Morning Calm v.3 no.21(1892 Mar.)

THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ No. 21, VOL. II.] MARCH 1892. [PRICE Id. ________________________________________ The Bishop's Letter. SEOUL, COREA, November, 1891. DEAR FRIENDS, During this month you will have heard of the terrible earthquakes in Japan, and perhaps will have been anxious on our account. We experienced nothing of them. It brought to an abrupt termination, however, the residence of more than one Japanese in Corea. The sad news of relatives killed, wounded, or missing, together with the immense loss of property, caused many to hurry back to their native land at once. Mr. Murakami, the young Japanese of whom I wrote last month, was amongst the number of these. His father wrote to him urging him to visit some relatives who had suffered in the earthquake, and he left us as suddenly as the rest. At the end of October we were glad to welcome two new arrivals, Miss Cooke and Miss Heathcote, both trained nurses, and the former a M.D. of Edinburgh. And now we shall be able to solve the much vexed questions: Will the women of Corea suffer themselves to be treated by European doctors? Will they come as in-patients of a hospital if one is built for them? Above all, will the men in Corea ever allow them-selves to be nursed by women? I assure you these questions have hardly begun to receive answers yet, though the country has been open to foreigners so long. Now I am thankful to say we have the material wherewith to make an attempt to provide answers for ourselves. From time to time, therefore, you will be looking for accounts in Morning Calm of the progress of this new and very important branch of the Mission. I came down to Seoul to greet the new-comers, who, after a few days rest at the ever hospitable house of Mr. Johnston, left with me early in the month for Seoul. Mr. Davies had been busy to some purpose in my absence and by means of a few wooden partitions and some new paper had completely transformed the Mission house of the Advent which we had decided should be given up to the medical work amongst women--for the present   26 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ at all events. They soon settled down and became (I hope not too) comfortable. Adjoining the Mission-house is a room which is to be the dispensary as soon as they have got a few Corean words and perhaps a woman servant (a matter of great difficulty in Corea) to help them out with the patients. I felt that one of us ought to be living near the ladies at first in case of unforeseen difficulties and in order to try and make them feel less the loneliness and strangeness on coming to such a country. Accordingly I oc-cupied this room and had also the advantage of being close to the Church of the Advent, in which we began regular daily service. At the same time I felt that this room would soon be wanted by Dr. Wiles for the dispensary work of Miss Cooke. It seemed therefore that now an additional house was necessary in this quarter of the city for a resident clergyman at the Advent. This meant building--which, again, meant buying some more ground. Happily the compound adjoining the Advent property was for sale, and I had no hesitation in buying it. It is large--though not so large as Nak Tong--and has an abundance of trees and shrubs in it, which make it extremely pretty nearly all the year round. Dr. Wiles' tiny house stands in this compound and, not reckoning his stable and servants' quarters, there is no other house in it. Having found a space clear of trees and com-manding really a fine view over the city and hills to the east be-yond, I determined to build a Corean house which should be large enough for two single men. It is now finished and consists of three good rooms and a hall which in summer will make a very good fourth room. This work has occupied most of my time during the month, for Corean builders require as much super-vision as Chinese, and a great deal more indeed. I hope soon to get into this house and leave the dispensary free for the ladies, Meanwhile Mr. Davies has returned to Nak Tong, which now that Mr. Trollope and Mr. Peake have come back from their journey to Gen San, is full again. Mr. Pownall and Dr. Landis continue at Chemulpo and are in full swing with their Japanese and Chinese school. The new school-room answers very well and we have every reason to be thankful that we built it. The winter has set in early this year. We have already had snow and 20° of frost. But we are all well and looking forward to being braced up after our summer slackness. I had nearly forgotten the most important event of the month--the unexpected arrival, namely, of H.M.S. Severn on a five days visit to Chemulpo. Captain Hall is an old messmate and great friend of mine. The Chaplain going up to Seoul, I   THE MORNING CALM. 27________________________________________ was glad of the excuse to go on board on the Sunday to perform some of his duties. All hands received me with great kindness, and judging from the visits which many of them afterwards paid to the Mission buildings and St. Michael's