The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 40

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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