The scenery from Chil Pong to Won Tong is very beautiful. The road winds through the mountains, accompanied by a charming little river most of the way. There is a wonderful restfulness in the quiet of these mountains, where no rattle of the world intrudes to break the divine silences, or to interrupt the voices of nature, which only emphasize the peacefulness that envelops one. One feels God near and communion with him easy. The heart lifts itself with no effort in scenes like these.
From Won Tong we passed to Sorai or Song Chun, to which reference has already been often made in these pages. We were lodged in the school room next the church, a sunny, pleasant apartment. This Sorai school was already famed through all the country round, and Christians were sending their boys from other villages to obtain the advantage of Christian teaching. Next morning early a company of little girls and boys were waiting outside my door, dressed in new clean garments of the brightest possible colors (starched, dyed, and pounded to a miraculous crispness, gloss and glory of tint, chiefly scarlet, green and yellow), especially for this occasion. We had a singing class with them every morning after that, and a Bible story was told and explained, too. The women’s class was held immediately after the children’s, but many women came to the children’s class, and most of the children came to that held for the women. In the afternoon the women came again for another Bible lesson, and in the evening men, women and children met for united prayer, praise and Bible study with Mr. Underwood.
I was again taken very sick here at Sorai, but recovered when that result seemed most unlikely, through God’s answer to the prayers of our native Christians, one of whom, Mrs. Kim, spent the whole night in prayer for me. Such love and devotion makes the tie between pastor and people very strong.
As soon as I was able to travel we hurried back to Hai Ju and Seoul, for word had come, bringing the sad news of the death of Mr. Gifford in one of the country villages about sixty miles from Seoul. He had gone alone with a Korean helper, and after a brief illness had passed away suddenly at night, probably scarcely aware that he was seriously ill. He was loved by all the Koreans, who could not fail to recognize his spirituality and consecration. Mrs. Gifford was then in an extremely weak state, having never recovered her strength after a violent attack of Asiatic dysentery the preceding summer. She had just begun to improve a little, and we to hope that at last we might look for her return to perfect health.
A native messenger, all unannounced, rushed into her presence and told her that her husband was dead. She never saw his face again, or had the sad comfort of a message, or one of these little souvenirs which women prize and console their aching hearts withal. She wilted like a lily, rudely snapped from the stem. When the first shock was over and her mind became a little composed, several days later, after friends had left her for a peaceful soothing night’s rest, a Korean servant entered the room and told her that her husband had been neglected and slighted in his last illness, and had died alone quite uncared for. She never rallied from this blow. Sweet, calm, uncomplaining, she grew weaker and weaker, and only one month after her beloved husband passed away her gentle spirit followed. They had been extremely congenial and well suited, and it seemed a gracious providence that they were so soon reunited.
Mrs. Gifford was a woman greatly beloved by every one, and one of the most effective and consecrated women workers on the field, with a modest unassuming quiet spirit, but with untiring devotion and self-effacement. She worked here ten years for Christ. The Koreans, whom she had loved so well and served so faithfully, bore her to her grave and laid her beside her husband. We all felt that the loss to the work was beyond expression, and from a human view point irreparable.
In the following fall we visited Pyeng Yang for the first time since our wedding journey in 1889. The annual meeting of all the mission (now grown quite extensive) for the discussion and settlement of plans for work for the coming year was to be held there; so we all risked our lives on a crazy little steamer, which, however, contrary to probabilities, landed us safely not far from our destination.
Great were the changes we beheld. Missionaries in comfortable pleasant homes, a large church (paid for with native money), newly built, able to accommodate nearly two thousand people, and great gatherings of simple earnest farmer folk, which it did one’s soul good to see and hear. To us, who on our last visit looked on that great waste of heathenism, and discussed the advisability, or otherwise, of starting a sub-station there, it was almost overwhelming. To us, one of whom at least had come to the country in the very beginning of the history of our Protestant missions, and to whom in the light of the records of work in other fields the task looked so stupendous, so overwhelming, to find here in the far interior the wonderful evidences of the power and goodness of God filled our hearts with joy and awe. How could we ever shrink or doubt, or fear again, or do aught but ascribe “glory and honor, dominion and power, to him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb for ever.”
I regret that I have not personally seen more of the work of God in northern Whang Hai and in Pyeng Yang provinces, so that I might give interesting incidents which would put my readers more in touch with the Christians there, but I copy from the reports of Pyeng Yang and Syen Chyun stations for the year 1901 and 1902 the following:
“In the whole territory covered by this station, Pyeng Yang, there are 3,100 baptized adults, 3,737 catechumens enrolled, and over 12,000 who attend more or less regularly and in various ways come in touch with the gospel. The total number baptized this year is 642, and the number of catechumens received 1,363. There are in the Pyeng Yang city church 1,153 members and catechumens, with a congregation of from 1,200 to 1,600 on the Sabbath.