Morning Calm v.3 no.27(1892 Sep.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 27, VOL. III.] SEPTEMBER 1892. [PRICE Id.

The Bishop's Letter. NIU CH’WANG: May 1892. DEAR FRIENDS, The past month, so far as Niu Ch'wang is concerned, has been uneventful. I seem to have settled down into quiet regular English ways once more ; receiving much kindness from the good people here, who appear to appreciate our coming and to respond to it in many ways, notably in their attendance at the Sunday services. No novelties have been attempted since I last wrote. The happy Easter festival has passed away and given place to Ascension Day, when there were six communicants at our early service. Last month I told you I had taken a house for a year. Having decided on this step on the feast of St. Mark's. I am calling it St. Mark's Mission House. It has been difficult - it is still difficult - to get away from the Consulate, whose inmates combine to make me very happy. But for some weeks now I have spent the greater part of every day a the Mission House, which, with its large, lofty, airy rooms and its delightful outlook on the river. the other side of the bund, is most luxurious after my small parsonage at Chemulpo. I am the proud possessor, the only proud possessor in Niu Ch’ wang, of bow windows. In fact, as I look out over the river there is very little to suggest either the East or any foreign parts. The few trees which we possess are now in full leaf, and I might be looking over the Thames below Erith, where, if I remember aright, trees are scanty and marshes abound. The arrangement of the room which is ultimately to be the Mission Chapel makes good progress. In the meantime we continue, and shall continue, to use the Court Room on Sundays, for it is sometimes filled with a congregation which would be too large for any room in St. Mark's. The foreign community of Niu Ch'wang is composed chiefly of English, the few Scandinavians and Americans being so sympathetic and English in their ways as to be almost included in the category. Besides the English Consul and three English merchants, there is the Commissioner of Chinese Customs, with a large staff of indoor clerks and outdoor examiners and tide-waiters. But the most important, if not the largest, constituent of the Niu Ch'wang community, is the company of pilots, without whose assistance ships would be unable to cross the dangerous bar which blocks the way in and out of the river. All these, with their wives and families, make, if not a large, a compact and harmonious community, numbering some 70 or 80 in all. During the month the Presbyters of the Irish and Scotch

REV. M. N. TROLLOPE. REV. L. O, WARNER. REV. J. H. POWNALL. MR. M. W. DAVIES. JOHN H. WYERS. REV, R, SMALL. MR. S. J. PEAKE. THE MISSION STAFF. Presbyterian Missionary Societies have been holding their annual conference in Niu Ch'wang. They came from all parts of the province, some 20 in number, and had much that was interesting to tell, especially in connexion with their medical work, which, I think I said last month, stands deservedly very high in the estimation of Chinese officials. The meeting of so many “provincials” in Niu Ch'wang added not a little to our sense of numbers. It was obviously an occasion, too, when all Niu Ch'wang was anxious to show hospitality. I endeavoured to take my part, but others who had friends among the missionaries were before me. I received much kindness and sympathy from them all. Mr. Carson, the moderator of the Irish Society, and Mr. Ross of the Scotch, are veterans in China ; Mr. Ross 1 was particularly glad to meet, for he is the translator of the New Testament into Corean, published by the Bible Society. My Corean teacher lives with me, and, barring a little home sickness, is very well. I usually have four or five hours of him every day, and have learnt more Corean since I left Corea than I ever learnt in Corea. He is a very good teacher, fond of work and unusually intelligent. Most teachers, Chinese or Corean, are very mechanical affairs, wooden and reticent; not so my friend, however. I haven't been so taken in hand since I left school. I have no news of Corea to give you. Letters come to me once a month. When I last heard all were well. The hospitals were going up in Seoul and the Church of the Advent was making good progress; but I hope some news of them may find its way into this number. The weather here, which quite up to the middle of this month was cold, is now delightful. The summer cannot be far off. With my blessing and my love, I am, Yours affectionately,

• C. J. CORFE.

