MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES
Among the many vexatious problems occasioned in modern times by the
increased intercourse of Western nations with the Orient, those which
arise in connection with the advent and development of Christian
missions are of no small importance. In general, in this quarter of the
world the diplomats and business men are upon one side of most of the
controverted questions; the missionaries and their supporters upon the
other. It is inevitable, and not necessarily discreditable to either
party, that differences of opinion should exist between these two classes
as to the best practical answer to some of these questions. Those few
of the former class, who are sincerely and unselfishly interested in
moral and spiritual things, and in the higher welfare of the world, and
the scarcely greater number of the latter class who have the spirit of
knightly gentlemen, a thorough culture, and are also of a wise and broad
mind, can usually approach very closely to a sympathetic understanding
of each other, if not toward active co-operation. If, however, the
diplomat or business man, as is so frequently the case, does not like to
see the cause of religion advancing, because of the sure instinct that
its success will limit, or stop, many a nefarious or morally doubtful
practice, then, of course, the support of all who care for the higher
values must be given to the side of the missionaries. On the other
hand, if the narrow prejudice, fanaticism, or intellectual and ethical
weakness of the teacher of foreign religion are seriously interfering
with the legitimate practices of diplomacy or commerce, our sympathies
can scarcely fail to turn in the other direction. Especially is this true
where such interference tends to produce disturbance of the public order
and to check genuine political and economic reform. Yet in the one case,
we cannot forget the injunction of the Founder of Christianity to his
disciples: “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves”; or the rebuke
implied in the declaration: “The children of this world are wiser in
their generation than the children of light.” In the other case, we have
ringing in our ears the declaration which so many centuries of history
have confirmed: “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth; I came
not to send peace but a sword.”
In most cases of prolonged controversy over the conduct of the missionary
and the character of his work, there is more or less of misunderstanding
and of faulty behavior on both sides. For missionaries are but men; and
like men of all other trades, businesses, professions, or callings, they
have their peculiar temptations, their liability to peculiar mistakes,
and—to use the theological term—their besetting sins. The past and
present relations of Christian missions to the Government and people of
Korea will be the better understood if we consider briefly what some
of these temptations are. One of the most potent, if not important, is
the temptation to make a good showing in the matter of statistics. That
the workman on the field should rejoice in a bountiful harvest is not,
in itself, a matter for surprise or rebuke; just the contrary is true.
Nor is it necessarily prejudicial to the real good of the cause, if the
home officers and supporters of the foreign denominational enterprise
implicitly seem to require, as a prerequisite to their continued zeal and
generous subscriptions, a fair annual showing as to the increase in the
number of converts. But especially in Korea at the present time, it is
_quality and not numbers_ that ought chiefly to be allowed to count. And
yet it is numbers and not quality which is most reasonably to be expected
and most likely to be found, for two or three generations to come.
The paradox involved in the last sentences requires further explanation.
In her interesting but highly colored and by no means altogether
trustworthy book on Korea, Mrs. Bishop makes the following declarations:
“The idea of a nation destitute of a religion and gladly accepting one
brought by a foreigner, must be dropped. The religion the Korean would
accept is one which would show him how to get money without working for
it. The indifference is extreme; the religious faculty is absent; there
are no religious ideas to appeal to, and the moral teachings of Confucius
have little influence with any class.”[92] Of these declarations the last
is the only one which is wholly true. _Moral_ teachings of any kind have
had little effect hitherto in Korea. Briefly stated, and as seen from the
point of view afforded through a survey of the history of man’s religious
experience and of the progress of Christian missionary enterprise, the
condition of the Korean people is this. They are a nation by no means
indifferent to religion, or destitute of religious faculty and religious
ideas. But the religion almost universally prevalent has been for
centuries a low form of spiritism—largely, devil-worship. Even Korean
ancestor-worship, unlike that in Japan, is still almost exclusively
motived and characterized by superstitious and degrading fears rather
than by the spirit of reverence, loyalty, and affection. Among the
so-called civilized nations of the world there is probably not another
where the prevalent native religion is of a more depressing and degrading
character than in Korea.
Now it is an experience very easy to explain from the psychological
point of view that where the other elements of “uplift” begin to work
powerfully among a people of a low form of religion, any imported
religious faith and worship which seems to offer help to, or to be in
conformity with, this work, may speedily secure the adherence of great
multitudes of the people. In Korea, for example, there is absolutely no
religion to compete with an imported Christianity. There is no developed
Confucianism as there is in China; no reformed or reflectively elaborated
Buddhism, as there is in Japan; no refined religious philosophy and
complicated caste system as there is in India. Any kind of ferment in
the ancient but deplorably sad and oppressive conditions of the popular
life will inevitably, therefore, prove favorable to the rapid spread of
a modern and improved form of religion. For the people must have some
religion; and in Korea, what is there to rival, for what it promises
and performs, the religion of the American and English missionaries?
