Morning Calm v.12 no.87(1901 Feb.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 87, VOL. XII.] FEBRUARY 1901. [PRICE 3d.

The Bishop's Letters.Ⅰ.

NIU CHWANG: October, 1900. DEAR FRIENDS, October finds me once more in Niu Chwang, to hold a confirmation, and (as I found on my arrival) to take part in a service of thanksgiving for the deliverance vouchsafed to our fellow-countrymen in Peking, and to ourselves in Niu Chwang. It was therefore a busy and important Sunday for St Nicholas' Church. The confirmation (the first that has taken place in the church) had been postponed from last July, in consequence of the disturbances which have now, for the time at all events, quite passed away. The port had resumed its usual aspect, with the barricades and sentries gone, all the women and children back again in their homes, and Mr. Charlesworth (who has been taking a holiday in Corea) busy once more with his school. But the events of this summer have ruined the trade of Niu Chwang, and the presence of Russian soldiers in the port and native towns keeps away the Chinese. Still it was a thing to be thankful for, to see all our friends in their own homes, and to meet them in God's house on that Sunday. Having no one else to send, I am compelled to keep Mr. Turner in Niu Chwang for another winter and spring. He is, I am happy to say, in fairly good health, and looking forward to the cold, bracing winter which always sets him up. But how I miss him in Seoul I cannot tell you.

This will be my last visit to Niu Chwang this year. You will join with me in thanking God for the preservation of our Church and property, as well as for the safety of our people in the midst of perils which, in other parts of China and Manchuria, have fallen with awful and indiscriminate effect upon merchants and missionaries alike.

Since I last wrote from Corea many important things have happened, of which you ought to have a brief account. First and most important were the ordinations on September 23, when the Rev. G. Bridle and Mr. Christian Steenbuch were ordained priest and deacon respectively. Following the precedent of the ordination last Lent, the service was as much as possible in Corean-the sermon, in English, being preached by the Rev. W. H. Brown, whose long and honorable service, both as a deacon and a priest, in the neighboring Diocese of South China, qualified him eminently to set before the ordinands their duties as missionaries. I was assisted by the Rev. J.S. Badcock and the Rev. F. R. Hillary, the Rev. S. Peake acting as my archdeacon and presenting the candidates. A novel and interesting feature in this ordination was the presence in the sanctuary of the Russian Archimandrite, who has recently opened a mission in Seoul. A few days before he had been good enough to call upon me, and, through his interpreter, put many questions to me about our work amongst the Coreans. Mr. Hillary acted as his chaplain during the ordination, and by finding his place for him in the various books, helped him to enter more intelligently into the service. The Archimandrite further showed his brotherly sympathy with us by joining my clergy in the imposition of hands-an omen (as I ventured to say to him afterwards in the sacristy) of a closer union yet to come. After the ordination Mr. Bridle returned to Kang Hoa to have, I hope, a missionary journey in the neighborhood before settling down to his work in the city. Mr. and Mrs. Steenbuch also left the same week for Japan, it being my intention to give him a year's training in the Japanese language, with a view, perhaps, to his finally uniting Japanese with English work in Corea. This is my hope—but, as you are aware, many things combine to upset our calculations in the Far East. My old friend Bishop Foss has most kindly consented to take him for a year and give him that direction in Kobé, of which, as a young deacon, he will stand in much need. We are sorry to lose them, even temporarily, from Corea, for they have already endeared themselves to us all.

I paid a visit to Kang Hoa soon after my return from China, and was enchanted with the outward appearance of the new church, which stands on an ideal site, and in its Corean characteristics harmonises sympathetically with all the other buildings in the city, overlooking them with a quiet dignity, but without any undue or conspicuous self-assertion. The flooring remained to be put down, and Mr. Trollope now hopes to have the church ready to be opened somewhere about All Saints' Day, or soon after my return from Niu Chwang. Whilst in Kang Hoa I walked with Mr. Trollope to Moun Sa Tong, where Brother Firkins has his cottage at the foot of a most picturesque mountain, and having a widespread rice plain in front of him - a lovely home, where he is in the midst of Coreans, and only a short four miles from Father Drake at On Syou Tong. Brother Firkins is making good progress with Corean. I could wish, however, that he were of a more robust physique. Last month, too, I paid my first visit to our Mission-house in Fusan-a port on the S.E. of Corea, some thirty-six hours' steaming from Chemulpó. This again was a deferred visit. I wanted to go in the summer, but had been hindered. I was met by Mr. Smart, and after making the acquaintance of his Japanese quarters and large upper room, furnished, most neatly, churchwise, was taken by him to call on the Christians-very few of whom had ever seen a Bishop. I arrived on Saturday, interviewed two candidates for confirmation in the evening in preparation for the service on the following morning. Being all poor people, and compelled to observe Sunday pretty much as other days, in the heathen town of Fusan it was necessary to have the service early in the morning. A few of them were away in Japan and elsewhere, but after the confirmation (which I took in Japanese) there were seven communicants to join Mr. Smart and me in the first celebration of the Holy Communion ever held in that church. Mr. Smart, who has considerably increased his fluency in Japanese, addressed the candidates before the laying on of hands. It was a happy and edifying service, the behavior of the Japanese being most devout, the result evidently of careful, but by no means mechanical, training on the part of Mr. Smart, who is as devoted to them as they seem to be to him. After the service I went to the large room below and met the Christians, that apparently being the custom; and after a few minutes' talk dismissed them to their breakfast At half-past seven in the evening we met again in church, when Mr. Smart read evensong and preached a long sermon in Japanese. The future of this Japanese work in Fusan is a great anxiety to me. One cannot, one would not, wish to keep it back, still less to neglect it altogether. In Fusan, Mokp’o, Chinamp'o, P'yeng An, as well as in Seoul and Chemulpó, the Japanese are to be found in multitudes -there are said to be 30,000 of them in Corea. No wonder if amongst these members of the Church are to be found. And it is a pity as well as a mistake if these are to come to Corea and to find no shepherd. You will understand, therefore, something of what was in my mind when I sent Mr. Steenbuch to Japan as soon as he was ordained. But my present need is to get a responsible caretaker for the Mission-house in Fusan, who will read the services on Sundays and keep the Christians together whilst Mr. Smart is away, visiting the Christians in the other ports. I am thinking of sending him to Japan to see if, from one or other of the six Bishops there, he can obtain the services of a reliable Christian who will come over and live in the house. It would be too much to ask for a catechist, but perhaps a young man, who is destined one day to be a catechist, might see his way to come and be trained by Mr. Smart. Please remember all this difficult work in your prayers, that a way may be found for me.

