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THE MILLION MO VEMENT IN KOREA
The Heroism of the Koreans in Their Crusade Tor Concerts —Christians Pberylvhere Asked to Assist by Prayer.
~ HE movement for winning a million
souls to Christ in Korea in a year is
Xa sweeping over the Hermit nation like a
Jw tidal wave, and is arousing the highest
pitch of enthusiasm. The passion for
souls displayed both by the missionaries
and the Koreans is little less than apos
\ tolic in its fervor and heroism.
—_J Upon my return to Korea, after sev
eral weeks absence in Japan, my first glimpse of the
million campaign was at Ichun, in the interior, at a
conference with the Koreans presided over by Rev
J. L. Gerdine, of the Southern Methodist Church. I
reached Seoul at night and the next morning set off
with Mr. Hugh Miller, agent of the British and For
eign Bible Society, on the journey of about one hun
dred and fifty miles by rail and horse. Leaving the
train at Cham Sung shortly after noon, we set out
on .our journey of one hundred and forty li on
Korean ponies, and reached Ichun the following
afternoon. The two and a half days spent at the
conference were days of heaven upon the earth.
God’s Spirit was present in such power that one was
carried back in imagination to the first century o f
the Christian Church when all hearts were aflame
with love to Christ and a holy passion for souls.
There were about three hundred delegates in at
tendance from all over the Southern Methodist dis
trict in Korea. They included pastors, leaders of
groups of churches, helpers, colporteurs, Bible wo
men, merchants and farmers. All were there at their
own expense; all had walked from ’their villages;
and some had travelled for a week a distance of
two hundred miles, in order to enjoy the gathering
and get inspiration for another year’s work. I saw
three Bible women who walked over one hundred
miles to be present, and a blind man who groped
along more than twenty miles.
The keynote of the Conference was the “Million
Souls for Christ” this year. Every address, every
talk, and every song was concentrated on this one
great aim. At the first meeting, Dr. W. T. Reid
led the congregation of over four hundred in the
beautiful country church, in singing the campaign
song by Mr. Harkness: “A Million Souls for Jesus.”
It was the most popular hymn of the Conference.
They never tired of singing it. Some of the Korean
leaders suggested that it be sung at family prayers
each morning, and this is now the custom in not
a few homes.
The most thrilling hour of the Conference came
when Rev. C. T. Collyer called upon the delegates
to give their whole time for so many days during the
: The Lady From Alabama
\ (Continued From Page Three)
But how could she meet Burwood
Morris, provided she cared to do so,
much less “love him up to God?” She
was profoundly puzzled, and laughed
lightly, at the turn her thoughts had
taken. Never had the social gulfs
seemed so deep, so wide, so impass
able. ‘Release the angel from the
clod?” But how? She gave up the
mental puzzle, in silent despair, and
returned to her study of Nature.
A brown ewe lamb of the flock had
escaped the vigilant eye of the Shep
herd of Solitude, and had wandered
into the apple orchards, where the
falling petals were plastering him
with flakes of bloom. It was a beau
tiful wilderness that his small legs
had carried him within, and he may
or may not have been the scapegoat
of his half-tribe of Mannasseh! At all
events, the oldest he-goat religiously
engaged in butting a dead tree-trunk,
over and over, in a bare spot of the
Ry GEORGE T. R. DAVIS.
next three months to working for the lost. I was
amazed at the marvellous response to the appeal.
Sometimes there would be ten or fifteen or more
men on their feet at once eager to call out their
“days of service”. A merchant arose and said: “I
am going to do this work continually; but I will
devote my entire time to it for one week in every
month,” making twenty-one days during the next
quarter.
A boatman said he would give sixty days to the
Lord during the three months. A third declared ne
would give every day, save Sunday, when he wanted
to attend church himself! Another said he could
only give three full days, but he was going to preach
every day no matter where he was. A travelling
merchant said he was going to preach all along
the road, but he would give six entire days. One
man aroused enthusiasm by stating that he would
devote sixty of the ninety days to the Lord, and
would keep on in this way until the million souls
were won. At length the blind man arose —the one
who had walked twenty miles to be present —and
said he would give the-entire ninety days to the
work. One of the women delegates said she could
only promise six days, but she was going to preach
to everyone she met. The total number of days
promised was 2,721; or the equivalent of one man
preaching Christ constantly for seven years, seven
months and five days!
The second notab’e gathering I attended in Korea
was a great, men's Bible training class, held at Chai
Ryung, 15 miles from a railroad. It was one of those
classes for tse study of God’s Word for which Korea
is famous. Each winter the country is literally
honey-combed with classes for both women and men
at which hundreds of Christian workers gather from
scores of villages to spend a week or two studying
God’s Word. In these classes lies one of the open
secrets of the marvellous progress of the Gospel in
Korea. Between five hundred and seven hundred
men had come to Chai Ryung, some from long dis
tances, to spend eight days at their own expense
learning more of the Old Book.
t\s at Ichun, the climax of their enthusiasm for
souls came when Rev. W. B. Hunt asked how many
of those present would devote their entire time for
a part of the next three months to winning others to
Christ. Tn a moment ten or more were on their
feet declaring they would give the entire ninety
days to God for the work. Others said they would
give sixty days, others thirty, and son, until in a
few moments over four thousand days had been
pledged. This was later increased to over five thous
and days of self-sacrifice for God and souls, or the
meadow, looked after the Prodigal,
in mild disapproval. Age loses its
taste for the bloom of the apple trees
of Life, but never for the fruit.
