tirty • 
 
MARKET SCENE IN THE CITY OF SEOUL 
 
The 
 
 Korea Mission 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
 GEORGE HEBER 
 
 THEOLOK3!CAL SEMINARY 
 
 THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 150 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 
 
 
 
 Price, Ten Cents 
 
PRINTED SEPTEMBER, 1910 
 
KOREA MISSION 
 
 COUNTRY AND PEOPLE 
 
 Korea is an interesting country occupied by an interesting 
 people. The hasty and superficial observation of tourists has 
 classified the Koreans as a people either decadent or moribund, 
 and one writer has even gone so far as to assert that 
 As a Nation they are so degenerate that they are beyond re- 
 demption. Such views, however, are not shared by 
 those familiar with the history and character of the peninsular 
 people. As a nation they have a past stretching back into 
 prehistoric ages. F or at least three thousand years they have 
 maintained their foothold in the peninsula, and though often 
 harassed and attacked by the mighty empires which surround 
 them, have until the recent annexation by Japan survived the 
 dangers of foreign invasion and alien conquest, warding off 
 the perils of absorption, and though sometimes compelled, 
 because of weakness in numbers and resources, to submit to 
 force majeure, have maintained their individuality. 
 
 History bears witness to their inventive genius. In 1592 
 they built a suspension bridge across the Imchin River north of 
 Seoul, using for the cables strands of tough fibrous vine, twisted 
 together and anchored securely at the ends. Bridge 
 Inventive building has fallen into decay in Korea since then. 
 Genius but they undoubtedly discovered for themselves the 
 rudiments of the very highest form of this art. They 
 also invented a mortar and bomb which was known as “the 
 flying thunderbolt,” and at the time of the Japanese invasion 
 in the sixteenth century, they devised an iron-clad war vessel, 
 which they called the Tortoise Ship because it was built in 
 the form of a tortoise. The head was used for ramming, and 
 the iron scales of its back could be lifted for shooting fire 
 arrows. It played as large a part against the foe of that day 
 as the little Monitor did in the conflict between the North and 
 5 
 
the South in our own country. The Koreans used movable 
 metal type before the days of Gutenburg, and the books pro- 
 duced by those first fonts are among the most beautiful speci- 
 mens of Asiatic typography. Some of the best brass ware in 
 the world is made in Korea. The record of the Koreans as 
 laboring men outside of their own country is high, while in 
 the mining and other modern enterprises of Korea they stand 
 well. 
 
 History bears witness to the intellectual acumen of the 
 Korean people. The bibliography of works written or trans- 
 lated by native authors includes over three thousand different 
 books. They possess a simple phonetic alphabet of 
 Korean twenty-five characters, invented in the fifteenth century 
 Intellect under the patronage of one of the first sovereigns of the 
 former dynasty. The long years during which the 
 people slept, in a seclusion which earned for them the name 
 of the hermit nation, have put them at a disadvantage. Their 
 sudden call into the bright light of modern international inter- 
 course has given them no time in which to make preparation 
 to appear in a garb worthy of their history and character. 
 This condition, however, is now being corrected and Christianity 
 is playing an important part in the transformation. 
 
 Special attention has been directed to the international 
 importance of Korea, which has been out of all proportion to 
 its territorial extent. Situated in the very heart of the Far East, 
 and surrounded by three great empires, China, Japan, 
 Strategic and Russia, it has been so related to these nations that 
 Position it has been impossible for them to undertake any great 
 movement without first determining Korea’s relation to 
 it. Because of her geographical and political significance, Korea 
 was the precipitating cause of both the Japan-China and the 
 Russo-Japanese wars, and may, therefore, be regarded as the 
 fountain head of that course of events which has followed upon 
 those great conflicts and changed the alignment of political 
 forces in Asia. 
 
 This political significance of Korea is an index of her reli- 
 gious importance. There is a parallel between the position of 
 Korea in the Far East of to-day and that of Palestine in the 
 
 6 
 
world of her time, for just as Palestine, because of her cen- 
 tral geographical position, became the easy point of approach 
 to the great empires about her, and from her passed 
 Religious to them the knowledge of the revelation of the true 
 Significance God, so Korea, because of her geographical situation, 
 is the easiest point of approach, from a religious 
 viewpoint, to the great empires which surround her. The 
 attention of Japan, China, and Russia alike has been focused 
 for some years upon Korea. God takes this opportunity to 
 bring to pass before their vision one of the most remarkable 
 triumphs of the Christian faith recorded in history. Thus the 
 marvelous progress of Christianity in Korea has on the one 
 hand become a modern apologetic both to Japan and to China 
 on the divine nature and claims of the Christian faith, while 
 on the other hand it has gladdened and inspired the whole Chris- 
 tian world. 
 
 The best authorities give the area of Korea as 92,000 square 
 miles, being about the size of the State of Oregon, or 10,000 
 square miles larger than all New England, with the States of 
 New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware added. Korea is 
 Physical peninsular in form, extending between the' Japan and 
 Features Yellow Seas through 9 degrees of latitude, 34° to 43°. 
 
 It is surrounded by warm ocean currents which consider- 
 ably modify the climate, making it one of the best in the world. 
 Korea has 1,740 miles of shore line. From Fusan on the south 
 to the Russian border at the Tumen River on the north, the 
 eastern coast is extremely steep and precipitous and good har- 
 bors are few. On the west, along the Yellow Sea, the coast 
 line is made up mostly of low-lying plains, pierced by many 
 rivers and streams. The harbors are more frequent on this 
 side, but are rendered difficult of access by the high tides 
 which rise in some seasons to nearly forty feet. 
 
 The Korean peninsula is quite mountainous in character, 
 there being no great plains. It is penetrated by a single 
 mountain chain, which, rising in the far north, extends south- 
 ward, keeping close to the eastern coast, but with lateral ranges 
 extending westward practically across the entire peninsula. 
 The northern point of this system is Paiktusan, or Old Mount 
 7 
 
Whitehead, an extinct volcano, 9,000 feet high, the crater of 
 which is filled with a beautiful and mysterious lake. This 
 mountain system terminates in the extreme south in Mount 
 Halla, another extinct volcano, 7,000 feet high, on the island 
 of Quelpart. 
 
 The mountainous nature of the country prevented the 
 development of wheeled vehicles in Korea, and methods of 
 locomotion were, until the coming of the railroads, very prim- 
 itive. The Koreans are good pedestrians and think nothing 
 
 SCENE ON THE TAIDONG RIVER BELOW PYENGYANG 
 
 of making walking tours from one end of the empire to the 
 other. They love the scenery of their native land, much of 
 which they have celebrated in song and story. 
 
 The climate of Korea is pleasant and healthful. The ex- 
 tremes of temperature range at Seoul from 9 degrees below 
 zero to 98 degrees above. During the winter, ice forms on the 
 rivers and snow falls in a limited quantity. The rainy 
 Climate season occurs during July and August, and in some 
 years as high as 25 inches of rein have fallen during 
 these two months. The average annual rainfall is 36 inches. 
 
 8 
 
In the fall, the days shorten and the cold slowly and steadily 
 increases, until the extreme point is reached in January. A 
 cloudless sky and a clear sun render a Korean winter the most 
 delightful period of the year. 
 
 There are five principal rivers. The Amnok or Yalu forms 
 the boundary between Korea and China for 175 miles. The 
 Tumen drains the lake in the extinct volcano Paiktusan, and 
 flowing northeast forms the boundary between Korea and 
 Rivers Manchuria, until it strikes the Russian border, where for 11 
 miles it separates Korea from the dominions of the Czar. 
 The Taidong, one of the most beautiful and the largest of the 
 waterways, drains the great provinces of Pyengan and Whang- 
 hai, and has the city of Pyongyang, the metropolis of the 
 north, on its banks. The Han, another beautiful river, which 
 almost bisects the peninsula, rises within 30 miles of the Japan 
 Sea, flows westerly across the peninsula, and empties into 
 the Yellow Sea at Chemulpo. The Korean capital, Seoul, 
 is situated in the Han Valley, 26 miles from its mouth by rail. 
 The Nakdong is in the south, and is said to be navigable for 
 140 miles by vessels drawing not more than four and one-half 
 feet. It rises in the central part of Korea, and, flowing south, 
 empties into the Japan Sea at Pusan. 
 
 Until recent times these rivers formed the chief means of 
 communication, but shortly after the China-Japan War began 
 the era of railroad development in Korea, with the result that 
 there is to-day a trunk-line system extending from 
 Railroads Pusan on the south to the Yalu on the north, where 
 it connects with the South Manchurian Railway, and 
 thus with both the Chinese and the Trans-Siberian systems. 
 It is now possible to take a train in Seoul and go by railway 
 to Berlin, Paris, Saint Petersburg, Vienna, Rome, or London. 
 The journey from Seoul to London can be made in sixteen days, 
 and through tickets can be purchased in Korea. 
 
 Korea is divided into thirteen provinces, comprising 330 
 counties. Until 1910 it was ruled by its own imperial house, 
 with a cabinet and central government and provincial and 
 county establishments. On August 22, 1910, the Emperor 
 signed a treaty of annexation with Japan, and Korea as a 
 9 
 
separate political state under its own rulers came to an end. 
 It is too early to indicate what changes Japan may introduce 
 into the governmental economy of Korea, but doubt- 
 Government less the old order will not be materially altered in 
 the country at large, natives serving as governors 
 of provinces and magistrates of counties. The affairs of the 
 central government will be administered by the newly created 
 Japanese colonial office, which, in addition to Korea, has 
 charge of Formosa and the leased territories in China. A 
 governor-general with full staff of administrative officers will 
 represent the colonial office in Korea. 
 
 In 1905 Korea had become a protected state of Japan and 
 Korean affairs of state had been guided by a residency gen- 
 eral there with a full official staff. During the five years of 
 this arrangement the suzerain power had been practically in 
 control of the administrative machinery, possessing both the 
 authority to originate matters of government and a veto on 
 measures proposed by the Koreans which Japan judged un- 
 wise. Japan was in charge of judicial affairs during this 
 period, and there are a number of circuit and district courts 
 now in operation, mostly under Japanese judges. There is 
 also a police and gens d’armes force of 13,000 men for the 
 maintenance of order in the peninsula. At the present time 
 the work of reorganizing the government along the new lines 
 is proceeding rapidly. 
 
 The government estimates the population of Korea at 
 fourteen millions. The Koreans are a strong, sturdy race, 
 possessing a good physique, a keen mind, and, under favoring 
 influences, a docile disposition. Their main occupa- 
 Agriculture tion is agriculture, the chief crops being rice, barley, 
 and Mining beans, and other vegetables. Cotton is also becoming 
 an important product. Large quantities of tobacco 
 are raised. The country produces very fine fruit, including 
 apples, peaches, plums, apricots, persimmons, and berries of 
 various kinds, also a fine variety of English walnuts and chest- 
 nuts. It is estimated that sixty per cent of the arable land 
 is already under cultivation. Recently there has been a 
 .special awakening of interest in forestry and, under govern- 
 10 
 
FORMER EMPEROR OF KOREA 
 
ment auspices, millions of seedlings have been set out in various 
 parts of the land. The mineral wealth is very great. One 
 hundred and eighty-four mining concessions have been granted, 
 mostly to Japanese capitalists. The output of the iron mines 
 will reach tens of thousands of tons annually. There are 
 vast quantities of coal; 
 copper, silver, lead, and 
 graphite are also found. 
 