It is this kind of nation which, so far as statistics that can boast
millions of converts are concerned, may under favorable conditions be
“born in a day.” At the same time, however, it is this kind of nation
whose multitude of converts will almost surely fail to apprehend or to
appreciate the really important things about the new faith which they
hasten to profess. It is this kind of nation that most needs, through
three or more generations, the solid work of education, and the purifying
process of severe discipline, in order to secure the genuine spirit
and true practice of the religion of Christ. Education and prolonged
moral discipline are imperative for the establishment of a trustworthy
Christian population in Korea. Here the necessity for careful sifting
and severe pruning is exaggerated beyond most precedents, because of
the undoubted fact that the underlying motives for a first adherence
to Christianity are, in a large percentage of the so-called converts,
economic and political rather than moral and spiritual. And, indeed, how
can the Korean common people, with their low intellectual, material,
and moral ideals, rise _en masse_ from the condition of superstitious
and immoral devil-worshippers to the faith and practice of a pure
Christianity? The most fundamental conceptions of God, of Christian
duty and Christian character, of the spiritual life, and of the Divine
relations to man, are as yet almost totally lacking. If the number of
recent converts in Korea furnishes just cause for hope and rejoicing, the
character of these converts and of their environment gives also cause for
foreboding.
Closely connected with this temptation is another which is less obvious
and therefore more subtle and dangerous. It is the temptation to a
wrong which has done more by far than all the heresies to disgrace and
damage the Christian Church during the centuries of its history. This is
the temptation, even unconsciously, to make use for one’s self, or for
one’s converts, of the “double ethical standard.” Neither in Korea nor
elsewhere can the missionary permit himself to be betrayed into words and
conduct which he would consider unworthy of a “heathen” gentleman; or
allow his disciples, without rebuke and discipline, in the practice of
the very vices for which he despises the Japanese or Chinese coolie or
tradesman. There are no two standards of morality—one for the American
or English teacher of religion and another for the Korean or Japanese
official; one for the priest and another for the layman; one for the
Korean confessor and another for the foreign oppressor. It is true that
for a long time to come great discretion and much leniency must be
shown toward the Korean convert who continues in the beliefs, or who
relapses into the practices, of the low-grade spiritism out of which
he emerged when he became a Christian adherent. It is not impossible,
however, that there has been up to the present time too much of praise
and too little of rebuke and instruction meted out to the “adherents”
of Christianity in Korea. Indulgence in the vices of lying, dishonesty,
intrigue, avarice, impurity, and race-hatred, cannot be condoned by
a display of amiability. Flagrant cases of sexual misdemeanors have,
indeed, in comparatively few cases been made subjects for the severer
discipline. But the prophetic voice, raised unmistakably in evidence of
the high standard of morality characteristic of “the religion of Christ”
is required under all such circumstances as those which prevail among the
Korean Christians—thousands of whom, during the religious awakening of
the winter of 1906 and 1907, confessed to having lived for years in the
habitual practice of the vices enumerated above.
All of this, and even more of similar experiences connected with the
planting and growth of Christian missions in Korean soil, is by no
means necessarily discreditable to the missionaries themselves. On the
contrary, much of it is inevitable; it is the same thing which has been
the accompaniment of the early stages of Christian propagandism in all
ages, when conducted in the midst of similar conditions. So-called
“conversions” may be rapid; the process of selection and the labor of
instruction and edifying follow more slowly, in due time. The lower the
existing religious condition of the multitude, when the higher form of
religion appeals to them, the more prompt and extensive is the religious
uplift of this multitude; but the larger the number of the converts,
the more need of discretion and diligence for the process of improving
their quality. It is a reasonable hope that the same workmen who have
in the main proved so successful in the one form of Christian work will
prove equally successful in the somewhat different work which the future
development of Christian institutions in Korea imposes upon them.
There is another form of temptation against which it is much easier for
the religious propagandist to guard, but which has been rather unusually
strong and pervasive in the recent history of Korean missions. This
is the temptation to under-estimate, or even despise, the auxiliaries
which are offered by an improved condition of the material, legal, and
educational facilities to the more definitively religious uplift of the
people. The missionary can contribute the share of religion to progress
and reform; and he can make that a large share. But it is safe and wise
for him not to under-estimate or despise the support of the civil arm.
Korea is to-day, as has been already shown in detail, a land unblessed by
any of the institutions of a prosperous and equitable civil government
of the modern Christian type, established and fostered by its own ruling
classes. The multitude of its people are even more than its rulers
incapable of taking the initiative in founding such institutions. The
dawning of the very idea of good government has scarcely as yet risen
upon them.