On my way to Niu Chwang last week we came in for a small gale of wind which, when the captain found he could not get to Chefoo by daylight, induced him to put in to Wei-hai wei for shelter. We anchored shortly before sunset, and left at sunrise the following day—a short time, but long enough to let me get ashore and pay a surprise visit to Miss Cameron, Miss Mills, and Brother Laws, whose hands are more occupied than ever at the Royal Naval Hospital. Miss Cameron took me through the wards and showed me the order and neatness of them all. There were some ninety patients-many of them suffering terribly from dysentery, enteric and gunshot wounds. One could not help being thankful that in some material way. our good nurses (whose services, by the way, are fully appreciated) were repaying to the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines some of the kindness which they have shown to us in Corea for the last ten years. I am sorry to say that Mr. Hodge has been poorly. Ever since he has been out (nine years) he has been so well and strong, that we feel inclined to say he has no right to be ill. But his need of a change came opportunely, at a time when we were meditating a considerable development of our printingpress, which necessitated his going to Shanghai and Tokyo. He was able, therefore, to combine business with pleasure, for we have heard that he is already better for his change of air. I expect him back early in November.

Mr. Peake, who is dividing his attention between St. Luke's Hospital, St. Michael's Church, and his Corean teacher, baptized two more adult Japanese on the 30th of September. Mr. Smart came up from Fusan to present them, and to keep the day with the Japanese Christians in Chemulpó. I must now bring this long letter to an end with the love of your always affectionate - C. J. CORFE.

II.

KANG HOA : November 1900. DEAR FRIENDS, The 15th of this month is a day which will be noted by all friends of the Mission, and more especially by the members of the Church, in this island, for on this day was performed the much prepared for much looked forward to Dedication of the large new Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which has been built on ground purchased by S.P.G., and with funds mainly granted by the Marriott Bequest. Many were the wonders expressed on the day before. Would the masons and the carpenters have finished their work? Would the morrow be wet or fine, snowing or raining? Above all, would the inhabitants of the city, with the characteristic curiosity of the Corean, throng the churchyard and church in such numbers as to overwhelm the solemnities of the opening service ? All these and many other anxious questions received satisfactory answers. The eve had been warm and muggy, and inclined to. rain, but the sun rose on a cloudless sky, and we knew that the wind was in the fine weather quarter. The Chinese masons, who have been imported from Chemulpó, finished the altar and font-both specimens of native work on granite quarried in the island-had put their last touches and been dismissed, in high good humor, to Chemulpó. The Corean carpenters were cleared out of the church shortly before dusk. One of the Sisters and Miss Nevill, who have been here for some days, had completed the sewing and erection of sundry curtains, hangings, and the screen which, unfortunately, has to separate Corean women from the gaze of men. All the vestments and ornaments had been brought from the temporary church: the schoolboys, who had been useful as messengers and carriers, had finished their work; Father Drake had arrived from On Syou Tong Brother Firkins from Moun San Tong, and Mr. Peake from Chemulpó, thus bringing the total number of clergy to seven; I had received my last lesson from Mr. Trollope, whose labor in translating the Dedication service into Corean was far more severe than mine, which was only to read it. We were all tired, and got to bed early, for we were to rise early on the morrow.

But a word more must be said about the eve of the festival. It had been ordered, on the previous Sunday, to be kept as a strict fast in preparation for the event which we have been thinking about for so long and which was now so imminent. Early in the morning Corean prayers were said, as usual, at seven, followed by a celebration of the Holy Communion and sermon by the Rev. M. N. Trollope. Then followed the baptism of an adult, and immediately afterwards his confirmation, together with that of four others, who had been waiting for the Bishop's visit. But we were not to quit the old chapel entirely until the following morning, when all the clergy, Christians and catechumens squeezed into it at 6.30, just at dawn, for the last morning service. That ended, the procession was formed in the compound the Bishop at the head, the catechumens at the tail, the clergy, schoolboys and Christian men between these extremes. The 51st Psalm was said as the procession went from the Mission compound through the 300 yards which separate it from the new church. Meanwhile Mr. Bridle had gone to the church earlier and closed all gates and doors but one, through which he allowed none to pass except the Christian women, who went at once to the part assigned to them behind their screen. The procession attracted but little attention, owing to the early hour, though the church plateau being on a hill can be seen from all parts of the city. The 51st Psalm was concluded, with most judicious management, as the procession reached the west front of the church, which, I ought to say, is surrounded by a spacious, level yard, protected on its four sides by a high and substantial wall. Then a circuit of the church was made, whilst the 24th Psalm was sung, the Bishop taking up the words at the seventh verse, by which time the circuit of the church had been made, and the west gates, opened by Mr. Bridle, allowed us to enter the church-empty but for the women.

But I must not describe in too great detail this beautiful and satisfying service. The Veni Creator was first said, the Bishop kneeling at the faldstool, and surrounded by his six clergy. Then followed the Litany, with a special suffrage. And then began the Prayer of Dedication- a long (I found it a very long) prayer dedicating the building as a whole to its future sacred use. Then to the words of the Antiphon, "How dreadful is this place," &c., the Bishop and his clergy moved to the altar and there consecrated it. Again the Antiphon was sung as the Bishop went down to the font at the west end. That having been consecrated, once more the Antiphon was begun as the Bishop returned to the altar and said the concluding prayers. Then retiring to the vestry to vest for the Holy Communion, the Holy Eucharist followed, all the Christians to the number of over thirty making their Communion. The service was concluded by ten o'clock. The number of our catechumens having largely increased, the church looked comfortably full until after the Gospel, when they were, as usual, dismissed, leaving the church to the Christians, who, adults and schoolboys, numbered together over fifty. But, though it was impossible to relax our fixed rule to admit none but Christians, and such as are under instruction, to our churches, it was felt that something must be done to satisfy the curiosity, of which this new church has been the absorbing centre for more than a year. Accordingly, invitations were issued to the representative of the Governor (who is absent), and to the Colonel commanding the soldiers, to take tea with us in the afternoon, and then join us at Evensong, when as many as presented themselves were admitted. Previous to Evensong, also, Mr. Trollope had conducted large numbers of people over the church.