 Korea possesses few 
 large cities, the principal 
 ones being Seoul, with 
 a population 
 Distribution of of 200,000; 
 
 the Population Songdo, Py- 
 
 ongyang, and 
 Taiku, 60,000 each, and 
 Chemulpo and Haiju, 
 
 20,000 each. The great 
 mass of the people live 
 in small towns, villages, 
 and hamlets, ranging from 
 a few families up to ag- 
 gregations of 6,000 peo- 
 ple or more. This is due 
 to the agricultural life of 
 the people, there being as 
 yet no manufacturing industries on a large scale to gather the 
 people into cities, though already there are the beginnings of 
 a number of important industries. 
 
 This rapid survey of the physical features of Korea will 
 give an idea of some of the conditions confronting the mission- 
 ary in his work. In this mountainous country, with its fertile 
 valleys, thickly populated in the central and southern 
 Modes portions, with many hundreds of villages, much of 
 
 of Travel the land can best be reached by means of pedestrian 
 tours. In connection with the work of preaching 
 the gospel, missionaries have walked five thousand miles a year 
 over the mountains and valleys in order to bring the message 
 12 
 
 BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES 
 
of Christianity to the people. A great deal of itineration is 
 also done by means of the sampan, or house boat, and the 
 native junk. The word sampan is derived from “sam,” 
 “three,” and “pan,” “boards”; that is, a boat of three boards. 
 The sampan is a much larger structure than its name would 
 imply, being a sail boat 20 or 30 feet long, with a small cabin 
 in the bow into which a man may crawl at night. If the 
 missionary does not own his own sampan, and has hired one, 
 he finds that other things crawl there also. The sampan 
 constitutes a primitive but useful 
 method of travel. By the con- 
 struction of government highways 
 connecting important centers, 
 facilities for itineration have re- 
 cently been greatly improved. 
 
 The twelve or more millions 
 of Koreans speak one language, 
 which has been greatly modified 
 through the introduction 
 Language of Christian words and 
 ideas, and the new scien- 
 tific and technical phraseology 
 made necessary by modern edu- 
 cation. It is marvelous to note 
 the effect on the thought life of 
 the Korean people of the intro- 
 duction of the clear, lucid con- 
 ceptions of Christianity concern- 
 ing God and man, moral govern- 
 ment, the higher life and the 
 
 future life. It has amounted to an intellectual revolution. 
 
 In writing, the Korean alphabet, known as the Unmun, 
 has been used by the Christian missionaries, and the Bible 
 and most Christian literature is published in it. All educated 
 Koreans are familiar with the Chinese ideographs which form 
 the basis of their education. Chinese is the lingua franca of 
 the far eastern nations, and though Koreans, Japanese, and 
 Chinese people may not be able to communicate with each 
 13 
 
 ON THE WAY TO MARKET 
 “ PIG-A-BACK ” 
 
other by word of speech, they can make themselves mutually 
 understood by means of the written Chinese. 
 
 The Koreans set high value upon scholarship and feel deep 
 reverence for all members of the teaching profession. Before 
 the coming of Christianity, it is estimated that less than ten 
 per cent of the population, including the members of 
 Education the nobility, could read. Very few women could read 
 at all and there were no schools for girls. A Korean 
 explained the lack of girls’ schools by saying that they believed 
 that girls had no brains and could not be educated. Christianity 
 has completely changed this. Many Christian women have 
 learned to read, bringing the average of literacy so high among 
 them that a larger percentage of Christians belong to the 
 literate class than is the case in any other section of Korean 
 society. Under the old system, education in Korea had a 
 religious basis, the principal text-books being the sacred 
 classics. The reverence of the Koreans for their sacred books 
 is admirable and stands in direct contrast to conditions in 
 America. A man may stand in the streets of Chicago or 
 Boston and tear a Bible into shreds, and occasion only passing 
 comment; but if he should attempt to deride, scoff, or jeer at 
 the Confucian Sacred Books in the streets of Seoul, he would 
 be mobbed. 
 
 RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 
 
 The religious life of the Korean forms an interesting study. 
 Until the coming of Christianity, three principal systems 
 gripped him. Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The 
 first of these constitutes the bed rock of their 
 Three Religious natural religious faith. Buddhism and Confiician- 
 Sy stems ism were introduced at later periods and the coming 
 
 of each marked a radical change in the life of 
 the people. In general, it may be said that these religious 
 systems have been tolerant. They ditl not eradicate each 
 other, and to-day a Korean may be a follower of all three 
 without doing violence to any one, for it is the rule that he 
 will be a Confucianist when in society, a Buddhist in his phi- 
 losophy, and in time of trouble cry out for help to the multi- 
 tudinous gods of the Shaman faith. 
 
 14 
 
The Korean is a polytheist, in that he believes in the exist- 
 ence of innumerable gods who control his destiny and exact 
 the homage of fear; and with his polytheism he couples 
 animistic nature worship. He believes that the sky, 
 Shamanism thunder, trees, mountains, various animals, and even 
 the diseases which afflict him, are gods. Most of 
 these gods are represented by fetiches or objects sacred to 
 the deity. When a Korean erects a house, he must first 
 recognize the proprietorship of the spirit which will occupy 
 
 INTERIOR OF SPIRIT HOUSE 
 The bags of corn and beans in front are offerings of devotees 
 
 the house along with himself. So with ceremony and sacri- 
 fice, he installs in his house a sheet of paper or a piece of cloth 
 attached to the main beam which supports the roof. This 
 material representative of his god is very sacred and he lives 
 in constant fear of it. While in the room where it is, he is 
 careful not to turn his back upon it, and when sickness over- 
 takes him or any member of his family, his first thought is 
 15 
 
that it is due to the anger of this spirit, and sacrifice is offered 
 to propitiate it. In addition to this spirit, there are many 
 others connected with the household life of the Korean, such 
 as the earth lord, the god of luck, the god of life, and the kitchen 
 god. These are represented by a booth of straw, a black 
 earthen crock, a small bag of rice, a fish head or various articles 
 of clothing. As these several gods are enshrined in each house 
 they outnumber the inhabitants. It is estimated that there 
 are 80,000,000 of them. The Korean has never lacked for gods, 
 such as they are. There are more gods than people in Korea. 
 
 It is impossible to describe adequately the terror of this 
 spirit rule over the imagination and the heart life of the Korean. 
 To him these spirits are real existences and fill the earth, sky, 
 and sea. They haunt the trees, play in the ravines. 
 The Horror dance by every crystal spring, and perch on every 
 of It mountain crest. They make sport of human destiny 
 
 and drive man mad with fear. They are on every 
 roof, in the ceiling of every room, and in every fireplace. They 
 waylay the traveler as he leaves his home for a journey, and 
 on the road they surround him. They preside at his birth, 
 follow him to the grave, and sit upon it when he is buried. 
 They are hard masters, punishing every slip that he makes 
 with merciless severity. They are the cause of ill fortune and 
 disease. In their sum total they constitute a grotesque travesty 
 on the omnipresence of God. 
 
 Over this vast spiritism presides a priesthood divided 
 into two classes: the soothsayers, usually blind men who make 
 a living by divination, fortune telling, and other features of 
 their craft, and the sorceresses, who are the priestesses of this 
 Shaman faith. Each of these sorceresses is supposed to be 
 possessed of a demon and thus qualified to perform the magic 
 rites by which the demons are propitiated. 
 
 Imbedded deep in this original faith of the Korean people 
 we find traces of a primitive monotheism. Over this great 
 spirit world presides the supreme being known as Hananim. 
 He stands in a class by himself in the spirit world, and is so 
 high and holy that his worship has been the prerogative of the 
 emperor, who either in person or by deputy appealed to him in 
 16 
 
times of national distress, famine, and pestilence. No image 
 or picture of Hananim exists, and his worship is offered from 
 some mountain top to the great blue sky above. 
 A Primitive His name of Hananim has been adopted as the 
 Monotheism Korean equivalent for the true God and is so trans- 
 ' lated in the Bible and Christian literature. From ear- 
 
 liest times the Koreans have possessed the idea of sacrifice, 
 and ancient stone altars are found on mountain tops throughout 
 the country. The sacred character of a priest has also been 
 recognized, while among the legends found in their folk-lore 
 is a tradition of a flood and an ark. 
 
 Buddhism, the first of the historic faiths to enter Korea, 
 was introduced from China in 372 
 A. D., and for a thousand years 
 was the state religion. Op- 
 Buddhism posed at first, it vindicated 
 itself against opposition 
 and was patronized by royalty. 
 
 Gradually it rose to power until it 
 became the greatest political and 
 intellectual force in the nation. It 
 built its temples and monasteries 
 in the most beautiful valleys, and 
 erected many striking monuments, 
 the ruins of which may be seen to- 
 day. It reformed the religious, so- 
 cial, and political life, and accumu- 
 lated great wealth. Its priests had 
 the monopoly of learning and were 
 the counselors of the sovereigns and their ministers. But the 
 Buddhist priesthood became corrupted through prosperity; the 
 rules which governed its life were violated with impunity. 
 Monks and abbots took to fighting as readily as did the warring 
 bishops of the Middle Ages. The priests debauched the people 
 and their abominations beggar description. The people rose 
 in revolt and about five hundred years ago the power of the 
 priesthood was broken and Buddhism went down with the 
 fall of the reigning dynasty, for whose ruin its leaders were 
 17 
 
largely responsible. The status of this faith in Korea to-day 
 is indicated by the saying that “Buddhism, to be found, must 
 be sought.” Outside of the priests and nuns, there are few 
 genuine Buddhist devotees. 
 
 Confucianism, known from earliest times, was formally 
 adopted from China about one thousand years ago. It is 
 the religious pride of Korea, and Confucius is regarded as 
 the great sage and instructor of the people. Con- 
 Confucianism fucianism is the State Cult, being followed by the 
 princes and other noble families. Temples to the 
 great Chinese sage are maintained at government expense in 
 Seoul and in all provincial and county capitals. No higher 
 honor could come to a Korean in former times than that of 
 having his tablet enshrined after death and having a share 
 of the sacrifices offered in the Confucian temple. This was 
 done by a special decree of the sovereign and was the Con- 
 fucian form of canonization. Confucianism teaches ancestral 
 worship, and according to its Korean tenets the ancestors of 
 each family for the preceding four generations are kept in 
 memory by tablets erected in the family shrine before which 
 regular sacrifice is offered. The ancestral tablet house is 
 always visited on the anniversary of the death of a father or 
 a mother. The funeral rites which are derived from Con- 
 fucianism are very elaborate, the corpse being wrapped up in 
 many folds of cotton, linen, and grass cloth, and placed in a 
 wooden coffin and carried by hired bearers to the ancestral 
 mountain where it is entombed in a grave often lined with 
 cement. The Koreans believe that a human being, whether 
 man or woman, has three souls, one of which abides at the 
 grave and receives the worship there, while the second soul 
 enters the ancestral tablet and is worshiped at the family 
 shrine, and the third soul goes to the final destiny of the dead. 
 