Church, and, above all, to the hospital, they were much interested in us. You can well imagine what a delight it was to me and how very thankful I was that the hospital, built entirely with Naval money, was so near completion. By the way, it is now quite finished and Dr. Landis has taken up his quarters in it and waits for patients, I was going to say like the spider for the fly. But this letter is already too long for me to enter upon the question of the Doctor's hospital work and his prospect of getting in-patients, God bless you all. I am always your affectionate * C. J. CORFE. ________________________________________ Notes. THE Chaplain of Malta Dockyard and Hospital writes on New Year's Eve :-- “I had special sermons for Missions on Advent Sunday with special reference to Bishop Corfe ; and Bishop Courtenay, late of Jamaica, kindly preached for us. We have a dozen or more folks who take in the Morning Calm, and a boys' class in our Sunday School have quite voluntarily started a box for their old Chaplain.” This well illustrates how Bishop Corfe's Mission is helping to develop the missionary spirit in the Navy. ________________________________________ We have received the following from Mrs. Lee, 10 Park Road, Colwyn Bay: By permission of the Editor, I wish to draw the attention of those subscribers and friends of Morning Calm who are putting away last year's numbers for binding to the great wealth of prayer, instruction, and meditation on the Cover, by cutting round the compass, leaving the cross at the top, the anchor and heart at the bottom--then pasting it on a card, either black, white, or tinted, you get a nice picture, I feel sure might help some people to remember Missions often through the day. Those friends who are privileged to enrol juvenile members es-pecially might be glad of the idea ; the map makes a nice finish for the other side. ________________________________________ Several complaints have been made by subscribers to Morning Calm that they have received the last two monthly copies with-   28 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ out the Intercession Paper enclosed. Directions have been given by the Editor that the paper should be inserted in every copy which is sent out, and he would venture to suggest that any subscribers who fail to receive one would at once point out this omission to the Publisher, his own Bookseller, the Local Secretary, or any other person through whom he orders his magazine. M. ________________________________________ A peep at Seoul. (Continued.) THE old city wall which surrounds Seoul must be of great length. As one stands low down in the city, one can see it climbing up and down the hills by which the place is surrounded, diving into the trees on Nam San, and then reappearing, enclosing much more ground than is necessary to hold all the houses in Seoul. An old wall too it seems to be, twenty-five or thirty feet high, built of great blocks of granite, and battlemented, with imposing gateways and gates. The latter are covered and studded with plates and bolts of rusty iron, and are closed every night and opened at daybreak by the quaintly armed and quaintly dressed soldiery, who mount guard just within the gates. The signal for closing the gates at night is the booming of the huge old bell which hangs in the centre of the city, reminding one for all the world of Great Tom at Oxford. Within the walls there is but little, apart from the people themselves, to attract attention. The houses--never, of course, exceeding one story in height, and built chiefly of timber and mud with but little stone, and with heavily tiled roofs -- are to all appearance of the poorest description. Even those of the great Nyang Bans, or Mandarins, though they cover a good deal of ground with their outbuildings and courtyards, appear from the outside to be but squalid and tumble-down places. Nor are there any temples or public buildings of any kind in the city. if we except the king's palace. Buddhism is (if anything is) the national religion. But no temple may be erected within any of the walled cities, nor may Buddhist priests or monks enter them, under penalty (I believe) of death. The only streets worth the name are two in number--one, a thoroughfare of some breadth and about a mile in length, which runs from the South Gate to the Great Bell, which hangs in the middle of the city ; the other, of even greater length and breadth, which runs at right angles to the first-named, from the Great Bell to the East and West Gates. One should, perhaps, mention also a   THE MORNING CALM. 29________________________________________ short and very broad thoroughfare leading from the West Gate Street up to the gates of the king's new palace, which lies on the north edge of the city and covers a great deal of ground. The old palace, which the king vacated a few years ago, and which is now uninhabited, is also a very extensive place, but is even further away from us, in the north-east quarter of the city. The other streets are merely alleys of the narrowest, crookedest, and filthiest kind, threading their way in and out of the