Morning Calm v.2 no.18(1891 Dec.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 18, VOL. II.] DECEMBER 1891. [PRICE 1d. The Bishop's Letter. CHEMULPO, COREA, August 1891. DEAR FRIENDS, In this letter I am able to give you a more than ordinary piece of good news. Some months ago I applied to the Corean Government, through our Vice-Consul in Chemulpo, for permission to purchase a plot of ground outside the general foreign settlement—that is to say on ground exclusively Corean—for the purpose of building upon it a hospital in which Coreans would be our first care. After some correspondence, I have had the gratification of seeing my request granted. Nor was this all. The price asked by them for a piece of land sixty feet square, in the best possible situation—for it overlooks the whole native town—was only twenty dollars, or less than £4. I call this an unusual piece of good news, because, as it seems to me, this readiness on the part of the Government proves one or two things which are to our advantage. First, that when the Coreans receive good treatment they can appreciate it as well as other folk. Then we must already have disarmed some of that suspicion with which all foreigners are said to be regarded in this country, or they would scarcely have given so ready an assent to a proposal which came in the first instance from me. Again, in allowing us to purchase the ground they have shown none of that desire to make money out of us with which most people would have credited them. Twenty dollars is hardly more than a nominal price to ask. I think I shall not be far wrong in ascribing their goodwill towards us to the fact that they have watched the medical work which as for nine months been carried on amongst them in Seoul by Dr. Wiles, and in Chemulpo and its surrounding villages by Dr. Landis. They have watched the work and have been satisfied with the result. We had no doubt that their work would be well and thoroughly done. But we could not dare to hope that in this short time it would be so well known to the Coreans themselves. I suppose, however, that it could hardly   be otherwise, when our two doctors reckon their Corean patients by thousands, and when no fees are demanded by them, nor even payment for medicines. On all accounts I feel that the time for beginning hospital as distinct from dispensary work has come, and I am indeed thankful that the opening for it has come in Chemulpo in so satisfactory a manner. In a former letter there was a postscript which briefly announced the failure of the scheme by which we hoped to open the port of Fusan with a Japanese doctor for the large Japanese colony there. We had secured our doctor, but an illness, which I hear is likely to prove chronic, compelled him to withdraw at the last moment. For his support for one year I had drawn on the Hospital Naval Fund to the amount of £100. This sum I now purpose to devote to building a hospital on the piece of ground we have just bought. As I said, it stands in the best possible situation, on the top of a hill higher than most of the hills which shelter Chemulpo from the northerly winds. An exposed situation, you will say. In winter we shall have to take care that the rooms are warm, and Coreans well know how to do this if they have the fuel. But in summer we shall be glad of this airy situation, which will perhaps do more for our patients than we think. Coreans do not love ventilation. The good that will come to them when sick from good air and sound sanitation will surprise them, and perhaps teach them in time a lesson worth learning. In a future letter I shall tell you of the hospital we propose to put here, and how we hope to support it. In the meantime, what I most desire now is that an English man-of-war would visit the port and enable my naval friends to see for themselves the beginning of the work which they are so generously enabling us to do. Hitherto I have not had any occasion to draw on the Fund. Now, however, that the purse-strings have been loosened, they must expect to hear that the money flows out freely. But they will be glad to know that I have not spent it in experiments. When an experiment succeeds people are pleased, but when it fails there is disappointment all round. Here in Chemulpo, through the kindness of the S.P.C.K. in giving us medicines and maintaining our doctor, we have been enabled to advance the work beyond the experimental stage. The crowd of Corean patients of all classes to be seen in the dispensary warrants me in believing that some of them will accept the greater boon of hospital treatment as in-patients. For this I am going to use the Hospital Naval Fund. Next year please be prepared to hear that we are doing the same in Seoul, where Dr. Wiles has been incessantly engaged in helping forward the Mission in a way little   short of marvellous. But I am not allowed to enlarge on the debt we owe to him. When I attempt to speak of it he always puts his hand over my mouth. I content myself with saying, therefore, that his work in Seoul is more important than the work of Dr. Landis here, because of the greater importance of a work carried on in the capital compared with that in a tiny place like Chemulpo. Although this letter is written to Morning Calm, it will be seen by many of my naval friends, who, I know, will rejoice with me and, I feel sure, will renew their efforts on our behalf and raise up for us new friends to whom I am personally unknown. God bless you. I am ever your affectionate friend,

• C. J. CORFE.

