Morning Calm v.3 no.25(1892 Jul.)

THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ NO. 25, VOL. III.] JULY 1892. [PRICE Id. ________________________________________ The Bisbop's Letter. SÖUL, COREA: March 1892. DEAR FRIENDS, Towards the end of last month Mr. Warner came to spend a fortnight with me in Chemulpó before his ordination, and Mr. Pownall having, as I told you, come here for his examination, I was able to instal Mr. Warner coinfortably in his room. He had not seen St. Michael's before, and found it a delightful surprise. We spent a pleasant and, I hope, profitable time together, and early in Ember Week returned here, leaving the Church and Mission House in Chemulpó in charge of Dr. Landis. By this time Mr. Pownall's examination was finished, and we were all able to spend the last four days of the week in prayerful preparation for the great event to which we had been so long looking forward. An ordination, always a solemn occasion, is doubly so when it is the first ordination in a diocese. We felt wonderfully helped by the prayers which at that time were being offered up all over the world for “the bishops and pastors of God's flock,” and for those who were then to be “called to any office and administration in the same.” Two addresses were given each day on the ordination vows. On Saturday afternoon the oaths were taken in chapel, and early next morning-March 13, the second Sunday in Lent-we went to the English Mission Church of the Advent, where the ordination was to take place at 8.15. Mr. Davies, who is now being examined for deacon's orders, had prepared the little church with the loving care and clear intelligence which characterise all that he does in the sanctuary; his arrangements were admirable. Small though the church is, there was no crowding either of the candidates or of the congregation. Miss Cooke and Miss Heathcote were, as usual, helpful, and living so close to the church were of great assistance to Mr. Davies in his preparations. The ordination sermon (from St. John X. 14) was preached by Mr. Trollope, who had the double advantage of being examining chaplain and head of the House of the   86 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ Resurrection, in which both the candidates have lived for so long. Meanwhile all the members of the Mission now in Corea had assembled, with the exception of Dr. Landis, who was detained at Chemulpó by an attack of influenza. We had with us, too, our constant and sympathetic friend the Consul-General. The ordination service prayer began at nine, being prefaced by hymn 208. The service was choral throughout, the music being Merbecke, sung, however, without accompaniment, because the new American organ which a kind friend has given to the church was ice-bound in Chemulpó. Psalm cxxxij. was sung as the Introit, and at the end of the service hymn 324-always a favourite with us here. Of the service I need not say anything : many of you are familiar with it, and those who are not, will find a better account of it than I can give in the Prayer Book. It will suffice to say that at Evensong, when we read in the first lesson why Jacob gave the name of Bethel to the place which “was called Luz at the first," we felt that that little church had been a true house of God to us that day, and that it had once more justified the name of the Advent which we gave to it in December 1891. I spent the greater part of the day with John Wyers, who entertained me sumptuously at breakfast in the constable's quarters. At evensong we all met again in our little “Bethel,” and afterwards, instead of preaching, I tried to show them how wonderfully, in the psalms and lessons for the day, God had spoken to us through His Holy Word. Perhaps many of you will already have noticed how appropriate were these sortes liturgice, these coincidences, whether in the way of exhortation or consolation, of instruction or warning-but I find that it is always so. God sends us what we want through His Word, whenever and wherever we take it up in the way of duty. On the Tuesday morning I gave the clergy their licenses, and Mr. Pownall made immediate use of his by celebrating the Holy Communion for us at the House of the Resurrection, Mr. Warner following him in the same way on Thursday. Thus, by the blessing of God, and the constant help and wise counsels of my dear chaplain and Mr. Small, we have already a family which is more Corean than English. May He who blesses, continue and multiply His blessings, and bring them to bear on the wants of His people in this country. I am glad to report Miss Cooke's dispensary open, and a small but continuous stream of patients availing themselves of her services. The winter will not leave us. The month is now more than half over, but the snow-storms still come and the thermo-   88 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ meter still falls to 24° at night; but the snow does not remain on the ground now, and the sun has considerable heat in the middle of the day. As soon as it is possible a small six-roomed hospital is to be built close to the dispensary, which will give Miss Cooke an opportunity of extending her work the moment any of her patients will permit her to do so. It is possible that my next letter may be written from Manchuria. The port of New Ch'wang, which has been closed by the ice since last December, is expected to be open in another fortnight. I want to be there by Easter. You know that it is new work, and I want a great many prayers from you that God will guide me and bless this my first visit to our fellow-countrymen in that port. That He may bless you too is always the prayer of your affectionate friend,

• C. J. CORFE.

