# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1912_S79 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The eth orar’ Pioneer. 79 SyNopicaL CoNrERENCE. — From the report of the recent meeting of Synodieal Conference, pub- lished in The Lutheran Witness, we take the fol- lowing item regarding our Colored Missions: — “A complete report on Negro Mission work as carried on by the Synodical Conference was sub- mitted by the St. Louis Board, the Rev. C. F. Drewes, chairman. Among many other interesting things the report showed that 35 laborers (16 white and 19 colored) are now serving in the mission work among the freedmen of the South. — The Rev. N. J. Bakke, Field Secretary and Mission Director, and - . Prof. F. Berg, President of Immanuel College, Greensboro, N. C., also addressed the Conference on this important and very promising work. — The financial report of the treasurer, Mr. H. Doederlein, showed. that $69,150.55 was needed to carry on the work during the past biennium.” Race Prosiem. — At a missionary meeting in Asheville, N. C., one of the speakers addressed a large gathering on “the Race Problem in the South.” He complained of the conduct of many of the colored people and also of the “comparative indif- ference of the white population of the South to the religious interests of the colored people since the war’? He closed his address thus: “It becomes clearer every day that the race problem in the South is one of the most difficult problems, perhaps the most difficult problem that God in His providence ever submitted to any people for solution. There is, after all, but one satisfactory .solution to be found, the preaching to white and to black of the everlasting Gospel, which is the wisdom and power of God.” Crazy Gops.— One of the General Council’s medical missionaries in India says in a report-from that heathen land: “On one occasion, while a procession carrying some idol passed our dispensary, I asked a Brahmin: patient to tell me something about the festival and the reason for carrying the idol along the streets. She replied, ‘It is only one of our crazy gods which . they are showing on the streets. It amounts to nothing” When asked why she called them crazy gods, she replied, “hey have no sense and are not alive. Ts that not crazy?? ‘But when you know this and also know that there is a living God whom you ought to worship, why do you believe in these crazy gods?’ She replied, ‘I do not believe in them. L believe in your Jesus Christ. But I must pretend to worship our gods because it is customary; and when all the elders in our family do it, how can I hold myself as too wise to do what I have been taught to do? I must do what is customary in our caste whether I believe it is right or not.” The poor heathen! A Brste Buyer. — The new Chinese Republic is a Bible buyer. The American Bible Society of New York has issued for the first six months of the current year nearly 60,000 more Bibles for China than during the corresponding period last year, and in addition, its agent, Rev. Dr. John R. Hykes, of Shanghai, has sent word to New York that he has orders for 200,000 copies. ‘This number is greater, he reports, than the Society is able to supply. Liperat Crristrans. — The Christians in Ger- man Samoa, says Foreign Missionary, number 9,000 communicants. They are distinguished by their liberality. Not only do they support their own pastors and evangelists, but placed $25,000 in the hands of the directors of the mission for ‘the ex- pansion of its labors. Arnica. — Speaking of “the prayers and need _of mission in Africa,” Onward says:— “The population of the continent is estimated at 175,000,000. There: are about 2.470 Protestant missionaries and 13,089 native assistants at work —a little leaven that must leaven so great a lump. To date there are about 527,000 adherents to the Christian faith, in addition to about 225,000 com- municants. These Christians have 4,790 places of worship. ‘There are about 200,000 pupils in about 4,800 schools. Nearly one hundred hospitals min- ister to the sick and suffering, while sixteen print- ing presses are kept busy, and the Bible is suplied in all the principal languages. ‘The largest pro- portion of Christian population is in Uganda and Cape Colony.” ; 3 A Nose Boy. —A Baganda boy of thirteen years of age, who had just been baptized, went to work for’ ten hours a day for thirty days in order to earn enough money to buy a Bible of his own and a Church Book. sltE aby ; . —_——_ ‘yrz Word and the Sacraments must not be separated. For Christ has also comprehended the Sacraments in the Word. — Luther. :