Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots; Or, Life in KoreaUnderwood, Lillias H. (Lillias Horton)
Religion
Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots; Or, Life in Korea
Underwood, Lillias H. (Lillias Horton)
Korea -- Description and travel; Missions -- Korea
And yet if they could only have gone on living and preaching, as
they might, had they been able to mix with their enthusiasm and
consecration, wisdom and temperance! During my short experience I have
seen several illustrations of what Mr. McKenzie’s death brought home so
startlingly to us all. We learned afterwards that he had been sick for
some weeks, his mind had been somewhat affected early in the history of
the disease, the progress of which had not been very rapid, but as he
had no companion who could observe the danger signals, and no doctor to
help, his invaluable life was lost.
The more intelligent natives urged him to send for a doctor, but he
hesitated to call others from their work to undertake a long difficult
trip in the unhealthy summer season, lest it should prove to be only a
passing temporary ailment. And so he went on doctoring himself (just
as any missionary alone in the interior is tempted to do), delaying to
call for help, from his very unselfishness and conscientious fear of
giving trouble.
z“Take care of your head. Don’t work too long in the sun,” he said to
an old woman by the roadside, “or you may lose your mind as I have.”
He related to his friend, the Korean leader, accounts of long nights
of anguished struggle with Satan, and then again of hours of ecstatic
joy with his Saviour. The intolerable agony in his head grew steadily
worse, until the end. The Koreans felt the terrible blow deeply, but
they have never ceased to love and revere Mr. McKenzie’s memory. They
cannot speak of him now after a lapse of several years without tears.
Their loving hands prepared him for the grave and covered his bier
with flowers. They held a funeral service as best they knew, after our
custom, with prayers and hymns, and laid his loved remains in a quiet
place, not far from the little church which he had been the instrument
in God’s hands of building. His influence is still felt in the village
and for miles around. He lived Christ and laid the foundations of that
church on a rock. He had a reputation for great courage and prowess,
and it is said that his presence alone saved Sorai from invasions of
Tonghaks.
This society played a conspicuous part in the opening of the
China-Japan war, its name means literally Eastern doctrine, and its aim
was in brief, “the East for Easterners,” or “Korea for Koreans.” They
declared their desire and intention to down all Westerners, Western
ideas, reforms and changes, and to restore and re-establish old laws
and customs. The sudden organization and wonderful popularity of this
society was doubtless caused by the outrageous conduct of many corrupt
officials, who ground down the people mercilessly with unjust taxation
and brought about a general feeling of unrest and bitter discontent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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