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IO THE PRESBYTERIA
Missionary
THE CRAVING OF KOREANS.
The craving- of Korean converts and inquirers for
more knowledge of the wonderful book that we cherish
as our P?ible, is most impressive.
Dr. Underwood, of the Northern Presbyterian mission,
gives a suggestion of the native's hunger for Gospel
truth in this statment:
, The native Korean convert is zealous to study his
Bible. Bibles are not given away in Korea, nor sold for
a small fraction of their cost, but fetch the full cost of
their production. Yet in spite of the Korean poverty
so great is the demand that last year when the Bible
committee had ordered a new edition of 20.000 copies of
the New Testament, the whole edition was sold before a
word had been printed. Koreans will endure great privation
and travel for days to attend a Bible class, and
these classes, varying according to locality from two
hundred and fifty to eleven hundred and eighty enrolled
members, will cfentinue from ten to fourteen days. Then
the attendants on these larger classes in their turn l-.1~.1n
smaller classes, so that one station in the north reports
during- the past year as many as one hundred and ninetytwo
of these smaller classes, with an enrollment that
exceeded ten thousand.
THE SIEGE OF THE MISSIONARIES.
In Pekin?In the Year 1900.
Of all the events of the century just closed,
none have revealed the watchfulness of God
over his people more fully than did the occurrences of
the siege which was undergone by the ambassadors of
European powers and by the Christian missionaries in
Pekin in the year 1900. We have just come across
some notes (made some years ago) which bring these
scenes freshly to mind.
We all know how the minds of the Chinese, and especially
of their leaders, were inflamed, during the
nineties, by the efforts of the powers of Europe to
appropriate parts of the Chinese Empire. The resentment
was but natural. To this was added the interferences
by Roman Catholic priests in China with the
administration of justice in her civil courts. These
things furnished the occasion of which the Boxers took
1,^1,1
.?w?u in inciting tneir lollowers to outrage.
Our concern at this time is with the protection of
the missionaries in Pekin during that crisis. It was
a beautiful exhibition of God's care.
The increasing hostility of the Boxers to all that was
foreign had been no secret in China. As early as September,
1899, threats were frequent. By the month of
May, 1900, the air became full of rumors of violence.
By about the last of day May the admirals in charge of
the fleet at Tien Tsin, forty miles south of Pekin, dispatched
a body of four hundred marines by rail to that
city. The troops went ahead, leaving their artillery to
follow the next day. Before the next morning dawned,
the Boxers tore up the railroad to Pekin and the artillery
never reached the soldiers.
lN OF THE SOUTH. April 14, 1909.
On the eighth of June all the missionaries who lived
in Pekin left their homes and repaired to the compound
of the Methodist Mission, which was but a quarter of
a mile from the British legation. At that time the ambassadors
were not ready to invite the missionaries to
come within the legation walls. If they had not (later)
done so every life in the legation would have been sacrificed.
During the next ten days the superstitions of the
Chinese were used by Providence for the safety of the
missionaries. At the Methodist compound a soldier was
placed in the church steeple to watch. But the Boxers
believed that the man in that steeple was "a mysterious
stranger who stood guard over it with a powerful
charm," with which the Chinaman could never successfully
cope. Thus for days were these Christians protected
by the superstition. A week later, all the Christian
chapels in Pekin were burned and an effort was
made to capture the Methodist compound.
Some of the exigencies were trying. One day during
this week, at sunset, a knock was heard at the gate. It
was a Christian mother begging for admittance. In her
arms was an infant covered with smallpox eruptions.
Could she be admitted to a building crowded with
reiugees:* Christian love demanded it and she was received.
The next day, June 19, the Empress ordered all foreigners
to leave Pekin. Of course compliance meant
death by the wayside. The American ambassador (believing
that they would be protected) counselled that
they should attempt the journey to Tien Tsin. But
they refused. Their refusal was used by. God as the
one great instrumentality in protecting the ambassadors
in the legation. For when they refused, the legations
invited them within their wall* nnd it m" ti-.?
missionaries who constructed the barriers of defence
and thus saved the lives of the ambassadors.
But how could this band of missionaries and of natives
get safely from the Methodist compound to the
legation? Between the two places were a thousand
Chinese soldiers full of hatred and bitterness. Early on
that day the German ambassador, Baron Kettelin, had
been massacred; how could they hope for a safe pas????
^ r>--^ 1 - *
.--dgc: dui uuucr me protection of prayer?with no
earthly helper?the whole company passed under the
gaze of the soldiers and not one of them suffered harm.
But how could all these missionaries and all these
Chinese be provided with quarters? Reply: On that
day Prince Su, whose house was adjacent to the legation,
moved out. He left' room for hundreds and he
left cloth which made forty thousand sandbags with
which to protect the besieged ones.
How feed such a multitude? For there were 473 marines
and seven hundred native Christians; and the fami1!
...I-.- ? -
lies oi me missionaries and the ambassadors were four
hundred more. But when Prince Su moved out, also
a wholesale rice dealer moved away, leaving a large
store of rice within the walls, and six mules .to grind
the rice.
But how about defences? The superstition of the
Chinese again came to their defence. Under the popular
imagination that the air is ever full of spirits who