Early Christianity was propagated in the Roman world largely by making
available for its uses the means furnished by the Roman Empire. And the
early Christians were expressly enjoined to welcome all the support
offered from, and to offer their support to, whatever was good and
helpful in the existing civil government. It is then a conceit which
is unwarranted by the history of the Christian church that makes the
missionary think, by “preaching the Gospel” to effect all which is
necessary toward reforming a nation in the condition of Korea at the
present time. Moreover, the claim that it was Christianity—especially in
the form of a so-called preaching of the Gospel—which, unaided by other
historical and moral forces, gave to the Western world its “democratic”
advantages, is no longer tenable. The experience with Coptic Christianity
in Egypt, with Armenian Christianity in Western Asia, with the Greek
Church in Holy Russia, and with Roman Catholicism in Spain and South
America (not to mention other notable examples) contradicts this claim.
In Korea itself it is not the Christian Missionary who is building
railways, making harbors, planting lighthouses, devising a legal code,
introducing a sound currency, and attempting the task of reforming the
finances, the judiciary, the police, and the local magistracy. Even
granted that he is setting at work moral and spiritual forces which will
ultimately bring to pass all these public benefits, it would take five
hundred years for Korea without foreign assistance from other forms of
civilizing energy, to secure these benefits. It is with no intention to
depreciate the work of missions in Korea that attention is called to
this obvious fact; its workmen had very unusual opportunities to assist
in improving the moral character of the Emperor, the late Queen, the
Court, and the other officials; and yet they signally failed in this
regard. Nor could they, unaided by the civil arm of foreign powers,
accomplish much toward relieving the miserable and oppressed and immoral
conditions of living prevalent among the common people of Korea. Just
here, however—that is, in the sphere of moral and spiritual influence
upon personal character, whether of prince or peasant—is where the
influence of religion ought to show itself supreme. The “purification” of
Korea required, and still requires, the firm, strong hand of the civil
power. We cannot, then, credit any such sentiment as that expressed
in the following statement:[93] “The influence of Christianity, so
largely and rapidly increasing in the country, holds out a better
prospect of spontaneous reform than the outside, violent interference
of a money-grabbing and hated heathen enemy.” In answer to every such
expression of sentiment, the protestation of the Resident-General has
been perfectly clear; and as fast and as far as his influence could make
itself felt, the conduct of affairs has confirmed the protestation:
“It is Japan’s honest and sincere purpose to make of the Koreans a
self-reliant and respectable people. Let there be an end, then, to the
malign and mischief-making efforts to alienate the Koreans from those who
to-day are through the sure work of History charged with responsibility
for this nation.”[94]
It would seem, then, that prompt, open, and hearty co-operation with all
the efforts, of every kind, made by the Japanese Protectorate to lift up
the Korean people is the only truly wise and Christian policy on the part
of the missions in Korea.[95]
How far the Korean missionaries have yielded to these and other
temptations and have behaved unwisely toward the Japanese Government
and before their Korean converts, it is not our purpose to discuss in
detail. And yet we cannot avoid all reference to this delicate and
unwelcome theme. Wholesale charges of political intrigue and other
unbecoming conduct directed against the Residency-General have been met
by emphatic and equally wholesale denials—especially during the troubled
times of 1906 and 1907. The charges, on the one hand, have been made not
simply by an irresponsible Japanese press, but by several of the more
reputable and generally trustworthy of its papers. On the other hand, all
similar charges are met by Bishop M. C. Harris[96] with the assurance
“because of full knowledge of the situation in Korea covering the space
of three years,” “that no American missionary has been identified with
political movements,” ... but that “in all the far-reaching plans of the
Residency-General to promote the welfare of Korea and Japan as well,
the missionaries are in hearty accord.” Yet again, on the other side,
repeated representations of a quite opposite character to that of Bishop
Harris have frequently appeared, both in letters and papers, in the
United States and in England.
The exact truth is with neither of these contentions; to appreciate it
one must bear in mind the difficult situation in which the missionaries
in Korea have been placed. All the wrongs (as their story has been told
in the last chapter), real or fancied, important and trivial but true,
or important and trivial but falsely alleged, have been appealed to them
by their Korean converts and also by Korean adventurers, with claims for
sympathy and for assistance. What was said of the Cretans in old times
may be said of the Koreans to-day: they are liars quite generally. Even
when they do not intend deliberately to deceive, they find it impossible
to refrain from gross exaggeration. On the other hand, the missionaries,
where their sympathies are wrought upon by their own children in the
faith—all the more on account of the mental and moral weakness of those
children—are apt to be over-credulous, and are not always sane in
judgment or prudent in conduct. These virtues are perhaps too much to
expect; perhaps they are not even the appropriate virtues for a Christian
woman when one of her own sex exposes bruises which she alleges to have
been inflicted by the hands of a “heathen coolie.” At such moments it is
not easy to remember the deeds of her own countrywomen in the South, or
of her own countrymen in San Francisco, in the Philippines, or in South
Africa.