Notes. WE have received a copy of the following letter which has been sent round to each of the donors of the Mission printing-press:— “MISSION HOUSE OF THE RESURRECTION, “Seoul, Corea, April 13, 1891. “DEAR— “Printed circulars are generally received with suspicion—rarely hailed with delight. I think, however, it will give you unqualified pleasure to receive this letter from me when I tell you that it is the first work turned out by the printing press which you and the remainder of my former colleagues were so good as to give me last year for the use of the Mission to Corea. "The press, which was purchased from Messrs. Harrild & Sons, was sent from London early last January, and reached Seoul to-day. In Mr. Peake we are fortunate in having on the staff of the Mission one who has a practical knowledge of printing. He is energetically assisted by John H. Wyers, Leading Seaman, who, having left England last December in H.M.S. Himalaya, purchased his discharge in Hong Kong, and joined the Mission here about a month ago. “Thus, you see, no time has been lost in getting the press under way. The task of printing an English-Corean Dictionary, by James Scott, Esq., our Vice-Consul in Chemulpo, has been entrusted to us—a task which is to be proceeded with immediately. But before this work is taken in hand I wish to send you a letter of renewed thanks for the valuable gift with which you have presented us, and to tell you, in the first impression, that your gift has begun to prove useful within a year of its presentation   and in less than four months of its departure from England. And, although he is not able to set up the type, I hope that Wyers will strike off this impression. "I do not propose to give you any news of the Mission in this letter, because I feel sure that, your interest in our work being so keen, you read the letter which I write every month in the penny magazine, which since July 1890 has been the magazine of the Mission. "In a recent number you will have read a letter from Dr. Landis, showing what success has attended his medical work in the port of Chemulpo. Besides the dispensary there, which is being used by increasing numbers, Dr. Wiles has built two dispensaries in different quarters of the Capital. "I am thus able to include in this letter to you a brief mention of the successful establishment of the work which my many friends in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines are enabling me to accomplish by means of the Fund for Hospitals in Corea—a work which I trust will be maintained and developed by your continued efforts on our behalf—efforts which will surely bind you all closer together, as they bind us closer to you. “Believe me, with all good wishes for yourself and those committed to your care, “Yours very gratefully and sincerely, “C. J. CORFE, “Missionary Bishop in Corea and the Province of Shing King in China." A meeting of the heads of the various departments in connection with the Mission was held at the vicarage of S. John the Divine, Kennington, on Tuesday, November 3. The proceedings commenced with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which was followed by a conference. Every branch of the work was represented and its affairs discussed, while none could go away without feeling the untold help which resulted from meeting together in order to review the past history and the future prospects of the Mission. Several very important questions were laid before the meeting for consideration, which it is not necessary to give to the readers of Morning Calm in detail, as no doubt they will be informed by the various secretaries of any changes which may affect themselves. It is suggested that the Mission should hold a triennial festival as near as possible to May 1, and it is hoped that a similar Conference may be repeated every year.   In response to a letter in the Guardian and Church Times, the Rev. Herbert Kelly has received no less than forty-eight applications from young men who are anxious to join the Missionary Brotherhood. Of these five have already been definitely accepted, thus making the total number of eight who are being trained for future work in Corea, and which, unfortunately, is as many as there is accommodation for at present. There are, however, still several applicants who have not yet been refused, some of whom, no doubt, have a true vocation for the work, but until another priest offers himself to assist in their training it is very difficult to accept them. We commend to the special prayers of our readers the needs of the Brotherhood, and especially that God will raise up another priest to share in the work. Hospital Naval Fund. THE Chairman of the Executive Committee has received a letter from the Bishop, dated September 2, which will be incorporated in the Annual Report. In the meantime the contributors to the fund will be glad to learn why the Bishop has not drawn more for the medical work which is already so successful, both at Seoul and Chemulpo. It is mainly owing to the generosity of Dr. Wiles, at whose cost the two small dispensaries have been put up in the capital. At Chemulpo a piece of ground