Morning Calm v.22 no.129(1911 Jul.)
Editorial Notes.
목차
- 1 The Festival.
- 2 The Bishop Designate.
- 3 Education.
- 4 Bishop Corfe's book.
- 5 Letter from the Bishop Designate.
- 6 Bishop-Designate.
- 7 The festival.
- 8 Association of Prayer and Work for Korea.
- 9 Children's Branch.
- 10 Hospital Naval Fund.
- 11 St. Luke's hospital, Chemulpo.
- 12 St. Peter's Community foreign Mission Association.
- 13 Education.
- 14 Japanese Work.
- 15 Local Notes.
- 16 Correspondence.
- 17 PAIK CHUN
- 18 The Spirit of missions.
- 19 Wants.
- 20 Acknowledgments.
The Festival.
The Festival, held on May 3 each year, has come to be an event of real importance in the affairs of the Mission. At one time it was regarded as an interesting experiment, rather than as a force which might give impetus to the zeal of the home workers for the Mission. Everything that was hoped for from the annual observance of the day seems to have been realised at any rate this year: 1911 A.D. will be remembered as a year of real importance in the history of the Mission. In the first place, as Bishop Corfe pointed out in his speech at Trevelyan Hall, it is the year in which the Mission "comes of age." Twenty-one years ago Archbishop Benson called Charles John Corfe from his ministry in H.M. Navy and set him apart for the founding of the English Church in Korea, in the hope that the Church would support lim. The difficulties that confronted him and the little band that joined him later are matters of history. In what spirit these were faced is also history. It is to the faith and wisdom of the pioneers that is to be attributed, under God, the firm bold which the Church has taken in the hearts of the people. The courage with which they pitted against the Paganism of the East, that force alone which could eventually prevail, has been rewarded by the manifest answer to the Intercessions of those who banded themselves together to pray. Each day the hands of those who were "at the front" have been held up by prayer, and their needs supplied by the love of those who, without acquaintance, learned to know them. In this unique year we record with gratitude a Festival which revealed two things : (1) that our own people, the members of A.P.W. and kindred organisations are taking a more keen interest in the progress of the work; and (2) that the Church at home, as a whole, is becoming more alive to the fact that the Mission is a part-and a vital part - of her work beyond the seas. Both these things are reasons for great thankfulness.
The Bishop Designate.
The Festival was remarkable also because it was the occasion chosen on which to acquaint those who had waited so long to learn upon whom the choice of the Archbishop of Canterbury as the successor of Bishop Turner had fallen. Nothing could have given greater pleasure to everyone than the news which Mr. Trollope broke to the audience at the evening meeting on May 2. In the hall were many of Mr. Trollope's old parishioners of St. Saviour's, Poplar, and they received the news of his appointment with acclamation. It is difficult to conceive a better choice. The new bishop has had the experience of knowing well the mind both of Bishop Corfe and Bishop Turner, and the additional advantage of having worked in Korea. The language, which to another man might have been a serious difficulty, presents to him no obstacle. He has been responsible for much of the translation work that has been done, and though at this stage in the history of the diocese a knowledge of the language may not be so essential for its bishop as at first, yet it is obvious that Mr. Trollope's acquaintance with it is an immense gain to the Mission.
The Consecration will take place (D.V.), in St. Paul's on the Feast of St. James. Many will like to be present, and all will remember to plead for God's richest blessing upon him and upon the Church he goes to lead. There is to be a public meeting in London on the afternoon of the same day in the Hoare Memorial Hall, Church House, at which the Bishop of London may possibly preside, and which will be addressed by Lord Halifax and Mr. George Lansbury, M.P.
Education.
Nothing is of such vital importance to the Mission at this stage as a sound system of Education. The real purpose of the Mission has never once been lost sight of-namely, to found a Native Church which shall, in time, be served by a Native priesthood. That can never be achieved without schools. These may be Government schools or they may be Mission schools. If the former, facilities must be found by which Christian boys can take advantage of the learning there afforded ; if the latter, we must embark upon the establishment of efficient schools ourselves. A most excellent report has been received by the new Education Committee, of which Lord William Cecil is Chairman, from Mr. Hodges, who has gone out for the express purpose of making this subject his special study. No department of the Home Work has received so little support in the past as the Education Fund. This is due, no doubt, to the fact that little has been asked of it; but the moment has now arrived when it has become the pivot of the whole Mission. Large sums will soon be needed; and whatever amount the Bishop shall ask for, we are convinced that it will be the best money ever spent upon the work.
Bishop Corfe's book.
There are many members of our Association who have not seen a copy of Bishop Corfe’s most interesting book. “The Anglican Church in Korea." There are some 150 copies left which we are certain will be readily demanded by those interested in the work of the Mission Secretaries, and those who are concerned in getting up Study Circles, will find this a most admirable work.
Letter from the Bishop Designate.
MY DEAR FRIENDS, -
Most of you will have heard, long ere this, that the Archbishop of Canterbury has bidden me to go to Korea as the successor of our dear Arthur Turner (whose soul God rest!), and that I have felt it my duty to obey the summons. It was not an easy decision to arrive at in one's fiftieth year. For I have taken very deep root in England during these last ten years, and the fact that I had only just moved to St. Alban's made me the more averse to a fresh uprooting, which was bound to involve not only myself, but my new parishioners, in a good deal of discomfort, But the summons of the Archbishop was very imperative, and most people seemed quite clear that I ought to go. With the splendidly unselfish examples of Bishop Corfe and Bishop Turner before me, it was indeed difficult to give any answer but one. The Consecration is, I believe (though I have as yet received no official intimation of the fact), to take place on St. James's Day (Thursday, July 25) in St. Paul's Cathedral ; so that I start this fresh chapter in my career under the patronage of that same great saint and “Son of Thunder”, in whose honour the first church in which I served as deacon and priest (St. James's, Great Yarmouth) was dedicated. To his prayers I will ask you, who have so long and patiently upheld the Mission in Korea, to join yours, that I may indeed be “able," with the ability which he and his much-loved brother proudly claimed for themselves in the service of their Master. Of the arrangements for the Consecration I, as yet, know nothing. Doubtless the necessary information will be given in the Church papers as the time draws near.
It is very important that, after this long interregnum, I should get out to my new sphere of work as soon as possible. I hope to spend the first Sunday (July 30) after my Consecration in my old parish of St. Saviour's, Poplar and the next (August 6) in my present church of St. Alban's, Birmingham, when the Bishop of Birmingham (who, to his great regret, will be prevented from attending the Consecration) hopes to come and dismiss me with his blessing. The next two or three weeks I must spend in making a few farewell visits; and towards the end of August I hope to join that old and faithful friend of the Mission, Canon Brooke, who wants to add to his other kindnesses by giving me a holiday on the Continent before I start Eastward. His only complaint is that I can only give him a fortnight, instead of a month, of my company in the Tyrol; and I hope, having previously despatched my luggage by sea, to say good-bye to him in Vienna about the middle of September, and then to go straight on to Moscow and so by the Trans-Siberian Railway, arriving (like Bishop Corfe in 1890) in my future diocese under the guardianship of the holy angels at Michaelmas. Meanwhile I am cheered by very hearty letters of greeting and congratulation both from the clergy and other workers, and also from the native Christians in Korea.
You will see that I shall have no time to travel about England, visiting old centres of interest in the Mission and trying to create new ones. From one point of view this is a matter of great grief to me, as it would have been a real pleasure to see face to face many of those who have upheld the Mission by their prayers, their alms and their sympathy during all these years. From another point of view I am not wholly sorry, as I am anxious from the outset to discountenance the idea that interest in the Korean Mission, and responsibility for its support, has anything to do with me personally. If I go to Korea, I go neither in fulfilment of any personal wishes of my own, nor merely because I have any personal interest in the country or its people, I go-as Bishop Corfe went in 1890 - simply because the Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking with the weight which attaches to the Primatial Throne of St. Augustine, has bidden me go. Upon the Church in the homeland rests the responsibility of seeing that we in Korea get the support we need. If she fails in that duty, upon her must rest the blame. And if I perish, I perish.
But really I have little fear of that. Korea has, both in and out of S.P.G., a strong circle of real friends, who will see that we do not go short! But I do ask you most earnestly to back up with all possible loyalty my commissaries and other representatives at home, and not least our indefatigable Organising Secretary, Mr. Childs Clarke. Yours very truly in our Lord. MARK NAPIER TROLLOPE,
Bishop-Designate.
Copy of a Letter addressed to the Members of the Mission Staff by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. "LAMRETH PALACE, S.E. "May 8, 1911. "DEAR MR. BADCOCK, - "It is my duty and privilege to write to you officially to tell you, as representing the clergy of our Church in Korea, that I have nominated to the vacant See the Rev. M. N. Trollope. He is well known to the Church in Korea, and he will, I am assured, receive from you all the welcome to which he is entitled when he arrives as Bishop. The Consecration cannot take place just yet, but it will be a satisfaction to you all to know that the appointment has been made, and that you may look forward to Mr. Trollope's resumption of his Korean work with all the authority which will belong to him as Bishop of the Diocese. I pray God that in the meantime every highest blessing may be given to those who are carrying on the work under peculiar and, perhaps, harassing difficulties, and I know that your prayers will join with ours that guidance and strength may be given to him who has been called upon to take up as Bishop the burden, the responsibilities, and the privilege of so great a post in the Church of God. “I am, "Yours very truly. "RANDALL CANTUAR."
