The Korean Outlook by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 5, 1908

The Korean Outlook

By W. A. S.

LAST week the Mission Board regretfully cabled to Japan, advising the return of Elder J. E. Shultz and wife to this country, to regain their health. To none will this step bring deeper regret than to these workers themselves, who have held on long in the endeavor to take up the work in Korea to which they were assigned. However, medical advice was very decided that to persist in the plan of going forward in pioneer mission work would result in complete disablement.

Soon after landing in Japan last autumn, an assault upon Brother and Sister Shultz was made by an American youth, an acquaintance, evidently of unbalanced

mind. All familiar with the circumstances felt that it was only by the distinct mercies of the Lord that they were not fatally injured. Under the best of surgical care and nursing at our Kobe Sanitarium, they have endeavored to get ready to go on to Korea, to which field Brother Shultz had paid but a brief visit, but it has been found necessary to advise them to return to this country, to more favorable conditions for making a recovery.

The Mission Board has extended an invitation to an experienced worker in the West, who it is hoped will respond and go forward soon to join the workers in Korea. Elder W. R. Smith and wife, with Sister Scharffenberg, a Bible worker, as their only associate, have long been left alone in a field where the conditions demand a larger staff of helpers. With many coming quickly into the Sabbath truth with but an imperfect idea of general Bible teaching, the need is indeed most urgent.

We know that prayers will ascend for Korea and for the workers there, and for Brother and Sister Shultz, who are forced like wounded soldiers to return for a time at least. In a letter written January 10, when he was still hopeful of going forward to Korea, Brother Shultz wrote as follows, and his letter constitutes an earnest and stirring appeal for Korea's need:—

Mrs. Shultz is very nervous, and will be for some time to come; but after our narrow escape, we can feel that had it not been for a loving Heavenly Father, we would not be here to-day.

I am now taking two lessons in Korean daily, and am making some progress. My teacher is one of the workers whom we brought from Korea. We have had an opportunity to study our points of truth together, as he speaks some English, and it has been a great help to him, for you will remember that little work has been done for them, and they do not know this message as well as some who have been reared in it. As soon as he obtains all the texts on a given subject, he immediately sends them to the other workers in Korea. One splendid quality about the Koreans is that as soon as they hear the message, “they find their brother,” who has perhaps prayed under the fig-tree for many days for the very truth we have to give.

Word has just reached us that two young men who were educated in the normal school at Pyong Yang, who were members of the Pyong Yang church, having been sent far into the interior to teach government schools, have been sowing seeds of truth. One writes that a well-educated Chinaman, who teaches in the same school with him, has begun the observance of the Sabbath, and asks that a minister be sent to further instruct him. The other writes that he has been teaching a school composed of sixty young men whom he has interested in the truth, some of whom are now observing the Sabbath.

Thus may be seen the opening providences of God in the land of the “Morning Calm.” I feel that there is great need of strenuous effort in this field while the Koreans are stretching forth their hands unto God. Truly their dire need pleads as eloquently as did the Macedonians of old.

I am told by those who were working in Japan twenty years ago, that the same interest was shown in Christianity here at that time, but now Japan has grown to be a mighty factor in the world, and she says, as did ancient Babylon, “I sit a queen, and am no widow;” therefore her people feel that they have need of naught, save of education.

The Presbyterian Mission Board has voted vast sums for the advancement of the work in Korea. They recognize that now is the opportune moment to work for her benighted millions. The Koreans have lost nearly everything earthly, and are more inclined to listen concerning things not transitory.

Well, I decided that I would not trouble you with our dire needs when I began this letter, but the burden of the situation rests heavily upon me. When I see the difficulties with which the workers in Japan labor in bringing people to the truth, and the eagerness with which the Koreans embrace it, it appeals to me that there are times when the arm of the Omnipotent is extended to assist those who feel their need, just as in the days of Israel's calamities.

I praise God that I have a part in giving this message to those who are eager for it, who are praying for it. Years ago it was a custom in Korea to kindle signal fires from the northern border of the land to the southern extremity, as an evidence to the emperor that his kingdom was at peace with neighboring lands. Those lights have now gone out, but the Lord has not left the land in utter darkness, for the light of righteousness has been kindled at the extreme northern city of Weju, and all through the land down to distant Fusan in the south are little lights springing up, telling the people that there are those even in a land of tumult and sedition who are at peace with the King of the universe. May we not pray that God's providences may be discerned in “Chosen's Land”?

W. A. S.