Association of Prayer and work for Corea. We think that the following Missionary Prayer, drawn up by one of our members, may be helpful to the many of those who remember that Bishop Corfe has often suggested the use of the Lord's Prayer with a special intention as one way for busy people to keep the rule of our Association. Our special thought for Corea can easily be added in saying it : A MISSIONARY PRAYER.

	“Our Father, which art in Heaven," Who lovest all men, and hast made of one blood all the nations upon earth, “hallowed be Thy name" in the lives of all who labour for Thee; by their faith and purity, and by the much fruit of their labours, hallowed be Thy name even in the midst among Thine enemies,

“Thy kingdom come” in heathen lands and heathen hearts. “Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth”-in all the earth by all Thy children ; Thy will be done and Thy Gospel preached to every creature. "Give us this day our daily bread”-the Bread of Life vouch-safe, O Lord, to us and to all, even to the multitude whose souls are unfed in the wilderness of heathendom. “And forgive us our trespasses"-our coldness in the cause of Christ, our cowardice and selfishness, O Lord, forgive. “As we forgive them that trespass against us," so we pray Thee to forgive our deep trespass against the heathen in teach-ing them the sins of our nation more than the good tidings of our faith.   THE MORNING CALM. 89________________________________________ “And lead us not into temptation," or in temptation leave us not, lest by the fear of man, or the lust of the flesh, we fall from Thee: protect the converts to Thy truth, O Lord, when they are tempted, that they cause not Thy holy name to be blasphemed among the heathen; “But deliver us from evil”-from the kingdom of evil and the tyranny of sin ; from the worship of false gods and from false worship of Thee; from evil of body and evil of soul, good Lord, deliver us, since Thou only canst deliver. “For Thine by right is the kingdom, and Thine only is the power, and Thine is and shall be the glory for ever and ever.” Amen. We depart from the usual rule of leaving financial matters to the quarterly flyleaf, to record here also two donations received during the past month, in order that the pleasure felt in receiving them may be shared by others in hearing of them. From the working-women of St. Anne's Guild of the Church of the Transfiguration, New York (visited by Bishop Corfe on his way to Corea), £20. 8s. 7d. (or 100 dollars), which they have earned and saved in the last eighteen months, and which was offered to God on Easter Day at the early morning Eucharist. Also £9, the result of a sale of last winter's work of the members of the St. Mark's Branch (London) of the Girls' Friendly Society. After July 10, and until the end of September, will all secretaries, members of the Association, and others kindly ad-dress their application for Corean papers and all other letters to the General Secretary (who will be away from home) to Miss Trollope, St. Martin's, Beckenham, Kent. Miss Trollope has kindly undertaken to act as General Secretary for that time. The General Secretary will receive July and October Reports as usual. M. M. CHAMBERS-HODGETTS, Gen. Sec. Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. Rowancroft, Exeter, June 8, 1892. Correspondence. DEAR MR. EDITOR, -As H.M.S. Severn was the first British man-of-war to visit Chemulpo, the residence of Bishop Corfe since the establishment of the Church of England Mission to Corea, a brief account of the surroundings and work of the Mission may be of interest to the readers of the Morning Calm.   90 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ The Severn arrived at Chemulpó, October 28, 1891. The Mission at the time of our visit had been established nearly a year. In this time Bishop Corfe, and his energetic and able assistant, had succeeded in building a picturesque and com-modious church, where daily service is held, as well as rooms for himself and the members of the Mission, who at present reside at Chemulpó. Each member of the Mission, including the Bishop, has one room for himself, but little larger than a ship's cabin, and not nearly so well furnished, which answers as bed and sitting room combined, and there is a mess room of some-what larger dimensions common to all. The most has been made of everything, and luxury is unknown. A hospital for Coreans was nearly completed. This was being built on the model of a Corean house, and is to be in charge of an American doctor, a member of the Mission. Another branch of the Mission is established at Seoul, the capital, about twenty-five miles from Chemulpó. The Vice-Consul very kindly lent me his pony, and with my companion in a chair borne by four coolies, with a similar number for a relief, we started after breakfast one morning for Seoul, our luggage being carried by coolies. The country is undulating and on the whole pretty. At a rest-house, about half-way, kept by a Japanese, we obtained our European cooked meal. Five miles from Seoul we crossed an arm of the Salee River, which at that time was only knee deep, and then for about a mile the path was through heavy sand, the bed of the river in the rainy season, which brought us to the navigable arm of the river, about four hundred yards wide, which we crossed in a boat. Thence to Seoul, a distance of about three