# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1920_S47 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Luutheran Pioneer. EE — — — — Eee and. thankfully they hold his hands to receive the message from God’s Word! A day of joy for them! With happy hearts they bid their pastor good-bye and urgently request him to come again the next month. Yes, that day always is a day of joy also for the missionary! What a blessed work our Synod is doing for the Lord among the deaf and the deaf-blind! ‘Thus there are still being fulfilled the words of Is. 29, 18: “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of _ the book, and the. eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” May God fill us all with more and more zeal in this work, so that the Jast.day, when our Lord Jesus shall appear in glory, will be a-day of great joy to many more deaf and deaf-blind, and they shall behold Him with their eyes and hear Him with their ears in whom they have believed through His Word preached in the sign-language! May He grant it for Jesus’ sake ! — The Deaf Lutheran. Items of Missionary Interest. MoHAMMEDANISM IN AFRICA.— Mohammedan- ism is increasing in Africa at a more rapid rate than Christianity. Humanly speaking, the next ten ‘years will decide whether Africa will be Christian- "ized or -whether it will beconie the stronghold of Islam. ‘The decay of Islam’s political power has not destroyed the aggressiveness of the Moham- medan religion. The Methodists, according to their recently outlined plans, intend to undertake. the building of great industrial schools and increase their medical and evangelistic forces to combat the spreading influence of Islam. Anapra. — Though by far the greatest number ot the Arabs still turn to- Mecca when they pray, _ the World War has done much to bring them in contact with Christianity. Christian schools at Bahrein and Muscat are flourishing, and four strategic centers are now open for Christian schools _ at Kuttar, the coast of Oman, Riadh, and Hussa. Tur GosPEL In Arrica. — Sixty million ‘souls in Northern Africa have never had the opportunity to hear of Christianity. Central Africa has less than one-quarter of its people reached by Christian missions, and South Africa is also inadequately pro- ded with missions. _ Muproan Misstons rv ArricA. — Medical mis- _ Sionaries are doing much ‘to break down the super- ms of Africa, but as yet there are only ten per cent. of the natives within possible reach of the mission stations. In the Nile valley alone there are only five hospitals, twenty-seven dispensaries, and six medical missionaries working among eighty million people. What is that among so many? Nortnern PresByrertAn Missron Program. — More than 300 missionaries, at a very conserva- - tive estimate, are needed in the twenty-seven foreign fields in which mission work is carried on by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. China alone is to get fifty- seven new workers, though it is calling for twice that number. China, whose population numbers one-quarter of the globe, gets the most recruits, and India comes next. Last year the Presbyterians sent out 116 new missionaries. At present there are sixty-six approved applicants for the foreign field, while applications of seventy-nine candidates are under consideration. Misston Program or tire SouruEerN Prespy- TERTANS. — he Southern Presbyterian Church. with a membership of 368,000, is responsible for the Christian teaching of 32,000,000 persons in foreign lands. ‘This means that every Presbyterian ‘communicant in fifteen Southern States has taken upon himself indirectly the carrying of the Gospel of Christ to eighty-seven men, women, and children. The Southern Presbyterian Chureh will spend $1,322,000 for foreign missions this year as a result of its new program. But missions at home are not to be neglected, liowever pressing the foreign need. For home missions they have appropriated $640,000. CuinesE TrsxratonrEs. — Mr. Chang Po Ling is the head of Nankai College, Tientsin, China. Some time, ago he said, “Christianity alone can help China through the turmoil of change without danger to herself or to, the rest of the world.” This is what Mr. Sung, adviser in the Department of Finance, says ‘of Christianity: “One of the greatest contributions of the missionaries to the Chinese people has been the ideal Christian home life. I believe that the Christian home can be established quite as well in China as in America. ' Tn fact, this has already been proved by thousands of families. Mission schools have been an inesti- mable blessing to China. Christianity is the only hope for China, — the only means of making the nation strong morally, intellectually, and physi- cally.”” . Pagan Cruriries. — In China the father may add to his income by selling his daughter into slavery. — Infant deaths are so much a matter of -