Morning Calm v.2 no.14(1891 Aug.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 14, VOL. II.] AUGUST 1891. [PRICE id. The Bishop's Letter. CHEMULPO, COREA, May 14, 1891. DEAR FRIENDS, Since writing my letter of last month, I have been informed of the addition, of which you have no doubt heard long ago, which has been made to my jurisdiction. The province of Shing-King in the Empire of China, constituting the southern part of that large district known as Manchuria, has now been placed within the limits of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Church of England in Corea. A glance at the map on your Magazine will show you that the province of Shing-King adjoins Corea, and is all that separates Corea from Pechili, the province of Peking, the capital of China. Perhaps in a future letter I shall have a good deal more to say about this little-known district of China. At present I must content myself with telling you that the area of the province of Shing-King is estimated at 37,269 square miles, and the population at 2,187,286. Moukden, the capital, is some 380 miles north-east of Peking, and less than 100 miles from the sea-coast, where, in Niu Chw'ang, we have a Treaty Port, which, for the present, will be all that I can think of providing for. This port has been open to us by treaty for now many years, but, so far as I know, there has never yet been a resident clergyman to look after the English Church folk who are to be found in the Consul, merchants, pilots, and others who form a large part of the European population. I am glad that at last this reproach is rolled away, and that now I have a right to do what for many years I have longed to see done. The Church owes her thanks to Bishop Scott of North China, as well as to the Archbishop of Canterbury, for supplying this want, for, though it was the Archbishop, of course, who moved in the matter, it was Bishop Scott who, nearly two years ago, suggested it to him. Need I say that this addition of responsibility brings with it no addition of income? As Bishop in Corea and Manchuria, I shall be as destitute of endowment as I have been hitherto as Bishop in Corea alone. The majority of you know this, but I have still some friends who think that a Bishop must have an endowment. Not that I speak in   respect of want. Our good friends, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, who are so kind to us now, will not, I know, forget us in this new venture of faith which the Church is making in the prosperous but cold and little known country of the Manchus. I have written to the Society in England to ask for two priests to go and occupy Niu Chw’ang at once. The climate is delightful—very much more delightful than from the accounts which have reached us your climate in England has been during this last winter—for though after December the port is closed to navigation on account of the ice in the Gulf of Pechili and remains closed until March, yet the clear, bright sunshine makes life very enjoyable. To return to Corea. I have been in Chemulpo since I last wrote, having left all, except Dr. Landis (who is always a fixed quantity), in Seoul, under the charge of Mr. Trollope. I have good accounts from them all and hope that they are sending you good and full reports of themselves—reports, I mean, which will be printed in the Magazine. The Mission has now grown far too large for me to be able to chronicle the various matters of interest. One thing you will be very glad to hear about. The printing press given me by the Chaplains of the Royal Navy arrived in Seoul, April 13. Mr. Peake, who knows something about many things and a great deal about printing, grappled with the four heavy cases much as a spider seizes a fly, and on the day of their arrival in our compound had the press put together and in position. Sorting type and mixing ink came next, and in less than a week a hundred copies were on their way from Seoul of a letter of thanks which I had resolved should be the first work done by the press. This letter went to the Naval Chaplains. Perhaps a copy of it may appear one day in the Magazine. Was it not good of Peake to be so expeditious? All my workers work very hard and willingly; but this exploit will always, it seems to me, be matter for special gratitude. He was assisted by John Wyers, to whom we have given the rating of printer's mate. Though he is quite new to the work he was allowed to take the first sheets off the press, so that he might be able to say he had a hand in making this "sea pie." And now they are both busy with Mr. Scott's English and Corean Dictionary, an important work involving much care and labour. Happily Mr. Scott (who I think most of you know is our Vice-Consul here) is now in Seoul and able to superintend this work himself, which, for the sake of the Corean