The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 4

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4 The Lutheran Pioneer.

founded in 1809, has been the means of conver-
ting 100,000 of that people. The Society has
placed in their hands 2,000,000 copies of the
New Testament in Hebrew. There are now
2,000 Jewish Christians in London and prob-
ably 1,000 more in other parts of the kingdom.

—A misstonary of the China Inland Mission,
in the province of Kan-suh, says that in Thibe-
tan families every other son is given up to the
service of the gods, and is supported by his
family. A principal temple has 300 priests;
another has 100.

—Mear. Savarese, Doctor of Civil and Canon
Law, and until recently the Pope’s domestic
prelate, has left the Roman Catholic Church.
He has been received into the communion of
a Protestant church in Rome.

—‘ARE there men there?’’ was the noble
answer of the Christian natives of Raiatea,
whose friends tried to dissuade them from going
as missionaries to New Guinea, telling them
that there were serpents, wild beasts, and pest-
ilence there. ‘‘If there are men.there,” they
said, “we will go.”

—WIsuHING our readers all a happy new year
we close our window.

tized, educated and confirmed in the Lutheran
faith, this unprecedented immigration places

—By the blessing of God we are permitted, unprecedented opportunities and responsibili-

with this number, to begin the sixth volume ties for mission work before the Lutheran
of the LurHeran Pronger. ‘The work has} Church in America as well as in Europe.
-been done for the Master, and since it pleases} —Frintanp has about 2,000,000 people.
Him to bless also the work which is done in| They are Lutherans, having 219 learned past-
weakness, we thankfully go forward, hoping|ors, 487 churches, and 514 chapels. Their
that our little ProneEr will again be welcomed | university at Helsingfors ranks high with 1300
by thousands of old and new friends in the}students. Instruction is imparted in the Swe-
coming year. dish and the Finish languages.

—In Brobst’s Almanac for 1884 the statistics | _—A society for the promotion of knowledge
of the ‘Lutheran Church in: America”? sum up }among the Poles has published a Polish edition
as follows: Synodical Conference: ministers | of Luther’s House-Postil.

965, congregations 1373, communicants 237,-/ —AwN unknown citizen of Darmstadt, Ger-
817: General Council (German Iowa Synod in-| many, has given $60,000 towards the erection
cluded): ministers 879, congregations 1675, com- | of a new church in that city as a memorial of
maunicants 240,009; General Synod (North): | the Luther year.

ministers 855, congregations 1436, communi-| _ Tye Brahmo Year-book, for 1883, gives
cants 129,204; General Synod (South): min-| some queer and interesting information about
isters 165, congregations 241, communicants | the Brahmo-Somaj movement in India, called
17,774; Independent: ministers 718, congre-| py its enthusiastic adherents ‘The New Dis-
gations 1697, communicants 197,164; Total: | pensation.” It contains the “records of work
ministers 3582, congregations 6422, communi-| nq Jife in the Theistic Churches of India,” as
cants 821,968. they are styled. Here we have a strange mix-

—TuERE are at present 120 newspapers in | ing of Christian and heathen ideas and practices.
the United States of which the publishers, edi- | These eclectic reformers mean to get some good
tors, and chief contributors are colored men. by sifting the ages. The Pocket-Almanac for
The oldest of them is a paper published in San | 1883, for example, makes this ‘‘Harmony of
Francisco, which has already attained its eigh-| Prophets’: on Monday the Rishis are to be
teenth year. The average circulation of each} honored; on Tuesday, Chaitanya; on Wednes-
of the 120 papers is only 1000 subscribers; very |day, Moses; on Thursday, Socrates; on Fri-

few of them are issued at a profit. day, Buddha; on Saturday, the Scientists; on

—Tne Norwegian Lutheran Missionary So-|Sabbath, Jesus Christ.

