'^Lk m GRAPHIC SERIES ‘Prepared by WORLD OUTLOOK for the CENTENARY COMMISSION OF THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 111 Fifth Avenue New York City % The Graphic Series embraces books on the following countries NORTH AFRICA CHINA • JAPAN • KOREA CENTRAL AFRICA ^MEXICO • MALAYSIA PHILIPPINES SOUTH AMERICA INDIA Copyright, 1918, by World Outlook AHA PUKUOKA, This land of 84,000 sq and 16,500,000 people was taken over by Jap: iAKt* F rom time centuries old Korea has been a buffer between China and Japan. Her people have suffered much. They have been conquered time and ag^ain, and in the process they have acquired traits peculiar to their overlords. The customs, supersti- tions and religions of both China and Japan are power- fully impressed upon these in-between Koreans. of Korea . ^ -r*- .. , .. AT LAST, however, the race is burst- ^ ^ ing its age-old, iron- bound stagnation. The spirit of progress has been breathed into the race, and the Koreans, backed up with all the vigor and enthusiasm of the Japanese, are writ- ing history carrying in it a distinctly Christian trend. The 01d\\hys were T he KOREAN has outgrown his stodgy state of mind, the what-was-good- enough-for-father-is-good-enough-for-me attitude. When Japan blew the reveille that echoed among Korea’s hills, she put an end to the self- satisfied sleep that Korea had been basking in for ages. Time meant nothing to the top-knotted men of the peninsula. Energy was never wasted; it was not even spent. Agri- cultural enterprise was unknown. Chemistry of soils and rotation of crops were as Greek to the white-robed farmers who considered it not worth while to fertilize their fields. The crops of Korea were regu- lated more by the bounty of nature than by the ingenuity or diligence of the farmer. ood enough -until W HY? Many reasons. The hillsides couldn’t be leveled because the slopes were bumpy with burial mounds. And so accustomed was the Korean to extortion for prosperity, that even under the Japanese regime, which en- courages agriculture, the farm- ers were timid at first about displaying their big beets and fat porkers. They dug irrigation ditches in Korea with a five-man-power shovel. That way will not stand competition with a mod- ern steam shovel. N owhere is the great antiquity of the Korean civilization so clearly shown as in the mosaic of their religious'beliefs. The all-around Korean, when in society, is a Confucianist; a Buddhist when he philosophizes, and a Spirit-worshipper when he is in trouble. If you would know a man’s religion, watch him when he is in trouble! Korea’s is a strange religion in which superstition, incited by ignorance, prevails. for Centuries T heirs is a religion of dragons, devils, elves, imps, and gob- lins, in which spirits of dead humanity are here and there present; where eternal shades walk about; in which hills, trees, and rivers — even dis- eases — have personalities bearing woe and terror to all men. Yet in no other Asiatic country has there been so general an acceptance of Christianity, a growth so rapid, or an influence so power- ful on the national life. AWide-Op K orea, awakening to the necessity of modern . Western merchandise in contrast with her antediluvian implements, is ready to buy our products, — hook, line and sinker. Take clothes, for instance. After wear- ing a long, loose robe, “all bound round with a woolen string,” — wouldn’t anyone be glad to snuggle into a regular coat with a safe and sane system of buttons and buttonholes? n Market Adding accounts on an abacus was easy when business was dull, but now that Korea is double-quicking to catch up with the rest of the world, she buys adding machines and cash registers to do her thinking for her. The silence of centuries is broken by the clack of an American typewriter and the yawp of an American flivver. Korea is in the market for everything new. Missions help by educating the younger generation up to the point where they demand soap for their homes, anti- septics for their cuts, and good books for their souls. *• Korea as viewed Medicine is Korea’s great need. Brewed decoctions of deer’s horns and ginseng mixed with superstition do not cure smallpox, cholera, typhus, and leprosy. In most of Korea’s 1584 native schools the basis of study is still the Chinese classics. Korea has approximately 107,000 children in school, of which Methodism cares for only 8,608. Thousands of Koreans, dissatisfied with the old religions, are turning towards Christianity wherever the Cospel message is carried. Already 24,069 are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; 33,249 of their children are in its Sunday Schools. by Methodism In our seven dispensaries 20,021 treatments were administered last year. Methodism has seven hospitals — one for every 2,359,143 Koreans. Thousands of little Koreans — the men and women of to-morrow — wait to be taught that the teachings of Jesus are a better educational foundation than those of ancient Confucius. There are 16,366,558 in Korea’s population of 16,500,000 who are not Christian — but they are willing inquirers. I If Methodism is ever to measure up to her opportunity, now is the time to begin an intensified ( 1 campaign. T he Japanese Government has planned, and is already carry- ing out in Korea, a far-reaching and constructive program looking to the development of that country. The same high order of intelligence and far-sightedness which has made Japan the nation she is today will do identically the same thing in Korea. The Koreans are a keen and intelligent race, in many respects counterparts of the Japanese. Modern schools, planned on the Japanese system, are springing up in the cities. Modern sanitation has been introduced, hospitals erected, and industry impregnated with the germ that means healthy growth. Already there is beginning to rear its ugly head high in the air the snirit of materialism. It i§ a danger signal. Many of the leaders in Japan are aware of the very same danger at home. These men are earnestly considering which of several remedies shall be applied there — but nothing is being done to curb the monster’s growing grip