Morning Calm v.2 no.13(1891 Jul.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 13, VOL. II.] JULY 1891. [PRICE Id.

The Bishop's Letter.

THE most important news from the Bishop during the past month is a request for four more priests, so rapidly is the work of the Mission spreading under the blessing of God. Writing from Chemulpho, the Bishop says :- “Matters in this port have gone so far that I feel obliged either to refuse all the openings which are being provided by the Japanese, or try to get some one who will come and under-take Japanese work apart from Corean. For the present, at all events, I have determined to interfere as little as possible with the course of theological training in Seoul. On the other hand, I dare not drop the work which has been going on here from the first. As long as this work is confined to the Sundays it will not be difficult to bring any one of the staff here from Seoul from Saturday to Monday. The Sunday work consists of two European services for Church people, one service for Dissenters, and a Bible-class for Japanese. But now there comes in the school work amongst Japanese and Chinese undertaken by the doctor on week-days. This has become too heavy for him, and I am taking a class of Japanese every day. Though this instruction is purely secular, it has already led to some of the pupils (all adults) asking me to give them an instruction in the Bible on Sundays-a justification, if justification were needed, of the doctor's wisdom in consenting to teach them English. The fact is we are getting the Japanese into our hands, and I reason that if the adults are eager to learn from us, it is likely that in the event of our being able to open a school for their children they will allow their children to attend. Once grant the ex-istence of a Japanese and Chinese school for boys and girls, the Coreans will by-and-by find it easier to avail themselves of the school for their children.” With reference to another part of the Mission the Bishop says :- “Last Sunday week I received through the Archbishop the despatch of Lord Salisbury adding Shuig King, in Manchuria (i.e. China proper), to my jurisdiction. I expect you will have heard of it long ago. All I can think of at present is how to provide for New Ch'wang, a treaty port containing a handful of English who have never had a priest of the English Church living among them. I have written to Mr. Tucker about this, and suggested that two priests, unmarried, should be asked for, to go and live there and take care of these few sheep and learn Chinese, with a view to starting mission work which may hereafter be developed.”

July. 6. St. James', Great Yar- | 15. St. Margaret's, Liver- 28. Trinity College School, mouth. pool, Port lope 7. Great Yarmouth. 16. Bishop sailed for Corea, 29. St. Clement's, Phila10. First member of Mission 1890." delphia, sailed for Corea (1890). 25. Church of the Trans. 30. The Bishop of Dela13. Ward of Perseverance, figuration, New York, ware. St. John's, Kenning- 26. Guild of St. Anna, New 31. The Bishop of Long ton. York. Island.

SEOUL, COREA, Saturday, April 18.

DEAR MR. EDITOR,

-Our little party of four-including Mr. Pownall, Mr. Davies and myself, together with John Wyers, the ex-bluejacket whom we picked up at Hong Kong-arrived in Corea at length on Thursday, March 19, ten weeks (all but one day) after leaving England. Now that we are all here, I suppose that you and your readers will be expecting from time to time to hear something of us. We, the last arrivals, are hardly of course as yet able to tell you anything much about Corea. But it is possible that some of your readers may be interested to hear a little about our journey thither. As Corea lies almost exactly on the opposite side of the globe to England, it of course is possible to get to it either way round, either across America or Canada, which was the Bishop's route, or by the Suez Canal, the Indian Ocean, and the China Seas, which was ours, and a very long route it was. Twelve thousand miles at least we must have travelled, although (as a sailor friend of mine at Yarmouth has calculated for me) Seoul is only a little more than five thousand miles from England, as the crow flies.