has been purchased from the Corean Government, on a high hill overlooking the native town. On this, after consultation with the doctors, the Bishop is building a hospital in Corean style. For this purpose a second £100 has been remitted from the Hospital Naval Fund. The greatest economy is exercised in this work; Dr. Landis and his Corean teacher carrying it forward without the intervention of contractors. The Bishop observes, "My two constant ideas are (1) to husband my resources as much as possible; (2) to take advantage of every opening which presents itself.” And he continues, "The income to be derived from the fund is scarcely a secured income, nor, I suppose, can it be fixed, except approximately, in amount. But I am hoping that an impulse will be given to the fund when my friends find that I am actually using it and actually wanting more. In the meantime I have to regard it as precious capital to be expended very carefully and judiciously. But to suppose a case—if I saw my way to an income of (say) £300 a year, I would spend all the money now in the bank on buildings, and rely on the   income for the support of a doctor or two or nurses, or for the supply of medicines. But that the medical work of the Mission is going forward and developing satisfactorily the Committee may be assured, and hitherto with a minimum drain on the funds with which they are good enough to supply me. This month last year Dr. Wiles landed in Corea, followed three weeks afterwards by me. It is, therefore, less than a year's work that I have to report upon. When the year is completed—that is, by the beginning of October—I expect that Dr. Landis will have got into the south wing of the hospital. So that all is going prosperously, and we may humbly regard the work of this year as the foundation of much greater work in the future." St. Peter's Foreign Mission Association. THE Sisters of the Community of S. Peter, Kilburn, having at the earnest request of Bishop Corfe consented to undertake nursing work in Corea, some of the associates are very anxious to collect enough money to procure for them a good supply of books, especially works of reference, theology, and biography. It has been suggested that it would be as well for us to put our wish before the readers of Morning Calm, because amongst those readers there may perchance be some who, loving books and realising how great a trial the want of them would be in a distant land, where there are few opportunities of procuring them, may like to help us in this matter. Donations will be very gladly received either by Mrs. Mairnsele, Dovercourt, Harwich, or by Miss F. Robertson-Macdonald, 9 Great Bedford Street, Bath. Some, however, may prefer to give a book as a token of individual interest in the Sisters and their work. If so, will they write to either of the above-named, stating what sum they would wish to give, and the name of a book required will be very gladly sent. It will be very readily understood that, the cost of freightage being very great, only such books as are of real use to those who are going out can be taken, and for this reason a very careful selection must be made. Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. SUNDAY, December 6, S. Nicholas Day, is the day appointed by the Bishop to be specially kept by the members of his Association. (See the rules of the Association.) We hope that special intercession will be offered in many churches, and that,   where possible, sermons will be preached on behalf of the Mission on that day. Priest Associates especially are reminded of the clause in our rules in which they are asked, “if possible, to celebrate for the Mission annually, on December 6." There is one matter to which I wish to ask the careful attention of Secretaries in drawing up their January reports. Only subscriptions and donations received during the last three months of this year, and so belonging to 1891, must be entered on the January report forms, and sent to me during the first week in January. I must ask Secretaries to reserve any 1892 subscriptions received by them before sending in their January report for their April report, that I may be able simply to enter all I have received from them, and have acknowledged on the fly-leaf with Morning Calm, in the Annual Report for 1891, which will be drawn up in January next. I have much pleasure in adding to the list of working parties for the Mission, which are going on in various localities (given in the November number), one being held by Mrs. F. E. Wells, Priestwood Vicarage, Great Missenden. M. M. CHAMBERS HODGETTS, General Secretary. Some Corean Customs. MISSION HOUSE OF THE RESURRECTION, Nak Tong, Seoul, Corea, July 29, 1891. DEAR MR. EDITOR, I see you considered one or two extracts from letters were interesting enough to find a place in Morning Calm. I send you another incident or two. When a Corean is attacked by smallpox his relations at once conclude that he is seized by some evil spirit, and the first thing they do is to hire a man to come and beat on a gong for hours, until he frightens away the evil spirit. The other day a neighbour of Dr. Wiles's was attacked by