Furthermore, it cannot be truthfully claimed that none of the
missionaries have ever meddled in politics with a view to injure the
Japanese Government in Korea. It was, in fact, an American missionary
who, after one of his colleagues upon the mission field, while expressing
his sympathy with the Korean Emperor, had refused to send a secret
telegram asking for interference from the President of the United
States, did send such a telegram; and when sternly rebuked by the
diplomatic representative of his own nation for conduct so unbecoming
to his profession, he replied with an assertion of the right to do as
he pleased in all such matters. Others have, from time to time, allowed
themselves to be used by the more wily Korean, whether un-Christian
official or Christian convert, so as to involve themselves in implied
complicity with political intrigues. If it is a mistake—or even worse
than a mistake—to circulate reports of evil without examination into
their accuracy, and to allow in all one’s attitude toward the powers
that be, unverified suspicions and secret hostilities to dominate, then
a considerable number of the missionary body in Korea must plead guilty
in the past to this mistake. But most of all has this body suffered from
its failure to disavow and practically to dissolve all connection with
those other “foreign friends” of Korea who have during the past few years
brought upon her Emperor and her people much more of misery and of harm
than has been wrought by all the irresponsible and disreputable Japanese
adventurers taken together.
A marked improvement, however, in the relations between the missionaries
and the Japanese Government in Korea has characterized the treatment of
the more recent events. For, although there was inevitably a certain
intensifying of hostile feeling by the uprising and bloodshed that
followed the Convention of July, 1907, the active co-operation of the
most influential majority of the missionaries in the plans of the
Residency-General for the future welfare of the Korean people seemed to
have been by this time assured. During the recent troublous times—in
spite of charges to the contrary—they appear to have remained, almost
without exception, faithful to their true calling and reasonably
effective in limiting or preventing the yet sorer evils that might have
followed the abdication of the Emperor, the disbandment of the Korean
army, and the tightening of Japan’s grip upon Korean internal affairs.
With certain, not very numerous, exceptions—and those mostly among the
spurious Christians who used the title only as a cover of selfish or
foolish political aims—the converts also acquitted themselves well. The
Korean Christians and their foreign leaders were favored by the Japanese
Government with special protection when the mad and cruel Korean mob rose
up, in veritable ancient fashion, to plunder and to murder atrociously,
in spots favorable to such activity throughout the land. Thus in the
emergency which, thanks to the wisdom of both kinds of reforming and
restraining forces, was after all far less great than might have been
expected, Korea made at comparatively small expense a great step forward
toward the position of a truly civilized and prosperous nation. And if
these same two forces—the economical and judicial, backed by the police
and the military, and the moral and spiritual force on which Christianity
relies—continue to work in accord, as we may hope they will, the full
redemption of Korea in the nearer future is assured.
Of the administrative mistakes which have hindered the progress of
modern missions elsewhere there appear to have been comparatively few
in Korea. Among such mistakes, perhaps the following two are most
important: first, the failure to occupy strongly certain strategic
centres with missionary institutions, and to postpone the occupation of
other less important places for the work of the trained native helper,
Bible-reader, evangelist, or pastor; and, second, the rivalries and
waste of denominational jealousy and exclusiveness. In Korea, the two
cities of Seoul and Pyeng-yang have wisely been selected as centres
in which to build up a “plant” of Christian institutions of various
kinds—churches, schools, hospitals, and seminaries for the training of
native assistants. Further, the two largest missionary bodies—namely, the
American Methodists and American Presbyterians, have worked together with
admirable respect for each other’s rights and in sincere co-operation.
There is one other matter of policy touching the administration of
missions which, in this connection, it is fitting to mention, but about
which anyone with the views of the writer might well hesitate to express
publicly an opinion. It is true, however, in the judgment of many of the
wisest friends of missions, that in the Far East the sphere of woman in
missionary work should be more carefully guarded and even restricted.
It is impossible to make the inhabitants of the Orient, in general,
understand the propriety of foreign women being on terms of intimacy,
even as religious teachers, with native young men. On the other hand,
women must, as a matter of course, be employed in all the work of the
most intimate character, and within the home circle, which concerns their
own sex. It is also true that not a few of the most serious difficulties
and perplexing cases of friction between the missionaries and the
diplomats and civil magistrates, when traced to their real origin, are
due to the more personal and emotional way in which matters of public
interest are regarded by the gentler sex. The legitimate work of foreign
Christian women in the Far East is invaluable; but it should be private
and confined, for the most part if not exclusively, to intercourse with
native girls and women. In all administrative affairs, and in general
where the missions come into closest contact with the civil authorities;
it is better to-day, as it was in the days of early Christianity, that
her voice should not be heard.