On January 9, in the middle of your terrible English winter, it was that we sailed from London on board the magnificent P. & O. s.s. Arcadia, one of the two largest in the Company's fleet. She was bound, with most of her passengers, for Australia, so that we had to be transhipped half way (at Colombo) on to the much smaller and much less comfortable P. & O. s.s. Rosetta, which was to take us to Shanghai. The voyage down the English Channel and across the Bay of Biscay was uneventful, and the weather fairly calm until we reached Gibraltar, where we made our first stop (January 13), and were able to spend a few hours of the lovely morning ashore. Between Gibraltar and Malta, which we reached on January 16, we experienced some Very rough weather, and even old sailors admitted that it was blowing a gale when we were just off Algiers. The ship rolled till we thought she would roll right over, and when a ship like the Arcadia rolls it is no slight matter. At Malta we got a whole day ashore, and were most hospitably entertained by the Rev. G. M. Sutton, a friend of the Bishop's and his successor at the Royal Naval Hospital, and by Captain Corfe, the Bishop's cousin, in command of H.M.S. Gannet which happened to be in port. A beautiful day's journey along the coast of Sicily and Italy brought us to Brindisi early on Sunday morning, January 18; and in this most uninteresting place we were delayed for nearly thirty-six hours waiting for the mails which were snowed up somewhere in France or Italy. At last, however, they arrived (over 1,300 sacks of letters) and we got off again, and reached Port Said on January 22. This is another most uninteresting and very ugly place-a town of mushroom growth, which has sprung up at the junction of the Suez Canal with the Mediterranean, We stayed here a few hours, during which we had to go ashore to escape the fearful annoyance of the coal-dust, as the ship coaled here; and then all the rest of that day and the next night (oh! how cold the wind was) we were steaming slowly down the Canal, “tying up” now and again to let other vessels pass, and aided in the dark by the brilliant electric light we carried on our bows. We got to Suez the next morning, and then steamed right away down the Red Sea to Aden, which we reached on January 27. We managed all the way out to say matins and evensong every day together in our cabin, and it seemed strangely appropriate to be saying the 114th Psalm (In exitu, Israel) when we were perhaps steaming over the very spot Where the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea, when “the sea saw hat and fled,” in sight of those very mountains which had “skipped like rams.” I was also able to celebrate the Holy Eucharist more than once in my cabin, with the help of the useful little “Portable Altar” given me by some good friends before I left England. And as we also managed to get Divine Service in the saloon twice on every Sunday (and even on Ash Wednesday) all the way out, you will see that we were not left altogether spiritually destitute. In the public services we shared the duty with the only other clergyman on board, Mr. Hoare, a C.M.S. Missionary returning to his work at Ningpo, in Mid China, with whom we made great friends, and of whom you will hear more later. But to return. A few hours on the hot, dry, rocky, sandy shore of Aden was long enough to make us feel satisfied that we were not going to live and work there; and then six days of beautiful weather, as we steamed across the Arabian Sea (Indian Ocean) brought us in sight of Ceylon, and to our anchorage at Colombo, which we reached on Candlemas Day. The place looked beautiful under the blazing sun-so green and fresh, after the dry, rocky shores of the Red Sea and Aden. And here we each had a friend to meet us. So after seeing to the tranship-ment of our baggage on to the Rosetta, we went ashore to spend the six or seven hours that were left to us before the Rosetta sailed. We all went to service at the Cathedral, where Archdeacon Miller, who treated us most hospitably, also had a collection for the Corean Mission. The Bishop was absent from Colombo, but we were able to see a good deal, and a good deal that was interesting of the work which the Church is doing there. Indeed we were quite sorry to hurry away again so soon, but there was no help for it as the Rosetta was starting that after-noon. Five days' sail across the Bay of Bengal brought us into the Straits of Malacca, and on Saturday, February 7, we were able to land for a few hours at Penang and to enjoy the beauties and the heat of a thoroughly tropical country. We had time to go out and see the beautiful waterfall (oh ! how hot it was this time !), and to get a dip in the delightful bath, which has been hollowed out near its foot; and then in the afternoon we set sail again, and, spending Sunday in the Straits, arrived on Monday, February 9, at Singapore. This was the southernmost point of our journey, and we were now within a few miles of the equator, basking in the heat, while you in England were still enveloped in snow and fog. It was the Chinese New Year's Day when we got to Singapore-a great holiday all over the East, and one round which everything centres from Singapore to Seoul. The population of Singapore is very largely Chinese, and it was here that we first came across that wonderful people, which is making its influence felt throughout the world, and with which we shall have largely to deal in Corea. We stopped twenty-four hours there, and saw what we could of the place and its neighbourhood-in the afternoon watching a cricket match between the town and the garrison, and in the evening going to evensong at the Cathedral, where we made the acquaintance of good Bishop Hose, of Singapore, Labuan, and Sarawak, who charged us with kindest messages to our own Bishop. Next morning we were off again and steaming in the teeth of a N.E. monsoon (which made the sea unpleasantly lively) for Hong Kong, which we reached on Monday, February 16. Here again we met with most hospitable entertainment, this time from another friend of our Bishop, Sir James Russell, C.M.G., the Chief Justice of the Colony, who treated us royally and sent us away laden with a “little balm and honey” for his old