Morning Calm v.17 no.109(1906 Jul.)
The Bishop's Letter. CHONG DONG, SEOUL, COREA. MY DEAR FRIENDS, - As usual my letters are behindhand, and I have to write of more things at the same time than I ought to. I had hoped to have sent you all the accounts of the local expenses of the Mission before now, but I have been very much occupied with other things, and have had no time to get them into such order as would make them fully intelligible to you all. I am enclosing Dr. Weir's report for last year, and his accounts (financial and medical) of the work done in the hospital in Chemulpo. They are very interesting to me, and I hope will be so to you also, and I hope that the Editor will be able to insert the main part of them all, though room and cost will have to be considered. One thing you will notice, and that is that there is some prospect of his being able to do more in the way of evangelistic work than in the past. I have felt that we were not treating him fairly in not giving him more assistance; but he has been very patient, and has recognised the difficulties of our position in the matter. The new hospital servant, John Choi (Chwae), is a man who was employed for a time by us as a probationary catechist in Chemulpo some years ago ; he then got into trouble through lending money or giving a note of hand to a friend who bolted, and he had to go to Hawaii for a time to escape arrest. When he returned he wished to go back with his wife, but the doctor would not pass her, and he decided to stay in Corea. We did not then think it wise to employ him at once, and for some time he has been earning his living in Corea. Now we are giving him another chance, but his position is that of a servant until we have tested him a bit. If after a time he proves able to withstand the temptations of Chemulpo, moral and otherwise, we shall then consider the possibility of giving him a definite position for which he is fitted, in so far as he knows something of the truth, and has a facility of speech, but for which more is needed, as you will clearly see. Meanwhile he will be helpful to Dr. Weir in many ways, and I would ask you to pray that he may be enabled to keep straight, and advance in knowledge and in character. As to the women's ward of which Dr. Weir speaks, some of you know we have long felt the need of some such building, which must be separate from the men's wards. We have nearly made all the necessary arrangements to obtain a lease of the land required from the Corean Government; and as to the money, I received when I was in England 100 from an anonymous friend of Dr. Weir, which we have decided to use for this purpose; while in addition to this the Committee of the H.N.F. have decided that it would be well to allow the subscriptions which have been given to the women's ward to be used for the building fund this year. To this sum, which amounted to $30, was added £70 by an old friend of the Mission; so we have £200 in hand, and as to any more that may be needed I have (as I have already said) asked the S.P.G. to let me put some of the money which they allow us to the same purpose, insofar as the building partly erected by the gift of Mrs. Bishop is now closed, and is practically part of the S.P.G. property in Seoul. With this money we propose to erect a ward for six or eight beds, which will be enough for the present, with possibility of extension, if necessary, in the future; and there will also be accommodation for a Corean nurse, if procurable, and other necessary offices and rooms for purposes of cleanliness, &c. We are hoping to start on this directly. I have before now said that in this hospital work there are many difficulties which we shall only gradually learn to overcome, and it may take some years before we are able to do all that one would wish to with the tools that are put into our hands by the generosity of those who subscribe to the work From what Dr. Weir says you will see for yourselves that there are openings of no small importance in it, and it is only a question of time, and on our part of the patience, earnest work, and prayer that are needed to enable us to do what we are here to do, and what you are asking us to do on your behalf. Further, I have no more doubt now than I have had in the past that, in spite of the seeming costliness of the work, it is such as is distinctly the work of Christians, such as He Whom we profess to follow would have us do, and such as He would have done Himself had He been on earth to-day - a work by which we are able to relieve an immense amount of suffering here, and, as we learn to do it better, by which we may certainly hope to bring those who are yet in ignorance of the truth to a knowledge of Him Who is the Source of all Truth. There is one serious matter concerning which I should like to ask your sympathy and help, and that is that we are losing at the end of the year the services of our dispenser. How important a person she is you will see from the report. Without her a great deal of the work that she does has to be done by the Doctor himself, and that naturally hinders his own work. Miss Jephson has gone to Kanghwa, and is settled down there with the Sisters, and Miss Pooley, after devoting four years of her life to Corea, is very anxious to go home next winter for personal reasons, into which I need not enter ; but among them is the desire to go on with her study of the subject, and fit herself for higher-class work in the same line. I am anxious that she should be able to go, and I would ask you to find for me a lady who will come out and help us in this matter. Do you think you can? I heard casually of someone who had thought of it, but unfortunately I never heard her name, and so cannot write to her, but she attended a meeting on behalf of the Mission at St. Leonard's, and if this letter meets her eye, perhaps she will be good enough to apply to my Commissaries. But meanwhile, if any of our friends know of such a person, please be kind enough to let them know at once. To any who come out in such a capacity, I cannot promise a large salary; but I can promise plenty of work of one kind and another. We all have to be sort of maids-of-all-work out here, and with the work enough money to keep soul and body together. My own hope is that if a lady can be found to offer for this work, she may be willing to help us where help is sorely needed, and that is among the Japanese women of the port ; but I hardly like to whisper this wish at present, as I do not know whether it will be really possible. I only recognise the very great need there is for work of that sort, as I have told you before now, I think. Well, I must write no more to-night, as I am off soon after daybreak to Fusan, of which more next month. I am, yours truly, ARTHUR B. TURNER, Bishop
Association of Prayer and Work for Corea. It is with very great regret that we have to record the death of Mrs. Walker, Bishop Turner's sister. The sincerest sympathy, we know, has been felt for all her family in their great loss. For many years Mrs. Walker has been Local Secretary for Copythorne, where she will be very much missed, especially as one who had the work of the Church in Corea very much at heart. Other changes that we have to note are that Rev. A. E. Gledhill has succeeded Rev. R. O. Ringrose at Buxton ; Miss A. Seymour has kindly consented to act as Local Secretary of Chittlehampton in Miss Vickery's place; and we welcome back Miss Ransom, who has returned to Harleston, and has taken up her work again as Local Secretary. A little Sale of Work is being held by the children of Beckenhamn Branch on July 14 to provide for a Corean orphan, and they also hope to raise a little money for the General Fund. Mrs. Somerville Orr, 194 King's Hall Road, New Beckenham, has very kindly offered to have it at her house. The children are getting up a little cantata to perform on the same day ; it is much hoped that any members who can possibly go will make an effort to do so. Rev. S. H. Cartwright has been preaching and speaking in many places on the work among the Japanese in Corea, arousing much interest in that special branch of the work. The Needlework Secretary, Miss M. Newman, will be glad to have all parcels of work sent to her by August 15, as a consignment will be sent out to Corea shortly after that date. Will Local Secretaries and others please notice that Miss Merriman's address is now printed on the last page of the cover, and all communications respecting the Quarterly Intercession Paper should be made to her direct. Miss Wilshere, The Frythe, Welwyn, Herts, will be very glad to give any of the following to anyone who would find them useful (postage to be sent) : “Bloemfontein Quarterlies” of the days of Bishop Webb (these to be given altogether): "Nassau Quarterlies"; "Monthly Gleanings for 1882 (no complete set); "Star of the East” (1894), besides other Indian and African missionary matter; Korean Annual Reports; U.M.C.A. Annual Reports.