Whilst we wish to impress on our Christians the unique privileges which they possess in the household of the Faith, we do not want to prejudice the work—in such a country as this, especially, where all are so friendly-by raising unfounded suspicions. The officials, who were very cordial and affable, had places of honor assigned them in the aisle, and were attended to by Mr. Hillary, who found the places for them in the books. I do not think there was a hitch of any kind during the day. Our own people, who have been so well trained, found themselves instantly at home, and behaved beautifully most beautifully. I wish you had been there to see them. The singing was simple, and accompanied by a Corean on a baby-organ with one finger. The principle of the Consecration service was to give the people as much part in it as possible, consequently many well-known phrases, versicles, responses, &c., were incorporated into it, each division of the service, for instance, being prefaced with the words, "Lift up your hearts," &c. Thus the service was, I hope, brought home to them in an intelligent manner. I write in haste to catch a steamer, which I trust may enable this to get into the February number. All of us are well ; but I have no room or time for anything else beyond this absorbing matter, Join our thanksgivings to Almighty God for these fresh mercies, and ask Him to give us grace to use well the church which He has given us. Yours affectionately, C. J. CORFE.

Association of Prayer and Work for Corea.

THIS year opens with several changes in our list of Local Secretaries. Miss Semple, Secretary for St. John's, Clerkenwell, Miss Bridges for Clifton, Miss Little for Leeds, Miss Hall for Wem, and Mrs. Deards for Welwyn, resign their posts, but Miss Little and Miss Hall have found friends to fill their places. Miss Wright takes up the work at Leeds, Mr. Matthews that at Wem, and Miss Wilshere kindly carries on the work at Welwyn, until a permanent secretary can be found. Miss Little opens a fresh branch at Branksome, Dorsetshire ; Miss Chambers Hodgetts comes amongst us again as a second secretary for Exeter; Miss Wylde takes the place of Miss Bedford, secretary for Radlett, who resigned on her marriage. All will grieve to hear that Miss Bedford's married life lasted but a short time, and she was called to her rest a few weeks ago. Mrs. Ducket is still secretary for Taunton, although her name disappeared from Morning Calm, by mistake, for a short time. We welcome two new secretaries and associates in the Rev. A. G. H. Gurney, Chilworth, Guildford, and Miss Baldry, Stoke Newington.

Offertories have been received this quarter from the following churches : St. John's, Mentone ; S.P.G. Chapel, Argelés Gazost, Hautes Pyrénées; St. Mary's, Shipley; St. Saviour's, Clapham; Holy Trinity, Taunton ; St. John's, Upper Norwood : St. Peter's, Canterbury, Exeter Cathedral; Bromley College Chapel ; Baldersby, Dinder, Thurlby, Little Gransden, Mold green, St. Michael's Missionary Guild, Southsea, the Loughton Parochial Missionary Association. The Mission Guild of St. Anne's, Buxton has again greatly helped by a Sale of Work, and there have been other sales for the Mission at Coatham, Swindon, and Portsmouth (through Miss M. Milkins). Part proceeds of lectures in the Diocese of Salisbury by the Rev. J. A. Jacob, and the contents of several collecting boxes are gratefully acknowledged. The amount realised at the Sale of Work at the Church House, in November last, and at a small private sale since is ₤35. 12s. 8d. It is to the kind and ready help of many of our associates and friends that we owe this addition to our funds, and one and all are most warmly thanked. There is still a box full of work waiting to be purchased; if anyone organising a Sale of Work for the Mission cares to send for it, it will be forwarded at once. By the time Morning Calm is out the new cards of membership should be ready. They are like the old ones in color and size, but on one side they have two prayers for daily use, which we hope will be welcomed by those who find the Intercession paper now in circulation fuller than they are able to use. They shall be forwarded to all who ask for them. By permission of the Sisters of St. Peter's, a paper of Intercession for the Corean Mission used in their chapel on the day of special Intercession for Missions, December 4, may be had of the General Secretary. It will be found very helpful in showing the special work of the Mission, both at public Intercession and for private use.

The S.P.G. Bicentenary exhibitions have roused much interest in all missionary work, and there have been many lectures given at them, on the Corean Mission, by members of our own Association and of the S.P.G. On January 15 three of the St. Peter's Sisters left England for Corea, via Marseilles-Sister Alma, Sister Rosalie, and Sister Isabel. They will be joined in Egypt by Dr. Baldock and his wife. May our prayers go with them for a safe voyage and a happy return to their work of love in Corea. Mr. Badcock writes gratefully for children's magazines received from Miss Green for the boys' school at Kang Hoa. AMY WIGRAM, General Secretary.

On Tuesday, October 30, Miss Chambers Hodgetts had the pleasure of welcoming a good many members of the Exeter Branch of the Association, and other friends of the Mission, to tea at "Rowancroft.” It was a great joy to us all to have had an opportunity of meeting Sisters Rosalie and Alma, C.S.S., and in conversation with them, with the help of all the Corean treasures they could show and explain, our knowledge of their distant mission field was greatly increased and our interest in it quickened. The Rev. W. E. Pryke, Vicar of Ottery St. Mary, and a very old friend of the Mission, was present, and kindly gave a short address. The Sisters also spent an evening at the Exeter Girls' Club, several members of which have long been faithful members of the Association, and which now has its own corresponding member. We shall always remember their visit with great gratitude to them and to the Reverend Mother.

On Thursday, December 6, the Mission was specially remembered in Exeter Cathedral at the 7.45 A.M. Eucharist, and at 12 a Service of Intercession was held in the Lady Chapel, taken by the Rev. Chancellor Edmonds, who also gave a most helpful address on missionary work, and on our special work of pity for a down-trodden nation, which has never had a fair chance of national development. The collection has been forwarded to the General Secretary for the hoped for Sisters' Mission-house in Kang Hoa. In the evening a Service of Intercession was held in St. Edmund's Church, at 8 P.M., taken by the Vicar, the Rev. H, V. Panton. On Wednesday, November 28, the Mission Guild at St Anne's, Buxton, held the usual autumn Sale of Work for Missions. As this Guild is in connection with the Association of Prayer and Work for Corea, the chief Mission to be benefited would naturally be that in Corea. The Guild is small in numbers, the day was wet, and purchasers but few; nevertheless, all worked with a will-workers, buyers, and sellers alike—and a sum of £21 was realised, £18. 7s. 6d, of which was devoted to Corea.