The festival.
The annual Festival was held on May 3, as in former years. The day began with a celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Chapel of St. Faith, St. Paul's, at which Bishop Corfe was the celebrant, assisted by the Bishop-Designate, Canon Brooke, and the Organising Secretary.
Breakfast was served in the Chapter House afterwards for some twenty-five persons, among them being Miss Gregory, who had spoken at the meeting the previous evening, and Canon Simpson. The great service of the day was the High Celebration at St. Nicholas, Cole Abbey. The choir, consisting of priests, was a large one. The Rev. A. McCheane was the celebrant in the place of the Rector, who was unwell. Canon Simpson preached a very remarkable sermon, which was published in full in the Church Family Newspaper, a paper which has always been very kind to the Mission, and consistently reported its work.
In the afternoon the yearly meeting of the Central Committee took place, immediately before the great annual Meeting of the friends of the Mission. This was held in the Trevelyan Hall, and, besides being by far the most crowded that has ever been held, was in many ways the most interesting. The speakers were, besides Canon Brooke (who presided), Bishop Montgomery, Canon Lord William Cecil. Bishop Corfe and the Bishop Designate. The speeches of Bishop Montgomery and Lord William Cecil were of such great interest that we print them fully, being convinced that there are very many, who were not able to be present, who will like to know what they said.
Bishop Montgomery said: "No one can go to Korea without coming back with a very tender feeling for the country and for the people. I think I may fairly say that the two places that had left the most permanently affectionate impression upon me were Pekin as a great city and its wonderful staff, and the country and people of Korea. It is difficult to analyse that impression: I cannot tell why: I cannot explain it; but there is an affectionateness in the people that wins one's heart. I stand in the presence of those who know more about Korea than I can claim to know : and I can only offer my own humble impressions. I stood by the side of the grave of your late Bishop quite overwhelmed with the feeling that we had lost a great man; but great men have a way of living on in the Church, and his spirit, his ideals will of course, ever live, and will be carried on now we know who is to be his successor.
"We have already had put before us what I can only briefly touch upon, which is obvious to anyone who knows Korea, namely, the extraordinary difficulty of the position when the country. having been under martial law, is now incorporated in another land; the difficulties of that situation must be obvious to anybody. If ever there was a race who understand all about that, it is the English race. I cannot help saying myself from what I saw in Korea that the Japanese Government believe that the eye of the educated world is on them, to see how they can settle a country which they have annexed.
I believe with heart and soul they are desirous to do it on the best terms, copying, if that compliment can be permitted, the English Government in the way in which it faces the conquered race or annexed race. That there are great difficulties I have no doubt. But I know this, that they look to the English to help them. I know that nothing would give them greater joy than to know that the ideals of the diocese as they have been created will continue, and of Course they will continue: and that they will find in the English Mission loyal subjects who will do their very best to accept the situation and make it as easy as possible for the race to whom the country really belongs. You are all aware how grateful that Government is to Bishop Turner. I prophesy that the day is coming when, in a short time, they will be equally grateful to the Bishop whom now we are about to send to that country.
"One word about the evangelical force of that delightful Mission of the Anglican Church in Korea. Until I got there I imagined that the Anglo-Saxon race could never be sufficiently strong angelically although they could all help in settling the Church on a nobler basis, but that they rather failed in evangelical force - at any rate, that was the idea I held for some time.
I found the Americans very forward indeed, especially in Kin-Lau; I never saw anyone more pushing in the deepest sense. But when I came to Korea my heart rejoiced, because I felt it was not only our American Church, but also the Church of this land that can be equally forward in the same movement. I never saw such a spirit of evangelistic zeal as, it seemed to me, filled the heart of every Missionary in Korea.
Now that came to me, I will not say as a surprise, but as something unexpected. I heard - it only shows how ignorant one was - I heard that Presbyterian and Methodist were doing magnificent work, and that the Anglican Church was not keen for work in this direction. But I defy any Mission in the world to be more keen evangelically than those dear people of ours in the Korea Diocese. My only fear (and it was shared by everyone there) when I first arrived was lest they were going too fast. I have no doubt myself that in Korea of all countries in the Far East, to ‘go slow’ is the right line to take. A great deal has been said, not by members of our Church but by others who are great Evangelicals, about collecting such enormous numbers into the Church in the smallest possible time, that this is going to do harm and not good ; that it is not wise to bring from an outside faith into the Church people in too large numbers, because they have to be settled and drilled in the faith, otherwise we are only preparing misfortune and misery for ourselves. Well, it is satisfactory to know that there is no member of that Korean Mission who is not thoroughly seized with that idea, and say, ‘We are in despair; we do not know how to keep back the torrent of those who come.’ We cannot with our small staff take more than 300 converts per annum in each great centre; we cannot digest more than that number. Our Bishop is heart and soul with us in this, that it is best to go slow if it must be so. If we cannot get larger numbers as workers, to go slow on the evangelical side and to press forward the higher education side of the Diocese in order that those who are the best amongst the converts shall be trained up to be the leaders, the founders of their own Korean Church some day when we in the Providence of God, if it is to be so, leave the country to them. Therefore there is no doubt that the education problem is now the great problem in Korea."
Bishop Montgomery, speaking of the need of education, said " that it would claim their attention and energies for the next fifty years. They had had a good start with the Pan-Anglican offering. I do not call it adequate support; but Korea did not loom so large as other countries when that fund was distributed. But we have succeeded in getting £3000, and if any efforts of mine can avail, that three shall be made £5000 if possible. But what does it depend on? It depends on a rather humorous point- it is this, that the money is still at interest; and we are hoping that those to whom it is given will not apply for it for a year or two, in order that the interest may accumulate for the Korean Mission. I must not detain you, but the subject is one which fills one with joy when one faces an audience like this on such an occasion.
"May God bless the Korean Mission. It would take hours to tell of the joy and delight of that visit. If there is anything we can do at the S.P.G., you have only to ask us and we will do it."
Lord William Gascoyne Cecil said: "The reason I have been asked to speak to you is, because I have had the honour put upon the of being made Chairman of your Education Committee. To my mind this is one of the greatest calls universally, and especially in a land like Korea, for our Church. Let me ask you to take a wide view first and see what is happening, and then step from the wide view to the view of a narrower horizon that you must look at when we contemplate the conditions of Korea. What is happening is, that the Mission field all over the whole world is clamouring for workers; and not only the Mission field, but those vast areas of unsettled lands in Canada, in Australia, and in South Africa, which are becoming settled and populated. Now it is obvious that this call, this double call of the white man and the coloured man, must soon drain us dry of preachers, missionaries and priests. You have only to listen to one speech advocating the claims of one part of this vast field to realise at once that it is quite impossible for England to supply workers for the whole of this vast work, even if we are aided in every way by other countries and other denominations, with whom we do not wholly sympathise. It is quite impossible, even putting us all together, for us to meet the call which comes upon us. If we are to meet this great call we can only meet it by building up a native priesthood as we advance. Each Mission must, to a great extent, produce its own workers. Now that is a very simple thing to say, but it is a very difficult thing to put into practice, because the years of heathenism tell on a population. It is a great mistake to suppose that the people you take from heathen conditions and heathen surroundings, even if they are Christians, are quite the same as those who come, like we do in Europe, from a long tradition of Christianity. The Roman Catholics told me that they felt this very strongly; and that they will not ordain a man a priest unless he represents the third or fourth generation of Christianity. Of course, that is a very extreme doctrine. I only quote that precedent to show you how strongly a Church, which is undoubtedly one of the first in Mission work in the world, feels this difficulty of providing the native priesthood.
“Now you see that brings us straight away to the call I want to put before you to-day. If you are to provide this native priesthood, you must go in for a careful system of education. That education must begin from the bottom and go to the top. You cannot begin merely with the highest grades of education. Your native priests must, if possible, be trained from their earliest youth; they must go to Christian schools, they must live in a Christian atmosphere and from those Christian elementary schools they must proceed to secondary schools.
I need not explain to you that in every step you take, you cast off. You begin with a hundred, and I believe even those figures are often in excess. Bishop Roots explained to me in Hankow what the system did for his Church. He said: "We have schools all over our diocese; these schools are educating Christian children; we send them up to Boone College; they come up at an age which we should think more fitted for a private school than a college. They live at Boone College, and there they are associated with a considerable number of boys-boys who come from non-Christian households. Now every one of these goes down with a Christian atmosphere. Even if they are not converted to Christianity, at least they have the atmosphere of Christianity; they understand our arguments and reasons; they have a certain sympathy with Christianity. But only a certain proportion become definitely and strongly Christian. Many of them go down to lay occupations, for it is not at all desirable to insist that they should all be brought up in the priesthood, for then a number would become priests who have not the vocation. But from amongst those who become Christian-and most of them go down to take commercial posts a certain number stop behind ; they are prepared to go on at Boone, and to take the positions which the Church can offer, though they are far less remunerative than the comparatively well-paid positions which they can get at such places as Hankow. Of those who stay, perhaps there are one or two, or three or four every year who become priests. But the whole thing is worth it for those three or four. That is my scheme. Those three or four come in every year; they swell the ranks of my clergy: and every year I extend my work with those who, in addition, become lay readers. With the aid of those who have been carefully trained, whom I can rely upon, I can reach out and touch new work.’
