Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/281

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What Christianity Is Doing for the Village.
241

nual meeting it was decided that that church should not be moved from that community. The same bishop who presided over that annual meeting appointed for the first time a young lady missionary, who gave much of her time to that Church, out of which large numbers of Bible women and native helpers have come. They got the organ also. And yet some people say God does not answer prayer about such things. Christians have been known to go to the mountains and spend the night in prayer for cleansing from sin. At some places early morning prayer meetings have been held in the church, the people meeting before day and praying for a revival in their community.

In this atmosphere of prayer the campaign for a million souls in one year was started. During the year a million names were not recorded on Church registers, but far more than a million people were appealed to in behalf of their soul's salvation. Hundreds of thousands did accept Jesus as their Saviour, and became earnest seekers after truth as it is in him. Recent reports from Wonsan bring the good news that a meeting has just resulted in more than two thousand conversions.

The key to the future of Korea may be found in the power which Christianity is now instilling into the lives of the village people. It is preëminently true that the Church in Korea is the Church of the village people. This does not mean that the Church in the cities is not making progress and doing wonderful things in transforming the lives of the men of the cities. But Korea is a country of villages, and here the great