 Confucianism teaches five ethical tenets: (1) Relationship 
 between father and son, imposing the duty of filial piety upon 
 the son and the obligation on the part of the father to instruct, 
 guide, and care for the son. (2) Righteousness between sover- 
 eign and people, imposing upon the people the obligation of 
 loyalty to properly constituted authorities, and upon the sov- 
 18 
 
ereign the ill-defined but no less obligatory responsibility of an 
 intense form of paternalism in government. (3) The separa- 
 tion of spheres of life between men and women, espe- 
 The Five dally in their relations as man and wife. It is the duty 
 Laws of the husband to bear the responsibility and act the 
 part of the head of the house. It is the duty of the 
 wife to be subservient to the husband and to obey the “Three 
 Following Ways”: that is, in childhood she should “follow” 
 or be subordinate to her father; in wifehood, she should “follow” 
 or be subordinate to her husband; in widowhood, she should, 
 as far as matters outside the house are concerned, “follow” or 
 be subordinate to her eldest son. (4) Precedence between 
 elder and junior, imposing the obligation upon the younger 
 men of a generation to accord reverence and submission to 
 those older. (5) Faith between friends, finding expression in 
 helpfulness and sincerity. Coupled with these are the five 
 virtues of benevolence, righteousness, politeness, knowledge, 
 and faith, and the five original elements, metal, wood, water, 
 fire, and earth. The feet of Korean thought have tramped 
 round and round the circle of these five laws, five virtues, 
 and five elements for multiplied generations. They have been 
 the educated Korean’s world of thought. 
 
 Recognition must be granted to the valuable work Con- 
 fucianism has done in introducing law and order into the 
 primitive life of the Korean people. But Confucianism has 
 no ethical message for the conditions growing out 
 Results of of modern life as shown in new forming cities and 
 
 Confucianism in the complications of modern industrialism. 
 
 Fear plays a prominent part in Korean ancestor 
 worship. A male descendant is necessary in order to perform 
 the sacrificial rites, thus leading to early marriage, concubinage, 
 and a discounting of the natural rights and position of woman. 
 Confucianism has imposed a heavy financial burden in its 
 costly funeral rites and its rigid mourning ceremonies, thus 
 leading to the impoverishment of many a family. Its exag- 
 gerated deference for the past has hindered progress and 
 contributed to national stagnation. It has left the Korean 
 two thousand years behind the times. 
 
 19 
 
One of the interesting developments of Korea has been the 
 rise of a new native religious system which has sought to com- 
 bine the best features of such religious faiths as are knowm 
 to the Koreans. First coming into existence under 
 A New the name of Tong hak, or Eastern Learning, as 
 
 Native Cult opposed to the Western Learning, or Christianity, 
 it later on changed its name to that of Chun do kyo, 
 or Teaching of the Heavenly Way. Originating about the 
 year 1850, during the closing years of the nineteenth century 
 
 it obtained quite a 
 vogue, its followers 
 numbering, so it is 
 claimed, five hundred 
 thousand Koreans. It 
 has played an inter- 
 esting part in the po- 
 litical history of the 
 Far East, a rebelhon 
 of its adherents in 
 1893 leading to the 
 China- Japan War, 
 which has changed 
 Far Eastern history. 
 It has since been 
 broken by schism and 
 is now on the wane. While rejecting Christ altogether, it showed 
 the influence of Christianity in a poorly tlefined theism and in 
 teachings resembling the Christian doctrine of love for fellow 
 man. The rise of this native cult was but an expression of the 
 Korean genius for religion, which has had its most striking 
 manifestations in the growth of the Christian faith. 
 
 When Christianity obtained entrance among the Koreans, 
 it found Confucianism and Buddhism moribund; Shamanism 
 alone persisted in power. Science consisted of astrology’’, 
 Decadent geomancy, necromancy, and the black arts. The only 
 Religions solace the people had was in sacrifice to twannical de- 
 mons and in worship of ridiculous fetiches. The present 
 world was full of dread and the future full of forebodings of evil. 
 
 20 
 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL MISSION FOUNDED 
 
 The Korea Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 owes its existence to the foresight and generosity of John F. 
 Goucher, of Baltimore, To understand the course of events 
 leading to the establishment of the Mission, it 
 How the Way is necessary to glance at Korea’s relations with 
 was Prepared outside nations. For many centuries Korea had 
 dwelt in a seclusion which earned for her the name 
 of the Hermit Nation. Her seas uncharted and her coasts 
 unsurveyed, the perils of navigation enabled her to maintain 
 a policy of exclusion. Her attitude in those days was not 
 unlike that which we now maintain toward the Chinese and 
 other Asiatic peoples. This unfriendly bearing toward the rest 
 of the human race could not be perpetually maintained. In 
 the course of events it was inevitable that foreigners should 
 seek the same freedom of intercourse with Korea which they 
 enjoyed with other nations. Roman Catholic missionaries as 
 the pioneers of Christianity had sought entrance into the coun- 
 try but had been ruthlessly massacred. The General Sherman, 
 an American ship, attempting to penetrate the Taidong River, 
 had been destroyed by fire rafts below the city of Pyongyang, 
 its crew slaughtered, and its anchor chains hung as trophies 
 in the main gate to the city, where they may still be seen. 
 In the interests of humanity and for the protection of ship- 
 wrecked mariners. Admiral Shufeldt of the American Navy 
 secured a friendly hearing with the authorities and negotiated 
 a treaty between the United States and Korea in the year 1881. 
 In fulfillment of the provisions of this treaty, the Korean 
 government dispatched an embassy to the United States in 
 1882, at the head of which was Min Yong-ik, a nephew of the 
 reigning queen and a man of high position and influence. It 
 was while this embassy was crossing the United States that 
 Dr. Goucher met them, and, becoming interested in the story 
 they told of their country, invited them to visit him at his 
 home. He brought Korea to the attention of the Missionary 
 Society as a desirable field and made a substantial offering of 
 financial support for the opening of a mission there. 
 
 21 
 
Dr. James M. Buckley, editor of The Christian Advocate, 
 published a number of articles citing conditions in the country 
 and urging the opening of a mission. In response, a number of 
 gifts were forwarded to the Board supplementing that of Dr. 
 First Goucher for the opening of work in Korea, among them being 
 Steps a gift of one thousand dollars from Mr. J. Slocum of Iowa, 
 one thousand dollars from an unnamed donor, and a 
 gift of nine dollars from a little girl in California. Acting on 
 the suggestion of Dr. Goucher, Robert S. IVIaclay, Superin- 
 tendent of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Japan, accom- 
 panied by Mrs. Maclay, visited Korea in June of 1884, being 
 the first foreign missionary to reach Seoul. Dr. and Mrs. 
 Maclay were made welcome at the United States Legation by 
 the American Minister, Lucius C. Foote, and his wife. A paper 
 setting forth the desires and objects of Christian missionaries 
 was sent to the King through the foreign office and in reply 
 his Majesty gave assurance 
 that he would be pleased to 
 have mission work opened 
 in Seoul and that medical 
 and educational work would 
 be especially acceptable. Dr. 
 
 Maclay immediately reported 
 this favorable opening to Dr. 
 
 Goucher and the authorities 
 at home. 
 
 The Board in New' York 
 secured, as the first mission- 
 aries, the Rev. H. G. Appen- 
 zeller, a graduate 
 First of Franklin and 
 
 Missionaries Marshall College 
 and Drew" Theolo- 
 gical Seminary, and William 
 B. Scranton, M.D., a grad- 
 uate of Yale and of the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons, New York. They sailed wdth their families from San 
 Francisco in February, 1885, reaching Chemulpo on Easter 
 22 
 
 HENRY G. APPENZELLER 
 
Sunday, April 5th, from which point they pushed on to the 
 capital. 
 
 The first mission station was located in the western part of 
 the city of Seoul. There were no proper houses available for 
 residence; but native houses were purchased, which being prac- 
 tically rebuilt became available for living purposes. 
 The Beginning Both medical and educational work were begun, 
 in Seoul The first business of the missionaries, as it has been 
 
 that of their successors, was to learn the language 
 and to get acquainted with the people. The difficulties and 
 problems which confronted them w^ere enormous, and so perilous 
 were the times and so uncertain their status that unsympathetic 
 foreigners regarded their attempt to open a Christian mission 
 in Korea as most inopportune and doomed to failure. The 
 wonderful success which has attended the work of missions in 
 the Hermit Kingdom shows how unwarranted were these 
 prophecies of evil. A call for two new missionaries to occupy 
 Chemulpo and Fusan was issued, and in 1887 George Heber 
 Jones, of the Northern New York Conference, and Franklin 
 Ohlinger, a veteran missionary of China, were appointed to 
 Korea and joined the mission. 
 
 In those early days there were few foreigners living in the 
 land and the object of the missionaries being but partially 
 known, libelous reports against them obtained credence among 
 the people. At one time it was charged that their interest 
 Pioneer in children was of a diabolical character, that cannibalism 
 Days prevailed among the missionaries, and that they extracted 
 the eyeballs and tongues of children and used them to 
 manufacture the magic drugs with which they made photo- 
 graphs, or drugged the food of their guests in order to change 
 their hearts and make them become Christians. This was the 
 period of ignorance and prejudice, those foes of Christianity in 
 all times; but they were easily conquered by the devotion and 
 good w^orks of the missionaries. No one is more amazed to-day 
 concerning these early stories than the Koreans themselves. 
 The work of the missionaries proceeded apace, difficulties being 
 bravely met, obstacles overcome, and problems solved. The 
 foundations of a large and exact knowledge of Korea were laid; 
 23 
 
the land was traveled, its geography studied, and the conditions 
 among the people in various parts of the land made known. 
 A vast amount of work was done during that pioneer period 
 which can never be tabulated, but which resulted in the broad 
 and lasting foundation upon which the mission and the church 
 rest to-day. 
 
 The first company of missionaries included in their party 
 Mrs. M. F. Scranton, mother of Dr. Scranton, who went out 
 to begin the work of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society 
 in Korea. She brought to her work clearness of 
 For Korean vision, a mature judgment, unfailing patience, and a 
 Women wise and unchanging sympathy and love for the 
 
 people. A girls’ school, the first ever opened in the 
 country, was founded in Seoul. The growth and success of this 
 school has demonstrated the in- 
 tellectual possibilities of Korean 
 girls when given the privilege 
 •of a Christian education. The 
 sovereign was pleased to confer 
 on this school the title of Ewa 
 Hak tang, or the Pear Flower 
 School. This was a gracious 
 distinction, as the pear flower is 
 the national emblem of Korea 
 and the symbol of the imperial 
 house, as the chrysanthemum 
 is that of Japan. 
 
