Morning Calm v.2 no.15(1891 Sep.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 15, VOL. II.) SEPTEMBER 1891. [PRICE Id.

The Bishop's Letter. GENSAN, July 2, 1891.

DEAR FRIENDS, You will be surprised to see a letter from me which is not written in Chemulpo or Seoul; but by this time you must know your map by heart, and so be familiar with the name of the port from which I am writing. Last week Mr. Trollope came to Chemulpo to pay me a visit, and after much consultation it was thought advisable that I should take advantage of the immediate departure of the Japanese steamer for Vladivostok and pay a visit to Fusan and Gensan, the two ports at which she calls on her way. The object of the visit was to see what possibility there would be of buying a small piece of ground in case we wish by-and-by to build and begin work in these towns. The question of the purchase of land by foreigners is now being discussed, and we both felt that a personal inspection would be better than any amount of correspondence, and that the sooner the visit was made the better. I spent two days at Fusan, where I was most kindly received by Mr. and Mrs. Hunt of the Corean Customs Service. There is very little available ground for disposal in what, I suppose, will one day be the foreign settlement, and therefore very little chance of getting a centre which will be equally convenient for Corean, Japanese, and Chinese work. Fusan is a Japanese colony, very thriving and busy. The Custom-house is here, and all the trade coming to or leaving Fusan must pass through the Japanese town. No ground can be bought there by any but Japanese. I saw a very eligible site, about which I hope to hear more on my return. But if the Japanese authorities allow it to be sold I shall have to get the purchase effected in the name of a Japanese. A road - the road to Seoul - skirts the bay and leads from the Custom-house to the quarter on which it is supposed that Europeans will build if they ever settle in Fusan. Sites have been selected here for an English consulate, and residences for the Customs officials. The ground on either side of the road extends for about three-quarters of a mile in a north and north-easterly direction until the Chinese settlement is reached. The Corean town comes next, which thus completes the semicircle of houses or of ground intended for houses. A field close to the Chinese and Corean towns, and at the foot of the English Consulate hill, seemed to me the best place for our purpose. And on my return I hope to hear more of the terms on which it may be bought. In thirty-six hours we reached Gensan, the north-eastern port of Corea, only about 200 miles from Siberia. The coastline between Fusan and Gensan is very steep and mountainous, presenting a wholly different character to the west and south of the country. There are no signs of human habitation to be seen, the green hills on the sea edge being overshadowed by the lofty range of bleak mountains, which, like a backbone, runs north and south throughout the country. One sees the fitness of the name Corea, by which it used to be known out here, and is now known by Europeans, for Corea is the English way of pronouncing Kao Li, or mountainous country. You, who read the title-page of the Magazine every month, do not call the country Corea, but Cho Sen, or “ The Morning Calm," the Chinese name by which the natives of the country know it. Gensan is an even finer and more sheltered harbour than Fusan. Here too the Japanese colony constitutes the business part of the place - the Corean town, containing some 12,000 inhabitants, being relegated to the south of the bay at a distance of two miles. Just outside the Japanese settlement live four out of the five Europeans whose duty in the Corean Customs Service keeps them in Gensan. The Commissioner, Mr. Oiesen, received me with great kindness, and gave me a hospitality which I am still enjoying. The difficulty in Fusan was to find a suitable piece of land where nearly all was taken or reserved. Here the difficulty has been to select a site from so many which seem equally suitable. Nothing short of a residence here will enable us to see where we ought to go so as to be most usefully employed. It will probably be halfway between the Japanese and Corean towns. Strange to say, there is a house to let in this remote corner of the earth, and, having secured the refusal of it for six months, I am now returning to Chemulpo to see if it will be possible for us to begin work here in the autumn or winter. If it will, then we shall be fortunate in having a good house to shelter us whilst we see what channels of work are opened, and where, therefore, we ought to settle permanently. Thus, although I have nothing definite to report as the result of my visit to these two ports, I am well satisfied with what has been done, for I am now in a position to know what sites can be procured, and the demands which each place makes upon us. The Japanese steamer, in the meantime, after going on to Vladivostok, has now returned, and I leave in her to-day for Fusan, whence she will take this to Nagasaki for postage to England. I am very well, and, praying God to bless you all, am your affectionate,

• C. J. CORFE.

