# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1883_S40 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) - 40 The Lutheran Pioneer. The Outlook from the Editor’s Window. —TaeE new Concordia Seminary at St. Louis, a picture of which we brought our readers in our Jast number, was dedicated on the 9th and 10th of September. More than 15,000 persons were present, a large number coming from distant cities. There were German, English and Latin addresses with appropriate music and song. The hearts of all were moved with joy and thanksgiving on beholding the grand and beautiful building erected by the Missouri Synod as a memorial of the Luther year. May God’s richest blessings continue to rest on Con- cordia Seminary! : —An elegant colored lithograph of our’new Seminary has been issued by Concordia Pub- lishing House, St. Louis, Mo. Price 50 cts.’ —Lurser Fesrivars were lately held in the cities of Erfurt and Wittenberg in Ger- many. At the latter place there were more than 50,000 visitors present from all parts of Europe. A correspondent of the New York Times writes on the Festival Day at Erfurt: “Despite the malice of some Catholics, who form about a third of the population of the place, and who, I am positively informed, prayed that it might rain old knives and pike- leads to-day, this morning brought as lovely summer weather as the heart of man could de- sire. There were multitudes of visitors from every province of Germany, from all parts of the world—England, Scotland, Greece, Can- ada, America, and New Zealand.” —Sunpay, the 16th of September, was a day of joy to the members of the Lutheran Zion’s congregation, which was recently organ- ized in the Southern part of Fort Wayne. On that day their new house of worship was dedi- ‘cated_to the service of God, and the Rev. F. Dreyer was installed as pastor of the congrega- tion. —Tue American Bible Society, in order to keep up with the demand caused by its general canvass of the country, is turning out more books than ever before, the number being not less than 7,000 a day. It has printed 850,000 of its popular twenty-five cent Bible, and 1,850,000 of its five-cent Testament. The so- ciety has now 348 colporteurs, in thirty-four States and Territories, engaged in this re-supply of the country. About one family of six, on the average, is found destitute of the Script- ures, the largest destitution being in the South- ern States. —TaE latest statistics upon the Religions in India, founded upon the census of 1882, show that out of the grand total of the population of British India, which is given at 254,899,516, the various sects and castes of Hindoos made up no less than 187,937,450. The Moham- medans, who came next in order, numbered '50;121,585. The nature worshippers num- bered 6,426,511; the Buddhists, ‘3,418,944; Christians, 1,862,634; Jains, a sect whose _ worship is mingled Buddhism or Hinduism, 1,221,896; the Sikhs, who are simple Theists, 853,426; and those who come under the head- ing of other creeds, or were altogether un- specified, 3,057,130: The Christians enumer- ated are exclusive of persons of European nationality. —WE are apt to think that Africa is chiefly a desert and wilderness, but it is much more thickly inhabited than America. Authorities which set the population of the latter at 84,545,000 give the former 203,300,000. In the Soudan the population is rated at 80,000,000, one town on the Niger containing 90,000 in- habitants. East Africa is rated at 40,000,000 souls. It is estimated that the colored race number 130,000,000. Many of the tribes are above the condition of the savages, having fixed habitations, though merely mud huts, defended by stockades; and they have some laws or customs favorable to commerce. Among several tribes merchants are esteemed, and property is safe, even during war. The land is cultivated; the inhabitants wear dyed cotton clothes; gold and iron are ingeniously manu- factured, and a certain kind of. intelligence seems to be slowly spreading. —TueE death 6f the queen of Madagascar is a great loss to the people of that great African island. She was a devoted Protestant and spent half an hour or an hour regularly every morning in prayer and reading the Bible. She was a faithful and earnest helper in the mission work. —TxeE Vaudois missionaries in the Transvaal say that Magwamba converts are characterized by a strong desire to win their heathen neigh- bors for Christianity. Four of them have gone as missionaries to tribes near Delagoa Bay, where they were welcomed by one of the chiefs as follows: ‘‘Know,” said he, ‘‘that Iam happy to see you, and to learn that you.will teach the Word of God to my people. I. know how they say everywhere that missionaries are the friends, the fathers of the black man.’’