 The first baptism was ad- 
 ministered in 1887, while on 
 the Christmas follow- 
 A Permanent ing, Mr. Appenzeller 
 Beginning preached his first ser- 
 mon in the Korean 
 tongue, taking for his text, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, 
 for he shall save his people from their sins.’’ Probably no 
 text in Holy Writ will better give the key note of all the 
 work and aspiration of the mission in Korea, from that day to 
 this, than that text of the first sermon. Two years later, the 
 24 
 
 KOREAN WOMAN 
 
first church formally organized in the empire was brought 
 into being by the organization of the Quarterly Conference of 
 the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Seoul. Its parish 
 extended to the confines of the empire, for it embraced all the 
 
 FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SEOUL PARSONAGE OF 
 
 NATIVE PASTOR IN FRONT 
 
 membership of our church at that time. Thus, in less than 
 five years from the date of the arrival of the first missionaries, 
 the church was permanently founded in the land of the Morn- 
 ing Calm. 
 
 EXPANSION OF THE MISSION 
 
 From 1885 until 1892 work centered in Seoul. The mis- 
 sionaries all resided there, and there were founded the first 
 institutions of the Mission, including the Paichai School for 
 Boys, a hospital, a publishing house, and the Ewa 
 New Regions School for Girls. In the year 1892 stations were 
 Entered opened almost simultaneously at Pyongyang, Won- 
 
 san, and Chemulpo. The year proved to be a trying 
 one, for it was the time of those insurrectionary movements 
 which led to the Japan-China War. This did not deter the 
 25 
 
missionaries, however, and Dr. Hall heroically led the way in 
 founding the mission station in Pyengj^ang. Dr. McGill took 
 his family one hundred and seventy-five miles across the 
 peninsula to the east coast and laid the foundations of the 
 work at Wonsan. Mr. George Heber Jones opened the station 
 at Chemulpo and began the work along the west coast. 
 
 The story of the opening of the work at Pyengj-ang is a 
 thrilling chapter from the modern acts of the apostles. Two 
 names, those of Dr. William J. Hall and the Rev. lum Chang- 
 sik, will always be associated vdth the opening of 
 Pioneers in work there. Before these two went to Pyengj^ang, 
 
 Pyengyang the senior members of the mission had visited the 
 
 city a few times and distributed Christian literature, 
 but it was a six days’ journey from Seoul and it was impossible 
 to develop the work at such a distance, so it was determined 
 that a station should be opened. 
 
 Dr. Hall was splendidly fitted for the work. Possessed of 
 an attractive personality, he charmed and won all with whom 
 he came in contact. Fired by apostolic zeal and intense loyalty, 
 full of fervent and manly piety, and unswerving in 
 Doctor Hall purpose, he threw himself into his work ^\*ith holy 
 abandon. He began his labors in a heathen inn, 
 occupjdng a room only eight feet square, which served him as 
 dispensary, waiting-room, bookstore, and hving-room. What 
 a picture he presents, in the midst of hmitations which would 
 have dismayed and driven to flight anyone less heroic, spending 
 his days in a mud hut reeking with smells indescribable from 
 the unsanitary conditions all about him, laboring from early 
 morm’ng until dark to relieve the sick and call the sinning to 
 repentance, urging home upon the sodden and wicked hearts 
 the call to righteousness, and holding up before the eyes of men 
 the vision of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world; and then, 
 as darkness settled down and the quiet of the night gave him 
 a little freedom from intrusion, wrestling with God in prayer 
 as in his great love he looked out over the darkened and lost 
 city at his feet and besought God for mercy upon its people. 
 
 Thus for two years Dr. Hall and his faithful wife labored 
 earnestly for Pyengyang, spending part of their time in resi- 
 26 
 
dence there and when conditions became intolerable seeking 
 short respites in Seoul. Immediately after the great battle of 
 Pyongyang, between the armies of Japan and China, which 
 occurred September 15, 1894, Dr. Hall returned to Pyong- 
 yang to look after the infant church and do what he could 
 for the remnant of the people still remaining after the havoc 
 and destruction. Writing of his experiences, he says, “My 
 patients are increasing daily. I have several cases of gunshot 
 wounds. I use my bamboo cot for a stretcher and our Chris- 
 tians are the ambulance staff.” He baptized three men and a 
 boy the last Sunday he was in the city. He fell ill, and when 
 he went to Seoul it was found that he had contracted the 
 terrible native fever, a species of typhus, and he reached home, 
 only to die. 
 
 Dr. Hall was assisted in his work by Kim Chang-sik, who 
 had found Christ while in the employment of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Ohlinger, serving them as their cook. 
 
 He is now the honored 
 Kim Chang-sik senior native minister of 
 the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church in Korea, the first Korean to 
 be appointed a District Superintendent. 
 
 Mr. Kim was an earnest and success- 
 ful evangelist, and when the governor 
 in Pyongyang decided to put in oper- 
 ation the old laws which forbade 
 Christianity, and ordered that all 
 Christians be put to death, Kim Chang- 
 sik was arrested, thrown into prison, 
 and condemned to die. The story 
 of his capture, trial, and sentence, his 
 release from the stocks in the death 
 cell through the interference of repre- 
 sentatives of foreign powers in Seoul, 
 his narrow escape from a mob who stoned him as he came out 
 of the prison when released, has been graphically told by Mr. 
 W. Arthur Noble in his thrilling book “Ewa.” Kim Chang-sik, 
 like William James Hall, was of the stuff of which heroes are 
 27 
 
 KIM CHAMCi-SlK 
 
made, and he worthily gave his testimony in the very face 
 of the King of Terrors to the divine lordship of Christ over 
 his heart and life. 
 
 This story of the founding of the work in Pyongyang gives 
 a hint of the heroism which attended it. The Rev. W. Arthur 
 Noble took charge of the work in that city on the death of Dr. 
 
 Hall. He brought to his great task the qualities 
 Later W orkers of rare administrative ability, quick sympathy, 
 in Pyongyang evangelistic zeal, and unswerving devotion to the 
 highest Christian ideals. In the course of the 
 years, other workers have joined the work at Pyongyang, both 
 under the Board of Foreign Missions and the Woman’s Foreign 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 PART OF METHODIST COMPOUND IN PYENGYANG 
 
 Dr. E. Douglass Follwell followed Dr. Hall as the head of 
 the medical work in Pyongyang and has since ministered 
 to tens of thousands of Koreans, not only in that place but 
 through extension of his beneficent services to distant parts of 
 the province. The hospital in which he labors is known as the 
 Hall Memorial Hospital, keeping fragrant the memory of the 
 one who did so much to open Pyongyang to the Christian faith. 
 
 To-day we have in Pyongyang one of the best equipped 
 
 28 
 
mission stations of the church in foreign lands, with missionary 
 institutions in a flourishing condition. The Methodist mission 
 conjointly with that of the Presbyterian Church main- 
 As it is tains a Union Academy and College with a staff of twenty 
 To-day instructors, foreign and native, and with over five hundred 
 students in attendance. There are large Boys’ Gram- 
 mar Schools and a Normal Department for the training of 
 teachers. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society main- 
 tains a hospital, a High School for Girls conducted in co-opera- 
 tion with the ladies of the Presbyterian Mission, and a very 
 successful school for blind girls. 
 
 The work at Chemulpo has maintained its evangelistic and 
 educational character from the first. It has resulted in the 
 founding of an influential self-supporting church in Chemulpo, 
 • which is a fountain head of aggressive evangelistic activity 
 reaching to all the neighborhoods in the vicinity of the port. 
 The Board of Foreign Missions maintains one evangelistic 
 missionary, who serves on the mission field as the substitute 
 of a prominent layman in New York City, and has been instru- 
 mental in bringing the gospel message to thousands of 
 Work in Koreans. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has 
 Chemulpo a home given by Mrs. William A. Gamble of Cincinnati, 
 whose wise and generous gifts have brought the light 
 and blessing of Christianity to the hearts and homes of tens of 
 thousands of women in heathen lands. In this home reside 
 four evangelistic workers who oversee the work on three con- 
 ference districts and travel through a territory extending for 
 three hundred miles up and down the west coast of Korea. 
 In Chemulpo are also a flourishing boys’ school and a girls’ 
 school, with over three hundred students in attendance at the 
 two institutions, the buildings being gifts of Mr. T. D. Collins 
 of Nebraska, Pa. 
 
 The year our first representative went to Chemulpo to open 
 work he visited and preached the gospel on Kangwha, a large 
 island with a population of about fifty thousand, lying in the 
 delta of the Han River midway between Chemulpo and Seoul. 
 Landing on the island one day at a place called Kapgotchi, he 
 walked in to the prefectorial city three miles distant. The 
 29 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 [THtf^MAirrtfEWS^tNORTHRUP WQRrS, BUFFALO, 
 
guards at the gate stopped him saying that he could not 
 enter without the governor’s permission, so he sent his card 
 asking permission to enter the city, walk its streets, 
 Could Not and look upon its people. The governor, however, 
 Enter returned his card, refusing the request and saying, “I 
 
 the Gate know what you missionaries stand for. Our Korean 
 people don’t want what you bring. The quicker you 
 leave the island the better we will be pleased, and the quicker 
 you leave the island the better it will be for you.” The mission- 
 ary, thus rejected, went back to the River Han, spent a couple of 
 days and nights in loneliness in a heathen inn and then returned 
 to his home in Chemulpo. He sent a native evangelist, how- 
 ever, who was able to make known the gospel message. Be- 
 lievers multiplied, and though there were many threats and 
 some violence and persecution, the work grew apace. Fifteen 
 years later, the same missionary landed again at Kapgotchi on 
 a visit to the churches in Kangwha. He was met on the shore 
 by two hundred Korean men and boys with songs of 
 Fifteen welcome. They escorted him along the road which he 
 Years had traveled in loneliness the first time. Outside the 
 
 Later city gate, he found one hundred Korean women and 
 
 girls waiting. They formed in line and, three hundred 
 strong, marched in through the very gate from which he had 
 
 A boys’ school in NOKTH KOREA 
 32 
 
been sent away fifteen years before. The following Sunday, 
 twelve hundred Koreans assembled in the market place to hear 
 the gospel preached, for there was no building in the city large 
 enough to contain the numbers who wished to hear the message. 
 At the end of the service, one hundred and thirty Koreans were 
 baptized into Christian faith. To-day on the Island of Kang- 
 wha, there are over sixty congregations with nearly four 
 thousand believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This incident 
 gives an idea of the marvelous growth on the circuits centering 
 around every mission station of the Church in Korea. 
 
 About twenty miles south of Seoul is the beautiful city of 
 Suwon, a center for work which under the labors of Mr. George 
 M. Burdick has grown into an extensive Conference District. 
 Mr. Burdick is assisted by Mr. H. C. Taylor, who is 
 In Suwon serving on the mission field as the substitute of a promi- 
 nent layman in Chicago. Together these two mission- 
 aries have traveled far and wide and have under their care a 
 population of over half a million souls. They have twenty- 
 • two counties, in which are organized one hundred and sixty- 
 four churches with a membership of 6,886 converts. 
 
