Morning Calm v.6 no.61(1895 Jul.)

THE MORNING CALM. No. 61, VOL. VI.] JULY 1895. [PRICE 1d.

The Bishop's Letters.

SEOUL, March 1895. DEAR FRIENDS,

In my last I had no room to tell you that the Guard of Marines was removed from the Consulate-General, where they have been very welcome visitors to us all since last autumn. Their departure made a great gap, and it has been difficult for us to settle down in exactly the same groove in which we were before the familiar red tunics made their appearance. They have given us two very good photographs of the detachment, which help to decorate the ward in St. Matthew's Hospital, where some of them were so very ill. We on our side were able to bestow a more substantial favour on one of them, who, after having been baptized by Mr. Davies, was brought to me for Confirmation, and made his first Communion together with one of his comrades before leaving Seoul. At the beginning of this month I was delighted to receive a visit from two Japanese clergy, ordained by Bishop McKim of the American Church in Tokyo. They brought me a letter of introduction from the Bishop. But without this they would have been welcome when we knew who they were. Happily they could speak English sufficiently to enable us to have much conversation of a limited kind. They were spending a fortnight of a holiday in Corea, and we were glad to have them with us in the Mission-house for the period of their stay in Seoul. They were not able to speak English well enough to accept my offer to celebrate the Holy Communion. But on the day before they left us they joined us at our Sunday Eucharist, and concluded in the best of ways a visit which I believe they enjoyed as much as we. But at this sight of two Japanese clergy and at the thoughts suggested by their visit I felt inclined to echo the Prayer of Moses and say, "Would that all these Japanese in Corea were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them." I have not told you, I think, that Mrs. Bishop, the traveller, before leaving Corea made us a very handsome present in the shape of a large sum of money to build a more comfortable hospital for the women and children. The experience of the hospital at Nak Tong is, indeed, being repeated at Tyeng Tong. Dr. Wiles began work at Nak Tong with a good dispensary and an experimental hospital in the form of a small Corean house attached. This grew into the present St. Matthew's. Similarly at Tyeng Tong there is a good dispensary and a small Corean house close to it. Mrs. Bishop, full of interest in Miss Cooke's work, and desiring that the women patients should have better surroundings, has given us this substantial token of her good will and approval of our work at Tyeng Tong. The compound not being large enough to contain this extra building, it was decided to take down the house in which Miss Cooke lived --in spite of its historical associations, as being the house of the first Church, and the first clergy-house of the Mission in Seoul --and place Mrs. Bishop's hospital on the vacant site. The house was old when we bought it and could not be adapted, though a great deal of it will furnish materials for the new house. The adjoining parsonage of the Advent, being empty, owing to Mr. and Mrs. Doxat having gone to Niu Chwang, makes almost an ideal house for Miss Cooke. Ideal it is, at all events, in point of situation and position. She will be separated from her work and yet close to it, whilst her verandah com-mands the hospital. Although the frame of the new building is in its place, it will of course be some two months before the work is finished and the hospital ready for occupation. I am indebted to the good Sisters for making it possible for the Mission to avail itself of Mrs. Bishop's bounty. I hesitated to accept her kind offer, not seeing my way to embarking on fresh responsibilities in connection with the women's medical work, The Sisters, however, with characteristic courage, and a belief that they will be supported by their friends, asked my per-mission to take the burden of the hospital on their own shoulders. After much thought and consultation with the Sister in charge I gave my consent, and the building began to be erected forthwith. And so this Mission has, once more, to ac-knowledge the obligation under which it lies to the community of St. Peter at Kilburn. If I were to say the half only of what I feel, I should say a great deal more. But the Sisters prefer simple record of their doings, and deprecate any words either praise or of thanks. What they do want is what you and must give them--and give them now more than we have ever given them before-- our earnest and continued support. They have accepted a very serious responsibility, and they have accepted it for the good of the Church, and for the further de-velopment (if God will) of that work which they have watched and taken no inconsiderable share in for the last two years. And I cannot but think that, with more room for in-patients and the greater confidence in the doctor and nurses which is already being shown, there will be further developments to be seen before long. I am not thinking already of an even larger hospital. I think that we may fairly look for orphans to come to us from the present hospital, and I want to be prepared for this. I want (my children friends cannot tell how much I want) to begin to spend the money which they have been providing me with for the last five years. You know that the reason we cannot take charge of orphans is because we have no one to do it. The men amongst us cannot, and the women are engaged all day in the hospital wards. I have not been impatient, nor have I lost any opportunity. But I feel that now, at least, I must be prepared to find a house close to this hospital, in case the Sisters tell me that they have children in this hospital who, when they are discharged, have no home to go to. There is, of course, no hurry for this--for if the Sisters were to find them-selves suddenly in a position to undertake the charge of an orphan the Corean house in which Dr. Wiles lived would form an excellent temporary asylum--whilst there is room in the same compound to build a much larger house without cutting down any of the trees. The Sister in charge is writing to the Mother Superior to see if anything can be done to provide her with a Missionary who will definitely take up this side of the work. Dr. Baldock's patients continue to be as numerous as ever, and he has as many important operations as he and the Sisters can manage. His skill and success are attracting others to our quarter of the city. The Japanese are going to open a hospital on the east of Nak Tong, the American Methodists one on the West, whilst not far away on the north the American Presby-terians are at work in what was once the Royal Corean Hospital. There is, indeed, enough sickness and disease in Seoul to Warrant any number of hospitals being planted anywhere in the city. But I cannot help thinking that these good people would be doing more good to the inhabitants if they opened hospitals in some of the parts of the city which now have none. For you are not to suppose that our quarter is peculiarly unhealthy. The ice in the river having at last disappeared, Mr. Warner is able to go to Chemulpó for the Sunday services. I am spending most of my time at our river house in Mapo, and go into Seoul twice a week to help Mr. Davies in the Lenten services at the Advent. Mr. Smart writes a good account of himself from Tokyo. He has already made sufficient progress in Japanese to enable him to have simple prayers with the native Christians who visit him in his house. I have no news to give you this month from Manchuria, but expect that you in England know more of what is happening there than we. I am wondering when and how I shall be able to pay my annual visit to Niu Chwang. We are all well, and none better than Your affectionate friend, C. J. CORFE.