Association of Prayer and work for Corea. AT the meeting of the heads of departments of work in connection with the Mission, the General Secretary of the Association had two or three difficulties to report. Foremost was the difficulty experienced in keeping touch with the members already enlisted. The matter first came before Miss Chambers Hodgetts when she applied to the various Local Secretaries for the number of their members in order to distribute the annual reports. When the total came in nearly 300 short of the number originally received, it was felt that some effort should be made to prevent us losing sight of our members. The difficulty is probably greater in ours than in kindred associations. The work of our Local Secretaries is so very light. There are no subscriptions to be regularly collected, no monthly papers to be sent out: in fact, when members are once enlisted the only communication the Secretaries are bound to have with them is once a year, when sending the annual reports. Formerly it has been thought sufficient that the Local Secretaries should send in the names only of their members on their quarterly reports, but now it has become advisable that the General Secretary should possess the address as well as the name of each member. For this purpose a register is being compiled, and each Secretary has been asked to send in a list of his or her members, with their addresses. There are many Secretaries from whom no communication has yet been received, but thanks are due to those who have responded to the letter sent out a month ago. Another difficulty felt by the General Secretary, and one which has become very prominent, whilst receiving and answering the correspondence in connection with the names to be inserted in the register, is the confusion that exists as to what constitutes membership. No subscription, great or small, no promise to take in Morning Calm, or general promise to be interested in the Mission-nothing but the pledge to remember Foreign Missions daily in prayer entitles anyone to be enrolled as a member. Perhaps the application papers were a little to blame for the misapprehension. They have, therefore, been slightly altered in form, and now consist of two pages. The first contains a distinct pledge to keep the one rule, whilst the promise of subscriptions or donations, which is entirely optional, is placed on the second page. This change has met with approval on all sides. A Sale of Work has been held at Hampton Court Palace, on August 4, the particulars of which will appear in the October number, as they are too late for insertion here. Will Secretaries please remember that October reports are to be sent to Miss Chambers Hodgetts as usual, and that the signed application forms must in every case accompany the name of each new member? LILIAS NAPIER TROLLOPE, General Secretary pro tem. for the Association of Prayer and Work for Corea.

The Education fund. DEAR MR. EDITOR, For more than a year now I have, with the permission of the Bishop, been teaching Japanese. In January 1891, within three months of my arrival in the country, a committee of Japanese, living in Chemulpó, came to see me, with a request that I would take charge of an English class which was being formed at the Japanese Consulate. I had some hesitation in entertaining such a proposition. But thinking that it might lead to Christian work among them, I decided, with the Bishop's permission, to make a trial, and began on February 1st. There were 40 pupils, who were divided into four classes. They were taught from 5 to 8 o'clock in the evening. A few were obliged to discontinue their studies on account of other duties, and the classes were reduced to 32, at which number it remained until June 1st, when the school was closed for the summer. At their own request the fee was fixed at one dollar a month, which was paid to the Secretary of the Japanese Committee. The sum thus realised was handed over to me. Seeing there was a real desire on the part of the Japanese to learn English, we thought that the money could best be spent in erecting a small school-house in the Mission grounds. Accordingly this was taken in hand in the summer of last year, and at the end of the vacation I was able to invite the pupils to a school of which I had the entire management. There being no further need of the Japanese Committee, it was therefore dissolved. This step, which might have led to some friction, seemed from the issue to have been a wise one. The school, being further from the centre of the Japanese settlement than the former premises in the Consulate. is manifestly not so convenient for them, especially during the winter months. Yet when the term commenced on October 1st I had 20 Japanese on the books. To these must be added five Chinese, who were engaged in trade and also desirous of learning English. The school fees remained at one dollar a month and are being placed to the credit of the school building, the cost of which was not covered by the money previously contributed. Owing to the limited time available for instruction and the necessary subdivision into four classes. I was unable to do the work adequately alone. The Rev. I. H. Pownall, who is living here with the Bishop, kindly came to my assistance and shared with me the task of instruction until last February, when his other duties compelled him to withdraw his help. This obliged me to discontinue the Chinese Class. The majority of the pupils are obliged to begin from the beginning while a few of them have reached the Second Standard, and only two of them are able to read English fairly out of a Fourth Standard book. In my classes I use the blackboard as much as possible and spend a good portion of the time in conversation. But there is a difficulty in teaching Japanese for which masters are not usually prepared. They are an inquisitive race, and at the same time are very reluctant to show the ignorance which they really have. In fact, the Japanese spend a good deal of time and ingenuity in framing beforehand questions by which they hope to puzzle their teacher. This shows that the Japanese, like the rest of us, have something else to learn besides English. But their native politeness and industry make it a pleasure to teach them, excepting when these inconvenient questions are suddenly interpolated. Of course the object we had in acceding to their original request to open a school was that it might lead to direct Mission work amongst them, for not only are they, with scarcely an exception, heathen, but in wishing to learn English they have no desire to be in other ways connected with the Mission. This object is as yet very far from having been attained. But not long after the school was opened the Bishop's hope was in a measure realised when one of the pupils asked to be permitted to read the Bible on Sundays. His example was followed by four other Japanese, two of whom were pupils. One of them has since removed to Seoul, where he is a frequent visitor at the Mission-house at Nak-Tong. The remaining three continue to come intermittently on Sundays, when Mr. Pownall reads the Bible with them. But their knowledge of English is so imperfect that while their desire to read the Bible is very encouraging, it is hopeless to expect to reach them until we have here a clergyman who knows Japanese. Granted such a man, there is apparently no limit to the good he would do to the Japanese in this port. And if the Mission could have half a dozen such men, there is work here and in the other treaty ports to employ them all: for though there are only 2,700 Japanese in this port, there are some 700 in Seoul, an equal number in Gensan; and in Pusan, which is practically a Japanesecolony, there are 4,000. Let me beg you to bear in mind that this Japanese work has been thrust upon the Mission, not sought by it. Indeed, so occupied are the missionaries at present in learning Corean (which is absolutely necessary before they can teach) and so quickly did this Japanese work seem to develop, that the Bishop has not even yet seen his way to make this school in Chemulpo a work for which he can become responsible. Accordingly (and this is the reason why the task of this report falls on me) he has placed the school in my hands. He greatly hopes to find men who will come from England and make the Japanese work their special study. I know he feels the great importance of evangelising the Japanese, and of using this educational opening for that end. The Japanese are multiplying in this country very rapidly, are the principal traders, and from their political activity influencing Corea to an enormous extent. But a reference to the list of the members of the Mission in Morning Calm will show you how impossible it is for him to utilise his present staff for this purpose, it being quite impossible for men whose main business it is to study Corean to attempt another Oriental language. It may surprise you, who I know are thinking more of Corea than Japan, to find no allusions in this report to educational work amongst Coreans. But the Coreans, unlike the Japanese, have no desire to learn English. No such request as this has come from them, and though we look to have schools for them in the future, we feel that it would be rash to make the attempt until more progress has been made in learning how to speak to them in their own language. Should any opening arrive you are sure to hear of it, and I hope you will not regard this report as covering the whole ground of the educational question in Corea. In fact it touches but the outskirts of it. To revert once more to the Japanese school, my pupils are mostly from the better class. Obviously, therefore, any Christian work which could be carried on amongst them would have great and far-reaching influence on the rest of their countrymen here. I trust that this report may be helpful to the Committee in its good work. Yours sincerely, E. B. LANDIS.

