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William Newton Blair: From Reluctant Recruit to Mission MAINSTAY

[ABOVE: Korean village idol—F A McKenzie, Tragedy of Korea. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1908. Public domain, Wikimedia]


WHEN W. L. SWALLEN appealed for helpers in the Korean mission work, William Newton Blair pleaded that he had no facility with languages. Swallen probed deeper. “When I was here in the Seminary, I flunked in Hebrew. Have you flunked in Hebrew?” Blair hadn’t. 

He wrote his fiancé, hoping she would say no. To his consternation, she replied that she had been hoping he would volunteer. He reluctantly agreed to go. Later he wrote, “I will never, never get through thanking the good Lord that I did go, just when I did, when I was so needed, in time to share in the great Pentecostal movement that is sweeping Korea into the Kingdom.”

He and his new bride, Edith Perl Allen, arrived in Korea in December 1901. Language-learning proved as difficult as he had expected, but God sent him a Spirit-filled teacher who prayed with him morning and night. Ne Che-su “prayed the language into me, prayed and labored until I became afraid not to study as hard as I ought. Sometimes when I was dull of comprehension, he would act out the meaning.”

Three years later Blair was proficient enough in Korean to speak to people about Christ as he walked between villages and markets in the five counties assigned to him. He would sleep in crowded wayside inns where the air was heavy with tobacco smoke.

He especially targeted Anju, a strategic city because it was a trade hub. Anju's people, however, did not immediately respond to Christianity. Blair spent double the time there than he did in the rest of his region. Over the months a small community of Christians emerged. When Cossacks attacked during the Russo-Japanese war, many non-Christians fled. The courage of the Christians who stayed behind impressed onlookers. A pair of sisters became a great soul-winning duo. Such growth followed that Anju’s church needed to build bigger. When a contractor reneged on delivering roof tiles, the Christians prayed. Every source of tile failed. When their quest seemed hopeless, Anju’s magistrate sent word he’d sell them tiles from local demon shrines that were no longer in use.

In 1907 revival broke out in Korea and swept the nation. An outpouring of repentance and restitution came from God. Political events also elevated national regard for the church. Japan had seized control of Korea’s internal affairs, which Koreans found humiliating. (Japan would annex Korea in 1910.) “All saw in the Church the only hope for their country. There is no denying the intense [national] loyalty of the Korean Church. Christianity gives men backbones,” wrote Blair in his 1910 book, The Korean Pentecost.

The church gained more popular approval after 1 March 1919 when pastors throughout the nation took the risk of drafting and reading Korea’s Declaration of Independence. Blair was caught by surprise; the pastors had planned with great secrecy. Afterward the pastors surrendered themselves to Japanese authorities—a courageous action they had planned from the start. 

During subsequent years when many church leaders were in prison, Blair helped devise the Forward Movement which set goals for church growth, family devotions, and ecclesial finances in preparation for a nationwide evangelism push. He compiled a Korean-language Life of Christ from the four gospels that sold well over a million copies. Korean Presbyterians established a program to train children. 

The next crisis had to do with education. The Japanese required all schools to meet government standards, register, and cease teaching Bible classes. A ten-year grace period was given. By prayer and pleas the government was induced to relent, especially after the 1919 Declaration of Independence and the demonstrations that followed. The mission tapped Blair to raise funds in America for schools. Blair also educated Americans about the Korean work by writing articles and books such as Gold in Korea. 

Toward the end of his years in Korea, Blair and other church leaders pleaded with Japan to exempt Christians from attending shrine worship. Unable to win their point, the Christians closed their schools which could only stay open if they complied. At least two hundred Christian leaders died as martyrs during World War II and many other Christians were imprisoned. (See “Ahn Kim Found Herself in Prison—God’s ADVANCED College of Faith.”)

Edith and William Blair returned to the United States in 1940 where Edith died in 1942. Their daughter Katharine and son-in-law Bruce Hunt carried on mission work in Korea under harrowing conditions. Bruce Hunt served two stints in Japanese prison. (See “STARVING Bruce Hunt Fasted for a Fellow Prisoner.”) 

Back in America, Blair served as a minister in several Presbyterian churches. He returned to Korea briefly in 1947 to assess church rebuilding in Pyongyang, but was blocked by Soviet authorities who controlled North Korea after World War II. Blair passed away in California at the age of 94 on this day, 2 May 1970. His name is honored in Korea.

—Dan Graves

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For an account of how Protestantism came to Korea, watch Servant of Christ: Robert Jermain Thomas and the Korean Revivals

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