The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1894, Page 22

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people. ‘Their boys

22 ; The Lutheran Pioneer.

About Japan.

Our picture takes us to Japan, a country of
which one of our exchanges says:

East of the Japan Sea lies a long chain of
islands that are known as Japan. They are
sometimes called the Sunrise kingdom, because
the rays of the rising sun first falls upon them.
There are said to be over 3000 of these islands,
but most of them are quite small. There are
four, however, of considerable size. Here
there is a variety of climate, rather productive
soil, different kinds of animals, and fruits,
vegetables, and some cereals.

Although constituted of islands, this king-
dom is not an insig-
nificant part of the
world. There are
about 34 millions of
people in this coun-
try. Perhaps you
haye seen specimens
of this race. They
are of medium size,
of light olive color,
and have deep-set
eyes and prominent
cheek bones. They
are a Civilized and

rather intelligent

and girls are sent to
school and at least
are taught to read
and write. They are
careful also to teach
their youth the laws
of the land, and to
instruct them in

their false religion.
Trained as they are, —
the Japanese chil-
dren usually grow
to be industrious,
cleanly, temperate
and polite men and
women.

And yet these people are to be pitied. They
are heathen. They worship imaginary spirits,

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioncer.’’)

Mission at New Orleans.

Rey. F. J. Lankenau has been relieved of
his pastorate at Mount Zior church.- But be-
sides discharging his duties at St. Paul’s as
before, he presides over- the first department
of the school in his parish.

The mission at Carrollton has been discon-
tinued. The people of that section of the
‘Crescent City’’ did not appreciate the grace
which the Lord had conferred upon them by
having a Lutheran church and school planted
in their midst. If they were not too indifferent
to go to any church, they were bigoted devo-

In a Japanese Graveyard.

tees of the ‘‘man of sin,’”’ the ‘tholy father’’

at Rome, or they are fanatics who do not be-

their responsibility be increased, etc. Besides
a score or two of noisy children three or four
adults usually attended services at the Lu-
theran church. Several times the missionaries
could not preach, because there was nobody

to preach to. And, though the missionaries
are anything but perfect, this state of affairs
was not due to the fact that they made no
efforts to get people to come to church. Had
the Lord slain all that promised them to attend
services next Sunday, ‘‘if the Lord spared
them’”’ or ‘‘if the Lord said the same,’’ the
undertaker would have had more funerals than
he could have attended to. May the discon-
tinuance of the mission in Carrollton be a warn-
ing to the callous
and indifferent .in
the other missions
and stir them up to
be more faithful in
their attendance
upon the preaching
of Christ’s own, un-
adulterated gospel.

But let some more
cheerful news be
added. While Rev.
Mr. Kuss has been
removed from Car-
rollton, he has not
been taken from the
mission here alto-
gether. On Pente-
cost Sunday he was
installed at Mount
Zion's. Some of the
ladies had taken spe-
cial pains to haye
the old dilapidated
church lookas bright
as possible. Besides
that, they had pro-
fusely decorated the

altar and entire
chancel with plants
and flowers. A good
audience had assem-
bled to see and hear what transpired. —Let
Mount Zion prove herself thankful to the

dead heroes, and the image of Buddha. They | lieve that the Spirit is doing His work, unless} Lord for sending her a messenger of the truth
haye all manner of false ideas of right and/the ‘‘brothers and sisters’”’ get into a waving| who can devote his undivided energy, time, and
wrong, and are brought up in ignorance of|motion, give forth inarticulate sounds, and] efforts to ministering to her spiritual wants.
“the troth as we and other Christians know it. | then shriek, scream, shout, throw about their| Other congregations frequently have to wait
Ee They are indeed to be pitied. arms, leap, jump, and tumble, some here,/a long, long time before they obtain another
ae However, missionaries are there now. For|others yonder, some everywhere, until they | pastor. Many Lutherans can be visited by
many years efforts were made to bring these| drop into their pews completely exhausted or| a Lutheran minister only once in several weeks
people the Gospel of Jesus, but very little go into spasms and lie on the floor in attitudes| Or even months. Mount Zion has the bread
| _ Permanent good was done until within the last | which should convince even the blindest among | 224 water of life offered her Sunday after Sin-

__ 88 years. These people forbade missionaries | the blind, that this is not due to the operation| 02» 24 week after week. Is not this infinite
~ to labor in their midst until in 1854 a treaty | of the Holy Spirit, but is rather the abominable fe ep 0 eS EAS pountiless ERIS US 0

_ was signed by which the ports of Japan were | effect of a foul spirit working among them 1c Caras AME pooneee! wea
(fae as eames a Ape Pa . at it in that light, Mount Zionite, to be
thi p 2 @ way opened for mission-| Time and again we heard that they want none sure—you will never want to miss a service
ary work. " Since then the good work has been | of that book-religion, that such preaching as| You will come yourself. You will bring your
ushed forward with great vigor, and to-day | was heard in our church might be good enough| *48and. You will bring your wife. You will
housands. of Japanese worship the true God; | for white people, but would not do for the pring your children, You will bring ;your

hope for eternal life through Christ our] colored man, or they knew they were j

friends. You will bring everybody you can,

norant. , ae A A
but they desired to remain in the ante lest oe py peaseceee eoune Zion will pe