Children's Branch of the Association of Prayer and work for Corea. MY DEAR CHILDREN, With this letter I am sending you a picture of four of the Corean orphans, with the Amah, who is Peter's mother. Her husband died three years ago, and last year when she came up from the country with little Peter tied on her back she was half-starved. You can fancy how glad she was to find a home at the Orphanage, where she and her little boy have lived ever since. Her two older boys are at Kang Wha School. In this picture Peter is the little boy leaning against his mother, Matthew is one side of him, and Rhoda the other, and Theresa is sitting down in front. I think you have heard of all these children before. Theresa has been at the Orphanage for three years, she is thirteen now, and is learning housework and cooking as well as lessons and needlework. Rhoda is a pretty child; she is clever, but, I am afraid, rather lazy. The Orphans gave Sister Barbara a hearty welcome when she went back to them, the elder ones burst out crying for joy, which is the custom in Corea. A man gives his son a thrashing if he does not cry to welcome him home. The money you sent me last year for the Children's Fund helped to support several children who had not been adopted by anyone. One of these is Peter. Another is Nancy, who was very delicate when she first came to the Orphanage, but when I last heard of her she was fat and well, and beginning to crawl about and tear the paper off the warm floor, and steal the milk from Dora's bottle. Dora is much younger, she was found on a doorstep, without any clothes on, on a frosty night before Christmas. The Corean gentleman who lived in the house heard a cry, but did not take much notice of it. Two or three hours after he heard it again, and found the poor little baby, and asked the Sisters if they would give it a home. Your money is being used to buy milk for this little Dora, and she is growing fat and strong and quite a bonny baby. Little Lucy, too, is a dear bright child of three, who only came at Christmas time. I am sure you will be glad to know that you have been the first to help these children, as they came to the Orphanage and had no special friend to support them. The money I have had this time from children at Harvington, from Mary and from Pearl, will be used in helping some of them, and I am so pleased to hear of an Entertainment and Sale for Corea that some of you are going to take part in at Beckenham next month. I hope it will be very successful. I am sure these little Coreans are thanking you in the best possible way, for they pray for you and all their kind friends every day. I hope you always remember them in your prayers. We have now four new members to join us in our daily prayer for Corea and other lands, and though Gladys and Violet have been transferred to the Senior Branch, we do not at all feel that we are losing them, as they still belong to the same Association, and will perhaps have opportunities of interesting other children in Corea. I am, Always your affectionate friend, MAUD I. FALWASSER. Ashurst, Winchester: June, 1906. NEW MEMBERS. () MEMBERS TRANSFERRED TO THE ADULT BRANCH. () CHILDREN'S FUND. ()
In Memoriam. SISTER ALMA, of the Community of St. Peter. It is nearly seven years since the first of the little band of Sisters of the Community of St. Peter working in Corea was laid to rest in the hillside cemetery outside Seoul; and now another has been suddenly called in the midst of a life of work and usefulness from which, to our earthly short-sightedness, it seems she could ill be spared. Sister Alma was in full work on April 30, having lately paid itinerating visits of three or four days each to new outlying stations with the Biblewoman, and teaching large numbers of women there and in Kangwha. The first announcement of her death reached England on May 7, and from letters received five weeks later it was evidently as unexpected to the staff in Corea as to those at home. What seemed to be an ordinary attack of influenza lasting two or three days suddenly became acute, and she passed away at dawn on the Feast of St. John before the Latin Gate. The funeral took place on May 9, the Requiem and first part of the burial service in the Kangwha church, after which a procession of 200 Coreans walking two and two followed the Sisters, Bishop, and Clergy, singing Litanies as they wound up through the rice-fields to the cemetery, where a white cross marks the Christian burial-ground. It is difficult to estimate what the loss of Sister Alma means to the work amongst the women, and it is almost needless to ask for the prayers and sympathy of all friends of the Mission, whilst every one at the same time must realise with deep thankfulness the honour that she has attained to in giving her life for the cause she loved so well. RIP.