friend Bishop Corfe. Here, too, again we made the acquaintance of the English Bishop, Dr. Burdon, who takes his title from “Victoria,” the true name of the Colony, Hong Kong being in reality the island on which it stands; and he too charged us with mes-sages of kindness to his brother Bishop in Corea. Here, too, once again we picked up John Wyers, the ex-bluejacket, who is following his old shipmate, our Bishop, into the Mission-field. Our visit to H.M.S. Victor Emmanuel in the harbour, to find him, brought us into contact with several naval friends of the Bishop's, notably Commodore Church, who treated us with great kindness, and made us the bearers of yet other messages of affection to Corea. Space would fail me were I to try to tell of the wonders of Hong Kong, its great “Peak,” its magnificent harbour, and its tremendous commercial importance. The port of Hong Kong is second only to London and Liverpool, of all ports in the world, in the amount of shipping that passes through it; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank is said to do a larger business than any other bank in the world except the Bank of England ; and the importance of Hong Kong as a factor in the commercial world is on the same scale in all other depart-ments. Moreover, what is true of Hong Kong is true also, in a proportionate degree, of Shanghai, and of the other treaty ports throughout the East, from the Straits Settlements to Yokohama. Perhaps, when Englishmen more often extend their travels beyond America on the West, and India on the East, English Churchmen will realise more the enormously important part which England plays, and must play, in the quarter of the globe which lies between America and India, and will then be ready to give more enthusiastic support to English Missions in China and neighbouring countries. As matters stand, it is roughly true to say (while making exceptions on behalf of a good deal of solid English Missionary effort) that the English nation confines its attention in these parts strictly to business, financial, com-mercial, and municipal, in which it is paramount, while it leaves the bulk of such spiritual and intellectual work as is done to be done by French Roman Catholics and American Nonconform-ists. But to return again. Leaving Hong Kong on February 17, we steamed away North again (the weather now becoming quite cold) for Shanghai, which was the end of our journey as far as the P. & O. was concerned. The rest of our travels were accomplished on the steamers of the Nippon Yussu Kaisha (Japan Mail Steamer Co.), whose system covers, or will shortly cover, the seas from Yokohama to Shanghai (and perhaps Hong Kong) and from Tientsin and Vladivostock to San Francisco. At Shanghai, where we arrived (February 20) exactly six weeks after leaving London, our troubles began. First, the Northern ports of China and Manchuria (like Tientsin and Newchwang) were still frozen up, and so the steamers which trade with these ports, taking Chemulpo in Corea on the way, were not yet run-ning. This made it necessary for us to travel viâ Nagasaki (Japan), and unluckily we arrived at Shanghai, just in time to miss the Nagasaki steamer. This meant a week's delay in Shanghai, and when at the end of that (February 27), the s.s. Saikio Marn (a beautiful vessel) took us to Nagasaki (March 1), we found we must wait another fortnight there, before the Owari Marn would come in (March 14) to take us on to Chemulpo. Then between Nagasaki and Chemulpo we encountered such fearful weather on board the little Owari Marn that we had to go a hundred miles out of our course, and finally to anchor for twelve hours, under the shelter of one of the myriad islands which fringe the Corean coast. So it was that our journey took us ten weeks, all but a day, and we did not reach Chemulpo till March 19, all well, however, and none the worse for the journey. At Chemulpo we were welcomed by the Bishop, who seemed well and in good spirits. For some time past he had been living there with Dr. Landis, whose successful work among the Coreans and Japanese of Chemulpo is opening up several avenues of Missionary work there. Mr. Peake we also found at Chemulpo, on a visit to Mr. Scott, H.B.M. Vice-Consul there, and a very good friend to us. The rest of my party proceeded to Seoul the day after our arrival, and the Bishop and I followed them a few days later-those few days being spent under the hospitable roof of Mr. Johnston, the chief of the Corean cus-toms at Chemulpo, another very good friend of the Mission. In Seoul we found Mr. Warner and the others (except Mr. Small who had gone to take the Bishop's place at Chemulpo) busy moving, from the old temporary quarters near the British Consu-late, to our permanent abode (The Mission House of the Resurrection) in the quarter of Nak Tong, while Dr. Wiles remains in his own little house near the Consulate. Excluding the two doctors, the Mission staff now numbers eight, of whom one will ordinarily have to be at Chemulpo, and the rest for the present here in Seoul. We are now very busy making our-selves shipshape and comfortable in our new home, as we bask in the warmth of the delightful spring weather. But of our life in Seoul you must hear more another time, as my letter has already reached inordinate dimensions. Let me just say, how-ever, that the enforced delay in Shanghai and Nagasaki was by no means an unmixed evil, giving us as it did a chance of seeing something both of China and Japan, countries whose influence and importance in Corea it is hard to over estimate. At Shanghai, moreover, it enabled me to avail myself of the very generous hospitality of Mr. MacGregor (of the house of Jardine and Matheson), who kindly entertained me for the week. It enabled me, too, to pay a most interesting visit to my friend Mr. Hoare, at Ningpo, and to learn something of the good work which he and his confrères of the C.M.S. are doing there, while at Nagasaki, too, we were enabled to form ties of intimate friend-ship with brother missionaries (also of the C.M.S.) at work in Southern Japan. And now with many thanks to those good friends who have been praying for a prosperous voyage for us, and with deep thankfulness to God who has so signally answered these prayers,