houses. The filth of these alleys, equally obnoxious to eye and nose, passes description. Every householder simply pitches the whole of his household refuse and sewage out of the nearest door or window into the street. There it lies and stagnates in a loathsome green pool, in which pigs and children disport themselves, on either side of the way, until a heavy rain washes some of it away, and the more solid refuse is turned out by someone in a spasm of energy into the middle of the street, to be trodden in by passers-by. And yet I believe that cholera was unknown here till the Japanese (who pride themselves on their cleanliness) brought it, or were reported to have brought it, to Seoul, within the last twenty years. The most prominent buildings at present in the city are the two or three erected by Europeans of late years. And they draw their prominence partly from the fact that they are mainly built of red brick imported from Japan, and partly from the fact that they occupy high ground in various directions. The new house of the French Mission, whose noble history you have recently been reading in Morning Calm, is especially startling, and gives great offence to the native mind from the fact that it stands higher than the king's palace. This house lies about a mile to the east of us. Then there are the new Russian and British Consulates, standing in prominent positions about a mile away to the north-west of us. The only other European buildings are a small hospital erected recently by one of the American Protestant Mis-sions, and a “Union Church,” the outcome of the joint effort of the two American Missions--the Presbyterian and the “Episcopal Methodist "(!). This last erection, a singularly ugly one, is in the neighbourhood of the British and Russian Consulates, near which also reside the American and French consuls, the Ameri-can missionaries with their families, and indeed nearly all the Americans and Europeans, except ourselves and the French missionaries. “All the Americans and Europeans” in Seoul, however, consular or missionary, men, women, and children, cannot amount to more than a couple of score. There is a large Japanese settlement lying between us and the French Mission-   30 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ house ; and there are also a few hundred Chinamen, one or two of whom keep most useful shops, in which you can buy any-thing, from blacking to biscuits (Huntley and Palmer's), and from kerosene oil to Colman's mustard. I wish I were clever enough to draw pictures of life as the natives live it in Seoul. Some day perhaps we shall be able to take photographs good enough to send home, and then, Mr. Editor, we hope you will be able to find some means of using them to illustrate Morning Calm. There is so much that is in-tensely interesting in these quaint people—so utterly unlike anything we know in Europe—utterly distinct, too, as they are in physique, appearance, manners and customs, dress, lan-guage, history, and indeed in every point, even from those eastern nations of whom we do know something in England--Corea's near neighbours, the Japanese and Chinese. Even the everyday street scenes are full of picturesque interest. Quite early in the morning there is a sort of open market held in the streets near the city gates, and it is hardly possible to move along for the crowds of people gathered there with fish, vege-tables, and other eatables brought in from the country for the good people of Seoul. And then from morning to night the streets are crowded with men in their queer white clothes (so beautifully clean most of them), and their queer black broad-brimmed hats, swaggering (there is no other word for it) slowly along as though they had nothing in the world to do. There are no wheeled carts or carriages in Seoul--or next to none. Everything is carried on the backs of the vicious little Corean ponies, or of the great patient oxen, or of the coolies (labourers). These latter are the only Coreans who ever seem to do any work, and they certainly do carry the most portentous loads. No Corean gentleman would ever be seen with an umbrella--to protect him either against sun or rain. In the hot weather everyone, even the soldiers and labourers, carry fans-- partly to fan themselves, partly to shelter their faces from the sun. And a pipe, two or three feet long, is almost indispensable. Presently one sees a swell Nyang Ban, or Mandarin, coming down the street. He is probably riding, perched on a very elevated saddle (to the pummel of which he holds very tight), on a donkey or little pony. He is magnificently dressed, and has one man to lead the animal and one on each side to prevent him falling off. If he is a very important man, he perhaps rides instead on a very lofty chair, covered with a leopard's skin. This chair is supported partly on poles, which rest on the shoulders of the men who carry him, partly by a single wheel fixed right under the middle of the chair. He is surrounded by a large retinue   THE MORNING CALM. 31________________________________________ of soldiers and attendants, who keep up a loud