"That is to my mind the great policy which we must pursue in every mission that we undertake. It is that great policy of an efficient native priesthood; and an efficient native priesthood cannot be worked without a careful and thorough system of education. For remember, not only is there the great difficulty of supplying native missionaries, but when we have supplied English missionaries they are never quite so sympathetic with the people as the people who belong to the country. Just as there is a national face, so there is a national mind. An Englishman may so know the country in which he lives, and so know the mind, that he may be able to speak to that mind, but there is always a certain difficulty in speaking sincerely of that with which a countryman is in sympathy; but the native has not that difficulty. He knows the arguments, and he naturally believes them; he knows the arguments that will appeal to his hearers, and he naturally employs them.</sapn>
"Again there is always that very great difficulty as to how to resist diseases. That should be brought home to you very prominently by the sad death of our late beloved friend. I saw an article the other day in the Contemporary or Edinburgh in which it said the really great difficulty of the world was the diseases that belonged to the other race. When two races meet it is not they who fight always (though they often do), but their diseases. Each race, as it were, hurls its own disease at the other. For instance, the red man has been slaughtered by the splendid amount of phthisis which we always carry about with us; and he can really only live when he is practically in isolation far away from us. Turn the red man loose in any white man's settlement, and we have him down in a few minutes with tubercular germs. And so with the yellow man: the yellow man's diseases are hard for us to stand against, for he has a splendid and terrible lot. I will not shock and pain you by recounting even their names; but there they are. Your white man can live in the yellow man's country if he is extraordinarily careful. I do hope your future Bishop will be extraordinarily careful. For you must remember that these diseases are diseases which will tackle and bring down nearly every white man. Of course there are certain exceptions. Now if you are to deal with these diseases, you ought really to have a little distance kept between the white settlement; there ought to be so many hundred feet between the white settlement and the native settlement, and if this is observed, there is in consequence a wonderful difference in the health of the Mission staff. Put the Mission staff right in the centre of the native town and it is at once the prey to all these diseases. Every fly that comes through the air carries on its legs some of these germs, and germs that our constitutions are unable to deal with. And that is one of the reasons why a native ministry is a necessity. You understand then that if you are to have a ministry in the country to go in and about amongst the people, you must have people who belong to the country.
"May I urge the importance of the Education question? Do not imagine that the education takes the place of Christianity. Do not imagine that I or any sensible man believes that awful heresy that mental training can take the place of spiritual life. That is not the point. You may find men constantly in England who believe that: but that is not the thing animating the education policy in the Mission field at all. The essential note of the education policy in the Mission field is, that you cannot have an efficient priesthood unless it is very, very carefully trained. Where you have a native priesthood carefully trained, as at Bishop Roots's College at Hankow, there you have strength; there the Mission can advance; there it is a living thing. If it so happens that the white race may have to leave these yellow lands it will be a great thing to leave behind a body of men able to carry on the great work we have begun, and the great traditions which God has entrusted to our branch of the Holy Catholic Church."
Association of Prayer and Work for Korea.
We are thankful to be able to record during the past three months the addition of A.P.W. centres at Croydon, Quarrington (Lines.), and Harrow. We are particularly glad that the Rev. G. M. Thompson (Croydon) has, on his return to England, joined us again as a local secretary, for we have very happy recollections of his splendid work for A.P.W. at Swindon. Mrs. Brooks and Miss Hewlett (whose brother is a Member of the Mission Staff in Korea) have our best wishes in opening up new centres at Quarrington and Harrow respectively. We are very sorry to lose Miss Webster, who, on leaving Newcastle, has been obliged to resign her work for Korea ; but we hope that hers is only a temporary withdrawal, and that one day we may be able to welcome her again as Secretary for another locality. Miss Mills has kindly taken "Miss Webster's place at Newcastle, and it is from the busy centre which she represents that the members of the St. Nicholas Girls' Guild have again sent a welcome parcel to our Needlework Secretary, as the result of their work last winter. There have been Special Services, Meetings and Sales in several localities during the past quarter. The Rev. S. J. Childs Clarke has visited Croydon for the purpose of launching A.P.W., and we hope soon, as the result of a visit which he has paid to High Ham, Somerset, to hear of the formation of an A.P.W. branch there. We are most grateful to Bishop Corfe for the help which he has again given us for notwithstanding the many calls upon his time he has been welcomed at centres as far apart as Quarrington (Lincs.). Newquay, and East Grinstead.
A.P.W. has been most happily inaugurated at Quarrington, where meetings were addressed by Bishop Corfe and by the Rev. H. F. Goffe, to whom our Association owes so much. The afternoon meeting held in the Rectory Garden was attended by about eighty people, who were afterwards entertained to tea by the kindness of the Rev. B. J. and Mrs. Shaul. The evening meeting was attended by a smaller, but not less interested audience, and one is encouraged by the thought that probably some who were present that day are already uniting with us in our Missionary Intercessions. Our annual Festival, which was well attended in London and was observed elsewhere by many who could not be with us, must have brought strength and encouragement to all, whether at home or abroad, who are working for Korea. The Festival was chiefly marked by the announcement made to us by the Rev. M. N. Trollope that he had accepted the Bishoprie in Korea. It was good news, for he has known and loved the Mission from the beginning, and is particularly welcome as a friend of our late Bishop. The work he is called upon to undertake is a most difficult one, and we must remember that a great responsibility rests with us, as A.P.W. members, to give him (our President) all the support we can. And this brings me to the thought of the two directions in which I especially want to ask your prayers at this time. The first it is perhaps hardly necessary that we should be reminded of, for we shall be remembering our Bishop Designate day by day in our intercessions and particularly on St. James's Day, when those who can will be present at his Consecration. But the second point is one which may not be known to all, and so I ask every member to give the subject most earnest and prayerful thought. Those who have made themselves responsible for the finances of our Church's Mission to Korea are passing through a time of such great anxiety that one feels it only right that the matter should be made known to each individual member of our Association. An appeal has lately been issued asking for £2500 before the end of the year, the sum which is necessary in order to maintain existing work in Korea. We are now told that £1700 must be found immediately.
The question arises, how is it to be done, and what part will A.P.W. take? I am confident of this, that we must make it a subject of earnest prayer, and therefore I beg you most earnestly to pray daily that, if it be God's will, the money which seems to us to be so greatly needed may be forthcoming. Perhaps through our daily prayers we may have suggested to us a method of work, which, if new, will be possible to many of us - that, namely, of asking our wealthy friends who are not members of the Association to assist the Mission in this financial difficulty which has arisen. But beyond asking for your prayers I make no definite appeal, because I know that if we unite in prayer we shall most certainly unite in giving what we can, and that whatever form our work may take we shall not be content unless it costs us something. Surely this is a great opportunity for A.P.W. to show her faith and love. May each one of us be diligent in prayer and in the work which God will call us to! MAUD I. FALWASSER, General Secretary.
Children's Branch.