portion of the text, is very desirable on all accounts. I shall tell you more of this another day. Whilst they have all been busy in Seoul the Doctor and I   have not been quite idle here in Chemulpo. The chief things to record, however, are, first, the continued development of the Corean Medical work and the Japanese educational work. In order to take what is too heavy a burden off the doctor's shoulders I have every day a class of two Japanese gentlemen, clerks in the Consulate, who are making very praiseworthy attempts to speak English. As Dr. Landis always hoped and supposed, this Japanese educational work has led to work which is distinctly missionary. Every Sunday I have a Bible-class of Japanese, of whom only one or two are Christians, the rest being inquirers. How I regret not being able to speak Japanese! How I long to have some clergy under me who will take up this Japanese work to the exclusion of all other! For it is most difficult to ask and answer questions about religion when he who asks and he who answers scarcely understand what is said. But you see the kind of work which is being thrust upon us here. I thank God, but I see a grave responsibility in it all—a responsibility for which I was not prepared when I left England. With regard to Dr. Landis' Japanese school, it goes on with unimpaired vigour. He will soon be breaking up for the summer holidays. For the last month Miss Burnett, an English lady engaged in educational work in the High School in Tokyo, has been staying in Chemulpo, and, having some leisure time on her hands, has most goodnaturedly devoted it to helping the doctor in his classes, for which we are all most grateful to her. The second thing I have to record about Chemulpo is the beginning of our building operations on the plot of ground we bought, about which I think I told you in a previous letter. This has thrown a good deal of work on my shoulders, for if you want people to work out here you must stand over them and see them work. And I have been very anxious to get our first house finished before the rainy season sets in. As I write the roof is going up, so that I think in another month we shall be able to use the house. But a description of the ground, the house we are now building, the houses we are thinking of building, and other matters cannot be given at the end of a long letter. I will only add that we are all very well and enjoying lovely weather. God bless you all, my dear friends. I am, always your affectionate C. J. CORFE. P.S.—A mail has just come in, from which I hear that the Japanese doctor, whom I have been expecting to begin work for us in Fusan, has broken down in health, and, to his great sorrow, cannot join us.   Note. Miss Day writes to us that she will be pleased to send (post free) to anyone who will send her 6d. a copy of the reprint of the Bishop's Letters. Her address is 2 Lorne Villas, Rochester. Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. It will be seen by the fly-leaf accompanying Morning Calm that forty-seven reports have been received from local secretaries this quarter, and reports from two of the three branches of the Association, i.e., the Portsmouth Orphanage, and the Children's Branches. The list of new members will be found on the fly-leaf. We hear from Torquay that it is intended to have a “Sale of Useful Needlework," chiefly poor clothing, early in the autumn and that the local secretary (Miss Eyton, Elm Cottage, Torquay) will gladly receive articles for it. We are glad also to state that a sale and entertaininent on behalf of the Mission is fixed to take place on July 31, 1891, at Miss Trobridge's school in Exeter. M. M. CHAMBERS HODGETTS, General Secretary. Ertract from Letter from Rev. M. N. Trollope. "SEOUL, COREA, “Easter Day, 1891. “AND now here I am, seated in my room in the 'House of the Resurrection,' in the district of Nak-Tong, in the city of Seoul, in the country of Corea. “It is a nice name, is it not? and appropriate, as we only got in in time to spend Easter together here, and a very happy Easter it has been. “This city is strangely silent; indeed there are no sounds by day or night, except voices of men, women, children and dogs, and the clatter of the women's washing implements, which goes on till quite late at night. And the silence seems more extraordinary when one remembers that Seoul must have at least a quarter of a million inhabitants living within the walls. But as there are no factories, no railways, and no wheel traffic, there is not much opportunity for noise. The dogs are very surly, or at least very shy of strangers. They are biggish animals, like collies or sheep dogs. There are hundreds of them, one in every house I should think, and though they do not attempt to  fly at or bite us, yet the moment we come in sight, and sometimes even