General Conference Bulletin, vol. 7

Bible Study Hour - EXPERIENCES IN KOREA

C. L. BUTTERFIELD

May 25, 8:30 A. M.

We sang at the opening of this service, “O, there’ll be joy when the work is done, joy when the reapers gather home.” There will be joy not only to the workers who have gone out from your midst, but joy among those who have received this message in heathen lands, as Chosen, or Korea, of which I speak. Non-Christians know nothing of a loving Saviour. A great many times, in fact, the mother will hush her child by saying, “Be still, or the devil will get you.” In that way they are brought up, to fear at all times the evil spirits. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.1

Those who receive the truth are often persecuted; they are ostracized from their own people, and can scarcely have any connection with them. One young man, now one of our evangelists, accepted the truth when he was fifteen or sixteen years of age, though ridiculed and abused by his older brothers. When he lay down to sleep, they would throw pillows at his head. And their pillows are not soft, like yours, but are small blocks of wood. But the boy remained faithful to the truth. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.2

A year and a half ago, in company with Dr. Russell and four or five Korean helpers, I visited northern Korea. We obtained for meetings the largest building in one town, a room about 12 x 30 feet. The first evening I told them about the soon coming of our Saviour, of the promise that he left that he would prepare for us many mansions. This promise is recorded in John 14. I dwelt upon the conditions of this new home,—no more sickness, suffering, or sorrow. Now, the Korean is always interested when you speak of his obtaining blessings. The home of the saved always interests them. As I was speaking, I noticed an elderly gentleman sitting in front of me, a man who had a full beard, something greatly prized there. As I spoke of the glories of the earth made new, the tears rolled down the old gentleman’s cheeks, and at the close of the service, when I asked how many there were in the audience who wished to have part in that glorious home when the Saviour should soon come to receive his people, this old man stood up. And he has been faithful, attending all our meetings, and accepting every point of the truth. Last evening I received a letter from Dr. Russell reporting the baptism of this man. In this way the truth has gone. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.3

When work was first begun in that section, some twenty or more years ago, the missionaries would give presents to those who attended their services. They made presents to those who would be baptized. They gave them a certain amount of rice, or some other present. The people consumed much liquor, and would say to the missionaries, “Now that we have come and joined you, must we give up our liquor and tobacco?” For a time, I am told, they were answered, “You can drink three glasses a week.” This, I think, was cut down little by little. Tobacco is used by a great many who profess Christianity. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.4

When we first entered the place, they said to us, “Now, if we join your people, must we give up using tobacco or drinking liquor?” We told them that we would study with regard to that. “But,” they replied, “We want to know; for if we join some of the other religions we do not have to give those up.” Yet when the third angel’s message got hold of them, they became free men in Jesus. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.5

PHOTO-THE NEW STATION AT KEIZAN, KOREA.

Brother R. C. Wangerin, from Wisconsin, entered our field three years ago. About a year later it was decided that he should take up the work in southern Korea. He and I visited that part and tried to find some place where he could live. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.6

Possibly if I tell you something with regard to the native homes, you can see why we were unable to obtain a suitable place for him. Our Korean houses are built with mud walls, five to six feet in height. The roofs are very low, with little pitch, and plastered with mud on the under side. The floor is built in such a way that the smoke and heat from cooking the food passes under the floor, keeping it warm. It is not a disagreeable arrangement in winter, when it is very cold, to have a warm floor, but it is rather unsanitary. The floors are made of flat stones laid in ridges so that the heat can pass through. It is very seldom that you find a house with a window. There are sometimes one or two doors, covered with Korean paper, through which a little light passes. There being no ventilation to speak of, the air is anything but good. The doors are usually small, not more than twenty to twenty-four inches in width, and many are not more than three feet high. In such homes as that we have been very loath to house any of our workers. We think their lives and their work too precious to the field to risk living in such houses. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.7

In the fall of 1910 we purchased a piece of land in Keizan and began the erection of a house. For a while Brother Wangerin lived in one side of a tent, while we held meetings in the other side every evening. During that time about twenty took their stand for the truth. GCB May 26, 1913, page 137.8

That company has grown, until at the present time they have about forty-five baptized members. I have just received a letter from Brother Wangerin, in which he says there are eight companies of Sabbath-keepers in that vicinity, ready for baptism. We praise God as we see the truth spreading in that great field in southern Korea. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.1

Many times men have come to Brother Wangerin from perhaps one or two hundred miles, asking if we were the “Onseeko,”—the Sabbath Church,—the term by which we are known over there. We reply that we are the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who keep the seventh-day Sabbath, and believe in the soon-coming of our Saviour. In that way the truth has gone throughout the field. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.2