DEAR CHILDREN, - Some of you may have had Services or Meetings on May 3, the day on which the annual Festival is held in London and Korea, and so all in many parts were on that day united in a special way. I thought you might like to know about the Festival held in London: a great gathering like that brings before us how many in different ways and in different parts are all working together. To begin with, there was an evening meeting for those who could not come to the usual afternoon one. At this the Bishop-Designate was present, and announced his acceptance of the Bishopric of Korea. Many of you have already heard of Mr. Trollope (the new Bishop), as he has been connected with the Mission for so long and, in fact, he was one of the first priests in the Mission field in Korea. His announcement was met with great enthusiasm. Then the next morning there was an early Celebration in the Crypt Chapel in St. Paul's Cathedral, and later a Choral Celebration. In the afternoon the Committee met to arrange business matters, and this was followed by a meeting at which Bishop Montgomery spoke. He had lately returned from Korea, and from visiting the Mission stations, about which he spoke with great enthusiasm. In the Mission Field for April and May you would be able to read about what he saw. Bishop Corfe, who was the first Bishop. also spoke; the Bishop-Designate and several others telling us of what the Mission is doing, and what the work demands of us. Miss Gregory at the evening meeting made us feel how very much more we English people ought to do. I have told you about the Festival Meeting, as it may help you to feel how you are linked on to a great work. Now I want to tell you that I have had the great pleasure of seeing and talking to Sister Nora and hearing from her about the Orphanage. Sister Nora has been at the head of the Orphanage for a great number of years and not been to England for a long time. She asked if there would be an opportunity of seeing some of you children who are working for her and her work, and so I hope to be able to arrange for her to come and speak to you if you can have Meetings, and she will also show you pictures of Korean places and people, and show you some of the work the children out there do. Do you remember in one letter I told you about Bertha, a little one brought to the Orphanage by her father, as her mother was too ill to look after her? Well, she is still at the Orphanage and likely to remain there, as her mother has now been taken to a hospital and it is unlikely that she will recover. Then there are three of the elder girls who have been allowed to join the Yang Won School. This is a school formerly kept by a Korean heathen, but now offered to the Mission. The examinations at the end of the term there were quite difficult and yet, though these three children were put into the second grade and had only been attending for one term, they managed to take very good places Rachel, who is fourteen and is preparing to be a teacher, came out fifth; Edna, aged thirteen, was sixth: but Rhoda did not manage so well, not being so industrious. Sister Nora says the girls are very quick at learning and at quite a young age begin to learn. The children in the Orphanage begin their day about five o'clock, at least, if they can be kept in bed till that hour! Those who are old enough help with the house work and some go and help in the kitchen to prepare breakfast, which consists of boiled rice. There is difficulty in getting milk and so the milk used is tinned and comes from Australia. The rice is boiled in water and they cook enough at one time to be sufficient for dinner, when they put boiling water on it, eat it with salt, pepper, and boiled vegetables. They have hardly any meat as it does not agree with them. A great treat for them is to have some bread; a Korean child will eat a bunch of dry bread with great relish. The Koreans do not make bread, as it is not a usual food with them; but the Chinese in the country make it. When the children are taken for a treat into the country, bread is usually provided for them. Well, breakfast is at about seven o'clock, followed by prayers. At nine the girls who attend school go off and the others go into the schoolroom, and a Korean teacher comes and gives them lessons, Sister Barbara going to give a Scripture lesson. The lessons go on till twelve, then they play and have dinner. In the afternoon they do needlework, which Sister Nora says they do very well and have quickly picked up knitting. In the evening the little ones play and the elder ones prepare lessons for next day. So their day seems much cut out like ours, does it not? It is only ten years that there have been schools for girls, and in these few years the girls have made great progress and quite a new life has been opened out to them. And now to write about what has been going on at home. You remember I told you of those two little ones, Eva and Rebecca, and told you that the cost of the care of one of them had been undertaken by the children of St. James's, Clapham, but that is a mistake; it is the children of St. Saviour's, Clapham, who are going to do so, and the children of St. Andrew's, Croydon, are going to undertake the care of the other one. This is very good news, and we are so grateful to them. Arthur and William from St. Saviour's, Clapham, have sent two such nice postcard albums, which they have made for these two children. Sister Nora said they would be so pleased with them, and how nice it was of the boys to make them. If any of the girls can knit and could make scarves and cuffs of some bright coloured wool, the Korean children would be so pleased to have them, as they feel the cold very much. A box is sent out in September, so if you could make and send them to me by August, I will forward them on. Kathleen and her brothers and sister at Pinner, with other children and nurses, have been very industrious, and made things for the bazaar at Clapham and to go to Korea, for which I am very grateful; and we also have to thank other children who are not members of the Association, but have very kindly sent us donations. Believe me, Your sincere friend, BEAVOR LODGE, HATCH END. MABEL SEATON
The Eighty-fourth Meeting of the Executive Committee was held at the Royal United Service Institution at 3 P.M. on Wednesday, April 12. Present: Adm. Hon. Sir E. R. Fremantle (in the chair): Rev. J. C. Cox-Edwards, Rear-Adm. James Startin, J. R. Clark, Esg., Capt. J. H. Corfe, Rey, S. J. Childs Clarke, C. E. Baxter, Esq., and Rev. George H. Marwood. Letters of regret were read from the Chaplain of the Fleet, Bishop Corfe, and Rev. J.H. Berry. New literature for the use of local secretaries was drawn up and is now being circulated from the office of the Chaplain of the Fleet. It is hoped that the local secretaries will make good use of the literature in endeavouring to create among the Fleet fresh interest in the Korean Hospital work. Lieut. Richard F. Guinness, R.N. (of Messrs. Woodhead and Co.). and Fleet Paymaster Edward M. Roe, having kindly consented to act, were appointed hon, auditors in the places of Mr. Rason and Mr. Sitwell, the former having died and the latter being in indifferent health. Mr. Rason and Mr. Sitwell bad acted since the commencement of the fund. The Rev. S. J. Childs Clarke was appointed Organising Secretary to the Hospital Naval Fund as well as to the Mission generally, an appointment which the Committee hope will be of great benefit to the H.N.F. C.E. BAXTER. Hon. Sec. Ex. Com. H.N.F.
St. Luke's hospital, Chemulpo.
FIRST QUARTER, 1911. THERE are several things which seem to indicate that changes are taking place in Korea as regards the views of the people on matters medical. For some years there has been a steady increase of the number of in-patients suffering from diseases, the treatment of which falls to the physician rather than to the surgeon, and from the beginning of this year this tendency has increased. In any country where foreign medicine is a new thing, and especially in a country such as this where there has for ages been medical treatment of a sort, probably more or less scientific at first but degenerate in its modern forms, people are quite willing to bring any external ailment to the mission doctor, but are inclined to think that their own practitioners are quite adequate for the management of diseases, the cause of which does not show on the surface. Not only so, but the Korean shares with our grandfathers a wholesome dread of fresh air, and as in England some time ago a patient suffering from smallpox was closely shut up and never allowed to meet with that dangerous commodity, so the Korean, when one of his family has a fever of any kind of seems seriously ill, would not think of allowing him to venture out of doors Wind is the thing of all others to be avoided by anyone who is ill, and this combines with the lack of confidence in the foreigner and a feeling that the illness is so bad that it is no good troubling to keep such patients from presenting themselves for treatment. What is the cause of the change it would not be easy to say: it is probably, in part at least, due to the spread of Christianity and with it some degree of contact of a confidential kind with the foreigner, but the fact remains that such cases are coming to hospital as they never have done before. Whereas in the past most of the medical cases coming to the out-patient department were trivial, there are now a number suitable for admission; and it is a matter of deep thankfulness that the people are at last beginning to realise something of what can be done for them, and to take advantage of it.
Another change has been noted this year, which is not so easy to account for, namely, the fact that for the first time there was no very great or widely spread anxiety on the part of in-patients to go home for the new year. It may be said that this is due to the fact that under the new regime the new year has been made to conform to the solar calendar instead of the lunar one; but though the change has been officially made it does not seem to have affected the people to any great extent, and certainly does not suffice to explain the fact that instead of the hospital being nearly emptied it was as full as usual.
And these words, “as usual”, mean more than they used to do. For during the past quarter the hospital has for the first time been quite full. Indeed the average number of in patients for the whole month was a fraction below thirty and for some time, while patients were being daily admitted, there had to be consultation as to who could possibly be sent out to make room for each. It is not likely that this will continue to be the case always, but having once occurred it will no doubt be not infrequent in the future.
The great event of the quarter has been the arrival of Dr. Nancy Borrow at the beginning of March. She is not permanently settled here, but, as arranged between her and Bishop Turner, she will spend a year in Chemulpo, so as to be able to give her time to the language, with more chance of being comparatively uninterrupted than would be the case were she to start work by herself at once. In the meantime she is doing what she can to help in the medical work, and her advice and assistance are of the great value that only one who has been without a chance of a consultation for some years can realise.
Almost at the very beginning she was able to render great help in a serious operation, for in the train by which she arrived there travelled down from Su Won the teacher of the school there, who was in grave danger of his life. His story shows one of the great difficulties of the work in a country like this. Su Won is distant from Chemulpo some eighty li or about thirty miles by road, though being on the railway the former is not much used. Some time before this man had been sent down with a bad ear, which had been giving him a good deal of pain ; in the train on the way down something burst and on his arrival he was found to have a large boil, which having at last come to a head was not likely to give him much more trouble. As he lived so far away the question had to be decided as to whether or no he should come into hospital, for there was no other means of seeing him again than taking him in. Considering the fulness of the hospital, the possibility of his getting a certain amount of help in his treatment at Su Won, and the triviality of the trouble, now that the boil had burst, it was decided to let him go home. However, we did not know that he did not live in Su Won itself, but some three miles off; and he seems to have kept himself very much at home, so that no one knew exactly how he was getting on for some time, when he was found to be seriously ill and was with a good deal of difficulty persuaded to come down again. What had happened in the meantime is not quite clear, but when he arrived at Chemulpo for the second time it was no longer a question of a boil, but of a large abscess in the bone, and nothing but a very extensive operation could have saved his life. Fortunately the operation was just in time and he has made an excellent recovery, though the wound is not yet altogether healed and he will have to stay in hospital for some time longer, and will probably have some weakness of one side of his face permanently.
St. Peter's Community foreign Mission Association.
A DAY of Intercession for Foreign Missions was held at St. Peter's Grange, St. Leonards-on-Sea on March 28, which was well attended by local members both of A.P.W. and the Community Association. Continual intercession was offered in the chapel from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. At the noon Intercessory Service the Rev. T. W. Haworth gave a striking address on Mission Problems amongst the races of the Far East. Mr. Childs Clarke was unavoidably prevented by illness from speaking at the meeting, but at the last moment the Rev. W. E. Field, Chaplain of St. Peter's Memorial Home, Woking, kindly took his place, and spoke to such purpose that much interest was quickened, and besides offerings of ₤14 for the General Fund for supporting the Sisters, Mr. Haworth offered donations for Yang Won School Fund and the Bishop Turner Memorial Fund respectively, on condition that in each case the sum was met by the promise of a similar amount.