St. Peter's Community foreign Mission Association. In the midst of a record of rapidly developing and most attractive work opening out on all sides, the telegram containing the news of Sister Alma's call to rest came with almost paralysing suddenness, and although her experience and knowledge of the language cannot easily be replaced, the gap in the staff caused by her death will at once be filled - a second new Sister going out with Sister Margaretta in the autumn. This affects the members of S.P.F.M.A. very closely, not only in the immediate claim that Sister Cecil and Sister Edith Helena have on their prayers, but not one corner of the work Sister Alma gave her life for must be allowed to flag or drop, and funds will be more than ever needed to provide and keep the necessary native Mission-women to be trained to teach others in the future. This is brought out very clearly in Sister Nora's most interesting Report published in this issue, and Sister Margaretta strongly enforces the same idea. Before the latter left Corea she held classes for instructing these Bible-women, and in them lies the only hope of meeting the demands of the women who are literally clamouring for Instruction. On the day Sister Alma died they came all unknowingly in crowds for their usual Sunday classes, and it is the same in all the outlying villages, which of course the Sisters can only visit in turn once a month or a fortnight, but it resident Mission-woman would carry on the teaching between their visits. This of course requires money, and this is one of the objects for which the funds of S.P.F.M.A. are so much needed. In the accompanying balance-sheet it will be seen that provision for one of these workers and the necessary travelling is one of the items, and it would surely be a fit thankoffering for Sister Alma's zeal and devotion to enable the Sisters to meet all these additional expenses without anxiety. One of our chief sources of income is the Corean stall at the Associates' Bazaar, and we would ask all members to remember the dates-November 21 and 22. Sister Margaretta arrived in England on March 23, and lost no time in meeting and interesting friends of the Mission. Lantern Lectures have been given at St. Peter's Homes, Kilburn and Woking, at St. John's House, and at various Home Missions where the Sisters work, and visits have been paid to Guilds and those who support the Orphanages and various works of the Mission. SISTER HELEN CONSTANCE, Secretary, S.P.F.M.A.
ST. PETER'S MISSION HOUSE. SEOUL: April 28, 1906. It seems rather late to give an account of the Sisters' work in 1905; still, as my letter of last year did not reach England until July, I hope this may not be later, and that our kind friends of the S.P.F.M.A. will forgive the delay again. It was an eventful year for women's work, as well as for the Mission generally, and the developments in different directions have strained our powers to the utmost. It is impossible with our present staff to supply the demand for teaching where villages send deputations of some fifty or 100 men to the Bishop entreating for instruction in Christianity, and promising to build a house and church if they may only have a teacher. Their wives and daughters have to be taught also, for it is found better to insist as far as possible on whole families being baptized together. The husbands do teach their wives a little but women can best teach women; strange as it may sound to English ears, the men and women in Corea speak almost a different language, hence the great advantage of using women of the same class to teach each other, and it requires much labour and study for a Sister to understand and make herself understood by them even when she can talk fluently with our teachers or women of the educated class. In June two Sisters went to Su Won, a town about two hours from here, on the Seoul-Fusan Railway, and spent three days in the house of one of the families most anxious for instruction, and gave classes and individual teaching to some fifty women and girls. At a first visit there was naturally much to be done besides definite teaching: the Sisters were objects of the greatest curiosity, and their clothes had to be examined and numerous questions asked and answered as an introduction! The Coreans being a hospitable people, each group of women who arrived were entertained with rice and tobacco before they came into the small room occupied by the Sisters, so you can fancy that the first instructions were desultory there and in all other villages. After the first visit the women assemble better, and when there is a special room for classes more work can be done, even when fifty women struggle into a room barely 16 feet by 8 feet. At Su Won a small temporary Mission chapel, clergy house, and boys' school were dedicated by the Bishop on the Feast of Holy Innocents. The Sister who goes every fortnight from Seoul for two or three days has also a tiny room barely 8 feet square, with a ceiling she can touch, and uses the boys' school, just double the length of her own, for classes. All these buildings are much too small if the work grows as it promises, but Coreans have such an idea of foreigners' wealth that it is better for them to see us begin in a humble way. The men intend to build a church, school, &c., this year, and will at least contribute towards it, some with money, some with labour ; building, like everything else, has doubled in price in the last few years. As a Sister can only pay fortnightly visits to Su Won, and the priest in charge wanted more help with the women, especially on Sundays, we sent down “Sarah" in December, the elderly woman who has been working three years in Seoul. She teaches the women, takes the younger ones to church, and has also a class for little girls learning to read and write, say the first Catechism, prayers, &c. The British and Foreign Bible Society still partially supports Sarah, and we have supplied her place in Seoul with another Christian woman-Salome- who works under the Sisters, and is paid from the Mission funds. She is more intelligent than Sarah, though she cannot read so well, and is keenly interested in her work and doing well so far. “Eunice," the Mission-woman at Chemulpó, still paid by the British and Foreign Bible Society, now works entirely under Mrs. Weir, whose progress in the language has been so rapid that she takes the women's classes, and the numbers are gradually increasing. When the women's wards are built, for which the ground is purchased, no doubt the work will develop more. There are now usually two or three in-patients in an 8 ft. square room adjoining Eunice's quarters, nursed and fed from St. Luke's Hospital. The house Stands where the new wards are to be, so may soon be taken down. Elizabeth, the Mission-woman in Kang Wha city, has done good work during the year, helping the Sisters with teaching both in the town and in the various villages around. As we occupy more of her time we have had to raise her salary, and she is quite contented with 8s. 6d. a month, which will seem little in England! There are some nine or ten villages now within walking distance from the city, where the people are learning the Faith and having Sunday services, led by one of the clergy or a catechist, more frequently the latter, for the priests are as short-handed as we are. Elizabeth cannot do all that is needed in so many places, so others of the Christian women go in turns either with or without a Sister. These are poor working people, and we have to supply them with food when away from home, and extra shoes, not that the latter are costly, being made of straw, but they do not last long. These are some of the incidental expenses of work amongst the women, and the travelling from place to place if beyond walking distance, especially across to the main land or other islands round Kang Wha, is also an item that has to be met. One Associate sent generous help towards this, and it has been a saving of the Sisters' time and strength to have a chair instead of walking ten miles and teaching for many hours afterwards, often until past 10 P.M. during the seasons of field work. The necessity for employing native women to teach others leads to the question of how to train them for this purpose. Early in October one of the Sisters held instruction classes for ten days at our Kang Wha Mission-house, the Mission-women from Seoul, Chemulpó, and all who were teaching in any degree assembled there; they were taught something of their responsibilities towards others, what to teach them and how to teach it, giving classes in turns on the various subjects, and all were grateful for the help they received. Unfortunately some cannot leave their homes even for so short a time, and we have to wait for many developments before we can hope to begin a regular training school for our Mission-women. The Girls' Orphanage grows in numbers in spite of the sickness and death amongst the little waifs. We have now eighteen in Seoul, and three boys in the school at Kang Wha, the greater number over seven years old, and many not castaways; some orphans of our own Christians and others sent by friends who had known their parents, so more likely to live to grow up. We are most grateful to the kind friends who have so patiently enabled us to carry on this work, when child after child in whom they were interested passed away and yet did not withdraw their subscriptions. The Orphanage is now more widely known here, and with the growing desire for education in Corea we are likely to have new developments; if they come we shall have to ask for further help to meet them. With the new treaties and Japanese Protectorate there is progress in the air. Not only do we meet electric trams, bicycles, jinrickshaws, and even carriages in the cleaned and widened streets, but the upper-class ladies are establishing a school for themselves and mean to get educated. However, I need not tell of the changes here, for Sister Margaretta is in England on furlough, and will be pleased to give any information about the country and the work, and to explain better than I can do in writing how we appreciate all the kindness of our friends at home, their prayers, their alms, and their unfailing sympathy. NORA, Sister-in-Charge. Hospital Naval Fund. THE usual financial statement for the year ending December 31, 1905, together with a table of receipts for each of the past five years, is appended herewith. The contributions received during 1905 include a sum of ₤108. 13s. specially given and set aside for the maintenance of a women's ward in St. Luke's Hospital, Chemulpó.
