The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-11
COUNTRIES OF THE ORIENT.
JAPAN, KOREA AND CHINA DIS
CUssED ny DR.. CHESTER.


vannah Yesterday-spOke at Inde-
pendent Church and LawtOn Me-
mOrial-other engagements for
the Week-ImpressiOns Gained by
DIR. Chester While AbrOad-Mis-
sion Work In the Countries He
VESIted-A Discussion of Civil, Do
nestle and international ReIa-
tiOns.
Rev. S. II. Chester, D. D., the Secretary
OF Foreign Missions for the General As
sembly of the Southern Presbyterian
Church, spoke at the Independent Church
yesterday morning. Notwithstanding the
inclement weather, a large congregation
was present, and listened with the great
est interest to the speakers vivid recital
OF his personal experiences and observa-
TONS during a recent tour through the
foreign field.
DR.. Chester gave a brief description of
the Chinese country. as composed Of
mountains and valleys, the valleys being
the home Of the people and the mountains
and hills reserved for cemeteries.
He described the people as wearing
costume when one of the kings house
hold died, and finally adopted for
convenience as the permanent ma
tional costume. He spoke of the
heavy burdens they were every
where seen carrying on their shoulders,
suggestive of the moral and spiritual bur-
dens for which the gospel Is the only rem
edy
The masses of the people were describ-
ed as ignorant but full of native wit and
the capacity of intellectual DEVELOPMENT
when they have the opportunity. The gov
eminent Is a despotism administered by
the Emperor, whose power is absolute
and by a hereditary nobility whose one
reason of existence is to rule and rob the
people, whose only protest is an occasional
resort to lynch law
Family life was described as a system Of
concubinage. Peasant women are al
lowed the liberty of the rice fields, in or
der to be serviceable, but those of the up
per classes are kept In utter seclusion.
The religion of the country is nominally
mixture of Buddhism and Confucianism,
but really a system of demon worship.
The chief religious functionary is the
witch doctor, with his totn-t toms, his
witch broths and his long needle which he
inserts to make a hole to let the demon
out
The history of Korean missions was de-
scrlbed as brief but glorious. the labor of
fifteen years having sufficed to establish
a vigorous and largely self-supporting
church of several thousand members. The
friendliness of the people towards our
missionaries was ascribed to the fact that
from the beginning medical missions have
been prominent feature of the work
The speaker closed with a strong tribute
to the heroic labors and sacrifices of the
Korean missionaries and an appeal for the
church's sympathy and support in their
work.
DIR. Chester spoke last night at the Law
ton Memorial He will speak Wednesday
night at the prayer meeting of the First
Presbyterian Church, on Thursday after
noon at 4:30 o'clock at the lecture room of
the Independent Church; on Sunday morn
ing at the First Presbyterian Church, and
Sunday night again at the Lawton Memo
rial.
DR.. Chester administers the work of
Southern Presbyterian foreign missions
from the central office in Nashville, Tenn,
but in the prosecution of 1T he visits
largely among the churches, having trav-
eled fully 1000 miles during the present
fall, and during the past two years about
10000 miles delivering an average of over
100 addresses a year.
DR.. Chester spent five months in Japan,
those countries very pleasant, being a
student of mankind and interested in any
thing appertaining 20 his mission the es-
tablshment of Christianity among the
heather peoples OF the GLOBE knowl-
edge of the races is prerequisite for the
successful accomplishment of this, and II
Yves with energy and a determination, to
learn all possible within the time at his
disposal that Dr. Chester devoted himself
to the task
At the home of DR.. Fair, pastor of the
Independent Church. he talked in
terestingly of his stay in the ORR
ent. When asked which of the
three countries mentioned bears the great
est interest for foreigners, he replied that
it depends altogether upon the point of
view there being such great differences.
All three ere full of interest to visitors
but IL grows from varying circumstances,
Japan, DR. Chester says, comes more
nearly being up to the standard of West
ern civilization than either Korea or
China. Development has gone steadily
forward in that country until all the larger
towns of the seacoast haveeelectrlc car
lines and other evidences of the centui-y's
progress. Rapidly this advancement and
acceptation of Western ideas Is extending
to the interior, and It viii not be many
years before the japanese, who are re-
cepttve people and ready and anxious to
grasp anything offered them better than
that they already have. will have all the
concomitants of Western civilization
Korea is an Independent country II was
the casus besli between japan and China
when the former country gave the latter
such a good drubbing. China wanted to
exercise suzeraiuty over the country, but
Japan wanted its independence recognized
and took up arms to guard it, Korea is
the intermediate step from Japan to
China i'm point of civilization and develop
ment, the Koreans being behind the Ja-
panese and considerably ahead of the
Chinese
Foreigners are variously regarded in the
countries of the Orient. The dissimilarity
of the Chinese and the Koreans Is marked
In this particular, for the first term one
from a western country a foreign devil,
believing him to be not only devilish but
barbaric, while the latter appreciative of
the knowledge of the strangers from the
Occldent, have a word which describes
them as great men, They do not Dartic-
ulariy love the foreigners, but they respect
them and receive their innovations and
improvements in far better Shirt than