These have since been provided, and we are most hopeful of a branch that responds so generously to urgent needs. We specially welcome the return for the present to the Secretaryship of Miss Tufnell, who was obliged to relinquish her work for a year. St. Luke's branch is also one of those which, while not reducing its contributions to the General Fund and Orphanage, also responds to the special appeals occasionally put forth, and we much admire the effort and self-denial of such a poor parish which enables the indefatigable secretary to send so large a sum as is detailed in our list of subscriptions, &c. Another branch has been started at St. Columba's, Haggerston, where Sister Nora worked for some time. The Vicar, the Rev. T. A. Le Couteur, gladly welcomes the Community Association and came himself to inaugurate and bless the new branch at the first meeting. On May 18 Sister Nora came to the meeting held at the Sisters' Mission House, Hoxton, and spoke to the members, bringing curios, &c. The secretary is Sister Bertha, C.S.P. Both this branch and that at St. Leonards have held working parties for the Bazaar Stall, and we would remind members that the combined sale for Foreign Missions is early in November. All contributions should be sent to Sister Helen Constance at St. Peter's Home, Kilburn, by October 15. clearly marked for Korean Stall. With all the work there is to do in Korea it is satisfactory to be able to say that possibly Sister Rosalie may go back with Sister Nora in the autumn. SISTER HELEN CONSTANCE, General Secretary,
Education.
The need for a forward movement in providing a system of Education in the Mission centres - a need which Bishop Turner recognised and had to some extent prepared for-has been fully realised by the Executive Committee. Those who had previously constituted the Educational Committee in provincial centres in England continue to give assistance as far as they can by acting as Local Sub-Committees, while a Central Committee has been formed, with Lord William Cecil as chairman.
This Committee has met twice already. First, to discuss the proposal from Seoul that a school for girls, offered to the Mission by a heathen headmaster, should be taken over by the Mission, and later at Oxford to discuss the report sent home by Mr. Hodges on the present needs and possibilities generally. So far as the Yang Won school for girls is concerned (incidentally we do not like the title which at present serves; why not call it the English Church High School for Girls ? ), the Committee felt that they could not recommend that it should be taken over without some more definite knowledge of the conditions under which it had been offered to the Mission, though they recommended that money should be collected at once for the purpose, leaving it to the Bishop to decide the case on its merit when he arrives on the spot. Mr. Hodges' report they received with real pleasure, and fully agreed with the line that he has taken, namely, that the Mission must have for the purpose of creating an efficient Native agency for propagating the Gospel a really sound system of primary and secondary education. For the present at least they recommended that the boys, who are ready for a higher education than we can give them in our rather inferior country schools, should be got together in a hostel so that they can take advantage of such educational facilities as are available in Seoul. They have therefore recommended the Executive Committee to advise Mr. Hodges to make the necessary arrangements, so that on the arrival of the Bishop some such step may be at once taken.
Japanese Work.
Miss ELRINGTON writes: "The work in the Fusan district has gone on steadily for the last three months. Of course there is the usual crop of difficulties and disappointments to be met, but on the whole there is enough general growth to enable one to keep one's mind on the brighter side of the picture and to take a cheerful view of things.
"I was at Taikyū for three or four days in January, and again in February, at which times Mr. Shiozaki came for the Sunday services. At present, though the Christians would like to get a room which could be used as a mission room, they have not found one, as rents are very high in Taikyū, and our numbers are small. So the services were held as before in my room at the inn, as being the quietest place we could find. In such places one feels singularly blessed by fortune if no one is reading aloud in stentorian tones in the next room! "In February, on the way back from Taikyū, we stopped at a little place called Kihō, about half an hour by the express train from Fusan. In the village, which is some little way from the station, there is living a Japanese doctor, working among both Japanese and Koreans. "He is a Christian of twenty years' standing, and has been in Korea about seven years. He had arranged with Mr. Shiozaki to have a service in his house, and met us at the station. It was touching to see how much he had tried to bring up his family under the influence of Christianity, though as yet none of the children have been baptised. "Mr. Shiozaki held an evening service and gave an address in a room in his house, a little place about eight or nine feet square, in which were assembled the doctor and his wife, seven children from twelve years downwards fortunately all extremely wellbehaved), a Korean boy, a Japanese boy, a man who brought a sick baby to be doctored, Mr. Shiozaki and myself! The children had been taught some hymns by their father which they sang heartily and were afterwards absorbed in looking at a book of pictures of the life of our Lord, which I had taken with me, and in hearing some of the stories.
"It is only since we have been a little better staffed that it has been at all possible to follow up these outlying people.
"Going to Kihō in the evening, which is the only free time for them, means waiting till about 11.40 P. M. for a train back to Fusan, there being nowhere to sleep at Kihō, and all day long the doctor is busy with his patients or seeing people in the one little room and dispensing medicines in the passage outside! It seemed a case of doctoring under difficulties. "Fortunately the five boys have a place to themselves somewhere outside.
"This year is the first that the Fusan people have ever had a priest with them for Holy Week, and I was thankful to see that considerable effort was made to attend the services. At the Three Hours' Service on Good Friday nearly all the Christians, both men and women, were there for some part, and most for the greater part, though some had to take turns with other members of their household. On Easter Day there were twenty-one Japanese communicants. The new buildings now begun at Fusan will make the work far less strenuous in its conditions for the workers themselves, but I long for the day when there will be a proper church which will not be used, as the pre, ent mission room is for other purposes, and which we can point to as the House of God in Fusan. The ground is there waiting to be built on, but at present there is very little in hand for the building.
"Fusan is rapidly growing into a large place; it is to be the leading commercial port of Korea, so that in all probability the Church membership will be considerably increased by people coming here from Japan.
"If we can, through God's help, build up a strong Church here, its spiritual influence cannot fail to be felt over a far wider area." Mr. Sharpe writes: "I have hitherto made only brief references to the fact that we were building new premises for the work in Seoul, and as we hope to be settled in them by the time these notes are in print, I should like now to give those interested rather more detailed information. "It was evident to all that our present equipment for the Japanese work was quite inadequate. The position is good, but it is entirely shut in by Japanese houses all round. The approach is by a narrow passage-never very clean- and a man might pass up and down the road many times without ever being aware that there was a church here at all. "Having found it, however, and entered he would see a series of irregular, somewhat dilapidated, ramshackle old Korean hous s. The centre block of these contains the church, the meeting room, one little room each for the catechist and the mission woman, and one or two other rooms. To the right is a little 'house' into which the two foreign ladies managed to squeeze themselves, with, however, no room for their servants, who had to return to their own houses every night. Away to the left again is the ‘house’ of the priest-in-charge. "Well, we don't want palaces, but we do want at least a room where we can be private if necessary, a room for teaching, and a room into which we are not ashamed to ask a Japanese of good standing.
"But that is not all. The principles of Korean architecture are somewhat difficult to understand, and our church, too small at any time, is made still smaller, and very incommodious by a remark able series of wooden pillars, placed in somewhat unexpected positions. As for the meeting-room, I will not attempt to describe it beyond saying that it is quite a curiosity. "But how to improve matters was the difficulty, as it was entirely out of the question to think we could ever raise enough money to rebuild our premises here. The solution has been found in the fact that our land here has considerably risen in value. On the strength of that we have borrowed a sum of money sufficient to enable us to buy a new plot of ground quite close to this, and on it to erect a house for the foreign ladies, and adjoining it a small Japanese house for the mission woman, and again a larger Japanese house in which the priest and the catechist will live, and which will also contain suitable meeting- and class-rooms. “In front of these, we intend to re-erect the church, but by using the material of the old houses here, and spending more money, we can make it both larger and more regular. "To meet this debt we have let our land here at a price which will enable us not only to pay interest on the borrowed money. but also to put by a good sum yearly as a 'sinking fund" to eventually pay off the principal. "At the time of writing the foundations have just been completed, and we hope to be able to make the move in June next. "At Fusan, the same thing on a smaller scale is going on. A generous gift from Canada has enabled the local church there to buy a good plot of ground, larger and more suitable in shape than that we have hitherto been using. "This last has been sold at a good figure, and a new priest's house and also a house for a mission woman has been built. There is a good sum now in hand for the new church, but not quite sufficient for the style of church which the Christians there are anxious to build: so meanwhile they are making use of special rooms set apart for worship in the new house. "I think I must have filled my allotted space, so I will not attempt to write in this number on the spiritual side of the work."
Local Notes.