Association of Prayer and Work for Corea.

OF this month's changes in the list of Secretaries of the Association we note first that in Cornwall Mrs. W. H. Borlase has been obliged to give up the post of County Secretary which she has so kindly filled for the last three years, and becomes now Secretary for Penzance, while Mrs. Share, our Secretary in Truro, has kindly consented to act as County Secre-tary. In Herefordshire, we are very glad to see an old locality revived, Miss Kempson having kindly undertaken to act as Secretary for Bromyard. Mrs. F. Capel has, we are sorry to say, left Wilmington in Kent, but her place has been taken by Miss Rowlatt, one of Mrs. Capel's goodly number of members. Miss L, Joyce has succeeded her brother, the Rev. F. W. Joyce, as Secretary for the Tenbury district, including Burford, which latter locality will now be taken off the list. The County Secretary for Worcestershire, the Rev.D. Proctor has been hard at work on our behalf. On May 29th, he gave an address on Corea at St. James' Church, Kidderminster, by the kind invitation of the Rev. H. H. Rackham, after which several new members of the Association were enlisted. On June 5th, Mr. Proctor addressed a gathering of the Clergy of Worcester, in the afternoon; and spoke at a Missionary Meeting at St. Stephen Church in the evening on the Mission. At Ely the Rev. G. R. Bullock Webster spoke about Corea to an interested audience at the Theological College, on May 18th. An account of year's S.P.G. afternoon meeting at Exeter on April 29th should have been given in our June number. It was taken part in by the Exeter branch of the Association, the S.P.G. Local Com-mittee having kindly arranged that Mr. Trollope should be the sole speaker at that meeting, in order to give those friends of Missions in Exeter who are specially interested in Corea an opportunity of hearing his account of the work of that Mission at some length. The meeting was held at the Training College at 3 p.m. ; the chair was taken by Bishop Knight Bruce, and Mr. Trollope's address was listened to with great appreciation. We are glad to announce that Mrs. M. Dalison hopes to hold her Sale of Work—the results of which were sorely missed by our friends last year--again this summer at Hampton Court Palace. The date is not yet settled. Mrs. Dalison will be most grateful for contributions, which should be sent to her at Hampton Court Palace. As stated last month, the General Secretary will be away from home from July 12th to September 1st, and all her cor-respondence should be addressed to the Assistant General Secretary, Miss H. Wigram, South Lodge, Champion Hill, S.E. The General Secretary hopes to receive many July Reports before July 10th. M. M. CHAMBERS HODGETTS. Exeter: June 10th.

The Spirit of Missions.

