Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/241

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The Village Religion.
203

those selfsame intelligent young men or their representatives out at that hour of the night wailing and calling for the spirit of their dead mother. It is hardly necessary to add that there was little sleep for us that night, and we were glad when the sun brought the light so that we might go on our way, which we did, feeling that we had done something to make one poor Korean girl happy.

I may add, in closing this story, that it was only a few weeks till some member of the gentleman's family committed murder, and the family were compelled to flee for their lives. The old mother and all concerned lived to see the day when they were very glad that I had broken the engagement. The girl is now the wife of one of our fine young Christians, and, so far as I know, is happy.

What Paul said that day when he "stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said. Ye men of Athens, in all things I perceive that ye are very religious," might be just as truthfully said by any missionary who enters one of our Korean villages of the present day.