The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1916-01-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

uillS FESTIVAL was clldHSeu lTO0
heather performance to a service OF
Christian praise:
Zone day l entered a home and
found a wedding festival in full
sway. The ladies court was crowd
ed with as gaily dressed a gather
ing of people as have ever set eyes
on. The women were seated about
drum, beating and singing songs
too foul to mention. The bride was
brought to me, a girl in pale green
silk dress bordered in silver She
wore quantity of heavy jewelry.
The women stopped beating the drum
and asked me to sing. l hesitated
but second, for l knew that song
had often routed the devil. and
started lively tune. There were
about dozen of my Christian girls
present, and when / began to sing
the hymns they took up the air, and
gradually the other women joineda
until every woman in the room was
singing. | saw their eyes sparkle
as they smiled back into mine, and
knew that they had caught the joy
of the message. We sang until after
shutdown, and then | went home hap
ply especially because of the testi,
mony of one old woman whom | had
taught, and also because | had turned
a filthy festival into chorus of
praise"
Japan Methodist Church.
The third general conference of the
Japan Methodist Church convened re-
Gently and was well attended and eX-
deedingly interesting. The person
mel of the delegates was striking.
Like it's American parent, the con-
ference is made up of equal numbers
of preachers and laymen. Among
Them" writes a missionary, "the
smallest in stature but highest in po-
sition and best known throughout
the country, was the Hon. S. Ebara,
a member of the House of Peers and
one of the political leaders of the
empire. Near him were two other
distinguished men. One was DR..
Dhosuke Sato, president of the Sap
poro Agricultural College and sec
ond exchange lecturer to the United
States. The other was Hon. Taro
Ando, once Consul-General in Homo
lulu, but now president of the Ma
tiOnal Temperance Society. In the
back row was Judge Miyakoshi. per-
haps the sharpest debater in the
whole company, and at his left sat
Mr.. H, Nakamura, prominent real
estate dealer of Kobe. A high school
professor, three middle school prin-
cipais, two teachers and a doctor up
held the standard of professional
men, while the little company of bus
mess men brought to all the pro-
ceedings their practical experience
and hard business sense. OF the 90
ministers two are college presidents
and two are professors in theological
schools, Bishop Harris, honorary
Bishop of the Japan Methodist
Church. was present.
Reports showed that the church
has a membership of 1884, a growth
of 2,909 since the last general con-
ference. The Sunday schools show
total of 2S,49S, a gain of 1924, and
the Epworth Leagues now have a
membership of 3,103, gain of 1,403.
But the most striking gain has
been in finance. The giving of the
churchchurch has doubled in four
years, advancing from yearly total
of $33,278 gold to $63,548.
When the Japan Methodist Church
was organized there were but six
teen congregations that were self
supporting. At the time of the Sec
twenty, now there are twenty-five
In addition there are eighty aided
churches, sixty-eight preaching places
in charge of missionaries, total of
269 places from which representa-
tiyes of this conference proclaim the
gospel throughout the empire.
The fraternal delegate from the
Methodist Episcopal Church, Souht,
stated that his denomination plans
to erect thirty new church buildings
in Japan in the next ten years, and
the announcement was received with
great applause.
Korean Village Transformed.
This pretty story comes from Ko-
rea of how a little village was who'll
ly transformed by the powers of the
gospel message: Across the ridge
there you may see the Kankei mis-
sion station (Presbyterian), which is
in the village called Gold Valley.
When missionaries first moved here
ten years ago, the village consisted
of six houses, nearly all of which
were said to be wine shops or gam
bling houses. Some of the villagers
became Christians some moved
away to avoid Christianity. Chris:
tians moved in, bought and built,
until now Gold Valley is village
largely transformed by the power of
Christ--a village of sixty comforta-
BILE houses. A Japanese official re-
Gently remarked on it's cleanliness
and the number of trees growing
about the houses. The governor told
people from distant provinces to go
to Gold Valley and learn how to
draw their village maps. Among the
houses is the Christian Girls School,
two-thirds supported by Koreans of
Chung Ju church, where thirty-two
girls are taught. Colporteurs work
ing in this district report sales of an
average of 1000 gospels a month.
They also distribute thousands of
tracts and leaflets"
ITEMS OF INTEREST