“ No one thanks God more heartily than I do for the increase in missionary interest, in increased offerings, in new fields occupied. But we are as yet only gleaners. What could not our branch of the Church do if no day broke and no sun went down without earnest prayer for the coming of the Kingdom of Christ in all lands, in all hearts, in all homes? Then all tithes would be brought into the Lord's storehouse, and He would surely pour out a blessing that there would not be room to receive it."--Bishop Whipple.

THE Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for 1894 is a very interesting one. We learn from it that : -- The number of Ordained Missionaries, including nine Bishops, is 719; that is to say, in Asia, 233; in Africa, 173; in Australia and the Pacific, 18; in North America, 209, in the West Indies, 38, and 39 Chaplains in Europe. Of these 125 are natives labouring in Asia, and 45 in Africa. There are also in the various Missions about 2,900 Lay Teachers, 3,200 Students in the Society's Colleges, and 38,000 children in the Mission Schools in Asia and Africa. In the spiritual side of the work there is the usual story of difficulty and progress, of fears and hopes, and throughout all, we trust, lack neither of Christian faith nor of Christian stead-fastness. And first as to hindrances and anxieties. It is many years since wars have filled so large a place in the story of missions as in the past year. In the Far East we see two nations, for whose evangelisation we are labouring, engaged in terrible conflict. While for Japan we share the anxieties of the Church Missionary Society and of our Sister Church in America; in Corea and in North China and in Manchuria all the Missions of the Church are of our own founding, and naturally they have for the Society and its supporters a very profound interest. Amid our anxieties for the members of the Missions we have had no word of quail from any of them; and so we commend them to His keeping Whose work they are endeavouring to do, and pray that they may have special gifts in the time of special need--wisdom, courage, patience. Then in the island of Mada-gascar, where again the Mission is in a very special sense our own, the French invasion must stop the work of the Church and imperil its immediate prospects. Here, as in the East, no word of fear has come from our brethren, and the Rev. J. Coles, who bore himself heroically in the invasion of 1883, writes of the landing of the French troops with perfect calmness, and mentions that many of the soldiers, who have taken part in both invasions, are his good and old friends. Once more in the infant diocese of Lebombo, where everything has yet to have a beginning, the good Bishop finds himself arrested at the very outset by a Kaffir rising. From Lebombo, our youngest diocese, to Newfoundland, our oldest colony, is a long step, but here again the Church shares in the general paralysis of the island, brought about by the cessation of the whole banking business and therewith for a time the whole trade of the colony. How these trials-- of war, with its inseparable train of ills-- of commerce paralysed and credit lost-- will make themselves felt in the future it is bootless to forecast. The ultimate issues of all these ills are in the hands of God, and will, we trust, be made conducive to the extension of His Kingdom, the spread of His Gospel, the establishment of Peace among the Nations, the elevation of Commerce, the recognition of higher morality. Such a war as that which is being carried on in the Chinese seas will issue in consequences far beyond the settlements of treaties, boundaries, indemnities, which are the work of diplomatists when the sword is sheathed; it must have great and at present unknown results in the formation of national characters; it may generate hate, revenge, ambition, pride; it may lower the ideals of life and darken myriads of souls. . . . But on the other hand it may be that this conflict of nations not yet knowing God may involve such an upheaval in them as may provide a soil in the hearts of men for a rich sowing of His Word and His Grace: And in whose hands will rest whether it is to be so or not? In His, of course, but in human hands as well, and surely in none so much as ours. . . . It is the Holy Ghost whose mighty power will be engaged. We know that the Holy Ghost is given in answer to intercession, and the issue must in no small degree, therefore, be in our hands, which should be lifted up in prayer. But there are brighter scenes. In the last report the Society's young Mission to Mashonaland was the scene of war which threatened to sweep away all the fair and hopeful visions which the labours of Bishop Knight-Bruce encouraged. That land is now in the enjoyment of peacefulness, such as it probably has never known under its old conditions. Matabeleland is also in the same state of quietness. And the fact confronts us that for this great territory, "nearly as large as Europe," and offering such facilities for colonisation, the English Church and the Daughter Church in South Africa have enormous responsibilities, Each must bear its share, and the larger falls on the younger. If the South African Church is to justify its title, it must cease to look to England as it has done. Three-quarters of a century have elapsed since the Society was the means of sending the first missionary to South Africa, and it can now look with thankfulness at nine dioceses lying between Capetown and the Zambesi as the results of its efforts, its bounty, and its prayers. These dioceses are in very widely different stages of growth, and the opening of " regions beyond," but still on their own confines, seems to be a challenge to them to prove that the Church has taken root, but is putting forth branches and prov-ing that it is no longer an exotic growth. We see signs of this in Basutoland, in Kaffraria, and in Zululand ; but these are in themselves comparatively new open-ings. For older Churches there come times of testing. Such a time has now come in South Africa, and we cannot think that chat Church, with all its traditions, will fail. From the same continent there comes another signal encouragement, the happy drawing together of brethren, long parted, under the wise and gentle influence of Bishop Baynes, who now, with general approval--signifying, we hope, a general desire to bury past differences-assumes the old title of Bishop of Natal.