 From the early days of the mission the regions lying south 
 of the capital engaged the thought and attention of the workers. 
 Heavy demands upon their time and urgent calls to the north 
 rendered it impossible to work toward the south as 
 The Region they desired, but the central and southern sections of 
 Around Korea, embracing about two thirds of the land area 
 
 Kongju and three fourths of the population, were constantly 
 
 in their mind. The older members of the mission 
 visited these regions, studied into their conditions^ and did 
 some pioneer work. Providential men for this work were 
 found in the Rev. Wilbur C. Swearer, the Rev. Robert Sharp, 
 and the Rev. Elmer M. Cable, under wdiose labors many churches 
 have been founded. A station was opened in 1905 with Mr. 
 Sharp and his wife as resident missionaries. But the occupa- 
 tion was interrupted for a short time by the sad death of Mr. 
 Sharp in 1906. 
 
 The history of this work forms a striking example of the 
 way in which a missionary parish grows. Mr. Swearer was 
 33 
 
appointed in the fall of 1898 and found about one hundred 
 converts throughout this region. The next spring he baptized 
 one man and his family in the southeastern part of 
 Marvelous the Kyungki Province. A few weeks later, on a visit 
 
 Growth to this man, he enrolled a number of converts in his 
 
 village and some in three or four neighboring villages. 
 It was like touching a lighted match to dry prairie grass. The 
 work spread so rapidly that it was a practical impossibility to 
 keep pace with it. Groups of believers sprang up all over the 
 territory. The calls from villages where the gospel message 
 was heard and groups of Christians formed, demanding recog- 
 nition as believers and instruction in spiritual matters, became 
 incessant. There was no time for rest. A month added 
 twenty new groups and a thousand converts. Constant travel 
 in the broiling heat of summer or the biting cold of winter 
 brought light and comfort and Christian instruction to these 
 multiplied groups and still not all of them were personally 
 taught. The map of the southeastern corner of the Province 
 marked with Christian villages looked like a chart of the 
 heavenly constellations. The faith spread into the Chung- 
 chong Province and work was established in the principal 
 cities of Kongju, Chongju, and Hongju. At one time Mr. 
 Swearer was the only missionary in charge of so many groups 
 of Christians that if he had traveled every day in the year and 
 visited at least one group a day, it would have taken him more 
 than twelve months to cover his circuit once. After seven 
 years of this work, Mr. Swearer returned to America on fur- 
 lough with a marvelous story of growth; during his first term 
 of service on the mission field he had gathered 5,000 converts into 
 the church of Christ. 
 
 The Rev. Robert Sharp brought to this field a consecrated 
 spirit and an apostolic life. Under his leadership the growth 
 proceeded with increased momentum. He fell in the midst 
 of his labors, a workman deserving the highest award. The 
 churches he raised up during the short time he was permitted 
 to labor will remain monuments to his faithful and efficient 
 service. 
 
 Kongju is now occupied by five foreign missionaries and 
 34 
 
their families — the only workers in a great territory with 
 a population of over 1,000,000 people. By agreements with 
 the Presbyterians, the territory embraced under 
 Present Work this station is now our exclusive responsibility 
 
 Around Kongju and it is proposed in order to better occupy it 
 
 to create an additional, station at Wonju in the 
 eastern Province of Kangwon. 
 
 CHAPEL AND PARSONAGE NEAR SEOUL 
 
 The Rev. Charles D. Morris and his wife settled in the 
 city of Yungbyen in the autumn of 1905, opening the work 
 there. Yungbyen is a walled city of about 8,000 people, but of 
 considerable importance as the former capital of the 
 Yungbyen North Pyengan Province. It is situated in the midst 
 of a mountainous country, not thickly populated, and 
 is one of the healthiest mission stations in Korea. The terri- 
 tory attached to the station embraces five counties, with a 
 population of about 250,000. The people are of a sturdy, 
 resolute character, and when converted make admirable 
 Christians. By cooperative agreements with other missions, 
 our church has exclusive responsibility in this territo^'y and 
 has met with splendid success. Churches are already organ- 
 ized in the principal centers and a fine opening has developed 
 in the territory occupied by the American mining concession. 
 The success on the Yungbyen District has been achieved in 
 the face of violent hostility, which in the earlier days of the 
 35 
 
work subjected the first believers to much persecution. Preju- 
 dice has been conquered and antagonism overcome, and to-day 
 the sentiment throughout the region is favorable to the Christian 
 faith. The workers include Mr. and Mrs. Morris, Dr. and Mrs. 
 I. M. Miller, recently appointed, and Miss Ethel M. Estey, of 
 the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. 
 
 In connection with the work of the Chemulpo District, 
 effort was directed to the evangelization of the Hwanghai 
 Province, lying to the north along the Yellow Sea, and for 
 several years that province was included within the bounds 
 Haiju of the Chemulpo District. The harvest proved a ripe 
 one and many groups of Christians were formed. A 
 residence was erected in 1905 and the work has been under 
 the direction of the Rev. Carl Critchett and the Nathan 
 
 L. Rockwell. Owing to illness, Mr. Critchett has returned to 
 America and there are now in residence besides Mr. Rockwell, 
 the Rev. N. D. Chew and Dr. and Mrs. A. H. Norton. 
 
 This review will give an idea of the extensive work of the 
 mission. But to understand fully the strength attained and the 
 obligations under which we rest, it will be necessary to take 
 a look at the intensive work as well. This includes evangelistic, 
 educational, medical, literary, and publicational effort and the 
 work among women. 
 
 The leadership of modern education in Korea is in the hands 
 of the Christian Churches. Dr. Maclay in his interview with 
 the King of Korea in 1884 called attention to the part which 
 the missionaries might take in educating the youth 
 Educational of Korea, and his IVIajesty was graciously pleased to 
 Work express his approval. The first educational work 
 
 began in a humble way in the city of Seoul. 
 A school started by Mr. Appenzeller for the teaching of 
 English received from the King the name of Paichai Haktang, 
 or Hall for the Training of Useful Men. This school has con- 
 tinued in existence until the present day and many hundreds 
 of Korean young men who have studied within its walls are 
 filling positions of responsibility in the government, and in the 
 business, educational, and economic life of the people. This 
 school is of high school grade with the beginnings of a college 
 36 
 
FIELD DAY IN PYENGYANG 
 
 Four thousand boys frota Korean schools engaeino; in drills and sports 
 
department. There is an insistent call among the Koreans 
 for education in Enghsh, the study of which has many advan- 
 tages. Our language and literature are so permeated with 
 Christian spirit and Christian thought that no one can study 
 them without imbibing some Christian truth. It opens up to 
 the student the largest realm of literature known to man. 
 English is the universal language of commerce and is rapidly 
 becoming the recognized medium of communication in inter- 
 national relations. At the present time, Paichai School has 
 160 young men enrolled. Four young men were graduated in 
 1909 who were sufficiently grounded in the knowledge of Eng- 
 lish to enable them to make an intelligent use of any English 
 library. This is the day of confessed inadequacy of text- 
 books in the Korean vernacular, and such a knowledge of 
 English means much. 
 
 In connection vlth the work at Pyongyang, a Union 
 Academy and College is maintained in cooperation with the 
 mission of the Presbyterian Church. This is a thoroughly 
 organized and well-manned institution with over 
 The College five hundred students. There are four foreigners 
 at Pyongyang and sixteen native instructors on the faculty. The 
 average age of the student body is twenty years. 
 Seven are under sixteen years of age and thirteen over thirty 
 years. Two hundred and thirty-three of the students are 
 married, six are widowers, and seventy-six are unmarried. 
 These facts give an idea of the conditions prevailing among 
 the student class in Korea. The students are reported as 
 having nearly all been faithful in attendance on Sunday morn- 
 ing Bible classes. They have organized an evangelistic society, 
 which is in a flourishing condition, and which upon the initiative 
 of the students raised 200 yen (SI 00) to send out their own 
 missionary. They have their prayer circle and a great many 
 of the students take up church work during the summer vaca- 
 tion without compensation. This school at Pyongyang is the 
 strongest Christian educational institution in the country. 
 
 Throughout the territory occupied by the mission, schools 
 of primary and grammar grade are maintained, where elemen- 
 tary instruction for boys and girls is given. In all these 
 38 
 
schools there is a total enrollment of about 6,000 boys and 
 girls. 
 
 The first missionaries of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary 
 Society turned their attention to educational work among 
 girls and founded Ewa Haktang, in Seoul. It reports an en- 
 rollment of one hundred and sixty-five pupils and 
 Education is of high school grade. Throughout the country 
 of Girls many day schools are maintained in connection with 
 the local churches, and these schools furnish the 
 only means of education for girls in their neighborhood. 
 Female education is a new idea introduced into Korea 
 by Christianity. Such was the contempt in which woman- 
 hood was held that it was regarded as unnecessary to edu- 
 cate girls in order to fit them for their proper sphere in life. 
 In fact, this old view of heathen philosophers was not far wrong, 
 for education "would have unfitted women for the old Korean 
 life. An educated woman would not consent to take the place 
 assigned her by heathenism. The introduction of Christian 
 schools has meant the intellectual and moral emancipation 
 of the womanhood of the land. 
 
 In connection with the development of evangelistic and 
 medical work among women, schools have been founded for 
 the training of Bible women and of nurses. One of the most 
 interesting institutions in Korea is the school for blind girls 
 
 CLASS OF ’08 IN SCHOOL FOR BLIND GIRLS, PYENGYANG 
 
 39 
 
maintained at Pyengyang in connection with the woman’s 
 hospital. It is the only school for blind girls in the country 
 and has an enrollment of twenty-five pupils. 
 
 It has been said that Korea was opened to Christian missions 
 by the lancet of the doctor. Certainly it is true that medical 
 missions have played a large and honorable part in the bringing 
 in of the Kingdom among the Koreans. Previous 
 Medical Work to the coming of the medical missionary, this 
 nation of fifteen millions of people was absolutely 
 devoid of the blessings of modern medical science and knew 
 nothing of the new and wonderful remedies which more favored 
 people possessed. The Christian missionaries introduced mod- 
 ern medicine and scientific medical practice. Before the light 
 of the knowledge which they brought, the old dark methods, 
 the abominable practices, and the disgusting remedies are grad- 
 ually disappearing. The missionaries gave the Koreans knowl- 
 edge of sanitation, and 
 were the first to at- 
 tempt successfully to 
 check the terrible 
 scourges of smallpox 
 and Asiatic cholera. 
 Tens of thousands 
 have been saved from 
 death who otherwise 
 would have perished 
 under the native meth- 
 ods of treatment. 
 
