In this connection I must tell you how God in his providence turned this school, originally intended for the training of military officers, into a nursery for Christian workers. It was a wonderful providence, indeed, by which God raised up many “children unto Abraham” out of these rude stones. Captain Janes was not a missionary, and had no connection with any mission board in America. But he was an earnest Christian, filled with a strong desire to lead to Christ those boys who came under his instruction. His wife, too, who was a daughter of Doctor Scudder, an early missionary to India, was a praying woman. I was told by her sister, and her brother, Dr. Doremus Scudder, when they came to my country as missionaries long years after this, how in those early days Mrs. Janes used to spend many nights in prayer with tears. In the beginning Captain Janes could not talk much about Christianity, because he did not know the language. He could not speak Japanese at all. He did not even attempt to learn Japanese. He used English alone from the very beginning of his teachings. When he taught the alphabet to his boys he spoke English to them. Nobody could understand him. He did not employ an interpreter, because he did not like the idea of having a go-between with his students. He tried from the first to come into direct contact with his pupils, and to inspire them through his own personality. And he did inspire them. The boys were fascinated and captivated by his unique personality long before they were converted to his religious faith. In the third year of his teaching, when the older boys began to understand him and he could talk with them in English, he began to talk about Christianity. He could not teach Christianity in the school. It was not a mission school, and to teach Christianity was not his object in coming, but he offered to teach us the Bible, if we would go to his house Saturday evenings. And he gave us several copies of the English Bible. At first, out of mere curiosity, a few of the older boys went to read the Bible with him every Saturday evening. But the Bible was a strange book to us, and we could not understand it at all. Also, Captain Janes had a very peculiar way of teaching the Bible. He did not explain much, nor argue much with his students; but from the very beginning of the Bible reading he asked us to commit to memory certain passages, such as John 1:1-18, and 3:1-21, and we did so out of sheer respect for our revered teacher. I have forgotten almost everything I heard in his Bible class, but these Scripture verses still remain in my memory.