# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1929_S12 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) iy THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. are kept alive by home-mission aid. Of these sub- sidized churches a large number are in active com- petition with churches of very similar doctrines. Seven out of every ten rural churches have only a fraction of a pastor apiece. One-third of all rural pastors receive so low a salary that they can live only by working at some other occupation. Only half of the rural churches of the country make an annual gain in membership of as much as 10 per cent. Mission-Work Never in Vain. — Some years ago a mission-worker, while canvassing a certain sec- tion of a city, came to the home of a Catholic family. . Of course, when he learned that the family was Catholic, he went on. It was only another one of the many visits made by a missionary for which he expected no returns. About a year after, the missionary’s telephone rang. The Catholic lady referred to above was on the wire. She told him that she remembered his having been in her neigh- borhood looking about for unchurched people and that a lady is living in her block who is a Lutheran. She added that the husband of this Lutheran woman was very ill, but that no pastor visited him, and _ended by asking whether the missionary would not want to look up these people. The missionary thanked the Catholic woman for her information ‘and at once made ready to locate the family he had been told about. He was gratefully received by the wife and her sick husband, and his services were gladly accepted. The missionary continued his visits, prepared the man for death, and was able to say at his funeral that he had died a Christian death. . An Endless Chain.— An English lady advised a Chilean to read the Bible. He did so and in turn advised a friend to do likewise. The advice was passed on from friend to friend and acted upon in each case. Who knows where in Chile the end of that chain will be! Perhaps it will not be limited to Chile. “You will see that this is pure gold,” said the first Chilean to his friend. “Get it, then, fresh fromthe mint. Do not content'yourself with coins which become defaced from much handling.” * Another Endless Chain.— A pocket Testament dropped from an English warship in a Japanese harbor in 1854. A Japanese general, Murata, saw the book fall into the water and had it brought to him. But he was not able to read it. A Dutch _ interpreter told him that the book told about Christ, ‘which increased the general’s perplexity. Finally he got a translation of the book from China. He tead the book and was convinced of its truth. At the risk of his life — for the Christian religion was strictly forbidden in Japan at the time — he came to Dr. Verbeck for baptism. His brother also became a Christian. Their high standing added to their testimony for Christ, and there are not a few people in Japan to-day who owe their faith in the Redeemer of the world to the Testament fished out of waters of Nagasaki harbor many years ago. One-Cent Gospels. — Attractive copies of single gospels are now sold by the American Bible Society at one cent each. These cheap gospels may be had in English, German, French, Italian, Polish, Por- tuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Single gospels and other books of the Bible may be had in many other languages at a very low cost. Even an entire English New Testament may be bought for only five cents. What One Medical Missionary Does. — During 1927 Dr. Puff, medical missionary in the Kiliman- jaro region of the Leipzig Missionary Society’s field in Tanganyika Territory, Africa, treated 7,429 people at his clinics. He placed 169 patients in the mission-hospital and in three months performed 53 operations. In addition, he found it necessary to travel great distances to care for European and Greek settlements, which in times of sickness are dependent upon the mission-doctors. The mis- sionaries have lent their unstinted efforts to the energetic fight now in progress against epidemics and tropical diseases produced in the Dark Conti- nent by the absolute ignorance of prophylaxis and hygiene. — Lx. A New Apache Chief.—In October past the White Mountain Apaches chose a new chief to take the place of Alchesay, who died last summer. Baha, the oldest son of Chief Alchesay, was chosen to be his father’s successor. ‘Like his father, Chief Baha is a baptized member of our Lutheran Church, having been baptized by one of the workers of the Wisconsin Synod Indian Mission in Arizona. May Chief Baha walk in the footsteps of his father! .A New Missionary Opportunity. — New oppor- tunities for Christian missions suggest themselves in the discovery in South America, of a new tribe of natives hitherto unknown to civilization. The tribe, living along the border of Bolivia and Brazil, is neither Indian nor Asiatic in character and is re- ported to bear strong physical resemblance to cer- tain tribes of South Sea Islanders. A German Bible for the Blind. — What is said to be the first complete German Bible for the blind is now being printed at Wernigerode, Germany, by the Society for Christian Life among German Blind.