before we get round a corner, they bark tremendously, and bolt into their houses. It is interesting to know that when the French priests had to go about veiled and disguised as mourners (as they had to do so lately as 1883) the dogs were their great danger, as the disguise did not deceive them, and the noise they made betrayed the fact that they were foreigners in disguise. “Now about myself. After our stormy voyage from Fusan, of which I told you, and our safe arrival at Chemulpo on March 19, the other three (who had travelled with me) went up to Seoul the next day. The Bishop, who has been living at Chemulpo with Dr. Landis for some months, had to wait till Thursday in Holy Week, and I stayed on with him, as he had much to tell me. “Chemulpo is not a very interesting place and is quite of mushroom growth, the inhabitants principally Japanese, a few hundred Chinese, and about a score of Europeans and Americans. The low tides and the mud flats pass all belief. The whole bay is studded with islands, and at low tide many of these are left high and dry, the mud stretching as far as the eye can reach, leaving only small channels for the ships to lie in. There has been no missionary work there, nor any church as yet. The Bishop uses a room at the back of his house for services. Dr. Landis lives there and is getting on splendidly. He has a great many Corean patients, and he is now teaching English to a class of Japanese who have since asked him to start a Bible Class, which is encouraging. One of us will consequently always be there." "Low Monday, April 5.—This has been such a busy week that I have omitted a mail. Perhaps it will make matters clear if I give you a list of our present Mission Staff: The Bishop, myself, Warner, Pownall, Davies and Wyers (the bluejacket), living in Nak-Tong and shortly to be joined by Peake (preparing for ordination), making seven in all. Then at Chemulpo Mr. Small (priest) and Dr. Landis. Then we have Dr. Wiles, a regular old soldier to look at, and a great favourite, who lives in his own hired house near the English Consulate. He is over sixty years of age, a most industrious and useful man. I think We have the makings of a very happy family. “Well, having arrived at Chemulpo on March 19 and sent the others up to Seoul the next day, the Bishop and I remained there (I at the Johnstons' and he at the little house where he lived with Dr. Landis, and where he has his church) till Wednesday in Holy Week, when the Bishop and I walked up here ... We had   a ‘chair' with us, but neither of us rode, so the coolies had light work, only carrying our rugs, coats, &c. The country is very hilly, but does not get mountainous till you approach Seoul, which lies in a hollow amidst great jagged-looking mountains. We stopped on the road at a Japanese inn, and had an omelette and ate our sandwiches. We crossed the ferry at Mapu, which is, so to speak, the port of Seoul, being the point at which the river comes nearest to the city. The appearance of the city is most curious, there being no houses more than one storey high, except, I think, the English and Japanese Consulates, and there are no streets, with the exception of two or three main ones intersecting the city—only stinking little alleys and passages reeking with sewage. The smells, however, are not nearly so bad as I expected, nor so bad as those I met with at Ning-po, the only Chinese city that I know. The streets have a very busy appearance, though nobody appears to be doing anything, except the coolies, who act as porters. They are crowded with men walking about in their long white coats and curious hats, pipes in mouth and hands behind their backs. The few women about wear long green cloaks drawn over their heads just showing their eyes. Most of the children, who are very dirty, wear pink coats, a token that they are betrothed. The only other variety in costume is on the soldiers, who wear short black coats and hats of the same shape as the others, but of felt; and the men in mourning, who wear a long coat of rough sacking fastened round the waist with a rope, an enormous conical hat about three feet in diameter, and carry a little screen of sacking stretched on two sticks in front of their faces, to prevent the spirit of the deceased from getting into their mouths. I saw a funeral procession the other day, and a most quaint sight it was. First, two women veiled and on horseback, wailing in a most mournful manner, then a variety of people, then the corpse (I believe) in a sedan chair closed, and I suppose the chief mourner, who was boo-hooing and crying in the most demonstrative manner—this in the most crowded part of the city, no one paying any attention. “Besides our house at Nak-Tong we have another property called the ‘House of the Advent,' near the Consulate, which was the