Seoul. - The Girls' School began its new school year on May 1. A special class to train the elder girls as teachers has been formed. Kang Yui Hi has been baptised “Moses” this Easter. Baptisms were held on Easter Eve, and on Easter Day several baptised at Christmas received their first Communion. The services in Holy Week were well attended : on Good Friday the three hours service was conducted by Korean Christians, and was reverently and quietly kept. On Easter Day the Choral Celebration was at 7 A.M. This year there was a large increase in the number of communicants, more especially on the women's side. A service was held at the cemetery by the Rev. J. S. Badcock at 4 P.M. Many walked out-English and Koreans, chiefly the latter. Chemulpo.-Six women, one man, and a baby were baptised on the Feast of Epiphany, and on the first Sunday in March nine children received Holy Baptism, each of them having at least one Christian parent. Three little girls, all Christians, have been sent to the Girls' School at Su Won. The services, both English and Korean, on Good Friday and over Easter were taken by the Rev. F. R. Standfast, whose wonderful progress in the language enabled our Korean Christians to have their Easter Communion on Easter Day. Those baptised at Epiphany made their first Communion on Easter Day. From now it is hoped there may be a fortnightly Eucharist. Dr. Borrow arrived in the beginning of March. A young Seoul Christian, An Yohann, has been procured to teach her the language. Kanghwa.-In the city a new school for girls has been opened. It is to be hoped the numbers will increase as the school becomes more attractive. There were sixty-five baptisms on Easter Eve. Holy Week and Easter were well kept. Kim Moses, formerly the City Catechist, has been working in Sungchun during the winter, and the first baptisms took place in Kanghwa on Easter Eve. A catechist's house has been bought there and a boys' school has been started. The Catechist and his wife are taking up their residence there permanently, and as both are trained it is hoped that there will be steady progress in the work.
At Kyo Tung, an island to the north of Kanghwa, some first baptisms have taken place, and there are more to follow. A small house has been bought, and is used as a chapel. The impetus of the work there was caused by the energy of a Christian from another village, who has gone there to live. Baptisms, twenty-three in number, took place at Napseum, a small island to the west of Kanghwa. The old chapel there was small, and also very dilapidated, so it has been pulled down, and a slightly larger and better one put up with a small schoolroom attached. The teacher acts as Catechist.
At Tamouni, a village almost in the centre of Kanghwa, a new chapel is being built and the old one used as a school. The work has been very active in An Rol during the winter. Baptisms took place on April 5 and sixty were received into the Church. It is greatly to be hoped that a girls' school may shortly be started.
In the Onsoutong district things have gone ahead. There have been many troubles and worries-a sure sign of life. Three new villages have been opened up, and services started, and a goodly number of people have attached themselves to the Church. The Children's Guild has done well in Onsoutong, and they held their Festival on April 18. On Palm Sunday 106 persons received the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. The Easter Festival was held on Easter Tuesday, and there were 195 communicants. A plan is being considered to build another district church at Nop Sungee, about three miles from Onsoutong, so that the latter church may be relieved of some of its communicants. According to the present arrangement, if all the communicants came to St. Andrew's we cannot accommodate them in church. At Sealou Seum, an island midway between Chemulpo and Kanghwa, where work was started last year, some twelve have been baptised. The numbers are increasing, so the people are building a chapel on the island.
At Onsoutong the girls' school is being enlarged, and adjoining it rooms for Miss France. Su Won - Lent, Holy Week, and Easter were well kept at St. Stephen’s. During Holy Week there was a service of Intercession at noon daily. Celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Wednesdays and Fridays, and meditations on the Passion at Evensong on Fridays. During Holy Week there was a daily celebration, and the attendance was good. The larger portion of the city congregation spent some time on Maundy-Thursday night, and Good Friday, in private prayer and meditation in church. All the out-stations have been visited monthly. Some 150 people have been admitted to the Catechuminate, and 308 people have been baptised since January 10. Mr. Cooper has taken over the upper half of the country district. His time is now so fully occupied that he has no time for study. There is urgent need for another priest here at once.
Three new chapels have been dedicated this last month: St. Luke's, Moupsai: St. Nicholas', Tokoupi; and All Saints' at Sam Kol Fifty people are to be baptised at All Saints', Sam Kol, on May 30. The secular event of the year has been a football match between a team of boys from St. Paul's, Chin-Chun, and the boys of St. Stephen's School. Our boys were the victors, but we do not think we can take much credit, as the other lads had walked twenty-three miles the day before. Chin-Chun. - The great event of the quarter has been the arrival of Mr. Dallas. He was ordained to the Deaconate at Southwark last Advent. This is a good step to the ultimate subdivision of our unwieldy district. The two priests have seen little of each other, as one is nearly always on tour among the chapels, north, east and south. We have had a short visit from one of the sisters of the C.S.P. We long for the time when a permanent House of the Community may be established in Chin-Chun. On Easter Monday we hope to begin building a small Lady Chapel, annexed to our Central Church of St. Paul, for the daily Eucharist. The big church is so cold that, even when stoves are lit, the water often freezes in the cruet. The chapel will be warmed by an oil stove.
Our garden is thickly sown with edible roots this year. Paikchǒn. - The work here grows considerably. The church becomes too small for our needs. If it is possible for a priest to come here to live, we hope steps may be taken to build a larger church. The Koreans are doing what they can, and have a small sum in hand. A stone tablet, to the memory of Bishop Turner, has been put up in the church compound. A visit was paid to Paikchön by Miss Bourne in February, and she was able to go to most of the villages where we have work.
Correspondence.
DEAR MR. EDITOR, - Now that I have been some little time in Korea I can send you an opinion as regards the problem we are face to face with here. It will be clear that what I say is no official opinion, but a personal one. I owe very much to certain members of the staff out here, and where my conclusions differ from any individual member of the staff's, he has practical experience on his side. I visited work in Kandy, Pesumalie (S. India), Tinnevelley, Travancore, and Jessfield (near Shanghai)-my further visits in China were stopped by the plague. Pesumalie and Jessfield are centres of American work. In all these places the evangelistic work was supported by efficient educational work. There was in consequence a sure supply of educated Christians, and so an efficient native ministry. Men and money were spent willingly on this work, because it was felt that the existence of a native Church depends on her having efficient native catechists and ministers. In Korea there is no efficient education of Christians: we have three or four fairly good primary schools, but they are run by amateurs, we have no properly trained teacher that I know of; we have no secondary education of our own, and no plan for giving our boys any of what is provided; we have no method of training native agents. The result is that a promising lad gets what he can out of one of our primary schools, and then his education ceases as far as we concern ourselves with him; our present catechists are local products of some mission priest, who has less than to give to training a man for such work; only one of our catechists is a well-educated man, so except for him our catechists have no means of self-education, as they cannot read Chinese text-books such as would be useful, and we have no supply of literature in the vernacular. Our position, then, seems to me to be this: a very rapidly increasing Christian community; a handful of foreign workers unable to keep pace with the steady and great growth of the Church in recent years; a certain number of amateur paid native workers; an indefinite number of voluntary workers and evangelists, some officially recognised, the great majority going out entirely on their own. It is these voluntary evangelists, men and women, who keep bringing in a perpetual stream of new inquirers; and it is this voluntary work which we have no efficient means of supporting. I mean, we have not enough trained workers, foreign or native, to teach and discipline the material that the ordinary Christians keep drawing in for admission to the Church. Now, what is the wise thing to do? Are you at home to quadruple our foreign staff? Obviously we could do with double our numbers this year. But I venture to say, however many foreign workers you send out as evangelists and district priests, the real problem will not be touched. The conversion of a nation to Christianity does not consist in flooding the country with foreign workers, but in training the native Christians to develop and manage the Church for themselves. In early days certainly the foreigner must be responsible for all discipline and teaching, and if you look at our little handful of Christians in Korea, you may say, "It is still early days, and so it is premature to be starting extensive educational schemes; wait till you have more material to draw from." But I feel our advance has been so rapid and so thorough and is so steadily rapid, that the days of infancy will be passed in a phenomenally short time.
