Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/256

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
218
Village Life in Korea.

come unto me, and I will give you rest." Then he would talk to the people about burdens and rest. They understood what burdens meant, for some of them were standing there then with their jiggies on their backs, on the way to bring some heavy burden. The women, too, understood what burden-bearing meant. They had known little else all their lives. Even then many of the little girls were standing around with a baby brother or sister tied on their backs; they all knew what it meant. But the other part of the subject was new to most of them. Rest! What did they know about it? Mr. Ye explained to them that the burden about which he was talking was not the jiggy, but the one on their hearts, the burden of sin, and that the One who said "Come" was God's only Son, Jesus, who had died to save us all from sin. Then he would quote John iii. 16, tell them of God's love, and beg them to accept God's love and believe on Jesus, at the same time telling them how Jesus had saved him from a life of sin and shame.

After about a month of this work, I made up my mind that I could trust Mr. Ye to go put as a witness for the Lord, and so asked him how he would like to give up his farm and other business, and just go out and preach and sell books all the time. He said it would be very good. I told him that he would have to move to a strange town, to which he replied: "According to the pastor's word, I will do." So I told him all right; his salary would be five dollars a month, and he could begin work as soon as he could arrange to move. He called a few friends with their jiggies,