St. Luke's hospital, Chemulpo.
Report for First Quarter, 1906.
It is impossible in the space of a quarterly report to give the details of an event which appears to be starting the spiritual work of the Hospital in earnest. Briefly put, it was found necessary early in February, just as the Hospital was reopening after the Chinese New Year holiday, to dismiss one of the boys who has been working in the Mission hospital for years. The step was not taken without much reluctance, for every reason, and was followed by a few days of considerable trouble and difficulty, when it was decided to engage as hospital boy in his place a Christian with some experience as a catechist, but whom it had been thought unwise to employ in that capacity. It is early yet to say much about the success of this action, but it has made in several ways a wonderful change. In the first place there is now at least one Korean Christian of a certain standing, and not a mere boy. Secondly, he has a very fair knowledge of Christianity and facility in teaching, so that the work need no longer depend entirely on a foreigner with but very little command of the language. These two factors affect the whole work of the Church of Chemulpó, but besides this he is able to do a great deal in the Hospital. Before work begins in the morning he goes and sells books and preaches to the assembling out-patients, sometimes being there for one or two hours, and he also teaches the in-patients in the wards. He has also the great advantage of doing his Christian work without payment, and simply as a Christian.
The medical work remained very small until after the Chinese New - Year, as was expected, but since then has gradually increased, and now out - patients are again numbering from thirty to forty a day. The in-patients have also been steadily increasing, and averaged over nineteen a day for the month of March.
Much prayer is needed for the new start that has been made in the work, and especially for John Choi, the new hospital servant. God has most wonderfully turned what at hirst seemed a disaster into the answer, as we hope, to our prayers for someone to work among the patients, and man cannot say to what the work so begun may grow.
St. Luke's hospital, Chemulpo. Report for the year 1905. THE year which has just closed has been a most important one lor this hospital, being the first since it was rebuilt, and the first complete year since medical work in Chemulpó was restarted. It has also seen the completion of the European staff and the gradual development of the in-patient work. When the year began the hospital had been really opened for two months, and there had been some in-patients and plenty of out-patient work before that; but the formal opening took place on June 12, Shortly after Bishop Turner's arrival. A very representative gathering of foreigners and a few Coreans assembled, and the Bishop conducted a short service in one of the large wards, Then empty of patients, after which all present went round the hospital and learnt how the work is carried on. The two large Wards have been named "Corfe" and "Landis," and the small ones for Europeans, "St. Bartholomew" and "St. Matthew.” On January I there were only four in-patients, and for some months only one of the large wards was used; but it gradually got filled up, and the second came into use, and there have been as many as twenty-three in-patients at one time, though of these three were women occupying the small Corean house which was bought the year before as a make-shift women's ward, and two were foreigners. Many of the cases were such that the patients had to be kept in a very long time, in fact six of them who were in hospital at the end of the year had been in over three months, some of them much longer. The reason for this is mainly the extraordinary vitality of the Coreans, as a number of them, had they been Europeans, would probably have died in a few weeks, instead of which they lived, sometimes making very slow progress, and sometimes dying at last. It must also be remembered that there are no workhouse infirmaries, district nurses, or other of those charitable agencies which enable very chronic cases in England to leave hospital within a reasonable time; indeed the chronicity of the case is here often the reason for admission, as it is quite impossible for a man who has managed to come 50 or 100 miles to see the doctor and left his family and friends behind him, to maintain himself as an outpatient during a prolonged course of treatment. The out-patients have been rather more numerous than during the previous year, reaching 3,280 new cases, with a total attendance of 8,070. The largest number, as in 1904, was in August, the summer always being the time of sickness, and towards the end of the year there has been a marked decrease in numbers. This is partially due to the cold weather causing better health and preventing people coming easily from long distances, but is also the result of the elimination of trivial cases, who used to come because the waiting-rooms were pleasant meeting-places, by means of the institution of small payments. Up till the end of the summer it had not been the custom to charge anything for treatment, though patients sometimes brought eggs or fowls as gifts, but it was found that those who were obviously most able to make these offerings were the ones who did not do so, and it was thought better to fall into line with the American Mission Hospital in Seoul, and make a small charge to all who can pay it. About one penny is charged for a dressing, threepence for medicine to last four days, and one shilling for an operation under an anæsthetic. In-patients are also charged, nominally at the rate of sevenpence a day, but so far this has only once been paid, those who pay anything generally giving a dollar or two on admission and saying when they leave that they will come back when they have money. Perhaps they will. Many of the in-patients, however, have no apparent means, and none are ever pressed for payment. The very small out-patient charges, too, are often remitted, and most of those who come were quite ready when there was no hospital to pay several dollars to a Corean doctor for a powder or a plaster which sometimes did good and sometimes not, indeed a good many still do this before coming to the foreigner. The religious work is still in much the same state as before, as there is no one able to do any real teaching with the exception of the Bible-woman. During most of the year Mr. Bridle was in Chemulpó, and did what he could, but he had not much time to spare for the hospital in addition to his other work, and even if there were a fluent Corean-speaking foreigner free for the hospital he could do less than an earnest Corean. Prayers, a very short religious statement, and an invitation to the Catechumen's