? Then, calling together his subjects, he said: ‘Listen, my children! You must learn to keep the Lord’s Day. You must learn from these mis- sionaries; and if you are too idle, I, who am older than any of you, will so learn as to make you ashamed.” —A correspondent of the Advance says there are nearly one thousand members of the Pro- testant churches in Rome who are converts from Romanism. These represent 2 much larger Protestant population, and are the results of. ten years of missionary labor. —A missionary from the Island of Peru, in the Samoan group, writes that there is not a heathen left. Missionary labors were com- menced there only eleven years ago. During this time the whole island has been evangel- ized, churches, chapels, mission ‘houses have been built at their own expense, and they are now supporting their own pastors, and contrib- uting to the society that sent them pastors and teachers. —New Guivea is said by Dr. Laws to be the largest island in the world—as long as from London to Constantinople, and in some parts 500 miles wide. Up till lately the in- habitants were cannibals and idolaters; and frequent wars were waged, tribe against tribe. Under the influence of Missionary agents, these wars have been discontinued, and churches have been formed. —Onz of the most impressive sights I saw last Summer, in England, says a traveller, was in Grattan Guinness’ school, in London. In an inner room there were a number of learned scholars sitting at a long table, with four or five Congo negro boys who had been brought from the very heart of Africa, in the return from Stanley’s tour. There were these learned scholars, sitting by the side of those tawny black boys, gathering from their lips their lan- guage and carefully reducing it to rule, in order that the Bible might be translated and sent to- the people of that nation in Africa. —Mary Perrn, a colored woman, kept an inn at Sierra Leone during the latter part of her life. In her early days she had been a slave in North America, and had to Jabor from sunrise to sunset; yet, during the interval of night, she used, twice or thrice a week, to walk seven or eight miles, with a child on her back, tu teach a few slaves of her acquaintance to- read, that they might be able to study the Scriptures for themselves. BOOK-TABLE. Tue LIFE oF Dr. Martin Lururr. By Prof. Wackernagel, D.D. Translated by Prof. C. W. Schaeffer, D.D. With 45 Illustrations. Pilger Book Store, Reading, Pa. Our English speaking people are not forgotten in this Luther Year. The Pilger Book Store has pub- lished an excellent translation of Prof. Wacker- nagel’s attractive and reliable Life of Luther from the experienced and skilful pen of Dr. Schaeffer. The price of the handsome volume is $1.00; by the dozen @ 60 cts; by the hundred @ 50 cts. DER ABENDSCHULE-KALENDER fuer 1884. Louls. Lange Publishing Company, St. Louis, Mo. Price 30 cts. per copy, postage free. This well known German Almanac again brings a large variety of entertaining and instructive reading matter for our Christian homes. The Diary which is given at the end of the Almanac, forms a welcome addition to the handsome book. LIEDERGESCHICHTEN. Segensspuren der Kernlieder unserer Kirche. Zweiter Band. Mit 30 Bil- dern. Pilger Book Store, Reading, Pa. Price 50 cts. per copy; by the dozen @ 35 cts; by the hundred @ 28 cts. = We have already, in one of our former issues, recommended the first volume of these Stories of our Lutheran Hymns. This second volume will form another valuable addition to every good library. JUBELFESTGESANG zur Feier des Reformations- festes. By H. Ilse. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. Price 20 cts; $1.50 per dozen. ‘ DER GANG NacH Worms. Finale aus dem Orato- rium “Luther in Worms”? von Ludwig Mel- nardus. Zum 400jachrigen Luther-Jubilacum. Brobst, Diehl & Co., Allentown, Pa. German end English Text. Price 85 cts.; $3.00 per ozen. LuTnER Memorrat Service for Sunday and Paro-~ chial Schools on the fourhundredth Anniversary, of the Birth of Dr. Martin Luther. Brobst, Die & Co., Allentown, Pa. Price 5 cts; 50 cts per dozen; $3.00 per hundred. Peis mins