residence of Small, Warner, and Peake till just before we came, and where perhaps Sisters will ultimately reside. It is close to where Dr. Wiles lives, and we have service there every Sunday for the few English-speaking people who care to come. We want to keep our little chapel at Nak-Tong to ourselves and our Corean converts when we have any, and quite free from European connections. “We have a capital Chinese cook and three Corean coolies   as servants .... Beef, fowls, eggs, and vegetables are good, plentiful and cheap. All lights are out by 10.15 P.M., and the first service in chapel is at 6.15 A.M. The furniture of the chapel is of the simplest; straw mats on the floor, plain wooden prie-Dieus and stools for us, and a plain wooden table (as yet) for altar, a plain wooden cross, and two little lamps suspended from the roof (candles are too costly). "You will be glad to hear that my packing cases, &c., arrived safely, and that I find everything in good order. The heavy cases came up the river in junks from Chemulpo to Mapu, and from thence in bullock carts, the only two-wheeled vehicles I have seen. The portmanteaus, &c., were carried up on the backs of bulls, ponies, and men ... "And for the next two or three years we shall be living here a quiet life of study and prayer, imbibing meanwhile some knowledge of the Corean character and language, which latter is even more difficult than we anticipated ... You will gather from my letters how comfortably I am settling down, and how happy we all are. The weather has been very bright and sunny ever since we came here, but there is constantly a cold north-west wind; but we shall soon be getting into summer, when I believe it will be very pleasant, except for six or eight weeks of great heat. I have been so busy in the house and compound that I have as yet been viewing little of the city or country. I have been once or twice shopping with Warner, and once or twice to the Consulate (Hillier the Consul is such a nice man); that is all. Our tradesmen are chiefly Chinese, one or two shops kept by Chinamen being well supplied with all sorts of English and American eatables and other things. In fact in a place like this one looks on a Chinaman with the same sort of friendly feelings that one regards an Englishman in an out-of-the-way part of France, for instance.” Benediction of the Buildings of the English Church Mission AT NAK-TONG, SEOUL, ON WHITSUN DAY, MAY 17TH, 1891. AT 8 o'clock on Whitsun Day morning, after mattins had been said, the members of the community living in the Mission House of the Resurrection at Nak-Tong assembled in the chapel for the Benediction Service. The number in residence since Easter has consisted of two priests, two deacons, and three lay workers. The Bishop came   up on Friday from Chemulpo, where he had been occupied in looking after the erection of some new buildings for hospital and educational purposes on land recently purchased there. Punctually at the hour named the Bishop, attended by his chaplain, the Rev. M. N. Trollope, who acted as staff bearer throughout the ceremony, and the other priest, proceeded from the vestry to the front of the altar on the choir side, while the last verse of Hymn 158, A. and M., “O Trinity, O Unity," was being sung. After introductory collects had been said by the Bishop at the altar, the Litany was sung as far as the end of the observations, the two priests acting as cantors. At this point all stood up, and the Antiphon, "It shall come to pass," from Isaiah ii. 2, was precented by the Bishop, after which the procession moved out of the chapel into the compound singing the Gradual Psalms. The perambulation of the western portion of the compound, comprising the kitchen garden and the gate house, occupied the time of the singing of the first three Psalms, and the first stop was made in the small ante-room dividing the refectory from the smoking-room. These having been blessed, the close of Psalm 123, "Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes,” brought the procession to the next set of two rooms occupied by one of the deacons and lay workers. After “Nisi Quia Dominus" and “Qui Confidunt,” the procession stopped again for the blessing of the servants' quarters, presided over by the Ta-ssu-fu or Chinese cook, a Chifu Christian, held by all the Mission to be "good and true of heart.” The dispensary at the north-east corner came next in order with only one Psalm intervening, suggesting a hope of “great things to be done among the heathen." Then there was an ascent southward to the "upper house," a two-roomed building, assigned to the Bishop and the second priest, which was reached at the end of “Nisi Dominus Ædificaverit." An eastward turn here brought the procession to a stand again, after “Beati Omnes,” before the chaplain's room, used