service in church, are held in the mornings with the out-patients, and prayers in the ward at night, and the Bible. woman reads with the women in the waiting-room, of whom some have joined the Women's Bible-class and four have become catechumens; but very little can be done with the men. There are some gospels, a copy of the "Pilgrim's Progress," and a tract by Mr. Laws in the wards, and these are very well read; but few Coreans seem to take the trouble to Understand what they read unless it is explained to them. During the year there have been several changes in the Hospital staff. In April, Miss Jephson arrived and took over the dispensing, thus making it possible to give more time to out-patients, who but for her arrival would have been cut down Owing to the steadily increasing work in the wards. Even so, during the summer it was still impossible to see all who came. The foreign staff was completed at the beginning of October by Miss Rice, who was trained as a nurse at King's College Hospital, and has already done a very great deal in the way of reform. Before she came the hospital boys had to be left Very largely to themselves, and although they know their work well, having been trained under Dr. Baldock, they are not more reliable than most Coreans, and it is only since Miss Rice arrived and has been able to supervise them more that the extent of their errors of omission has been discovered. Indeed, our time is very well filled, and the in-patients in particular are much better looked after. Early in December Miss Jephson left for Kang Wha, where she is staying during Sister Margaretta's absence in England, and her place has been filled by Miss Pooley, who was dispenser at the women's Hospital in Seoul, and since Mrs. Baldock's departure has been in charge of the Orphanage. Owing to the growth of the work it has been found necessary to engage a third hospital boy, and one has been found in an old in-patient who is most willing and gradually learning to do the work. One of the boys sleeps in each ward at night, and so can be waked should any of the patients need attention. Early in the year the wall surrounding the premises, which had been begun last autumn, was completed, leaving only a small portion of the whole property unenclosed. Only a wire fence exists along the side where lies the Corean house used as a women's ward, and also occupied by the Bible-woman, and it has long been intended to extend in that direction if possible, and build a proper women's ward. During the year the Bishop succeeded in obtaining the ground, leased from the Government, to whom it belongs, and next spring work should be started on this most important addition to the Hospital, A number of necessary sheds and a small mortuary have also been erected in the piece of ground between the side of the Hospital and the main road. The hospital financial statement presents some interesting features. During the year the yen has steadily increased in value, so that money drawn from home has realised smaller sums, and at the same time the prices of almost everything have been rising. On the receipts’ side, money has been obtained as fees from European patients, including ₤50 for the work of Medical Officer to the British Consulate, and as donations from various friends. In addition to this the sum of yen 2,010 was subscribed in response to a special appeal, and used to build a large part of the surrounding wall, and to supply some internal fittings. The receipts from Coreans were at first small, but since the institution of payments in September there has been a marked increase, and at least yen 300 should be raised in this way during the coming year. The foreign fees have been probably above the average, as two of the foreign community were in hospital for long periods with fatal illnesses. On the side of expenditure the most marked feature is the increase of cost in food. This is partly due to a rise of prices, but much more to the larger number of beds in daily use, 15·69 a day for the last quarter, as compared with 7·52 in the first. Dressings are now almost entirely bought locally, and a good many drugs have lately been obtained more cheaply from Japanese chemists than they can be from home. The enormous increase of fuel in the last quarter as compared with the first is due to rise in price of coal, and still more to the fact that now the whole Hospital and the nurses' house are in use, which means ten stoves nearly every day as against four last year. The large sums spent on furniture are due to the gradually getting into working order, &c., and though there are still some fittings required, the bulk of this column is a special expense, and will not recur in future. The large sum under miscellaneous expenses in the second quarter is due to Customs duty on the drugs ordered from England, and the building expenses are the sheds, &c., mentioned above, and the flagstaff, which was planted by a tenant of the hospital the year before, but only paid for lately. For the future the two great needs are a proper women's ward and an earnest catechist. The former ought to be ready by the summer, but the latter so far seems no nearer being found than during the last year. The post is one requiring peculiar qualifications. Not only must the man who fills it be well instructed and of strong character, so that he may withstand the temptations of Chemulpó, which are very great, but he needs to have the gift of speaking to men personally and interesting them almost against their will, as well as courage and faith to fight against difficulties. At present no such man can be spared from any other station for the work, and it is doubtful whether it would be justifiable to employ one less suitable. In the meantime the work lies in the hands of the foreign staff, and the difficulties of doing it satisfactorily are so great that it is very easy to let things slide without making every effort, and perhaps the greatest need of all is that they may receive grace to work more honestly and faithfully, regardless of results, and confident that God Himself will supply every need. During the year some 3,000 people have been within the reach of the Mission through the medical work, and 124 have been, for periods often lengthy, actually inmates of the hospital. This is a field worth cultivating, and though little has been so far done in it, it is impossible to doubt that if the labourers available are faithful God will use the hospital to His glory.
Correspondence. MY DEAR MR. EDITOR, - I have come across these extracts from the organ of the Archbishop's Assyrian Mission, and it seemed to me that "customs of the country there and of our Coreans here are in some ways so similar it might interest your readers if they made themselves acquainted with the enclosed extracts. I am, yours truly, ARTHUR B. TURNER, Bishop.