ciety has been greatly blest in its work during| —Durine the past twenty years 17,000,000
the year 1882. The increase of membership|of Bibles, or Bible-portions, in fifteen lan-
in the interior of the great African island Mad- | guages, have been sold or given at the Crystal
agascar has been 1247. The number of cate-| Palace Biblestand. One very fruitful branch
chumens at the close of the year was 1266, | of the work has been the distribution of Script-
while the number of those who attended church | ures in Flemish, Dutch, and French by book-
had been increased to about 38,000. The mis-| post to 1,516 towns and villages in Belgium.
sion schools were attended by over 33,000) Of course, priestly opposition has arisen. The
children, In this part of its mission field that | peasants of Zele, in Flanders, were threatened
Society has 209 churches and chapels, and 206 | by their Romish priest with a satanic visitation
parish schools, with 553 native teachers. In | during the night on account of the ‘‘bad books’”
Zululand and Natal, Africa, 66 adults were|in their possession, and assembled one night,
baptized, and 59 were under instruction for} well armed, to receive the foe. To while away
baptism. About 870 attended the church, and | their tedious watch, they examined the books,
500 the schools. In Western Madagascar, |and, becoming greatly interested, read them
where missionary activities have been Jately| through the night. Their good report spread
begun, only 5 were baptized, while the attend-| through Zele, every copy not seized by the
ance at church was about 200. priest was eagerly read, and application made
—Wuite the Scandinuvian Lutherans are | for a fresh supply.
thus busily at work converting the heathen] —Anour two years ago, one native China-
from dull idols to the service of the living God, | man in the village of Kokel, China, was the
the American Methodists have decided to ex-| solitary follower of the Christian religion among
pend $46,000 in ‘‘missionary work’’ in Scan-|the dwellers in that place. Through his in-
dinavia, thinking that the Lutheran countries | fluence and that of the ministers, a neat little

The Outlook from the Editor’s Window.

——>- + o> o -

“(As thy days, thy strength shall be.” It is
first the promise for strength according to our
need. ‘There are days of darkness, and it is
the promise for light in them. There are days
of weakness, and it is the promise for strength.
There are days of what we call prosperity, and
we need a strong hand to hold us calm and
steady and true. For oftentimes the most
dangerous trial is when we seem not to be tried

ise still holds—‘‘As thy days, thy strength
shall be.’’

Tr life be a battle, how mad must he be who
fails to arm himself for the contest! If life be
a storm, how infatuated is he who sleeps while
his bark is driven among unknown waters! If
life be a pilgrimage, how unwise is he who-
strays from the right road, nor seeks to return
till the dwilight shadows gather around his
pathway!

St. Paul’s Colored Lutheran Church,
Litre lock, Anxk.

Caspel on corner of 12th and Rock Sts.
Sunday-school meets every Sunday at 2 o’clock.
Divine services at 3 o’clock and 7 0’clock.

TERMS:
Tne LurHeran Pioneer is published monthly,
payable in advance at the following rates, postage
included, to-wit:

of Norway, Sweden and Denmark are heathen |chapel bas been built, which now has thirty 3 een 25
countries and need the light of Methodism! }church-members and over fifty regular attend- 25 ne

' Club rates only allowed if all
to ype iaadreee: . apossed itor
usiness communications to be addresse
»Luth. Concordia Publishing House‘, M. C. BaR-
re Agt., St. Louis, Mo. ‘
All communications concerning the editorial de-
partment to be addressed to Pror. R. A. BiscHoFrFy
meordia College, Fort Wayne, Ind.

ants on worship. The native Christians have
contributed two-thirds of what the building
cost. They now carry on their Sunday services
themselves, and provide for the expenses.
—Ir is estimated that the London Society
for Promoting Christianity among the Jews,

" They ought to know better than all that.
_ —F rom official sources we learn that last
_ year 232,000 Germans, 59,000 Swedes, 27,000
_ Norwegians, and about 18,000 Danes came to
_ our shi Since two-thirds of the Germans
ne I the Scandinavians have been bap-

‘
Stet :omesiemerrame

at all. But in them all the anchor of the prom- -

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