the smallpox, and the poor doctor was distracted by hours of this terrible beating of gongs. At last it ceased, and the people came out and ran about the yard, chasing the spirit. At last they caught it, and with some mighty heavings flung it over Dr. Wiles's garden wall, greatly to his delight and relief, though it was an unfriendly act, for I expect they thought it would enter into him; but I expect they did not care so long as they were rid of it. Again, when the case appears hopeless the wretched   sufferer is taken out of his bed and carried off to the city wall, where he is placed in an upright position and there exposed till death comes to relieve him. Coreans are frightfully cruel; they seem to have no idea of the value of life, and, of course, this is more the case in their dealings with animals. The other day some of the servants caught a rat, and we thought they were going to drown it, as they took it away and dipped it into a can, but we were astonished to see the rat rush away a mass of flames. The wretches had dipped it into kerosene oil and then set a light to it. The sight of the animal in flames seemed to entertain them greatly, and was greeted with peals of laughter. It never seemed to enter their heads that the animal was in great agony. I have seen two royal processions when the king makes a public journey. He but rarely leaves his extensive palace-grounds, but every two or three months he goes out in state. The first time I saw it in the morning, and the second time I saw the return of a procession by torchlight. The torchlight procession was most imposing; all along the road on either side for fifteen miles there were large "flambeaux” made of bamboo canes and straw, which gave a brilliant light. Quantities of the nobility, officers of the army, and other officials were in the procession, which must have numbered many thousands. It was a strange sight to see the higher officials wheeled along on very lofty monocycles. They looked very grotesque perched up on the top of the high wheel, arrayed as they were in their most gorgeous apparel. The king's chair came at the latter end of the procession. It was covered with white silk and sable skins, and surrounded with candles; but, despite the display, I thought he looked apprehensive and ill at ease. They say he is always afraid that some attack may be made on him. The king has had an English house built for him, and had it furnished at great expense. One night he tried to sleep in his foreign bed, but when he got in and felt the cold sheets he was horrified, and quickly got out again. They say he has not tried it since. Believe me, Very faithfully yours, LEONARD O. WARNER. The Spirit of Missions. EVERY death of a Missionary is a call for many volunteers to carry on his work. And such calls have been very frequent lately. Within the last two months there have been three, in   far distant parts of the world. William Boone, the gallant American Missionary Bishop at Shanghai, succumbed to an attack of fever on October 5. The Archbishop's Assyrian Mission is disabled by the death, through an attack of pneumonia, of Mr. Jervis, the junior Mission Priest and Chaplain to the Sisters at Urmi. While on Lake Nyassa, following closely upon the death of Mr. Viney, the staff of the Central African Mission has been weakened by the death of George Sherriff, who has been in charge of the steamer Charles Janson from the time that she was launched. It is now five years since Captain Sherriff left his home and his work as a fisherman at Brixham to take his part in the great work of God as a "fisher of men." A year ago the writer saw a statement of his that his life had been happier ever since. May God put it into the heart of one of his old comrades at Brixham to offer himself to God in his place, to carry out the same great work! The recent severe weather has treated very hardly the Southern Cross, the new steamer of the MELANESIAN MISSION. She had just started on her voyage to the other side of the world when she was encountered in the Channel by the great gale. She proved a capital sea boat, but the storm and its effects were so severe that she had to put back to Southampton for repairs. These are now completed, and we can wish “God speed” to her and those on board of her in the work which she is entering upon. Few things could show more clearly the new place that Christian Missions are taking in the world than recent events in AFRICA. Not many months ago the Universities' Mission and its Bishop were in communication with the Marquis of Salisbury and the German Emperor, in a way which has had distinct international results. And now the Church Missionary Society has been the means of carrying out a still greater work in Uganda. The Imperial British East Africa Company has had its agent, Captain Lugard, and a small force at Uganda for some months now, with very excellent effects. Before his sterling good sense and courage the feud between the Roman and English converts has been restrained, the king has taken up a fairer and more impartial position, and the changed state of affairs has shown itself by a union of strength against