singing noise to warn everyone to get out of the way. Dogs, pigs, and chickens, who swarm in the roads, scamper into the houses, and the crowds make way for the great man to go by. A curious people, and an interesting--and to all appearance very amiable withal. It is hard to believe them capable of the fiendish cruelty which marked their treatment of the French missionaries twenty-five years ago. One longs for the day when one will be able to tell them that which is most worth their hearing. And now good-bye, Mr. Editor, good-bye, for I have taxed your patience long enough. Yours faithfully in Christ, MARK NAPIER TROLLOPE. ________________________________________ Association of Prayer and work for Corea. GOSPORT WORKING GUILD FOR THE MISSION IN COREA. WE are happy to inform our members that we have had two sales to the wives of the Marines at Foston, and also a sale at Haslar, conducted by Mrs. Harper. As a result we have been able to send £25 to the Naval Hospital Fund, and we would take this opportunity of thanking all those who have helped us by sending work or contributions of money. Further inform-ation about the Guild may be obtained from MRS. GRANSMORE, 9 Anglesey Crescent, Gosport. MRS. YORK, Belmont, Bury Road. We are glad to hear from our Secretaries at Stoke Newington that their day for Corea (January 29) was most successful. Mr. Le Couteur writes : “We had a Choral Celebration in the Parish Church at 7 A.M., and meetings for different classes of the people at 3, 6, and 8 P.M. Very interesting addresses were given by Rev. H. Kelly, Director of the Corean Missionary Brotherhood, and by Rev. J. Dixon, Chaplain of S. Peter's, Kilburn.” All who are interested in the Children's Branch of the Asso-ciation will be glad to know that a letter addressed to the mem-bers of her branch has just been printed by Mrs. Goodenough, explaining the objects both of the branch and of the special “Fund for poor Corean children,” with which it is connected, which will have been read with delight by all the little ones who have received it. Copies may be had from me, or from any of the County Secretaries of the Association, and our Secretaries who see their way to interesting the children in their parishes or localities in the Mission, as well as members who are fathers and mothers, are strongly recommended to apply for it.   32 THE MORNING CALM.________________________________________ The list of new members on the February Association Fly-leaf brings up our total numbers to very nearly 2,000, besides the large staff of Branch, County, and Local Secretaries. ERRATA IN THE FEBRUARY FLYLEAF. Under Exeter, “The Misses Gardiner, 2s.,” should have been “The Misses Gardiner, £2.” Under Torquay, “Mrs. Trevener” should have been “Miss Trevener." In the Central Fund. “Miss Daubeny” should have been “Mrs. Daubeny.” These are printers' errors overlooked in correcting the proof, and not affecting the total accounts. Under Bedfordshire, Mrs. Knottesford Fortescue's contri-bution only comes from Bedford, and the other gifts entered under “Bedford” should have been entered under “Silsoe.” Under Kent, the details of the report sent in by Mrs. Turner, Secretary at Tunbridge Wells, were received too late for inser-tion. They are as follows:--Subs., Dr. Wallace, through Mrs. Codrington, £1. 1s.; Mrs. Gooding, Is. 6d. Don. left in hand by Mrs. Codrington (late Secretary), 13s. 2d. Total, £1. 15s. 8d. The sum of “12s. 6d. collected,” sent in by Mrs. Warner, Secretary in Gainsborough; also “Mr. Dowson, sub. 10s.," sent in by Mrs. Dampier, of Beccles; also two sums, "collected 6s.; in Victoria Mission Room, per Rev. F. A. Hill, 4s. 2d.,” sent in by Rev. H. J. A. Lucas, of Bury St. Edmunds, having been sent in long before the right time for sending in January reports, i.e., the first week in January, were overlooked in dealing with the great bulk of the reports received then, and omitted altogether from the accounts. From the Central Fund accounts "1s., sub. from Rev. D. Proctor,” was also omitted. These sums raise the receipts of the last quarter of 1891 to £97. 11s. 8d., and the total receipts of the year to £470. 8s. 3d. There remains still a sum of 8s. 4 1/2 d., which I am sorry to Say I cannot account for, and which I feel sure must be some contribution or contributions lost sight of and unacknowledged on the Flyleaf. I shall be more than grateful to any subscri-bers or donors who will kindly point out to me the omission of their contributions. I very much regret and wish to apologise to members and subscribers for these mistakes and omissions, for which my recent illness is mainly the excuse, and I wish also to thank most heartily all who have helped me by sending in corrections, in compliance with the request on the February Flyleaf. M. M. CHAMBERS HODGETTS, February 8, 1892. General Secretary.   