I remain, Yours very sincerely, MARK NAPIER TROLLOPE.

Note. MISS DAY writes to us that she will be pleased to send (post free) to anyone who will send her 6d. a copy of the reprint of the Bishop's Letters. Her address is 2 Lorne Villas, Rochester.

Association of Prayer and Work for Corea

THE “Sale of Work” in connection with Mrs. Maximilian Dalison's “Working Party” (mentioned in the Morning Calm for May) took place Friday, May 15, in the Oak Room of the Palace at Hampton Court. Financially the result was not large, but when it is taken into consideration that to set the work going there had to be a considerable outlay for materials, &c., the cost of which came to £11. os. 1 1/2d., and 9s. gd. for printing and advertising the sale of work, all of which debts have been discharged from the proceeds of the sale, it is not a result to make us feel discouraged as to the future work, which through the medium of the Working   Party we hope will be accomplished for Corea. After paying all expenses we were able to hand over to the General Secretary, Miss Hodgetts, £3. 10s. 1 1/2d., and are left with a large stock in hand of materials and articles for our next sale. Mrs. Dalison was kindly assisted at the sale by the members of her Working Party, and the help given by Miss Majer, her sister, and a friend was especially valuable, and the trouble taken by them, and the deep interest shown by all the members of the “Working Party” as well, greatly added to the success of this first effort. The following ladies kindly sent contributions :- Miss I. Sykes, Miss H. Hall, Miss Greenaway, Miss Eva Wilson, Miss Frances Miller, Lady Walpole, Miss Mary Sims, Miss Fowler, Miss Gorton, Mrs. Nevill, Rev. Digby Ram, Mrs. Chapman, “C. M. A. T.” Member Associate for Corea. We may add that the Hampton Court, East Molesey, and Kingston tradesmen who were asked to contribute in kind for the Refreshment stall most generously responded.