"We are sometimes impatient at persons asking through the mediation of others, whom we do not esteem so highly as themselves, favours which we should be more ready to grant to them directly. It has struck us as senseless, or as showing distrust, or as manifesting an innate love of the circuitous. But this method seems rather to be dictated by a sort of modesty, which forbids presumption on past proofs of regard. Probably there is another reason, and that a double-barrelled one, viz., because it could both be pretended that it would be less shame to refuse the favour to third parties than to the petitioner face to face, and also because the person petitioned would, in fact, the more shrink from ‘breaking the sake’ (disregarding the dignity, friendship, &c.), of both the applicant and those who made his cause so much their own as to risk having ‘their faces blackened' by a refusal. At any rate, and whatever may be the reasons for this procedure, it is a point of good manners and respectful court as are some other things which one might have thought had been invented by Beelzebub for the purpose of filling Bedlam, or some other place. Unless Joseph had fallen out of favour by the time of Jacob's death, he would appear to have similarly made use of intercessors less influential than himself with Pharaoh. He does not seem to have been unable to see the King himself, the mourning being ended (Genesis 1. 4. 5. 6).
"One of the most exasperating and topsy-turvy of their customs is that of giving away to others presents which have been made to them. From our childhood we have looked on such conduct as unworthy, but they defend the practice as highly rational and productive of the ‘greatest good to the greatest number.’ Their point of view has been several times explained to me to the following effect: ‘You gave your gift for the sake of the recipient, that he might receive pleasure, and the more pleasure he gains from your gift the better you will be pleased, and, except in special cases, you leave him unfettered and retain no control over what you have parted with to make it his. Now, he finds his greatest pleasure in bestowing it upon a friend ; will you be vexed at his thus making the most of your token of friendship? Rather be glad that you have enabled him to do himself a further pleasure, unless you are seeking not his gratification but your own. Nor is it slighting you to give your present away to a person of high consideration. Your friend's having a worthy gift to bestow upon a worthy person is a fresh cause for his gratitude to you. I do not profess that this reasoning reconciled me to my presents being put into circulation, but it ought to have taught me not to yield too hastily to feelings of vexation at various "upside-down ways,' which we are apt to condemn off-hand as if they connoted moral obliquity. "A curious and by no means exhilarating experience is that of seeing your gift received in dead silence, or with only an expression of satisfaction, but none of thanks. In the former case you are afraid that all your pains and expense have failed to give the gratification you hoped to afford, and in the latter, the recipient seems to pocket unearned increment' with as little human feeling as if he had won it in a raffle. Perhaps you go on to suspect that he regards it as an effort to conciliate him, or to ‘blind his eyes' with a bribe, and in proportion as it was really the token of your goodwill or esteem, so is the exercise for your self-discipline. "By-and-by a servant, or a friend, tells you that your gift and your amiable motives are both most highly appreciated and you can see the proof of this in the way the present is treated -it is put away in safety, it is used at once, it is given to the brother, or other man, whom to honour is a delight, whichever is most East of what is appropriate! If one's best feelings did not then seem to be subjected to mustard plaster one might be interested in learning that many old-fashioned people will not give utterance to the thanks they feel, because to do so would be a breach of good manners, would be a sort of recompense for what had been bestowed and a refusal to bear the load of obligation. Nevertheless (one would think it was on purpose to be inconsistent throughout), they will often make a present which is really, though not ostensibly, given in return or they will more than repay you in some other way. No, Mr. Editor, I am not (on this occasion) hoaxed. We are through she looking-glass here, where the a priori and ‘of course’ only lead to one's missing the mark, whether it be motives, or cans, or theological refinements, or paradoxes in other spheres. "It appears to me, subject to further experience, that this horrid treatment is the most honourable; it is the mode of nobles with nobles. Mar Shimun and other grandees may cheer some inferior person, presenting some trifle by a word of praise, and he and we are constantly thanked profusely by ordinary people; and, moreover, politeness and gratitude in more European and more natural forms are prevailing among the less antiquated folk. If in the older fashion there be an affectation of superiority to considerations of material gain, provided the ‘honour of the family' be maintained, I think other examples of a similar sense of the obligations of noblesse are to be found surviving amid briery cares of this life and sordid necessitousness. I will only mention the refusal to ‘ look a gift-horse in the mouth' and the professing to value half-a-crown's worth as equal to a hundred pounds, the giving of valuable presents in return for those of little price, like the exchange of golden for brazen armour in Homer, and the proverb that ‘Black is the face of him who asks, but his who refuses is doubly dyed.' The spirit of the immortal servant in the ‘Bride of Lammermoor' and of many another Scottish and Irish dependant is found here—not without the ‘lees.' Nabal's wife acted not only prudently to avert disaster, but like a woman of good breeding, who knew what duty she owed to herself and her position. I often wonder whether Ephron's words in Genesis xxiii. 15 indicate the lofty and unmercenary spirit referred to above, or quite the contrary, the first of the still-recurring bargains, in the which the Armenians, sons of Heth, ‘wipe the eye’ of the Jew in a quandary. I wish knew. But, be this as it may, both of these two opposite motives of conduct influence our Syrians, and any one who leaves out of account their sense of honour (peculiar as it often is) will not understand them. That they should fail to act up to their principles is not a monopoly of Orientals; it is, however, a reason for persuading them to practise recourse to the Throne of Grace, "One does not know where to have' them! They will put up with a scolding, which to the English onlooker seems intolerably, harsh; while, on the other hand, some trifling overlooking of their importance will often make them to be ‘alienated' – a word which may be understood by reference to the dire wrath of Achilles, or to the foolish sulking of a paughty child according to circumstances. But it should be remembered that we equally surprise them, and grate upon their ideas of what is proper; and I think that in their toleration of our mistakes, or worse, as in many matters of patience, they set us a good example. Nevertheless, our queer ways, though they do not often provoke resentment, must keep up the barrier to a perfect mutual understanding."