 It should not be 
 supposed, however, 
 that the value of a 
 Christian hospital on 
 the mission field de- 
 pends altogether upon the fact that there is no other means 
 of cure at hand. There is a religious value as well as a 
 professional value in the Christian hospital and the religious 
 value far outweighs the other. This religious value depends 
 not upon the fact that there is no other hospital near at hand, 
 40 
 
 KOREAN NURSES AND THEIR SUPER- 
 INTENDENT IN SEOUL 
 
but upon the great universal fact that the sick in all lands con- 
 stitute a special class peculiarly susceptible to religious influ- 
 ence. The doctors attached to the missions in Korea have 
 laid special emphasis upon the cure of souls as well as the cure 
 of bodies and not only have their efforts resulted in creating a 
 spirit of gratitude and friendship among wide circles of Koreans 
 who have enjoyed their ministrations, but many also have been 
 led to Christ through the doors of the Christian dispensary 
 and hospital. 
 
 At Pyongyang there is a general hospital maintained by 
 the Board of Foreign Missions. At Kongju, Yungl:>yen, and 
 Haiju dispensary work has been opened by resident physi- 
 cians, but as yet no hospitals have been erected. The 
 Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has hospitals for women 
 and children at Seoul and Pyongyang. 
 
 The press is a mighty force in the mission field. Whereas 
 the voice of the living witness is necessarily a temporary one, 
 though the influence and inspiration of his testimony may 
 abide long after his departure, a book or a printed 
 Literary Work tract once introduced into a family or a community 
 remains a constant and unfailing witness of the 
 truth it brings. From the early days of the mission, attention 
 was paid to the great task of providing a Christian literature 
 for the Korean people. The premier position in this line of work 
 must be accorded to the work of translating the Bible into the 
 Korean language. The Rev. D. A. Bunker and others have 
 done considerable work in the preparing of a hymnology for 
 the Korean people, and the present Union Hymn Book in use 
 in all the churches in Korea incorporates the old Chan-mi-ga, 
 which was published by the mission as the first hymn book 
 issued in the native tongue. Different members of the mission 
 have produced works of a devotional and educational character, 
 the list being too long to introduce here. 
 
 In connection with this literary work, a publishing house 
 was founded in 1889, the only Christian institution of its kind 
 in the country for many years. Its success in its early years 
 was due to the painstaking efforts of the Rev. Franklin 
 Ohlinger, D.D., who came to the mission with a ripe experience 
 41 
 
as a missionary in China. The Rev. George C. Cobb and the 
 Rev. S. A. Beck; former publishing agents, have pushed the in- 
 terests of Christian literature, and the output of Scrip- 
 Publishing tures and other books was millions of pages annually. 
 
 House Books on medicine, science, history, and geography 
 
 are eagerly purchased even by Koreans who may 
 not have manifested any direct interest in the Christian religion 
 and who by this means come under the influence of Christian 
 thought. In 1908 the mechanical department of the pub- 
 lishing house was closed because of the increase of publishing 
 facilities in Seoul, and the institution was placed on the basis 
 of a strictly publishing concern, the aim being to supply good 
 literature, assuming responsibility for its output, and securing 
 
 SOME CHRISTIAN GRANDMOTHERS 
 
 the publication in other publishing houses by contract at the 
 best possible rates. 
 
 The women of the land constitute a special class with pecu- 
 liar needs, problems, and opportunities. By the laws and 
 customs of the country, they are excluded from all general 
 companionship and cannot be reached by men. Our ladies 
 42 
 
have bravely taken up the work and in thousands of villages 
 and hamlets and tens of thousands of homes have sought the 
 Korean mother, wife, and sister at their daily tasks. 
 Work bringing to them the knowledge of the new hfe in Jesus 
 Among Christ. They have taught many thousands of Korean 
 Women women to read and have put into their hands the Bible, 
 the book of woman’s emancipation. They have organ- 
 ized a large force of Bible women. They have gone to Korean 
 womanhood in its ignorance, sorrow, and tragedy, bringing 
 with them the hope and consolation of the Saviour. 
 
 The work among women has been organized along the same 
 lines as that among men, including schools and hospitals, as 
 well as direct evangelism. The first impetus for the education 
 of girls came under Christian auspices, and the first effort to 
 reach women through the aid of modern medical science was 
 due to these consecrated women workers. 
 
 CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THE KOREAN CHURCH 
 
 Evangelistic ideals have dominated the entire history of 
 missionary effort in Korea. In the early period of the work 
 the foreign missionary himself was the chief and only agent. 
 
 As converts gathered about him, they became 
 Native Workers imbued with the spirit of evangelism, carrying 
 of Three Classes the message of salvation far and wide. These 
 native workers consisted of three classes. (1) 
 First there were the paid helpers of the mission, who labored 
 under the direction of the missionary, deriving their support 
 from funds furnished by the Churches in America. (2) Later 
 on, when the Bible societies began their work in Korea, Bible 
 colporteurs and Bible women were employed and became as 
 great a force for evangelization as the native helpers employed 
 by the missions. (3) From the earliest days the ideal of self- 
 propagation was held by the native Church, and volunteer 
 workers sprang up everywhere. A man in some village, for 
 example, became a follower of Christ. He instructed his 
 neighbors in the fundamentals of Christian belief. A group 
 of converts then gathered about him, who in their turn carried 
 43 
 
the message to neighboring villages and towns, and thus, in 
 ever increasing circles, Christian influence was extended. 
 
 Out of this group work, with the increasing growth of a 
 sense of obligation to lead others to faith in Jesus Christ, has 
 been developed a great army of volunteer workers, so that the 
 paid helpers of missions and the employees of the Bible 
 Volunteer societies to-day represent a very small fraction in the 
 Workers force of workers laboring for the conversion of Korea. 
 
 It may be said that the detail work of propagating the 
 Christian faith is almost altogether in the hands of the native 
 Christians, working under the leadership of missionaries and 
 native pastors. For the purpose of training these workers, 
 Bible schools and institutes, presided over by missionaries 
 and native pastors, and assisted by mission helpers and stu- 
 dents from the theological schools, are held in various parts 
 of Korea. They are attended by the various office bearers 
 in the Christian Church and Sunday schools and volunteer 
 workers from Christian groups. It is estimated that during 
 1909 over 50,000 Korean Christians, or about one in every five 
 of the entire membership of the Christian Church, took the 
 courses of study in these institutes. This is one of the most 
 practical lay movements for evangelism to be found any- 
 where in the Christian world. 
 
 Christian life in the Korean Church is marked by vital and 
 spiritual characteristics shared in common by all the churches 
 in the land. In their unity is found a combination of strength 
 which promises the speedy evangelization of the 
 Features of Korean people. Evangelism there bears the un- 
 
 the Korean doubted marks of the direct guidance and control 
 
 Church of the Holy Spirit. Among the many aspects of 
 
 the wmrk in Korea, there stands out most promi- 
 nently this welding of the native Church into one great [brother- 
 hood, united by a common purpose, animated by a common 
 spirit, and directing its energies toward the common goal of the 
 speedy evangelization of the entire people. 
 
 (1) In the very front rank of the forces dominating the 
 Christian life of the Church in Korea stand the unity and 
 cooperation which prevail among Christ’s forces in that land. 
 
 44 
 
Seven missions, representing seven communions, are at work 
 in thorough understanding with each other and maintaining 
 among themselves organizations like the Presbytery- 
 Unity and of Korea, which embraces the four Presbyterian com- 
 Cooperation ’ munions, and the Evangelical Council of missionaries 
 in Korea, including the missionaries of six out of 
 the seven communions, with the seventh communion itself 
 in sympathy with the aim and objects of the united body. No 
 more remarkable sight has been witnessed in the Christian 
 world than that of a rearrangement of boundaries between the 
 Presbyterians and Methodists, by which scores of congregations 
 and thousands of converts were transferred from one to the 
 other communion, the whole movement being achieved, not 
 only without loss of prestige, but with an actual gain of em- 
 phasis upon the Korean Church’s heart union and oneness of 
 purpose. Korea is now plotted out in great parishes worked 
 by the different communions with every possible economy of 
 force, contributing to the largest efficiency. There is such a 
 harmony of method and policy that all the communions appear 
 to be working on converging lines toward the founding of one 
 great Christian Church in Korea. 
 
 (2) The marvelous numerical growth of the Church in Korea 
 is another feature marking the development of Christ’s forces 
 in that land. Within the short space of twenty-five years, 
 about 250,000 converts have been gathered from 
 Numerical among the Koreans. There has been an average of 
 Growth more than one convert an hour for every hour of the 
 day and night since the first missionaries set foot upon 
 Korean soil. This force is led by 259 foreign missionaries, 
 assisted by 1,927 Korean pastors and helpers. Church organ- 
 izations have been founded at the rate of two a week, while 
 during 1909 local churches were organized at the rate of one 
 a day. There are now in all Korea 1,493 churches. These 
 churches are made up of converts from raw heathenism, and 
 this marvelous momentum with which the practical wc^rk of 
 organization of Christ’s Kingdom in Korea is moving, bids 
 fair to realize the prophecies made of the speedy evangelization 
 of the nation. We may not ignore -the part which human 
 45 
 
agencies have played in producing this remarkable growth, 
 but after giving full credit to their contribution, we are com- 
 pelled to confess that underlying it all, and overshadowing it 
 all, have been the power and work of the Holy Spirit, moving 
 on the hearts of a people who, until recently, were lost in the 
 darkest heathenism, devoted to the grossest forms of idolatry, 
 and helpless in the inertia and stagnation of three thousand 
 years of religious twilight. 
 
 (3) The wonderful religious awakening which came to the 
 
 A HEATHEN KOREAN FAMILY 
 
 Korean Church in 1907 was preeminently a manifestation of 
 the work and power of the Holy Spirit. Like the day of 
 Pentecost, which gave birth to the Church of Christ 
 Effects of on earth, that day in January when upon the Christian 
 the Revival Churches of Pyongyang there descended the over- 
 whelming power of God’s Holy Spirit was surely the 
 natal day of God’s Church in Korea. That revival swept 
 throughout the Christian Churches of the empire, until fully 
 50,000 of the converts had come under its regenerating influence. 
 It gave them a knowledge of the exceeding sinfulness of sin and 
 46 
 
inspired them with a horror and a disgust of it which became 
 to them new power in their battle against the evils of their 
 own environment. It gave them a personal experience of the 
 value of confession and repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as 
 God’s ordained conditions upon which men may get rid of 
 their sins. It showed them the irresistible and all-conquering 
 power of Christ to deliver from the bondage of sin. It made 
 him a fact and a reality to each one personally and to each 
 church organized throughout the empire. 
 
 At the present time the question is asked, “Does that power 
 
 A CHRISTIAN FAMILY, MEMBERS OF THE KANGYUNG CHURCH 
 
 still manifest itself in Korea?’’ Reports on conditions in 
 different parts of the country show that there is still the con- 
 stant working of that same Pow'er upon the hearts of 
 A Lasting men to convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment 
 Influence to come. The Korean Church, having once felt the 
 marvelous power of God, will never be contented with 
 anything less than his continual presence. The Korean re- 
 vival is to the Christian Church in that country what the days 
 of Luther are to Protestantism, the days of Knox to Presby- 
 terianism, and the days of Wesley to Methodism. The Korean 
 Church now possesses its own spiritual history, which is the all- 
 convincing evidence to itself that it is as much begotten of God 
 47 
 
as the Churches in more favored lands with their great historic 
 past. 
 