The following letter from a Corean pupil has been forwarded by the Bishop for publication : “ DEAR DR., "Mr. Townsend's boy sent the fifty eggs to you, because you were fixed vacinate his baby. Therefore he said very much thank you sir. “ Yours truly, "W. D. Townsend boy, “YOON HO"

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 Lorne House, Rochester.

Association of Prayer and work for Corea. THE following account of the Bazaar held on July 30 at her school in Exeter, kindly sent us by Miss Trobridge, will, we feel sure, be welcome to all those secretaries and members of the Association to whom the idea of trying to raise money for the Mission in a somewhat similar manner has occurred. All will rejoice at the very great success which has attended an effort most quietly and unostentatiously made - a success mainly due, we must add, to Miss Trobridge's generous devotion of much time and energy to the cause of the Mission, and to her evidently successful teaching of unselfish thoughts and ways to those under her care. BAZAAR FOR BISHOP CORFE'S MISSION TO COREA. The Entertainment and Bazaar which took place at the school, 4 Dix's Field, Exeter, proved, through the kind assistance of many friends, a great success. The pupils (whose ages vary from four years old to nineteen) had been working for months beforehand, the elder girls holding working parties twice a week in the evenings after lessons were over, or on their holiday night, and the dear little ones of the Kindergarten remaining after school hours in the afternoon, and lately even returning on their half-holidays to work. In response to a written notice of the sale sent out in the July Morning Calm, numerous parcels of work, &c., were most liberally contributed by the kind friends of the Mission. So that instead of realising only £io, which had been the highest limit expected, over £25 was taken; and, as the expenses were small, the sum of £24. 14s. 7d. remained for the good of the Mission. The Bazaar seems to have been the means of so widely spreading interest in the Mission that it is thought other schools may perhaps like to undertake something of the same nature. A few little details therefore (no doubt much to be improved upon) may, it is hoped, be of some slight service. A preliminary meeting was held by the pupils some few months beforehand in their largest schoolroom, when some copies of the Bishop's letters were read aloud ; afternoon tea was partaken of in a very merry and informal manner, and, after that, the first general working party took place. Since then the girls and their teachers have worked regularly, and the friends of all have most generously contributed. The interest of the little ones in the Kindergarten was also most quickly aroused; they were constantly reckoning how much money the things they took such pains to make would bring, to send to the Bishop to help in teaching the Coreans about God, and delighted in tracing on the map the direction the ship would take to carry their money out to Corea! Everything was done in the most economical manner possible ; to save “the expenses,” the stalls were improvised out of the school cupboards and lockers-two were made with little flat washing-stands covered with the blackboards, but decorated in such a manner as to be quite unrecognisable. The decorations of the schoolrooms were most pretty and artistic, thanks to the correct eye and graceful arrangement of the principal of the upper schoolroom. The entertainment consisted of Kindergarten games, &c., and recitations, and also in the satisfactory performance of a musical programme by the elder girls. The Misses Trobridge wish through the medium of the Magazine to thank all those who so kindly contributed to the sale.