CHILDREN'S BRANCH. The amount taken at the children's stall, together with the proceeds of the little Concert given by the “Children's Choral Class,” in Mrs. Maximilian Dalison's apartment at Hampton Court Palace on May 16, reached the sum of £4. 7s. 6 3/4d., and was handed over to Mrs. Goodenough. (Signed) GRACE DALISON, Hampton Court Palace. I shall be very grateful if Local Secretaries will kindly send in their July quarterly report forms as early as possible in the first week in July, as I am anxious if possible to set them in order for the printers before leaving home in the second week. As I shall be away from home during part of July and all August, I venture to ask that all correspondence that can with-out serious inconvenience be deferred should be reserved until September, and also that all letters to me on Corean business should be marked Corea outside the envelope. Indeed, it would be helpful to me were they always so marked. I hope to receive many July reports, and some from those secretaries, of whom there are still a few, who have not yet proved their fulfilment of the Bishop's request to interest at least their own friends in his work, by sending me any list of members of the Association. M. M. CHAMBERS HODGETTS (General Secretary).   my feet. Of course I bade him not to kneel. He said, ‘My father, I only knelt because my heart is warm to a man that pitied the Red man. I am a wild man. My home is five hun-dred miles from here. I knew that all the Indians to the East of the Mississippi had perished, and I never looked into the faces of my children that my heart was not sad. My father had told me of the Great Spirit, and I have often gone out into the woods and tried to talk to Him.’ Then he said so sadly, as he looked in my face, ‘You don't know what I mean. You never stood in the dark and reached out your hand, and could not take hold of anything. And I heard one day that you had brought to the Red man a wonderful story of the Son of the Great Spirit.’ That man sat as a child, and he heard anew the story of the love of Jesus. And when we met again he looked in my face and he said, as he laid his hand on his heart; ‘It is not dark. It is not dark. It laughs all the while.’ Only one word and I have done. It is toward eventide with some of us, and we are looking forward to going home, and to meeting the Saviour, and next to having the old ties re-united. Oh, my brothers, there will be comfort in meeting some one whom our prayers and our alms have helped heavenward and homeward.”

One passed from this world a short time ago who deserves to be ranked with the greatest Missionaries of modern times. Some two years ago Thomas Valpy French resigned the Bishopric of Lahore because of failing health, but with the intention of continuing to use his linguistic gifts and spiritual powers in the Mission field. Early in this year he went to Muscat, to take up his abode there in the very heart of Mohammedanism. Until Easter Mr. Maitland of the Cambridge Mission to Delhi was with him, and then, in the fortieth year of his Missionary service, he began working alone. The few English residents were quite hopeless of any effect on the effete Oman Arabs. “I only pray,” wrote the Bishop, “that the loneliness may help me to realise more fully the blessed Presence which fills, strengthens, animates, and supports.” Dr. French had an interview with the Sultan of Muscat (a nephew of the Sultan of Zanzibar) who received him courteously, offering him quarters in a native fort. He spent his days much as those of Henry Martyn were spent, in whose footsteps he consciously followed. “I am glad to find how much more intelligible my Arab teaching is than in Tunis and Egypt. I hope soon to find an Arab Sheikh of some learning to carry on translations in Arabic under his guidance, if life and health be spared.” Amongst other projected works was a translation of S. Hilary on the Trinity, and “a tract of some size in Arabic, setting forth simply and intelligibly, but also as impressively and scripturally as possible, the main characteristic differences of doctrine and practice between the two faiths.” Many days, too, were spent with gathered companies of Arabs, who discussed freely the doctrines of the Faith, and listened readily. “Some of these Arabs, old and venerable men, seemed to hang upon the Word.” It would be hard to imagine anything nobler than this old and tried soldier of Christ going forth, like S. Boniface, to spend his latter days in the face of the enemy rather than in well-earned rest at home. And it seemed as if a noble work was being opened up. But it was not to be. Again, like S. Boniface, he was called away almost at once to his rest. In the middle of May a telegram announced that he had been stricken with sun-stroke, and so had passed away. We may not doubt that the Church is the richer, not the poorer, for his death and his example. May it be true of him, as of Henry Martyn, that his example will quicken many future generations of Missionaries.

The Melanesian Mission is passing through a period of great trial. Bishop Selwyn, according to the latest accounts, was lying dangerously ill at Norfolk Island. Admiral Lord Charles Scott sent a steamer to bring the Bishop to Sydney for constant medical attendance, but when the last mail left he was too ill to be brought on board. Meantime the death rate has been heavy throughout the Islands, and the Mission has suffered a severe loss by the sad death in England of the Rev. J. H. Plant, one of the Missionaries, of influenza. To turn to other things: for the first time for many years the annual statement of accounts shows a deficit, and to meet this the Bishop has given £200 of his very small income, and Archdeacon S. Williams of Te Ante, in New Zealand, £500, in addition to his ordinary annual sub-scription of £100.