 (4) One of the most notable features of Christian hfe in the 
 Korean Church is the place occupied by the Bible. The study 
 and the practice of the Word of God plays a large part in all 
 church plans and policies in Korea. It has the 
 Bible Study largest sale of all books in the country, and already 
 and Practice forms a potent force in the reconstruction of the 
 thought life of Korea. It is found in all Christian 
 homes and is cherished as the foundation of the family altar. 
 It is not only read by the individual convert, but it is studied 
 and practiced by the great body of Christians. 
 
 A Korean came into the study of a missionary one day and 
 said: “I have been memorizing some verses in the Bible, and 
 thought I would come and recite them to you.” The mission- 
 ary listened while this convert repeated in Korean, 
 What Makes without a verbal error, the entire sermon on the . 
 it Stick mount. Feeling that some practical advice might 
 
 be helpful, the missionary said, “You have a marvel- 
 ous memory to be able to repeat this long passage without a 
 mistake. However, if you simply memorize it, it will do you 
 no good. You must practice it.” The Korean Christian 
 smiled as he replied, “That’s the way I learned it.” Somewhat 
 surprised, the missionary asked him what he meant, and he 
 said, “I am only a stupid farmer, and when I tried to memorize 
 it, the verses wouldn’t stick. So I hit on this plan. I memo- 
 rized one verse and then went out and practiced that verse on 
 my neighbors until I had it; then I took the next verse and 
 repeated the process, and the experience has been such a blessed 
 one that I am determined to learn the entire Gospel of Matthew 
 that way.” And he did it. 
 
 The vision of this humble Korean Christian practicing in his 
 everyday life in a heathen town the most matchless Christian 
 utterance known among men gives a hint as to the 
 The Secret wonderful success of Christianity in Korea. Arm a 
 of Success man with the Word of God, which is the sword of the 
 Spirit, and turn him loose upon one of the great moral 
 battlefields of the world, and he will surely win victory. The 
 48 
 
triumph of the Christian Church in Korea over the forces of 
 native paganism may be traced to the fidelity to the teachings 
 of the Bible and the practical use of the Word of God on the 
 part of the native Christians. 
 
 (5) Another characteristic of Korean Christian life is found 
 in the personal consecration of the native converts to the 
 largest and most practical form of personal service. A Korean 
 not only gives systematically and proportionately of 
 Self-Sacrifice his money to the service of God, but he also gives 
 in Giving of his time. The financial strength of the Korean 
 Christians revealed in self-support seems remarkable 
 even to the missionaries. They knew that the Christians were 
 doing generously, but the sum total of the giving shown by the 
 
 THE CHURCH AT SYOGOT A THATCHED ROOF TYPE 
 
 people is amazing. Consider that the unit of coinage in Korea 
 is a coin one-twentieth of one American cent in value; that 
 twenty cents a day in American money is the average wage of 
 a working man; that work and money are much less common 
 than is the case in America, and that out of conditions like 
 these, Korean Christians rolled up an offering of $135,000 in 
 49 
 
American currency in 1909, and it will be seen that far from 
 being either “rice” Christians or derelict in any particular in 
 doing all they can to press the gospel message among their own 
 people, they have done so amazingly wed that they are worthy 
 of the fullest measure of assistance which we can render them. 
 
 This splendid offering has been made by means of great 
 personal sacrifice on the part of the Korean Christians. A 
 missionary visited a church to hold Quarterly Conference. 
 
 There was a mortgage of $100 on the church. He 
 Mortgaged inquired as to the mortgage and was told that it was 
 Their Own paid. Knowing how poor the people were, he asked 
 Homes them how they had been able to do it, and they said, 
 “Brother Kim, Brother Pak, and Brother Yi, our 
 leading men, could not endure the thought that the house of 
 God should be in debt to a heathen money-lender, so they put 
 mortgages on their own homes and lifted the mortgage from 
 the church.” A number of instances of this same thing occurred 
 in other parts of Korea. 
 
 The Korean not only gives of his money, but he gives of 
 his time. They have a new kind of collection there known as 
 the Nal-yen-ho, or “day collection.” That is, many of the 
 Korean Christians make a promise of ten or fifteen 
 A New Kind days of service for the Lord to be paid a day at a 
 
 of Giving time during the following six months. On this day 
 
 of service (and they never count Sunday as such a 
 day) the individual Christian will visit his friends, neighbors, 
 and even go to villages and towns at a distance, in order to hold 
 religious conversation with men and urge them to accept Jesus 
 Christ as their Saviour. 
 
 This consecration of personal service on the part of the lay 
 membership in the Korean Church is registering itself in a 
 great campaign to carry the gospel message to 1,000,000 adult 
 Koreans during 1910. Instead of gathering large num- 
 Days bers of people in the churches and offering the gospel 
 Pledged message to them en masse, the plan is to carry the message 
 to a million people, one by one, sitting down with each 
 person, talking the matter through and giving him a chance 
 to decide for himself whether or not he will become a follower 
 50 
 
of Christ. Some of the returns in regard to this practical 
 form of work are extremely interesting. The Christians 
 attached to one mission station promised 10,000 days of service. 
 One church made a subscription of 8,400 days ofiService. At a 
 Bible institute, 7,500 days of service were pledged. At three 
 large station classes, it was reported that 36,696 days of service 
 had been pledged for this great campaign in 1910. Early in 
 the campaign the total number of days of service pledged by 
 Korean Christians for personal work among their neighbors 
 was equal to the continuous service of one man for three 
 hundred years. 
 
 In connection with this great campaign, 1,000,000 copies of 
 the Gospel of Mark were ordered printed, to be sold at one sen — 
 a half a cent — a copy. These volunteer Christian workers 
 took supplies of this Gospel and wherever they found a 
 One man or woman who manifested a desire to know more 
 
 Million about the Lord, they sold or gave him a copy of Mark. 
 
 Copies By the first week in June, the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society reported that they had already sent out 700,000 
 copies of this Gospel. 
 
 (6) Another notable feature of Christian life in Korea is the 
 wonderful prayer life of the native Church. Instead of the hasti- 
 ness which marks so much of the prayer life of modern times, 
 rol)bing it of its power and effectiveness, the Korean 
 Instant in ideal of prayer is animated by real moral earnestness. 
 Prayer Individuals will spend hours in prayer, and groups of 
 
 men meet together and spend whole nights in prayer. 
 Instead of the timidity which so often marks the prayer life 
 of the modern Christian, there is real courage and valor. The 
 Korean dares to seek great things of God. This courage and 
 valor are shared alike by the American missionaries and their 
 Korean brothers. 
 
 How do the Koreans find time for prayer? The answer is, 
 they don’t find it, they take it, and they take it as deliberately 
 as men take time to earn daily bread. Of this point the fol- 
 lowing story furnishes an interesting illustration: 
 
 The pastor of one of the churches in Korea felt that his 
 church had been deflected a little from the pathway of power 
 51 
 
they had discovered in the days of the revival. So he took one 
 of his leading laymen into his confidence, and they entered into 
 a compact to go to the church secretly each morn- 
 At Four A. M. ing at four o’clock and intercede with God for the 
 church. They were successful in eluding observa- 
 tion for a few days, but soon some members of the church dis- 
 covered what they were doing, and they too began to go to 
 church at that early hour for prayer. As the number increased, 
 the pastor decided to take his congregation into his confidence, 
 so one Sunday morning he told them the facts and announced 
 that any who felt moved by the Spirit of God to join them in 
 that prayer service might do so. The first morning there were 
 three hundred present. The three hundred increased to five 
 hundred after a few days, and finally that daily prayer meeting 
 at four o’clock in the morning numbered seven hundred. This 
 went on for a while, and then the pastor announced that he 
 thought they had prayed enough and had better get to work, 
 so he took a collection, not of money, but of days of service, 
 and that prayer meeting resolved itself into a committee to 
 visit the membership of the church and the unconverted of 
 its parish and present Christ to them. 
 
 (7) The personal revelation of Jesus Christ through the 
 power and the work of the Holy Spirit is the sublimest fact in 
 the life of the Christian Korean to-day. In the northern part 
 of the empire lived a man who had two sons. 
 A Personal Christ One of these sons was good and the other was 
 bad. The father determined to show his ap- 
 proval of the life of his good son by giving him the water mill 
 he owned, which was the source of the income of the family. 
 One morning he read in God’s Holy Word, “He that loveth 
 father or mother, son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy 
 of Me.” To this man the words were not simply the written 
 record of a conversation held by a Christ now dead nearly 1 900 
 years, but they were the actual spoken words of the Lord that 
 stood beside him in his house as he sat reading his Bible. And 
 so this man, answering in his heart, said, “Do I love Christ? 
 How much do I love him? Do I love him more than my 
 good son? Do I love him enough to give him the water mill, 
 52 
 
instead of giving it to my son?” And then he looked into the 
 face of the Christ that stood beside him that day and answered 
 out of an honest heart, “Yes, Lord, I love thee enough to give 
 thee the water mill, and I will do it.” So after prayer, he went 
 to his pastor and told him the story and turned over the water 
 mill to the church. The pastor called the church together and 
 told them the incident, and they reasoned thus: “This water 
 mill is not ours, it belongs to our Lord. What shall we do with 
 
 SOUTH GATE STREET, SEOUL 
 
 Mead Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church in upper right hand corner 
 
 it?” and that same Lord spoke to them, telling them he would 
 do with it what he loved to do when he was here on earth; 
 namely, to bring the knowledge of God and the Christ whom 
 he had sent to those who knew him not. So those Christians 
 used the income from this water mill that belonged to Christ 
 to employ a Bible woman to visit in the homes of the people 
 near and far and tell them of Jesus. This illustrates the power 
 of the Christ, personally known and realized as a fact in the 
 hearts of men. 
 
 (8) There is an element of permanence in the work done 
 among the Koreans that illustrates the enduring quality of the 
 forces with which we deal. The work not only abides in the 
 53 
 
individual heart, but passes out in ever widening circles 
 through Korean society. The statement of Christ that “The 
 seed are the children of the Kingdom,” finds wonderful illus- 
 tration in the work in Korea. 
 