The Corean Exbibit at the Royal Haval Exhibition. SINCE the description was printed in the June number of the Morning Calm several objects of interest have been added to this collection 1. In the Bishop's letter of May 14, 1891, he gives an account of the commencement of work with the printing press presented to him by the chaplains of the Royal Navy. The first document printed with the press is a letter of thanks to the donors. A copy of this is now in the case. There are also some specimen pages of a work now being printed at the Mission press, an English-Corean Dictionary, by James Scott, M.A., of H.B.M.'s Service, who forwards these at the request of the Bishop. The following description accompanies them : "The Dictionary is the first attempt to formulate an EnglishCorean vocabulary ; it will cover some 500 pages, and contain the Corean equivalents of some 10,000 English words. Copies will be sent to the Oriental publishers in London for the convenience of anyone desiring to obtain the work." Photograph of printing-house at Seoul, with quarters of Mr. S. J. Peake and Mr. J. H. Wyers. 2. The following articles, illustrating the people and customs of Corea, have been received from the Bishop: (1) A large bowl made of paper, lacquered and painted ; it stands on three shells worked into it as feet. (2) Native map of Corea. (3) Corean story-book. (4) Corean merchants' calculating machine. The Swanpan or Abacus. (5) “Cash" or Corean money from the mint at Seoul. These coins are worth 5 "cash " each, and 200 of them are carried on the straw string as shown, a knot being tied at the 100th to facilitate counting. (6) Pouch worn by every Corean at his girdle - the only thing in the shape of a pocket which a Corean has in which to keep his valuables. (7) Corean tobacco-pouch. (8) Tobacco pipe. The shape universally used by both men and women. (9) A Corean spoon. (10) A pair of spectacles worn by Corean gentlemen. (11) Corean umbrella, placed over the hat and tied under the chin. (12) Pair of string shoes, worn over padded cotton socks. With small shades of difference used by all classes out of doors. The hole is for the projecting big toe ; the cords fit over the heel. (13) A Corean child's socks. (14) A pair of child's out-door shoes; wood. 3. Articles sent by Miss Burnett, an English lady engaged in educational work in the High School in Tokyo. (See Bishop's letter, Morning Calm, August 1891.) (1) A pair of lady's shoes of the better class. The foot is small, but never crushed as in China. (2) A piece of Corean silk, used for outer coats of better class. These are something like tail coats with the slits in the wrong places, presenting to us a very curious appearance. (3) A front worn round the head under the hat, the cordy part being drawn in under the hat. (4) A child's purse. (5) A ribbon for tying into plait of boy's hair, with an inscription wishing happiness to the wearer. (6) Brass pots, Corean make, used in the better native houses for washing the mouth before meals. There is plenty of copper in the country, but that used is imported from Japan and alloyed to prevent oxydation. (7) Photograph of the king and queen of Corea. (8) Paper of native make, pair of string shoes, and Corean cash. (9) Corean fan, with emblem in the three royal colours.

Mission house of the Resurrection. SEOUL, COREA, First Sunday after Trinity. DEAR MR. EDITOR,— I should be glad to enable the readers of Morning Calm and the subscribers to the Naval Fund for Hospitals to gain a glimpse of the medical work which is being carried on daily in Seoul in connection with our Mission. Being at liberty for a part of the morning last Thursday I received permission from Dr. Wiles to accompany him on his daily visit to the American Hospital, of which he has been temporarily in charge for some months past. I was there a little before eleven, the hour appointed, and found a cluster of patients around the Compound, and in the waiting-room of the Dispensary a Corean attendant with a book in his hand. He knew some English, and, leading me into the doctor's private room, asked me to excuse his remaining as he was reading the Scriptures to the patients in the waiting-room. The Doctor soon came and took me into the Dispensary, where the business of the morning began. At the bidding of the Doctor the patients were called in one by one by the two or three Corean attendants who acted as interpreters when necessary. It was a comparatively light morning's work-only fifteen or sixteen out-patients. Each was called up, looked at, examined, provided with necessary medicine or ointment by the attendant, the case entered and dismissed with directions when to come again. Each case seemed to secure its due meed of consideration without a single needless question and without any hesitation with regard to the remedy. Ear cases, eye cases, and skin cases form the bulk of those attended. An eye case, having been neglected too long, had to be dismissed as hopeless. Another unpromising case was that of a lad about fifteen with heart disease. A man came to report himself who, a few days previously, had had a tumour removed from his head, going through the operation, at his own desire, without the aid of chloroform. His recovery had been somewhat retarded by his indulging in a drinking bout a day or two after. After the out-patients had been seen, those from the hospital were summoned. One of them, a dropsical case, was a very pitiable object, the disease seeming to have drawn into the distended parts from the rest of the body and also all the intelligence from the face. He had been under treatment from the native doctors, treatment which consists of sticking long needles into the parts affected. The last case was a surgical one, removing diseased bone from the leg of a young boy. As one watched the doctor's steady hand and anxious face one seemed to lose the creeping, sickly feeling which the first use of the instruments produced and realised more that one was really witnessing a work of mercy. The disease proved to have gone further than the doctor first hoped it had, and there will be need of a further operation, but there is hope yet that good may be done for the lad. One noticed that the attendants seemed to take considerable, if not always a tender, interest in dressing the wounds. and also to be pleased with the cases that showed improvement and promise. The Dispensary is kept abundantly supplied with medicines by the American Board of Missions. The men's hospital, however, is not very complete as an institution. There is no nursing but such as they can give to one another, and they have to provide for themselves and do for themselves in the