by him also as a lecture-room; and after the next Psalm before the printing house, which occupies the north-west corner of the compound, and is tenanted by the master printer and his assistant, the retired bluejacket. One more keeping room remained to be blessed in the main building, that of the senior deacon, and then with the words of Psalm 131, “Lord, I am not high-minded; I do not exercise myself in great matters which are too high for me," the procession filed into the library. After the benediction had been given at the eastern end of the room, the procession moved westward at verse 7 of Psalm 132 into the chapel which opens out of the library. Here there was a double benediction, one on either side of the altar: the eastward   or choir side, where the ordinary services are held, and westward where is placed the Bishop's temporary throne, and also seats for the clergy, and where the Holy Eucharist is celebrated on great occasions. With the last of the Gradual Psalms the procession returned to the choir, and, all being in their places, the Gloria and Antiphon were sung and the Litany was resumed. After the Litany the Bishop, attended by his chaplain and the senior deacon, moved round to the capitular side of the altar, followed by the two remaining clergy. The cope was then exchanged for the chasuble, and the celebration of the Holy Eucharist was proceeded with. The clock in the vestry was heard striking the canonical hour of nine as the Bishop was singing the words of the Whitsuntide Collect, “God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people." At the Communion Service the community were joined by the highly valued member of the Mission force Dr. Wiles, and also by the English Consul-General, whose cordial friendly aid in its early days ought to live perpetually in the remembrance of the Mission. It was a matter of regret to all that circumstances made it impossible for Dr. Landis, of Chemulpo, to be present, and take part in the day's proceedings. The music of the Missa Cantata was Marbecke's as arranged by Sir John Stainer for St. Paul's Cathedral. Before the prayer for the Church militant, a list was read of the names of the Archbishop, Bishops, Priests, and others connected with the founding and continuance of the Mission, whom it is intended to memorialise at every Eucharist, and the Eucharist concluded with a series of missionary collects immediately preceding the benediction. After the 10 o'clock breakfast, usual on Feast Days, all had their time to themselves, unhampered by the laborious demands of sermons and Sunday-schools, the unvarying experience of brother priests and deacons at home. That remains for the future. For evensong, as is usual on Sundays, nearly all went with the Bishop at 5 P.M. to the Chapel of the Advent, close to the English Consulate, the nursery of the Mission in its earliest days in Seoul, before the present Mission buildings had been brought into a habitable condition. At this service the Bishop preached from Acts xix. 2, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" The day was bright and warm, with cool breezes tempering the heat, and earnest, we hope, of the gladness and refreshing influence that the services of the day are destined to bring into the future life of the Mission.   The Spirit of Missions. This very striking poem by Archdeacon Moule, in memory of Bishop French, appears in the July number of the Church Missionary Intelligencer:— Where Muscat fronts the Orient sun, ‘Twixt heaving sea and rocky steep, His work of mercy scarce begun, A saintly soul has fallen asleep: Who comes to lift the Cross instead? Who takes the standard from the dead?

Where, under India's glowing sky, Agra the proud, and strong Lahore, Lift roof and gleaming dome on high, His “seven-toned tongue”* is heard no more: Who comes to sound alarm instead? Who takes the clarion from the dead?

Where white camps mark the Afghan's bound, From Indus to Suleiman's range, Through many a gorge and upland, sound Tidings of joy divinely strange; But there they miss his eager tread: Who comes to toil then for the dead?

Where smile Cheltonian hills and dales, Where stretches Erith down the shore Of Thames, wood-fringed and fleck'd with sails, His holy voice is heard no more. Is it for nothing he is dead? Send forth your children in his stead!

Far from fair Oxford's groves and towers Her scholar Bishop dies apart; He blames the ease of cultured hours In death's still voice that shakes the heart. Brave saint! for dark Arabia dead! I go to fight the fight instead!

O Eastern-lover from the West! Thou hast outsoared these prisoning bars; Thy memory, on thy Master's breast, Uplifts us like the beckoning stars. We follow now as thou hast led; Baptize us, Saviour, for the dead!

• Bishop French spoke seven languages fluently.