 ]\Iany years ago, a missionary started a school in a large town. 
 Among his first scholars was a lad nine years of age, who, 
 early gave his heart to Christ. This lad grew up in the atmos- 
 phere of the Christian Church and to-day is a student 
 Things that in an American university, preparing himself to 
 Endure enter the Christian ministry in his own land. That 
 
 in itself would be a most encouraging thing, but it 
 is only the beginning of the story. This lad early led his 
 mother to Christ and the mother and son together led the 
 father to Christ. The father became a very earnest worker 
 for the Lord and was instrumental in leading many hundreds 
 of people to become Christians. Among the men to whom he 
 carried the gospel message was a merchant who in his turn 
 became a splendid laborer in Korea’s white harvest field. 
 After many years of usefulness, he met financial reverses, and 
 in 1909 sold out what was left of his business, and with the 
 money thus secured moved south and purchased farm lands, 
 taking up his residence in a heathen village. The first Sunday 
 there he held service with his family, inviting his neighbors. 
 One man came. The next Sunday there were two. The third 
 Sunday there were three. The fourth Sunday there were six. 
 Five months later, when a missionary visited that village for 
 the first time, he found that out of thirty-five families residing 
 there, all but two had become followers of Jesus Christ through 
 the work of this one man, and they had a group of eighty-six 
 believers. None of the boys or girls in the village could r^ad 
 or write, so the young son of the Christian opened a primary 
 school for boys, which had an enrollment of twenty-six. The 
 Christian’s daughter, fourteen years of age, opened a school 
 for girls, and enrolled fourteen. The message was, being 
 sounded forth throughout the entire county, and already there 
 was a call for a Christian pastor to take up his residence there 
 and follow up that work. 
 
 Now note the chain ‘of events. A little mission school in 
 54 
 
1892; a lad from the streets opening his heart to his Lord; a 
 father and mother converted; another man converted through 
 the father’s honest life of service; then seventeen years 
 Ever later, that same man with his heart thrilling with the 
 
 Widening same blessed vital power that had been in the hearts 
 Circles of the others, planting himself and his family in a 
 
 heathen village, and winning almost its entire popu- 
 lation to like precious faith with himself. Surely we deal with 
 no temporary expedients nor with transient forces, but handle 
 the permanent powers of the spirit world. 
 
 In the presence of such facts and forces, it is not an incredi- 
 ble thing that the evangelization of Korea lies well within 
 the reach of the Christian Church, provided that help and 
 support be given to the native church in the form of mission- 
 aries and an ecjuipment for educational and institutional work 
 which will enable the churches to hold the ground gained until 
 they are sufficiently strong in numbers and wealth to carry it 
 on themselves. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 The first decade of the twentieth century has been crowded 
 with notable events in Korea. Chief among these in its wide 
 reaching consequences has been the war between Japan and 
 Russia. Korea was the precipitating cause of that 
 Russo- gigantic struggle, and within the territories of Korea 
 Japanese the first battles, both on land and sea, took place. 
 
 War During the course of the war, the missionaries remained 
 
 at their posts, and though the work for a short time 
 during the passage of the army through Korea was disturl)ed, 
 soon the storm of war passed across the Yalu, and the workers 
 became free to carry on with uninterrupted diligence the work 
 of the Christian Church. One effect of the war was apparently 
 to greatly increase the number of Koreans coming into the 
 church, and a harvest eclipsing anything in the previous history 
 of the mission was garnered. 
 
 The war was followed by the establishment of the Japanese 
 Protectorate over Korea introducing a new political status. 
 The far-reaching measures of reform undertaken by the Pro- 
 tectorate Power have inevitably affected the relations of mis- 
 55 
 
sionary work. The Protectorate came to an end August 29, 
 when the formal annexation of Korea to Japan was officially 
 promulgated by the Emperors of Japan and Korea. 
 
 Annexed to By the terms of the annexation treaty all sover- 
 
 Japan eignty over the Korean people passes to the Japanese 
 
 government and Korea becomes an integral part of 
 the Empire of Japan. The Korean Imperial House, though 
 losing all governing prerogative, retains its organization and 
 the Emperor takes the title of Prince Yi, with the same civil 
 list he had while reigning — 
 
 $750,000 annually. A Ko- 
 rean peerage, with titles of 
 prince, marquis, count, vis- 
 count, and baron, is created, 
 which will probably stand 
 related to the Japanese 
 peerage somewhat as the 
 Scotch and English peerages 
 are related. Interest-bear- 
 ing government bonds, esti- 
 mated at yen 17,000,000 
 ($8,500,000) and nontrans- 
 ferable, are to be distributed 
 among the newly created 
 Korean peers to provide in- 
 comes suitable to their rank. 
 
 Korean treaties cease to be 
 operative, and foreigners re- 
 siding in Korea come under the provisions of the treaties 
 between Japan and the nations. During these rapid and 
 far-reaching changes the missionaries have kept consistently 
 to the great lines of moral reform, concededly their special 
 province, so that the relations between the new government 
 and the Churches in Korea have moved on without friction. 
 One of the most notable results of this new arrangement has 
 been the incorporation of the very extensive system of Christian 
 schools into the government educational scheme, leading to a 
 good understanding betw'een the missions and the imperial 
 56 
 
 BISHOP MERRIMAN C. HARRIS 
 
government. It is a significant fact that the department of 
 state for education has listed the Christian Bible as an 
 approved text-book, and any school in Korea may pursue 
 courses of study in it. 
 
 Ecclesiastically, Methodism in Korea has passed rapidly 
 through the stages of a mission, a mission conference, and 
 finally an annual conference, sending its first delega- 
 The Stages tion to the General Conference of 1908. In 1904 the 
 of Growth General Conference elected the Rev. Merriman C. 
 
 Harris, D.D., as Bishop of Korea and Japan. Bishop 
 Harris has been in continuous supervision of the work of the 
 Church since that date. 
 
 This period has been marked by the completion of the trans- 
 lation of the New Testament and nearly all of the Old Testa- 
 ment into the Korean language. The missionaries of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church have made a large 
 Bible Translation contribution to this work. Henry G. Appen- 
 zeller, one of the founders of the mission, was 
 connected with the work of Bible translation from its begin- 
 ning, and it was while journeying to a meeting of the Board of 
 Bible Translators on June 11, 1902, that he met his death, 
 through the sinking of the ill-fated steamer Kumagawa Maru. 
 It is not possible because of lack of space to pay tribute here to 
 the work and worth of this splendid soul. One of the founders 
 of Christ’s Kingdom in Korea, he united to a noble manhood 
 talents and excellences which place him among the foremost 
 missionaries of the Church. William B. Scranton and George 
 Heber Jones also represented the mission on the Board of Bible 
 Translation, and had a share in the work of producing the 
 present version. 
 
 No review of the work in Korea would be complete that 
 ignored the interesting developments in connection with the 
 efforts of the Korean Church to reach Koreans who have gone 
 abroad. In this we have one of the most 
 Korean Christians forceful illustrations of the reflex influence of 
 in Other Lands foreign missions upon conditions in the home 
 field, and the interaction of foreign and home 
 missions. An immigration of Koreans began into the sugar 
 57 
 
plantations of Hawaii, and about 8,000 went to the Islands, 
 finding employment there, while others passed on to the Pacific 
 Coast. The first company of emigrants from Korea numbered 
 ninety, among them being twenty-eight Christians from the 
 region about Chemulpo. These organized a prayer-meeting 
 in the steerage of their ship and carried on Christian work 
 among their fellow emigrants, so that when they landed under 
 the stars and stripes, they had a Korean Christian Church 
 organized with fifty-eight members. Of the original ninetj’’ 
 members of that first company of emigrants, eighty-six are 
 now known to be members of Christian Churches. No group 
 of Koreans that ever came to the United States built a heathen 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL BUILDINGS IN SEOUL 
 
 Parsonage to the left — School of the Woman’s Foreign .Missionary 
 Society to the right 
 
 temple or perpetuated heathen rites within our borders, but 
 Koreans may be found in attendance upon Christian Churches 
 in every community in which they have settled. Thus the 
 Korean emigrant, instead of constituting a great moral and 
 civic problem, has brought into our land a practical illustration 
 of the far-reaching character of foreign missionary work in 
 58 
 
other lands, and furnishes an inspiration both to larger faith 
 and greater endeavor for the evangelization of non-Christian 
 peoples. 
 
 The growth of the work in Korea has been of the most 
 encouraging character. In its rapidity and solidarity, it has 
 been a subject of wonder to those familiar with the facts. But 
 the Church at home has responded only in an inade- 
 Pitifully quate manner to the pressing needs of the work. 
 Inadequate The staff of missionaries has been pitifully inadequate. 
 
 Instead of that healthy and steady reenforcement of 
 the work which would have cared for the growth of the field, 
 there have l^een years when with no reenforcements and with a 
 staff depleted by death or necessary withdrawals, only five 
 or six men who were qualified by years of experience and 
 knowledge of the language to bear the burdens thrust upon 
 them were availal^le for oversight of the multiplying churches. 
 This was due to the lack of response to the appeal issued from 
 time to time by the Church in America in behalf of Korea. 
 We believe that a new day has dawned, and that the work 
 in Korea will receive that attention and reenforcement of which 
 it stands in such sore need. 
 
 The goal toward which all lines of missionary activity 
 converge is the creation of a self-reliant, self-supporting, self- 
 governing, and self-propagating native Church, worthy the 
 presence and reign of Jesus Christ. Marvelous 
 Present Status rapidity has marked the progress of missionary 
 of Korean effort in Korea towards this desirable goal. In the 
 Methodism short space of a quarter of a century, the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church has grown to a total enrollment 
 of about 50,000 converts. It is well entrenched throughout 
 the best sections of the country. It stands related in cordial 
 and close bonds of fraternity with the other churches at work 
 there and combines with them in identity and destiny to such 
 an extent, that the Christian forces in Korea present to the 
 heathen world the appearance of solidarity. By well considered 
 and happily arranged agreements, reduplication of effort and 
 sectarian rivalry are prevented, unnecessary expenditure of 
 funds and strength obviated, and a concentration of effort 
 59 
 
made possible, resulting in the systematic and speedy evangeli- 
 zation of the people. 
 
 In the alignment of the Christian forces in Korea, there has 
 fallen to our church a territory containing a population esti- 
 mated at 3,000,000, in numbers about equal to the entire mem- 
 bership of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. 
 The Task When we place over against this parish of 3,000,000 of 
 people the fact that only 50,000 have yet been gathered 
 into the Church, it is clear that the great bulk of the work still 
 remains to be accomplished. It is the deliberate conviction 
 of the best authorities that if the mission could be placed on 
 the plane of immediate missionary efficiency, the evangeliza- 
 tion of the people of Korea could be accomplished within the 
 next thirty years. 
 
 But whether that most desirable and longed-for consumma- 
 tion be realized or not (and it is the honest conviction of the 
 writer that it is quite possible of realization), it is perfectly 
 evident that we must place our mission stations on this basis of 
 immediate missionary efficiency. To this end the General Con- 
 ference of 1908 authorized a special movement to celebrate 
 the quarter-centennial of the founding of the church in 
 Korea. Including the work both of the Board of 
 Korea Foreign Missions and of the Woman’s Foreign Mission- 
 
 Quarter- ary Society the approximate sum of $460,000 will be 
 Centennial necessary to place the educational, medical, institu- 
 tional, and evangelistic equipment of the mission on the 
 basis of efficiency, and to reenforce the staff with thirty-three 
 new workers necessary to meet our missionary responsibility 
 in Korea. 
 
 60 
 
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