The recent history of the planting and growth of Christian missions in
Korea shows a period of bloody persecution which was followed, less than
a score of years later, by a period of remarkably rapid increase. In
1707 some French priests from Peking visited the northern border of the
peninsula, but were unable to enter the country. It was three-quarters
of a century later (1783) that Thomas Kim, a Korean youth who had been
converted to Christianity under the Portuguese bishop, Alexandria de
Gloria, came over from China and succeeded in introducing the foreign
religion into his native land. A year later a royal decree was issued
against Christianity, and Thomas Kim was executed for his faith’s
sake. But, although two other Korean Christians who had been baptized
in Peking were beheaded in Seoul, December 8, 1791, the new religion
began to spread rapidly in Korea. The usual course of such efforts
was being run: others were executed, a new edict in 1802 was issued
against Christianity, and yet, “this added much to the knowledge of the
faith.” In 1836, Pierre Maubant, the second Papal nominee to the post
of Vicar Apostolic of Korea, reached Seoul after an arduous journey;
and when three years later still another murderous edict was issued,
this Christian Apostle and the two other French missionaries who had
subsequently joined him, under instruction from one of the three, Bishop
Imbert, surrendered themselves to martyrdom in the hope of staying the
persecution of their Korean converts. Still Christianity continued to
grow in the number of its adherents; and by the year 1860, the foreign
religion counted nearly 20,000 native converts. Then began, in the early
part of 1866, the infamous slaughter of the faithful under the Tai Won
Kun, the father of the “amiable” ex-Emperor, and the man “with the bowels
of iron and the heart of stone.” Within some five years about one-half
of the entire number of converts had paid the penalty with their lives.
It is not well to forget these facts of history in connection with our
estimate of the character of the Korean Government, the Korean people,
and the development of Christian Missions in Korea. Under the son of this
cruel father, the late Emperor, precisely the same thing might have taken
place at any time, had it been for his interests, in his own sight, to
have it so; and had it not been for his fear of the consequences, after
foreign control began to exercise some restraint over native cruelty. It
is foolish to suppose that the religion or the life of the Protestant
missionary, for example, who has served the ex-Emperor as physician, are
any dearer to His Majesty than were the religion and the services of
the French Roman Catholic priests to the Tai Won Kun. The first thing,
indeed, which the earlier treaties with foreign nations demanded as their
right was the “free exercise of their religion in the treaty ports for
the subjects of the signatory Powers; nor to this day does any article,
expressly[97] sanctioning missionary enterprise, appear in any of the
treaties.” That the Emperor, when freed from the influence of the Tai
Won Kun, was in his youth somewhat sincerely inclined to a more liberal
policy toward foreign religions is undoubtedly true; but almost as
undoubtedly, that his kindness toward American missionaries has been from
a purely political motive and that his use of them has been, not at all
to learn the truths of the Christian religion, but to discover through
them new and improved methods of soliciting and procuring “help” from
so-called Christian nations.
In recent years, moreover, repeated instances have occurred of the
indisposition or inability of the Korean Government to protect either
the foreign missionaries or their native converts. During the second
Tong Hak uprising in the South, in May of 1894, the American missionaries
were called into Seoul for their safe protection. The Chinese army in
Korea during the Chino-Japan war was everywhere a source of terror to
the foreign preachers of Christian doctrine and to their avowed Korean
converts; and in July of 1894 a French priest was murdered by Chinese
soldiers at Kong Hyen, near Asan. On the contrary, both the foreign and
the native Christians felt quite free from anxiety when the troops of
Japan were in control of Korean territory. The spirit of the official
classes toward the foreign religion was revealed in clear light when
the Korean Minister of Education, in October of 1896, issued a book
entitled “The Warp and Woof of Confucianism,” which was so offensive
that it was objected to by the Foreign Representatives in a body as
being disrespectful to them. In general, the capricious favors of an
unscrupulous monarch, who would readily and even gladly deliver to death
those whom he has tried to make, whether with success or not, his tools
to help carve a way through confining surroundings, are a poor substitute
for a system of law and justice, as a soil into which to pour the seed of
Christian truth.
There are said now to be thousands of native Roman-Catholic Christians
scattered about in the country of Korea. Many of the priests, who are
natives, live with their converts; but it is the policy of the Church
to have every one of its members visited once in each year by his
spiritual father. The French Catholic Cathedral (dedicated May 29, 1898)
and establishment is one of the most conspicuous objects in Seoul.
The archbishop in charge is an intelligent, kindly, and devout man.
While speaking with mild disapproval of the treatment received by his
converts a year or two before the arrival of the Resident-General, and
expressing his fear that the Koreans might inevitably be driven to the
wall by the multitudinous incoming of a sturdier and more aggressive
race, he gratefully admitted the marked improvement in conditions which
Marquis Ito was bringing to pass. To “the Church,” however, all political
institutions were indifferent: Her work remained ever one and the same,
and ever equally secure.