The Spirit of Missions. " PRAVER is in reality the Christian life itself, the energy of the Holy Spirit, the Life of God communicated to the Christian The Christian's prayer is not rightly distinguished from his thoughts and his spiritual conflicts. It takes him to his life every day. It gives a specific character to all his work, and has the power of transforming everything. Prayer is, after all, only the name given to the habitual exercise of the Life of God. The believer prays, and thus becomes his real self. God's Life communicated to us is the same as God's Love shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost. Many good institutions succeed in keeping their machinery going without prayer, but the mountain remains. The missionary prays, and the mountain begins to move. Prayer suggests new work and transforms the old. Prayer is his link between him and the people whose civilisation he perhaps scarcely understands for love and insight are born in prayer. Prayer brings him into union with his fellow-workers, makes up for the lack of intellectual gifts, and is a refuge in seasons of oppression." - (Father Congreve , Speaking at J.C.M.A. Conference) HOW TO REACH INDIA.—The Bishop of Lincoln, speaking at the annual meeting of the Oxford Mission to Calcutta, said “ that at the time that the Mission was founded he and his friends had been reading, through the help of Professors Max Müller, Monier Williams, Legge and others, a great deal about the philosophies of non-Christian systems of religion, and were prepared to recognise and to do full justice to the elements of truth which those religions contained. But the ultimate result of their reading and thinking at that time was a burning, over mastering desire to show the paramount excellence and power of Christianity. They came to the conclusion that the most effective way of spreading the faith of Christ would be by the Christ-like lives of the faithful. ... The love of Jesus constrained the originators of the Mission, and the thought of the exclusion of women from the fullest love of God and the separation of man from his fellow-men by a system of caste became intolerable, and they longed to manifest the true nature of God as the God of Love towards all. “Village Work. - Five years ago the Mission started a settlement in the country town of Burrisal, in East Bengal, and schools, where in a sheltered Christian home promising young boys from the villages might grow up and be trained to do the work of converting their fellow countrymen. One such student is a high-class Brahmin, who not only was cut off from his family in consequence of his baptism, but who made the further sacrifice of throwing in his lot with these village boys. In him the heads of the Mission believe that at last they have got hold of the stamp of man by whom India will eventually be won to our Lord. "The Sisters' Work.-No work could be more urgent than this. The Brotherhood had long been aware that they could not influence the women, who yet were the greatest power in family life, and too often a power for evil. More than two years ago, to their great joy, the first band of Sisters went out, and now there are six. They have a school in Burrisal of thirty little girls, they have nursing work, and they have dispensary work. They have already raised the tone of the women enormously, and they have made a beginning of itineration in the villages themselves. Some of them are wonderful teachers, and some of them are wonderful nurses: but, to put all their special gifts aside, they are doing more than could be told in words to teach these poor women the womanliness and modesty of which hitherto they have had no idea." - Annual Report of Oxford Calcutta Mission.) INDIA CIVILISED BUT NOT CONVERTED.- " How urgently India still needs the civilising and humanising influences of the Gospel, is shown by the statements in the Times that widows have within the past two years been burnt to death on the funeral pyres of their husbands-instances being given in Behar, in Oudh, and in Ajmere-and that at least one case (probably more) of human sacrifice to the gods has occurred in Eastern Bengal; while the Christian Patriot, the chief native Christian organ, illustrates the inability of mere material progress to affect idolatory by mentioning a procession of the god Ganesha, mounted on a bicycle, and the worship of the motor car as an incarnation of the spirit of the age!"-( C.M.S. General Review of the Year.) THE TRANSFORMATION OF UGANDA. - "The Government has made that country a civilised and peaceful land; the railway has brought us into touch with the outside world ; and the Mission has established its position - thank God for it-in Uganda. The enthusiasm in Uganda is not a thing of the past. Many of you have heard of and have been praying for that Mission lately held in Mengo, and throughout Uganda. Only the other day, there came a letter from Bishop Tucker in which he says : ‘During the week there has been an aggregate attendance of nearly 60,000 people, and the results have been quite beyond our most sanguine expectations.’ That shows Uganda of to-day. God never gives us success merely for its own sake. God has given to Uganda a success almost, if not quite unparalleled in the history of Missions. Why? I believe that it is that Uganda may be the centre from which we can work out. Look at Uganda on the map, and let us realise that we have there in the very heart of Africa a great Christian body with about 2,000 Christian teachers. On us rests the responsibility of bringing out those native Christian teachers from Uganda into all the countries round. What shall be our policy? not, I think, merely along the lines of least resistance, not because we are invited here, or because this is most promising, but along the line of the greatest need; and where we find the need the greatest, there wherever it may be, may God enable each one of us to be found." - (Rev. J.J. Willis.) A CLOSED DOOR. “’ I come,' says Dr. Arthur Lankester, ‘from waiting and working at one of the great closed doors of the world, for within ten miles of Peshawar city stands the entrance to the Khyber Pass. No European missionary is allowed to go behind the Khyber Pass to work for Jesus; and if any Indian Christian were to pass through and confess Christ, it would be to face almost certain death. A closed door. You, my friends, are praying for that door to be opened, but what could we do if that door were to be opened tomorrow? Whom have we to send? The two or three who might go because they have a knowledge of the language would have no one to leave behind, to man their stations. We are not ready for the door to be opened in Afghanistan. Will you make this a matter of earnest prayer?’” (C. M. Gleaner.) A WONDERFUL MEETING. – “‘I would ask you,’ says Sir John Kennaway, ‘to stand with me on the banks of that mighty river, the Nile, in the regions of the Soudan, and to picture the meeting of the messengers of God from its source and from its mouth, from Uganda and from Cairo, sent there at the invitation of the Egyptian Government. There has been nothing like it since the meeting of Stanley and Livingstone in the heart of Africa. And I would ask you to trace that mighty river to its source, and look on those fair provinces, once desolated by the slave trade, and dominated by cruelty and lust, now enjoying peace and civilisation under a Christian king and with an increasing income, testifying of prosperity, as is shown by the welcome fact that the income of the Uganda Railway has exceeded during the past year by more than £50,000 the cost of its working.'"-(C. M. S. Gleaner) THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE CHURCH IN THE WEST.