The Rev: J.T. Mumford (Priest-in-Charge of St. Anne's) desires to recommend to others a plan which up to now has certainly worked well at his church. It is a serious consideration for a church which is supported by voluntary contributions to devote many offertories to a home or foreign Mission cause; but a Mission Guild working rather independently than otherwise of the local church system of services, &c, although composed of the members of that church, will nevertheless stir up interest and enthusiasm and material help.

Note.

A SALE OF WORK will be held in St. Jude's Parish, Southsea, in connection with the Mission in Corea, on March 29. Contributions of plain or fancy articles will be thankfully acknowledged by Mrs. York, 16 Clarence Parade, Southsea.

St. Peter's Community Foreign Mission Association.

DECEMBER is a busy month with all members of S.P.F.M.A.. and never have so many come forward to show their interest and give their help as in the end of the year just closed.

The Corean Stall at the Bazaar was well supported, and most ably undertaken by the Misses Trollope and Miss Frances Robertson-Macdonald. The curios were good and rare, and sold well, and, notwithstanding many fears and expectations to the contrary, the amount taken was the same as in 1899, and the very large sum of £ 105 was realised for St. Peter's Hospital. This is none too much for the heavy expenses necessitated by the buying of twenty-four new Lawson-Tait bedsteads for the wards, and a large supply of drugs ordered by Dr. Baldock while in England.

The new Mission-house at Kang Hoa, too, must be considered and furnished, and the funds subscribed for the hospital ought not to be diverted from their original purpose, even if they were sufficient to meet any increase of liabilities. Speaking at the S.P.F.M.A. meeting on December 4, Rev. A. G. Deedes described Kang Hoa as promising ‘to be a veritable Iona,' and if only funds are forthcoming to enable those working there to meet all the splendid opportunities afforded by the numerous openings, especially for work amongst women, great things may be hoped from the earnest efforts now being made to teach and bring in those who are willing and anxious to learn. The hospitals are now entirely nursed by a staff of ladies, thus leaving the Sisters free for teaching and mission work, and already the Corean women are most responsive, some of the Christians having cut out and embroidered a beautiful chasuble for the new Corean church, while another gladly washes the altar linen gratuitously.

By the addition of Sister Isabel to the members of the community now working in Corea the number of Sisters is raised to six, and it is probable that some of them will live and work in Kang Hoa. There was a larger attendance at St. Peter's Home on December 4 than in any former year, and the widely spread area of the Association was shown by the presence of representatives from Cheddar, Exeter, Manchester, Oxford, Salisbury, Woking, Derby, &c., as well as the heads of departments in prayer and work. The day was also observed with intercessions and thanksgivings at the Branch Houses at Woking and St. Leonards. Once more, through the great kindness of the unwearying Secretary of St. Luke's Branch, an account has been written of the day, with the addresses, speeches, &c., and, moreover, she has added to her labors of former years by writing out fully the very beautiful address given at the intercessory service by Father Benson, S.S.J.E., Cowley. The notes will be sent on receipt of a stamped envelope.

A change of name and Secretary is to be noted in one of the Branches. While deploring the resignation of one of the earliest Secretaries, Miss Hylda Bellairs, who originally founded and worked the Nuneaton Branch, which she left in a flourishing state, and subsequently founded one at Apsley, near Oxford, it is a great pleasure to welcome Miss Katherine Randall, whose connection with the S.P.F.M.A. also dates from its commencement, and who has kindly undertaken the Secretaryship of the Branch under its new name of Oxford. The Orphanage is flourishing, with its ten inmates, all of whom are provided for, and even at the time of writing offers are coming of adopting more children, one from a Sunday School in Somersetshire, and one from the indefatigable St. Luke's Branch. Nora has been adopted by Sydenham Branch, and Nancy by a Guild in New York, Katarina by the Guild of S. Katherine, Kilburn. A kind friend has supplied a great want in presenting the children with a "baby-walker," which has gone out to Corea in company with various other kind gifts taken by the three Sisters who left England early in January. SISTER HELEN CONSTANCE, Secretary S.P.F.M.A.

Correspondence.I.

CHEMULPÓ : September 10, 1900. DEAR SIR,

I enclose herewith photographs of a disaster to the hospital, which took place on the morning of September 8; and some short accounts of what took place. During the afternoon of September 7 a south-easterly wind had been gradually blowing up to a gale. Rain came down steadily all that night. At 12 o'clock I visited the wards to attend to a Chinese patient who had been admitted two days previously. Everything was found quite safe at that time. At 3 A.M. on the morning of the 8th I was aroused by a terrible thunder-clap, which was succeeded by rain falling in torrents. The wind had considerably subsided by that time. Investigation of the premises resulted in finding everything safe. Rain continued to fall steadily until about 8 o'clock when it stopped, and the wind steadily rose, blowing from N.W., until a terrific gale was blowing. I saw there was some danger to the men's wing, and walked round to investigate. Then it was observed that the roof was being lifted up and down by the force of the wind. Soon the verandah posts were torn off and went tumbling down into the road below-a distance of twelve or fourteen feet. I had just returned to my quarters and was looking out of the door when there was an extra special gust of wind which sent the roof and bricks and wood flying in all directions, resulting in the damage as seen in enclosed photographs. The bricks were tossed over into the compound, just as if they were feathers blown by the force of the wind. I hastened to examine the interior of the building, and found that fortunately no damage had been done to the walls, and the patients were quite safe. It was a great relief, as I feared for the safety of the Chinaman who was in the far end of the Corean ward. The roof over that end of the ward had been torn away, and consequently the Chinaman was speedily removed to safe quarters. During the month of August - or rather since I have had charge here until the end of August, i.e., from August 3-31 — I have attended 1,056 patients for various complaints in the out-patient department, 450 new cases, and 606 old cases. I can only deal with four or six in-patients at a time, as there is no nursing staff here.

It is difficult to get Coreans to come for treatment early enough. They generally come to the European doctor when their cases are far advanced. But perhaps in time it will be possible to teach them to act differently. I enclose a photograph also of three Coreans who are connected with the hospital. The man in the centre cooks the patients' food. The boy on his right is my ward boy. The boy on the man's left is a patient who was brought in at 1.30 A.M., having been severely burnt by an oil - lamp explosion. He is progressing slowly, but satisfactorily. The priest in front sitting down is Mr. Hillary. I hope to send photographs of interest to you from time to time. Yours very truly, SYDNEY J. PEAKE.

