Sunday at Pyöng Yang
Sunday is a busy day for missionary workers at Pyöng Yang, as the
rapid growth of the work and the need for consolidation by constant
instruction, taxes the resources even of the large staff of foreign
as well as native helpers. We were told that in many cases before the
building of a church is completed the congregation has outgrown it, and
that from one church alone (the central one at Pyöng Yang) no less than
thirty-nine others have “swarmed” merely for lack of space, not from any
discord. Thirty-five of these churches are in the district round the
town, four others are in the town itself; the youngest of them already
has a membership of 561. This is the result of sixteen years of work,
for the missionaries settled there in 1894, and the first convert was
baptized that year.
We started out about 10 o’clock to make a round of some of the places
of worship. The first visited was a women’s institute, where we found a
large upper room filled with about 500 women and nearly as many babies
and little children. At the door of the Korean churches and schools the
first thing to be noticed is the shoe stand, where each comer deposits
shoes before entering. The floors are covered with matting, and every one
sits cross-legged: the babies are noisy, but their crying is not nearly
so sharp as that of Europeans, though sufficiently disturbing to any
ordinary speaker. At the harmonium a sweet-faced Korean girl sat, whose
playing was very superior to the singing. What it lacked in harmony,
however, was atoned for by its earnestness, and in all the services the
reverent attention of the whole audience was most impressive; even the
little children covered their eyes with their hands during prayer. From
below stairs came the lusty tones of children singing “Hold the Fort,”
and we found a Sunday school in progress, the classes sitting in circles
on the floor, each with a girl teacher in the centre. The children
have been less cared for than the adults hitherto, but they look most
attractive and winning, and greater efforts are now being made to provide
for their instruction.
We next visited the central church, where the men had just finished
their morning session of Bible instruction (9-10.30), and the women were
rapidly gathering. Nowhere could there be found a more attractive sight
than the hundreds of white clad women, carrying their books wrapped
in cloth tied round their waists in front, or their children tied on
behind, the little ones dressed in every colour of the rainbow. The
service is much like Sunday school at home; after the opening hymn and
prayers, the women are divided into classes, and the older children,
like a gay group of butterflies, are gathered at the back of the church
to be taught separately. Some of the girls had hats which take up
space, as they are much larger than umbrellas, and are carried by both
hands, extending over the head in front and to the knees behind. These
are peculiar to this district, and are used not mainly for protection
from the sun or rain, but from the vulgar gaze of man. I sketched one
of the school girls on the verandah, wearing the big hat. They have
to be left outside the church in the verandah with the shoes. Some of
the young women of the wealthier classes look quite charming in their
nun-like coifs, and dressed from head to foot in dazzling white silk,
with smart little sleeveless coats lined with white fur; the fur also
forms a border all round the coat and outlines the arm-holes. Womankind
in Korea suffers from a strange lack—the absence of names. A woman _may_
possess a pet name, otherwise she has none; frequently she does not
even know her husband’s name. If she becomes a Christian and receives
baptism she acquires a name, and this must give her quite a new sense of
dignity. The Korean woman has not been considered of much value in the
past, but she is awakening (under Christian influences) to a sense of
responsibility, and she takes her share in the work of evangelisation
among her people. There had been a fortnight’s Bible study for women just
before our arrival at Pyöng Yang, attended by over 500, many of whom had
come long distances on foot to attend it. Some had travelled no less
than seventy miles on foot, carrying their supply of food with them;
they were lodged by the Christians in the city without charge, and after
earnest study they set out on their long homeward journey. There is also
a special Bible school for a fortnight for those women who wish to become
teachers or Bible women, many of whom are supported by the native church.
The Women’s Missionary Society of the Central Church has supported two
missionaries for some years.
[Illustration: COY KOREAN MAIDEN]
The morning school in the Central Church numbered five or six hundred, so
that when both men and women come in the afternoon to a united service of
worship the church is full to overflowing: it holds 1500 to 1700.
The venerable pastor, Kil Moksa, is a Korean of solid character, who has
done much to lessen the evils incident to the coming of the Japanese.
Seeing the utter hopelessness of resistance, he persuaded the people
neither to flee nor to resist, so that the bloodshed which took place
in the south of the country was avoided in the north. His influence is
not only powerful but widespread, and it is sad to see the curtailing
of his work owing to increasing blindness. He was originally an ardent
Confucian, and not content with a passive faith he practised rigorous
austerities in order to obtain peace of mind. In describing this time,
Kil Moksa said: “I was trying to put away every thought of worldly
advancement and every filthy or unclean impulse, for I knew right and
wrong then just as well as I do now. I endeavoured to keep my mind pure
by concentrating upon the idea of a full moon in my stomach. By centring
my thoughts upon this I endeavoured to shut out the world and secure
a view of spiritual truth. I wanted to get a vision of some spiritual
being, but all the time, in spite of my efforts, my mind was filled with
thoughts I would fain have dismissed. I could not get the victory. At
the end of my stay on the mountain side, when I went to the homes of my
friends, I was filled with disgust because their conversation was all
about worldly advancement or interspersed with filthy stories.” When
Kil Moksa became a Christian he was equally filled with this passionate
desire for righteousness, not for himself only, but for his people.
When his people seemed to be growing careless, he started a daily
prayer-meeting at 4 o’clock in the morning, and this was soon attended by
six or seven hundred people, with the result that a great revival took
place, and his people promised to spend over 3000 days in trying to win
others to a knowledge of Christ.