matter of cooking and washing. In the latter respect they certainly do not exceed what could be expected of them. The doctor regards a properly organised hospital and trained nurses as a great desideratum to enable the diseases of the people to be properly dealt with. Meanwhile, one believes it to be an immense gain to the people here to have the help of one like Dr. Wiles, who not only knows his work so well but knows also how to do it. While we are thankful for this we hope that what he desires will be provided before long. How one does wish that we could bring a like effective skill and promptitude to the recovery of souls that need health and salvation. For this indeed we find many outward needs unsupplied at present ; but we are, I trust, saved from undue discouragement by the remembrance that our first work is, by our corporate life here, to bear witness to that Living Agency in the Church which can restore to souls that are drawn thither by their own sense of need a fulness of that life for the enjoyment of which they were created. We hope that the readers of Morning Calm and those who aid our Mission by their prayers and labours will be patient and wait much longer yet before they look for exciting accounts of missionary expeditions and native conversions. We have to lay in this country the foundations of Church life as far as our own communion is concerned, and ask their prayers that we may do our work, which is theirs too, patiently and faithfully. Believe me, yours truly, RICHARD SMALL.

The Spirit of Missions. AN admirable work is that which is being done by the Nurses' Missionary Association. It was founded just over a year ago to provide a fund to assist Church Missions in foreign lands in their medical work. This is done in the simplest and least pretentious way, not by retaining a special staff of nurses, and thus at once retaining some hold upon them and increasing expenditure, but by furnishing already existing agencies with funds, the only stipulation being that those selected should be trained nurses, communicants of the Church of England. And already grants have been made towards the Nursing Fund of the Central African Mission, the hospital at Mahanora in Madagascar, the nursing work in Corea and Sierra Leone, and the Association furnishes the salary of a native nurse in Peking. But it will be seen that the work is capable of almost infinite extension, and that it is one which ought to appeal to everyone who knows the healing of the Physician of souls and bodies. Those who are not nurses are cordially invited, both male and female, to become members of the Association, and to aid by their alms and prayers - and, it may be, if God so wills, by giving themselves to the work. The annual subscription is one shilling, payable in January ; and Miss Image, 53 Gloucester Street, London, S.W., is Hon. Sec. and Treasurer.

Missionaries have often to minister worldly things to their people as well as spiritual things. The following letter was written by a Kaffir boy named Quanqiso, son of Sami, to Archdeacon Gibson, while he was in England : - "I send to you, missionary ; I greet you, my missionary, my chief. I am still well here, my chief; I remember you, my chief ; I think of you very often indeed ; my heart, my chief, remembers you, my missionary. I should be glad to be told that I might come across the sea. That is all to-day. P.S. - I have no trousers, and I have no coat. My trousers are worn out. Still, I am not asking; I am only reporting!”