II.

CHEMULPÓ: October 16, 1900. DEAR MR. EDITOR, Sorry to trouble you again so soon after my last, but I am anxious to get my "goods" first to market, and I have been calculating that this should reach you by the first week in December, and so you will have plenty of time to get the enclosed ready for the February number of Morning Calm. This picture is a grand offer, the only one of its kind, and never to be reproduced. This is the interior of the church of St. Michael and All Angels, Chemulpó - church which is capable of seating 100 comfortably, and which is used by Japanese, Coreans, and sometimes by Europeans. These, however, generally allow their places to be occupied for them, and as a rule the European Sunday services are attended by a vast crowd of Angels. The Japanese are fairly regular in their attendance at the Sunday Mass, I had to examine and baptize two Japanese by immersion on Sunday, September 30. The service was in English, and Smart acted as interpreter. You will observe in the church the Landis memorial window. I want a water-bed badly; it only costs £7. 10s. (Down Brothers, near Guy's, supply them) and it would be worth £20 to me now. Will some kind friend with £10 to spare send one out? We can generally make most things out of kerosine tins and oil-paper, but even these fail when a water-bed is in demand. I wish some of you people in England could come out and sample the delightful weather we are just now experiencing. I look back to London fogs, and mud and damp, and congratulate myself that I am in Corea. I have a scheme for supplying a set of Corean photographs, in nicely bound red silk Corean book, at a price, the profits for the hospital. Publish this if you can, Mr. Editor; I am obliged to jot down notes hurriedly, so you will excuse more. Yours very truly, SYDNEY J. PEAKE.

III.

CHEMULPÓ, COREA: November 4, 1900. DEAR MR. EDITOR,

I am sending you a few photographs, for which I hope you will find room in the next Morning Calm (February). They are -or at least two of them are -of present special interest. (1) A view of the Altar of the present Chapel at Kang Hoa City. The writing above the screen is the Corean translation of the Magnificat. The writing on the north side of the screen is a hymn which is sung at the Sunday service. I don't know what the Chinese characters over the altar stand for. I should say that this Chapel is in the house which was originally erected at Kap Kotchi, and removed from thence to the city when the work developed more at that point. (2) A view of the Corean Church which is to be opened at Kang Hoa on November 15. This was taken from the roof of the surgery, which is being built at the east end of the compound. (3) A Corean farmer with his large straw sun hat, looking like a shield, which he carries in his right hand. [N.B.- I took this one Sunday afternoon when out for a walk, hence the good results.] (4) A view of the Church taken from the south-east corner of the Church compound. It was not quite finished when the photograph was taken, hence the timber and Chinese workers. (5) A view of the Corean boys (Christians) who belong to our School at Kang Hoa City. Do you happen to know of any kind and generous person who would supply me with £100 for instruments, &c.? I could do with more than this, but will be modest and ask a small sum. If not £100, then even smaller sums would be acceptable-anything from £1 upwards, as high as you like. Do get these photographs in by February ; it is cheering to see something in, and stimulates to fresh endeavors for the pictorial work of the Magazine. Greetings to all at St. John's. Ever yours, SYDNEY J. PEAKE.

IV.

OKAYAMA, JAPAN : All Saints' Day, 1900. DEAR MR. EDITOR,

Probably you will if you have not already heard something to the contrary from other sources-be thinking that I am either settled down at Newchwang or killed by the Boxers, or staying in Corea to await the results of the Chinese crisis. Hypotheses are always unsafe, so also in this case ; for I am at present where you would least of all expect me to be, viz., in Okayama, a town in Japan, about eighty-five miles from Kobé. Well, if I am not putting your patience and that of your readers on too hard a trial, I shall attempt to briefly relate the events of my life from my arrival in Corea till now.

The first place I arrived at in Corea was Fusan, where I called on Mr. Smart, who was thus the first member of the Mission I saw. It was quite accidentally I got to know he was living in Fusan; but, thanks to the good fortune that brought me on his track, I spent some very happy hours in his company, though little thinking then that we were to be fellow-workers in a more special way. I arrived at Chemulpó on August 3rd, where the Rev. S. J. Peake, our "sacerdomedicus," who had arrived shortly before me, came on board to examine us, but as he trusted my word (for the ship was in quarantine) he did not see my tongue then. I hope he never will. Shortly after he had left us, Brother Hugh Pearson came on board (I had wired from Fusan, so he knew I was coming), and glad I was, for there I stood, poor man, quarrelling about my luggage with a noisy crowd of Japanese and Coreans, of whose language I did not understand a word. Next time I come to Chemulpó I hope I shall be able to get on better with the Japanese, and as for Corean, I have, during my stay in Chemulpó, picked up enough to get on with in such a case; the two little words "ka” (or " kaggerah," if you are very cross) and "weggerah" will be of great help to anyone in the same stress as I was in then. They mean something like "get away!" We put up in the parsonage, where we made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, for, as we did not know where we should have to move to next, we were obliged to “live in boxes."

On September 23 I was ordained deacon in the Church of the Advent, Seoul, at the same time as the Rev, G. Bridle was ordained priest. On the previous Tuesday we (Bridle and I) went to Mapó, where we spent a three days’ retreat conducted by the Bishop himself. Saturday morning we moved our quarters to Nak Tong, Seoul, Rev. G. Bridle going by the electric tram, I walking with the Bishop, and let me add that it was a walk I thoroughly enjoyed and greatly profited by, for the Bishop had many things to speak to me about, and I had a good many things to learn. both about the history and about the general system of the work of the Mission, which, by the way, I find almost ideal. The Ordination service was beautiful, dignified, grand; it was partly in Corean, partly in English, but chiefly Corean. The Gospel was, of course, read by me in English. I think that one of the most beautiful features of the service was that a Russian Archimandrite assisted in the laying on of hands at the Ordination of Rev, G. Bridle. In the evening I said Evensong in St. Michael's Church, Chemulpó. As you will already know, political and other circumstances prevented, and will probably always prevent, me from working in Newchwang. The Bishop, however, was kind enough to find me some other sphere of work in his diocese, viz., among the Japanese, of whom there are large colonies in Fusan and Chemulpó. Mr. Smart is at present doing splendid work among them, but, as he is a layman, a priest is very badly needed. With this in view, I was sent to Japan shortly after my Ordination to study the language.

