The book has two parts. The first is a reprint of a booklet written by Dr. William Newton Blair in 1910, giving an eyewitness account of the outbreak of the revival in Pyeng Yang (now the capital of Communist North Korea) which so greatly affected the Korean church, together with an introduction by the Rev. Bruce Hunt, Dr. Blair's son-in-law.
In the second part of the book, Mr. Hunt gives an account of the sufferings and martyrdoms of certain Korean Christians, most of whom he knew personally, during his own forty-eight years of missionary service in Korea.
Of the many facts and facets recorded in the part written by Dr. Blair, I shall only mention one of the more striking given in the chapter on "How the Gospel Came to Korea." It is the story of the Rev. Robert L. Thomas, an agent of the London Missionary Society, who was born in Wales in 1840 and went to China as a missionary in 1863. He twice made the voyage to the off-shore islands and the mainland of Korea, known at that time as "The Hermit Kingdom." On his second trip, in 1866, when his ship, the General Sherman, was burned by an angry mob, he with the crew jumped overboard. Years later a Korean said that Thomas acted strangely, staggering out of the water, not with sword and pistol as the others, but with his arms full of books which he thrust into the hands of the Koreans as they dubbed him down, the blood of one martyr that became the seed of many churches (pp. 27-31).
In the second portion of the book, Mr. Hunt relates the sufferings of the Korean church. Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910 and, Mr. Hunt says, "the Japanese, especially police and military leaders, never understood the spiritual nature of Christianity" but continually treated it as a rebellion. This was demonstrated in what became known as the 1912 “Conspiracy Case" (pp. 83f.). The sufferings of many Christians came to a head when they were compelled to worship at the Shinto shrines (pp. 90-129).
Mr. Hunt also speaks of the struggle with Communism with which came wholesale destruction. In contrast, Mr. Hunt says, "Among the fifty or more who died under Japanese persecution, I know of none who were executed outright.” "When I asked Rev. Kim Sangdo, who spent four years in prison under the Japanese and was arrested and beaten by members of 'the People's Army' (communists) if there is a difference between Japanese and communist persecution," he replied: "The Japanese deal with you strictly on the basis of their laws, while the communists' persecution is ‘moojee' — unprincipled, stupid, brutal, although on the surface, the communists too held a semblance of keeping the law.”
Did all this stop Korean Christians from going forward under the banner of their risen and ascended Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Listen to their Savior as he prays for them: "I am praying for them; I pray not for the world but for them whom thou hast given me, for they are thine: all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them" (John 17:9-10).
"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39) .
I have recently finished reading this book (out loud) for both my wife and myself. It has moved us deeply.