A quote from chapters 9, 10
" The fall of 1906 was largely given up to country itineration.
No special meetings could be held except during a
few evenings in the Central Church at Pyeogyang at the
time of Dr Howard Agnew Johnson's visit immediately
after the Annual Meeting in September. Dr Johnson told
the Korean Christians about the blessings received in India
and left a hunger in many hearts for similar manifestations
of God's grace among us.
Christmas came and our scattered force assembled in
Pyengyang to share the season's joys together. Usually we
spend the week between Christmas and New Year's day
getting acquainted with our families again. and ~estin~ in
preparation for the busy days of the approaching Btble
Class season. Frequently. the whole community will meet
for a social evening, having the best time imaginable. That
winter we bad no heart for social gatherings. Prayermeetings
were held each evening. When the Presbyterian
Class began on the 2nd of January, the evening prayermeetings
had to be discontinued; but so strong was our
desire to pray that we decided to bold noon prayermeetings
daily during the class for those who could attend.
As Mr Lee says in his brief account of 'How the Spirit
Came to Pyengyang, 'these noon prayer-meetings were a
very Bethel to us.'
The evening meetings connected with the class began
on the 6th of January in the Central Church with more than
fifteen-hundred men present. MissionariesanclK.orea~stors
led these meetings all seeking to show the need of the
Spirit's presence and the necessity of love and righteousness.
The meetings were intensely mterestmg as meeungs
fntimes of crises always are. Nothing unusual happened.
We were not looking for anything unusual. Only a hushed,
solemn sea of upturned faces and eagerness to lead in
prayer showed how the Spirit was working: . .
On Saturday night I preached on Ftrst Connthtans
12: 27: 'Now ye are the body of Christ, and severaJJy
members thereof.' endeavouring to show that discord in
the Church was like sickness in the body- 'and if one member
suffers. all the members suffer with it' - striving to show
how hate in a brother's heart injured not only the whole
Church but brought pain to Christ, the Church's Head.
Shortly after going to Korea, I had an accident while hunt·
ing and shot off the end of one of my fingers. All the Ko·
reans knew of this. Holding out my hand, I told the congregation
how my head ached and my whole body suffered
with the injured finger. The idea seemed to go home to
them. After the sermon many testified to a new realization
of what sin was. A number with sorrow confessed lack of
love for others, especially for the Japanese.
We went home that night confident that our prayers
were being answered. On the following Sunday night we
had a strange experience. There was no life in the meeting.
The church was crowded as usual. but something seemed
to block everything. After the sermon a few formal prayers
were offered and we went home weary as from a physical
contest, conscious that the devil had been present, apparently victorious.
AT MONDAY NOON, WE MISSIONARIES MET AND CRIED
to God in earnest: We were bound in earnest spirit and refused
to let God go till He blessed us. That night it was very
different. Each felt as he entered the church that the room
was full of God's presence. Not only missionaries but Koreans
testify to the same thing. I was present once in Wisconsin
when the Spirit of God fell upon a company of
lumbermen and every unbeliever in the room rose to ask
for prayers. That night in Pyengyang, the same feeling
came to me as I entered the room, a sense of God's nearness,
impossible of description.
After a short sermon, Mr Lee took charge of the meeting
and called for prayers. So many began praying that Mr
Lee said, 'If you want to pray like that, all pray,' and the
whole audience began to pray out loud, all together. The
effect was indescribable - not confusion, but a vast harmony
of sound and spirit, a mingling together of souls
moved by an irresistible impulse of prayer. The prayer
sounded to me like the falling of many waters, an ocean
of prayer beating against God's throne. It was not many,
but one, born of one Spirit, lifted to one Father above. Just
as on the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one
place, of one accord praying, 'and suddenly there came
from heaven the sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind,
and it filled all the house where they were sitting! God is
not always in the whirlwind, neither does He always speak
in a still small voice. He came to us in Pyengyang that night
with the sound of weeping. As the prayer continued, a
Spirit of heaviness-and sorrow for sin came down upon the
audience. Over on one side, someone began to weep, and
in a moment the whole audience was weeping.