the Arab slave-holders. But, owing to the expense and difficulty of transit, and the failure of the Company's hoped-for subsidy from Government for their railway, they had decided that their   agents must be withdrawn, unless £40,000 were immediately forthcoming; and of this they could raise only £25,000. The effects would have been in the highest degree disastrous. It would have immediately destroyed British prestige in Uganda, and very likely involved us in such difficulties as the Germans and French have recently experienced. But, more serious still, it would have led to a civil war between the Christians of Uganda, and very likely to a massacre of European Missionaries, English or French. This was prevented, however, by the gallant action of the Church Missionary Society, who have guaranteed the £15,000 still required—more than half of it having been subscribed at a single meeting on October 30. We have every reason to be humbly thankful that such a thing—hardly conceivable even twenty years ago—has become possible. The story of Bishop French's decision to become a Missionary is a very interesting one. “He determined," says his son-in-law, “that if a tutorship were not offered him within two years (from his election as Fellow of his College in 1848), he would give himself up to Missionary work. At the end of two years he did so, and was not drawn back, even by receiving, the very day after doing so, the offer of a tutorship from the master of his college." It is by such apparently trivial ways that God the Holy Spirit leads men; and, we may add, it is by such constancy under such circumstances that men are able to follow His leading. On June 29 last a baptism of somewhat unusual character took place at Poona. A distinguished native, who had been for some time an applicant for baptism, but whose difficulties had been such as to delay his admission into the Church, was at length received. The account of his baptism as seen by non-Christians will prove of interest. It appears in the Bombay Diocesan Record, being translated from the Marathi paper, the Kesri. “Embraced Christianity:—Mr. Gopal Vinayak Joshi last evening received initiation into the Christian religion at the Sangam* at the hands of the Rev. J. Taylor. Mr. Rivington and another European padre, as well as some dozen native Christians, were also present at the time of the ceremony. Some 75 people besides were present to see what was about to

• A well-known spot at Poona, the confluence of two streams.

  take place. At first the padre had formed the intention of performing the rite on the pavement in front of the temple of Mahadev, close by the Sangam; but the officiant of the temple and others strictly refusing to allow the ceremony to take place there, the padre moved further down the river, and stood on a stone a little way in the water. The padre, who was about to perform the act of initiation, removed his hat and invested himself with a white robe, and passed a black ‘putta' around his neck. Gopalrao, having stationed himself beside the padre, gave an address, of which the following is an abridgment:— ‘It has been noised abroad for many a day that I was about to become a Christian; the reason, however, that it has taken so many days to come to pass is that there has been a difference of opinion between the padres as a class and myself, of which the cause is as follows: The custom of the application of the Gandha* is held by the padres to be a mark of idolatry, whereas, I say, that it is no mark of idolatry, but simply of one's Hindu nationality, and nothing besides: those who are slovenly do not apply it; those who are tidy in their ways do. I see no harm whatever in applying the Gandha; but since the padres say that it is a sign of idolatry, I here remove it' (Gopalrao here rubbed off the Gandha with his hand). ‘The second difference of opinion has been in regard to the sacred thread. The padres as a class say that the sacred thread is a mark of idolatry; but I do not regard it as such. In infancy it is impossible for a child to commit a fault, or even to be cognisant of the distinction between right and wrong; but this sacred thread is for the purpose of imposing a restraint upon his conduct after he has become seven or eight years old. I regard the sacred thread as implying a restraint, that restraint being of the nature of a restriction put upon a man not to commit evil actions, and I see no harm in wearing the sacred thread: since, however, the opinion of the padres cannot be brought to coincide with mine, I have at this time taken off my thread and have placed it with a friend. Now I am going to accept the Christian religion.’ When Gopalrao had finished his remarks, the Rev. Mr. Taylor read from a religious book. In the middle of it, as he was reading, he turned to the west; and Gopalrao also had a book in his hand, on which he was looking likewise. When the reading was finished Gopalrao divested himself of his upper clothing, and, wearing a waistcoat, bathed in the water; while doing this the Rev. Mr. Taylor placed his hands upon his head. Gopalrao has not taken off

• Pigment applied to the forehead.