miles, the road was through thickets of evergreens and bamboos, and past numerous villages rising gradually up to the walls of the capital. We entered through the south-west gate, and after some little difficulty succeeded in finding our way to the British Consulate-General, where we were most hospitably entertained during our stay in the capital by the present genial and able Consul-General, Mr. Hillier. The town of Seoul, which is said to contain about a quarter of a million inhabitants, is situated in a hollow, surrounded on three sides by bare rocks, and in some places precipitous hills, rising to an altitude of nearly three thousand feet, and is enclosed by walls which run along the crest-line of the hills. The town, without exception, is the filthiest I have ever seen ; a Chinese town is clean by comparison.   THE MORNING CALM. 91 ________________________________________ In a compound near the British Consulate-General, Dr. Wiles, a retired army medical officer of high rank, and a member of the Mission, has established a dispensary, where he attends daily from forty to fifty Coreans. The doctor lives in a tiny room at the end of the building, which is an ordinary Corean house. In the same compound another Corean house has been converted into a chapel; a third forms quarters for some of the Mission, and a fourth was being built for quarters for the two lady members of the Mission who arrived at Chemulpó while we were there. In another compound in the town, about a mile from the British Consulate-General, the remaining members of the Mission reside, and here is also a small chapel, and the printing press presented to the Mission by the Chaplains of the Royal Navy. The printing press has already done useful work, as it has printed a Corean-English dictionary, written by Vice-Consul Scott, of Chemulpó, and was about to print a Corean-English phrase book, compiled by Consul-General Hillier. The members of the Mission are hard at work studying the language, and are making good progress. It is a Mission which has begun well, which deserves to succeed, and which is well worthy of support ; but when its members have acquired a mastery of the language, it will have a very uphill task in overcoming the natural apathy of, and in instilling some notions of cleanliness into, one of the dirtiest and most indolent races in the world. I will conclude this letter with a short account of a visit we paid to the King of Corea. Having been informed that the king would receive us in the afternoon, we paid our respects to the President of the Foreign Office in the forenoon, who received us in his robes of state, which, as the king was in mourning, were white, that being the mourning colour in Corea, as in Japan and China, where most things are the reverse of European. We were regaled with refreshments, European and Corean, of which the former were indifferent and the latter good. In the afternoon we proceeded to the palace in chairs, the party consisting of the Consul-General, two other officers of the Severn, and myself. The palace is a collection of low, one-storied buildings, en-closed within a wall and covering a considerable extent of ground. At the gate of the palace, where we got out of our chairs, we were received by one of the secretaries of the palace, who preceded us through numerous courts and passages to a room   92 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ where the Presidents of the Foreign and Home Offices received us. We passed through a good many gates, at each of which were stationed two European-drilled sentries, armed with rifles, whose barrels they had utilised to stick their long pipes in! I may mention here that a Corean is never seen without his long pipe, which he smokes nearly all day long. We were regaled by the presidents, as in the forenoon, and after waiting about half an hour, a messenger announced that the king was ready to receive us. A procession was formed, headed by the two presidents, and we proceeded through a gateway into a small court, on the left side of which we ascended some steps and found ourselves in the presence of the king. The room was entirely open on the side of the court, and on the opposite side, behind a small square table covered with a white cloth, stood the king, also in white, with three eunuchs standing on either side of him. The two presidents, as they entered, performed the ko-tow, i.e. they knelt down at right angles to the king (not facing him) and touched the floor several times with their foreheads ; they then placed themselves on the king's right. We bowed on entering the room, advanced to the table, and again bowed. A secretary, who stood close to the table on the king's right, acted as interpreter. He bowed low when speaking to or being spoken to by the king, without looking towards him. A conversation, lasting about twenty minutes, then ensued, the king expressing very friendly sentiments towards Her Majesty the Queen, Great Britain, and the British Navy. He seemed intelligent, but had an anxious face. We left the room in the same order and manner, and then proceeded to visit the Crown Prince. I should mention that on each side of, and a little in advance of the table, stood an official holding a sheathed sword, resting on his left fore-arm diagonally across his body. Before visiting the Crown Prince the two presidents changed their white for coloured