# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1897_S4 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 4 7 The Lutheran Pioneer. The Outlook from the Editor’s Window. —lIwn the name of Jesus we begin a new volume of the LuTHERAN PIONEER. May the good Lord, who is pleased to use also the weak things in His kingdom, continue to bless our little paper. At the beginning of a new volume we tender our thanks to all friends of our mission that have aided in the circulation of our paper, and earnestly ask their continued and hearty co-operation. —Iw one of the Southern States there was a colored woman above eighty years of age, who had such a desire to get an education that she worked for her board during the day and went to school in the evening. She had to commence with the alphabet, but so con- stant was her application that she learned the letters in a few days. As soon as she had mastered them she said to her teacher: ‘‘Now, _ I want to learn to spell the name of Jesus first, for "pears like the rest will come easier if I learn to spell that blessed name first.’’ And so it is,.and soit ever will be. All things will come easier to those who learn the name of Jesus first. —A most encouraging fact is to be found in the statement that in the year 1800 A. D., the Bible was accessible to only one-fifth of the world’s population in their native tongue, whereas now so numerous are the translations that nine-tenths of earth’s inhabitants can read the inspired volume in their own tongue. —Wirnin the last few years not less than 15 Protestant churches were built in Rome. During the year 1895, 145,407 copies of the Bible and New Testament were issued in the kingdom of Italy. —TueE Chinese element has extended itself until now there are more than 10,000 Celes- tials in and around New York City, and we are told that two hundred of these are pro- fessed Christians. A prosperous Chinese mis- sion is carried on under the supervision of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and five services are held every Sunday at the headquarters in the University Place church. Five hundred are enlisted in Sunday Schools, and the day school in New York has had during the past year an enro}lment of fifty-one. —Poor Mapacascan! In Madagascar an- archy reigns. Outside of the limits of French tule there has been a series of organized acts of robbery and violence. Three hundred or four hundred churches have been burned and many church officials put to death. A mixed multitude of lawless Malagasy, aboriginal say- ages, who blindly hate civilization, and mali- ciously hate foreigners and missionaries, have joined disbanded troops of the queen’s army in these acts of nameless violence. They come suddenly upon a Christian village and compel “the inhabitants to submit or die, and which- _ ever way they decide, their property is at the ercy of these robbers. French occupation broken up the native police force and military control, but has not yet given the Malagasy any substitute for former fairly good government. —Tne new French Governor of Madagas- car, Mr. La Roche, is a Protestant, who took pains to assure the English and Norwegian missionaries of his high regard and deep sym- pathy. Whether he will stay long in office re- mains to be seen, since the Jesuits are not his friends. —Marryrs have fallen under Moslem ha- tred in Turkey in the past two years. Here is the brief record of one at Marash: ‘‘One young man was given the alternative of death or becoming a Moslem. He chose death, and they struck his head off. His poor body was taken to his mother, who, taking his hand and kissing it, said: ‘Rather so, my son, than living to deny our Lord and Saviour.’”’ — ATTENTION has been called to the fact that brass images of many of the Hindu dei- ties are manufactured in large quantities in Birmingham and exported to heathen lands, where they are bought and worshiped by multitudes. Miss Brittan, formerly superin- tendent of the Union Missionary Society’s work in Calcutta, now of Yokohama, Japan, was in Birmingham a few years ago. She had a friend holding a responsible position in one of the brass foundries, and with him she visited the works. She says she saw thou- sands of brass images of Krishna, Ganesha, Vishna, Parvatti, and other.Hindu idols, ready for shipment. —Tne details of the terrible catastrophe at Egin in Armenia have at last come from trustworthy sources. The massacre exceeds in horror all others, unless it may be that at Oorfa. Last year the city of Egin purchased exemption from massacre and plunder by paying about $70,000 to the Koords. On Monday, September 14th, some Koords ap- peared in the vicinity and all the Armenians closed their shops. But the next morning the Turkish governor sent criers through the city, ordering the shops to be opened on penalty of fine and imprisonment, saying that the Koords had departed, and that protection would be given. But about noon of that day a gun was fired and the slaughter began, followed by plunder and burning of the Armenian houses. Five-sixths of all the male Armenians were killed, and five-sixths of the houses were burned. This killing and plundering con- tinued three days, and every imaginable out- rage was perpetrated. A greater proportion of women were killed than in most of the massacres; many Were carried off, and others threw themselves into the Euphrates. ‘There was absolutely no resistance on the part of the Armenians, and no Turks were injured except in quarrels over plunder. ‘To crown all, the Armenian bishop was compelled to sign a telegram to Constantinople, affirming that the massacre originated with Armenians, and that they were only slaughtered by the Turks in self-defence. The city is in ruins, and there are thousands of widows and or- phans, homeless and hopeless.