We take over the following interesting account of a visit to the Japanese and Chinese soldiers at Osaka, from the New York Sprit of Missions. The Rev. H. D. Page, the writer, is a Missionary of the American Church in Japan :-- "As you know, quite a number of Chinese prisoners taken in the present war have been brought to Japan and are kept in confinement at various places throughout the country. There are between two and three hundred men kept in two strong, castle-like temples in Osaka. One of the two is used as a hospital in which the wounded prisoners are treated ; and the other temple is for the uninjured. It was suggested by one of our Japanese clergymen that the present moment would be a specially favourable opportunity for making some impression among the prisoners, and I accordingly wrote to Archdeacon Thomson in Shanghai for some simple tracts in Chinese that could be understood by men of all dialects, a request to which he kindly and very promptly acceded by sending me several good-sized packages. The foreign community had previously been invited to visit and inspect the sick and wounded prisoners, and I had gone with two of my children partly to see them and show my sympathy with them, and partly to show my apprecia-tion of the courtesy shown us by the military authorities. We had not, however, been invited to visit the uninjured men con-fined in the other temple. “ After the receipt of the tracts from Archdeacon Thomson, I took a portion of them to the same temple which I had pre-viously visited, and made application to distribute them among both companies of prisoners, and, pending the answer, left the tracts in charge of the officer to whom I had applied. Later the mail brought word from him that the tracts which I had left with him would be distributed among the sick and wounded men ; but nothing was said as to any distribution among the others. Ultimately, however, I was permitted to go with Mr. Loomis, agent of the American Bible Society at Yokohama, when he, with the official permission of the Japanese Govern-ment, visited the unwounded men. “There are 185 men confined in the temple of which I speak, and we all noted everything with more than usual interest. The men were assembled in the large temple room, and all dressed alike in apparently warm and comfortable Japanese garments. If they had ever had a military uniform they were not wearing it. They seemed to be sufficiently well cared for, and our passage through the kitchen in coming in and going out (it was nearly supper-time) gave no indications of short commons. “It was the men themselves that we were particularly interested to observe. What is China's material for war and for citizenship? It was remarked by my companions that the men exhibited distinctly lower grades of intelligence than do the Japanese, but I am not sure that this observation would now have to be more or less qualified. As a rule, the Chinese are a much finer set of men physically than the Japanese are, and so the prisoners were for the most part men of goodly stature, although they had among them some as small as the Japanese.   At the word of command all were drawn up in lines ; the officers were in a line in the front. The purpose of our visit, that is, our wish to present them with some books and tracts, was explained, and all who could read were made to file off to one side. It was found that, including the officers, about fifty could read. These fortunate ones were made to file past us, and each received something. The officers each received a book, the size being proportioned to the officer's rank, the bigger book for the higher officer; the men received tracts, or single Gospels, they too showing a disposition to get as thick a book or tract as was possible. After this operation was finished, all resumed their former places. As throughout, I continued to observe the con-duct and appearance of the men and officers as closely as I could. Apart from the Chinese being men of good stature, there is often in the Chinese face an air of intelligence and good humour that is to me positively engaging and appealing, and so it was here, especially among the officers. The predominant expression of one of them might be said to be martial ; gentle-ness and amiability, combined with intelligence, seemed rather to characterize the rest. One of them in particular was a smooth-faced, round-cheeked, prepossessing boy, though of full stature, just such a young fellow as you might expect to find at college in our own land. “We were offered an opportunity to address them all ; but we were somewhat embarrassed to know just how much or how little to say. The interpreter belonged to the Japanese army, and Japanese officers were standing by. We thought of telling them that the humanity with which they were treated was due to the influence of the Christian ideas contained in the books and tracts that they had just received ; but we knew also that it was extremely likely that the Japanese themselves would probably deny, or wish to deny, this assumption, and claim it all as due to the incomparable virtue of their own imperial Sovereign. Also, their supper time had come, and lengthened addresses and explanations were out of place. Moreover, we suspected that the resources in Chinese colloquial of the inter-preter himself were but limited. He was an interesting contrast to the big, stalwart-looking men before whom he stood. He was very short of stature, even for a Japanese; unlike them, he was dressed throughout in a civilian's suit of foreign clothes, and, with his