The story of Protestant missionary enterprise in Korea since the arrival,
in June, 1883, on a tour of inspection, of Dr. R. S. McClay, has been
frequently told. It need not be repeated here; for the purpose of this
chapter is only to sketch in barest outline the relations existing
between the reforms planned by the Residency-General and the welfare of
Korea as depending upon the progress of the Christian religion there.
General Foote, who was then United States Minister, presented to the
Emperor a statement of the object of the proposed mission which, it was
understood, would be encouraged to work most acceptably along medical and
educational lines. The summary of what has actually been accomplished
along these particular lines has already been given (Chap. XIV). Acting
on the suggestion of Dr. McClay, the Board of Missions of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in the United States sent out two missionaries, one
a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City
(Dr. Scranton, who, after a long and useful service as a missionary, has
recently been made a Professor in the Government Medical School), and
the other a graduate of Drew Theological Seminary, Mr. Henry Gerhardt
Appenzeller. Before these gentlemen reached Seoul the bloody events of
1884 had taken place. In 1887 followed Rev. George Heber Jones; and in
the same year Rev. Franklin Ohlinger was transferred from China to Korea.
Other helpers were added to this mission, as the demands of the work
grew, until the report for 1907 shows that forty-two foreign members and
thirty-five Korean preachers, ten of whom are ordained, are engaged under
its auspices in the work of propagating Christianity on Korean soil. In
recent years the more visible signs of success have greatly increased.
The summary of statistics presented before the Korean Mission Conference
at its session of June, 1906, was as follows: Full members, 2,810;
probationers, 9,981; Sunday Schools, 116, with teachers and scholars
numbering 8,943. But only a year later, the total connection of the
Church of this denomination in Korea was given at 23,453—of which 19,570
were probationers—a gain over the preceding year of 10,664, or nearly one
hundred per cent. During the same year 3,553 persons had been baptized.
It was on April 5, 1885, that Rev. H. G. Underwood of the American
Presbyterian Mission arrived and “formally opened Protestant clerical
mission work.” He was followed, on June 21st of the same year, by J.
W. Heron, M.D., who died in Seoul, July 26, 1890. To this mission
other workmen were added from time to time; and in November of 1892
a mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church of America was started
by Messrs. Junkin, Reynolds, and Tate, and a Miss Davis. Still later,
on September 7, 1898, three clergymen of the Canadian Presbyterian
Church—Messrs. Foote, McRae, and Dr. Grierson—arrived to open a mission
of this denomination. These several Presbyterian missions have been, on
the whole, well supported from the churches at home, well manned, and
more than ordinarily successful in planting and upbuilding the various
classes of missionary institutions. The table compiled from the council
statistics of these missions for the year ending June 30, 1906, makes
the following exhibit of results. The total number of missionaries was
then 77, of whom 41 were women, and 12 were engaged in medical work. The
native helpers numbered 373, of whom 81 were unordained preachers, and
201 teachers (men), with 42 Bible women and women teachers. The fruits
of these laborers were 20 fully organized churches and 628 out-stations,
or places of “regular meeting,” of which 481 were put down as “entirely
self-supporting.” Connected with them were 12,546 communicants, of which
2,811 had been added during the year, and 44,587 “adherents,” with 11,025
“catechumens” and 36,975 members of the Sunday Schools. The average
attendance upon these regular meetings was 35,262; and the total of
native contributions was $27,418.89, as reckoned in United States gold.
When the poverty of the average Korean Christians and the difficulties
of various kinds which hinder them from the regular discharge of any of
their obligations are considered, this showing of attendance at church
services and of liberality in giving cannot be pronounced otherwise than
remarkable. The increase in every form of work since the report, the
statistics of which have just been quoted, is no less remarkable in the
Presbyterian Missions than in that of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
These two American missions are, among those of the Protestant churches,
much the most active and successful in showing such results as can take
the form of a statistical exhibit. But other missionary enterprises are
worthy of mention. In September of 1890 Bishop Corfe (whose diocese was
Korea and Shing-king, _i. e._, Manchuria) arrived at Seoul to establish
a Church of England Mission. He was preceded by Dr. Julius Wiles, Deputy
Surgeon-General Retired, who opened medical work for the mission and who
was succeeded in 1893 by Dr. E. H. Baldock. With the additional help of
other clergy and lay helpers, and of sisters of St. Paul’s, Kilburn, the
customary forms of church work—evangelizing, translating and printing
a Korean prayer-book and other publications, hospital work and care of
the poor and sick—have been undertaken with that rare good sense and
self-denial which characterize so much of the missionary enterprise of
this Church.
