Introductory
I BEGAN to pray for Korea on the morning of March 2, 1871. As an educational pioneer in Japan — the first to live as a guest in the far interior — I had spent the night previous with my escort of fifteen two-sworded knights at Tsuruga, whence one looks across the sea to Korea. As we emerged into the road leading to Fukui, our party stopped before the great Shinto temple, at which the Empress Jingu, who lives in Japanese tradition, as "the conqueror of Korea" and her son, the war-god Hachiman, were worshipped. Three of my guardsmen stopped, bowed reverently, clapped their hands together and worshipped.
"Idolatry" or not, I was touched by this simple act of piety, as they understood it, and looking westward over the water towards Korea, my heart went out to the one living and true God, in the hope that this land lying to the westward, might soon be blessed with the gospel. Studying the Land of Morning Splendour through Japanese and European sources of information, I began on my arrival home in America, in 1874, besides making it a subject of daily prayer, to write and lecture on Korea, the Hermit Nation, and at Washington