It was originally intended that I should stay with Bishop Foss in Kobé, but on further consideration he thought it much better for me to go to Okayama, a large town with about 60,000 inhabitants, where there are only six or seven Europeans, of whom only one besides the Roman clergy and ourselves is a Catholic. The Osaka Mission has a little branch here, in charge of which is a layman, shortly to be ordained, and a native catechist. I live together with the said layman in a large Japanese house. I cannot say that I live altogether in Japanese style, as e.g. Mr. Smart does; for we have some few pieces of European furniture, and Japanese food I do not stand, but I have certainly learnt to do without boots indoors, and to bow nearly to the ground when speaking to other people (Japanese). On October 27 Mr. Smart came and paid us a visit. He had hardly entered before we made use of him; for in the evening we had a large tea-party, to whom he gave a magiclantern lecture, and a long speech too; and the next day, being Sunday, he preached a long sermon after Mattins, and after Evensong he gave another magic-lantern lecture, exhibiting, pictures of most of the English Cathedrals. A couple of pictures of himself, with groups of Japanese Christians in Chemulpó, were very much appreciated by the audience. On Monday, at noon, Mr. Smart left for Kobé. I hope he enjoyed his visit here, and I also hope we did not overwork him. I know he can stand a good deal. Believe me, very sincerely yours, CHRISTIAN STEENBUCH.

V.

THE PARSONAGE, NEWCHWANG : November 27, 1900. DEAR MR. EDITOR,

I hope my last letter, which I sent as a kind of conclusion to the Bishop's letters from here, reached you in time for the last copy of Morning Calm. Now I am afraid I may be writing rather late for the February number, but hope it may reach you early in January. It is very hard to realise that one has to write one's Christmas letters about the middle of November, and I find one's friends in England don't always realise it either, for I had one or two Christmas cards about Easter last year, but then, certainly, they had come round by Corea. And now that the winter is on us, postal arrangements become of some interest. Before this year the letters used to go from Chefoo to Ching-wang-tao by steamer, when the ice did not stop them, and from there by rail to Kinchow (pronounced Jinjow), and thence by carriers to Newchwang, each man carrying two large bundles at the ends of a bamboo or ash pole, which he rested first on one shoulder and then on the other, getting over the ground very fast at a kind of shambling walk, which becomes almost a trot. This year, however, though English troops and others are at Chingwang-tao and Shan-hai-hwan, south of the Great Wall, and Russians are at Kinchow, yet the country in between is quite unsafe for any travellers, Chinese or foreign, who carry anything valuable. The disbanded soldiers and Boxers are patrolling the country in all directions, and rob right and left, torturing those who will not comply with their demands. One favorite method is to give a man a ride on the "fire cart," as they call the railway engine ; but by this fire cart they mean a spade which they make red hot and seat the man on it, until he gives up all the money demanded, and this very often means absolute ruin, for they know generally very exactly what each man is worth ; or they will put him in the great iron pot used for boiling rice and light the fire under it: or they will suspend him face downwards over a hot fire. But enough of horrors, you must have seen the terrible accounts of the tortures and fearful experiences of our own people further south. It is very curious to see how a Chinaman, who will take a great deal of trouble not to kill a bluebottle when he catches it, but will carefully throw it out of the window, and who can hardly be persuaded to drown the little puppies or kittens of a large litter, can nevertheless take pleasure, as they seem to do, in the torture of their fellow-men, and lo such deeds of diabolical cruelty as we have read of, and as have been duly authenticated during these late troubles. They are, it seems to me, naturally rather callous than cruel, but they don't care what torture they inflict when they think anything can be gained by it, or when they are moved by the spirit of fanaticism or hatred of the “foreign devils " and their religion. Of course they are not all like this, and many kind acts have been done by Chinese to foreigners, and many more would have been done had the intending doers not known that it meant death to them to carry out their good intentions. I forget whether I told you last quarter that in Manchuria the only foreigners that have lost their lives were French priests and sisters. All our Presbyterian friends came safely to port, one or two only just in time, with the loss only of nearly all their worldly possessions and the destruction of every foreign house, and every church, school, and hospital throughout Manchuria. And of the French priests, four who were missing have turned up. Two were in hiding in the mountains to the east of Moukden, fed and concealed by the Chinese converts, and two were able, with the help of their own people, to keep the Boxers and soldiers at bay all the time. They were in a village which they were able roughly to fortify, but were only armed with two good rifles and some Chinese ramshackle guns. With these, however, they beat off several attacks; and when the Chinese broke through their defences, men, women and children armed themselves with sticks and shovels, and any handy weapon, and drove them out again. They even had cannon brought against them, and some say that as many as 500 shells were fired into their encampment, but they never gave up, and as soon as the Russians had taken Haicheng they were released. It was indeed a plucky defence, as good almost as anything that had been done in South Africa, of course the attacking force was not a very brave one, but neither was the defending force. A thousand people, mostly old men, women, and children ! All honor to them, and especially to the French priests, their leaders! I think I told you of the death of the Bishop at Moukden. He took refuge with two sisters, two priests, and some 300 converts in the cathedral, and beat back the Boxers several times; but when the soldiers