on Korea. There is but one cure. It is Christianity! And it is a most significant fact that in no other of our foreign fields are the people as a whole so receptive to our message. T he call to Christianity is loud and clear. It is the opportunity before the church today. Christianity wants the Koreans. The Koreans want Christianity. The industrial and commercial development of Korea will be astonishing during the next two decades. Japan’s policy guarantees that on the one hand, and Korea’s strategic position with regard to China guarantees it on the other hand. Japan wants huge business relations with China. The front door through which this avalanche of merchandise will pass back and forth is Korea. Korea must develop. She cannot stand still. Factories will spring up overnight once this movement obtains its impetus, and materialism will be king! The Christian Church must be there first with a large plant. Nor will that alone suffice! The church must be prepared to grow as rapidly as the need demands. But first it must be ready, and it is not now! A strongly Christianized people in Korea will open up possibilities in China that will astonish the civilized world, while the effect on Japan will be tremendous. Opportunity calls in clarion tones. Can Christianity Fail to Respond? The“Wakin A new disease is perme- ating to the very heart of Korea, attacking every bone and tissue of the old structure. It is the “waking sickness.” Against its powerful ravages nothing that is old or that has outlived its usefulness, nothing that is custom-bound and decayed, can stand. The thatches that roof the houses are kindled by the sparks of a Baldwin locomotive that screams through the village. On the charred foundations is built a modern structure. The old method of col- lecting taxes for public improvements was nothing short of a system of blackmail. Now a clean, orderly and im- partial court deals out justice to all. And the “waking sickness” is un- dermining the old religion, attacking it at the foundations of its strength. The appeal of humanity with all its hopes of future years is stronger than the appeal of an ancestor dead a couple of thousand. Instead of drop- ping a coin in a wayside shrine to appease a demon, the Korean is pay- ing his dollar to join the Red Cross. That attitude is our cue. The “waking sickness” has knocked the jjrops out of all the old-established institutions that the Korean has been leaning on. Knocked out the props and left what.^ A receptive mind. A willingness to hear. A desire to be shown. kness in Methodism must *Q^eouf ♦ •ffiu»)>^5«i^ ♦)[^>m-yoir^«CCV^* J APAN has governed Korea since 1910. She has been instilling, to the utmost of her ability, all of Western civilization with its tremend- ous possibilities— all save Christianity. Korea, the one-time hermit nation, has been drawn into the stir of the world outside. It is a stimulation towards materialism that lacks the great throbbing impulse of Christianity. Methodism must meet Japan’s best to overcome this danger. We must erect the finest school buildings, and many meet Japans best of them. In artistic excellence of schoolhouse and college, in comfort and in range of studies, we must offer young Korea all that Japan offers. And when we have done these things Christianity will conquer. The Korean is eager for education but more eager for Christian education. Methodism’s path for the next few years is clear-cut in Korea. Reaching the Soul T he seed of Christian- ity planted in Korea was in the form of a quinine capsule. The first resident missionary was a physician. In many communities where our doctrines encountered prejudice, our doctoring- has overcome the prejudice. Spirits and disease are inextricably tangled in the Korean’s mind. It is easy for him to accept, from the doctor who can “cast out devils,” knowledge of the God who can cast out evil. In the old days smallpox stalked through the land like a cruel handmaiden of death. The poor people resigned themselves grimly to its horrid ravages. In stating the number of his children a man never included those who had not yet been through smallpox. Such kiddies were not realities. They were only possibilities not yet to be counted. 'through the Body Christian medicine has helped change this. Smallpox is no longer epidemic, and a Korean daddy now dares to count all his children. If a real honest-to-goodness M.D., with serum and vaccines, skilled hands and blessed ministrations, can rid a whole community of this “smallpox devil,” is it any wonder that he can win their respect, their love, their souls? AN old Korean ^ ^ school was a bedlam of pig-tailed youngsters gabbling Chinese classics at the top of their lungs. The result of the old education was nar- row individualism. Generation after generation plodded in the same tread- mill; never getting a step further forward than their ancestors did until Korea was so far behind on the road of progress that it will take a Big Force to put her in the running again. That force is Chris- tianity. The broad intellectual training of our schools is enriched by a strong moral background. With this impetus, young Koreans are breaking away from old, narrow tra- ditions, breaking through the bonds that fettered their nation, smashing into age-old superstition. H ere are just a few of the 33,249 Ko- rean Kidlets in our Sunday Schools. These Sunday School members are daily circulating among their elders and their playmates “wonder stories” of the new ideals we are teaching them. The boys and girls in our institutions become fired with a spirit that makes each of these faces stand out as an individual, a personality, a force for good. There are thousands of Korean Kidlets waiting — many of them impatiently — for the Christians of America to provide more room that they too may join the ranks of those who recognize the failure of Korea’s age-old customs and beliefs. The Sunday School will bring much nearer for Korea the day when womanhood will not be degraded by its present humiliating status, when demon-fear will not constitute religion, when that word religion will mean what it should— faith, hope, and charity. Our Present Investment PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT 48 Churches 3 Missionary Residences $209,568 Additional Buildings and Equipment for 9 Primary Schools 3 High Schools . 