It was not until 1899, in the month of January, that the Russian Church
Mission arrived in Seoul. It consisted of the Rev. Deacon Nicholas;
and he was followed by the Right Rev. Archimandrite Chrisanff and Mr.
Jonas Levtchenke, Psalmist, on February 12, 1900. The dwellings and
school-houses for this mission were established near the West Gate and
were first occupied in the summer of the same year.
No complete account or just estimate of the Christian forces now at
work for the religious and moral uplift of Korea could be given without
emphasizing the presence and fine progress of the Young Men’s Christian
Association at Seoul. The operations of this association did not begin
until November of 1901. Their work has been much embarrassed in the
country places by the illicit use of their name to cover and commend
various unwise and sometimes corrupt and dangerous attempts at so-called
“reform,” or even at sedition and revolution. In Seoul itself—where is
the only legitimate and recognized Y. M. C. A.—some of their make-believe
or would-be friends have done their good cause much more of damage
than has been done by any of their avowed enemies. In spite of these
embarrassments, however, and of others to which fuller reference need not
be made in this connection, the work of this benevolent association has
been most successful. As we have already said, the value of this work
for the moral, industrial, and educational reform of the Koreans has
been officially recognized by a generous subsidy from the Government.
Its efficiency and extent cannot fail to be greatly increased when its
new building, so commodious and centrally located, has been in use for a
number of years. The writer gratefully acknowledges that during his visit
in April and May, of 1907, it was largely through the manly courage and
good sense of its foreign officers, and of that portion of its native
official and other membership which followed the lead of these foreign
officers, that he was able to leave any impression upon the Korean
Christians. Indeed, in the capital city, no other means were found for
even saying a private word to the Koreans in behalf of education, morals,
or religion. It was only when away from the pernicious influences of the
Court—notably at Pyeng-yang—that the courage of the missionaries seemed
sufficient to sustain a platform for such efforts, on the part of the
guest of Marquis Ito, in the churches themselves.[98]
The “Great Revival” of 1906-1907, which added so much to the
encouragement of the missionaries and to the number of their converts,
can best be understood in its most characteristic features when viewed
in the light of what has already been said about the nature of the
Koreans themselves. After a period of silent and slow preparation, a
sudden seizure of the impulse to repent and confess came upon the entire
body of native Christians, and even carried away the foreign teachers
and preachers also. Night after night, and several times each Sunday,
the churches were crowded to suffocation with hearers of their strange
words, and witnesses of their unwonted actions. Especially at Pyeng-yang
did the people, both Christian and non-Christian, flock in from the
surrounding country—first to “look-see,” perhaps, and then to participate
in these extraordinary performances. In numerous instances, the penitent
rose with an appearance of enforced calmness and began quietly to tell
of the sinful experiences of the years both preceding and following his
adoption of the Christian name. But as he proceeded his excitement grew;
his voice rose to a higher and yet higher pitch and assumed a tone of
ever-increasing shrillness; sobbing and wailing intervened; and, finally,
he began to sway to and fro, to beat his head against the mats, sometimes
so violently as to cause the blood to flow; then he fell to the floor,
where he ended his experiences in a complete nervous collapse and lay
prostrate, frothing at the mouth and groaning piteously, or became quite
unconscious.
[Illustration: Funeral Procession in Seoul.]
What may be considered as an official account by an eye-witness of two
of these remarkable meetings gives the following description of the
phenomena:
All were prostrate on their faces, and all alike, with the
exception of the few who had already received a blessing,
were in an agony of repentance. Sometimes they beat their
foreheads and hands against the floor, sometimes they literally
writhed in anguish, roaring as if the very devils were tearing
them; and then at last, when there seemed no more power of
resistance left, they would spring to their feet and with
terrible sobs and crying, pour out their confessions of sin.
And such confessions! It was like hell uncovered. Everything
from murder, adultery, and the most inconceivable abominations
of uncleanness, through arson, drunkenness, robbery, thieving,
lying, down to hatreds, spites, and envyings, was emptied out,
and with what shame and loathing!
At the meeting of the second evening, before even the leader
took his place, the tide of prayer began rising, and although
three young men arose one after another, and attempted to
lead in prayer, their voices were not heard in the tumult of
intercessory supplication that broke out. As prayer continued
the building began to resound with groans and cries. Many
fell forward on their faces and wallowed on the floor. When
something like a semblance of order could be restored, an
opportunity was given to all who had any ill-feeling toward
any one present, or who had wronged any of the others in any
way, to make confession and ask forgiveness. In a very few
minutes the meeting was resolved into numberless groups of
students weeping in each other’s arms. Nor did the members of
the faculty escape; and it was interesting to see them, with
perhaps two or three boys weeping at their knees, and others
hanging about their necks.