brought up the big guns he decided to give in, and vesting himself, he took up his position at the high altar, and just as he was in the act of pronouncing the Absolution, a shell burst in the sanctuary and killed him. A happy death for him, for all the rest were hemmed in in the building, and it was fired, and all were burnt to death. Two more priests were killed in their carts as they had nearly reached Newchwang, and two more, with two Sisters, were betrayed by the boatman who had agreed to rescue them. With the exception of these men and several Russian soldiers and engineers, foreigners have escaped unharmed, and there have been no such horrors as those committed by Yü Hsien in Shansi, though the will of the Tartar General at Moukden, they say, was good enough. We have of course to thank the Russians in a great measure for our safety. If they had not had the great interests of their railway to protect, Newchwang would have been destroyed, our new church and Parsonage with it, and we should have escaped with little but Sur lives. Now, thank God, all is quiet enough round Newchwang, and we shall have a quiet, if dull, winter. For the Russians will be unable to evacuate Newchwang for some months, and will be obliged to maintain a guard during the winter, and, among other things, they have arranged a telegraph service, and a postmaster is coming to look after the mail. They have a very strong hold on the place, and one wonders whether the other Powers will ever be able to make any arrangement by which their hold on Manchuria and Newchwang will be loosened. But whatever happens eventually, our position is unchanged: our services go on as usual ; Mr. Charlesworth has his four pupils under regular instruction, and, though the presence of so many Russians rather alters the conditions, the social life of the place is not much changed. We miss some of our residents, who went home with their children when the trouble began, but others have more or less taken their place, and we have quite a number of Presbyterian missionaries, Irish and Scotch, in residence, learning Chinese (many of them are new-comers), and waiting for an opportunity of returning to their work. This, however, will not, I think, be for some time. Three Scotch missionaries have just been to Moukden and back, and report a sad condition of things, in which work is at present almost an impossibility, and where no beginning, they think, can be made, for some months, to get matters into trim again. We have been much struck, in reading Robertson's account of the Decian persecution in the third century, to see how completely history repeats itself even in details. The ready way in which many of the Chinese ran to the magistrates to make their submission, some offering sacrifice to Buddha or the Boxers' god, some receiving simply a certificate of recantation, libellatics, in fact; and what is worse than all, we find just the same readiness to make light of the whole thing, most of them expecting to be restored without trouble to their former position in the Church. There are many serious difficulties and anxious moments for our friends here, both Presbyterian and Roman Catholic, and they need our prayers that they may be guided through them aright. Discipline is not a thing any too well known in our own Church, and still less so, perhaps, among the Presbyterians, where independent self-reliance is rather the keynote than discipline, so that we and they will have greater difficulties to meet than the Roman Catholics, who, whatever their faults may have been out here, have a stronger disciplinary grip upon their people than any other body of Christians. No doubt many have died for their faith, but "many" is a relative word, and though we know of several hundred who have been killed, we know there are many, many more who have recanted. It is very, very sad, but it is not surprising. Moral backbone is not one of the natural virtues of the Chinese, and many of the Christians were but lately admitted, very many not at all realising, as I have said, that they were doing anything very wrong in denying their Lord to save their life. The Church has suffered terribly throughout North China, but signs are not wanting that when a few months have passed away and things settle down again, she will, as she ever has done, rise all the stronger from her time of trial and persecution. What may happen in Shansi one cannot tell, for there, I fear the Christians may have been wiped off the face of the earth ; but here, where things have not been so bad, all is by no means lost, and men are looking forward, sadly but hopefully, to see the Church rise again on stronger and firmer foundations for all the troubles she has passed through. I find I have written of many places which a few years ago would have been unknown, but now, with all the recent maps of North China in your hands, they should be quite familiar, and I make no apology for writing of them. In fact, we are hoping out here that you in England have at last awoke to some real knowledge of and interest in the condition of things, political, mercantile and religious, in this part of the world. We don't in Morning Calm make much mention of, or, as a Mission, care a great deal for, the political situation or the mercantile situation, our interest is rather in the spiritual and religious condition of the peoples and countries of the Far East ; but, as Englishmen, we cannot fail to feel keenly the position we have been in of late years, mainly through the indifference of those at home to things which seem to us on the spot to be of paramount importance, when we see England losing rapidly the prestige that has been hers for so many years in China. But whatever may be the condition of our country's prestige out here, there is one thing fairly certain, that we are, I will not say liked best, but we are the least hated of all foreigners and, so far as one can trust what the Chinese say, the most trusted. That is a good deal to say for ourselves, and long may it be the case. Apart from politics we are not making much claim for help in evangelistic work in Manchuria, but Bishop Scott and the North China Mission will require all the help the Church can give them, in view of all the disasters they have suffered in the past year, and we hope sincerely that that help will be given with no ungrudging hand.