robes, as the Crown Prince was not in mourning, and this change of dress took place in the courtyard outside the king's reception room. We were received by the Crown Prince in a similar manner ; he was attended by two eunuchs and two gentlemen most gorgeously attired, whom we understood to be military officers. Our interview with the Crown Prince only lasted about five minutes. Before leaving the palace enclosure we were allowed to visit a summer pavilion, standing in a lotus pond, and the hall of state,   THE MORNING CALM. 93________________________________________ where the king receives the obeisance of his subjects on New Year's Day. A peculiarity of Corean official etiquette struck us as some-what ludicrous. A high Corean official, when in his robes of state, is required to be attended by two officials, who support him under the arms whilst he shuffles along as if he were dependent on their support, and the effect to a European is anything but dignified. Notwithstanding the dirt of Seoul and of its inhabitants, we were much interested in this our first visit to the capital of the “Hermit Kingdom,” and to its seaport, Chemulpó; and I, especially, was greatly pleased to meet again my old friend and messmate, Bishop Corfe, who carries with him, as he did when in the Service, the best wishes of his many friends still serving under the old flag. Yours sincerely, A NAVAL OFFICER. The Spirit of Missions. “DEAREST SISTER, -The Eternal Rewarder of all good works make you glad with the guardianship of His holy angels, because, by your gift of the Holy Writings, you have comforted me, an exile in Germany for the Gospel, with spiritual light. For he who would enlighten the dark recesses of the German people, unless he has the Word of the Lord as a lantern unto his feet and a light unto his paths, cannot but fall into the snares of death. And trusting to your love I ask, moreover, that you will deign to pray for me, who, bound down by my sins, am in peril among the deep. waters : that He who hath His dwelling on high, and yet humbleth Himself to behold lowly things, will look mercifully upon my weakness, and give me such utterance that the Gospel of the glory of Christ may run and be glorified among the heathen." -S. BONIFACE to EADBURH, Abbess of S. Sexburh in Thanet. The Anniversary of the Church Missionary Society this year is as full of encouragement as ever. This year, Exeter Hall proving too small, a second great meeting was held at St. James's Hall on May 3, and both meetings show many signs of a fulness of holy joy. We take the following from the speech of the Rev. W. H. Ball, C.M.S. missionary in Calcutta: - "Some time ago I was preaching in a village. After the preaching the people talked to us. An old Mohammedan came to me and said, ‘Sir, I have committed many sins. I am an old man, and must soon die. Could your Saviour save me?’ I opened my New Testament and read him the words, ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ I shall never forget how that old man's face lighted up. He said,   94 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ ‘What! did God love me like that, and no one ever told me before?' I said, 'Never mind; will you take Him now?' He said: 'Yes, of course I will.' And so he did, just like a little child.” A very admirable work among our sailors is being done by the Seamen's Friendly Society of St. Paul, which has its head-quarters at Calcutta. The Founder and Superior of the Society is the Reverend C. P. Hopkins, who has three lay brethren working with him. They have been at work now for several years, and Father Hopkins, who has great gifts for work among men, is known far and wide among sailors who have touched at Calcutta, Chittagong, or Rangoon, very many of whom owe it to him, under God, that they have been led to begin new lives. Bishop Blyth, who, as Archdeacon of Rangoon, knew the work there well, writes of it: “The work is more valuable than I can express in few words. It is, in fact, the most thorough work of its kind I have come in contact with." From the March number of The Messenger (the organ of the Society) we take the following as a fair specimen of what is being done : - "Monday, February 15, 1892. “Last evening we had our church full of sailors and sailor-lads, and in the morning a good congregation also. Several have given in their names as candidates for Confirmation, and our regular Confirmation class commences next Friday. One young sailor, now under instruction for his confirmation and com-munion, left home six years ago, and has during that time had no communication with father or mother, brother or sister. His life has been the usual life of abandonment and sin, and it was not until some words in our little Seamen's Church went to his heart, and the kindness at the Priory reminded him of his home, that he commenced to waver in his allegiance to sin. He came to me the other night, and, with hand shaking and voice trem-bling, said he would like me to talk to him about his life, and help him to be a better man. That is all I wanted, and soon his fears were dispelled, and I think he went away happier and with a firm determination to have a fight for it. At any rate, I know he has decided to go home this voyage." Could the best kind of missionary work be better exemplified than in the following letter in the Mission Field from Mr. Johnson, of St. Augustine's, Zululand ?