Some Corean Customs. COREANS are the slaves of custom. It is the business of every Corean boy to make himself familiar, through his teacher, or his grandfather or father, with all the intricate details of the different customs to be observed upon various occasions. A man who is ignorant of the proper custom is regarded as a low and ignorant person, who must be studiously avoided. Reasons are never sought for. A Corean is not a reasoning person. The mere fact that a custom is a custom is quite sufficient in itself to render its observance obligatory. I will now offer to the readers of Morning Calm some of the information that I have been able to gather as to the necessary customs to be observed at the donning of the toga virilis, at a marriage, and at a death. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE “TOGA VIRILIS." At a very early age the Corean boy generally becomes engaged to be married. As a preliminary step the auguries are taken for him from “The Four Columns," which consist of the record of the year, the month, the day, and the hour of the birth of the boy. When these are made out satisfactorily, they are sent to the father of the intended bride ; and if he is satisfied with them he consults other auguries, and so chooses an auspicious day for the marriage, which date, so selected, he sends to the bridegroom's father for his approval. Then another lucky day is sought for by the boy's father on which to invest him in the clothing of an adult, and on the selected day the crown of the boy's head is shaved, and he no longer wears the pigtail, but has all his hair gathered up in a bunch, and tied in a knot at the top of his head; he is then invested with the casing of horsehair which encircles his forehead, and may henceforward wear the hat which he was not permitted to do before; but for the first three years his hat must be made of white straw, and not of the usual horsehair. When the day for the marriage is come the bridegroom is dressed in court dress, and is placed on horseback, and conducted by his servants to the bride's house. On this day the bridegroom's father presents the bride with a large black box, which is placed in the best room of her house, and covered with a red cloth. Inside the box there are placed a blue apron and a red apron, together with a skein of blue and red thread, and some large sheets of blue and red paper; also two fragrant sticks of scent, which are wrapped in blue and red coverings. The box also contains a large letter written by the bridegroom's father, declaring that it is his desire that his son should be married to the girl in question. After the ceremony the black box is wrapped in the red cloth, and carried by the servants to the bridegroom's house. Next a live goose is brought in and placed on the table, and covered with a red cloth, with the exception of its head. After it has been treated in this way it is carried out and taken back to the bridegroom's house, from whence it originally came. Then, when the goose has been carried out, a table is brought in covered with choice fruits and wine. The bridegroom stands at one end of the table, and the bride at the other. The bride is obliged to close her eyes during the whole ceremony, and is also supposed to keep them closed all the daytime for three days after the marriage. The bride then bows down to the ground before the bridegroom four times, the salute being returned twice only by the bridegroom. After this the bridegroom sits down upon a rug, and after he is seated the bride also sits. Then some women-servants bring a cup of wine to the bridegroom, which he raises to his lips, but does not drink. The same cup is then presented to the bride, who also touches her lips with it. Then the bride retires, the marriage ceremony being completed. The bride and bridegroom remain for three days at the former's house, and on the fourth day a procession is formed, consisting of a train of serving men and women, and the bridegroom on horseback, and the bride being carried in a covered chair. In this manner they return to the bridegroom's house to live. Passing on to the ceremonies connected with death. When a man is near his end, the wife and children and other near relations come into his room to witness the end. When he is supposed to be dead, some wool is held before his nostrils in order to ascertain whether any breath is coming from them. If the wool remains motionless, he is at once "laid out." One of his coats is then taken and waved three times outside his house, his name also being uttered three times; then the coat is taken up and laid on the roof of the house. After this the hon paik is made. (The hon paik is a piece of white paper with an inscription on it, into which the soul of the departed is supposed to enter.) This paper is then waved outside the house three times, and the spirit is thrice invited to enter it. These ceremonies being completed, the evil spirits are then propitiated by having three bowls of rice laid outside for them to eat, and three pairs of shoes laid beside the rice for them to go away in. Three days after this the corpse is finally washed and enshrouded in yellow wrappings, and thoroughly scented; it is then placed in a coffin, which is laid in a different room, and then kept, in the case of an ordinary gentleman, for three months, and in the case of royalty for five months. In the summer, however, the corpse in the coffin is laid out of doors. When the day for the burial arrives the corpse is accompanied by all the relatives, who keep up a loud wailing the whole way to the grave. The graves are obliged to be outside the city walls. On their return the dead man's “tablet” is made out and erected in his room, and for three years the wife and children must visit the room morning and evening and mourn before the tablet, and offer a bowl of rice for the spirit to eat. At the expiration of the three years the tablet is removed from the room in which the death took place, and is placed in a special room, together with all the other ancestral tablets, the mourning ceases, and the room where the man died may henceforth be used as an ordinary dwelling-room. Such are a few of the customs connected with these rites ; it would be interesting to learn the meaning of many of them, but the ordinary Corean is quite as ignorant of any hidden meaning as we are, and contents himself with telling you simply and finally that such has always been the custom. LEONARD WARNER.

