The Pyongyang Revival

The Presbyterian mission at Pyongyang held a general Bible class for men, usually in the first two weeks of January, and most of those who came walked in from the country churches (Blair, The Korea Pentecost p. 43). William Blair, one of the missionaries, writes that after the Russo-Japanese War Japan stayed in Korea, that a wave of national feeling swept the country, and that the missionaries and Korean church leaders preached forbearance (Blair, The Korea Pentecost pp. 39–40). They wanted the church, he says, to repent of hating the Japanese and to turn from the national situation to its own relation with God (Blair, The Korea Pentecost p. 42). Graham Lee, another of them, writes that the missionaries came out of a Bible conference in August 1906 wanting such a blessing, and that Koreans and missionaries had prayed for it since a visiting preacher told the Korean Christians of manifestations of the Spirit in India (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), p. 33 (Graham Lee)).

The evening meetings in the Central Church began on 6 January 1907, for men only, with the building full each night (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), p. 33 (Graham Lee)). On the Monday of the following week, after a short address, the whole congregation prayed aloud together; those who wished were then allowed to leave, and between five and six hundred stayed (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), pp. 34–35 (Graham Lee)). Man after man stood, confessed his sins, broke down and wept, and the meeting went on until two in the morning (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), pp. 34–35 (Graham Lee)). Blair, who was present, says the prayer sounded like the falling of many waters (Blair, The Korea Pentecost p. 45).

On the Tuesday evening Kil Sun-joo, whom Lee calls “our most gifted Korean preacher”, gave the address (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), pp. 34–35 (Graham Lee)). One of the leading men of the church, a Mr. Kim, then confessed that he had hated other members and Blair in particular, and the congregation broke into weeping (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), pp. 34–35 (Graham Lee)). Blair writes that the missionaries feared some would lose their minds, and that every kind of sin was confessed that night (Blair, The Korea Pentecost p. 47). In the days that followed, Lee reports, the same thing happened in the mission’s schools and at meetings for women (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), pp. 36–37 (Graham Lee)).

Blair says that the class ended with that meeting, that the men carried the revival home and it spread through the churches of the whole peninsula, and that people went from house to house returning stolen money and goods (Blair, The Korea Pentecost p. 48). Kil went to preach in the churches of Seoul, where the magazine reports the same weeping and confession (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 3 (March 1907), p. 41).

On 17 September 1907 the Presbytery of Korea was constituted in the Central Church at Pyongyang and ordained seven Korean ministers, Kil among them (The Korea Mission Field vol. 3 no. 11 (November 1907), pp. 162–163). The accounts cited here were all written by missionaries or printed in their magazine.