- "Ten years ago I travelled throughout the whole of this district with Chief Hlubi (I had just then started to build our first hut at Isandhlwana, and that was the only Mission centre in the whole district), and, as we went along, he (Hlubi) pointed   THE MORNING CALM. 95________________________________________ to different spots, and said, 'Umfundisi, there is a place that ought to have a “House of God” and a Mission school.' I think he pointed out six places altogether ; and how often have I put the longing to occupy in our Lord's name those six places away from my mind, and striven to go on in our quiet regular way, and carry on the small, dry, and often tedious details of the two centres already commenced. . . . I saw little prospect of ever really being able to establish permanent work at those six places, but the prayerful longing to be allowed to do so was ever in my heart; and now God has so wonderfully opened the way and blessed the work that, not only is there a substantial work established at each of those six places, each under a resident native catechist, but it has far exceeded my prayer and longing, for gradually we have been nearly compelled to permanently occupy eleven centres, at which we have resident native catechists who are also schoolmasters; and also, besides these eleven prominent centres, we have eight other places (at two of which are European congregations), where services and classes preparing candidates for baptism are held weekly. When I say that we have been nearly compelled to advance in this way, I mean that the people have sought us and begged us to come and commence mission work amongst them. Sometimes it has been that some young men have been to work in Natal, and have there attended Divine service, and the Holy Spirit has found a place even in their dark and impure hearts, and when they have returned home they have gathered their brothers and sisters together from time to time to pray, and in time it has resulted in some of them coming and asking me to go to them and 'make Sunday,’ as they term holding service ; and it has gradually grown into establishing a native catechist-schoolmaster, and building him a school church. . . . "I suppose nothing I am writing about to-day is really new, but somehow the wonderful way in which we have been, I say, nearly compelled to take up place after place struck me very forcibly during my visit this time, passing from station to station." No! It is not really new ; it is the way in which the Risen and Ascended Saviour always works in His Church, sowing and quickening “the seed that groweth secretly." And Mr. Johnson, and others like him, little know, perhaps, how their work gladdens and encourages others far away. Bishop Smythies has recently sent a pastoral to the clergy of the Universities' Mission, from which the following passage is taken : -   96 THE MORNING CALM. ________________________________________ “MY DEAR BRETHREN, - “I have felt this year for the first time that I shall not be able any longer to undertake the long journeys to Nyasa, and I have also become convinced that it is impossible for one man to give adequate episcopal supervision to the work there and also to the work on the East Coast and at Zanzibar. I laid this before our Committee some time ago, and sug-gested that the time had come when our Mission might well establish another bishopric for Nyasaland. On receiving my letter the Committee passed resolutions urging me to come to England as soon as possible to take counsel with them about the matter, and their request was earnestly supported by a letter from our late Chairman, the Bishop of Carlisle, written just before his death. . . . In answer to the summons of the Com-mittee I have decided to go to England in May." Since then Bishop Smythies has arrived in England quite broken down in health ; the Committee have held their meeting, and the result will, no doubt, soon be known. A document which has a very touching interest has recently been published (in part) in the Church Missionary Intelligencer. It is a paper written by the late Graham Wilmot Brooke, written on January 29, 1892, directing what was to be done in case of his death. The opening and closing paragraphs are as follows: 1. Send a note to the agent of the Telegraph Company, Brass, enclosing a telegram addressed to "Testimony, London," mentioning when, where, and from what cause I died. 2. Also a letter giving particulars to Mrs. Graham Wilmot Brooke. 3. If I die in Lokoja, I should like to be buried beside Mr. Robinson, as privately and quietly as possible. 4. My possessions should be packed up at once, to await the first visit of the Agent-General, who should be consulted about sending them home to England. 19. Every endeavour must be made to resume the regular labours of the Mission at the earliest possible date. 20. Let itineration be carried on as steadily as possible to any place within thirty miles of Lokoja and Gbebe, at the dis-cretion of the respective pastors of these places. 21. The pastor of Lokoja will act as secretary as regards correspondence with the C.M.S., but the office and duties of leader cease at my death, that is to say, that each missionary will be responsible for his own branch of the work until instructions arrive from the Parent Committee. 22. Tell the Christians to work while it is day ; "the night cometh when no man can work."