THE MORNING CALM. 33 ________________________________________ The Spirit of Missions. No apology will be needed for repeating the Bishop of London's words to young men on the subject of Mission work in Decem-ber last :-- “As S. Paul once heard in his vision the man of Macedonia crying, so China, India, Japan, all the islands of the vast Pacific, the coasts and the interior of Africa, are calling out now for us to come and help them, and to give them what in their secret souls they long for, but as yet know nothing of--the message of salvation purchased on the Cross. I call upon all my brethren, I call upon them to lay to their hearts this demand made upon them by their Father in heaven ; but, above all, I call upon the young. I call upon the young, who still are able to give to the Lord the strength, the fervour, the generous self-sacrifice of youth. I call upon the young, who are still able to face, with all the power that belongs to young men's lives, the dangers, the trials, the persecutions, possibly sometimes even martyrdom, which the servants of Christ have to face in lands which as yet know Him not. I call upon young men to think upon the glory of those great souls that have spent their lives, and sometimes have been called upon to suffer death by the sword or the spear, and sometimes to bear great privations of hunger and of thirst, and sometimes have had to face scourging and brutal treatment. I call upon young men to recognise that there is a real opportunity for them to purchase for themselves the deep peace of knowing that they are giving their very lives to God.” ________________________________________ The Mission Field for February records two very munificent contributions to Mission work during the past year. The first was made by Mr. Elijah Edmund Shelton, who had formerly lived in New England, but for the last forty years was engaged in business in Montreal, where he was known as an earnest and generous Churchman and member of the Diocesan Synod. At his death it was found that he had left property to the amount of $175,000 to the Mission fund of the diocese. His example has been followed by the late Mr. G. P. Moodie, a member of the Diocesan Synod of Capetown, who devised by his will the sum of £9,000, to be equally divided between the dioceses of Capetown, Maritzburg, and Pretoria. It is a cause for great thankfulness when those who are well endowed with this world's goods use them thus nobly. But we can never forget that, when all is said and done, the alms and prayers of every member of the Church are absolutely essential to the due fulfil-ment of the work which God has given us.   34 THE MORNING CALM.________________________________________ A pathetic interest attaches to the journal of Mr. Maclaren, the late leader of the New Guinea Mission, which is published in the same number of the S.P.G. organ. He tells how they reached Dinner Island, the Customs headquarters of New Guinea, on August 6, after a very rough and uncomfortable passage in their brig, the “Grace Lynn.” There they found the Governor, Sir Wm. MacGregor, who told them that he had now selected Bartle Bay, a healthier spot than Chad's Bay, as their suggested headquarters. So after a few days they set out in a new whale-boat, the contribution of the Diocese of Tasmania to the Mission. They found the site to be “a beautifully grass-covered perfectly flat plateau, some 200 feet above the level of the sea, and about half inland,” with the native village of Wedau nestling among the cocoa-nut trees at its foot, and a very beautiful view on all hands. Then they went back, and returned with the “Grace Lynn,” which was now anchored in the bay. By the interpreta-tion of Abrahama, a native chief who speaks some English, the chief of Wedau was made to understand that they wished to purchase the hill, which is called Dogura ; and a bargain was struck for 112 lbs. of tobacco, 10 tomahawks, 12 big knives, 10 small ones, some beads, a piece of turkey-red, and some pipes. Mr. Maclaren intended to persuade some of the people to en-trust their children to him for education, and meanwhile he fully realised the difficulty of his task. “Many persons in England,” he writes, “have an idea that the aboriginal savage longs for the missionary to come and teach him about God; but that is cer-tainly not the case with the ordinary Papuan. The existence and personality of God has to be made known to them, and that is no easy matter. Sir W. MacGregor's opinion is that the native of New Guinea is utterly devoid of anything like religious en-thusiasm even after he has been initiated into its sacred mysteries. Consequently our work among them must not be expected to show any great visible results for some long time to come. Patience will be needed, and a calm indifference to disappointments.” Meantime, they set to work upon a large house, the cost of which is being borne by the Diocese of Victoria, and while it was being built they lived in a native house, built for them by the people, of grass, palm leaves, and poles, the floor being of gravel from the beach. This involves a good deal of discomfort, but until early in September all went well. “I am thankful to say,” the diary goes on, “that we have thus far escaped the fever, except two or three slight attacks I myself have had; and we are most fortunate in having been guided to so healthy a site.” But on September 8 