The Spirit of Missions. “This Master Wolfall, being well seated and settled at home in his own country, with a good and large living, having a good honest woman to wife, and very towardly children, being of good reputation among the best, refused not to take in hand this painful voyage, for the only care he had to save souls, and to reform these infidels, if it were possible, to Christianity; and also partly for the great desire he had that this notable voyage, so well begun, might be brought to perfection; and therefore he was contented to stay there the whole year if occasion had served, being in every necessary action as forward as the resolutest man of all. Wherefore in this behalf he may rightly be called a true pastor and minister of God's Word, which for the profit of his flock spared not to venture his own life.” - Frobisher's Third Voyage, A.D. 1578. missionaries, of the most breathless interest, have given fuller tidings. Allowing for all national and religious partiality, and although many things remain still to be explained, there can be no doubt that the converts of the English Church Mission exercised most exemplary patience and forbearance under much insult, and only came to blows when it was absolutely necessary to save life. It is sad to hear that one of the most promising of the native converts, Sembera Mackay, who had been licensed as reader by Bishop Tucker in January 1891, was killed during the disturbances. The country is now quiet again. The following, quoted from the Church Missionary Intelligencer, is a very interesting example of the work done among our sailors by missionaries abroad. It is contained in a letter from the Seamen's Chaplain at Hong Kong: "We had a special Communion Service for some of the men-of-war's men leaving the China seas. The late crews of H.M. ships Severn, Linnet, and Archer go home on board the Tamar at the end of the week. They and some sailors remaining still on the station met with us in the Seamen's Church to say 'farewell in the Lord' around the Lord's Table. There were about 50 naval seamen altogether, including two or three officers. It was an impressive and solemn service. Many of those present came out to the China seas wild and reckless; but, owing to the influence of some of the wholehearted missionaries at Shanghai and other ports in these seas, they are now returning home to England not ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified. ‘Thank God for the Missionaries!' was the exclamation of one of the seamen who communicated a few days before. And this is a sentiment echoed by many other sailors who have been brought to Christ by the instrumentality of these servants of God on the coasts of China and Japan."