The Mission needs our prayers, and deserves all our sympathy. A letter from Bishop Scott gives an account of the North China Mission to the endof last year:- “The season,” he says, “has been a very disastrous one, by reason of the enormous rainfall, which has increased the floods (alas! too common under Ordinary circumstances) to a vast extent. Nothing of a per-manent character has been done to prevent their recurrence, and one lives in a hopeless certainty that any year will see a repe-tition of the misery on a larger or smaller scale. In Peking many of the houses have suffered severely. Our little church was flooded for several days, and in the compound many portions of the walls fell down. We have escaped very well when our case is compared with our neighbours, but it has cost us more than £40 merely to repair what is absolutely necessary.” On November 4 the Bishop started on his tour of visitation to the stations of the Mission-southwards to Lin-Ching by boat on the Grand Canal; “then,” says the Bishop, “we take barrows or some other conveyance across country to Ping-Zin, one of the stations in that part; thence across country to Tai-an-foo, and home again by Lung-hwa-tien and Yung-Ching to Peking. The total journey would be something over two hundred miles, by boat and road.”

A letter from Bishop Smythies gives an account of his work at Magila :-“I have had one very pleasant work to do. About eight persons, who had been publicly censured for gross sin, three having been excommunicated for several years, have given up their sin and have come to ask for restoration. Two of them received absolution publicly the Sunday before last, and three more I hope will come soon. In some cases the return was made easier by natural causes, but their desire for restoration and willingness to take shame for their sin helps us to realise the advantage of obeying the commands of our Lord and His Apostles in the matter of excommunication. I believe, if at the time we had only remonstrated with them, they would have relapsed into utter indifference. As it was, their excommuni-cation weighed upon them, and prepared the way for their repentance and restoration. “. . . Last Sunday I had as full a day as I have had in Africa. I went to Umba on Saturday, held evensong and preached. On Sunday morning we had Holy Communion with a few words, later on Bondei service in church, then to town with the con-gregation, where I robed and preached under a tree to a fair number; took a class, visited two sick people, and saw several individually. In the afternoon rode through the forest (about two and a half hours' ride), visited a new town where four Christians have settled. In the evening, service in Bondei and sermon at Msaraka ; thence to the large town near Mkunti, and preached to the whole town I should think, or very nearly so. We went straight from church with lamps and bell, and boys to sing hymns. I read the commandments, and, as there has been a case of murdering a child for some one of the many superstitious reasons for which children are killed here as soon as born, I stopped after the sixth commandment, and I hope frightened them seriously. I was none the worse for the long day next morning.”  

Missionary Thanksgivings and Intercessions

St. Matt. vii. 7.——“Ask, and it shall be given you.”

PREPARATION FOR MISSIONARY WORK. Prepare those whom Thou hast called by-(1) Thine own training of them, (2) developing their faith, (3) strengthening their courage, (4) grounding them in humility, (5) steeling them to endurance, (6) kindling in them zeal, (7) the gift of bodily health, (8) sanctifying their natural talent, (9) blessing their studies, (10) exercising them in spiritual combat, (11) teaching them to pray.

HOME EFFORTS. Intercession for the labours in aid of-(1) the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, (2) the Cambridge Mission to Delhi, (3) the Oxford Mission to Calcutta, (4) the Maritzburg Mission, (5) the Capetown Association, (6) Association of Prayer and Work for Corea, (7) Corean Hospital Naval Fund, (8) Corean Education Fund, (9) Corean Children's Fund, (10) St. Peter's Kilburn Association for Foreign Missions, (11) Mr. Kelly's Mis-sionary Brotherhood,(12) The Assyrian Mission, (13) Association of Prayer for Japan.

SPECIAL MISSIONS. Thanksgiving for-(1) blessings on Archbishop's Assyrian Mission, (2) safe arrival of the Corean Missionaries, (3) appoint-ment of Bishop for Zululand. Intercession for formation of Dioceses of Mashonaland and Lebombo. For more priests for Madagascar, Central Africa, India, Japan, China, Burma, Borneo, the Dioceses of Australia, South Africa, and Canada. For blessing on the Chota Nagpore Brotherhood. For guidance of the Archbishop in dealing with the Palestine difficulties. For a catholic spirit to the C.M.S. For all Missionaries in time of tribulation, in the hour of death in the day of judgment.