We next visited the Union Theological Seminary, vacated by the students
on Sunday and used as a church, where we found numbers of men all seated
on the floor with the teacher in the centre. The bulk of the teaching
and preaching in Korea is done by natives, and every church has a native
pastor; the foreign missionary acts as superintendent of groups of
churches (sometimes as many as fifty or sixty) extending over a large
area of the province. The college students were all busy on Sunday
either preaching or itinerating in town and country, and in order to
facilitate this arrangement they have no classes on Saturday afternoon
or Monday morning. They remain at college only three months in the year,
and spend the remaining nine in practical work. Their course extends
over five years, and by this arrangement the four missions which it
represents are able to supply the requisite number of teachers from their
ordinary staff of workers; these teachers can be spared from their other
work for three months in the year, though it is only in cases of special
qualification that the same man is sent three years in succession. The
head of the college is, of course, a permanent official, and lives at
Pyöng Yang. This is Dr. Moffett, who was stoned out of Pyöng Yang when
he first came; he frequently used to hear the remark at he passed along
the streets on those early days, “Look at this black rascal! why did he
come here? let us kill him.” Nowhere was the opposition to Christianity
fiercer than at Pyöng Yang; it was a notoriously bad city. The students
at the present time number 126, and the missions represented are the
American Presbyterian (North and South), the Australian Presbyterian,
and the Canadian Presbyterian. The college is a modest and unpretentious
building in native style, and it is proposed to build dormitories round
the compound as soon as the ground has been levelled.
From this point we crossed the town to the imposing group of buildings
of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, which are in American style. The fine
large church has a belfry, which can be seen as well as heard from afar.
We entered at the back of the women’s side, divided from the men’s by a
screen, and found it well filled. One of the missionaries told us that it
had the largest “floor space” of any church in Korea. As we entered four
young men mounted the platform and sang an anthem, but none of our party
could decide whether it was in Korean or English. Then the sermon began,
and we slipped out to continue our pilgrimage. The greatest harmony
exists between the different missions, and the preacher for the day
belonged to the Presbyterians. The main difference between the missions
is one of policy. The Presbyterians encourage the Koreans to rely upon
their own efforts for support, to build their own churches in native
style, and to undertake the work of evangelisation at their own expense.
The offerings of the Korean church (that is of _all_ the missions) is
said to be already £25,000 per annum, and the number of converts 200,000;
not a bad result to show for only twenty-five years of missionary work.
(These figures are drawn from the report for the World Missionary
Conference at Edinburgh.) The American Episcopal Mission do not expect as
much from the native church as do the Presbyterians, and they keep the
pastorate and general control to a greater extent in their own hands.
They have larger funds at their disposal, and do not require the village
communities to build their own churches, whereas the Presbyterians only
help them with a loan, which is repaid in two years. Even the primary
schools are entirely supported by the Koreans. The Methodist Episcopal
Mission has initiated work among the blind, and it has a promising school
of blind girls, who are already preparing text-books in Braille with a
view to the opening of other schools for the blind. The Presbyterians
have also started a class for blind boys, but it is more difficult to
know what to teach them as a means of livelihood than it is in the case
of girls. They have begun to prepare a New Testament in Braille type, but
it will require a great deal of revision; the British and Foreign Bible
Society has promised to print it as soon as it is ready, at cost price.
The lot of the blind in Korea is a sad one; their sole means of earning a
living is by practising sorcery.
In conclusion, I must add a word as to the character of the native
Christians in Pyöng Yang, but which is equally applicable to the rest
of the Korean Church. It is not only remarkable to see the _number_
of Christians, but still more so to see their _character_. One of the
ablest speakers at the Edinburgh Conference was the Hon. T. H. Yun of
Songdo, Minister of Education, and leader of the native church, a man
of culture and refinement, of whom any country might well be proud.
He spoke of the danger due to the extraordinarily rapid growth of the
church, yet nevertheless urged the desirability of trusting it with
enlarged responsibilities. As far as my experience goes this has been
done in Korea to a greater extent than anywhere else in the many mission
fields that I have visited. The Christians have shown such a keen desire
for instruction, together with such an aptitude for learning, that they
are much more capable of self-government, and of forming a national
church, than would be conceived possible by those who have not seen this
wonderful people. They have devoted themselves with extraordinary ardour
to the study of the Bible. The membership of a great Bible class at Syen
Chun is over thirteen hundred, and the Bible is the most read book in
Korea to-day. They memorise it apparently as well as do the Chinese; two
school girls may be mentioned as having learnt by heart the whole of the
New Testament, with the exception of St. Matthew’s Gospel, in the course
of a year. Yet less than thirty years ago it was prohibited to sell it in
the Hermit Kingdom, as Korea has so justly been called, and it was only
possible to do so by having the Gospels done up in bundles, unbound, and
distributed through the country by the natives. To them is mainly due the
introduction of Christianity into Korea.
Another striking feature of the Korean church is the importance they
attach to _prayer_, and their implicit belief in its efficacy. Where else
in the world is to be found a weekly prayer-meeting which habitually
numbers thirteen or fourteen hundred? Yet such is the case at the Central
Church at Pyöng Yang. Mention has already been made (page 78) of an
early morning prayer-meeting, which cannot find a parallel, I think, in
any of our home churches.
No less important is the characteristic of generosity both in the matter
of money and labour. In some churches they are hardly willing to admit
any one as a member who has not already won at least one convert to
Christianity. A form of contribution was started by which people promise
to give a day’s work during a certain specified time. Last year there
were over 67,000 days promised throughout the country. It is hardly
necessary to give further details as to the generosity of the Koreans
with regard to money, because of what has already been related, but I
must point out that the majority of the Korean Christians are extremely
poor, and great self-sacrifice is involved by the amount of work which
they support, as well as by what they do personally.