Mr Lee's account, written at the time of the revival,
gives the history of that night better than any words. however
carefully penned three years later, can do. •Man after
man would rise, confess his sins, break down and weep,
and then throw himself to the floor and beat the floor with
his fists in perfect agony of conviction. My own cook tried
to make a confession. broke down in the midst of it, and
cried to me across the room: " Pastor, tell me, is there any hope for me. can l be forgiven• and then he threw himself
to the floor and wept and wept, and almost screamed in
agony. Sometimes after a confession, the whole audience
would break out in audible prayer, and the effect of that
audience of hundreds of men praying together in audible
prayer was something indescribable. Again, after another
confession, they would break out in uncontrollable weeping,
and we would aU weep, we could not help it. And so
the meeting went on until two o'clock a.m .• with confession
and weeping and praying.'
Only a few of the missionaries were present on that
Monday night. On Tuesday morning, Mr Lee and I went
from bouse to bouse telling the good news to aU who were
absent, (and to our Methodist friends in the city). That
noon the whole foreign community assembled to render
thanks to God.
I wish to describe the Tuesday night meeting in my own
language because a part of what happened concerned me
personally. We were aware that bad feeling existed between
several of our church officers, especially between a Mr
Kang and Mr Kim. Mr Kang confessed his hatred for Mr
Kim on Monday night, but Mr Kim was silent. At our noon
prayer-meeting on Tuesday, several of us agreed to pray
for Mr Kim. I was especially interested because Mr Kang
was my assistant in the North Pyengyaog Church and Mr
Kim an elder in the Central Church, and one of the officers
in the Pyengyang Men's Association. of which I was chairman.
As the meeting progressed, I could see Mr Kim sitting
with the elders behind the pulpit with his head down. Bowing
where I sat, I asked God to help him, and looking up
saw him coming forward.
Holding to the pulpit, he made his confession. •I have
been guilty of fighting against God. An elder in the church,
I have been guilty of hating not only .Kang You-moon, but
Pang Mok-sa.' Pang Mok-sa is my Korean name. I never
had a greater surprise in my life. To think that this man,
my associate in the Men's Association, had been hating me
without my knowing it! It seems that I had said something
to him one day in the burry of managing a school field-day
exercise which gave offence, and be had not been able to
forgive me. Turning to me. he said, 'Can you forgive me_..
can you forgive me?' I stood up and began to pray,
'Apa-ge, Apa-ge' (•Father, Father,') and got no further. It
seemed as if the roof was lifted from the building and the
Spirit of God came down from heaven in a mighty avalanche
of power upon us. I fell at Kim's side and wept and
prayed as I had never prayed before. My last glimpse of the
audience is photographed indelibly on my brain. Some
threw themselves full length upon the floor, hundreds stood
with arms outstretched toward heaven. Every man forgot
every other. Each was face to face with God. I can bear
yet that fearful sound of hundreds of men pleading with
God for life. for mercy. The cry went out over the city till
the heathen were in consternation.
As soon as we were able, we missionaries gathered at the
platform and consulted. 'What shall we do? If we let them
go on like this some will go crazy." Yet we dared not interfere.
We had prayed to God for an outpOuring of His
Spirit upon the people and it had come. Separating. we
went down and tried to comfort the most distressed, pulling
the agonized man to the floor and saying, 'Never mind.
brother, if you have sinned God will forgive you. Wait,
and an opportunity will be given to speak.'
r Finally. Mr Lee started a hymn and quiet was restored
during the singing. Then began a meeting the like of which
I had never seen before, nor wish to see again unless in
God's sight it is absolutely necessary. Every sin a human
being can commit was publicly confessed that night. Pale
and trembling with emotion. in agony of mind and body,
guilty souls, standing in the white light of that judgment,
saw themselves as God saw them. Their sins rose up in all
their vileness. till shame and grief and self-loathing took
complete possession; pride was driven out, the face of men
forgotten. Looking up to heaven. to Jesus whom they had
betrayed, they smote themselves and cried out with bitter
wailing: 'Lord. Lord. cast us not away forever!' Everything
else was forgotten, nothing else mattered. The scorn
of men. the penalty of the law. even death itself seemed of
small consequence if only God forgave. We may have our
theories of the desirability or undesirability of public confession
of sin. 1 have had mine: but I know now that when
the Spirit of God falls upon guilty souls, there will be confession,
and no power on earth can stop it."