We are apt sometimes to forget the gradual change which is going on in India as the result of the spread of Western thought. The Hindus themselves, however, do not forget it ; and large numbers of the orthodox Brahmins look with fear and apprehension upon the spread of principles of materialism and So-called "free-thought," and, still more, the deterioration of life which inevitably follows. “Only a short time ago," says a Writer in the Mission Field, “a rigidly conservative Brahmin spoke out at length his appreciation of the check to free-thought and agnosticism provided by the religious teaching of Christian missionaries in schools and colleges; and the value of such expressions is certainly not less for the future than at the time of utterance." It is very encouraging and thankworthy to find Christian missions thus recognised by heathens as a bulwark against unbelief. And that this is not a mere recognition in Words is shown by the fact, recorded by the same writer, that the hall of the Trichinopoly S.P.G. College was built largely by the subscriptions of Hindus, though devoted to Christian missionary work.. At the same time, as is well known, there has been a great conservative reaction against irreligion in the Brahmo Somaj a sect whose pure Brahmoism provides a place for our Lord as chief among their saints. A visit has recently been paid to them at Dacca by the Rev. H. Whitehead, Superior of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta. "On Easter Day ..." he says, “at both the morning and evening services there were some eight to ten Hindus and Brahmos present at the back of the church. Among them was an old friend of mine, one of ‘the twelve Apostles’ of the New Dispensation, the sect of the Brahmo Somaj, established by the late Keshub Chunder Sen. He came to pay me a visit in the afternoon, and we had a long conversation on religious matters, chiefly about our Lord's Resurrection and the meaning of the words ‘a regenerate soul,’ which he had met with in some Christian book. He said, at the end of our conversation, that he thought the main difference between Christians and Brahmos consisted in the fact that we attached more importance than they did to the manifestation of God in history ; and that is about the truth. The Indian mind shows a singular incapacity for appreciating historical truth, and views the historical basis of the Christian Creed through the medium of a dreamy mysticism. " The apostle asked me if I would go on Monday evening to the house of one of the leading members of the Brahmo Somaj in Dacca, to meet a few of his friends, and give them an address. This I gladly consented to do. . . . At the appointed time I went to the house of Babu G. C. Sen, and found there about thirty men assembled to meet me, most of them past middle age, and people of good position in the town. After the ceremony of introducing me formally to every one had been gone through by Babu Pyari Mohun Chowdhury, my friend the apostle, the proceedings commenced by the singing of a Brahmo hymn to a Bengali tune. It was intended to be a 'cheerful noise,' no doubt; but to European ears it sounded doleful in the extreme. It contained praises of our Lord and invocations of the Holy Spirit that sounded entirely Christian. Such language, at first, might lead one to suppose that the Brahmos were almost persuaded to be Christians; but one soon learns that even the most dogmatic language means little more to a Brahmo than a general expression of admiration for our Lord's character. After the hymn a passage was read out of a Brahmo book containing a paraphrase of the Gospel account of our Lord's baptism, interpolating, in true Oriental style, imaginary details, and speaking of 'His long hair floating on the breeze,' and 'the gracious smile upon His countenance,' without any attempt to distinguish truth from fiction.* I was then asked to give my address, and spoke to them for about forty minutes on ‘the knowledge of God.’ After the address another hymn was sung and the proceedings terminated. I stayed for a short time to speak to some of those who were present, and then, with many expressions of mutual goodwill, I took my departure.... The Brahmos are a comparatively strong body in Dacca, and, whatever the defects of their theology, undoubtedly exercise a good moral influence among the students. I left Dacca very much impressed with its importance as a centre of work among the educated classes of East Bengal. With our present resources it is rash, perhaps, even to think of extending beyond Calcutta ; but I cannot help casting a wistful glance at Dacca, and hoping that the daily prayer that is offered for an increase of our numbers will some day be so fully answered as to enable us to establish our first branch in this most promising sphere of labour."

• After the manner of the gradual growth of all Eastern sacred writings.

An onward step has been made in the appointment of Dr. Louisa R. Cooke, of Edinburgh University, and Miss Heathcote, lady nurse, to the medical staff of the Corean Mission. These ladies sail on September 5th for Corea, where they will form a regular part of the Mission and take up their special work of ministering to the native women. It is hardly necessary to add that this means very considerable extra expenditure, and any sums specially set apart for this purpose will be thankfully received by the Rev. C. E. Brooke, The Vicarage, Vassall Road, S.W.