I would like to have you visit our churches. There are some who have been faithful in the face of great trial and persecution. Many of them are dependent for their living upon what they can raise on a small piece of land, and when they accept the Sabbath and stop working on Saturday, the people of whom they rent, take the land away from them, and refuse to give them work any longer. I have seen these believers come almost to the place of actual starvation, but they say, “We will not give up the truth.” Last winter we were compelled to help some of our people in the southern part, where they came right down to the point of starvation. The people told them that just as soon as they would give up Saturday and unite with some other denomination, or give up Christianity entirely, they would give them land to work again. But they said, “No, we will not do that.” At that time we sent Brother Wangerin some money, and told him to give them some work. Those people love the truth, and are willing to sacrifice for it and do anything they can for its advancement. Quite a good many have been sent out to sell our paper, of which Miss Scharffenberg will doubtless tell you more later on. We charge them nothing for it, and they simply make their way by selling it. There are eight or ten that are giving the most of their time to the sale of our literature. In that way the truth has rapidly gone through that part of the field. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.3

Nearly twenty years ago, through the efforts of some of the believers in other denominations, an educated man was induced to buy a Chinese Bible. He was urged to become a Christian, but said he would read the Bible, and if they were consistent with its teachings, he would become a Christian. He read it through, and then he said to them: “Why is it that you people keep the first day of the week? I have read the Bible through, and I find it teaches nothing but Saturday, the seventh day of the week.” They endeavored to tell him that was a minor matter, and it was not necessary to keep that day, but if he would keep the day observed by the great majority of Christendom, it was all that was necessary. He replied that if it was not necessary to keep the day that is taught in the Bible, it was not necessary for him to become a Christian. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.4

For seventeen years this man would have nothing to do with Christianity; but a little over three years ago he was brought into touch with one of our native workers, and learned that he kept the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. “Why,” said he, “when I read the Bible several years ago, I found that it taught that we should keep the seventh day of the week. Perhaps there are some Christians who do as the Bible teaches.” GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.5

I have had the privilege of ordaining this man as elder of our church in that place. He suggested to me that we need literature, that we must have a paper so that this message can be given to all his people. I said to him, “If we begin publishing a paper, will you go out as an agent and sell it to your people?” GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.6

He replied, “We can never sell literature to our people in Korea, but I will go out and give some away.” Every time I met him after that, I pressed it upon him, but he always said that it could not be done. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.7

The first Sabbath of this year, when he attended a devotional quarterly meeting of the elders of the various churches and the Sabbath-school superintendents, he told us of a six months’ experience he had in colporteur work. Many a day he has sold from forty to fifty papers; at five sen a copy, which would amount to about $1.25 in gold. He could not make that every day, of course, because he has long distances to travel, and many in the country villages cannot read. As he was giving in his testimony, telling with great enthusiasm how the paper could be sold, and of his methods of placing it in the homes of the people, I could scarcely restrain the tears. I could not help thinking of how he had said only a short time before that the paper could not be sold. At the close of his testimony, I told the audience of what he had formerly said. “Yes,” said he, “I know now that God is in this message, and that the people read it more readily when they buy it than when it is given to them.” GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.8

Elder Corliss: Yes, that is always the way. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.9

C. L. Butterfield: In this way the message has rapidly gone, until we have believers now from the northern part to the southern part of the country, and they are all praying for us at this meeting. Two days ago I received a letter from my secretary, who said, “Remember that we are praying for you; we are praying for the General Conference, that God may direct in all that is done at that place.” GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.10

I want to say, brethren and sisters, as you give of your means to carry the truth to these people, you are doing a noble work. They appreciate it, and some day will stand by your side in the earth made new, and will thank you for bringing them this truth. When once they understand God’s Word, there is nothing that can change them from obeying its principles. We are thankful as we see with what power the message is going forth. We trust it may now go as never before in these fields. Our training-schools are turning out workers rapidly, and this means the rapid spreading of the message. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.11

Sister Scharffenberg will now speak of her experience in the field during the past seven years. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.12

Miss Mimi Scharffenberg GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.13

When I went to Korea it was a very strange sight to me to see the companies of people eager to learn the truth. Although they did not know the love of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord drove them to the meetings. In the first district I visited, the church buildings were so low I could not stand upright. The people entered at different doors, the men on one side and the women on the other, with a curtain between. The people sat on the floor. Few women in Korea either read or write. So they could not join in the singing of the hymns, or read the Bible, or understand the service. It was very hard to get them interested in the truth, under these conditions. But the women came to the meetings week after week, those held on Sabbath as well as during the evenings, and became deeply interested in learning of the salvation of Christ. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.14

It is a hard matter to reach these Korean women with the message, because they believe they are beyond hope of salvation. One woman said to me: “Do you think I can be saved? My husband tells me I have no soul, and I am not worth saving. He says it is useless for me to come to these meetings.” But as soon as these women learn that the love of God is freely given to all alike, they are so thankful, and become faithful converts. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.15

