CHAPTER VIII
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.
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.