I have no special news to send you of Corea-that news must come from those actually living there. I am longing to get back there, although life in Newchwang is far from an unhappy life, but I shall be here till the spring reopens our rivers and my hoped-for relief comes from England. My Corean studies do not prosper without a Corean teacher, incapable as those teachers seem when they are with one, but I hope not to forget quite how to speak the language, and to be still of some little use to our Bishop when I do get back. Now, with all good wishes to you, Mr. Editor, and your readers, I am, yours sincerely, A. B. TURNER.

Hospital Naval Fund.

The Easter Meeting of the Executive Committee this year will be held on Wednesday, April 17. It is proposed to hold a General - Meeting this year in London about the end of May. Due notice of date and place will be given. The Executive Committee hope the Bishop will be present at both meetings.

The Spirit of Missions.

"IN many departments of life recovered truisms are the mental capital with which the new century is to begin.... The department, the cause, of Missions has to boast the oldest and the plainest truism of them all. The discovery with which we advance to the new century, the lamp for our feet, is nothing less simple than this, that Christian Missions must be the work of Christian people... It is a fact we have taken long to discover, and now, if we grip it fast, it will be the occasion of immense increase of force. We have spent far too much time and strength in seeking the support or in answering the complaints of men who judge the work of Missions as if it were designed to satisfy the objects of the world. We are distressed even by the opposition or coldness of those who avowedly do not care for Christ. Why should these be persecuted with appeals for the support of His work? ... Such eagerness is better spent in a more strictly divided activity; that is to say, in the separate evangelisation of the heathen overseas, and of the indifferent at home... We must no longer waste time either in attempting to make men patrons of the Gospel before they are lovers of Christ, nor in delaying the advance of Missions until the support of the world is accorded. " Christian Missions are a work for Christian men and women, and Christ needs no more than these to do it." (P. N. W. in Central Africa.) That “our unhappy divisions " are a real hindrance to the spread of the Gospel throughout the world, we cannot doubt; at the same time we may take courage when we see that they are not always a stumbling-block to the simple African mind, such as that of the chief in Basutoland who said to the first missionaries of the English Church : "Your words are good, and I am glad to welcome the Church into my country. I have often heard of the Church of the Queen, and now I am rejoiced to find the teachers belonging to it have come here. I have only seen two kinds of Christians in the country, the Ma-France (French Protestants), and the Ma-Roma (Roman Catholics). I have heard of the Ma-Wesley who have stations on the borders of my country. But I am glad now to see the representatives of Ma-Church at my house. It is good to have these four kinds of Christians near. It is like a man having four cows, sometimes he can milk them all, and when some fail he can always get a supply from the others. So Ma-France, and Ma-Wesley, and Ma-Church, and Ma-Roma all supply us in their own way with good things out of the Word of God." Here is another picture of harmony in spite of differences. Father Puller, describing a visit to the Kafirs on Table Mountain, of whom the large majority are heathen, while of the few Christians about ten belong to the Church and the others are Presbyterians and Wesleyans, writes : - “We found on our arrival that Christian worship was going on in one of the huts. On entering the hut the sight which presented itself was startling. The interior of the hut was arranged like a magnified state-room on board an ocean steamer. It was a long room with rows of sleeping bunks on either side, and heathen Kafirs in blankets were lying in the bunks. The Christians were kneeling in the centre gangway, and a Presbyterian Kafir was leading the devotions of the assembly in a long extempore Kafir prayer. After prayer a Kafir hymn followed, and during the hymn the Presbyterian brother caught sight of me, and made a gesture, implying that he resigned the conduct of the service to me. I accordingly addressed the assembly, Gilbert interpreting. My sermon being ended, another hymn followed, and then I prayed extempore, Gilbert again interpreting, and the service was concluded with the blessing. The heathen in their bunks were very attentive during the sermon, but they looked very weird and strange as they fixed their eyes upon me, with their bodies partly raised up from their reclining posture.” The events of the past year have put difficulties, which one is tempted to call insuperable, in the way of the conversion of China. “To men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” One which at this moment looms the largest is the terrible presentation of the outcome of Christianity (as it must appear to the heathen) by the European Powers. The wholesale murder of perfectly innocent Chinese-even, it is reported on good authority, of some of the faithful Christians among them -the burning, the looting—is it with such weapons as these that the Gospel of peace will conquer Buddhism and the rest ? Less horrible, but possibly more insidious, are the methods of the traitors in the camp at home, who, themselves nominally Christians, and daily enjoying the benefits that Christianity has introduced into the Western world, argue that the Far East should be left in its false beliefs and unbeliefs. The Mission Field for January gives us, in a paper too long to transcribe and too closely reasoned to condense, an admirable answer to the various sophistries with which believers in Missions have been assailed. Mr. C. J. R. Allen, formerly Consul at Foochow, is a person who can claim to speak with experience and authority. He completely refutes all the popular objections raised against the work of missionaries in China, and in conclusion gives some interesting statistics. “I have not," he says, “the statistics of the Nonconformist Missions, but the three Episcopal societies-the S.P.G., the C.M.S., and the American Church Society - have in China 15,000 baptized persons, 13,000 enquirers on probation, and 6,000 boys and girls in Christian schools, Even allowing for leakages, in the shape of impostors, do not consider the result unsatisfactory. This is not all. The late Mr. Greenwood of the S.P.G. in North China, used to say that it was nothing to him if he never made a single convert, because he knew that he was paving the way to those who would do so. It is only seed-time or plough time in China at this moment; the harvest will come a generation, perhaps two generations, later, when we have all passed away. It took 300 years to convert Rome, and it may take as long to convert China. We must look forward in faith, and say confidently that the harvest promises to be a grand one, and that the paucity of converts now is no proof of failure, but that Mission work pays, and that the game is well worth the candle. " I have tried to show, by answering the five charges brought against missionaries and their work, that the troubles in China are not due to the introduction of Christianity. Then to what are they due? I say they are directly due to the absence of Christianity, to heathenism, the very evil that Christianity is to do away with.” The Rev. Roland Allen, who, it will be remembered, was one of the two S.P.G. missionaries in the besieged Legations, has written two extremely interesting articles in the Cornhill Magazine for last November and December, on the causes that led to the uprising, and on the wonderful accidents—so to speak- by which the safety of those who took refuge in the British Legation was secured. He says emphatically that without the work of the native Christians in making trenches and earthworks they could not have held out. Some of the greatest obstacles to the acceptance of Christianity are found in what we may call the ethics of heathen religions. A worker in Japan thus describes the mental position of the women : - "Many women are literally between two fires : on the one hand is the want of any religious belief, and on the other the traditional belief of the elders, for these traditional beliefs still reign supreme in the hearts of many of the older men and women. In the family circle the elders (especially the mothers or mothers-in-law) have complete power over the women in this particular. As it is a woman's first business not to injure the feelings of anyone at any cost, it becomes all the more a matter of course that she should be self-denying in this as in every other particular, and conform to the wishes of the elders, even though her inclination lies towards infidelity or the learning of Christianity. ... Picture a woman of the middle or upper classes, of, let us say, thirty-five, brought up without any higher thoughts of responsibility than obedience to a system of morality which is practically summed up in loyalty to earthly superiors, living or dead, filial piety, and submission to men often not worthy of the name of husband ; with no true religious aspirations aroused or encouraged, no thought of responsibility to the supreme personal God, much less to one supreme God as Father, and how much less to the one God Almighty, the Father of Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord. Picture to yourself such a woman passing through the pains and pleasures of girlhood, the informing of her mind at school, the preparation for and completion of the marriage contract when yet but a young girl, the often tyrannical supremacy of her mother-in-law, the birth of children, facing all the sorrows and miseries incident to human life as well as its pleasures, hearing of and seeing a busy world achieving triumphs of knowledge and material progress, and all without any sense of responsibility to God or dependence upon Him.... The women's work is infinitely more difficult in some senses than the men's. The internal difficulties, so to speak, may be the same in both cases, but the external difficulties, the opposition of parents, the burdens of custom and social standing, are infinitely greater in the way of women learning the Gospel of the Kingdom, and becoming members thereof, than those in the way of men." In the midst of many discouragements, such as the troubles in China and South Africa, it is cheering to read how fully the "policy of faith" of the C.M.S. has been blessed in the past thirteen years. Not only has the Society's income nearly doubled in these years, but the Mission Stations have increased by 100, the number of ordained missionaries has risen from 247 to 412, and the laymen from 40 to 146. Women workers, who, in 1887, only numbered 22, are now 331, exclusive of the wives of missionaries. Native clergy and lay workers have increased from 225 and 3,500 to 365 and 6,500 respectively. In 1887 the Society had 37 European workers in Africa, there are now 163. In Mohammedan States the increase is from 18 to 100, in India from 134 to 262, in China from 30 to 150, in Japan from 14 to 74. All this growth has taken place since the date when the Committee decided to send forth to the Mission Field "all those whom they found to be qualified and fitted, in their judgment, for employment; none have been kept back through consideration of the funds of the Society."