INTRODUCTION.
In the Orient, while the family is the unit of social life, the village might be styled the unit of civic life. The head of the family may be the social and religious center of a group of families. The head of the village is often the leader and responsible head of a larger group, which may assume the size and character of a clan. In any case the key to the smaller or larger group is the father, the elder brother, or the recognized village elder, who is the patriarch and ruler of those gathered about him in an association of blood relationship or traditional allegiance.
India has large cities, such as Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, but at last it is an empire of villages. In a population of 300,000,000 it is estimated that ninety per cent, or 270,000,000, live in villages. In the province of Bengal alone there are 227,000 towns and villages in an area of 151,000 square miles, or nearly two villages to a mile. Dr. Arthur Smith has said that there is no reason for thinking the proportion is less in China than in India.
In Korea there are no large cities outside of Seoul, the capital. There will be later on, under the stimulus of the outside world, with its tides of commercialism, industrialism, and immigration. The problem of evangelization now is a problem of village life. It is more true of Korea than even of India or China. It is largely a question of how we may swiftly reach ten mil-
