Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/278

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Village Life in Korea.

bors became Christians, so that one cannot travel many miles over that road now without passing the house of a Christian.

I have held many Quarterly Conferences with members in attendance who had walked from fifty to a hundred miles in order to be present. This was in the days when we had only one district and two or three Quarterly Conferences; now we have seven districts, with thirty-four Quarterly Conferences.

One great feature of the work in its transforming power has been the Bible study classes which have been conducted from time to time in all sections of our work. At some of these classes several hundred people come and spend ten days in earnest Bible study. I have known men and women to walk one hundred and fifty miles to attend one of these classes. At other times I have had them come for miles bringing bags of rice on their backs, so that they might have something to eat while they studied the Word. The last one of these classes that I conducted was so largely attended that the church was crowded to its utmost capacity. The people sat on the floor; and sometimes the church would seem to be full, while people remained standing around the doors. I would ask the congregation to stand and sing; while they stood singing the people outside would crowd in till all the standing room was occupied; then all would take seats, each being compelled to crowd himself into just as little space as possible. From these classes men and women return to their villages with new visions of life as well as with hopes of heaven and eternal joy.