1 Christian College (Chosen) 1 Union Theological Seminary 2 Bible Institutes 376,200 Additional Buildings and Equipment for 5 Hospitals .... 2 Dispensaries .... 1 Union Medical College . 58,730 Total Property and Equipment Endowment . . . . $644,498 $116,500 What we propose to do r I E very Christian activity in Korea serves two purposes. First, and foremost, is the furtherance of the Kingdom of God among the Koreans. Secondly, and of the utmost importance, is the reaction upon Japan. The Koreans are developing rapidly, and Chris- tianity is playing a tremendously important part. Our facilities are everywhere taxed to capacity. And always the watchful, discerning eyes of the Japanese are carefully analyzing the causes underlying this advancement. We may rest assured that where Christianity is responsible, Christianity is being given due credit. In guiding Korea, then, to a better national conscious- ness, we are as well guiding the Japanese. Every dollar spent by us in Korea is doing its work in that field, and in addition is making the dollars we spend in Japan of double value. .uii, a: I N ADDITION, there is still another very important reaction from our Korean work. It is that produced in China. Hundreds of Chinese students are returning home each year from educational centers in Christian countries. They are the ones on whom the future of China rests. They are watching not only China’s economic and political trend but Japan’s and Korea’s as well. If Christianity is on trial anywhere, it is in Korea, and probably in no other foreign field is there the same urgent need for aggressive, constructive Christian work. We propose- so to spend yoi/r Centenary Gift that it will react directly on Korea and indirectly on China and Japan. All facts bear out the statement that the Christians of America may certainly expect much of Korea, not only in religion, but as well in her absorption of the principles of true world democracy. i I America declared war, on April 6th, 1917, the conflict in Europe was just a war— differing from its prede- cessors only in size. When, however. President Wilson hurled into the ring the power of America, war as the world then knew it became a thing of the past. We were engaged in a righteous war, one in which greed and national aggrandizement never figured. Germany was but a pawn in the scheme of things as laid out in America’s great World Emancipation plan. In spots the world was an unfit place in which to live. Man everywhere must be made to recognize man’s equality — his right to come and go and do as he pleases so long as he observes the common laws of humanity. America set this conscience standard for the world! World Betterment is the new cry and every movement, everywhere, which aims to speed this attainment will take on added impetus. Weak peoples, little peoples, far-away peoples, and oppressed peoples are to have their day. The helm of the world is held firmly in the hands of Woodrow Wilson, chief executive of a people enjoying the blessings of true democracy. Twnrjr Irea-Ybur Money And these free millions through their able helmsman, along with their Allies, decreed that the spirit of democracy must be given an opportunity to take root wherever the need exists. The world must be made a better place! It was to accomplish that purpose that we drew the sword. And that we might succeed in our crusade we fed three- fifths of Europe, relieved distress and suffering in France and Belgium, and in Asia Minor. It is for that reason, also, that the Missionary program of the world must go on. The fester-spots on the family of nations must be cured. The Methodist Church in America is one hundred years old! The anniversary comes at a critical time in Church history. Everywhere people are raising the question, “Has Christianity failed.^” Christianity has not failed! It was the spirit of Christ that cried out to Germany “Stop!” It was the spirit of Christ that compelled the Cen- tral Powers to lay down their arms and acknowledge defeat! It is the spirit of Christ that will bring freedom — political, economic and religious freedom — to all peoples of the world! _It is the [spirit of|Christ that will fill the coffers of the Centenary Missionary Chests to overflowing, that brotherly love and peace and helpfulness and true democracy may be spread broadcast throughout the world! One of the Leasi This is a Korean child. He is dyin^ be- cause of neglect. In the be^innin^ his ailment could have been easily cured. But no one at hand knew how. Finally when complications set in. his parents brougtht him a lonP distance to see the foreipn doctor. Two thousand years a^o there lived on this earth a Man who loved little children and who did for little children with a strength of purpose greater and midhtier than any other that history has ever recorded. The messaoes and principles laid down by this Man have lived two thousand years and have been the means of brin^ngf peace and love and helptlilness to the hearts of millions. / )f these ✓ But of all his messagfes, the one most fraught with the Spirit of God and the one nearest the heart of the Man himself reads that: Jlnastnuth as hatje bone it unto one of the least of^these ^e hane bone it unto 3Hle. If true world democracy is to become a fact, and the voice of the United Allies says it must: if the world is to be made a better Dlace in which to live, conditions in Korea, ike those which have allowed this little lad to Decome as you see him. must be cleaned up. The Preat world program for which we are pouringT out our blood and treasure puts a duty on every churchman. And YOU will measure up to PRESIDENT WILSON says: “T THINK it would be a real misfor- X tune, a misfortune of everlasting- consequence, if the missionary pro- gram for the world should be inter- rupted. There are many calls for money, but that the work undertaken should be continued at its full force seems to me of capital necessity.”