  his tress of hair. After this bathing was finished, Gopalrao, standing up in his wet clothing, Mr. Taylor uttered some more words connected with religion.’ Afterwards Gopalrao having reassumed his coat, hat, and other clothing, he and the padres departed in a carriage, and alighting near the Municipal Office went home. The company dispersed. When a man has begun to grow important there are no bounds as to where he will go to." A rather interesting unpublished letter of David Livingstone has recently been found at Selwyn College, Cambridge. It is addressed to the late Professor Selwyn, elder brother of the first Bishop of New Zealand, and was found in a book formerly belonging to him, and now in Selwyn College Library. It is a letter of thanks for the gift of Bishop Selwyn's “Method of Translating the Holy Scriptures into Foreign Languages," and runs as follows:— "57 SLOANE STREET, "7th March, 1857. "MY DEAR SIR, "I beg you will receive (sic) my hearty thanks for the copy of your brother's work you have been kind enough to send me. “I am very glad to see by a glance at the preface that the bishop fully realises the value of missionaries gaining an accurate knowledge of the native languages, and have no doubt but this book will assist in the object he had in view in its compilation. It is a great mistake to suppose that a man who can, after a few months' learning, utter strings of sentences in a native tongue is able to speak the language or translate the Bible. So every effort made for the systematic study of languages intended to be the vehicle of truth must commend itself to all who love mankind. “Believe me, Sir, “Yours very truly, “DAVID LIVINGSTONE."   Missionary Intercessions and Thanksgivings. MISSIONARIES IN TEMPTATION. That God would enable them to overcome temptations to (1) sloth, (2) worldliness, (3) impurity, (4) pride and self-will, (5) despondency, (6) impatience, (7) envy. MISSIONARIES PREACHING. That God would bless his servants preaching to (1) Jews, (2) Buddhists, (3) Hindoos, (4) Parsees, (5) Mohammedans, (6) idolators, (7) devil-worshippers, (8) all unbelievers. That God would accomplish His saving work among the heathen (1) by the virtue of Christ's passion, (2) by the power of His Intercession, (3) to the joy of Saints and Angels, (4) to the confusion of evil spirits, (4) to the everlasting felicity of His elect, (5) to the glory of His Holy Name. SPECIAL MISSIONS. Central Africa: that God would grant more priests, more school teachers, more medical missionaries, more workers and means for Zanzibar hospital, health to the Bishop and his workers, candidates for the ministry at St. Andrew's College, rest to those who have given up their lives. Japan: that God would grant His blessing on the Guild of St. Paul, wisdom and guidance to the Bishop, support to those afflicted by the earthquake, the triumph of the faith among the heathen, South Africa: that God would grant the healing of schism. the establishing of the Church in Mashonaland, guidance to its Bishop, illumination and guidance to the Bishop of Zululand and the Bishop elect of Bloemfontein, progress to the Church's work among the colonists, more priests for the growing need. Canada: that God would grant the healing of divisions, the progress of the Church's work, increased supply of the Church's ministrations to scattered settlers. THANKSGIVINGS. That God would accept our true thanksgiving for (1) signal blessing on the Corean Mission, for the many workers at home, for those ladies who have joined the Mission, for the health of those abroad, (2) for the preservation of Bishop Bickersteth, (3) for the election to the Bishopric of Bloemfontein, (4) for the many and signal proofs of God's blessing on the Church's work in heathen lands.