Cf. S.P.G. Report 1906-Koreans: Catechumens and Inquirers 285. Communicants 110 : then cf. S.P.G. Report for 1910 (I have not yet seen it) and I am sure you will find the growth of our Communion is most wonderful - and it shows no signs of a less fast increase. I am sure we want an efficient scheme of education at once ; the material for a native agency will be henceforth ample. You go no way by getting a priest in a small house able to train a handful of men to meet present needs, if there is to be a regular supply of native catechists and, eventually, ministers, there must be Secondary education for our boys. I claim our immediate need is a hostel in Seoul for our Christian boys-we could send up perhaps a dozen to-morrow, and as I have said the supply of material is going to increase rapidly as years go by. There they could get what Seoul now offers and will offer, and, if feasible, this hostel could be enlarged into a secondary school of our own. We cannot hope for educated youths to be trained as catechists until we have means to give boys secondary education. Then above this must come an efficient Catechists' College- if only we had a priest, knowing the language and thought, he could of course start at once with material to meet present needs, or by the time these men were ready, some of our youths from Seoul would be fit to come up to him. If such a man is not forthcoming, we must wait till a new man has made himself efficient for the work, and meanwhile just the same be getting youths educated for him. We want, too, more efficient primary education, and more of it; for this we must be able to offer proper salaries to teachers. Efficiency will cost money, and our Education Fund needs largely increasing, without the fund for the general work being harmed. Efficiency of the kind I have dwelt on has been obtained in all the places I visited, and it can be obtained in Korea. I have not omitted mention of the Japanese work because it is not in my mind, but because at present it is impossible for me to know how it is to affect the Korean work. Yours very sincerely, CECIL H. N. HODGES,
PAIK CHUN
Wednesday in Holy Week. DEAR MR. EDITOR, - Have you room for a new-comer's impressions of a week in our most recent centre of work? I am off early to-morrow on my return journey to Kanghwa: a forty li (about fourteen miles) walk to boat and then a longish sail to the port for Kanghwa city. The situation of Paik Chun strikes me as the most beautiful of our mission centres, Kanghwa excepted. The city nestles at the foot of a mountain and facing a plain, out of which Nam San (South Hill rises immediately in front. Paik Chun's Nam San is a hill the people are justly proud of; it is beautifully wooded, and the azaleas are now just coming into blossom, clothing the slopes in delicate pink. But I do not mean to try and paint Korean scenery in words; the impressions I wish to give are of the people we are in touch with. This is the first time a priest has been in Paik Chun for Holy Week and Easter; and the response to Mr. Wilson's arrangements for this year are to me remarkable. On Palm Sunday the little church was filled at the first Evensong (Saturday evening) and at the Holy Eucharist; a children's service at 10 A.M. was followed by an admission of twenty-three catechumens, and a long mission service at midday-for this the church was overfull. In England a church this size would be held a mission chapel capable of seating some fifty people, here it has already to accommodate up to three hundred adults. The daily celebrations in Holy Week have been attended by some fifty people each morning ; the daily Evensong, at which a devotional book is read in place of the sermon, by about the same number, and a sprinkling of men and women come to the daily Intercessions at midday. And this is in our newest district, which from lack of priests cannot yet be given a resident minister, but has to be under Kanghwa-though in that island alone Mr. Hillary has Christian congregations to shepherd which more than keep his hands full. Han Mark is catechist here, a trader who has given up a good income to try and give all his time to work for Christ on a salary of 12 yen (24s.) a month. John, a stalwart young man of bull-dog type, is another paid worker; he receives 9 yen (18s.) a month from the Bible Society. Clearly, the wonderful vitality of the Christian life here cannot be due to one or two men: it is the rank and file of the faithful who are responsible. Men and women make the time to be voluntary evangelists, and go far afield with their message. The congregations of this week have not been composed just of men and women living in the city; they will walk in miles. A man will come in from far in the evening, sleep the night in the 'Sarang' adjoining the church, worship his Lord the next morning, and start straight away back on his long walk. Last Saturday evening was very wet, a night such as, I fear, would in England have kept from church Christians living a stone's throw off. The Christians here came in just the same, though many lived thirty and forty li away (ten and fourteen miles)-there was one old couple, both just over seventy years, who walked in forty li and back, and they were not the only ones. It would be unfair to say the Koreans have little work to do, if they can find time for so much public worship: I am too newly out to know their ways, but an agricultural population cannot reckon the spring as a slack season. Of course the Holy Eucharist is celebrated quite early; the warning bell jangles just above my head before 6 A.M. The growth of the women's work is most encouraging, as it is due to voluntary work done by the native women, no foreign woman has ever settled to work amongst them yet. We have a large share in the management of a school of some sixty boys, which should produce good results, and if it were possible to start a girls' school there is no doubt it would be a success and a great help. There is a delightful freedom in the way men, women, and children gather round one here, an absence of the extreme reserve and shyness on the part of women and children which- I speak for myself -struck chill on changing from Poplar to Korea. The real strength of the Church here is not in the city - we nowhere have yet made real progress in cities-but in a charmingly picturesque village a mile off. This village is practically Christian and full of zeal; the folk are of the Yang-ban class, though this does not imply wealth; they are agriculturalists; and one of the best and keenest women workers is a young wife who is desperately poor. You can stroll from cottage to cottage in this village sure of a welcome and an often overpressed invitation to come in - overpressed, if you have to keep taking your foreign boots off, but they are quite ready to have you in boots and all. Other centres, I know, could give you as encouraging reports. I only specialise on Paik Chun because I have been staying here during my first Holy Week in Korea, and no doubt I am specially drawn to it now because I have had the privilege of celebrating here for the first time in the Korean language. If only one could learn to talk as soon as to read Korean, many things would be easier! Mr. Wilson has handed over an imp of fifteen years to me, as my "boy." I mistrust his training of the scamp, and my total lack of the vernacular leaves me helpless to defend myself. l'am. Yours very sincerely, CECIL H. N. HODGES.
The Spirit of missions.
ABORIGINAL'S HEROIC DEED. -The following story, taken from the columns of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, of Saturday, February 25, speaks for itself : "Port Darwin, Friday. - Four Aboriginal prisoners were brought into Pine Creek this week from Hodgson's Downs, a distance of 230 miles, for trial on a charge of raiding a fencer's hut. Three were convicted, but the fourth, a boy named Neighbor, was discharged in recognition of an act of bravery under circumstances which rendered the deed unique and heroic, "Mounted-constable Johns was returning to Roper River police station, with the four prisoners whom he had arrested. All were manacled with chains. The officer found the river in flood, and he set the blacks to swim the river in front of him. They reached the other side in safety. Johns followed on his horse, but the animal was caught in a swirl and turned over, and before the trooper could clear himself he was kicked on the face by the horse and rendered unconscious. "The current quickly carried the unconscious man to what must have been certain death, when Neighbor raced down the side of the stream, coiling his chain by some means around his neck as he ran, and plunged into the river. He reached the senseless trooper, and, alter a terrible struggle, succeeded in bringing his captor safely to land. Not content with this, Neighbor, after landing his man, raced for three miles for assistance, " The magistrate, in giving Neighbor his liberty, thanked him for his’ brave deed, and said that deeds such as this his king was delighted to honour. He, therefore, to mark his appreciation, gave Neighbor his liberty." THE DEGRADATION OF HEATHENISM). -" The West African native as I have seen him and stayed with him is outwardly peaceful and hospitable, welcoming you to his village, providing you with a rest-house, and ladening you with fowls and rice to show his appreciation of your visit. But, once let his passions run riot and his blood get up, and this same African will in a moment be more like a tiger than a man, and add to murder mutilation with all its unnamable horrors." - Rev. N. Bennett, Sierra Leone. CHRISTIAN IDEAS ADOPTED BY BUDDHISM.- " It is not generally known," writes the Scottish Chronicle," that not one of the so-called parallels between Buddha and Christ, the Virgin Birth, the Temptation, Death, Resurrection and Ascension is to be found in Buddhistic literature until the fourth or fifth century of the Christian era (Gautama lived in the sixth century B.C.); and that thus a period of about 900 years elapsed before these legends were in vogue. This is proved by an eminent scholar, Dr. Eike, of Hong Kong, in his Three Lectures on Buddhism.' The success of Christianity in the East during the first three or four centuries seems to have spurred on the Buddhist teachers to adopt some similar teaching. I have witnessed more than once, says the writer of the paragraph, the daily 4 P.M. service at the Honam Temple, in Canton, and it struck me forcibly that not only these myths, but the trinity of Buddhas there worshipped, the vestments of the priests, the processions, the peculiar Gregorian-like chant, and the daily service itself (so unlike Eastern worship) were imitations of early Christian belief and ceremonial. But the absolute fact that for 500 years B.C., and for about 400 years A.D., these myths were unknown in Buddhist books ought to put an end to the question which vexes the minds of many. viz. whether all these Oriental religions, including Christianity itself, may not have sprung from some common original." HOSPITAL NEEDED IN ARABIA.