But we must turn away from these incidents illustrating so thrillingly as they do the wonderful work of God among the people and the kind of Christians He is calling into His fold there. Their liberality, their consecration, their zeal, their faith, all proclaim them preeminently the work of the Spirit, and these particular provinces do not abound more in these examples, than others of which every missionary can tell. These, in fact, have never been considered so hopeful and progressive as those in the North.
Time and space will not suffice to describe as carefully the work of every station as of the larger centers and we must hasten on. Fusan Station was started next after Seoul, but a series of deaths and removals from one unavoidable cause after another almost seemed to indicate that the will of God was that the station itself should be removed to some other place. But houses and a fine hospital having been built, the brave missionaries have endured discouragement and disappointment, not in the natives, but in the constant depletion of their forces, and to-day as everywhere in Korea the work is rapidly growing and spreading. The Presbyterian Hospital here, built by some generous Christians in America, is absolutely up-to-date, and the physicians’ work is an immense factor in spreading the knowledge of the love of Christ through all the surrounding country. During the year there have been added to this comparatively small church an increase of almost fifty per cent. The territory of this station comprises the Province of South Kyeng Seng and considering the Australians who share the work, there are left to be evangelized by the American Presbyterian Mission here 750,000 people. There are 47 self-supporting churches, 520 communicant members, with 2017 adherents. All this work is under the care of two clerical workers and the assistance of an overworked doctor who sees thousands of patients and performs hundreds of serious operations with no assistants but Koreans. The Australian Presbyterian Mission who share this work here have a good local church and girls’ school at Fusan and have started a new station at Chin Ju. They have three clerical missionaries, one of whom is a doctor, and three single ladies.
After Fusan, Pyeng Yang was the next station to be established in Korea. Its history in the early times has been already given in another chapter. Perhaps because of the many trials its people have had to endure in the course of the two Japanese wars and subsequent colonization by aliens, perhaps because from the earliest times, first from Manchuria and then from Seoul the gospel seeds were most persistently and continuously sown here, perhaps because the people of the north are more ready and receptive, we know not, but the work during the last fifteen years has multiplied and spread with far more amazing rapidity in the north than in the middle and southern portions of Korea.
The same can hardly be said much longer. Witness Mr. Swearer’s letter, just quoted, and the wonderful percentage of growth in other places. The south has at last taken fire, too, but nevertheless, even to-day, the greatest fruits of mission efforts are being gathered in our northern stations.
This station was started in 1893 and has under its care the province of South Pyeng Yang which, though small, is thickly populated, and a portion of North Whang Hai, including about 800,000 people to be evangelized. There are seven ordained Presbyterian ministers on whose shoulders in addition to this evangelistic work rests a large share of theological instruction, two large educational institutions, the preparation of school text-books and books of all kinds as well as the care and direction of eleemosynary institutions such as a school for the blind and home for the friendless.
The institutional work for women is largely under the care of two ladies and the evangelistic work for women is ably undertaken by the wives of the missionaries who all devote to it a great deal of time and faithful work.
“One part of the province of Whang Hai, at first coming under the care of Pyeng Yang station, about two years ago was set off with a part of that belonging to Seoul station to form the new station of Chai Ryong, and a part of Northern Pyeng An province which also was at first a part of Pyeng Yang territory, was set aside to form the Syen Chun station as the work grew too heavy and was too distant to receive the careful constant oversight needed from Pyeng Yang city. The territory and work in this province is shared with the Northern Methodists. A division according to counties has been arranged between these two denominations for most of this section and a similar division is now under advisement for the balance. The Methodists have at present only three ordained clerical missionaries and one physician to care for their share of the evangelistic work in this district which includes the province of South Pyeng An with the entire province of Whang Hai, making this mission’s share of the population in the neighborhood of one million, for whom there are only four ordained men, one of whom must give his entire time to educational work. As with the Presbyterians, the wives of the missionaries take a full and active part in the evangelistic work. In 1893, when these two denominations planted their stations and organized their two churches neither could have counted more than twenty baptized members—not seventy-five baptized persons in the whole province, not four chapels in the extent of their district. Now, 1907, the Presbyterians have 164 self-supporting churches with 258 regular meeting places, 6089 communicants of whom 1106 were added during the year and 20414 adherents. For the instruction of the children in those churches there are 111 parochial schools of which 110 are entirely self-supporting, with an attendance of 3075 pupils. In the city are four churches, Central, South, North and East, with another church to be set off in the West almost at once. Although three other churches have already been set off from the Central Church it is still too small and they are compelled to hold two services for the accommodation of the one congregation, packing the building first with men, later with women. ‘It is here that the great prayer-meetings of between eleven and twelve hundred are held, while on the same night similar meetings are held in the other churches, giving some three or four thousand people for the week night services. This has also become an institutional church, with its church house in the center of the city with recreation and reading rooms, night schools and classes for educational training and a large book shop for the dissemination of the printed Word.’”[14]
[14] “Korea’s Challenge,” by H. G. Underwood.
To a large extent the better class of the people of the city have been reached and to-day the whole city feels the effect of Christian influence. A Christian sentiment rules and the actions of church members have a reflex influence on the whole community. Not only is this the case within the city walls but this influence reaches far into the country. Its own evangelists sometimes paid by the native church, sometimes voluntarily at their own expense, go freely everywhere, preaching, establishing groups of Christians, which become self-supporting churches, and holding Bible classes. Most of these groups have their schools and in their turn as they gain strength send out evangelists and workers, thus multiplying the influence of the gospel and everywhere that this influence prevails saloons are closed, the Sabbath is kept holy, gambling and vice of every kind is suppressed and first of all idolatry is abolished. Let me here quote a few lines from the letter of an American young lady who visited some of the services held in Pyeng Yang.
“We visited eight Sunday Schools—Sunday Schools of small boys and small girls, of big boys and older girls, of married women and of married men, varying from one to three hundred pupils respectively. Every room was flooded with sunlight and crowded with white, spotless linen-dressed men or women, though nothing had been said to them on the subject of their appearance or their dress; the Christians have all adopted the custom of making valiant efforts, no matter how poor they are, to appear in clean clothes each Sunday. You can imagine what this means for women who toil all day every day but Sunday, and who wear voluminous white dresses and white handkerchiefs tied around their heads like Dutch caps. The effect is wonderful. Their faces shone like the morning, their clothes glistened like white satin. There were six hundred gathered in one church for special women’s service at eleven o’clock. Seated close together on the floor, facing me (I was at the organ on the platform), with their black hair securely tied back under their handkerchiefs, their dark eyes full of expression, their white teeth glistening as they smiled at me or the speaker—they were truly beautiful.”