Keizan, Korea by R. C. Wangerin

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1914

Keizan, Korea

By R. C. Wangerin

It has been some time since I reported to the REVIEW. We have been doing our work quietly in our local field, with our hands ever full.

As far as I know at present, all our workers are well, and spending all their energy in advancing the Master's cause in Korea. The work of God is ever onward. It cannot fail. But sometimes things take a turn which we had not planned on nor imagined. Not all is flowers and sunshine in the mission field. The past few weeks' experiences here have taught us some new lessons. We have been made to feel very sad indeed as we have seen some for whom we had great hopes turn away from the truth. Our recent week of prayer was especially devoted to the reclamation of the weak, the discouraged, and the backslidden.

When first coming out to this field, we fondly believed that we should receive a royal welcome and be made to feel perfectly at home. But we have learned that that is not always the case. We are sometimes made to feel that we are intruders, and the antiforeign spirit is often clearly revealed. We have to come close to the people and win them before we can do anything to help them.

It means a great deal for these people to become true Seventh-day Adventists. It is much easier for the natural man to live up to the nominal creeds of the day than to live up to the requirements of God's Word. Hence the Sabbath is the test almost as much here as elsewhere; and the "gentleman" class, which composes about one fifth of the population, is very hard to reach. Its members will not work, for they esteem it beneath their dignity to work with their hands in honest occupation. Others who become Christians and find that the bread or rice does not come their way, will after a time go where they find that important factor.

According to the Korean custom, the head of the family provides for the household and for the children's households until his death, when the oldest son becomes heir to all. So it is difficult for the younger members of the family to exist and become Christians with the food supply left out.

Only those who have enough moral backbone to break away from their father's house, and are not ashamed nor afraid of hard work, and declare themselves independent, are really able to carry out their choice in this matter.

Then the other missions have what we might term "community churches," where some well-to-do believer (say rice merchant) employs from ten to fifty or more persons (only professed Christians) on condition that they attend church. While he believes, they all believe; when he quits, they all follow the leader.

These devices have often proved a great temptation and annoyance to our poorer brethren. They were told that if they would work on the Sabbath and come to church on Sunday, a steady job would be the reward.

Again, the general attitude of the people seems greatly changed since the annexation. Korea was once the land of promise and missionary enterprise. Now that the people see and realize that we foreigners are here only for their spiritual welfare, and not to rear an earthly kingdom, little interest is manifested in religious things. Other missionaries have complained that there is a general walkout in many of their churches.

These are some of the causes that have torn our little flock. We had a good company at Keizan, numbering forty-eight baptized adult members. For two years we kept them together; but now, although all that could be done has been done, we seem unable to hold them.

Nevertheless we are hopeful, and thankful for a part in this grand work. We are glad that there is wheat among the tares. There are precious sheaves to be garnered in before the great day of the Lord comes. I do not wish to give the impression that we are discouraged. We must, however, face conditions as they are, and be brave and press forward. There is victory ahead.

Besides these experiences in the home church, we have been carrying on a village campaign, visiting several villages a day in house-to-house advertising of our evening meetings, and by the use of the stereopticon have drawn hundreds. After a thrilling lecture on the times and the preparation needed, we have used our literature in large quantities. Two one month's series of meetings were held in two large places,—Tai-ku, a city of nearly thirty thousand, and a town near Fusan. New places are entered. Thousands have heard the message, but out of about forty persons who pledged to obey, only three or four have really been steadfast. These things are to us omens of the coming day. Our faith has never been brighter nor our courage better than this day.

R. C. Wangerin.