- Dr. G. W. Hanley writes: "I have been much struck with the long distances our patients come for treatment. They reckon the distance they have come by the number of days they have been travelling. One patient came from a place twelve days' journey north; another man told me he came thirty days from the south; a third came from Nejed, in Arabia, and a fourth from a place in Persia, twenty day’s journey. I remember a poor old blind man who had come some days' journey. He had tied a rope to the load on the back of a mule, which was coming to Baghdad in a caravan, and had walked behind holding on to the rope. "We always make it a condition of admission, save in exceptional cases, that the patient must bring a relative or friend to look after him. This is necessitated by our having only one trained nurse. Thus for every patient we get two people who hear the Gospel. I have often been surprised at the marked attention which is given to the Gospel message by all." At a conference on Missions those present were asked to tell what first interested them in Missions. Some of the answers given were these : - "Writing Missionary papers and studying Missions in a study class." " Helping to support a boy in a Mission school." “Realising God's love for all mankind." “ Fulfilling the dying request of my mother to see that her Missionary money was paid." "The influence of my teacher at school, who was preparing to go to the foreign land where she is now at work." "Reading Missionary periodicals that came into our home." “Writing a paper on child-widows in India," "Coming into contact with Missionaries from the field." "Reading Missionary letters received by a neighbour-The Church Abroad. CAUSE AND EFFECT.-The rector of a country parish wrote to us not long ago: "I find on referring to the Church register for the parishes of .... of which I have been rector since last July, that no collection has been made at any time for any Missionary Society during the past five years, and the register does not carry me back any further.” His letter ends with the following statement : " The church we worship in is in such a shocking condition that yesterday the members of the congregation had to move about during the service from place to place to escape the rain, which was dripping in from a dozen holes in the roof. The organist sat in a pool of water; the water dripped into the organ, and by evening the wood had so swelled that it could hardly be played. The rain always comes into the church when it rains." We are glad to say that the rector is adopting the best and most certain means to raise his people to a higher state of religious life at home, by first endeavouring to excite their interest in missionary work abroad. He is proposing to adopt the Mission Field as his parish magazine for the coming year. -The Church Abroad A LAYMAN'S TESTIMONY.-" At a recent missionary gathering an experienced Indian administrator. Sir Frederic Lely, came forward in defence of the foreign missionary. ‘I have known in my time,' he said, 'many missionaries, and I have seen at firsthand their simple lives, their self-sacrifice, their difficulties, their disappointments, and their achievements, and I must say that the result of my experience has been a fixed resolve that, when I came back to my native land, whenever an opportunity occurred, I would offer them my small tribute of respect and admiration. I feel myself sometimes rather indignant at men who have lived for some time in India, who are fair-minded men enough in most matters, but who are not always fair to the missionary. I have often talked with the man of this class in India, the man who disparages their work and their conduct. When you press him. the residuum upon which he bases his criticism is usually some such fact as this, that once he had a native servant who professed to be a Christian and turned out to be a rogue.' Sir Frederic Lely went on to remind his audience of the indebtedness of Englishmen to the missionaries for the means of acquiring out-of-the-way languages. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, he said, the grammar was the work of the missionary, and so also was the dictionary into which the stranger had to look for his words. Indeed, in many cases the fact that some barbarous dialect had received an alphabet and the beginning of a literature was due to the patience and the often unobtrusive industry of the foreign missionary." MOSLEM ACTIVITY.- " The advance of Mohammedanism in Nigeria and the Colony of Lagos is assuming alarming proportions. The building of a mosque at Lagos costing £10,000 demonstrates the hold that Islam has taken in that place. Is it surprising, therefore, that it should be strong enough to capture, or nearly 50, some of the tribes of the interior? To our humiliation we learn that there is now a mosque in every village throughout the Jebu country, which in 1892 was wholly pagan, and then for several years was marvellously open to the Christian evangelist before Islam came on the scene."-Letter Leaflet. THE PLAGUE.-" In the beginning of January 1991, the Imperial Government sent Dr. J. G. Gibb of the Union Medical College to help Dr. Gnch Lean Tuck at Harbin. Shortly after this Dr. Mesny, the French medical man, became infected whilst visiting the Russian Hospital and died two days later from pneumonic plague. Since then Dr. Aspland and Dr. J. M. Stenhouse, also of the Union Medical College, have gone up on behalf of the Imperial Government and have been doing all they can to fight the epidemic. At every station down the line medical missionaries have come forward in the most gallant way and borne the brunt in combating the most appalling conditions. At Mukden Dr. A. F. Jackson, of the Scotch Presbyterian Mission, has succumbed to plague, as well as three trained Chinese medical men. The medical profession at the present moment, by these sacrifices and by the number of willing volunteer practitioners, stands higher in the estimation of the Chinese Government than it ever did before. The struggle has been almost entirely in the hands of the medical missionaries If it were not for them China would have had to meet this epidemic with a few foreign-trained Chinese medical men of little experience, and lacking in the necessary foresight for preventive measures." -New Era. The Bishop OR CALCUTTA, Metropolitan of India, in a recent charge said: "I maintain that it is a signal privilege to serve God now in India. Of what may possibly be the importance of work that is being done in India now, some idea may be formed, if we make an effort of historical imagination. Go back thirteen or seventeen centuries, and suppose yourself to be one of those who ministered in what is now England, either as clergy of Kent shortly after the coming of Augustine, or in the far earlier days when the Church, of Christ was being first planted in Britain. You have come from one of the most cultivated parts of the world, where the Church is strong, and you find yourself surrounded by discouragements. You doubt the value of the conversions which have taken place among the natives, brought about, as they have been so largely, by force or political exigencies. The country is insignificant, almost unknown; its inhabitants are half-savage; it has no apparent future; you feel that you have got into a backwater, outside the movement of civilisation. No one about you has any expectation that much can ever be made of the British or of the Saxon (as the case may be). Everyone is longing only to get away again, to Gaul or to Italy or to Asia Minor. Such discouragements (far heavier than any we can have reason here to feel) and such doubt as to the value of his work, must surely have been felt by one of the clergy of that Church, if he was not supported by a genuine enthusiasm and by a firm faith in the Master whom he was serving there. But what do we feel now about the work of those men? What a magnificent position they occupied- whether their names are known or not- as the founders and early builders of the English Church and nation." AN INDIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.- " Seven years ago, a copy of that remarkable book 'Foreign Missions and Home Calls,' by the late Rev. A. H. Arden, fell into the hands of a few Indian Christians. As they read it, they were given such a new vision of the parting command of the ascended Lord that they could not help asking themselves whether the Church in India was right in excluding foreign Mission work from her thoughts. “The result was the starting of the Indian Missionary Society of Tinnevelly, which supports a Missionary in the Telegu country. It is entirely conducted by native Christians.” IN LABOURS MORE ABUNDANT.-The duties which fall to the lot of some missionaries, through the staff being undermanned, is shown in the by no means exceptional case of one in the United Provinces (North India). He has the pastoral care of over 300 Christians at the head station, Meerut, with two services every Sunday and one every Wednesday; the responsibility for a Hostel for Christian boys and another for Christian girls; be acts as principal of a Boys' High School with 375 students and two Hostels for non-Christians; he superintends three other schools ; in the absence of the chaplain to the troops, it often falls to his lot to conduct the Sunday evening service for the men, although he has already preached twice in Urdu and taken a Bible Class; he is the honorary superintendent of an asylum for lepers, with from twenty to thirty inmates; and he is also the Missionary in responsible charge of the work at Ghaziabad, twenty-nine miles from Meerut, where there is a Christian community of sixty souls, a Middle School with 155 boys, zenana work, etc.
Wants.
SEOUL-Small crucifixes (continually wanted, and only given to Christians). Scarlet blankets, forts use of Christians, who come from the country to make their communion, and have to be put up the night before. Address "Sister Edith Helena, St. Peter's Mission House, Seoul.”
CHEMULPO. Fifty yards of red or green art serge for the church. (This is much needed.) Waterproof sheeting for the Hospital. Small sacred pictures suitable to give Sunday School children. Address, "St. Luke's Hospital, Chemulpo."
CHIN-CHUN-We want 300 small crucifixes. Half a crown purchase about ten. Will some readers send one or more half-crowns to Mr. David Jones, 18 High St., Clydach Vale, who has kindly undertaken to collect subscriptions, acknowledge them, and buy and despatch many crucifixes as possible. Any crucifixes sent direct will, of course, be most gratefully received. Address, "The Rev. W. N. Gurney, Chin-Chun."
PAK CHUN. - A lantern and slides. A thurible. Address, "Rev. F. Wilson, Kanghwa."
Su WON. -A large crucifix for the rood. A violet cope. Sacred pictures Footballs, knives, tennis balls.
Acknowledgments.
CHIN-CHUN. With great gratitude, 216 lantern slides from Wimbledon. Chalice and paste from Beckenham. Two glass chalices and patens from Hawley, Hants. Pyx and chrysmetorium from the Guild of All Souls and C.B.S, per the Churchwoman's League of Prayer.
St. John the Divine Vicarage, 127, Vassall Road, S.W. My dear Brother, The Rev. Mark Napier Trollope is (D.V.) to be consecrated Bishop for Corea on St. James' Day-Will you kindly ask your people to join with you at a Celebration of the Holy Eucharist in his behalf on that day, and if possible devote the arms to the pressing needs of the Mission ? A short meeting will be held in The Church House on the same day at 3p.m., to give the new Bishop a good send off. Lord Halifax and Lord Hugh Cecil (if other engagements allow) and George Lansbury, Esq., M.P., Sir J. W. B Riddell, Bishop Montgomery, Bishop Corfe, Canon Hobhouse, Fr. Adderley and others, have promised to attend, under the Presidency of the Lord Bishop of London. Please come Yours very truly, C. E. BROOKE.
GREAT PUBLIC MEETING TUESDAY, JULY 25th, 1911, At 5.0 p.m., at The CHURCH HOUSE, WESTMINSTER (HOARE MEMORIAL HALL). THE BISHOP OF LONDON, THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, BISHOP OF STEPNEY, BISHOP MONTGOMERY, BISHOP CORFE, LORD HALIFAX, LORD HUGH CECIL, M.P., GEORGE LANSBURY, Esq., M.P., Sir J. BUCHANAN RIDDELL, Bart., ARCHDEACON OF LONDON, CANON HOBHOUSE, FR. JAMES ADDERLEY, and Others. This Meeting was organised by the late Canon C. E. BROOKE, just before his death, to enable Churchmen to bid farewell to BISHOP TROLLOPE, and to secure, for the future, their sympathy and support for the Mission in its hour of unprecedented opportunity. AN URGENT APPEAL is made at the same to Churchmen for £2,000, in order to meet the immediate needs of the Mission. Contributions to Rev. S. J. CHILDS CLARKE, 5. Amen Court, St. Paul's, E.C.