In Korea a woman is regarded as a slave, and is kept in an ignorant condition. One time while traveling through Korea, I stayed at a hotel. I was just about to go to sleep, when I heard the cry that some one was drowning. The Korean well is not like ours, but is a large, wide hole. I ran out to see, and saw two Japanese trying to pull a woman out of the well near the hotel. She was finely dressed, and about twenty years of age. When they dragged her out, she cried out that she wanted to die, because she had been married to a husband twelve years of age, and did not want to live with him. Her father-in-law had tried to get her to go to her husband’s house, and had used violence, but she preferred to die rather than go. When the husband saw that she acted this way, he refused to take her, but the father of the girl had spent the money that had been paid him for the girl, and insisted that she should go to her husband’s house. This is the condition of the women in Korea. The wife is a slave to her husband’s family, and is bought and sold without her consent. But when we tell these people of the love of a Saviour, and tell them of his soon coming, and that he will deliver them from their troubles, they are very thankful. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.16

It is certainly a privilege to be able to tell them of the truth, because they appreciate it, and many are willing to endure great persecution because of the truth. They learn to love it, although they can not read or write. The women are very anxious to learn to read. We have pupils from eight years of age to sixty. The women take their places along with the children, and make good progress in reading and writing. They recite their lessons as we write them on a piece of paper instead of a blackboard. They were well pleased when they learned to master the alphabet. When one who is now one of our best Bible workers in that field came to us a few years ago, she could neither read nor write, but soon became a very intelligent reader of the Bible, and after a short time she was able to go out and give Bible readings. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.17

It is very interesting to see how earnest the women are in obeying the truth. Two years ago I visited a country church, and became acquainted with an old widow. She was continually weaving cloth. When we got to talking I asked her why she was weaving this piece of cloth. She said: “I own a piece of land, but everything I raise, I have to use up for myself. I have no money with which to pay my tithe, and so I am weaving this cloth until I get enough to pay my tithe. I have carefully figured up what I owe the Lord.” There were sisters in the Seoul church who were greatly burdened about paying their tithe. Their husbands were not in the truth, and would give them no money; and those who had sons did not receive any support from them. But these sisters saw a way out of the difficulty by paying their tithe in spoons of rice. So every morning they would count off a certain amount of rice from their own bowl, and ask us to sell it and receive their tithe in this way. These people are very earnest in doing the Lord’s will. GCB May 26, 1913, page 138.18

One interesting experience I will tell. A canvasser told me he had passed a place where there was a woman interested in the truth. The canvasser could not talk with her, because in Korea the better class of women are not permitted to talk openly with men. He could not see the woman, but had managed to speak to her through the fence which surrounded her house. So I went to see her, and found she had been a Christian for a number of years. She at once became very much interested in the truth of the Bible. She was in the employ of one of the other churches, and was in charge of an orphanage. Her husband was a drunkard. When the people she worked for learned that she was coming to our meetings, they tried to prevent it. Failing, they brought her before a council, and tried to confuse her. She replied, “I am an ignorant woman, and can not explain these texts, but I know the things I have learned concerning the Sabbath are in the Word of God.” GCB May 26, 1913, page 139.1

When our paper was first published, it was put out in the month that Korea was annexed to Japan. It was named “The Last Gospel Message.” As soon as the authorities saw our magazine, they sent the police after us, and asked: “What do you mean by publishing such a sarcastic paper? Do you think that because Korea is annexed to Japan, the end of the world has come?” We tried to explain the matter to them, but they would not let us use this title for our paper. Finally, we submitted a list of names to them from which to choose. In the list was the name “Three Angels’ Messages.” They said they would let us use this, and we thought it a very appropriate name. GCB May 26, 1913, page 139.2

We had some interesting experiences in getting out our book on the prophecies of Daniel. We were anxious as to whether we would receive permission to publish that book, because when we were called before the police department we were told that we should not use certain expressions. Just a few days before we had to go to the police department with our book, the wife of a Japanese official came to see us. The pictures to go into the book were lying on the table before her. When she saw them, she became very much interested in looking at the pictures of the symbolic beasts. We took the opportunity to explain what the pictures meant, and told her all about the book. She asked if we had been down to the police department and received permission to publish it. I told her that I had not as yet, but that I was to go down the coming Friday. Well, when we went down, we were received with great pleasure, and they told us that they had heard all about the book. They were very much pleased with it. And we were allowed to go ahead and put out as many as we wanted to. We believe this was certainly the leading of the Lord to give us permission to put out the book. GCB May 26, 1913, page 139.3

We are of good courage, and have many interesting signs to show that the Lord helps. The Koreans are just as earnest as our people are at home. GCB May 26, 1913, page 139.4