Education Fund. THE following letter has been sent to all members of Elizabeth College, Guernsey : - DEAR SIR, Perhaps you are aware that Dr. Charles John Corfe, an old pupil of Elizabeth College, Guernsey, late a Chaplain in the Royal Navy, and nephew of the late Rev. A. T. Corfe, formerly Principal of the College, was selected by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1889, as Missionary Bishop in Corea. It is a post of supreme responsibility, calling for much courage and faith to meet its many difficulties and dangers. By those who can claim the Bishop as an old schoolfellow, and, indeed, by all Elizabethans and Guernseymen generally, and by those connected with and interested in the Island, we feel sure that the distinction thus conferred upon him will be regarded with great satisfaction, both as a well deserved tribute to the man, and as an honour to the College. The Bishopric is unendowed, and must depend for its success upon the assistance afforded by friends of Christian Missions. On his visit to Guernsey in 1890, Bishop Corfe expressed a great desire that any support he might receive from Guernsey and the College might be directed towards the advancement of education in Corea, so as to associate that part of the Mission more particularly with the Island of Guernsey. With the view of meeting the Bishop's wishes a public meeting was held in Guernsey on the 3rd of April, 1891, at which the following resolution was passed : -

“This meeting approves of the proposal to connect the Corean Education Fund with Elizabeth College, and hopes that past and present Elizabethans will give their hearty support to the Fund and to the Mission which has for its head Bishop Corfe, a distinguished alumnus of our school." In accordance with this resolution, therefore, we, the undersigned, venture very earnestly to invite your co-operation and assistance. Subscriptions will be thankfully received by the Hon. Treasurer, Mrs. A. Nicolls (née Dobrée), or by the Guernsey Banking Company for the account of “Corean Education Fund." We are, dear sir, Yours truly, W. C. Penney, M.A., Principal of Elizabeth College, Chairman of Committee.

John R. Magrath, D.D., Provost of Queen's College, Oxford. Henry A. Giffard, O.C., I Southwell Gardens, S.W. George E. Lee, M.A., Rector, St. Peter's Port, Guernsey. A. Anstruther Corfe, M.A., Vicar, Timsbury, Romsey. Charles J. Durand, Colonel, Grange Villa, Guernsey. H. Austin Lee, British Embassy, Paris. J. Mourant, Junr., Rozel Terrace, Guernsey. R. A. Wilson, Crane Street, Salisbury. T. Percy Fox, Purbright, Chislehurst. Kentish Brock, Admiralty, S.W. Members of Committee. Mrs. Amelia Nicolls, The Elms, Cambridge Park, Guernsey, Hon. Treasurer.

Missionary Intercessions and Thanksgivings. James v. 18. - "And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." MISSIONARIES IN THEIR WORK. Pray that God would — (1) be the life of their actions, (2) enable them to acquire languages, (3) supply them with the necessaries of life, (4) give them friends in a strange country, (5) inspire them as they preach, (6) as they translate and compose, (7) direct them in the administration of the Sacraments, (8) bless them in the education of children, (9) uphold them in maintaining discipline, (10) make them constant in prayer, (11) courageous in mortification, (12) ready in every good work. MISSIONARIES PREACHING. That God would bless them in preaching to-(1) the crowd, (2) the two or three, (3) the dull and ignorant, (4) the self-satisfied, (5) the prejudiced, (6) the inquirers after truth, (7) those moved to repentance,(8) catechumens, (9) the faithful, (10) before civil powers, (11) in the streets and bazaars, (12) in the churches. THANKSGIVINGS. We praise God for - (1) increasing interest and zeal in mission work, (2) the liberal gifts of benefactors, (3) the prayers of the faithful, (4) the alms of the poor, (5) the zeal and watchfulness of Missionary Bishops, (6) the self-sacrifice of Missionary priests and deacons, (7) the devotion of ladies in missionary labours, (8) the assistance and support of zealous laymen, (9) the willing service of doctors, (10) the help of skilled workmen in the mission field, (11) the privations and sufferings of missionaries gladly endured, (12) the glad surrender of life for the holy cause, (13) the many heathen being led to Christ, (14) the many preparing for holy baptism, (15) the perseverance of the baptized, (16) the raising up of native ministries, (17) the noble example of many converts, (18) the triumphant death of many martyrs, confessors, bishops, priests and laymen in heathen lands. SPECIAL INTERCESSIONS. (1) For God's blessing on the founding of the Corean mission, (2) for special grace to all those labouring in Corea, (3) for the completion of the new dioceses of Calgary, Rockhampton, Mashonaland, Lebembo, and North India, (4) forthe Archbishop in dealing with Palestine difficulties. September. 27. Exeter │ 28. Gillingham, Norfolk.