XXXII.
HOW HONDA JIRO BECAME A CHRISTIAN.
THE year which followed the coming of Honda
Jiro and his wife to Yokohama was one of
intense anxiety to the American missionaries.
Though home news was more cheering, and the
ultimate victory of the Union arms, and the indi-
cations of the supremacy of the United States government
were more assuring, yet affairs in Japan
seemed to become more and more unsettled. Mur-
der, incendiarism, and assassination increased rather
than diminished. The only lawful government of
the country, which in the eyes of the foreigners was
that in Yedo, seemed to be fast settling to destruc-
tion. Of the constructive forces latent in the movement
against the Tycoon, they knew nothing.
One happy event which took place at Doctor
Grey's house cheered the toilers. One year after his
arrival at Yokohama Honda Jiro and his wife were
baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, in the presence of the American families of
the three missionaries then at the port. After the
parents had confessed their faith, the waters of holy
baptism fell upon the forehead of little Sayo, their
baby daughter, then three months old.
The second event worth noticing, even as the
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