After watching the comedy in the
meadow, for a moment and the gyra
tions of the lost lamb, among the
white-crowned apple trees, Rose tried,
industriously, to paint.
The Spirit of Chance took advan
tage of the situation, and, with folded
wings, floated over the back of the
oldest he-goat, causing him to butt
square into mother-earth; thus giving
the Czar of the Meadows an unexpect
ed jar. But his ghostship passed on
his way, and, deliberately, took up his
station, near the Prodigal lamb, in the
1 vagrant orchards of Pomona. For
some moments he used the unseen
wires of telepathy that enswathed the
Mouse of Solitude.
Would the young artist go a-fishing?
Yes? No? Yes?
The Golden Age for April 14, 1910.
Evidently Rose was receiving the
suggestion—for she yawned’ Next
she laid down her brushes. Lastly,
she unthumbed her much-stained pal
lette. She would meditate over the
matter.
Who could paint on such an after
noon—when all the ten thousand
trumpets of Elfland were blowing,
along the silver curves of Mill wood
creek? —when the richest of wander
lights were in the sky?
“Er-what’s the matter with me?”
she sighed. “This must be a most
acute atack of Spring laziness. I’ll
have to get some old prescription
from Aunt Fan, who is a famous herb
doctor among her people, like, let me
see, sulphur and tartar!”
She rose to get her rod and fishing
basket. The Spirit of Chance cavort
ed over a small apple-tree. Things
seemed to be coming his way!
Four o’clock chimed, in slumberous,
silver strokes, from the Swiss clock,
on the landing of the marble stairs,
and, the great Mission clock, in the
Jtalinated hall above, boomed a reso
nant answer. Amid this sweet con
course of sounds, Rose took down a
silver-handled fishing rod, from its
equivalent of about fourteen years of service for
one man!
During the sessions of the Chai Ryung class the
men also purchased over five thousand gospels, at
one sen each, to take back to their villages, and give
to unbelievers as a means of leading them into the
light. This widespread distribution of God’s Word,
by the Koreans themselves as a method of personal
work, is one of the prominent features of the
campaign. Already in less than three months over
250,000 gospels have been sold to the missionaries or
Koreans, and 400,000 have been ordered from the
printer.
The Koreans are praying for souls with an in
tensity and simple faith which puts to shame those
of us in Christian lands. They think nothing of
spending all day or all night in prayer. Last win
ter during some revival meetings in Songdo it was
a common thing for Christians to go out on the
hills after the evening meeting and kneel on the
frozen ground while they cried to God for the out
pouring of the Holy Spirit. At Chai Ryung at 5:30
each morning several Koreans came to the home of
of the missionary with whom I was staying to spend
an hour in prayer with him. At Pyeng Yang, Pastor
Kil and an elder were in the habit of meeting at
the church for prayer at dawn each mornng. Others
heard of it and asked permission to meet with them.
Mr. Kil announced that any who wished might
pray with them for a few days at 4:30 a. m. The
next morning people began gathering at 1:00 a. m.,
at 2:00 a. m. a large number were present; and
at 4:30 a. m. over four hundred had assembled. Is
it any wonder that they have faith for a million
souls in Korea?
Because of the oppression of centuries the Ko
rean is often lazy and shiftless, but when he be
comes a Christian his transformation is marvelous.
He becomes an intense personal worker. In many
Korean churches it is a kind of unwritten rule that
a new convert must lead someone else to Christ
before they are admitted to church membership. A
day or two ago I was told of a big burly Korean
who had been a drunkard and criminal. He found
Christ, and less than a year later, when the mis
sionary visited the heathen district in which he
lived he found two hundred believers in three
villages as a result of that one man’s efforts. In
another village the membership of the church was
recently doubled in a month. Upon investigation it
was found to be due largely to the prayers and
work of one man. They said the man simply prayed
the people into the church.
(Continued on Page 8.)
rack, in the gun-room, and strapped
on a gray straw fish-basket, snapping
the buckles in their leather holes,
with a sheer wave of youthful delight,
pulsing through all her veins.
“Anyway,” she mused, at this evi
dence of unimpaired physical vitality,
“I do not grieve, and grow lean for
my far-off, vague, elusive psychic love.
I have not been:
“A faded watcher through the weary
night—■
A meek, sweet statue at the silver
shrines,
In deep, perpetual prayer for him she
loved.”
And, indeed, she looked wholesome
ly fresh and alive!
As she returned to her own room,
a grey troubadour of a mocking-bird,
perched on the undulating limb of an
ivory-wrought apple tree, felt the
spring perfume go to his head, and
lest she forget the message of the
Ghost of Chance, lest she return to
her loved painting, purled such a mad
trill of exquisite melody, voicing the
indescribable beauty of the Southland
in springtime, that the joyous cheru-
(Continued on Page 15.)