hands in both of his trousers pockets, he strode up and down before the officers, who evidently had to pay the closest attention to understand what he was saying. There was nothing rude or offensive in his behaviour, and the Japanese seem to have not the least disposition to ill-treat their captives. Finally, we resolved everything that we had thought of saying into a few words, reminding them that they had been treated with great kindness while in Japan, that the Japanese, though enemies in war, had treated them with humanity and consideration, and that other foreigners had shown a friendly interest and sympathy in their welfare, and that we hoped that they would, on their return to their native land, be equally ready to show kindness to any foreigners, Japanese or others, who might be amongst them there. “As the interpreter's words gradually made these thoughts clear, we could see the light breaking into their faces, and they gave unmistakable murmurs of hearty assent and approval. “When the interpreter had finished one of the officers turned and gave a short word of command to the whole company, when instantly all, both officers and men, went down upon one knee, one hand touching the floor, and with one voice all gave a sound that was quite electrifying. We understood it to be the Chinese salute, and their way of saying, “Thank you.” Poor fellows! If in the heat of battle they could deliver their musketry fire with the same accuracy and precision with which they had just made their salute, the history of the present war would be very differently written. I have no doubt whatever that the Chinese people are fine material; but their corrupt rulers have brought them into this war so undisciplined in the use of arms, and so poorly furnished with any serviceable weapons, that the Japanese seem almost to slaughter them at will. At any rate, we were glad to have seen them, and their hearty shout of thanks was cheering indeed. “The remainder of my Chinese tracts undisposed of, Mr. Loomis took for distribution among the prisoners confined in the town of Otsu, and I suppose that they have already been given away. “A few days after the incident just related I had another rather unique experience, that of preaching to 345 Japanese soldiers drawn up in ranks in the form of an open circle, their officers also being present and listening. This visit formed part of the permission accorded to the Bible societies, already alluded to. Previous to his visit to the Osaka garrisons, Mr. Loomis had distributed over 70,000 portions of the Scriptures to the soldiers of the Japanese armies. Thirty thousand soldiers, it was estimated, were then assembled in Osaka; but as most of them were on the point of embarking for the seat of war it was not found convenient, in the midst of the inevitable hurry and bustle of such a time, to assemble the men for the purpose receiving the books which Mr. Loomis wished to distribute. The troops whom we addressed were more at leisure, for they formed the garrison remaining behind in Osaka on guard duty. The officers of the garrison received us most courteously, brought out for our refreshment, coffee, cake, and wine, and received with evident pleasure a nicely bound copy of the New Testament, which Mr. Loomis presented to each in the name of the Bible societies. "Three of us, all foreigners, addressed the men, speaking through an intelligent and capable Japanese interpreter. I might have dispensed with the services of the interpreter, except that he had been speaking for my predecessor, was efficient, and probably in the limited time at my disposal would make the men better understand what I was saying. Each of the men was presented with one of the Gospels, and during our addresses the books lay in a goodly pile upon the table before us. We spoke in the open air; but a table had been brought out, and chairs were provided for us also, which latter, however, we had no occasion to use, since both officers and men remained standing throughout the whole time. “It is not a perfect way of spreading abroad the knowledge of God our Saviour, this distributing broadcast and at random to anyone whatsoever God's Holy Scriptures. Who knows how many copies of St. John's Gospel, for example, falling into heathen and entirely irreverent hands, may be used to polish and rub up a musket, to light a pipe, or kindle a fire? But at all hazards let the Scriptures be sent abroad on their evangelising errands is the thought of most, and may their good intentions, for good their intentions are, be accepted of Him in whose Name all is done. Still, that the Japanese Government have given official permission for the circulation of the Bible among their garrisons, that the soldiers have been drawn up in line by their officers to hear the preaching of the Word, that Christian chaplains have been allowed to go with the troops to the seat of war--all these things are facts of more than ordinary significance. “Surely the times are critical. God is moving by His provi-dence among the nations of the East, and what the immediate result will be no one can foretell. Our present news is that the Viceroy Li has set out for Japan, bringing with him full powers to cede territory, and make all other terms necessary to the securing of peace. But the possibility of European intervention, and the complications which such intervention will bring in, are an ever-present anxiety. Disturbing rumours of Russia's war- like preparations in Siberia are rife now, and are more or less disquieting.” Osaka, Japan: March 14th, 1895.