"Letter From Underwood To Mrs.Hepburn (18880206)"의 두 판 사이의 차이

I feel ashamed of myself for having left your letter of last Nov so long unanswered but my sorrow & regret I am forced to say _______selfish as it _______from the thought that I just want so much a letter from you; About your use of my last letter to you, rest assured that if you found anything that was good enough to use you were perfectly _______in doing so but I have about given up all hope of stirring our Board up. I have written letter after letter, have told them again & again of what has been done & what was doing here but they seem really to have almost forgotten that they have a Mission out here at all. They do not even let the Church know anything about what is going on.

In the number, devoted to Japan & Korea of the Church at Home & Abroad, Korea was not mentioned. In the general survey of the whole field in the last issue Korea is left out, while from all that I can learn there is not a field that has, taking all things into consideration, been blessed during the past year as much as this one. It is not for the sake of bringing Korea to the front that I speak of this but I do not think it right to deprive the Church of the knowledge of what the Lord is doing, & of how the Lord is blessing her efforts. We must have more workers here or we must go back, & I do believe that had the Church been kept informed of what the Lord was doing here we would not have been kept so long without workers. I believe that there are men in the States today & in the bounds of the Presbyterian Church who, did they know the facts about Korea would insist upon coming here at once. I am thinking of getting up a little statement of the facts as they are, & having it sent far & wide throughout our Church.

Work here still goes on, & goes on well. Ways of usefulness are opening up on every side, but we cannot go ahead. We can hardly hold on to what we have got. Were it not that Mr. Hulbert has been kindly assisting us, & giving us two hours a day in the Government Hospital School, we would have had to give this up long ago. I have not written you since my return from the North. I had a very good trip & was away from Seoul for just a month. I saw the field pretty well, & was able to start work in several places, to encourage workers that were already working, & was privileged to baptise 4 persons out in one village. I had a most delightful timeout there, I found the village with a Christian feeling. I spent 4 days in a Korean farmer's house. They had known that I would be down at some time or other, & had made, & put aside a full set of Korean bed-clothes for my especial use. All the people in the village seemed to vie with each other in their efforts to make my stay pleasant. It was so good to be among the people. I think that I got to understand the Koreans more in those few days than I could have done in months & almost years of any other way. The Christians too seemed so in earnest in their belief. Since I left there a little trouble has arisen - all manner of stories about witch-craft in connection with myself (you did not know I was a wizard) have been started, & the man to whom I went to see was arrested on a charge of exercising this craft having learned it from me. We have sent out to have the man released, but it is a seven days Journey there, & we have nor yet got the answer.

Further north I found others interested. In Anju there were said to be now over a hundred adherents, at Kaichun there are a number. In Pyang An there are now 22 applicants for Baptism whom our Colporteurs report to be worthy applicants, & a number of adherents. In Song Do, the old capital, there are 10 or a dozen applicants for Baptism, & a large number of adherents. Our Church has now nearly 20 members & a number more applicants, is not this all good news.

But it is not all smooth sailing. I am afraid that there will be trouble between us & the Methodists. There was a decided attempt to get one of our men to go over there not long ago, which we however were able to stop. It looks to me almost as though they were wanting to have a game of grab. It is not pleasant to say such things, but it seems to be a fact. Oh, how I do wish we did not have to bring our denominational differences into a heathen land, but there seems to be no help for it.
I am in hopes that the trouble will be settled without any ill-feeling. You will think that I am so full of the work that I have not time to speak of anything else, but this is not the case, but although I sat down to write & thank you for your kind Christmas gift I got talking about the work I then ran on to this length.

It was indeed good of you to remember me in this way. It is so pleasant to be remembered out here in Korea, & I have put up the Kakemouas (have I spelt it rightly) along side of my mirror in the parlor, & they show up very prettily against my light colored paper. Do you know that I have a very handsome gilt paper in my parlor that my brother sent me & the show up beautifully against it. Very many thanks indeed for your kindness.

I am glad to hear from the Herons that Dr. Hepburn has now completed the Bible. How glad he must be & how rejoiced must all be at its completion. We are hard at work on the Gospels. Our Comm. on Translation is just now having weekly meetings. The Permanent Com. have their regular meeting at my house tonight at 7:30. We are going to make an effort to have the 4 gospels done & through the Press by July or August of this year.

Oh, how one thing leads to another. I must tell you about our week of prayer. We are to have a union week of prayer among the natives at the opening of the Korean or rather Chinese new year. We asked the Methodists to unite & we will end the week with the administration of the Lord's Supper. We are looking forward to this time & we expect a great blessing.

I do wish that you and the Dr. would come over here to take us young missionaries in charge, & tell us how & what to do. We do so need an older head. It seems to me that now the Doctor's (Dr. Hepburn) work on the Bible is done Korea ought to be his place. Can't you persuade him to consider the subject. There are scores of places coming up all the time where we need advice, & Dr. Heron & I say often one to the other ‘if we could only consult Dr. Hepburn.' I hope the Dr. is enjoying his work in the College, & that you are both in good health. It must be quite a tax on the Doctor to go back & forth to Tokio, but of course you would rather do this than move. How is your son & his wife? I hope that he is much better. Please remember me to them.

But I must close. You must already be weary of reading this & it is no easy matter for I have had to write it so fast. Kindly remember me to my friends. With many thanks for your kindness & for your thoughtful remembrance, & with much love to you & the Doctor I remain,

여사님께서 지난 11월 편지를 보내 주셨는데 이렇게 오랫동안 답장을 드리지 못한 것을 무척 죄송스럽게 생각됩니다. 그렇지만 제가 슬퍼하고 안타까워하는 것도 _______제 입장을 먼저 생각하기 때문이라 할 수밖에 없을 것 같습니다. 그런 감정을 갖게 되는 것도 여사님의 편지를 _______ 무척 바라는 생각에 _______기인한 것이기 때문입니다. 제가 지난 번 여사님께 보내 드린 편지를 여사님께서 활용하시는 것에 대해 말씀드리면, 다른 사람들은 ‘활용할 수 있을 만한 어떤 것을 찾아내셨다면 여사님께서 그렇게 하시는데 있어 완전히 _______이셨던 것’이 분명하다고 했습니다. 그렇지만 저는 ‘우리 본부^단체에서 적극적인 관심을 보여 주리라’는 기대를 거의 포기하고 있었습니다. 저는 계속해서 편지를 보내면서 이곳에서 이루어진 일들과 진행되고 있었던 일들에 대해 반복적으로 말하였지만 본부}에 계신 분들은 이곳에 선교부를 두고 있다는 사실조차 거의 잊어버린 것 같습니다. 심지어 그분들은 현재 이루어지는 일에 대해서 교회가 전혀 알지 못하게 하고 있습니다.