f 150 EiFTH AVENUE. NEW YO° C Okc Sduxcau of 31 vio '3i VYT " \\OT Qs 5i— i um Cijang §s>tfc a Korean Circuit HiDcr k THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Rindge Literature Department iUin Cfiaitg gilt 2 Korean Ctrcutt tttDcr noon of that fellow-laborers UESDAY, May 14, 1901, was a memorable day in the career of Kim Chang Sik, one time pagan, but now a humble follower of the Christ, for in the after- day he stood before his in the Mead Memorial Sang-dong Church, Seoul, while Bishop David H. Moore, laying his hands upon his head, ordained him a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church. From that day he has been known as the first native ordained Methodist preacher in Korea. When he came to work as a pony driver for the Rev. Franklin Ohlinger. at that time a missionary in Seoul, Kim was a poor and ignorant heathen, knowing little of the religion which his master preached, and caring nothing for it. But the influ- ences of a Christian home made an im- pression upon him. Mrs. Ohlinger pa- tiently taught him the lessons of the Gos- pel, induced him to attend the meetings of the church, and in many ways sought to win him for Jesus Christ. These effo t-i were not in vain, for, Mompted at first by curiosity, the Korean attended to the read- ing of the Bible; his interest having been aroused, he made a study of its teachings; and finally, under the preaching of Mr. Ohlinger, he accepted Jesus as his Saviour and Master. Then he studied more zealously, adding to his Bible study a study of the Chinese language, considered necessary to the equipment of a Korean scholar. He has become proficient in his studies, and they now call him “Kim the teacher.” Of course he immediately began to preach the Gos- pel to his countrymen, becoming an ex- horter in 1892, and after a few years of faithful service receiving a local preacher’s license. His experience has been that of a pioneer preacher. Three times has he been thrust out upon the frontier to blaze a way for other workers to follow. The first time was when the late William J. Hall, M.D., was sent to establish the mis- sion in Pyeng-Yang, the most important city in the northern part of the empire. Dr. Hall asked for Kim Chang Sik to help him on the circuit he was establishing al»out Pyeng-Yang as a center, and Mr. Kim went. Here he suffered persecutions, like his prototype the apostle, winning from Dr. Hall the appellation, “Our Ko- rean Paul.” It was in 1894 that a mob in Pyeng-Yang set upon the Christian doctor and his helpers. With several others Mr. Kim was arrested, put in prison, beaten, ^■d placed in the stocks. All were given the opportunity ti^-recant, and the others did so. But his religion was of a different type. When the persecutors urged him to curse God and forsake the service of the foreigner, promising him release, he said: “God loves me and has forgiven me my sins; how can I curse Him? The foreigner is kind and pays my honest wages; why should I forsake him?” This noble con- fession was made after they had removed him to the death cell, from which he had no reason to hope he would come out alive. When the order for his release came from Seoul he was so injured from long im- prisonment and beatings that he reached his home with great difficulty. Before long, however, he was reported as holding daily prayer meetings for the Japanese soldiers quartered in Pyeng-Yang, at the time of the Chinese-Japanese war, thus ministering to the spiritual needs of for- eigners in his own city. The same zeal and perseverance char- acterized the later efforts of Mr. Kim upon the Samwha Circuit, an outpost of the Pyeng-Yang work, and a station to which he was appointed because of his success in the former place. Here he was laboring with increasing success when he was or- dained as a local deacon at the annual meeting of the Mission in 1901. Less than a year after his ordination this pioneer native preacher was again sent out upon the frontier to plant the banner of the cross upon the Sin-Kai Circuit. He i mediately began touring his circuit u Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/kimchangsikkoreaOOunse a little band of colpo^ters, with the re- sult that souls were soon turning unto the Lord. Mr. Kim is almost fifty years of age. His circuit, which includes many of the outposts of our work in Korea, extends over a distance of one hundred and seventy miles, and as he must be off for another tour among the numerous villages of this circuit, we will bid him godspeed.