there is another entry as   THE MORNING CALM. 35________________________________________ follows:--"Alas! we have had heavy rain to-day, and the result is that we have in some parts of our native house over three inches of rain, which does not make us feel so confident with regard to the fever. To-morrow we must try to drain it a bit, and push on as quickly as possible with our new house. I know you all remember us in your prayers, and will do all you can to help us. This is a lonely rugged life, and you must not blame me when I tell you that home-sickness has more than once tempted me. I suppose it is natural to crave for the comforts and helps of the home life, and especially in regard to one's spiritual life. Here we are surrounded by heathen customs and a people whose language we do not understand, but it will be different by and by.” Here the diary breaks off; and the rest we have heard. It is different already with him, for to be with Christ is far better. And the labour that he rests from remains for other men to enter into. ________________________________________ We quote the following from a very noble and outspoken leading article in the Southern Cross, the chief Church news-paper of the Province of Capetown. The writer, after referring to the deplorable fact of the Colensoite schism, and to the action of some of its members in recently asking the Archbishop to consecrate a Bishop for them, proceeds to state the best way of healing the breach. “The course is now clear,” he says, “for the future action of the Diocese of Maritzburg. The diocese must elect a Chief Pastor, or must delegate that choice to others. Election is undoubtedly the best course, though there may be reasons which render delegation expedient. But, whichever course is adopted, we venture to counsel an entirely fresh departure on the part of the diocese. There are only about 40,000 Europeans in the diocese. There are 400,000 Zulus, and 30,000 Indians. It has been forgotten in a measure that the Diocese of Maritzburg must be primarily a Missionary Diocese. The next Bishop of Maritzburg ought to be a Missionary Bishop. We do not forget Bishop Macrorie's carnestness in missionary work. But he was so involved in the controversies stirred by the Colensoites that he could not absolutely throw himself into missionary work as his successor may be able to do. The one way of peace for the diocese in future is for the new Bishop to throw himself heart and soul into missionary work. Let him utterly and absolutely decline controversy with the Colensoite remnant. Let him content himself with saying to them, ‘You are English   36 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ Christians face to face with a vast heathen population. Do not cause division in our ranks in the face of the enemy. Let controversy alone, and help me to plant the banner of the Cross in the midst of this mass of barbarism. If the Diocese of Maritzburg could double its staff of missionaries, and carry to a successful issue the noble beginning it has already made in Indian Missions, under Canon Booth, the echoes of past controversies would gradually die away, and the Churchmen of the diocese would feel that their position as a city set on a hill in the midst of thousands of heathen was too responsible to admit of quarrels within the garrison.” It is greatly to be wished that this lesson could be learned elsewhere too. South Africa is not the only part of the world where missionary work might be the means of bruising the head of its own worst foe--the spirit of division which rends asunder the Christian Church. ________________________________________ The Church Missionary Gleaner records a very remarkable answer to prayer recently. In October 1890, as one of the results of the “Keswick Letter” on Missions, prayers were offered, in connection with a certain church, that within a year ten new workers from it might come forward for missionary work. Between one and two hundred friends united in the petition. And the following will show how the prayer was answered:-- “On October 16, 1891, the tenth offer had been decided on, and it was definitely made the week following. Of these, three have been refused on the ground of health, one has started for China, one is starting shortly for East Africa, one has entered for training, and four are still in correspondence with the societies they hope to work under. Four of the offers were from men, six from women.” Verily “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” ________________________________________ ADVERTISEMENT. THE Editor wishes to draw special attention to a little pamphlet just published, containing extracts from private letters written from time to time by the Rev. Mark Napier Trollope. The graphic descriptions which they give of the Corean people. country, and climate, will doubtless interest the readers of Morning Calm, and we would recommend them to send for a copy, without delay, to C. G. Napier Trollope, Esq., S. Martin's, Beckenham, enclosing 6 1/2d. Any proceeds from the sale of this publication will go towards the funds of the Mission.