The Face of Manchuria, Korea, & Russian Turkestan by Emily Georgiana Kemp

Sunday is a busy day for missionary workers at Pyöng Yang, as the rapid growth of the work and the need for consolidation by constant instruction, taxes the resources even of the large staff of foreign as well as native helpers. We were told that in many cases before the building of a church is completed the congregation has outgrown it, and that from one church alone (the central one at Pyöng Yang) no less than thirty-nine others have "swarmed" merely for lack of space, not from any discord. Thirty-five of these churches are in the district round the town, four others are in the town itself; the youngest of them already has a membership of 561. This is the result of sixteen years of work, for the missionaries settled there in 1894, and the first convert was baptized that year.

We started out about 10 o'clock to make a round of some of the places of worship. The first visited was a women's institute, where we found a large upper room filled with about 500 women and nearly as many babies and little children. At the door of the Korean churches and schools the first thing to be noticed is the shoe stand, where each comer deposits shoes before entering. The floors are covered with matting, and every one sits cross-legged: the babies are noisy, but their crying is not nearly so sharp as that of Europeans, though sufficiently disturbing to any ordinary speaker. At the harmonium a sweet-faced Korean girl sat, whose playing was very superior to the singing. What it lacked in harmony, however, was atoned for by its earnestness, and in all the services the reverent attention of the whole audience was most impressive; even the little children covered their eyes with their hands during prayer. From below stairs came the lusty tones of children singing "Hold the Fort," and we found a Sunday school in progress, the classes sitting in circles on the floor, each with a girl teacher in the centre. The children have been less cared for than the adults hitherto, but they look most attractive and winning, and greater efforts are now being made to provide for their instruction.