- "The Bishop of Algoma tells us that no thoughtful Churchman can well consider the missionary problem of the great NorthWest without being struck with the magnificence of the present opportunity, and the danger of neglecting to seize it. The dwellers in Algoma are perhaps better able than others to appreciate the facts of the case, and what they see from their vantage ground is this; a land of almost boundless possibilities, agricultural, mineral and industrial; already absorbing annually by thousands and tens of thousands from Europe and the United States, all sorts and conditions of people; an unformed nation, its character hanging in the balance and dependent on the forces brought to bear on it; showing symptoms of gross worldliness, but still capable of being moulded for good ; a field of almost unparalleled promise for the work of God's ancient Church; sorely needing, though only partially conscious of the fact, the influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! What is this nation to be, Godly or Godless? Whose is it to be, Christ's or Satan's ?... Is it without significance and warning that in Southern Alberta a growing and aggressive community of Mormons is established? The denominations - all honour to them for it-are alive to the magnificence of the opportunity, and are everywhere seizing it. Shall the old Church lag behind and leave to newer communions the work her Lord is calling her to do? We Church people ought surely to know that it means dire national misfortune for the great West, soon to be the throbbing heart, the life and strength of the dominion, to lose the influence of the well-balanced ministrations of the old historic Church. What will it be, if through our neglect and laxity she lose her hold to a large extent upon religion altogether?" -(New Era.) WORK IN NORTH QUEENSLAND.-" The Bishop tells us that though the drought is not as widespread in his diocese as it was three years ago, yet that even in those districts in which it is not bad enough to prevent grass growing, too often water has failed. He says: ‘The loneliness of the bush (near Townsville) is appalling. The birds are dead, the marsupials are dead, and, last of all, the reptiles are passing away. There are bunches of dead snakes tangled together as if they had died in heaps. ... This shows the state of things with which our missionaries have to cope.' The Bishop hopes that we may not forget in our prayers brothers and sisters who are bearing the burden and heat of the tropical summer. Some of the work among scattered settlers has had to cease. ‘I tried hard,' says the Bishop, 'to arrange it otherwise, but the circumstances of the drought were too much for me. My heart aches for the women and children who are as sheep without a shepherd, and I never cease to pray that God will stir the hearts of those who are blessed with all the ministrations of religion to remember the children who are growing up without knowledge, and the old people who must die often without the slightest message of comfort ... The vices which are the besetting sins of most new settlements, especially in tropical countries, are in strong evidence here. Never have I seen the laws of a country so flagrantly placed at defiance (e.g, gambling and Sunday drinking, which are both against the laws of Queensland, are carried on without the slightest attempt at secrecy, and almost without the Semblance of an effort being made to bring the offenders to justice). For this deplorable state of things the apathy of the mass of the members of the community is to blame. Mr. Burnett the other day paid a first visit to some outlying mining camps. It was a Monday, and over a hundred men were lying prostrate, or were in a state of stupefaction through excessive drinking the day before, the majority of them being more or less bruised.' Visiting a station the other day we were assured that no clergyman had been seen on any of them, and that there were a number of children who had never seen a clergyman in their lives. (We do not apologise for giving a large space to Australia, showing from two entirely different sources that the need of spiritual work is so pressing, because we believe that there is no corner of the world where prayer and sympathy are more needed at the present moment.) We are very glad to see that the Bishop of Rockhampton, at the end of a depressing report, is able to speak of ‘very encouraging work amongst the Melanesians. They respond to our appeals in a splendid manner, and the result is a live, strong, progressive congregation. ...’ When it is remembered that these ‘boys' will be deported and distributed amongst their native islands it is reasonable to predict that the future result of our labours will resemble that of seed sown in hope.’" A PRAIRIE SERVICE IN SASKATCHEWAN. — “There is no part of North-Western Canada into which settlers are pouring in greater numbers than into the great diocese of Saskatchewan. A simple and touching account of a prairie service has been sent by an anonymous writer, from which we take the following extracts : ‘One lady quite broke down during morning prayer and when asked afterwards what distressed her she said, "Oh! it was joy at hearing the Te Deum again." After service the people pressed round the Bishop, and offered to support a clergyman if only they could have the service they wanted so badly. They were all recent settlers, to whom such a promise meant real and actual self-denial, and it was a typical incident, for the people are all over the province writing for, and asking for, services and teaching, and weekly almost the Bishop has to reply, 'We have neither men nor money to give what you so sorely need.'”-(Greater Britain Messenger.) WORK IN ROCKHAMPTON.—"At the time of his enthronement the Bishop found only seven clergy at work in his diocese. ... The See was never adequately endowed. Debts have loomed larger and larger, especially during and since the terrible and long-lasting drought. The clergy, workers among workers, in addition to the spiritual care of those dwelling in the many and scattered towns and townships, spend their energies and strength in the endeavour to travel round their huge parishes, ministering to shearers, miners, carriers, squatters, farmers, selectors, boundary riders, and workmen of every description. Sick die unministered to. Dead are buried by the nearest neighbour able and willing to conduct a service. Little children grow up without religious teaching. Babies grow into men and women before they can be received into the Church. Communicants long in vain for Church privileges. The lapsed lapse further. The godless become more ungodly. No blame to the Bishop! No fault of the clergy. Heartsore, struggling men, all. ‘What are they among so many?' It is for us at home to second the brave efforts that are being made at the front by the Bishop, his clergy, and his lay people, and to send out more clergy, to complete the See endowment, to clear off existing debts, and to form a central sustentation, superannuation, and pension fund."- (Bush Leaves.)
The Far East. A MEETING in connection with the work of the North China and Shantung Mission Association, the Guild of St. Paul, South Tokyo, Japan, and the Association of Prayer and Work for Corea, will be held on Tuesday, July 3, 1906, in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, at 5 P.M. Chairman—the Most Reverend the Bishop of St. Andrews. Addresses will be given by Rev. Roland Allen, M.A., representing North China and Shantung: Rev. Herbert Moore, M.A., representing South Tokyo, Japan; Rev. Mark Napier Trollope, M.A., representing Corea. The collection will be divided equally between the three associations. Tea will be provided in an adjoining room, from 4.30 to 5 P.M., at 6d. per head. Morning Calm, 4d. quarterly, or 1s. 4d. per annum (post free), may be obtained from Miss B. Atkins, 24 Overton Road, Brixton, S.W., Miss Day, Lorne House, Rochester, or Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co., New Street Square, E.C.