In the later stages of the revival, those who went to mock remained to
be carried away by the same impulse; and when they were exhorted by the
foreign or native helpers, either at their place, wedged in among the
others (for the Korean audiences sit packed together on the floor), or
were dragged or helped forward to the altar, they experienced the relief
and happiness of “being converted.”
From the principal centres of this religious movement it spread to
surrounding places—sometimes through those who returned home from these
centres, sometimes through delegates sent out from the same centres.
One of the most remarkable of the latter cases was the experience of
the delegates deputed from Pyeng-yang to visit Chemulpo. At first, when
the church at the latter place saw the brethren from the northern city,
heard their tale, and witnessed their testimony and procedure, they were
greatly alarmed. It was even suggested that one of the visiting brethren
should be put to death as an emissary of the devil, if not a devil
himself. But the zeal of the preachers from Pyeng-yang finally triumphed;
and the church at Chemulpo itself became the scene of similar confessions
and convulsions of penitence.
The student of similar phenomena in the past will have no difficulty in
understanding and appreciating at their true value the experiences of the
“great revival” in Korea. Similar emotional manifestations are common
enough on a variety of occasions, as well in the Korea of the past as in
the Korea of to-day. Indeed, at the very time that the native Christians
of Pyeng-yang were wailing and sobbing, and beating their heads on the
mats, on account of their sins, the multitude of the same city were
doing the same things because they had been deceived into believing that
their Emperor was to be dethroned and carried off to Japan. From time
immemorial, the proper official way to attract the attention of His
Majesty to any request of his officials, or of the people, has been to
make somewhat similar demonstrations before the palace gates or inside
the palace walls. In a word, such is the Korean mode of manifesting any
strong emotional excitement.
But to discredit altogether the sincerity of these confessions or the
genuineness of the following conversion would be a no less grave mistake,
from every point of view, than to place a specially high value on them
because of their abnormal[99] psychological character. It is not strange
that the Korean populace is Korean still, when it suddenly takes to some
new kind of reform, or adopts some new kind of religion. Such strong and
contradictory, and even convulsive, reactions characterize the native in
his politics, his morals, his religion, and his behavior generally. The
amiably cruel Emperor, the smiling and good-natured but, on occasion,
atrociously barbarous court official, the peasant who seems as gentle
as his ox until he turns upon the ox, or upon his neighbor, or upon
the local magistrate, to tear in pieces, reveal essentially the same
psychical characteristics.
But how, it may be asked, as to the kind of Christian father or mother,
Christian citizen, Christian leader, which will be evolved from this
multitude of converts? Here, again, the only fair and reasonable answer
will avoid the two alike tempting but, in the end, disappointing
extremes. During the writer’s stay in Korea, Dr. George Heber Jones,
who fifteen years before had been barred outside of the gates, preached
at Kang Wha to a congregation of fifteen hundred willing hearers, about
one thousand of whom were professing Christians. Multitudes in the whole
Island were just then turning toward Christianity—entire schools and, in
some instances, almost entire villages, were professing the new faith.
In their burning zeal the converts were even resorting to a sort of
boycott in order to compel recalcitrants to the adoption of this foreign
religion. Yet when a colleague of this missionary, a member of the same
mission, was a few weeks later urged to baptize some sixty converts in
one village, he refused to comply with the request in the case of a
single person, because examination showed that none of the sixty had
as yet sufficient knowledge of what was really meant by proclaiming
themselves Christians.
Here, again, however, the student wise in the things of man’s religious
experience will not depreciate the value of such early but ignorant
steps, wherever they are taken from a motive not too degradedly selfish,
toward a higher spiritual life. The infancy of the Church in Korea will,
as a matter of course, be characterized by the infantile condition of the
Korean mind, united, alas! with a morality that is far removed from the
innocence customarily attributed to the human infant. But already the
later experiences of modern missions fully authorizes the expectation
that what Roman Catholicism earlier did to fit the Koreans for martyrdom
under the Tai Won Kun, will be much surpassed in what the combined
efforts of all the Christian institutions now planted in Korea will do
to fit her children for a nobler and happier life under the Japanese
Protectorate.
In fine, the Japanese Protectorate under the present Resident-General,
and the foreign Christian missionaries with their native converts,
command the two sources of power and influence which must unitedly work
for the uplift of the Korean nation. That His Excellency, the Marquis
Ito, takes this view of the matter, he has both by speech and action
made sufficiently clear. That the majority of the missionary body are
taking the same view of the same matter is becoming every day more clear.
If, through any honest difference of opinion upon important matters of
policy, the leaders of these two forces should fail to co-operate in
the future, it would be deplorable indeed. But if either one of the two
should, whether through avoidable misunderstanding or because of the
decline in an intelligent and conscientious desire for the good of Korea,
refuse to co-operate, the refusal would be no less of a misfortune; it
would be also worthy to be called a crime.