  At a meeting of the native Christians held at Port Moresby, in New Guinea, recently, the collection (which was for missions) consisted of 37 dollars in money, 320 spears, 65 shell armlets, 92 bows and 180 arrows, besides drums, shell necklaces, feather and other ornaments, all of which have, of course, a marketable value as curios. This, as Canon Scott Holland said at the meeting of the Universities' Mission, in a similar case, may well remind us of those three kings who knelt to offer gold and frankincense and myrrh; for we believe and know that these offerings of New Guinea are as valuable in the eyes of God as those rich gifts of the kings. "Eight Years in Kaffraria,” a little book by Archdeacon Gibson, and published by Wells Gardner, gives a very interesting account of the work of the diocese from 1882 to 1890. A great merit of the book is that (unlike many other books of the kind) it explains and records the local features of the work; and accordingly one reads without the provoking feeling of being in the dark as to nearly everything. We would advise all who wish to see things in South Africa as they are to read it. It will tell them of a work full of difficulties, wonderfully like, and yet wonderfully unlike, those to be met with at home; full of hardships and discouragements, yet showing a really bright side, and being crowned with a marvellous success. The following passage speaks for itself:— “Worship in huts is a curious experience. There is not a little to distract. Frequently a dog or a fowl will persistently try to force its way in, and has to be driven out again and again. Sometimes it is almost impossible to see the words of the Liturgy, as the light which streams through the four-foot high doorway is blocked out by the crowd of worshippers who cannot find space inside; the head has often to be bowed, not in reverence, but because the roof is so low that the officiating priest cannot stand upright; but as you look round on the congregation, and see this one or that one whom you know has walked that morning six or eight miles, starting before sunrise, to come and meet his Lord; as your eyes fall upon a little band which travelled fifteen miles on the Saturday afternoon to be in good time for their Sunday Communion; as you listen to the heartiness and yet the melody with which that choral Eucharist is rendered; as, above all, the wondrous hush, that silence which can be felt, that succeeds the consecration prayer—when, for all he hears, the priest, in spite of the eighty or hundred worshippers, might fancy himself alone with his God—sinks into your heart; then you can realise that, in spite of all that hinders and distracts   devotion, ‘God is in that place' quite as truly as in the most noble cathedral that English devotion ever reared. And yet I do not mean that we wish to hold our services in common huts—far from it! only that, when we are forced to do so, there are compensations of which the outside world knows nothing." The larger part of the book, however, has to do with the work among the natives, among whom most of his work has been, and where the success has been truly wonderful. And his suggestion for solving the problem presented by the vast needs and the grinding poverty of missionary dioceses is a very excellent and practicable one, which must be given in his own words:— “What, then, might be done from home to help us is this: To send out young men in priests' orders, who have served their first two years since admission into the diaconate, to help the more experienced missionaries as assistant priests; these men to remain abroad for three years, working during that time for bare subsistence, not for a salary, and remaining during that time (surely it is not much to ask?) unmarried for the sake of God; their service abroad to count as service at home, with a view to any preferment that they might have bestowed upon them, and their old diocese to welcome them back again on their return. To us in the mission field the gain would be enormous and obvious. To those who came out to work with us for a time the advantage of the foreign experience, the wider views of life, the readier handling of men of all sorts, would be great; to the Church at home the benefits that would accrue would be none the less, for every returned missionary would kindle in his new sphere of work fresh missionary zeal, and that must necessarily react upon the home work. The parish that does most for foreign missions does also most for home needs. If such a plan as this is ever to be realised—supposing, that is, that it is worth realisation—its execution must depend upon two classes of people—the bishops of England and the mothers of England!" On June 2 Bishop Tucker addressed a great meeting at Exeter Hall, and asked for forty missionaries to go back with him, and up to June 17 forty names had been received, including a party of six who had responded to Mr. Ashe's call, five allotted by the General Committee, and nine Cambridge men. Of course the offers will have to be sifted, and it is not likely that all will be accepted. But these figures contain food for much of thanksgiving and of earnest prayer.